jwz – jwz.org is now 25

Aug 032023
 

I created my first “World Wide Web Home Page” in March 1993. The original URL was ftp://lucid.com/pub/jwz/index.html. In July 1994, that became http://home.mcom.com/people/jwz/, then http://people.netscape.com/jwz/ in 1995, and finally I registered jwz.org on Aug 2, 1998. It took me a little while to accept that having my email and web presence completely beholden to my employer was perhaps not the greatest plan. That is obvious to you now, but it was the 90s, we were like little children. Why that date, though? Oh, there was a stupid Netscape PR disaster that made the comms team pull the plug on all of the employee home pages. There were five days, Friday through Tuesday, when nobody could download…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2023/08/jwz-org-is-now-25/

 2023-08-03  Comments Off on jwz – jwz.org is now 25

Motherboard – Three People Died in an Amtrak Derailment Caused by Faulty Freight Rail Tracks Overworked Track Inspector Missed, Report Finds

Aug 022023
 

Three people died in an Amtrak derailment in September 2021 because the freight rail company that owns the tracks did not properly maintain them, partly as a result of cost-cutting measures that slashed the track inspection workforce, according to a two-year government investigation.  The crash occurred after a Motherboard investigation earlier in the year that warned the freight rail industry was courting catastrophe by slashing maintenance and inspection programs to save on labor costs. The report, which was published on Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board, says the derailment of the Amtrak Empire Builder train in Joplin, Montana occurred because of “a combination of conditions that affected the BNSF Railway track” including worn rail and…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxjgbb/three-people-died-in-an-amtrak-derailment-caused-by-faulty-freight-rail-tracks-overworked-track-inspector-missed-report-finds

 2023-08-02  Comments Off on Motherboard – Three People Died in an Amtrak Derailment Caused by Faulty Freight Rail Tracks Overworked Track Inspector Missed, Report Finds

Hackaday – Just How Is Voyager 2 Going To Sort Out Its Dish Then?

Aug 012023
 

Anybody who has set up a satellite TV antenna will tell you that alignment is critical when picking up a signal from space. With a satellite dish it’s a straightforward task to tweak the position, but what happens if the dish in question is out beyond the edge of the Solar System?
We told you a few days ago about this exact issue currently facing Voyager 2, but we’re guessing Hackaday readers will want to know a little bit more about how a 50+ year old spacecraft so far from home can still sort out its antenna. The answer lies in NASA Technical Report 32-1559, Digital Canopus Tracker from 1972, which describes the instrument that notes the…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2023/07/31/just-how-is-voyager-2-going-to-sort-out-its-dish-then/

 2023-08-01  Comments Off on Hackaday – Just How Is Voyager 2 Going To Sort Out Its Dish Then?

Planet Emacsen – Mickey Petersen: What’s New in Emacs 29.1?

Jul 302023
 

Wonderful news! Emacs 29.1 is out now. If you’re wondering what’s new, and why it’s absolutely worth upgrading, keep reading. I’ve annotated the NEWS file – as I’ve been doing for the last thirteen years – with my own thoughts and comments on the deluge of new and interesting features.To celebrate, my book on Emacs is also on sale: 29% off.Before I go into the specifics of every minor item, a quick summary of what I think are the major highlights of Emacs 29.1:Official tree-sitter supportTree-sitter is a third-party library that parses your text (usually code, but also things like Markdown) into a concrete syntax tree. It’s one of the hallmark features in Emacs 29, though…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.masteringemacs.org/article/whats-new-in-emacs-29-1?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=rss

 2023-07-30  Comments Off on Planet Emacsen – Mickey Petersen: What’s New in Emacs 29.1?

Planet Python – death and gravity: Bridging the Python async gap from the other side

Jul 292023
 

So, you’re doing some sync stuff.
But you also need to do some async stuff,
without making everything async.
Maybe the sync stuff is an existing application.
Maybe you still want to use your favorite sync library.
Or maybe you need just a little async,
without having to pay the full price.
Of course,
you can run a coroutine with asyncio.run(),
and blocking sync code from a coroutine with asyncio.to_thread(),
but the former isn’t granular enough,
and the latter doesn’t solve async code being at the top.
As always, there must be a better way.
Maybe something like this?

async def do_stuff(i): return i * 2 async def generate_stuff(i): for n in range(i): yield n runner = ThreadRunner()
print(runner.run(do_stuff(2))) # 8
print(*runner.wrap_iter(generate_stuff(4))) # 0 1 2 3

Now, it would take a long…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://death.andgravity.com/asyncio-bridge

 2023-07-29  Comments Off on Planet Python – death and gravity: Bridging the Python async gap from the other side

Ars Technica – Reddit calls for “a few new mods” after axing, polarizing some of its best

Jul 282023
 

Enlarge (credit: Getty)
Reddit is campaigning to replace numerous longstanding moderators who were removed from their positions after engaging in API protests. Over the past week, a Reddit employee has posted to subreddits with ousted mods, asking for new volunteers. But in its search, the company has failed to address the intricacies involved in moderating distinct and, in some cases, well-known subreddits. And it doesn’t look like the knowledge from the previous moderators is being passed down.
Redditors were enraged over suddenly high API access pricing, and the social media platform’s subsequent responses to protests and feedback have beleaguered Reddit for weeks. A two-day blackout of over 8,000 subreddits, for example, shut Reddit down…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1957407

 2023-07-28  Comments Off on Ars Technica – Reddit calls for “a few new mods” after axing, polarizing some of its best

Techdirt. – Copyright Self Censorship Denies Us Another Updated Version Of An Abandoned Game

Jul 282023
 

And here we go again. We have been talking about both the concept of video game preservation being lost to the copyright gods, as well as how copyright often prevents fan-made creations and content around game franchises, for years and years now. Both topics are quite frustrating and both serve as examples of how copyright law and its modern application appear to be getting in the way of its stated purpose: the proliferation of content and culture.
But it’s when these two topics converge that it gets unbelievably frustrating. And that brings us to a fan-made remake and enhanced version of a beloved old game: The Simpsons: Hit & Run. The original game came out in…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/27/copyright-self-censorship-denies-us-another-updated-version-of-an-abandoned-game/

 2023-07-28  Comments Off on Techdirt. – Copyright Self Censorship Denies Us Another Updated Version Of An Abandoned Game

Ars Technica – Meat allergy from tick bites is on the rise—and US doctors are in the dark

Jul 282023
 

Enlarge / A vector ecologist displays a vial of live lone star ticks. (credit: Getty | Ben McCanna)
A little over a decade ago, researchers discovered that bites from lone star ticks could cause some people to develop a food allergy to meat and meat products—an allergic condition called alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), which can vary from mild to life-threatening.
The condition is named after a carbohydrate called galactose-α-1,3-galactose (aka alpha-gal), which is commonly found on proteins in most mammals—with the important exception of primates, like humans. Alpha-gal shows up on all sorts of non-primate mammalian tissue, which means it’s also in meat—such as pork, beef, rabbit, and lamb—and animal products, like milk and gelatin….

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1957268

 2023-07-28  Comments Off on Ars Technica – Meat allergy from tick bites is on the rise—and US doctors are in the dark

Hackaday – A Simple One-Handed Solder Feeder

Jul 282023
 

Soldering can get frustrating when you’re working fast. It often feels like you don’t have enough hands, particularly on jobs where you need to keep feeding solder in a hurry. To solve that issue, [mulcmu] developed a simple one-handed solder feeder.
The solder is fed out of the tip by simply dragging it with the thumb.
The intended use-case is for busy work like soldering long pin headers. The one-handed device allows solder to be continually fed while the other hand uses the soldering iron. It solves a long-running problem for [mulcmu], after their experiments with techniques inspired by TIG welding came to nought.
The design uses a pen-like form factor. A 3D-printed hollow tube has a wire ferrule…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2023/07/27/a-simple-one-handed-solder-feeder/

 2023-07-28  Comments Off on Hackaday – A Simple One-Handed Solder Feeder

The Onion – Elderly Senators Amused To Discover Their Strokes Syncing Up

Jul 282023
 

WASHINGTON—Discovering the phenomenon as they all received emergency medical attention at the same time, several elderly senators reportedly found it amusing Thursday that their strokes seemed to be syncing up. “I’ve heard of this happening, but I honestly thought it was a myth,” a distant, glassy-eyed Mitch McConnell…

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/elderly-senators-amused-to-discover-their-strokes-synci-1850683176

 2023-07-28  Comments Off on The Onion – Elderly Senators Amused To Discover Their Strokes Syncing Up

The Intercept – Texas State Police Purchased Israeli Phone-Tracking Software for “Border Emergency”

Jul 272023
 

The Texas Department of Public Safety purchased access to powerful software capable of locating and following people through their phones as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s “border security disaster” efforts, according to documents reviewed by The Intercept. In 2021, Abbott proclaimed that the “surge of individuals unlawfully crossing the Texas-Mexico border posed an ongoing and imminent threat of disaster” to the state and its residents. Among other effects, the disaster declaration opened a spigot of government money to a variety of private firms ostensibly paid to help patrol and blockade the state’s border with Mexico. One of the private companies that got in on the cash disbursements was Cobwebs Technologies, a little-known Israeli surveillance contractor….

External feed Read More at the Source: https://theintercept.com/2023/07/26/texas-phone-tracking-border-surveillance/

 2023-07-27  Comments Off on The Intercept – Texas State Police Purchased Israeli Phone-Tracking Software for “Border Emergency”

Techdirt. – Federal Judge Says State Troopers’ ‘Kansas Two Step’ Bullshit Violates The Rights Of Drivers

Jul 272023
 

For years, Kansas Highway Patrol troopers have stopped motorists on interstate highways. That’s the job. But the job became much more interesting when neighboring states legalized marijuana. Colorado led the way, with others following, but Colorado’s actions have had the most impact on the KHP. Missouri’s more recent legalization has only compounded the problem facing drivers on Kansas highways.
Thanks to the fact that there’s legal weed right over the border, KHP troopers are assuming anyone with out of state plates is headed to enjoy legal activities (in Colorado and Missouri) that are still illegal in Kansas. Opportunism is the name of the game. And that game means KHP troopers routinely violate rights, not to mention ignore…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/26/federal-judge-says-state-troopers-kansas-two-step-bullshit-violates-the-rights-of-drivers/

 2023-07-27  Comments Off on Techdirt. – Federal Judge Says State Troopers’ ‘Kansas Two Step’ Bullshit Violates The Rights Of Drivers

Motherboard – A Major Climate System Will Collapse Decades Ahead of Schedule and Unleash Devastation, Scientists Predict

Jul 262023
 

An important system of currents in the Atlantic Ocean could collapse this century under the pressure of human-driven climate change, triggering “a major tipping element in the climate system” that will have devastating impacts on people and ecosystems, reports a new study.   The new research reveals a far grimmer view of the North Atlantic’s future than the most recent predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and underscores the urgency of transitioning away from the consumption of fossil fuels to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving warming global temperatures. The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) acts like a huge conveyor belt that delivers warm water from the equator to the poles and…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/y3wbn7/a-major-climate-system-will-collapse-decades-ahead-of-schedule-and-unleash-devastation-scientists-predict

 2023-07-26  Comments Off on Motherboard – A Major Climate System Will Collapse Decades Ahead of Schedule and Unleash Devastation, Scientists Predict

Ars Technica – Encryption-breaking, password-leaking bug in many AMD CPUs could take months to fix

Jul 262023
 

Enlarge (credit: AMD)
A recently disclosed bug in many of AMD’s newer consumer, workstation, and server processors can cause the chips to leak data at a rate of up to 30 kilobytes per core per second, writes Tavis Ormandy, a member of Google’s Project Zero security team. Executed properly, the so-called “Zenbleed” vulnerability (CVE-2023-20593) could give attackers access to encryption keys and root and user passwords, along with other sensitive data from any system using a CPU based on AMD’s Zen 2 architecture.
The bug allows attackers to swipe data from a CPU’s registers. Modern processors attempt to speed up operations by guessing what they’ll be asked to do next, called “speculative execution.” But…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1956383

 2023-07-26  Comments Off on Ars Technica – Encryption-breaking, password-leaking bug in many AMD CPUs could take months to fix

Biometric Update – BI2 Technologies’ iris recognition solution offered free to US border sheriffs

Jul 262023
 

Biometrics recognition company BI2 Technologies will give sheriffs in 31 U.S. border counties  free access to its iris biometric-based Mobile Offender Recognition & Information System (MORIS), according to a July 19 statement. The iris recognition software, which works from one meter away and includes liveness detection, scans and processes biometric data using Apple, Android and Microsoft handheld devices. Data is compared to a national offender database. Investments into homeland security are growing. For fiscal 2023, The Department of Homeland Security fiscal 2023 budget is $97.3 billion, up from last year’s $91 billion and 2021’s $87.1 billion budget. Government officials have been gathering iris biometrics since the 2014 pilot of the Next Generation Identification Iris Service,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202307/bi2-technologies-iris-recognition-solution-offered-free-to-us-border-sheriffs

 2023-07-26  Comments Off on Biometric Update – BI2 Technologies’ iris recognition solution offered free to US border sheriffs

see shy jo – become ungoogleable

Jul 222023
 

I’ve removed my website from indexing by Google.
The proximate cause is Google’s new effort to
DRM the web,
but there is of course so much more. This is a unique time, when it’s actually feasible to become ungoogleable
without losing much. Nobody really expects to be able to find anything of
value in a Google search now, so if they’re looking for me or something I’ve
made and don’t find it, they’ll use some other approach. I’ve looked over the kind of traffic that Google refers to my website, and
it will not be a significant loss even if those people fail to find me by
some other means. Over 30% of the traffic to this website is rss feeds.
Google just doesn’t matter…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/become_ungoogleable/

 2023-07-22  Comments Off on see shy jo – become ungoogleable

Deeplinks – Young People Should Oppose the Kids Online Safety Act

Jul 222023
 

Next week, Congress plans to move a bill forward that is opposed by dozens of organizations, digital rights protectors, LGBTQ+ activists, and human rights defenders: the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). As we’ve written before, KOSA would lead to censorship and privacy invasions for all social media users. But the most impacted groups will be young people, who the bill purports to help by banishing to a second-class internet. 
What’s often been left out of the debate over KOSA is how young people feel about this. In fact, many teenagers already oppose the bill. Young TikTok users have been rallying one another to call and email legislators to push back on the bill, and videos describing what’s…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/young-people-should-oppose-kids-online-safety-act

 2023-07-22  Comments Off on Deeplinks – Young People Should Oppose the Kids Online Safety Act

Biometric Update – US seeks comment on age-estimation idea to protect children, Yoti requests approval

Jul 222023
 

Businesses are asking U.S. regulators to approve facial age estimation as a tool for segregating people online by age and, in turn, the government is seeking comment on the idea. The businesses are digital ID software company Yoti, Epic Games subsidiary SuperAwesome and the Entertainment Software Rating Board. They want the Federal Trade Commission to allow online content and services firms to rebuff children by using software that analyzes facial biometrics with a degree of privacy. Specifically, the three petitioners want it to be legal for companies to add the age-estimation software to other tools the industry can use under the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. The FTC will accept comment on…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202307/us-seeks-comment-on-age-estimation-idea-to-protect-children-yoti-requests-approval

 2023-07-22  Comments Off on Biometric Update – US seeks comment on age-estimation idea to protect children, Yoti requests approval

Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – James Hansen on global heating

Jul 222023
 

*The world is shifting towards a superheated climate not seen in the
past 1m years, prior to human existence, because “we are damned fools”
for not acting upon warnings over the climate crisis, according to
James Hansen, the US scientist who alerted the world to the greenhouse effect in the 1980s.*

External feed Read More at the Source: https://stallman.org/archives/2023-may-aug.html#21_July_2023_(James_Hansen_on_global_heating)

 2023-07-22  Comments Off on Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – James Hansen on global heating
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