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Submission + - No Iowa Caucuses Results after Buttigieg campaign tweets out login PINs (twitter.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Overnight, the Buttigieg campaign tweeted out images of "Caucus Math Worksheet" forms from Iowa precincts that they won. Unfortunately, these worksheets have login PINs printed on them (Example: https://twitter.com/bhalle87/s... login PIN is printed on top right of the form.) Now the Associated Press is reporting that the Democrats have no caucus due to "Technology problems and reporting 'inconsistencies'". (https://apnews.com/65327a2b9acbc9c903ef7f906bfce1f4)

Submission + - Graphics Programmer Demos Incredibly Advanced Voxel Destruction Physics (youtube.com)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: Physics and graphics programmer, game developer Dennis Gustafsson has begun showing a Voxel based game ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?... ) that features incredibly advanced destruction physics — everything and anything is destructible in a very physically realistic way, dynamic smoke and fire interacts naturally with destroyed environments — as well as raytracing that doesn't need an RTX GPU, and does 60 FPS on a midrange Nvidia 1070 GPU. The game engine looks like Minecraft with much smaller cubes or voxels, but the engine tech, particularly the physics, is far more advanced than Minecraft's. Gustafsson has a Twitter feed ( https://twitter.com/tuxedolabs ) where he posts demo videos and explains where he is trying to take his Voxel based technology. The game doesn't have a name yet, but some people think that it may very well become the next Minecraft. A lot of comments on the new engine state that "it does pretty much what we hoped the new Battlefield games would be able to do in terms of destruction".

Submission + - Boeing says that the critical disagree alert was disabled on the 727 MAX 1

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: In a statement Boeing has said that although the disagree alert (which sounds when the plane's sensors disagree with each other, indicating a fault) is a standard feature on the 737 MAX aircraft, it was disabled when the airline opted not to buy the optional angle of attack indicator upgrade.

Meanwhile Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg stuck to his positions on the safety of the 737 MAX airplane today during a contentious annual shareholder meeting and news conference in Chicago.

Submission + - Why are gamers 'uncomfortable' talking about race?

Submitted by Andy Smith
Andy Smith writes: I recently got a random scoop about some racially provocative graphics hidden within one of the biggest games of the past year, Far Cry 5. Publisher Ubisoft was horrified, blamed it on a bug, and promised to issue a patch. But in covering the story I took a journey that began with Reddit, and took in most of the British gaming press, to reveal a worrying trend: Why are gamers 'uncomfortable' talking about race?

Submission + - New "Metallic Wood" Is as Strong as Titanium But Much Lighter (nature.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Titanium has long been touted as the metal of the future, due to its strength, rust resistance, and amazing lightness. Now researchers have discovered a way to create a new "metallic wood" material that is as strong as titanium, but five times lighter. It was created by building tiny plastic spheres, suspending them in water, allowing the water to evaporate, and then electroplating the spheres with nickel. Researchers then dissolved the plastic spheres, producing an incredibly strong, porous metal that floats on water.

Submission + - New Commercial Amiga 500 game released

Submitted by Mike Bouma
Mike Bouma writes: Pixelglass known for their "Giana Sisters SE" game has released a worthy new game for the Amiga 500, called "Worthy". In this cute action puzzler you "Assume the role of a fearless boy and collect the required number of diamonds in each stage in order to win the girl's heart! Travel from maze to maze, kill the baddies, avoid the traps, collect beers (your necessary "fuel" to keep you going), find the diamonds, prove to her you're WORTHY!!" Time to dust off that classic Amiga or alternatively download a digital copy and use an UAE emulator for your platform of choice! Have a look at the release trailer.

Submission + - SPAM: Learning to Program is Getting Harder

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: While Google suggests that parents and educators are to blame for why kids can't code, Allen Downey argues that learning to program is getting harder. Downey writes: "The fundamental problem is that the barrier between using a computer and programming a computer is getting higher. When I got a Commodore 64 (in 1982, I think) this barrier was non-existent. When you turned on the computer, it loaded and ran a software development environment (SDE). In order to do anything, you had to type at least one line of code, even if all it did was another program (like Archon). Since then, three changes have made it incrementally harder for users to become programmers: 1) Computer retailers stopped installing development environments by default. As a result, anyone learning to program has to start by installing an SDE — and that's a bigger barrier than you might expect. Many users have never installed anything, don't know how to, or might not be allowed to. Installing software is easier now than it used to be, but it is still error prone and can be frustrating. If someone just wants to learn to program, they shouldn't have to learn system administration first. 2) User interfaces shifted from command-line interfaces (CLIs) to graphical user interfaces (GUIs). GUIs are generally easier to use, but they hide information from users about what's really happening. When users really don't need to know, hiding information can be a good thing. The problem is that GUIs hide a lot of information programmers need to know. So when a user decides to become a programmer, they are suddenly confronted with all the information that's been hidden from them. If someone just wants to learn to program, they shouldn't have to learn operating system concepts first. 3) Cloud computing has taken information hiding to a whole new level. People using web applications often have only a vague idea of where their data is stored and what applications they can use to access it. Many users, especially on mobile devices, don't distinguish between operating systems, applications, web browsers, and web applications. When they upload and download data, they are often confused about where is it coming from and where it is going. When they install something, they are often confused about what is being installed where. For someone who grew up with a Commodore 64, learning to program was hard enough. For someone growing up with a cloud-connected mobile device, it is much harder." So, with the Feds budgeting $200 million a year for K-12 CS at the behest of U.S. tech leaders, can't the tech giants at least put a BASIC on every phone/tablet/laptop for kids?

Submission + - "Island Time" is real: even Atomic Clocks move slower

Submitted by bbsguru
bbsguru writes: Those beach vacations seem to slow time itself? While the theory has been around for years, there has now been a real-world demonstration of the effect of altitude on time. The Los Angeles Times has an article about the first successful use of an optical lattice atomic clock outside of a laboratory. Researchers at at Germany's National Metrology Institute were able to "break the optical lattice clock into pieces that would fit in a temperature-stabilized, vibration-dampened car trailer big enough to hold two horses."

Submission + - HP Enterprise let Russia scrutinize cyberdefense system used by Pentagon (reuters.com)

Submitted by quonset
quonset writes: A Russian defense agency was allowed to review the cyberdefense software used by the Pentagon to protect its computer networks. This according to Russian regulatory records and interviews with people with direct knowledge of the issue.

From the story:

The HPE system, called ArcSight, serves as a cybersecurity nerve center for much of the U.S. military, alerting analysts when it detects that computer systems may have come under attack. ArcSight is also widely used in the private sector.

Six former U.S. intelligence officials, as well as former ArcSight employees and independent security experts, said the source code review could help Moscow discover weaknesses in the software, potentially helping attackers to blind the U.S. military to a cyber attack.

“It’s a huge security vulnerability,“ said Greg Martin, a former security architect for ArcSight. ”You are definitely giving inner access and potential exploits to an adversary.”

Submission + - Ex-Valve writer reveals what might have been Half-Life 2: Episode 3's story

Submitted by stikves
stikves writes: From:

http://www.eurogamer.net/artic...

Ex-Valve writer Marc Laidlaw, who worked on Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and its episodic expansions, has published a summary of the series' next chapter on his blog. Titled, 'Epistle 3', it details Gordon Freeman's next adventure.

Except, likely for copyright issues, the whole story has been genderswapped. So Laidlaw's tale speaks of Gertrude Fremont, Alex instead of Alyx, Elly instead of Eli, and so on

Naturally, Laidlaw's blog is currently down due to traffic, although you can read a backup of the page on Archive.org https://web.archive.org/web/20..., or on Pastebin https://pastebin.com/q9DMFa7c , where the names have been corrected.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Good Quality Good Price NON-SMART TV sets (slashdot.org) 3

Submitted by williamyf
williamyf writes: I have always been of the Idea that my TV shall be non-smart, and leaving the Smarts to connected equipment (in my case my Synology NAS running Plex and a Combination of Chromecasts and Laptops do the trick). I think that most of my Slashdot breathen are of a similar persuation.

But, over the years finding decent NON-SMART TVs is becoming harder and harder, unless your are prepared to pay much higher prices for industrial/signage equipment, or are prepared to deal with slighly inferior specs and quality, or get an old (possibly second hand) set, or are prepared to do long hard internet searches for that needle in the haystack (all slashdot readers can google, but here at least we can hear first hands experiences from technicaly minded people, and not fakish reviews)...

In view of the recent story about Samsung TVs being bricked by a firmware update, I ask the slashdot crowd to amass our colective knowledge and see:

What TV makers make Decent NON-SMART TV sets? Which are these sets?

Requirements:
NON-smart, no apps on the TV, no app on the Smartphone, no nothing, the dumber the better.
OTA Tunner optional.
1080p50/60 or higher (1333x768 was barely adequate in 2008, but KRAP in 2017). (p120 optional)
16:9 or 21:9.
From 35 inches (for the master bedroom) to 70 inches (for the middle class living room in an apartment complex).
Real remote (not app in a phone) with at least volume up/down, input change and Sleep function, plus all needed to configure the set.
Lots of HDMI 2.0 (or higher) ports
A decent assortment of legacy ports (including Component, composite, S-Video).
HDR Capable
Good build Quality
Good Price (Idealy slightly lower than similar SmartTVs, since we are forgoig the hardware needed for the smart part, as well as the ongoing support cost for firmware updates).
Good image quality.
Decent warranties.
Reputable manufacturers.
Reputable sellers.

Submission + - Linux finally starting to see the problem with certain init systems? (lkml.org)

Submitted by jawtheshark
jawtheshark writes: In a latest Linux Kernel Mailing List post, Linux Torvalds, finishes his mail with a little poke towards a certain init system. It is a very faint criticism, compared to his usual style. While Linus has no direct influence on the "choices" of distro maintainers, his opinion is usually valued.

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