When he figured out how to recycle e-waste from China into “restore discs” used to reinstall Windows software onto...

When he figured out how to recycle e-waste from China into “restore discs” used to reinstall Windows software onto crashed hard drives, Microsoft took him to court, claiming he cost the company millions of dollars in lost sales.
#Technomania
https://returntonow.net/2018/05/10/ewaste-innovator-prison/

My cynical self imagines rather a kind of post-apocalyptic Mad Max world, where our school bullies become sadistic...

My cynical self imagines rather a kind of post-apocalyptic Mad Max world, where our school bullies become sadistic local warlords. In European history, the thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire, which featured highly distributed power structures are called the dark middle ages for good reasons.

An article about why distributed social media won't fix everything wrong with some platforms. Quoting history like this might not the most sensible thing, though I've seen some Horrible History sketches that have historical folk using social media!
https://blog.kugelfish.com/2018/12/the-fallacy-of-distributed-good.html

hmmm

Searx is a free metasearch engine, available under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, with the aim of...

Searx is a free metasearch engine, available under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, with the aim of protecting the privacy of its users. To this end, Searx does not share users' IP addresses or search history with the search engines from which it gathers results. Tracking cookies served by the search engines are blocked, preventing user-profiling-based results modification.


Sick of Google? Try this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searx

Estimated time of release for Windows version is Q2 in 2019.

Estimated time of release for Windows version is Q2 in 2019.
#Windows #Scrivener
https://literatureandlatte.com/blog/scrivener-3-on-windows-for-the-soul

I grew up with multiple pets, as in one dog, several cats, ducks, and budgies!

I grew up with multiple pets, as in one dog, several cats, ducks, and budgies!
#BlindedbyScience
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-12-20/pets-allergies-asthma-dogs-cats-immune-system-microbes/10630174?smid=Page:+ABC+Science-Facebook_Organic&WT.tsrc=Facebook_Organic&sf204619777=1

And there was I thinking it'd get stolen first!

And there was I thinking it'd get stolen first!
#Technomania
https://boingboing.net/2018/12/17/popular-delivery-bot-bursts-in.html/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Trial participants will have been declared certified dead and kept alive solely through life support machines.

Trial participants will have been declared certified dead and kept alive solely through life support machines. “This represents the first trial of its kind and another step towards the eventual reversal of death in our lifetime,” said CEO of Bioquark Inc., Ira Pastor. The team, who was granted ethical permission from an Institutional Review Board at the National Institutes of Health in the US and India to begin trials on 20 subjects, is looking to recruit patients for its ReAnima Project as soon as possible.

Those "Scientists" are at it again!!!!
https://www.collective-evolution.com/2018/10/14/bioquark-resurrect-dead-stem-cells/

But doesn't he know that NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM?!!

But doesn't he know that NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM?!!
https://xkcd.com/1486/

xkcd: 2016 Conversation Guide

https://xkcd.com/1623/

Facebook on Friday revealed that a major software bug may have allowed third-party apps to wrongly access the photos...

Facebook on Friday revealed that a major software bug may have allowed third-party apps to wrongly access the photos of up to 6.8 million users, including images that people began uploading to the site but didn’t post publicly.

They're at it again!
#SecurityBreach #Facebook
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/14/facebook-says-new-bug-allowed-apps-access-private-photos-up-million-users/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fd0ac02c99ce&wpisrc=nl_tech&wpmm=1

I'm annoyed with the publishers of Scrivener.

I'm annoyed with the publishers of Scrivener. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a good program for me to use to write with.

But, they released version 3 of it for the Mac well over a year ago, with a promise of catching up with the Windows version soon. So for now I've been using a BETA version of that to work on my script, and when it starts you get a popup saying that the software will expire at a certain date.Until two days ago that was 15th December. I checked for an update and installed it and now it's next year! The publisher's page reads:

Scrivener 3 isn’t quite ready for Windows yet, but here’s the good news:
If you buy Scrivener 1 for Windows now, you’ll get a free update to version 3 when it’s available. Existing users of Scrivener 1 will be able to purchase Scrivener 3 for the discounted price of $25 when the time comes. We don’t have a specific release date yet, other than stating Scrivener 3 for Windows will be available during Q2 in 2019.

Gah, well at least I'll get that eventually!
#Scrivener

The Independent

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/india-solar-power-electricity-cancels-coal-fired-power-stations-record-low-a7751916.html

So I have found a very helpful Firefox addon to help me format text in BBCODE.

So I have found a very helpful Firefox addon to help me format text in BBCODE. "What!", you say, "why would you need that??!!" Some social media platforms, like Friendica, use BBCODE to format their text. Not just things like bold, italic and overscore such as G+, but headings, links, videos et cetera. It reminds me of my old LIVEJOURNAL days and I like that.

Anyway, EDIT (at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/edit/) adds a sidebar for extra formatting and search and replace, which should work on any plaintext text field. Select the text and press the button. And if you need more BBCODES, you can add lots of custom ones which are then accessed by selecting the Custom _ _ _ _ _ which shows a drop-up list (as per the 2nd image below). Those custom codes can also be exported and import to/from a text file.

Very nice. My Friendica posts are going to be more formatted from now on.
#Firefox #Addon #Edit

Many people are wringing their hands about Microsoft partnering with Google to gain control over the Internet.

Many people are wringing their hands about Microsoft partnering with Google to gain control over the Internet. But Microsoft abandoning the EdgeHTML browser engine is awesome news. Microsoft’s EdgeHTML was the last closed-source browser engine. Now, all the browser engines will be open-source.

I think it's been inevitable for some time. The article at https://alternativeto.net/news/2018/12/new-chromium-based-microsoft-edge-will-support-chrome-extensions-also-on-xbox-one also confirms that.
https://www.howtogeek.com/398073/how-microsoft-is-about-to-make-google-chrome-even-better/

A privacy flaw that inadvertently exposed the names, email addresses, ages and other personal information of 52.5...

A privacy flaw that inadvertently exposed the names, email addresses, ages and other personal information of 52.5 million Google Plus users last month convinced Google to close the service in April instead of August, as previously announced. Google revealed the new closure date and its latest privacy lapse in a Monday blog post .

Well, I'm pretty much settled over at MeWe and Friendica. The votes aren't in for staying with Diaspora.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/google-accelerates-plus-closure-after-another-privacy-lapse/

A 2014 New Scientist article.

A 2014 New Scientist article.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25620-history-shows-that-parched-aral-sea-can-be-restored/

You know that when folk start quoting a dictionary or encyclopedia - like folk who talk of "Quantum physics" - that...

You know that when folk start quoting a dictionary or encyclopedia - like folk who talk of "Quantum physics" - that they've been using secondary and tertiary sources, not the original. The trouble with that is a tendency to cherry-pick snippets that you like and ignore stuff you don't like.

Some of the stuff in this video will happen, but not necessarily the way it's presented.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tn4P7IBqoQ&feature=share

Under the new laws, security agencies have greater powers to get at the encrypted messages of criminal suspects — in...

Under the new laws, security agencies have greater powers to get at the encrypted messages of criminal suspects — in some cases they can demand companies build new capabilities to allow them access. Labor members called the bill flawed during debate on Thursday, but the Opposition later pulled its amendments at the last minute and voted to support the Government.
#Australia
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-12-07/encryption-bill-australian-technology-industry-fuming-mad/10589962

Dr Karl's science hour on triple j is the station’s longest running segment, loved as much today as it ever has been.

Dr Karl's science hour on triple j is the station’s longest running segment, loved as much today as it ever has been. Every Thursday, Dr Linda and Dr Karl solve the mysteries of the world, with science. Only triple j listeners could come up with questions as hairy as these.
#Podcast #Science #TripleJ
https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/dr-karl/

#Windows

#Windows
https://www.intowindows.com/how-to-use-a-video-file-as-screensaver-in-windows/

These emails reveal that in the formative years of Facebook’s growth, the company’s executives were ruthless and...

These emails reveal that in the formative years of Facebook’s growth, the company’s executives were ruthless and unsparing in their ambition to collect more data from users, extract concessions from developers and stamp out possible competitors.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/05/technology/facebook-emails-privacy-data.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

The cancer marker was identified by scientists at the University of Queensland who have also developed a simple test...

The cancer marker was identified by scientists at the University of Queensland who have also developed a simple test to detect it in blood and biopsy tissue.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2018-12-05/researchers-discover-unique-cancer-biomarker/10581914?sf203655893=1

A tank, but not as we know it.

A tank, but not as we know it.
https://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=827

Having fun adding a new 4TB drive to my NAS.

Having fun adding a new 4TB drive to my NAS.

I opening up the interior and discovered that I'd missed placed the unused bracket (I'd left Volume 2 empty). I removed Vol 4, which was throwing "Disk 4 on DS418j connected to RainbowHaven has bad sectors exceeding the limit" all the time. But it's an older 1.5TB drive meant for bog standard PCs, not a NAS. Then I inserted the new drive as Vol 2 in that bracket. And now I can't remember how to initialise it!

Oh well, it's not that it lacks documentation and online help - time to read the effing manual!
#NAS

Wings3D 2.2.1 released - new PBR render and material changes are the most relevant addition to this version as well...

Wings3D 2.2.1 released - new PBR render and material changes are the most relevant addition to this version as well as the experimental boolean functionality. Checkout the announcement for details about that.
http://www.wings3d.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2721&pid=14128

More on this.

More on this.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-30/ghost-earthquake-ripples-around-the-world/10570572

luvely

luvely
https://flashbak.com/the-control-panel-archive-the-tactile-beauty-of-buttons-meters-knobs-and-dials-406888/

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