veronica

novelwriter, 3 hours ago to random

Patch Release 2.4.2 is now available.

The release updates the Dutch and Chinese translations, and fixes two minor font issues.

https://novelwriter.io/releases/release_2_4.html#main-release-2-4-2

vicgrinberg, 7 days ago (edited 7 days ago) to Astro

It's only since Cecilia Payne's PhD thesis in 1925, that we know what the stars - and our Sun - are made of: mostly hydrogen.

Her thesis was described as ""the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy" and it extremely readable: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1925PhDT.........1P/abstract

Yet It took until 1956, 10 years before her retirement, for her to become full professor - because women were barred from becoming full professors at Harvard.

(Posted because she was born #OTD).

#astrodon #VicisArt #VicisAstro

JoSuus, 8 days ago to random

Eurovision desperately trying and failing to keep the Song Festival free from politics proves what every marginalized person already knows: Everything is political. Life is political.

novelwriter, 11 days ago to random

Patch release 2.4.1 of novelWriter is now available. It fixes a few issues, mainly with the Manuscript Build tool, and makes a few improvements like remembering the scroll position if you update the preview.

https://novelwriter.io

gerrymcgovern, 12 days ago to random

The Paradox of the Nordic "Green" Transition

“The per person emissions in Norway were incredibly high. With this data set we can confirm that from a Norwegian perspective we have a lot of work to do, because we are third in the world when it comes to emissions per person from domestic [flight] emissions.”

https://norwegianscitechnews.com/2024/04/big-data-reveals-true-climate-impact-of-worldwide-air-travel/

Per capita, Norway is 3rd worst in world for domestic flight pollution. It is 1st worst in world for e-waste. Norway has also voted to mine and destroy the deep seas.

gerrymcgovern, 12 days ago to random

"We’re creating content at a mind-boggling pace and scale: 54,000 photos are taken every second, and this year we’re estimated to create around 120 zettabytes of data. By 2035, data creation is predicted to exceed 2,000 zettabytes. Printing out just one zettabyte would require paper from 20 trillion trees (except we only have 3.5 trillion trees on Earth), or would fill more than 212 billion standard DVDs."

https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/06-05-2024/the-climate-cost-of-your-digital-life

futurebird, 18 days ago to random

A single-board command-line computer using the esp32. Look at it! It's cute. Can't buy it yet the creator is starting some kind of online commune for single-board computer freaks. I bet some of you are around here, go say hi at his forum it only has like two posts and its making me sad.

https://a.singleboard.computer/

tjdraper, 18 days ago to random

Any company right now: You want some AI?

Me: Not particularly, thanks

Company: Got it, here's a big huge heaping helping of AI

Me: No thank you please

Company: Make job go fast, do vroom vroom on your career:

Me: I don't really…

Company: We put AI IN YOUR FREAKING MOUSE DRIVERS CAN YOU BELIEVE IT

Me: Kinda but not really

Company: Here's AI tools for your software engineering

Me: These are really obtrusive and in my w…

COMPANY: YOU WILL LOVE OUR AI

Me: …

sbi, 20 days ago to random

“No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.”

Hippo 76th birdbath, Terry Pratchett!

novelwriter, 28 days ago to random

novelWriter 2.4 is now available.

Among updates is a new project search tool, a new heading format to distinguish between soft and hard scene breaks, a new formatting code to highlight text, and a few new settings for formatting your manuscript.

https://novelwriter.io/releases/release_2_4.html

jon, 1 month ago to random

The Norwegian government wants to ban Crypto mining. I hope they do and that others follow. It is time for this nonsense to stop.

https://www.tu.no/artikler/energiministeren-vil-ikke-ha-kryptovalutautvinning-i-norge/545850

MissingThePt, 1 month ago to random

Solar eclipse alt-text:

MOON SUN
MOONSUN
MOONUN
MOONN
MOON
SMOON
SUMOON
SUNMOON
SUN MOON

eff, 1 month ago to random

Have you set up a username on Signal yet? Now’s as good a time as any. https://ssd.eff.org/module/how-to-use-signal#set-or-change-your-username

novelwriter, 1 month ago to random

A pre-release for the upcoming 2.4 release of novelWriter is now available for testing.

Among new features is a global search tool, a new text highlight format, and the ability to separate "soft" and "hard" scene breaks.

You can find the preliminary release notes on the website.

https://novelwriter.io/releases/release_2_4.html

ElleGray, 1 month ago to random

Dedication

jwildeboer, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

Again the FOSS world has proven to be vigilant and proactive in finding bugs and backdoors, IMHO. The level of transparency is stellar, especially compared to proprietary software companies. What the FOSS world has accomplished in 24 hours after detection of the backdoor code in #xz deserves a moment of humbleness. Instead we have flamewars and armchair experts shouting that we must change everything NOW. Which would introduce even more risks. Progress is made iteratively. Learn, adapt, repeat.

talia_christine, 1 month ago to random

#Caturday

arstechnica, 1 month ago to random

Backdoor found in widely used Linux utility breaks encrypted SSH connections

Malicious code planted in xz Utils has been circulating for more than a month.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/backdoor-found-in-widely-used-linux-utility-breaks-encrypted-ssh-connections/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

SteveBellovin, 1 month ago to random

If you use Homebrew on MacOS, you're affected—do 'brew update' and 'brew upgrade’.
https://infosec.exchange/@wdormann/112179988525798247

nixCraft, 1 month ago to linux

Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to ssh server compromise https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/4 #unix #linux #openssh #infosec #security

dangillmor, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

Well, this is a transcendent level of evil: Facebook bought a VPN company and deployed it, in part, to spy on its competitor's users.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/26/facebook-secret-project-snooped-snapchat-user-traffic/

It's a reminder that VPNs have their own risks, beyond technical ones if operated incompetently -- namely, that you have to trust the VPN company itself.

UPDATED to reflect which users were being spied on.

EU_Commission, 1 month ago to random

Today, we have opened five non-compliance investigations under the Digital Markets Act.

It concerns:
🔹Alphabet’s rules on steering in Google Play
🔹Alphabet’s self-preferencing in Google Search
🔹Apple’s rules on steering in the App Store
🔹Apple's choice screen for Safari
🔹Meta’s ‘pay or consent model’

More info: https://europa.eu/!4NF6bV

#DMA #EU

rust, 1 month ago to random

We got an email from the Serbian Registry of Internet Domain Names (RNIDS), the organisation that is responsible for the .rs top-level domain.

Looks like they are a big fan of Rust. 😊

cstross, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

The foundational tenet of "the Cult of Mac" is that buying products from a $3t company makes you a member of an oppressed ethnic minority and therefore every criticism of that corporation is an ethnic slur:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones

This actually says something about cultural continuity because back in 2004, when Apple was a roughly $3Bn (not $Tn) company, it really was a minority pursuit in a sea of Windows, universally oppressed by corporate IT departments! It only shifted after iPhone ...

cstross, 1 month ago to random

Thought for the day: if your business is collecting personal data sufficiently sensitive that your government doesn't want it to be processed or sold overseas, then you shouldn't be collecting it in the first place. (That aspect of your business should be totally illegal.)