OpenZFS 2.2 was promoted to stable today as the latest major update to this open-source ZFS file-system implementation for Linux and FreeBSD systems. With OpenZFS 2.2 comes many exciting new features, performance improvements, and other enhancements for this evolution of open-source ZFS…
Source: Phoronix – OpenZFS 2.2 Released With Block Cloning, Linux Container Support & Better Performance
Monthly Archives: October 2023
The X-Files: The Official Archives Is Getting an Alien-Focused Sequel
No matter what you thought of The X-Files’ recent revival (we had, uh, mixed feelings), the truth (is out there) that it remains one of the best-loved sci-fi series ever. In 2020, io9 got a chance to spotlight Paul Terry’s wonderfully creative The X-Files: The Official Archives—and today, on X-Files creator Christ…
Source: Gizmodo – The X-Files: The Official Archives Is Getting an Alien-Focused Sequel
Everything You Wanted to Know About Salt but Were Too Afraid to Ask
I’m not being hyperbolic when I say salt is the most important seasoning of all time. It makes things taste salty, sure, but it also makes things taste like better versions the themselves, and more importantly, salt is a powerful preservative and natural anti-microbial. Long before refrigeration—all the way back to anc…
Source: LifeHacker – Everything You Wanted to Know About Salt but Were Too Afraid to Ask
Why Ubuntu 23.10 ISOs Have Been Temporarily Withdrawn
Due to the hate speech found in some of the translations in the Ubuntu 23.10 desktop installer, the ISOs were withdrawn from the mirrors.
The post Why Ubuntu 23.10 ISOs Have Been Temporarily Withdrawn appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – Why Ubuntu 23.10 ISOs Have Been Temporarily Withdrawn
Google.com tests a news-filled homepage, just like Bing and Yahoo
Enlarge / The future of Google.com? Experiments in India show this news-filled version of Google.com. (credit: MSPoweruser)
Google is still wondering if it should make major changes to its homepage. The last experiment we saw filled the usually stark white page with info cards showing things like the weather and stocks, but this new experiment, spotted by the site MSPoweruser, has a much bigger focus on news.
Instead of a homepage featuring only the Google logo, a search box, and a few buttons, this latest experiment looks a lot more like the “Google Discover” newsfeed you get on the Google mobile app. That means rows of news articles that Google has algorithmically detected will interest you, often with wild month-to-month quality swings in the sites it promotes. To the right of the newsfeed is a stack of “at a glance” cards featuring sports scores, stocks, and the weather. The change makes Google look a lot busier—and a lot more like Bing and Yahoo.
The Verge reached someone at Google about this and was told it’s an experiment currently being run in India.
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Source: Ars Technica – Google.com tests a news-filled homepage, just like Bing and Yahoo
Netflix’s Squid Game reality show premieres on November 22
We knew Netflix’s Squid Game reality show was coming sometime in November, and now we have an exact premiere date of November 22. This puts the release just in time for Thanksgiving, so you can celebrate the holiday by watching a reality show adaptation of a dystopian drama that shined a light on the brutal horrors of late-stage capitalism. Heartwarming fun!
Squid Game: The Challenge is a 10-episode series that features over 450 contestants competing in events inspired by the TV show, in addition to some brand-new challenges. There’s no bloodshed, of course, but there is a $4.56 million prize for the winner, which Netflix says is the largest reality show payout of all time.
There are also plenty of other nods to the source material here, including that terrifying “red light, green light” doll and contestant costumes straight from the show. The shot and framing choices also call to mind the dystopian drama.
We don’t yet live in the kind of capitalist hellscape the Korean series depicted, but we’re getting there. To that end, the filming of this reality show made headlines when players faced health emergencies after being exposed to brutally cold temperatures during one of the contests. One producer told The Sun that “even if hypothermia kicked in, people were willing to stay for as long as possible because a lot of money was on the line,” going on to add that “there were people arriving thinking they were going to be millionaires but they left in tears.”
In just over a month, we can all watch actual humans suffer for a potential payout that they only have a 1 in 456 chance of snagging. What a glorious time to be alive. To be fair, other grueling reality shows like Naked and Afraid don’t even offer a cash prize, so that’s something.
The original Squid Game is Netflix’s most popular series of all time, by hours viewed, besting Stranger Things, Wednesday, The Witcher and even the universally beloved Real Rob (sarcasm.) So The Challenge was something of a foregone conclusion, considering the runaway success of the source material. It’s also worth noting that Squid Game season 2 is also coming, but there’s no release date yet.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflixs-squid-game-reality-show-premieres-on-november-22-172228785.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Netflix’s Squid Game reality show premieres on November 22
FDA Warns People to Stay Away from Compounded Ketamine
The Food and Drug Administration is warning people to stay away from unapproved sources of ketamine. According to the agency, compounded ketamine is increasingly being sold as a treatment for depression and other mental health issues, despite it not being tested or authorized for such uses. The FDA also says it is…
Source: Gizmodo – FDA Warns People to Stay Away from Compounded Ketamine
Dimon Warns of 'Most Dangerous Time in Decades'
JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, is as close as Wall Street has to a statesman, and on Friday he sounded a major alarm about the global effects of the conflict in Israel and Gaza. From a report: “This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades,” he said in a statement accompanying the bank’s quarterly earnings. He warned of “far-reaching impacts on energy and food markets, global trade and geopolitical relationships.”
For Mr. Dimon, weighing in on geopolitics isn’t new: He consistently warns of dangers from the war in Ukraine and elsewhere. On Friday, he said he was preparing the nation’s largest bank for a range of scary outcomes, with other risks including high inflation and rising interest rates. But on a call with reporters, he described the Gaza conflict as “the highest and most important thing for the Western world.” Otherwise, JPMorgan and other big banks appear to be operating smoothly. JPMorgan’s profit rose to $13.2 billion in the third quarter, a 35 percent rise from the same period last year. Executives at the bank said the tumult of the regional banking crisis of the spring, which resulted in JPMorgan taking over First Republic, was steadily fading. “U.S. consumers and businesses generally remain healthy,” Mr. Dimon said, “although, consumers are spending down their excess cash buffers.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Dimon Warns of ‘Most Dangerous Time in Decades’
Microsoft And Activision Just Revealed Their Biggest Weakness
If you haven’t heard the news already, Xbox finally closed its Activision Blizzard acquisition deal to the tune of $69 billion. With this move, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is getting ousted at the beginning of the year, all while getting a golden parachute of $400 million. Well, at least the silver lining in all this…
Source: Kotaku – Microsoft And Activision Just Revealed Their Biggest Weakness
Maryland’s first local malaria case in 40 years initially duped doctors
Enlarge / Under a magnification of 1,125x, this photomicrograph of a blood specimen revealed the presence of intraerythrocytic Plasmodium falciparum ring-form trophozoites. Note the erythrocyte in the center contained four ring-staged trophozoites and that all rings exhibited a single chromatin dot. (credit: CDC)
Catching malaria in the US is extremely rare, but when it happens, the mosquito-borne parasite can masquerade as another parasite that’s regularly found in the country, leading to a misdiagnosis that has foiled doctors around the world for years. Such was the case this year in Maryland, when the state saw its first locally acquired malaria case in over 40 years, according to a report this week.
The misdiagnosis led the patient to a weeks-long treatment for the wrong infection and held up public health responses to pinpoint and thwart further transmission. To date, the source of the patient’s infection remains a mystery.
As global travel and climate warming expand malaria’s range, awareness of the diagnostic pitfall and better testing will be increasingly needed, the report’s authors suggest. The report was published Thursday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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Source: Ars Technica – Maryland’s first local malaria case in 40 years initially duped doctors
Best Buy Plans to Rid Itself of All DVDs
Mark another notch in the slow demise of physical media. On Friday, massive electronics store chain Best Buy confirmed that it will stop selling all DVDs and Blu-Rays starting in the new year.
Source: Gizmodo – Best Buy Plans to Rid Itself of All DVDs
Chevy’s first hybrid Corvette isn’t what you think it is
It’s hard to imagine that anyone in the world was demanding a hybrid Corvette, but those crazy engineers at Chevrolet went and did it anyway. Meet the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray, but if you’re already angry at the concept, you shouldn’t be.
The hybrid drive here isn’t to raise the efficiency of perhaps America’s most iconic sports car. Oh no. It’s only here to make it faster. 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds and a quarter-mile in 10.5 fast. The electric motor up front adds 160 horsepower to the 495 that comes from the LT2 V8 in the back. Yes, it can be driven for a few miles emissions-free, but more important is how it boosts acceleration.
It helps the handling, too. The Stingray is a notorious understeerer on the track. The E-Ray does too, but give it a little throttle and that magic front electric motor pulls the nose right around and through. It’s a delight, and so is the E-Ray – a $104,295 delight. It definitely comes at a premium over the base Stingray, but those looking for the ultimate all-round, all-season ‘Vette have a new choice. Watch the video below for our full impressions.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/chevys-first-hybrid-corvette-isnt-what-you-think-it-is-171111642.html?src=rssSource: Engadget – Chevy’s first hybrid Corvette isn’t what you think it is
Sonic Superstars’ Early Reviews Wish It Would Pick Up The Pace
Sonic Superstars has developer Sega journeying all the way back to the beginning of the Sonic franchise, remembering when it was born in 1991 in the 2D tropics. Like nostalgic platformer Sonic Mania did in 2017, Superstars devoutly walks the same path as Sonic the Hedgehog and its early ‘90s sequels. But unlike Mania,…
Source: Kotaku – Sonic Superstars’ Early Reviews Wish It Would Pick Up The Pace
Why Every Kitchen Needs a Thermometer (and Which One You Should Buy)
In all my years writing about “food hacks,” there is one that I wish I could eradicate from the internet entirely. It’s the ol’ “Check How Done Your Steak Is by Touching Parts of Your Palm” trick, and it sucks, man. Thermometers are right there, and using one is the easiest, safest way to tell if your meat is “done.”
Source: LifeHacker – Why Every Kitchen Needs a Thermometer (and Which One You Should Buy)
Linux Looks Toward Dropping Very Old WiFi Drivers
While the Linux kernel tends to keep around drivers for even very old hardware, once there are no known users left that would still be updating to new Linux kernel versions or the drivers pose a significant maintenance burden, it’s eventually time to let them go. We’ve seen the WiMAX wireless code removed and now the latest on the Linux wireless networking side inching close to the chopping block are old WiFi drivers…
Source: Phoronix – Linux Looks Toward Dropping Very Old WiFi Drivers
Biden administration announces first recipients of $7 billion hydrogen hub program
The Biden administration has selected the recipients of its funding for the seven regional “hydrogen hubs,” or clean hydrogen producers. All regions will receive funds from a $7 billion investment made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The hubs are collectively expected to produce more than three million metric tons of clean hydrogen per year and help put the US on track to produce 50 million metric tons of clean hydrogen fuel by 2050.
The initiative is a crucial step towards achieving President Biden’s goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. But it is also expected to bolster the economy, creating thousands of jobs for the states involved in the project. Collectively, the hubs will create more than 300,000 direct jobs.
🟢 NEW: We launched the nation’s first 7 Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs—kickstarting a national network of clean hydrogen producers, consumers, and infrastructure that will accelerate commercial-scale deployment of this clean energy source.
https://t.co/B4zG4aB37n pic.twitter.com/PV8ITcfBny— U.S. Department of Energy (@ENERGY) October 13, 2023
The seven hubs named include: the Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub, Appalachian Hydrogen Hub, the California Hydrogen Hub, the Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub, Heartland Hydrogen Hub, Midwest Hydrogen Hub and the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub. Some regions that applied for the hub program together through the Department of Energy will require cross-state collaboration. For example, the Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub is made up of Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey.
The Biden administration said that it expects two-thirds of total project investments will be associated with green (electrolysis based) production. The hydrogen hubs are expected to eliminate 25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions through its projects—which the Biden administration likens to the annual emissions of over 5.5 million gasoline-powered cars. The hubs will focus on offsetting and creating alternatives to heavy-duty transportation, chemical, steel and cement manufacturing.
This program is just one part of the Biden administration’s efforts to slow climate change and make a lasting impact on the nation’s carbon footprint. The White House has previously pushed similar initiatives, including an executive order that requires half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 to have some form of zero-emissions driving and its plans to allocate billions in funding to decarbonize the country’s power grid by 2035.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/biden-administration-announces-first-recipients-of-7-billion-hydrogen-hub-program-165640048.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Biden administration announces first recipients of billion hydrogen hub program
Even with no brains, jellyfish can learn from their mistakes
Enlarge / No brain, but still some smarts. (credit: Bielecki, et. al.)
They don’t have a brain or spinal cord. They float around in a way that often appears aimless. Though jellyfish lack a central nervous system, these gelatinous creatures again show that they might think more than we think they do.
Jellyfish, or medusae, belong to the group Cnidaria, members of which are already known to be capable of associative learning. This is how they can maintain awareness of their surroundings (and possible predators). Now, an international team of scientists has found that the cnidarians are capable of a slightly more advanced type of associative learning known as operant conditioning, which entails remembering the positive or negative effects of a previous action. Despite lacking a brain, Caribbean box jellies (Tripedalia cystophora) can still learn from their mistakes to avoid a potentially disastrous outcome.
Damage control
T. cystophora are about the size of a human fingernail, and while they are much less complex than vertebrates such as humans, they still have a rather sophisticated visual system for a jellyfish. The jellies have 24 eyes around their bodies—and they need them. They live in mangrove swamps where crashing into long roots is almost inevitable in murky water, and a jelly might do serious damage to its delicate body in these encounters. Its vision assists it in navigating among the roots and can be especially useful for hunting around these gnarly tangles.
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Source: Ars Technica – Even with no brains, jellyfish can learn from their mistakes
Geekom Mini IT13 Review: A Palm-Sized Intel 13th Gen Core i9 Mini PC
Geekom Mini IT13 – Starting at $499 (Use Coupon Code hothardwareit13 For $40 Off). Sample we tested with Core i9-13900H, 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD currently $899 $789. A very compact system, which seems nicely built and excels in some workloads, but held back somewhat by slower DDR4 RAM and an occasionally distracting fan. …
Source: Hot Hardware – Geekom Mini IT13 Review: A Palm-Sized Intel 13th Gen Core i9 Mini PC
Scavengers Reign's Writers on Creating a Beautifully Hostile Sci-Fi Show
In 2016, Adult Swim aired Scavengers, an eight-minute animated short about a pair of human survivors on a hostile alien world. It wasn’t long before co-directors Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner and production company Green Street were given the green light to make the short into its own full-fledged show, Scavenger…
Source: Gizmodo – Scavengers Reign’s Writers on Creating a Beautifully Hostile Sci-Fi Show
NASA Launches Psyche, a Mission To Explore a Metal Asteroid
Is the asteroid Psyche really a hunk of mostly metal? Is the object, which is nearly as wide as Massachusetts, the core of a baby planet whose rocky outer layers were knocked off during a cataclysmic collision in the early days of the solar system? Right now, all that astronomers can say is maybe, maybe not. NASA launched a spacecraft on Friday morning, also named Psyche, on a journey to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to find out. From a report: “We’re really going to see a kind of new object, which means that a lot of our ideas are going to be proven wrong,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a professor of earth and space exploration at Arizona State University who serves as the mission’s principal investigator.
Being proven wrong, she added, “is, I think, the most exciting thing in science.” That voyage in search of answers kicked off Friday at 10:19 a.m. Eastern time. Falcon Heavy, the largest of SpaceX’s operational rockets, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending the massive spacecraft on a journey that will last about six years and travel billions of miles. Friday’s flight overcame early, unfavorable weather forecasts for a seemingly flawless flight. About eight minutes into the flight, the rocket’s upper stage entered a 45-minute coasting period during which it will prepare to deploy the spacecraft on its flight away from Earth. The asteroid named Psyche has long been a curious enigma. Spotted in 1852 by Annibale de Gasparis, an Italian astronomer, it is named for the Greek goddess of the soul, and it was just the 16th asteroid to be discovered. In the early observations, it was, like the other asteroids, a starlike point of light that moved in an orbit around the sun, and not much more.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – NASA Launches Psyche, a Mission To Explore a Metal Asteroid