Geekish

Anyone who works as a freelancer these days has to be at least a bit familiar with techie things. But it isn’t just that. When I was a kid and those vaguely SF puppet shows were on the television and all the other kids wanted to be Greg Gogetem or Steve Savetheuniverse, I wanted to be the guy in a white coat and glasses called Doc or Brains. Here are some technology-related feeds I find useful and/or entertaining.

Mashable » Netflix lights up special weed strains inspired by your favorite shows

Sunday 27 August 23:51:15 UTC 2017

Netflix took its promotional might to the next level this weekend by offering a special set of cannabis strains with names inspired by some of its most popular shows. And yes, the strains are actually available (if you're in California, where the special strains are being offered at a local marijuana dispensary). SEE ALSO: Hey Netflix, Apple reportedly has $1 billion … [Link]

Slashdot » Converted Missile Launches Military Satellite to Track Spacecraft

Sunday 27 August 23:51:00 UTC 2017

schwit1 was the first to share the news about Saturday's successful launch from Cape Canaveral: A satellite designed to help the U.S. military keep tabs on the ever-growing population of orbiting objects took to the skies atop a converted missile early Saturday morning. The Air Force's Operationally Responsive Space-5 (ORS-5) satellite lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station … [Link]

Mashable » All the out-of-control looks from the 2017 VMAs red carpet

Sunday 27 August 23:48:03 UTC 2017

Feathers, sequins, and, oh my God, is that a Canadian tuxedo, Jack Antonoff?: It's the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards red (blue, technically) carpet! SEE ALSO: A first peek at Taylor Swift's 'Look What You Made Me Do' video is here and omg As expected from the VMAs red carpet, tonight's celebrity looks run the gamut from "eh" to to "huh, … [Link]

Slashdot » Columnist Mocks The Case Against Cord-Cutting As 'Too Many Choices'

Sunday 27 August 22:58:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quote TechHive: The cord-cutting naysayers are trotting out a new argument in favor of cable, and it's even more absurd than the old ones: Having too many high-quality, standalone streaming services, they say, is actually bad for consumers, who are apparently helpless at using technology or making sound purchase decisions… The New York Post's Johnny Oleksinski concluded … [Link]

Mashable » MashReads Podcast: Here are the books (and movies and music) we've loved this summer

Sunday 27 August 22:47:06 UTC 2017

“Nothing gold can stay, Pony Boy" … and by that we mean, sadly, summer is coming to an end. But that doesn't mean we have to let go of all of the great books we've read this season. SEE ALSO: 'The Idiot' is one of the best books you'll read all year This week on the MashReads Podcast, we look back … [Link]

Mashable » Reddit, Twitter offer an oasis of info, resources for Harvey victims

Sunday 27 August 22:04:43 UTC 2017

The historic impact of Tropical Storm Harvey has everyone from federal agencies to the National Weather Service reeling from the storm's power, but in the midst of it all, once again, social media is proving to be a vital life line. This time in the form of Reddit. SEE ALSO: Apple is accepting donations through iTunes to aid Harvey storm relief … [Link]

Slashdot » Lawsuit Filed Against Logitech For Delaying Warranty Claims, Hiding EOL

Sunday 27 August 21:48:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes BleepingComputer: A U.S. man has filed a lawsuit against Logitech, a Swiss-based manufacturer of electronic devices, on accusations that Logitech had intentionally delayed and tried to discourage warranty claims for defective products, falsely advertised products, and even hid an End-Of-Life (EOL) announcement from customers. The product at the heart of this lawsuit is a high-definition digital … [Link]

Mashable » Tropical Storm Harvey in photos: Views of the Houston flood from the ground

Sunday 27 August 21:23:48 UTC 2017

Harvey is no ordinary storm. Those old enough to remember Hurricane Katrina in 2005 can recall chilling images and video of a city submerged. A storm surge washed across New Orleans, inflicting countless casualties and billions in property damage. In Houston, it was not a surge of seawater that flooded the nation's 4th-largest city, but rather trillions of gallons of water … [Link]

Mashable » Tropical Storm Harvey has dumped more than 11 trillion gallons of water on Texas, and counting

Sunday 27 August 21:18:17 UTC 2017

Tropical Storm Harvey has dropped more than 11 trillion gallons of water on Texas, triggering catastrophic, unprecedented flooding in the Houston area. The rains have broken all-time records, exceeding the rainfall totals seen during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. There may be no parallel available to any other rainstorm in U.S. history, based on the number of people affected, amount of … [Link]

Slashdot » A Game You Control With Your Mind

Sunday 27 August 20:50:00 UTC 2017

A startup recently demoed their prototype for a VR headset using sensors that read brain waves. An anonymous reader quotes the New York Times: There is no joystick or game pad. You must use your thoughts. You turn toward a ball on the floor, and your brain sends a command to pick it up. With another thought, you send the … [Link]

Mashable » Here's how you can help with Tropical Storm Harvey relief efforts

Sunday 27 August 20:44:55 UTC 2017

Tropical Storm Harvey is turning out to be one of the most powerful storms to hit the U.S. since 2005, and you don't have to sit on the sidelines as it continues to inundate parts of Texas SEE ALSO: Airbnb offers Hurricane Harvey evacuees free shelter The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other relief agencies are already taking stock of … [Link]

Geek Culture » What a total eclipse really looks like…

Sunday 27 August 19:56:07 UTC 2017

Total Solar Eclipse, taken by Yitao Liu on August 21, 2017 @ Madras, OR. Eclipse Total solar eclipse photos rarely capture the delicate structure of the corona. This photo is the closest I've seen so far. It is very similar to what it looked like through my binoculars… gorgeous corona structure and incredible prominences. Nitrozac and I both burst into tears … [Link]

Slashdot » Could AI Transform Continuous Delivery Development?

Sunday 27 August 19:52:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes The Next Web: According to one study, high-performing IT units with faster software releases are twice as likely to achieve their goals in customer satisfaction, profitability, market share and productivity. Acknowledgement of this has fueled a headlong rush toward what software developers call "continuous delivery"… It's a process most technology departments aspire to but only a … [Link]

Mashable » Houston's good Samaritans are watching out for each other as Harvey rages on

Sunday 27 August 19:18:52 UTC 2017

As Tropical Storm Harvey beats down on Houston, good Samaritans throughout the area are showing up for one another in whatever ways possible. These shows of kindness — for strangers, for animals, for local correspondents — come as the city suffers historic flooding that the National Weather Service has deemed "unprecedented". SEE ALSO: Apple is accepting donations through iTunes to aid … [Link]

Slashdot » People Are Complete Suckers For Online Reviews

Sunday 27 August 18:34:00 UTC 2017

schwit1 shared an article from the New York Post: No reviews, no revenue. That's the key takeaway from a new study published in Psychological Science, which finds that if two similar products have the same rating, online shoppers will buy the one with more reviews… "[When] faced with a choice between two low-scoring products, one with many reviews and one … [Link]

Mashable » Floyd Mayweather made $178,000 fighting Conor McGregor… per second

Sunday 27 August 18:32:48 UTC 2017

Congrats, you just made $178,041! Well, that is, if you're Floyd Mayweather, standing in the ring against Conor McGregor on Saturday night — and you took one second to read that sentence. SEE ALSO: Floyd Mayweather totally out-classed Conor McGregor, but oh what a show! In what has to be the biggest single payout in sports history, the 40-year-old Mayweather stands … [Link]

Mashable » Social media is helping police make arrests related to the violence in Charlottesville

Sunday 27 August 18:12:51 UTC 2017

Social media is helping track down the white supremacists responsible for brutally assaulting a counterprotester in Charlottesville. Per a New York Times report, Daniel P. Borden, one of the multiple assailants who attacked 20-year-old Deandre Harris during the infamous "Unite the Right" rally on August 12 has been arrested. Police have also issued a wanted poster for Alex Michael Ramos, another … [Link]

Mashable » National Weather Service issues grim warning calling Harvey 'unprecedented,' with impacts 'unknown'

Sunday 27 August 17:37:39 UTC 2017

The National Weather Service is pulling no punches when it comes to Hurricane Harvey. The federal agency is now calling the storm battering Texas and bringing historic levels of flooding to Houston "unprecedented." SEE ALSO: Hurricane Harvey: A weather geek's live blog "… All impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced," the NWS added in a dire tweet. This event is … [Link]

Mashable » Apple is accepting donations through iTunes to aid Harvey storm relief

Sunday 27 August 17:34:11 UTC 2017

As Tropical Storm Harvey causes catastrophic floods and torrential downpours across the Houston area, Apple is stepping up to aid storm relief. The tech company has teamed with American Red Cross to create an iTunes online store link where users can donate in increments of $5, $10, $25, $50, $100, or $200. 100 percent of the contributions will be given to … [Link]

Slashdot » SLAC Experiment Proves It Rains Diamonds On Uranus and Neptune

Sunday 27 August 17:34:00 UTC 2017

The Washington Post reports: On Uranus and Neptune, scientists forecast rain storms of solid diamonds. The gems form in the hydrocarbon-rich oceans of slush that swath the gas giants' sold cores. Scientists have long speculated that the extreme pressures in this region might split those molecules into atoms of hydrogen and carbon, the latter of which then crystallize to form … [Link]

Slashdot » A New Non-Money Oriented Crowdsourcing Platform Based On Code Contributions

Sunday 27 August 16:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader shares a new crowdfunding site built on open source principles to "remove the money element from project creation" so creators "don't have to take extreme actions such as quitting their jobs or compromising on their ideas because of investor demands. Because of the nature of crowdsourcer.io projects, project creators can remain as ambitious as funded projects and … [Link]

Mashable » Houston TV station forced to evacuate as Harvey waters flood the newsroom

Sunday 27 August 15:43:00 UTC 2017

As Hurricane Harvey continues to dump staggering amounts of rain over Houston, KHOU-TV, 11 News, one of the city's local TV news broadcasting stations, was forced to evacuate as flood waters surged in. SEE ALSO: Historic, catastrophic flooding underway in Houston from Tropical Storm Harvey The staff first evacuated to the second floor after flood water poured in during a live … [Link]

Slashdot » East Africa Leads The World In Drone Delivery

Sunday 27 August 15:34:00 UTC 2017

"While plenty of countries have dabbled in drone delivery, no program has matched the scale and impact of what's unfolding in Rwanda and now, Tanzania." An anonymous reader quotes CNN: The drones will fly themselves, far from the view of humans — a move that's not yet legal in the U.S… In early 2018, Tanzania's government will begin using drones … [Link]

Mashable » Taylor Swift's new single is already breaking records

Sunday 27 August 14:46:28 UTC 2017

Just three days into her comeback, Taylor Swift is breaking records. Spotify announced Saturday that Swift's newest single "Look What You Made Me Do" broke the streaming service's record for same-day streams with 8 million plays, reports the Associated Press. The musician also broke a YouTube record for the 19 million same-day views on the single's lyric video. SEE ALSO: Taylor … [Link]

Slashdot » AI Training Algorithms Susceptible To Backdoors, Manipulation

Sunday 27 August 14:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quote BleepingComputer: Three researchers from New York University (NYU) have published a paper this week describing a method that an attacker could use to poison deep learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. Researchers based their attack on a common practice in the AI community where research teams and companies alike outsource AI training operations using on-demand Machine-Learning-as-a-Service (MLaaS) … [Link]

Mashable » I'm a paleontologist and I won't stop finding out lame shit about dinosaurs until you can no longer enjoy 'Jurassic Park'

Sunday 27 August 14:30:00 UTC 2017

Hello. I’m the paleontologist who keeps finding out more and more lame shit about dinosaurs, and I’m here to ruin your life. You may remember me from last month, when I figured out that the tyrannosaurus rex, the vicious, real-life monster that frightened us all on the big screen in the 90’s, could not actually run. And I won’t stop finding … [Link]

Mashable » Will the most hyped 'Game of Thrones' fight ever finally go down in the season finale?

Sunday 27 August 14:19:09 UTC 2017

Sometimes Game of Thrones theories are less theory and more straight up hype. And, in one case, the hype is just too real. Cleganebowl is a prediction that has stayed with the Game of Thrones fandom since the days of yore, in 2013. Essentially, it's fueled by the dream of watching the two most feared fighters in all of Westeros, the … [Link]

Mashable » Tobe Hooper, architect of the original 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' is dead at 74

Sunday 27 August 14:09:11 UTC 2017

Acclaimed horror filmmaker Tobe Hooper, who is perhaps best-known for his genre-defining 1974 classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, has died at the age of 74. The Los Angeles County Coroner confirmed Hooper's death late on Saturday , according to Variety. The cause of death has not been revealed at present. SEE ALSO: Spooky movie posters come to life with clay In … [Link]

Mashable » 1955: Walking the streets of Belfast, shipbuilding capital of the world

Sunday 27 August 14:00:00 UTC 2017

The cargo ship Foylebank under construction at the Harland & Wolff shipyard. The ship was later renamed Patroclos.IMage: Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesIn the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland emerged as one of the shipbuilding capitals of the world.The sprawling Harland & Wolff shipyards cranked out thousands of Navy cruisers, monitors, aircraft carriers … [Link]

Slashdot » A Platoon Of Networked Self-Driving Trucks Will Be Tested in the UK

Sunday 27 August 13:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes the AP: Britain is set to conduct road trials of self-driving trucks, involving a "platoon" of vehicles controlled by a driver in the front. The Department for Transport said Friday that up to three trucks will travel in convoy, connected by Wi-Fi and with braking and acceleration controlled by the lead vehicle. Officials say the formation … [Link]

Mashable » Trump's meandering Sunday morning tweetstorm never once mentioned Houston

Sunday 27 August 13:06:13 UTC 2017

Donald Trump woke up early on Sunday morning to grim news out of Texas: a flash flood emergency had been declared in and around Houston after 2 feet of rain fell in 24 hours, with more to come. SEE ALSO: Hurricane Harvey slams storm chasers: 'One of the worst hurricanes I've ever been in' In response, he picked up his phone … [Link]

Mashable » Historic, catastrophic flooding underway in Houston from Tropical Storm Harvey

Sunday 27 August 13:00:11 UTC 2017

Weather forecasters' worst fears regarding Hurricane Harvey are being realized in Houston, the nation's 4th-largest city, as a historic deluge pounded the city overnight and into Sunday morning, with no signs of relenting. Widespread, "catastrophic" flooding is occurring, with emergency responders struggling to rescue people from rapidly flooding homes. SEE ALSO: Hurricane Harvey: A weather geek's live blog Officials report at … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Medieval London was the most violent place in England

Sunday 27 August 13:00:00 UTC 2017

A look at skulls from English cemeteries shows that young lower-class males in Medieval London enforced the rule of law with blows to the head [Link]

Mashable » 16 times people really sucked at their jobs

Sunday 27 August 13:00:00 UTC 2017

According to Paris Hilton, "If somebody ever asks you to do something, do it really bad so you never have to do it again." Advice to live by. SEE ALSO: Let these silly 'Game of Thrones' GIFs soothe your battered soul Look, we aren't all Dwight K. Schrute level obsessed with our jobs. Some of us are just trying to do … [Link]

Popular Science » Restore old print photos with free software

Sunday 27 August 12:00:00 UTC 2017

Old photos DIY Get your pictures perfect. Technology can bring scratched, torn, and faded print photographs back to life. Just grab your computer and download this free desktop software to get started. [Link]

Slashdot » Ask Slashdot: How Did You Experience The Solar Eclipse?

Sunday 27 August 11:34:00 UTC 2017

NASA claims they set a record Monday with 40 million views of their eclipse coverage (12.1 million unique) and more than 2 million simultaneous views. Now Slashdot reader xmas2003 asks: "What did /.'ers do to experience this rare incredibly cool event and how did it turn out?" SmarterEveryDay Destin gets great geek cred for watching the ISS transit the eclipsed … [Link]

Mashable » Meet the Muslim YouTuber making people laugh as he tackles extremism and Islamophobia

Sunday 27 August 8:30:00 UTC 2017

Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint api production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fvideo uploaders%2fdistribution thumb%2fimage%2f81423%2f2b2da3b9 baea 4b7c b614 d82fdb431948 Read more… {"player":{"descript~ the Muslim YouTuber making people laugh as he tackles extremism and Islamophobia","sources&qu~ More about Youtube, London, Mashable Video, Bbc, and British [Link]

Slashdot » Another Crowdfunded Startup Takes Customers' Money, Then Shuts Downs

Sunday 27 August 7:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes the Bay Area Newsgroup: A Bay Area startup that promised to give music lovers state-of-the-art wireless earphones is instead closing its doors, becoming the latest in a string of crowd-funded companies to take customers' money and shut down without shipping a product. San Francisco-based Kanoa ran out of capital and shut down this week, leaving in … [Link]

Mashable » Floyd Mayweather totally out-classed Conor McGregor, but oh what a show!

Sunday 27 August 5:08:07 UTC 2017

Floyd Mayweather Jr. will retire a perfect 50-0 — but hey, at least the newbie Conor McGregor made him work for it. McGregor's first boxing match was a heckuva show — the 29-year-old mixed martial-arts superstar acquitted himself beautifully on Saturday night in Las Vegas, hitting Mayweather far more than the infamously slippery champ is used to — but one of … [Link]

Slashdot » Streaming Glitches Delay Massively Hyped Mayweather-McGregor Boxing Match

Sunday 27 August 4:40:00 UTC 2017

"After initial indications the main event would commence at 11:15 p.m ET, it didnâ(TM)t get started until nearly one hour later," reports Variety. An anonymous reader quotes CNET: Saturday's much hyped fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC champion Conor McGregor drew fans from all walks of life, even those who'd never typically watch a standard boxing match. But when … [Link]

Slashdot » Germany Tests Facial-Recognition Surveillance On 300 Citizens

Sunday 27 August 1:36:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes DW: Earlier this year, with no shortage of publicity, Berlin police found volunteers to participate in a test of a prototype facial-recognition system at Sudkreuz station. The system seeks to match images of people on CCTV cameras with pictures of the volunteers in a test database. Volunteers also wear transponders providing information about their whereabouts. Comparing … [Link]

John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons