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 » Microsoft Engineer Sends Rust Linux Kernel Patches For In-Place Module Initialization

Sunday 31 March 22:40:46 UTC 2024

"What a time we live in," writes Phoronix, "where Microsoft not only continues contributing significantly to the Linux kernel but doing so to further flesh out the design of the Linux kernel's Rust programming language support…" Microsoft engineer Wedson Almeida Filho has sent out the latest patches working on Allocation APIs for the Rust Linux kernel code and also in … [Link]

Slashdot » Reddit's Shares Plummet Almost 25% in Two Days, Dropping Below Its First Day's Close

Sunday 31 March 22:12:00 UTC 2024

Last Monday shares of Reddit's stock soared 30%, reports CNBC — and then another 8.8% on Tuesday. But the moves happened "even after New Street Research issued a neutral rating on the company" — and by the end of the week, CNBC was reporting that "Reddit shares are plummeting…" Shares closed at $49.32, ending the week below their closing price … [Link]

Slashdot » After Losing Billions, Disney+ Tries Integrating Hulu Into Its App

Sunday 31 March 20:49:00 UTC 2024

"Subscribers of both Disney+ and Hulu can now access Hulu content through the Disney+ app," reports the Los Angeles Times, "as the Burbank media and entertainment giant launched its one-app integration of the two streaming services Wednesday…" The move is part of Disney's plan to increase viewer engagement and reduce churn on Disney+, which has 111.3 million subscribers globally. Disney … [Link]

Slashdot » America's FDA Forced to Settle 'Groundless' Lawsuit Over Its Ivermectin Warnings

Sunday 31 March 19:55:00 UTC 2024

As a department of America's federal Health agency, the Food and Drug Administration is responsible for public health rules, including prescription medicines. And the FDA "has not changed its position that currently available clinical trial data do not demonstrate that ivermectin is effective against COVID-19," they confirmed to CNN this week. "The agency has not authorized or approved ivermectin for … [Link]

Slashdot » Meta Used Spyware to Access Its Users' Activities on Rival Platforms

Sunday 31 March 18:40:00 UTC 2024

New documents from a class action against Meta "reveal some of the specific ways it tackled rivals in recent years," reports the Observer. "One of them was using software made by a mobile data analytics company called Onavo in 2016 to access user activities on Snapchat, and eventually Amazon and YouTube, too." Facebook acquired Onavo in 2013 and shut it … [Link]

Slashdot » 'Dune 2' Beaten by 'Godzilla x Kong'

Sunday 31 March 17:40:00 UTC 2024

Godzilla x Kong "stomped all over expectations," writes Deadline, "with an $80M opening, the second best start of the year so far, $2.5M behind the $82.5M opening of Legendary's other big pic this spring, Dune: Part Two… "EntTelligence reports that GxK is expected to pull in more than 5.5M admissions this weekend, the most attended opening weekend for any movie … [Link]

Slashdot » Chrome Is Working On Tab Declutter On Android

Sunday 31 March 16:40:00 UTC 2024

"Google is testing the ability to automatically archive and delete inactive tabs in Chrome on Android," writes Windows Report: The experimental feature, called Tab Declutter, aims to simplify tab management by automating the process… After a set period of inactivity, Chrome will automatically archive inactive tabs. You will no longer see the archived tabs but you will be able to … [Link]

Slashdot » AT&T Says Data From 73 Million Customers Has Leaked Onto the Dark Web

Sunday 31 March 14:40:00 UTC 2024

Personal data from 73 million AT&T customers has leaked onto the dark web, reports CNN — both current and former customers. AT&T has launched an investigation into the source of the data leak… In a news release Saturday morning, the telecommunications giant said the data was "released on the dark web approximately two weeks ago," and contains information such as … [Link]

Slashdot » Will EVs Kill the Stick Shift Car?

Sunday 31 March 11:34:00 UTC 2024

A CNN opinion piece looks at "the moaning about manual transmission's demise," noting that "it's not just Europeans (literally) clinging on. In the U.S., there's apparently a young (also predominantly male) demographic that is embracing manual driving — championing it as retro, much like Gen Z's affinity to typewriters and vintage cameras. "They feel there's something authentic about it: a … [Link]

Slashdot » WSJ: 'America Made a Huge Bet On Sports Gambling. The Backlash Is Here'

Sunday 31 March 7:34:00 UTC 2024

In 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the outlawing of sports betting in America. But the Wall Street Journal reports that since then all the major professional sports bodies "now realize just how much they have to lose as the new era unfolds." "All it takes is for a reasonable fan to go, 'Am I just watching theater, or is … [Link]

Slashdot » Do Age Verification Laws Drag Us Back to the Dark Ages of the Internet?

Sunday 31 March 3:34:00 UTC 2024

404 Media claims to have identified "the fundamental flaw with the age verification bills and laws" that have already passed in eight state legislatures (with two more taking effect in July): "the delusional, unfounded belief that putting hurdles between people and pornography is going to actually prevent them from viewing porn." They argue that age verification laws "drag us back … [Link]

Slashdot » In Development Since 2019, NetBSD 10.0 Finally Released

Sunday 31 March 1:34:00 UTC 2024

"After being in development since 2019, the huge NetBSD 10.0 is out today as a wonderful Easter surprise," reports Phoronix: NetBSD 10 provides WireGuard support, support for many newer Arm platforms including for Apple Silicon and newer Raspberry Pi boards, a new Intel Ethernet drive, support for Realtek 2.5GbE network adapters, SMP performance improvements, automatic swap encryption, and an enormous … [Link]

John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons