A sad raven bums out its friends Ars Technica

May 242019
 

Enlarge / Does he look happy or sad to you? (credit: US Fish and Wildlife) As social creatures, we subconsciously match moods with those around us—and not just when a cranky supervisor darkens your day (Editor’s Note: Is it something I said?). The scientific term for the spread of feelings is “emotional contagion,” a term that may feel particularly appropriate when it comes to grumpiness. But as is so often the case with human psychology,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1509993

 2019-05-24  Comments Off on A sad raven bums out its friends Ars Technica

Senate Committee Votes to Raise Defense Spending for Second Year in a Row to $750 Billion The Intercept

May 242019
 

The Senate Armed Services Committee advanced a major defense spending bill in a closed session this week, agreeing to the Trump administration’s $750 billion request and raising U.S. defense spending to levels not seen since the height of the Iraq War. If it passes the House and Senate, the bill would authorize the second major defense spending increase in two years. Last year, despite initial objections to President Donald Trump’s proposed budget hikes, the House…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://theintercept.com/2019/05/23/defense-spending-bill-senate/

 2019-05-24  Comments Off on Senate Committee Votes to Raise Defense Spending for Second Year in a Row to $750 Billion The Intercept

Deep Time Fakes jwz

May 242019
 

Machine learning brings old paintings and photos to lifeMachine learning researchers have produced a system that can recreate lifelike motion from just a single frame of a person’s face, opening up the possibility of animating not just photos but also paintings. It’s not perfect, but when it works, it is — like much AI work these days — eerie and fascinating.Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2019/05/deep-time-fakes/

 2019-05-24  Comments Off on Deep Time Fakes jwz

New York State Democratic Committee Endorses Easing Time Limits on Voters Who Want to Switch Parties Ballot Access News

May 232019
 

On May 22, the New York State Democratic Party endorsed the idea of easing the time limits on voters who want to switch parties.  The current law requires voters to have been a member of a party for 190 days before a primary, if they want to vote in that party’s primary (unless the voter wasn’t registered to vote). The party recommends that the legislature change the law so that voters can switch parties up…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://ballot-access.org/2019/05/22/new-york-state-democratic-committee-endorses-easing-time-limits-on-voters-who-want-to-switch-parties/

 2019-05-23  Comments Off on New York State Democratic Committee Endorses Easing Time Limits on Voters Who Want to Switch Parties Ballot Access News

Bruce Momjian: Draft of Postgres 12 Release Notes Planet PostgreSQL

May 122019
 

I have completed the draft version of the Postgres 12 release notes. Consisting of 186 items, this release makes big advances in partitioning, query optimization, and index performance. Many long-awaited features, like REINDEX CONCURRENTLY, multi-variate most-frequent-value statistics, and common table expression inlining, are included in this release. The release notes will be continually updated until the final release, which is expected in September or October of this year.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://postgr.es/p/4sa

 2019-05-12  Comments Off on Bruce Momjian: Draft of Postgres 12 Release Notes Planet PostgreSQL

Delta Airlines Crosses One Line Too Far in Union Busting Planet GNOME

May 112019
 

We create, develop, document and collaborate as users of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) from around the globe, usually by working remotely on the Internet. However, human beings have many millennia of evolution that makes us predisposed to communicate most effectively via in-person interaction. We don’t just rely on the content of communication, but its manner of expression, the body language of the communicator, and thousands of different non-verbal cues and subtle communication mechanisms.…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2019/05/10/delta-union-busting.html

 2019-05-11  Comments Off on Delta Airlines Crosses One Line Too Far in Union Busting Planet GNOME

Printers Fixing Printers

 NO  Comments Off on Printers Fixing Printers
May 042019
 

My ancient (but still perfectly reliable and awesome) LaserJet 6MP has had a problem for a yearish now… one of the clips that keep the rear exit tray closed finally fatigued and snapped. Replacement bits are expensive enough that it’s not really worth replacing, and it’s not feasible to repair in place. Problem is, the rear tray needs to be closed for paper to feed to the exit tray on the top, and if it’s not quite closed, paper just tangles itself in the rollers and causes a nice little jam. So I’ve had a stack of DVDs jammed between the printer and my subwoofer on the same shelf this entire time…

Finally got fed up with this arrangement and used my other printer to make clips to keep the tray closed. Not very exciting, but hey… better living through technology.

Clips broke a while ago, I’ve been shoving DVDs behind it to keep it closed.
A few measurements and a tiny bit of openscad later…
… no more need to shove things behind the printer

Diners Eating Impossible Burgers Doused With Beet Juice By Protesting Meat-Rights Activists The Onion

May 042019
 

ST. LOUIS—Their meals disrupted by protestors who stormed the restaurant with buckets full of viscous red liquid, diners eating plant-based Impossible Whoppers at a local Burger King were reportedly horrified Friday when meat-rights activists splashed beet juice all over them. “Shame! Shame on them—look at these…Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/diners-eating-impossible-burgers-doused-with-beet-juice-1834512845

 2019-05-04  Comments Off on Diners Eating Impossible Burgers Doused With Beet Juice By Protesting Meat-Rights Activists The Onion

Seven Fundamental Principles of Design Every Engineer Should Know EngineerDog

May 042019
 

 What is ‘Human Centered Design’ and Why Should Engineers Care?… Not long ago my friend and I had a chuckle at the expensive of a coworker who liked to use fancy words like ‘affordance’ and ‘signifiers’ in conversation to describe what we would just call a handle. I later realized the joke was on us after […]

External feed Read More at the Source: https://engineerdog.com/2019/05/03/seven-fundamental-principles-of-design-every-engineer-should-know/

 2019-05-04  Comments Off on Seven Fundamental Principles of Design Every Engineer Should Know EngineerDog

A glitch is breaking all Firefox extensions TechCrunch

May 042019
 

Did you just open Firefox only to find all of your extensions disabled and/or otherwise not working? You’re not alone, and it’s nothing you did. Reports are pouring in of a glitch that has spontaneously disabled effectively all Firefox extensions. Each extension is now being listed as a “legacy” extension, alongside a warning that it “could not be verified for use in Firefox and has been disabled”. A ticket submitted to Mozilla’s Bugzilla bug tracker…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/03/a-glitch-is-breaking-all-firefox-extensions/

 2019-05-04  Comments Off on A glitch is breaking all Firefox extensions TechCrunch

Gmail’s automated spam-filtering is making it much harder to run an independent mail-server Boing Boing

May 012019
 

People who run their own mail servers are increasingly finding that the mail they send to Gmail users is being rejected, because the company’s anti-spam algorithm treats small, independently managed mail-servers as high-risk mail sources. And since Gmail users never receive the blocked messages, it can be impossible to convey to them that they’re missing some messages. This happened to me last month and Ken Snider, our awesome sysadmin, was somehow able to fix it,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/01/algorithmic-discrimination.html

 2019-05-01  Comments Off on Gmail’s automated spam-filtering is making it much harder to run an independent mail-server Boing Boing

3D Printing with Multiple Soluble Filaments Hackaday

Apr 292019
 

Complex 3D-printed designs often require the use of an automatically generated support structure around them for stability. While this enables some truly incredible results, it adds considerable time and cost to the printing process. Plus there’s the painstaking process of removing all the support material without damaging the object itself. If you’ve got a suitably high-end 3D printer, one solution to this problem is doing the supports in a water soluble filament; just toss the…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2019/04/28/3d-printing-with-multiple-soluble-filaments/

 2019-04-29  Comments Off on 3D Printing with Multiple Soluble Filaments Hackaday

The DCCC is sabotaging Marie Newman’s primary challenge to Dan Lipiniski, a hereditary, anti-choice, anti-minimum-wage, homophobic “Democrat” Boing Boing

Apr 272019
 

Dan Lipiniski is the worst Democrat in Congress, a man who literally inherited his seat from his father and has spent his career in Congress opposing minimum wage laws, access to abortion, and rights for LGBTQ people, taking massive contributions from literal railbarons in exchange for fighting railroad safety rules. Lipinski sits in one of the Democrats’ safest seats, meaning whomever wins the Democratic primary in his Illinois district automatically gets sent to Congress, so…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/27/support-marie-newman.html

 2019-04-27  Comments Off on The DCCC is sabotaging Marie Newman’s primary challenge to Dan Lipiniski, a hereditary, anti-choice, anti-minimum-wage, homophobic “Democrat” Boing Boing

Social Media Blackouts Are an Authoritarian Power Move American Civil Liberties Union

Apr 272019
 

When Americans see governments shutting down Internet communications, they should see nothing but counterproductive, authoritarian exercises of power In the wake of the terrible Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, that government shut down access to Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and other social media services. The shutdown garnered praise from some within the United States and other democratic countries, but as tragic as the circumstances may be, Americans must never come to see social media or…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/internet-speech/social-media-blackouts-are-authoritarian-power-move

 2019-04-27  Comments Off on Social Media Blackouts Are an Authoritarian Power Move American Civil Liberties Union

The Mueller Report, Searchable and Accessible on the Archive Internet Archive Blogs

Apr 272019
 

Last week, the American public finally got its hands on the Mueller report–more than 400 pages, much of the text redacted, detailing the special counsel’s much anticipated findings.  Within minutes of that release, many copies of that file were uploaded to the Internet Archive. On Amazon, other outfits were charging $7.99 for an EPUB of the report. At the Internet Archive we made the Mueller Report searchable and downloadable. And free. The government initially released…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://blog.archive.org/2019/04/26/the-mueller-report-searchable-and-accessible-on-the-archive/

 2019-04-27  Comments Off on The Mueller Report, Searchable and Accessible on the Archive Internet Archive Blogs

New type of plastic is a recycling dream Ars Technica

Apr 262019
 

Enlarge (credit: Elliot Margolies) Recycling sounds great in principle (because it is), but a frustrating number of devils lurk in the details. For example, while some materials like aluminum can readily be melted down and turned right back into new aluminum cans, recovered plastics tend to be lower quality than “virgin” material. That’s because recycled plastic retains some of its previous properties—like Lego bricks that can’t be separated. The next plastic you make won’t be…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1496029

 2019-04-26  Comments Off on New type of plastic is a recycling dream Ars Technica

Insulin prices are killing people Boing Boing

Apr 262019
 

Price gouging has skyrocketed the price of insulin, forcing folks to ration this lifesaving biologic. CBS News: “Nobody cared or nobody understood that without this next vial of insulin, I wouldn’t live to see another week,” said 28-year-old Kristen Whitney Daniels. She started rationing her insulin after she was kicked off her parents’ insurance plan two years ago. “I can’t really explain how isolating and how terrifying it is,” she said. She’s now a patient…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/25/insulin-prices-are-killing-peo.html

 2019-04-26  Comments Off on Insulin prices are killing people Boing Boing

Angered by the No-More-AOCs rule, 31 colleges’ Young Democrats boycott the DCCC Boing Boing

Apr 252019
 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says that it will refuse to contract with any vendor or consultant that offers services to primary challengers for the Democratic nomination: it’s a rule that ensure that candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who won a primary challenge against Joe Crowley, a right-wing finance industry creep who’d sat as a Democratic Congressman since 1999) will not be able to depose other establishment Dems. In response, 31 colleges’ Young Democrats clubs have…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/25/establishment-creeps.html

 2019-04-25  Comments Off on Angered by the No-More-AOCs rule, 31 colleges’ Young Democrats boycott the DCCC Boing Boing
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