Comment opengapps.ORG (Score 1) 167
I was curious. Opened the
Comment IIRC boosters for NASA jobs have extra monitoring (Score 1) 50
IIRC NASA monitors the construction of launchers used on their missions. So, technically the same as SpaceX's other Falcon 9 boosters, but different (and thus vested) because NASA has spent money to audit or whatever the construction of this specific one.
Comment +1 for Mint from me too. It's great as a VM's. (Score 1) 269
I run Windows on my laptop. Shocking around here, I know.
But there are some tasks that work out better on Linux. Ubuntu is brutal in VirtualBox, or at least it was, when I first went down the Mint path. I think I was following a tutorial for Ubuntu, so I ended up trying Mint.
I still have that VM around and fire it up a few times a year for whatever. Also works pretty well on an ancient laptop I keep around.
Comment Re:"catering to surging populism" (Score 1) 240
They also allegedly dragged tricked a bank with US operations (HSBC related) into violating the Iran embargo by financing the sales into Iran. Apparently that's classed as fraud.
Comment The answer is usually recycled passwords... (Score 1) 46
Everyone should try https://haveibeenpwned.com/ (no affiliation). It's scary how your old password that you used on some random website a decade ago has been leaked. Hopefully most "big" sites have moved to individually salted passwords so future password leaks will be less common or severe...
Comment Technically they're hashed (at least w/Google...) (Score 1) 35
I'm not sure if it was Facebook or Google or both, you don't technically match on email address. They technically match on hashes of email addresses to protect your "privacy". Look out for that doublespeak when it comes to advertisers online...
Comment Not simple "camera" chips. Full SoCs. (Score 2) 49
I bought a web security cam for $15 on sale over the holidays. I can't figure out how they can retail for so cheap. It has a HiSilicon "camera" SoC. From what I saw with a quick web search, this SoC does everything in the device. Basic image capture stuff, handles whatever API the vendor app to connect to it needs, full recording to the SD card, etc. Apparently if I felt like jerry-rigging a cable, I could telnet (or SSH?) and get a (busybox?) shell. I'm sure there's enough processing in it to handle all kinds of stuff..
Comment Google Docs (Score 1) 53
I was a light user of Evernote for years - IIRC, it's what I moved to after leaving my old Palm Pilot. I only used maybe a dozen plain text files. Eventually I started using Google Docs for larger documents that were shared and all that, and it just made sense to consolidate away from Evernote. Plus, I think they tried to start charging?
Comment Re:Not for long (Score 1) 121
Not sure how foreign TD is for Americans - they have more branches in the US than Canada now! Not sure how metrics other than branch counts compare...
Why Bigger Planes Mean Cramped Quarters (popsci.com) 234
An anonymous reader shares a report: The ironic thing about the compressed state of air travel today is that planes are getting larger. The jet I was on, an Airbus A321, stretches nearly 23 feet longer than its predecessor, the A320. More space, more passengers, more profit. These bigger planes are increasingly the most common Âvariants -- both on American Airlines and across all carriers. The current Boeing 737s, the world's most flown craft, are all longer than the original by up to 45 feet. And yet, on the inside, we're getting squeezed.
That's because more space doesn't equal more space in Airline World. It equals more seats -- and typically less room per person. In 2017, for example, word leaked that American was planning to add six economy spots to its A320s, nine to its A321s, and 12 (that's two rows) to its Boeing 737-800s. JetBlue is reportedly ramming 12 extras into its A320s, and Delta's will gain 10. And, come 2020, you'll likely find more seats on every United plane. In Airline World, they call this densification, which is a silly word. Passengers call it arrrgh!
Consumer Reports recently polled 55,000 of its members about air travel. There were complaints about all aspects, from ticketing to agents checking carry-ons at the gate. But 30 percent of coach-class fliers rated their seats as outright uncomfortable, and every airline received extremely low scores on legroom and cushiness in economy. Clearly, things are dismal and seem to be getting even worse. They're so bad, in fact, that last year, nonprofit consumer-advocacy group FlyersRights.org filed a suit against the Federal Aviation Administration, after lobbying the agency to stop the squeeze and standardize seat sizes.
That's because more space doesn't equal more space in Airline World. It equals more seats -- and typically less room per person. In 2017, for example, word leaked that American was planning to add six economy spots to its A320s, nine to its A321s, and 12 (that's two rows) to its Boeing 737-800s. JetBlue is reportedly ramming 12 extras into its A320s, and Delta's will gain 10. And, come 2020, you'll likely find more seats on every United plane. In Airline World, they call this densification, which is a silly word. Passengers call it arrrgh!
Consumer Reports recently polled 55,000 of its members about air travel. There were complaints about all aspects, from ticketing to agents checking carry-ons at the gate. But 30 percent of coach-class fliers rated their seats as outright uncomfortable, and every airline received extremely low scores on legroom and cushiness in economy. Clearly, things are dismal and seem to be getting even worse. They're so bad, in fact, that last year, nonprofit consumer-advocacy group FlyersRights.org filed a suit against the Federal Aviation Administration, after lobbying the agency to stop the squeeze and standardize seat sizes.
Comment Re:Elitst (Score 1) 217
The electric moving platforms eliminates car exhaust, and therefore, greatly reduces the ventilation requirements of the tunnels. Which, helps allow them to be smaller in diameter. And it all feeds into a cheaper tunnel. Or so goes the theory.
Comment Re:Motive (Score 2) 242
My thought: Even if the ORIGINAL buyer doesn't upgrade, having the bigger battery would be useful for resale. In fact, if it was a lease from Tesla, they could unlock the full capacity for "free" and resell the car at the higher capacity.
Comment I'm not convinced their WINDOWS client even works. (Score 1) 424
I gave up on Dropbox after multiple times it would lock a new newly downloaded file from Chrome and I'd lose the file. Chrome (at least at the time) would download files to a temporary name, and then rename. Silly hair trigger Dropbox would lock the temp file before Chrome could rename it and then I'd end up with a zero byte file.
Additionally, Dropbox would have this incessant inability to properly detect changed files - I still have a multitude of "conflicted" files in my folders. I had ONE computer connected to this Dropbox account. There were no other updates to conflict.
Don't even get me started on the stupid plugin thing they shoved into Office and I couldn't permanently turn off.
They've been at this for 10 years? I don't get it.
Comment Internal hosts? (Score 1) 301
Hmmm. I haven't looked at this... but it sounds like it'll break any host names I've set up locally (for development) and not published to global DNS...
Amazon Employee Explains the Poor Working Conditions of An Amazon Warehouse 318
Earlier this week, James Bloodworth, a former UK Amazon employee that worked undercover in the "fulfillment center" for six-months, released a book detailing the mistreatment of warehouse employees at the commerce company. He described the work culture as a prison after discovering that Amazon warehouse staff were peeing in bottles to avoid taking too many breaks. Since the report first broke, many Amazon employees have come out to share their thoughts on the working conditions, including one Reddit user who claims that "the post is pretty spot on": They don't monitor bathroom breaks, but [your] individual rate (or production goal) [doesn't] account for bathroom breaks, or... let's say there is a problem like you need [two] of something and there's only one left, well you have to put on your "andon"... wait for someone to come "fix" for you, all the while your rate is dropping. The [two] most common reasons [people] get fired are not hitting rate, and attendance. They don't really try to help you hit rate, they just fire and replace.
My first week there [two] [people] collapsed from dehydration. It's so [commonplace] to see someone collapse that nobody is even shocked anymore. You'll just hear a manager complain that he has to do some report now, while a couple of new [people] try to help the guy (veterans won't risk helping [because] it drips rate). No sitting allowed, and there's nowhere to sit anywhere except the break rooms. Before the robots (they call them kivas) pickers would regularly walk 10-15 miles a day, now it's just stand for 10-12 hours a day. [People] complain about the heat all the time but we just get told 80 degrees (Fahrenheit obviously) is a safe working temp. [Sometimes] they will pull out a thermometer, but even when it hits 85 they just say it's fine. There's been deaths, at least one in my building... Amazon likes to keep it all hush hush. Heard about others, you can find the stories if you search for it, but Amazon does a good job burying it... Amazon has denied the allegations, saying: "Amazon ensures all of its associates have easy access to toilet facilities which are just a short walk from where they are working. Amazon provides a safe and positive workplace for thousands of people across the UK with competitive pay and benefits from day one. We have not been provided with confirmation that the people who completed the survey worked at Amazon and we don't recognize these allegations as an accurate portrayal of activities in our buildings."
My first week there [two] [people] collapsed from dehydration. It's so [commonplace] to see someone collapse that nobody is even shocked anymore. You'll just hear a manager complain that he has to do some report now, while a couple of new [people] try to help the guy (veterans won't risk helping [because] it drips rate). No sitting allowed, and there's nowhere to sit anywhere except the break rooms. Before the robots (they call them kivas) pickers would regularly walk 10-15 miles a day, now it's just stand for 10-12 hours a day. [People] complain about the heat all the time but we just get told 80 degrees (Fahrenheit obviously) is a safe working temp. [Sometimes] they will pull out a thermometer, but even when it hits 85 they just say it's fine. There's been deaths, at least one in my building... Amazon likes to keep it all hush hush. Heard about others, you can find the stories if you search for it, but Amazon does a good job burying it... Amazon has denied the allegations, saying: "Amazon ensures all of its associates have easy access to toilet facilities which are just a short walk from where they are working. Amazon provides a safe and positive workplace for thousands of people across the UK with competitive pay and benefits from day one. We have not been provided with confirmation that the people who completed the survey worked at Amazon and we don't recognize these allegations as an accurate portrayal of activities in our buildings."
