The Perseid meteor shower has already begun, but the peak of the spectacle in the night sky is yet to come. The annual meteor shower started lighting up the night sky on July 17, 2023 and is expected to last until around August 24, 2023.
Every summer the Perseid meteor shower sprinkles the sky with streaks of light, with over 50 meteors
Source: Hot Hardware – Perseid Meteor Shower Is The Summertime Fireball Extravaganza You Don’t Want To Miss
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s sci-fi-tinged, iris-scanning cryptocurrency project Worldcoin began rolling out services internationally today. The extent to which Worldcoin actually delivers on its promise of a “new global digital currency,” however, may vary dramatically depending on where users are located.
Source: Gizmodo – Worldcoin, Sam Altman’s Creepy Vision for Iris-Scanning ‘Global Digital Currency’, Begins Rollout
Barbie and Oppenheimer opened this weekend, and crossing theater aisles for both films was a cultural phenomenon; Barbenheimer. Double-billing both films may not have been most people’s cup of tea (and, frankly, I would not recommend it) but both films resonated with audiences, bringing in a total of $511 million…
Source: Gizmodo – Barbie and Oppenheimer’s Box Office Is Proof Studios Need to Make a Fair Deal
If you’re too impatient to wait for your gaming space to inevitably become infected with the odor of stale pizza, Xbox has you covered.
Source: Gizmodo – These Xbox Controllers Blast Your Face With the Scent of New York ‘Za’
Enlarge / Polestar is developing a four-door electric GT called the Polestar 5, which goes on sale in 2024. (credit: Polestar)
NUNEATON, ENGLAND—Any day is a good day that involves a visit to a proving ground, even if that includes a two-hour drive fresh from a transatlantic flight. And this was a good day: a visit to Polestar’s UK research and development center, based at the Motor Industry Research Association’s proving grounds outside Coventry, England, to find out how it’s getting on with one of its next electric vehicles, a purposeful-looking performance sedan called the Polestar 5.
Until now, the Polestar EVs we’ve seen have used platforms shared across other brands within the Geely group. The Polestar 2 fastback sedan uses the same CMA platform as the Volvo XC40, and next year’s Polestar 3 SUV—which will be built in South Carolina—uses the group’s SPA2 platform.
Pete Allen, head of Polestar UK R&D (blue shirt) stands behind a Polestar 5 prototype and talks to some assembled journalists. (credit: Polestar)
That involves some compromises, though; those platforms were designed to be built in high volumes, with attributes like ride comfort prioritized over handling prowess. That’s fine for, say, a luxury SUV—even a sporty one. But if you were a brand wanting to build a competitor for the Porsche Taycan, you might want to start from scratch.
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Source: Ars Technica – Watch out Porsche, Polestar is working on a proper Taycan rival
Microsoft is no stranger to novelty Xbox collaborations, but its latest is certainly its smelliest. The company is helping Paramount pitch the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem movie by giving away a limited batch of pizza-scented Xbox controllers. Yes, you can smell whiffs of cheese and pepperoni while you play, even if last night’s pie is still sitting in the fridge.
The design comes in four variants that reflect the style of the four turtles (Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael). Apart from the built-in scent diffuser, though, these are otherwise stock Xbox controllers that just happen to exude TMNT style. You won’t claim an edge over your friends in Shredder’s Revenge, aside from looking and smelling the part.
There’s no way to buy one of these gamepads, even if you’ve been a TMNT fan since Eastman and Laird made the first comics. Instead, you’ll have to follow Xbox Game Pass on Twitter X and retweet a post no later than August 13th. If you absolutely must operate a pizza-scented controller, these will be out and about at Microsoft’s Experience Center on New York’s Fifth Avenue for an August 2nd promo event — but you’re probably better off just ordering a pie and grabbing bites between levels.
Yes, it’s a marketing ploy on par with the TMNT-themed Xbox Series X Microsoft gave away two years ago. You’re ultimately doing more for Paramount than yourself. Look at it this way, though: unlike the Krispy Kreme Xbox donut, you’ll still have something to show your friends after a few weeks.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-latest-xbox-marketing-stunt-is-a-pizza-scented-controller-153724328.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Microsoft’s latest Xbox marketing stunt is a pizza-scented controller
LWith the increase in use and availability of AI, many people are looking for ways to use AI in all sectors of their lives—and one of these areas is in helping kids with their reading. Bill Gates says that AI will soon be able to tutor children in literacy as well as any human can do. For parents wanting to help their…
Source: LifeHacker – AI Can Help Improve Your Child’s Reading Skills
Worldcoin, Sam Altman’s audacious eyeball-scanning crypto startup, has started the global rollout of its services to help build a reliable solution for “distinguishing humans from AI online,” enable “global democratic processes” and “drastically increase economic opportunity.” From a report: The startup, which has raised about $250 million altogether and counts Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Reid Hoffman among its backers, said it’s rolling out its identity technology as well as the token internationally. Individuals can download World App, the startup’s protocol-compatible wallet software, and visit an Orb, the startup’s helmet-shaped eyeball-scanning verification device, to receive their World ID.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Eyeball-Scanning Crypto Project Launches
Last week in the AMD EPYC 9684X review were many benchmarks looking at how this flagship Genoa-X processor compares to various AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon processors. The EPYC 9684X delivers terrific generational uplift compared to Milan-X, offers significant advantages over the EPYC 9004 Genoa processors thanks to the 1.1GB of L3 cache per CPU that proves very beneficial in HPC and AI workloads, and the 96-core / AVX-512 / 3D V-Cache combination far surpassed the Intel performance in the vast majority of benchmarks. As some follow-up benchmarks, today is looking precisely at the performance difference caused by the 3D V-Cache presence by looking at the EPYC 9684X performance when the 3D V-Cache feature was enabled and then the tests repeated when disabled.
Source: Phoronix – The Performance Impact Of Genoa-X’s 3D V-Cache With The AMD EPYC 9684X
Halo has always been something of a playground, one in which players could find all manner of wild tricks and unintended uses for game mechanics. With Halo Infinite’s latest season introducing some new maps, one of which features a deadly waterfall, new, death-defying shenanigans have surfaced courtesy of legendary Halo…
Source: Kotaku – Halo Fan Tricks Enemies Into Dying Hilariously On New Map
The PlayStation 5 is absolutely killing it right now. Record-breaking hardware sales? Check. A steady stream of popular and critically praised exclusives? Check. Customizable faceplates? Check, check, check. So of course it’s gearing up to release one of the most absurd handhelds ever to reach the manufacturing…
Source: Kotaku – PlayStation 5 Handheld Looks Even Goofier Than Expected In Leak
This brief tutorial describes how to find the largest files and folders in the Linux file system using the du (disk usage) and find commands.
The post How to Find Most Used Disk Space Directories, Files in Linux appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – How to Find Most Used Disk Space Directories, Files in Linux
After being split into two ‘volumes’ of episodes, The Witcher is back for a gut-wrenching season 3 finale. As Geralt, Yennefer, Ciri, and Jaskier fight for the future of the Continent, elves, mages, and monsters clash across the fields of battle.
Source: Gizmodo – The Witcher’s Season 3 Part 2 Trailer Hints at Geralt’s Ending
Every day when I walk into the garden, I have four tools at my disposal, and I use them, constantly. And after years of constantly losing my tools and wandering aimlessly around the garden (a common trait among gardeners), I’ve found the perfect way to keep everything where I can find them.
Source: LifeHacker – The Gardening Tools I Use Every Day
Shark makes some of the best robot vacuum cleaners around and now you can pick one up for a steal. Several of the brand’s models are now on sale on Amazon. You can save up to 45 percent on the products, and you’ll get maximum savings on a model with a self-emptying base and self-cleaning brushroll. The IQ Robot Vacuum AV1002AE with XL Self-Empty Base has dropped from $549 to $300.
The vacuum has a bagless base that can hold up to 30 days’ worth of debris and dirt. The device empties itself after each clean. It has a multi-surface brushroll that Shark claims can pull in dirt and debris from carpets as well as hard floors, while a multi-stage filtration system captures dust, dander and allergens.
This model is said to have advanced navigation — it will clean rooms row by row in the aim of offering complete coverage. You can use Alexa or Google Assistant to get the device to start cleaning. Alternatively, you can put the vacuum to work with a single tap in Shark’s app. When its battery runs low, the robovac will return to the base and recharge, then continue where it left off.
Another item in the sale that’s worth considering is our top pick for the best midrange robot vacuum. The Shark AI Robot Vacuum with Base has dropped from $600 to $449.44. That’s 25 percent off the usual price.
This model uses LiDAR to map your home. It’s also a self-emptying model but this one can hold up to 60 days worth of debris and dirt in the base. This vacuum cleans in a matrix grid with multiple passes to help ensure cleanliness. It has a HEPA filtration system that can capture 99.97 percent of dust and allergens, Shark says. The brand also notes that the robovac can clean for up to 120 minutes before having to recharge.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/shark-robot-vacuums-are-up-to-45-percent-off-on-amazon-145212567.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Shark robot vacuums are up to 45 percent off on Amazon
The kernel’s address-space layout randomization is intended to make life
harder for attackers by changing the placement of kernel text and data at
each boot. With this randomization, an attacker cannot know ahead of time
where a vulnerable target will be found on any given system. There are
techniques, though, that can be effective without knowing precisely where a
given object is stored. As a way of hardening systems against such
attacks, the kernel will be gaining yet another form of randomization.
Source: LWN.net – [$] Randomness for kmalloc()
The Debian project is now
supporting 64-bit RISC-V systems as an official architecture. Some
work remains to be done, though:
However before you rush to update your sources.list file, I want to
warn you that the archive is currently almost empty, and that only
the sid and experimental suites are available. The procedure is to
rebootstrap the port within the official archive, which means we
won’t import the full debian-ports archive.
Source: LWN.net – Debian adds RISC-V as an official architecture
Do-it-yourselfers want a piece of the rental-car market. Small-time entrepreneurs are amassing vehicles to rent out through car-sharing services such as Turo and Getaround, or their own websites. From a report: They aim to take on giants including Hertz and Avis Budget — assuming they can master the difficult logistics of the business. One owner said he had to retrieve a car that was stolen, driven all the way up the West Coast and abandoned at the Canadian border. Another rented out a car that was involved in a shooting. Still another said a customer totaled a Maserati by driving it into a wall.
“It can be tough if you don’t know what you’re doing,” said Jerome Mends-Cole, who rents out more than a dozen Teslas on Turo and his own website in Sacramento, Calif. “People look at it as a get rich quick thing, or a set it and forget it.” It usually isn’t. The costs of parking, cleaning, insurance and financing can quickly add up. Vehicles need to be picked up, dropped off, maintained and repaired. The expenses can quickly outpace any revenue.
Renting cars is the latest iteration of gig work, which has become a robust piece of the American economy. People who started side hustles such as renting out rooms on Airbnb or driving for Uber are now taking on the more elaborate task of maintaining inventories of cars.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Rental Cars Are the New Airbnb
Spotify announced on Monday that it’s raising the cost of the premium subscription in the U.S. for the first time in 12 years. It said the increased prices are in response to an evolving “market landscape,” and to give Spotify cash so it “can keep innovating,” the company said in a news release.
Source: Gizmodo – Spotify Hikes Premium Subscription Price in the US
I woke up to a rather interesting email from Amazon this morning. Usually when there’s an Amazon email in my inbox, it’s pitching items I recently viewed or similar items in hopes I’ll make a purchase. But not this one. Instead of trying to entice me based on my virtual window-shopping habits, this email instructed me to be on the lookout
Source: Hot Hardware – Amazon Warns Prime Members Not To Be Duped By These Recent Scam Tactics
