Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
phae@status.fberriman.com wrote:
@slightlyoff got me a cool new tshirt @eleventy
Attachments:
Asus won’t say if the ROG Ally’s SD card reader will ever be truly fixed
The Asus ROG Ally. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
What is Asus hiding?
Two weeks ago, I told you how Asus has officially extended its warranty on the ROG Ally gaming handheld’s SD card reader to two full years in the United States, presumably to give you more time to get it fixed. But Asus refuses to confirm to The Verge that it’s actually identified a fix for the issue. If you ship your Ally back to Asus, there’s no guarantee the problem won’t reappear.
Early on, some ROG Ally buyers discovered the SD card readers had a tendency to fail and possibly damage your SD cards in the process. One law firm, CSK&D, even threatened to pursue a class-action lawsuit on behalf of owners, though I haven’t yet found record of an actual suit being filed, and its class-action website has since been...
Hormones for menopause are safe, study finds. Here's what changed
Women under 60 can benefit from hormone therapy to treat hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause. That's according to a new study, and is a departure from what women were told in the past.
United Methodist Church Repeals Ban On LGBTQ Clergy
On Wednesday, the United Methodist Church repealed its 1984 ban on LGBTQ clergy with an overwhelming 692–51 vote by church leaders at its general conference. The conference, which ends on May 3, has also resulted in the church rolling back several other anti-LGBTQ policies, including bans on performing gay marriage and funding queer-friendly ministries. The […]
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):
molly0xfff@hachyderm.io ("Molly White") wrote:
Many yearn for the "good old days" of the web. We could have those good old days back — or something even better — and if anything, it would be easier now than it ever was.
https://www.citationneeded.news/we-can-have-a-different-web/
Snapchat will soon let you edit your messages after sending
Edit messages, AI Bitmoji fashion, and reminders round out the new Snapchat update. | Image: Snap
Snap is launching a slew of new features in Snapchat, including the ability to edit already sent messages allowing you to rectify a “your” vs. “you’re” typo or other embarrassing errors. Snapchat is also getting emoji reactions, map reactions, and a new AI-powered reminders function.
The edit message feature does have a short window: you need to act within five minutes of sending — and only if the recipient has not yet opened it. Snap says the feature will come “first” to Snapchat Plus subscribers — a decision that echoes the same feature paywall on Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue (now called X Premium) established more than a year ago.
GIF: Snap
Post-sent message editing is a booming feature to have on messaging apps, with...
For weeks students have protested the war in Gaza — now things are escalating
From New York — to Illinois — to Los Angeles — encampments in support of Palestinians dot campuses across the country.And over the last couple of days the tension has only increased as police have intervened on several campuses, including Columbia University, UCLA and the University of Texas. Hundreds of protestors have been arrested.Pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses are growing in scope and intensity, and colleges are calling on law enforcement to help. Is it the right decision, and what happens next?For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
Catching Up With Columbia’s Student Radio Station After a Historic Broadcast
The student-run radio station at Columbia, WKCR, has been praised widely for its coverage of campus protests. The station’s popularity even led the website to, briefly, crash. And some have said the students should win a Pulitzer Prize. (This point helped poke at an irony embedded in such a situation: The prizes are given at […]
UnitedHealth CEO admits it paid $22 million ransom to BlackCat
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Health insurance provider UnitedHealth paid a multimillion-dollar ransom to hackers who broke into one of its subsidiaries, disrupting healthcare providers across the country for months, CEO Andrew Witty confirmed on Wednesday.
In a hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance, Witty said the decision to pay the $22 million ransom was entirely his. “This was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” he said. UnitedHealth admitted last month that it had paid a ransom to the hackers who breached the Change Healthcare system — which is owned by UnitedHealth — but didn’t disclose the sum. In March, the company attributed the breach to BlackCat, the same entity responsible for the MGM casino hack in Las Vegas. That same month, W...
GTA 6 Publisher Axes Incredible Indie Studio Behind OlliOlli And Rollerdrome
Last month, Take-Two announced it was “rationalizing its pipeline” by cutting hundreds of jobs and cancelling $140 million worth of in-development projects. Today, it moved ahead with shutting down the studios behind Kerbal Space Program 2 and OlliOlli World, Bloomberg reports.
Duane Eddy, who put the twang in early rock guitar with 'Rebel Rouser', dies at age 86
He was a pioneering guitar hero whose reverberating electric sound on instrumentals such as "Rebel Rouser" and "Peter Gunn" influenced George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen and countless other musicians.
Colombia will break relations with Israel over its actions in Gaza, Petro says
President Gustavo Petro announced his country will break diplomatic ties with Israel Thursday over its actions in Gaza. "If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die," he said.
Harvey Weinstein's New York trial, round two, is likely to move forward in the fall
The New York State Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein's 2020 conviction last week, ruling that his trial was unfair.
Everything’s Getting More Expensive, Even Anime (On Crunchyroll)
In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, Crunchyroll, the Netflix-esque repository for all the anime you could probably ever need, is increasing its prices. The price hike, however, only affects the two most expensive tiers in certain countries. But regardless, it’s the first price increase Crunchyroll has…
Everything We Know About The Nintendo Switch 2 [Updated]
No matter what you’re doing or what you’re playing at the moment, it feels like we’re all just biding our time until the announcement of the follow-up to the Nintendo Switch. Colloquially known as the Switch 2 around these parts, reporting on the forthcoming console has picked up tremendously since late last year, and…
Crunchyroll is about to get a little more expensive, just like all the other streamers
Image: Crunchyroll
While Crunchyroll’s monthly prices haven’t jumped in five years, Sony is getting ready to change that for subscribers in a handful of countries.
Crunchyroll announced today that the prices for its Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan streaming subscription tiers are going up as a result of “the company’s investment in more anime, additional services like music and games, and additional subscriber benefits.” While the basic Crunchyroll Premium will continue to cost $7.99 / month, subscriptions for the Mega Fan tier are increasing from $9.99 to $11.99 / month, and the Ultimate Fan tier will rise from $14.99 to $15.99 / month.
Crunchyroll is also shortening its free-trial period from two weeks down to just one. Notably, the price...
How to play Netflix’s cloud games without waiting for an invitation
Why wait? | Image: Netflix
Want to try the nine games that Netflix now streams from cloud servers directly to your laptop, desktop, or TV? Officially, you’re supposed to wait until the beta rolls out more broadly, but for now, there may be an easier way.
If you fire up a desktop web browser, log in to Netflix, and click these links, you should be able to start playing, even if you don’t see any of these games listed normally.
- Oxenfree: https://www.netflix.com/title/81569946
- The Almost Gone: https://www.netflix.com/title/81708319
- Infernax: https://www.netflix.com/title/81708314
- Link Twin: https://www.netflix.com/title/81708315
- Mole Gem Mayhem: https://www.netflix.com/title/81633353
- Reigns: https://www.netflix.com/title/81708316
- Reigns Three Kingdoms:...
Popular Internet Game Show Made A Video Game You Can Play Right Now
What if a game show took one of its games and made it into a video game? Is that confusing? Well, it happened. On May 1,Dropout TV’s Sam Reich, host of the internet game show/social experiment Game Changer, announced the release of a new video game based on a specific game played on a recent episode of the show.
Walmart is about to launch a 4K Chromecast that’s also a smart speaker
An ethernet port! | Screenshot: Superdell-TV
Walmart is apparently getting ready to release a new Onn “Pro” Google TV 4K streaming box that’s also a smart speaker. Yesterday, YouTuber Superdell-TV hosted a livestream where he showed off the streaming device, which he said he had bought from the retailer in-store for $50. As 9to5Google noted today, the Onn Pro was already previously rumored but hasn’t been announced, so it may have been stocked by mistake, as it still doesn’t appear on Walmart’s website.
The device is essentially a higher-end version of the Onn Google TV streaming box that Walmart already sells. According to the specs Superdell shared, in addition to 4K streaming and Chromecast support, the Onn Pro’s box includes support for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. It also...
Finally, The Galaxy's Coolest Character Arrives In Fortnite's Big Star Wars Update
Billy Dee Williams’ Lando Calrissian is one of the coolest characters in Star Wars and now, finally, this cape-wearing, smooth-talking scoundrel will soon be available in Fortnite along with a lot of other Star Wars-related content, too.
Donald Trump Will Speak at the Libertarian Convention. It’s Not as Weird as It Sounds.
On Wednesday, the Libertarian Party revealed a special guest speaker at its convention in late May. Surprise! It’s former President Donald Trump. “This momentous occasion will mark the first time a former President directly addresses our members, candidates, and executive committee,” the party announced. “Don’t miss this opportunity to hear insights from a prominent figure […]
AI security bill aims to prevent safety breaches of AI models
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images
A new bill seeking to track security issues by mandating the creation of a database recording all breaches of AI systems has been filed in the Senate.
The Secure Artificial Intelligence Act, introduced by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), would establish an Artificial Intelligence Security Center at the National Security Agency. This center would lead research into what the bill calls “counter-AI,” or techniques to learn how to manipulate AI systems. This center would also develop guidance for preventing counter-AI measures.
The bill will also require the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to create a database of AI breaches, including...
Many Universities Calling in Police Today Also Celebrate Campus Protests of the Past
When Columbia students began occupying Hamilton Hall early Tuesday morning, they said their “escalation” builds on past campus protests that “Columbia once repressed yet celebrates today.” There is an irony here. Columbia students often hear about the history of dissent on campus. The university explains the student sit-ins of 1968—when protesters occupied buildings (including Hamilton […]
You Really Should Play This Underrated And Unconventional RPG On Game Pass
Just in time for its second anniversary, indie RPG Citizen Sleeper is getting a tabletop RPG (TTRPG) actual play set in the game’s universe. A collaboration between developer Jump Over The Age and games journalist Quintin Smith (of People Make Games), the actual play will air on May 7. It’s an exciting celebration for…
T-Mobile owns Mint Mobile
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
T-Mobile has completed its acquisition of Mint Mobile, the carrier partially owned by Ryan Reynolds. In an update on Wednesday, T-Mobile says Mint Mobile will continue to offer its $15 per month / 5GB of data plan (that requires paying for three months upfront), while also offering access to some of T-Mobile’s perks rolling out now and “over the next few months.”
The acquisition also includes Ka’ena Corporation, the parent company of Mint Mobile, along with the two other companies under its umbrella: the prepaid brand Ultra Mobile and the wholesale wireless provider Plum. Both Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile customers will get T-Mobile’s scam call screening service as part of the merger.
Additionally, Mint and Ultra customers will get free...
A Must-Play Zelda-Like Leads PS Plus’ Free Game Offerings This Month
It’s the first day of a new month, and Sony has announced the latest set of free games you can get as a subscriber of PlayStation Plus. It’s not an amazing list, but what’s on offer is pretty solid if you’re looking for something to play as spring gets going. In particular, there’s an adorably brilliant fox adventure…
rust@social.rust-lang.org ("Rust Language") wrote:
Nine of the projects we submitted to #GSoC2024 have been accepted! Congratulations to the applicants! 🎉
Check out the detailed announcement on the Rust blog: https://blog.rust-lang.org/2024/05/01/gsoc-2024-selected-projects.html
Invasion Worries in Eastern Europe
European countries that border Russia are concerned that they'll be invaded next if an emboldened Russia is successful in Ukraine, even though they're members of the NATO alliance. We go to the Baltic nation of Estonia and hear from people who are making preparations in case of invasion.
Reblogged by collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth"):
chriscoyier@front-end.social ("Chris Coyier") wrote:
you just know that second e in entrée thinks it so much better than the other e's. like its parents let it drink wine at age 11 and wants to know if you want to ride horses sometime
WhatsApp’s new feature lets you plan your next event
Illustration: The Verge
WhatsApp is adding a new way to plan and organize events in group messages, making it easier for friends and organizations like schools and neighborhoods to set up virtual and in-person meetings.
The new events feature lets members of a group set up birthday parties, work meetings, and more, similar to various e-vite services that send out invitations via email. New WhatsApp events get pinned to a group’s information page and also get their own group chat thread so everyone can see who is down, hear out inevitable excuses for those who can’t make it, and confirm who is bringing cookies.
WhatsApp is additionally adding the ability to reply to “Announcement Groups” so members can add comments and feedback for the admin. It...
Tesla reportedly shrinks its gigacasting manufacturing ambitions
Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
It’s gone from one piece to three.
Tesla’s ambitious plans to manufacture the underbody of its vehicles into a single piece, a process known as gigacasting, has been put on hold, according to Reuters, citing two sources with knowledge of the move. It was another sign that the company was pulling back from some of its previously reported plans as it struggles to adapt to falling sales and shrinking profits.
Typically, automakers piece together the underbody from hundreds of individual parts. But Tesla has been a leader in using huge presses to die-cast large sections, with the goal of eventually producing the entire underbody in a single piece. The goal was to simplify the process while also dramatically reducing the costs of its...
The 3D Sonic The Hedgehog Games, Ranked From Worst To Best
Much like a Sonic the Hedgehog level, Sega’s platforming franchise has had its ups, downs, loop-de-loops, and bottomless chasms. With the Knuckles show out, a third live-action movie premiering in December, and Sonic X Shadow Generations coming out this year, what better time to look back at the Sonic franchise’s best…
It’s getting way easier to join PS5 multiplayer games with a friend
Inviting friends to your PS5 multiplayer sessions is getting much easier. | Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Sony is working on an easier way for anyone to join your gaming sessions — whether you’re friends on the PlayStation Network or not. The company says that “in the coming months,” you’ll be able to generate a link either on your PS5 or in the PlayStation App that you can share with others so they can join your multiplayer session.
On the PS5, that means popping up a QR code from the game lobby that players will need to scan using a smartphone, while the PlayStation App just creates a link users can copy or share through their phone’s share sheet. In its blog post today, Sony doesn’t say exactly how you get from tapping a link on your phone to playing a multiplayer game on your PS5, but presumably, you would need to have the PlayStation...
Fed keeps interest rates at 23-year high
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady Wednesday, as inflation remained stubbornly above the Fed's 2% target. Investors now think it could be September or later before rates start to fall.
Republicans release tech executives’ internal communications
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images
Conservatives are pushing a story about Biden, covid-19, and content moderation on social media platforms in both the court of public opinion and the Supreme Court. A new report shared exclusively with The Verge and set to be released by a Republican-led House subcommittee brings the congressional effort to establish this narrative in line with a pending Supreme Court case, focusing on allegations that the Biden administration violated the First Amendment in its backchannel communications with platforms like Facebook.
That the communications happened in the first place is not illegal, though if they rise to the level of coercion — the issue that is in front of the Supreme Court now in Murthy v. Missouri— it would be.
Internal...
This Qi2 3-in-1 charger has the best price we’ve seen from any brand
It was already the cheapest Qi2 multi-charger, and now the price is even better. | Image: ESR
If all-in-one chargers are your jam and you’ve been waiting for a great opportunity to upgrade to Qi2, check out this deal on ESR’s latest model. You can save $56.99 ($16 off) on ESR’s Qi2 3-in-1 wireless charging station after clipping the coupon at Amazon. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen on this particular model and easily the best deal you’ll find on a Qi2 3-in-1 charger from any brand right now.
The multipurpose charger has everything you’d expect: It uses magnets to hold your iPhone and Apple Watch in place and still has a free spot to charge your AirPods. The charger offers 15W charging speeds on any Qi2 phone, which, for now, is limited to the iPhone 12 and newer. The base of the charger accepts AirPods and other wireless...
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):
blogdiva ("yes, it's me, liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦") wrote:
i follow the @DorotheaLange account that posts her work now collected at the Library Of Congress #USLOC; so i decided to do a little #MayDay search to see what history of the United State is hiding in plain site.
i have found some real gems.
"30 hours work for 40 hours pay!"
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017646501/
Attachments:
![image of a poster, possibly lithograph showing a multiracial group of people, with left-hand fists raised, led by a Black woman looking forward and a white man in hard hat with his back to us direct the crowd. some of the marchers hold banners. one of them is the first sentence of the title. it's all done in black and red, with some grays, on a white background. INFO from LOC: Title: 30 hours work for 40 hours pay! Smash racist unemployment! Bust the wage freeze! U.S. out of S.E. Asia now! : May Day Date Created/Published: [1972?] Medium: 1 print : color ; (poster format) Reproduction Number: --- Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication. Published without copyright notice. For information see "Yanker poster collection" (http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/res/250_yank.html). Call Number: POS 6 - US, no. 1216 (C size) [P&P] Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print Notes: Title from item. "1972" penned on verso. Gift; Gary Yanker; 1975-1983.](https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/366/649/412/171/934/original/e5c3a7c3cc2e9e1e.png){kind=link}
Starfield Is Getting A Dune Buggy, Teases Bethesda
Good news for Starfieldplayers who have wanted a faster and better way to travel across the game’s hundreds of planets: Bethesda is planning to add a drivable dune buggy to its massive open-world sci-fi RPG.
Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:
Why AI is Doomed to Fail the Musical Turing Test
cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:
(Please forgive the anachronistic use of "man" when meaning human beings in general.)
cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:
"A human being should never become a means to an end. But already in the economic system of the last few decades, most working people had been turned into mere means, degraded to become mere tools for economic life. It was no longer work that was the means to an end, a means for life or indeed a food for life -- rather it was a man and his life, his vital energy, his "man power," that became this means to an end."
-- Viktor Frankl 1946
Reblogged by pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑"):
UncivilServant@med-mastodon.com ("Noah Cook") wrote:
If you are a college administrator, and you cannot handle student protests during the last few weeks of classes before summer break, it's time to find a new job.
Seriously, that's not a failure, it's a damned moral collapse, a complete abdication of all responsibility to your students.
It's especially sad to see it happen at Columbia, which used to have a good journalism school. It won't after this, that's what happens when you choose the governor over your students.
Starfield is finally getting a 60fps mode on Xbox
Image: Bethesda Softworks
Starfield players on Xbox will no longer have to deal with the game’s 30-frames-per-second (fps) cap. As part of an update arriving on May 15th, Bethesda will let Xbox Series X players run the game at 60fps.
The 60fps option comes as part of several new display customization settings. The game will let you choose to prioritize visuals to “[keep] the highest resolution while maintaining full detail for special effects, lighting, and crowds” or choose to prioritize frame rate performance, which will “[lower] internal resolution and detail for special effects, lighting, and crowds.” Bethesda recommends choosing the performance mode when running the game at 60fps or above.
It also recommends a variable refresh rate (VRR) display running at...
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
He is rather angry with protesters.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/05/01/credentialed-leftist-at-work/
Attachments:
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
djsundog@toot-lab.reclaim.technology ("DJ Sundog - from the toot-lab") wrote:
I had a chance to give "Small Pieces Loosely Joined - A Unified Theory of the Web" by @dweinberger a read this morning, a mere 22 years after it was first published.
It holds up very well, in my opinion, despite the myriad ways in which the web has changed in the interim. Throughout the day I'll be calling out ideas and themes David presents in the book in a thread below this toot, tagged #SPLJ2024 in case you'd prefer to mute my ramblings on the topic.
Diablo IV's Next Season Is Full Of Changes To Make Players Care Again
Diablo IV is getting a major overhaul on the heels of its one year anniversary. Blizzard recently revealed almost every major change to come in season 4 later this month, and fans are excited for the action-RPG to finally fix some of the biggest complaints players have had since launch.
Fallout Will Never Leave The US And More Tidbits From Todd Howard
Bethesda Softworks executive producer Todd Howard has been making the rounds conducting interviews since the release of Amazon’s adaptation of Fallout, one of the series he’s helped direct in his time there.
Biden forgives more than $6 billion in loans for 317,000 Art Institutes students
President Biden announced the relief for attendees of the now-shuttered art schools, saying they "falsified data, knowingly misled students, and cheated borrowers into taking on mountains of debt."
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
Revolutions are had by people, not protocols.
cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:
I know lots of horrible things are going down, but I would like to take a moment and say, "Thank you, Acie Holland."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/may/01/high-school-student-wisconsin-bus-driver
I hope I have the same presence of mind and fortitude if the situation arises.
Next Starfield Update Adds Better Maps And 60 FPS Option To Xbox
Starfield’s next big patch, 1.11.33, is now out for PC players on Steam via the game’s beta branch. This new update, which will go live later for everyone, adds performance options to Xbox, improved maps while walking around planets, new difficulty options, and a huge list of bug fixes.
Violence erupts at UCLA as protests over Israel's war in Gaza escalate across the U.S.
Members of pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups in Los Angeles sometimes tussled, with reports that protesters used fireworks and pepper spray. It was hours before police restored calm.
Microsoft’s billion-dollar OpenAI investment was trigged by Google fears, emails reveal
Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019 because it was “very worried” that Google was years ahead in scaling up its AI efforts. An internal email, titled “Thoughts on OpenAI,” between Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, CEO Satya Nadella, and co-founder Bill Gates reveals some of the high-level discussions around an investment opportunity in the months before Microsoft revealed the partnership.
The email was released on Tuesday as part of the ongoing US Justice Department antitrust case against Google, Business Insider reports.
“We are multiple years behind the competition in terms of machine learning scale,” Scott writes in his June 12th, 2019, email to Nadella and Gates. He details how it took six months for Microsoft engineers to...
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
Did you know that we can win? - by Margaret Killjoy https://margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/did-you-know-that-we-can-win :
> Because there is one thing I can promise every single person who reads this: one day, you too are going to die. You don’t win at life by living forever. Only the billionaires, who are spiritually lost, spend their time trying to “beat” death. You win at life by living lives of meaning.
Happy #MayDay.
Fallout 4 Players Are Using Mods, Guides To Remove The Next-Gen Update
A new update for Fallout 4, intended to improve the game, has done quite the opposite for many players. As a result, many PC users are using Steam guides and downloading mods en masse to roll back the annoying “next-gen” update, making these Fallout 4 guides and mods extremely popular.
Audible tries book recommendations based on your streaming history
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Audible is testing a new section that provides audiobook recommendations based on your Prime Video viewing history. The test is rolling out to half of all users with both Audible and Amazon Prime, and there’s no way to opt out for now.
If you have both services, you might see a new carousel on the mobile and web app titled “Based on what you watched recently on Prime Video.” It will contain audiobooks relevant to what you’ve watched on Prime Video, such as Dune, Project Hail Mary, and Fourth Wing.
Image: Audible
Audible is trying out the change after seeing connections between new releases on Prime Video and what audiobooks people are listening to. For example, the average daily listening minutes for Jack Reacher...
xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:
ever since I learned the term "thought-terminating cliche" I realized that it perfectly fits so many situations
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
mikolaj@chaos.social ("Mikolaj :autism:") wrote:
https://cemsim.com/ is a really cool real-time 2D electromagnetic field simulator.
It's open-source and implemented with GLSL shaders. The simulation kernel is right here: https://github.com/RobinKa/maxwell-simulation/blob/master/src/em/kernels/simulation.ts
Attachments:
Hasbro Really Wants New Snake Eyes Game To Make G.I. Joe Cool Again
As part of a $1 billion investment in internal game development, Hasbro is working on a new game set in the G.I. Joe universe which will focus on the team’s resident ninja, Snake Eyes. The project was first revealed to be in pre-production last year and is being developed by a team made up of Batman Arkham veterans.…
Ford recalls Maverick pickups because tail lights can go dark, increasing crash risk
Ford is recalling nearly 243,000 Maverick small pickup trucks in the U.S. because the tail lights may not illuminate. The recall covers certain pickups from the 2022 through 2024 model years.
Here’s How To Unlock Aaron’s Locker In Stellar Blade
Stellar Blade, the Nier: Auotmata-ish PS5 character action game, has a bunch of chests to unlock that give you all kinds of sweet rewards, from healing items to gold to crafting resources. Many of these chests require that you input a sequence of buttons in an allotted time limit, while others need a passcode to open.…
Farm Folks CEO On Boob Physics: ‘We Don't Want To Attract Nasty People’
On April 29, an in-development farm sim from Crytivo called Farm Folks shared a now-deleted post about breast jiggle physics on its official X/Twitter account that kickstarted a firestorm, emboldened gaming’s baddest actors, and wreaked havoc in the game’s official Discord. The team behind the studio has since…
Costa Rica restored its forests and switched to renewable energy — what can the world learn from it?
Land in Indigenous territory in Costa Rica that Cabécar leaders have reclaimed and are working to reforest. | Justine Calma / The Verge
The Verge takes you to Costa Rica to explore how it restored its forests and manages to get nearly 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy.
LastPass goes independent over a year after serious breaches
Image: LastPass
It’s been over a year and a half since LastPass suffered back-to-back high-profile hacks, and the company now says it has separated from its parent company, GoTo.
GoTo announced that it would spin LastPass off as its own company back in December 2021, six years after buying the company. Now, the password vault company will operate under a shareholder holding company called LMI Parent.
LastPass’ most recent troubles began in late 2022, when it admitted that hackers stole source code in August of that year and then disclosed in November that hackers gained access to “certain elements” of “customer information” but insisted their passwords were safe. That’s open to interpretation, as hackers made off with a copy of a backup of customer...
Magic: The Gathering Card Sells For Record-Breaking $3 Million And Fans Don’t Believe It
You don’t have to have ever played Magic: The Gathering to be familiar with its mythical Black Lotus: a powerful card from the game’s first set that now routinely fetches eye-popping amounts in the collectible market. But no Black Lotus, no matter how pristine or rare, has ever sold for $3 million. It’s such a…
Anthropic finally releases a Claude mobile app
Image: The Verge
Anthropic, which makes the Claude 3 family of AI models, is launching an iOS app and adding a second paid tier for groups to share access to the models.
The Claude mobile app can act as a chatbot, and users can also upload photos straight to the app for “image analysis.” Previously, Claude was only available through Anthropic’s Claude.ai website and third-party model libraries like Amazon Bedrock, Hugging Face, or Microsoft Azure.
Scott White, product manager at Anthropic, says many Claude users have been accessing the AI models through the mobile web, which led Anthropic to offer an app version of Claude.ai. He says the company will come out with an Android version soon.
Anthropic, though, is a little late with its mobile app....
Fans Are Getting A New Batman: Arkham Game After All, But It's In VR
Batman: Arkham Shadow is a new entry in the beloved comic book metroidvania beat ‘em up series, though it’s not what many players were probably hoping for. It’s being made in VR and will be exclusive to the Meta Quest 3 headset. It’s scheduled to release in late 2024.
How to get more space in your Google storage
The Verge
For many of us, Google storage is the modern-day hard drive. It’s the place where our most important thoughts, documents, and memories reside. But just like with a traditional hard drive, the space isn’t infinite, and running out of room can be a real problem.
By default, Google gives you 15GB of space to use for everything associated with your account. That includes content connected to Gmail, Google Drive, and all Google photos (except those saved before June 1st, 2021). Needless to say, data adds up fast.
You can check your current storage status by visiting this page, and if push comes to shove, you can purchase more space there, too, for as little as $2 a month for an extra 100GB. But shelling out more money might not be necessary....
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
ErikJonker ("Erik Jonker") wrote:
Crucial battle for Chasiv Yar in Ukraine. The picture says it all.... 😬
#Ukraine #Russia #ChasivYar
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jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
good grief, how did I get to the point of having that many browser windows and that many tabs open all at once... jeeeeeeeeze, dude
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."
Frederick Douglass
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
Today in History: Confederacy Authorizes Enslavement or Execution of Black Union Troops
never believe propaganda about passive & contented Black slaves.
"By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war " - https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
A father worries when a daughter has to work in this environment. (I'm not worried about the protesters at all, I'm worried about the cops.)
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/05/01/the-scene-at-uw-madison/
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Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
emilymbender@dair-community.social ("Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)") wrote:
Bender & Shah 2024 is now officially published *as open access* at TWeb.
For everyone who is using or promoting LLM driven chatbots as information access systems: this one is for you
Majorie Taylor Greene is planning a vote next week to oust Speaker Johnson
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., says she will follow through on her threat to hold a vote to oust Speaker Mike Johnson sometime next week, despite signs that her effort will fail.
The Legend Of Zelda Movie Is Avoiding CG Mo-Cap To Be More 'Grounded'
I do not envy anyone working on the previously announced Legend of Zelda movie. Whereas, with Mario, they needed only make cute cartoons and load the film with jokes and easter eggs, Zelda feels so much more nuanced, and any angle is likely to displease many. Filmmaker Wes Ball has recently made it clear that his…
The next Batman: Arkham game is a Meta Quest exclusive
Image: Meta
Today, Meta has announced that the next entry in the iconic Batman: Arkham series will be Batman: Arkham Shadow, a VR game that’s exclusive to the Meta Quest 3.
Iron Man VR developer Camouflaj and Oculus Studios are developing the game, which is set to release later this year. Meta didn’t share much about the game itself, giving us a short trailer featuring Batman’s POV as he swoops over the grimy, rain-slicked streets of Gotham.
Though light on the actual gameplay features, the trailer suggests a big part of the game will likely include a lot of those “glide through Gotham” traversal sections that made Batman: Arkham City so damned cool. Meta also hasn’t yet shared who will be voicing Batman. Kevin Conroy, the voice actor best known for...
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
futurebird@sauropods.win ("myrmepropagandist") wrote:
:: The story of a child housekeeper who works for ‘Mnimal’ a cleaning tech company that claims their robots systems can bring your home to a state of “elevated minimalist cleanliness” via “smart targeted cleantech interventions” neither robots nor software can deliver any of this effectively, so an army of young workers must either laboriously attempt to clean via remote control or simply sneak in to the house on guise of ‘a routine service call’ and do it by hand. 1/
Why is a 6-week abortion ban nearly a total ban? It's about how we date a pregnancy
The time a person has to decide whether to have an abortion in Florida and other states with six-week abortion bans is at most two weeks. Why? It's has to do with how we date early pregnancy.
LinkedIn is the latest company to get in on gaming
Photo: LinkedIn
LinkedIn is now in the gaming business. Starting today, users on the LinkedIn mobile app or on desktop can play one of three different games — Pinpoint, Queens, and Crossclimb. You’ll be able to play each game once per day, and after your daily session, you’ll get access to all kinds of metrics including your high score and daily streak, different leaderboards, and who in your networks has also played. The games are available here under the LinkedIn News and My Network section on desktop or the My Network tab on mobile.
Here’s a brief rundown of the three games.
Pinpoint is a word association game. The game will unveil five different words, and your job is to guess the category the words fit into. The words will reveal themselves on a...
Oh dear! Baby gear! Why are the manuals so unclear?
Sure, new parents are an anxious lot. But instruction manuals for devices meant to keep the baby safe and healthy are daunting and add to the anxiety. Why are they so confusing?
Ring’s first integrated pan and tilt camera comes in pink
Ring’s Indoor Cam now comes in a pan and tilt version and three new colors. | Image: Ring
Amazon-owned Ring has announced a new version of its wiredindoor security camera. The $79.99 Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam adds a motorized pan-tilt base to the Ring Indoor Cam (2nd Gen), which otherwise retains the same features as before: 1080p HD video, two-way talk, motion alerts, a built-in siren, and a manual privacy cover that blocks all audio and video. It’s just now you can point the camera up and down and all around using the Ring app.
The camera also has a new look, with Ring offering three new colors for the first time on any of its devices. Well, only one has any actual color; the blush version is a nice dark pink. Then there’s a charcoal gray and a cream white in addition to the existing white and black.
These new shades are...
Nvidia’s AI chatbot now supports Google’s Gemma model, voice queries, and more
Image: Nvidia
Nvidia is updating its experimental ChatRTX chatbot with more AI models for RTX GPU owners. The chatbot, which runs locally on a Windows PC, can already use Mistral or Llama 2 to query personal documents that you feed into it, but now the list of supported AI models is growing to include Google’s Gemma, ChatGLM3, and even OpenAI’s CLIP model to make it easier to search your photos.
Nvidia first introduced ChatRTX as “Chat with RTX” in February as a demo app, and you’ll need an RTX 30- or 40-series GPU with 8GB of VRAM or more to be able to run it. The app essentially creates a local chatbot server that you can access from a browser and feed your local documents and even YouTube videos to get a powerful search tool complete with summaries...
Google urges US to update immigration rules to attract more AI talent
Image: The Verge
The US could lose out on valuable AI and tech talent if some of its immigration policies are not modernized, Google says in a letter sent to the Department of Labor.
Google says policies like Schedule A, a list of occupations the government “pre-certified” as not having enough American workers, have to be more flexible and move faster to meet demand in technologies like AI and cybersecurity. The company says the government must update Schedule A to include AI and cybersecurity and do so more regularly.
“There’s wide recognition that there is a global shortage of talent in AI, but the fact remains that the US is one of the harder places to bring talent from abroad, and we risk losing out on some of the most highly sought-after people in...
Reblogged by keul@fosstodon.org ("Luca Fabbri"):
GrantMeStrength@hachyderm.io ("John Kennedy") wrote:
BASIC is 60 years old today!
Happy Birthday to a programming language that introduced millions to software development. 🎉
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pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
Truth be told, spiders are mostly lazy.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/05/01/the-truth-about-spiders/
Attachments:
Florida abortion ban takes effect; NYPD breaks up Columbia protests
People in Florida no longer have access to abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Police have cleared Hamilton Hall and the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University.
rmrenner ("The Old Gay Gristle Fest") wrote:
Boys with a time machine: change the first release of Stardew Valley to let you save whenever
Girls with a time machine: convince Nintendo of America to keep Akira Toriyama's original box art for Dragon Quest
I have some questions about what Changpeng Zhao gave to the feds
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images
There are a lot of differences between Changpeng Zhao and Sam Bankman-Fried, and now we can add one more to the list: the amount of time they’ll serve for their crimes. Bankman-Fried got 25 years; Zhao got four months.
There’s more. Zhao appeared in court in a tailored navy suit with a light blue tie when he spoke in his own defense. Bankman-Fried was shackled and in prison garb.
Bankman-Fried defrauded people, pleaded not guilty, repeatedly perjured himself in court, got convicted on seven counts, and then gave an absolutely bizarre speech during his own sentencing hearing that made the judge think he’d be likely to re-offend. (This is to say nothing of his pretrial antics.) By contrast, Zhao pleaded guilty in a deal with the government...
Silicon Valley is enamored with a company that pumps poop underground
Wastewater pipes at a reclamation plant in California on Wednesday, August 4, 2021. | Getty Images
aBig brands are paying startup Vaulted Deep $58.3 million to shoot poop and other organic waste products into underground wells as a way to fight climate change.
The deal was brokered by a group called Frontier Climate, which Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability launched in 2022 to support emerging climate tech. Specifically, Frontier is interested in trying to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They connect buyers with startups like Vaulted Deep that are developing ways to capture CO2 and sequester it underground so that it doesn’t heat up the planet.
Vaulted Deep’s strategy is to gather sewage, manure, and agricultural and paper mill waste and inject it deep underground to keep carbon in the waste from...
What is 'communal living' and is it right for me?
People who've lived in co-ops, communes, group houses and 'intentional communities' share four questions you should ask yourself before taking the leap.
nadim@symbolic.software ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:
Hah, Mullvad ad spotted near Times Square!
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pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
More dots. We need more dots on this map!
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/05/01/protests-everywhere/
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Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
firstdogonthemoon@aus.social ("Firstdog Onthemoon") wrote:
24 billion km and still going. I would too. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/apr/24/last-year-voyager-1-started-sending-gibberish-code-it-was-broken-in-space
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
firstdogonthemoon@aus.social ("Firstdog Onthemoon") wrote:
Extinct kangaroo boffins! I love them and you should too. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/may/01/all-the-extinct-kangaroo-boffins-are-losing-their-minds-at-the-latest-kangaroo-news
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
beckett@triangletoot.party ("Old Tom") wrote:
“To be clear: I, a member of the UNC faculty, was nearly caught in a line of pepper spray being fired at UNC students, by UNC police, working under direct orders of UNC administration, as I left class on the last day of the semester.
“These cops were in a blind rage, with zero care for bystanders. They were out of control, pepper spraying the people they were hired to protect.”
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
edistro@social.edist.ro wrote:
do not put milk in your eyes
ANYONE SUGGESTING USING MILK FOR PEPPER SPRAY SHOULD BE SLAPPED ON SIGHT. DO NOT PUT MILK IN YOUR EYES.
it is 2024 and we have been through this again and again and again.
Rinse with water; then saline.
Do not put milk in your eyes.
Do not put milk in your eyes.
Do not put milk in your eyes.
Do not put milk in your eyes.
Do not put milk in your eyes.
Do not put milk in your eyes.
Do not put milk in your eyes.
Do not put milk in your eyes.
Do not put milk in your eyes.please for the love of christ:
do not put milk in your eyes
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
#BBC [World] Watch: Violent clashes break out at UCLA https://w.st/5BCpR
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
"Mr. Trump has asked the Supreme Court to enforce a norm — that in the United States, public officials do not engage in tit-for-tat political prosecutions — that he has for years threatened to shatter. In promising to sic his Justice Department on Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump has laid the grounds for the very conditions that he was asking the justices to guard against by granting him immunity." https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/us/politics/trump-biden-president-immunity.html