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.

Slashdot » Can Science Make Alcohol Safer?

Saturday 28 October 23:19:00 UTC 2017

Long-time Slashdot reader Zorro was the first to spot this story. Scientific American reports: Could there be a "liver-friendly" vodka? One company claims its proprietary blend of additives reduces stress on the body… The researchers concluded that consuming the alcohol with the additives — glycyrrhizin, derived from licorice; D-mannitol, a sugar alcohol; and potassium sorbate, a preservative — may support … [Link]

Slashdot » India, China, and Japan Are All Planning Moon Missions

Saturday 28 October 22:04:00 UTC 2017

schwit1 shares an article from UPI: India will make its second mission to the moon in 2018, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced this week. The Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft consists of an orbiter, lander and rover configuration "to perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface," the ISRO said… Several other countries, including China and Japan, are planning … [Link]

Mashable » Listen to Linkin Park's new song 'Looking for an Answer'

Saturday 28 October 21:48:44 UTC 2017

On Friday, Linkin Park played a star-studded show at the Hollywood Bowl, the band's first since Chester Bennington's death in July. At the concert, they debuted "Looking for an Answer," a ballad written by band member Mike Shinoda shortly after Bennington's death. Shinoda performed the song solo, accompanied only by piano. It's sparse, lovely, and poignant — a must-listen for … [Link]

Mashable » Elon Musk posted a Boring photo on Instagram

Saturday 28 October 21:44:12 UTC 2017

And just like that, there's a tunnel under Los Angeles, compliments of The Boring Company. Elon Musk's tunneling company launched in January, seemingly born out of his frustration with LA traffic. In that time, he's managed to secure permission to build a 1.6 mile tunnel below the California city, and then actually do the thing. SEE ALSO: Elon Musk unveils his … [Link]

Mashable » 450-pound seal sunbathes on airport runway in Alaska

Saturday 28 October 21:17:19 UTC 2017

Hey … seals like to sunbathe, too. A 450-pound bearded seal was removed from a runway at Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport in Utqiagvik, Alaska on Monday after it caught some rays for a little too long. By human standards, anyway — not necessarily by seal standards. SEE ALSO: Hundreds of seals take over Massachusetts beach to plot world domination The … [Link]

Mashable » The racists marching in Tennessee don't matter, but the people standing against them do

Saturday 28 October 21:15:24 UTC 2017

Oh. Look. The racists are marching again. That was the plan, anyway. A small army (very small) of ignorant, irrationally angry humans had planned to march under the meaningless banner of "White Lives Matter" in two Tennessee cities on Saturday. And while some did indeed show up, they were vastly outnumbered. SEE ALSO: A handful of racists snuck back to Charlottesville … [Link]

Mashable » Become an underwater handyman with these awesome power tools

Saturday 28 October 21:15:00 UTC 2017

Nemo Power Tools are the first battery-operated, cordless power tools to work underwater. They work so well that the manufacturer claims they can be an alternate for hydraulic and pneumatic tools. Read more…More about Tech, Technology, Mashable Video, Electric, and Tools [Link]

Slashdot » Open Source Data Sets? Linux Foundation Introduces 'Community Data License Agreements'

Saturday 28 October 20:59:00 UTC 2017

"In open source philosophy, you share source code. Why not share data?" writes Slashdot reader princelobga. Linux Insider reports on the Linux Foundation's new Community Data License Agreement, "a new framework for sharing large sets of data required for research, collaborative learning and other purposes." CDLAs will allow both individuals and groups to share data sets in the same way … [Link]

Mashable » 'F*ck depression': Linkin Park tribute concert celebrates Chester Bennington's life

Saturday 28 October 20:29:56 UTC 2017

“I don't have the words and I don't think any of us do," Linkin Park's pianist and vocalist Mike Shinoda told the sold out crowd at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday night. He didn't need them. The band, joined by a laundry list of famous friends, orchestrated a truly beautiful and cathartic tribute concert that was much more powerful than words. … [Link]

Slashdot » After 12 Years, Mozilla Kills 'Firebug' Dev Tool

Saturday 28 October 19:54:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes InfoWorld: The Firebug web development tool, an open source add-on to the Firefox browser, is being discontinued after 12 years, replaced by Firefox Developer Tools. Firebug will be dropped with next month's release of Firefox Quantum (version 57). The Firebug tool lets developers inspect, edit, and debug code in the Firefox browser as well as monitor … [Link]

Mashable » Kim Kardashian's Cher Halloween costume received the ultimate stamp of approval

Saturday 28 October 19:11:01 UTC 2017

Kim Kardashian West showed up to George Clooney and Randy Gerber's Casamigos Halloween party on Friday dressed as Cher. And on Saturday, she received the ultimate costume endorsement: approval from Cher herself. The reality star's ensemble was a recreation of Cher's look from the 1973 Oscars, during which she presented the award for Best Original Song alongside then-husband Sonny Bono. SEE … [Link]

Mashable » Carmelo Anthony posted a photo of the Oklahoma City Thunder's damaged charter plane

Saturday 28 October 19:00:20 UTC 2017

This looks worse than it really was. But damn it looks bad, right? Members of the Oklahoma City Thunder were greeted by a surprising sight when their charter plane landed in Chicago in the early hours of Saturday morning: a giant, ugly dent in the plane's nose. SEE ALSO: NAACP issues travel advisory for American Airlines Carmelo Anthony shared a look … [Link]

Slashdot » Google To Remove Public Key Pinning (PKP) Support In Chrome

Saturday 28 October 18:49:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: Late yesterday afternoon, Google announced plans to deprecate and eventually remove PKP support from the Chromium open-source browser, which indirectly means from Chrome… According to Google engineer Chris Palmer, low adoption and technical difficulties are among the reasons why Google plans to remove the feature from Chrome. "We would like to do this in Chrome 67, … [Link]

Slashdot » MakerBot Launches New 'MakerBot Labs' Platform

Saturday 28 October 17:44:00 UTC 2017

"MakerBot just announced a new Open Source initiative called 'MakerBot Labs'," writes Slashdot reader szczys. "It is a small move, centering around some new APIs and a new extruder which is listed as experimental and not covered by their normal warranty. Largely they missed the mark on making a meaningful move toward openness, but with a new CEO at the … [Link]

Mashable » Woody Harrelson resorted to smoking a joint halfway through dinner with Trump

Saturday 28 October 17:41:00 UTC 2017

Dinner with Donald Trump sounds like a true and complete nightmare, right? Well, Woody Harrelson can confirm. For him, the experience was so obnoxious that he excused himself midway through to smoke a joint. Harrelson, who has since given up smoking weed, detailed the experience to his insufferable friend Bill Maher on Friday night's Real Time. SEE ALSO: White House social … [Link]

Mashable » Why one major 'Stranger Things' star was missing at the Season 2 premiere this week

Saturday 28 October 17:11:25 UTC 2017

One Stranger Things star was notably absent from Thursday's Season 2 premiere in Los Angeles. British actor Charlie Heaton, who plays creepy photo stalker man Jonathan Byers in the Netflix series, was barred entry to the U.S. last Saturday. SEE ALSO: Netflix is making a 'Stranger Things' after-show to feed the obsession The reason? A drug-sniffing dog reportedly picked up on … [Link]

Mashable » Someone figured out how to remap Active Edge on the Pixel 2

Saturday 28 October 17:00:00 UTC 2017

You probably already know you can squeeze the sides of your Pixel 2 to activate Google Assistant. It turns out that this feature, Active Edge, can be configured to activate any function you'd like. SEE ALSO: Google's Pixel 2 and 2 XL are perfect if you don't want to spend $1,000 on a new phone The process, which was pieced together … [Link]

Slashdot » Facebook Ends 'Dark Posts' — All Ads Will Be Visible To The Public

Saturday 28 October 16:39:00 UTC 2017

"Under pressure in advance of hearings on Russian election interference, Facebook is moving to increase transparency for everyone who sees and buys political advertising on its site," reports the Associated Press. Here's the official announcement from Facebook's "VP of ads" : Starting next month, people will be able to click "View Ads" on a Page and view ads a Page … [Link]

Mashable » 'The Good Place' is the ethics lesson America needs right now — and it's forking funny

Saturday 28 October 16:30:00 UTC 2017

Warning: There are spoilers below, but we'll flag them before they arrive. If you haven't been obsessively watching The Good Place, you could be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about. Maybe you've heard it's a comedy about a mixup in the afterlife, and you're expecting some sort of goofball network version of Heaven Can Wait. On … [Link]

Mashable » And now, a pleasant conversation about fall foliage

Saturday 28 October 15:55:19 UTC 2017

It’s late October, but you wouldn't know it from a walk through Central Park. As the Wall Street Journal has extensively reported, the park's famous fall foliage hasn't made much of an appearance this year, disappointing Instagrammers, photographers, and leaf enthusiasts around the city. In fact, such was the autumnal discontent that Central Park issued a suggestion: look for foliage at … [Link]

Slashdot » See a Random Slashdot Story From the Last 20 Years

Saturday 28 October 15:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: Happy aniversary, Slashdot! To commemorate your 20th year, here's a special web project I created. Every time you reload the page, it pulls up another one of the 162,000 stories Slashdot has posted over the last 20 years — each time choosing a different story at random. The original submission has one caveat. If you keep … [Link]

Mashable » Dog lovers, beware: You might be a 'dog aunt'

Saturday 28 October 15:00:00 UTC 2017

Not every dog lover can have a dog. But every dog lover can act like it. Perhaps this is you. Perhaps you are unable to adopt a canine friend, but inexplicably behave as though all the dogs in your life — your friends' dogs, your siblings' dogs, dogs you pass on the street — belong to you. SEE ALSO: Cats, ranked … [Link]

Mashable » D.I.Y. these 'Stranger Things' mini pumpkins while you're binge-watching season 2

Saturday 28 October 15:00:00 UTC 2017

On a weekend where Stranger Things Season 2 and Halloween celebrations converge, we give you permission to skip the party in favor of an all-night binge watch. But because you'll need something to do with your hands, might we recommend a Stranger Things x Halloween D.I.Y. project? Preferably one that doesn't involve carving knives, pumpkin guts, or squash larger than the … [Link]

Mashable » Cardi B got engaged onstage and fans are freaking out

Saturday 28 October 14:46:04 UTC 2017

It’s been a hell of a good year for Cardi B. In the past few months alone, the rapper has made it to #1 with "Bodak Yellow" and found her missing purple blanket. And on Friday night, she got engaged to Migos rapper Offset live onstage in Philadelphia. SEE ALSO: Taylor Swift gave Cardi B a huge bouquet of flowers after … [Link]

Slashdot » Bill Gates Is No Longer The World's Richest Person After Amazon Stock Surge

Saturday 28 October 14:34:00 UTC 2017

"Jeff Bezos has leapfrogged Bill Gates again for the title of world's richest billionaire…" announced CNN Money. An anonymous reader quotes their report. Amazon stock jumped 13.5% on Friday after the company turned in another incredible earnings report — more than a quarter-billion dollars in profit in three months. Bezos owned nearly 80 million shares in Amazon as of August, … [Link]

Mashable » Barack Obama has reportedly been called for jury duty

Saturday 28 October 14:10:18 UTC 2017

In his farewell address this January, President Obama said that the "most important office in a democracy" was that of the citizen. We wonder if he'll still be saying that after jury duty. SEE ALSO: Barack Obama's letters to a college girlfriend are finally seeing the light of day The former president has reportedly been called for jury duty in Chicago's … [Link]

Mashable » We just binge raced every episode of 'Stranger Things 2' all at once, and our brains melted

Saturday 28 October 14:04:54 UTC 2017

You know the anxiety. It's that moment you realize that the new season for a highly anticipated streaming show just dropped. And now nowhere is safe until you've watched every single episode before everyone else. Jeffrey Vega, who dressed as Chief Hopper for Netflix's midnight marathon "binge race" event for the premiere of Stranger Things 2, said he felt like, "The … [Link]

Mashable » Download this: New reading app will get you in the Halloween spirit

Saturday 28 October 14:00:00 UTC 2017

The next page turner you read may not have anything even close to pages. At least, if you're reading on Lure, a new reading app that styles its addictive stories into "chats" that readers "watch" by tapping through the chat. The app added some new spooky stories this week — just in time for Halloween. SEE ALSO: HQ is the smartphone … [Link]

Mashable » After getting locked in a convenience store cooler a man decides to stay and drink beer

Saturday 28 October 13:48:17 UTC 2017

There are worse places to get trapped than a walk-in cooler filled to the brim with bottles of beer, but very few people would stay there voluntarily. A very lucky unlucky 38-year-old man in Wisconsin decided to take advantage of the binge drinking possibilities, according to police. The man’s name was not released but police said he made a stop at … [Link]

Mac For Translators » Transcription software for free?

Saturday 28 October 13:05:00 UTC 2017

About 4 years ago I got a job where I needed to transcribe about 40 hours of interviews. I wrote most of this article then and let it to rest until now. The solution I propose is a workable solution for transcribing audio/video and can also can be used as a practical introduction to Applescript. I just tested everything in … [Link]

Slashdot » Samsung Made a Bitcoin Mining Rig Out of 40 Old Galaxy S5s

Saturday 28 October 13:00:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Samsung is starting a new "Upcycling" initiative that is designed to turn old smartphones and turn them into something brand new. Behold, for example, this bitcoin mining rig, made out of 40 old Galaxy S5 devices, which runs on a new operating system Samsung has developed for its upcycling initiative. Samsung premiered … [Link]

Mashable » Stop mopping your floors… seriously

Saturday 28 October 13:00:00 UTC 2017

Everybot is the world's first auto-mop. It aims to completely replace your current setup. The robotic mop comes with many features standard for a robot vacuum, but it also has an automatic water supply system. This allows it to wet the floors while the pressurized micro-fiber pads scrub it clean. Read more…More about Tech, Tech Innovators, Technology, Mashable Video, and Smart … [Link]

Mashable » Here's what that creepy 'Stranger Things 2' ending means for Season 3

Saturday 28 October 13:00:00 UTC 2017

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains plot details for the Season 2 finale of Stranger Things, titled "The Gate." If you're dedicated to the art of binge-watching and have already burned your way through all nine episodes of Stranger Things 2, you might have some lingering questions. After a harrowing season that saw poor, unlucky Will Byers possessed by a terrifying Upside … [Link]

Mashable » We're finally going to explain Airdrop to you, so listen up

Saturday 28 October 12:00:00 UTC 2017

You’ve definitely seen the Airdrop icon on your iPhone or iPad. You've probably heard a friend offer to Airdrop something to someone else. But do you actually know what this mysterious sharing feature is? Or are you still stuck in the olden days of texting, emailing, or even Facebook messaging your photos to your friends? SEE ALSO: What to do if … [Link]