When I was looking up the article, I got blocked with a message "Thanks for reading the Times, Create your free account or log in to continue reading". There was a time when clearing the cookies helped No more. After one or two articles, they seem to block the IP address. Time to start up the VPN ....

where did all the rocks go? Easy. Somebody sold them https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/2...

While Einstein made calculuations for lensing at stars, Fritz Zwicky was the first to propose that galaxies can act as lenses. That Zwicky's achievements are rarely mentioned stilll today can be explained: the fact that he called once astronomers ``spherical bastards" is still not forgiven.

I'm glad this is pointed out clearly. It should however be easy to see for everybody: no audit of the software can check the integrity of the system if the database of hashed content can not be audited (at first it will be kids abuse pictures which are hashed and planted on iphones but who know what else). The crux is that just the nature of the database makes it impossible to audit. One not only has to trust apple, one has to trust the folks who maintain the dirty databases. And who wants to look at that? It is a system invented by the devil. I was a die hard apple fan until August 5th. Two days ago, I switched the phone to android and iwatch to a wear watch. Desktops and laptops will follow. The company has lost it.

I was a die hard apple fan until August 5th. I yesterday transitioned from my iphone 12 to a Samsung galaxy S21 utlra 5, (google pixels were also on the short list but not available). The Syncios manager was a good tool to get things away from apple, like music, documents etc. At the moment my itunes library is unorganized in linux. Strangly enough, a simple grep to search for a specific song is more effective than an itunes search. All I so far needed transitioned over nicely. still, I'm still upset. This great company has lost its way.

that's what my grandmother always said when seeing something crazy. In Swiss German "Es git nuuet was es nit git" = "there is nothing which does not exist". Selling variations of shaded rock cartoons confirms the statement.

Already the idea of having a hashed data base of kiddy porn pictures planted on my device is horrifying. This system can not be auditable because nobody obviously evern wants to see the real pictures. That apple is deceiving us with such "think of the children" rhetorics is obvious also from a technical point of view. It would be trivial to have an effective server side scan by submitting an additional hash of each picture which is encrypted with a secure one-way function. Also the illegal database is hashed and subjected to that same one-way function. Now one can see on the server whether the files match. There is no need to do any client side scanning. It is not only disgusting to have a hashed database of child abuse on my device, it is also horrifying to sign away a basic right from the constitution for "people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches". Searching everybody is definitely "unreasonable".

why linking to an article which does not even link to the actual place It s here: https://artsexperiments.withgo... Nic to have cool interactive Boor representiatons of the electron configurations.

the last time I counted I have more than dozen apple devices here at home only including phones, tablets, laptops, imacs. If apple really does do law enforcement on our devices, this will be then end. I have already several linux boxes. It would be a bit of pain to move everything over to linux and android but not impossible. The biggest change would be to change from final cut to da vinci resolve which runs on linux. Doing law enforcement without court order on private devices is a drastic step and would be a reason for me to completely get rid of all apple stuff. it would break my heart as I learned programming on a good old Apple II.

Mathematics is hard. who says otherwise has not proven a new theorem or tried to understand a substantial proof. It is not called a 'hard science' for nothing. Of course there are parts of mathematics which are easy and accessible but the entire field is hard. Programming is hard. who says otherwise has not programmed something substantial. Yes, there are parts of programming which are easy (copy paste code from somebody else for example), but writing new code from scratch requires mathematical skills as well as experience. writing elegant new code is even an art. Yes, it is a language, but programming requires to understand every detail, every possible turn. Here is a way to organize levels of understanding and each subsequent one is substantially harder than the previous one: a) being able to read it. b) being able to write about it c) being able to work with it d) being able to question or extend it e) being able to teach it f) being able to program it. I'm a mathematician who does lots of programming, mostly doing experiments. It happens almost daily that I believe to understand something, I program it and it does not work and finally, after some time, when things are working on the computer, I also start to understand where my misconceptions were. The statement "programming is easy" is pure propaganda.

this is a system which I have been going through in Switzerland and which seems to work pretty well. For me the first selection process came in middle school only. Mathematical skills and especially the ability to think abstractly develops at different times for different kids. In a system which is competitive early on, we can just destroy a lot of potential talent, students who learn slower but more deeply, students who develop other talents like social skills, arts, sports or play or students who have dreams and ideas and use time to reflect. A student who might early on not make it into the selection for an advanced course will be discouraged early on and think not being talented and become one of the many who hate science and math. I would not be surprised, if this change will produce in a decade or two a huge increase in top scientists who are well rounded human beings and can solve problems which involve lots of different talents: good communicative and social skills, artistic and visualization abilities and have reslience, not falling into a depression the first time something does not work. Education is complicated but it could well be that this change benefits society, the economy, lead to a higher overall education level as well as also excellence on the top.

I had been running MachTen unix kernel on my apple laptop until OS X came out. MachTen worked actually quite well and provided a stable unix based platform on an apple running like an app, it ran even on an old 5300 powerbook and had X window systems. Its funny but the website of MachTen is still up http://www.tenon.com/products/... even so I doubt anybody still uses this. The website seems have updated last time in 2013.

the pictures are fantastic but one can really only appreciate them well if seen in large resolution. The news sites usually put them down too small. Why not link to the original pages of NASA like https://mars.nasa.gov/resource... rather than some BBC or CNN cite? Also the news sites should do that and always add source links.

in general, it would be a good idea if one asks the lawmakers proposing backdoor implementation measures to let them installon their own devices first as a proof that things are harmless, then see the reaction when within days or maybe hours their private conversations, browsing habits, medical records, financial data are blasted all over the internet.

I'm looking forward for fingerprint authentication again. Face recognition is a total disaster, for example with low light or then with mask on. Wireless charging only could work but we definitely need more reliable wireless charging technology. I'm in my third one (although cheap ones) and all started to fail after a while. I also like to have the phone on a neck and attached to the power in order not having to worry about an empty battery.