180798386
submission
93 Escort Wagon writes:
The Washington Post (via the Seattle Times) reports on an interesting twist in the "Havana Syndrome" saga:
"Working in strict secrecy, a government scientist in Norway built a machine capable of emitting powerful pulses of microwave energy and, in an effort to prove such devices are harmless to humans, in 2024 tested it on himself. He suffered neurological symptoms similar to those of “Havana syndrome,” the unexplained malady that has struck hundreds of U.S. spies and diplomats around the world.
The bizarre story, described by four people familiar with the events, is the latest wrinkle in the decade-long quest to find the causes of Havana syndrome, whose sufferers experience long-lasting effects including cognitive challenges, dizziness and nausea. The U.S. government calls the events Anomalous Health Incidents (AHIs)."
"The Trump administration took office promising to pursue the AHI issue aggressively. But there has been little apparent movement. A review ordered by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is expected to focus mostly on the Biden administration’s handling of the issue, and its release has been delayed, people familiar with the issue said."
I suspect Gabbard's report has been delayed because they can't come up with a "blame Biden" narrative.
178095197
submission
93 Escort Wagon writes:
More proof that Amazon's leadership views the balance of power between itself and its workforce tilting decisively in its favor: Amazon's employees are being told they must relocate to one of the company's large hubs — with the company specifying the required location — or resign with no severance. CEO Andy Jassy did have the grace to give people 30 days to decide, rather than state "you have 20 seconds to comply".
174735836
submission
93 Escort Wagon writes:
I've been somewhat okay about backing up our home data. We've got a couple separate disks available for as local backup storage, and my own data also gets occasionally copied to encrypted storage at BackBlaze. My daughter has her own "cloud" backups, which seem to be a manual push every once in a while of random files / folders she thinks are important. Including our media library, between my stuff, my daughter's, and my wife's... we're probably talking in the neighborhood of 10 TB for everything at present.
The whole setup is obviously cobbled together, and the process is very manual. Plus it's annoying since I'm handling Mac, Linux, and Windows backups completely differently (and sub-optimally). Also, unsurprisingly, the amount of data we possess does seem to be increasing with time.
I've been considering biting the bullet and buying a NAS, and redesigning the entire process (both local and remote). I'm familiar with Synology and DSM from work, and the DS1522+ looks appealing. I've also come across a lot of recommendations for QNAP's devices, though. I'm comfortable tackling this on my own, but I'd like to throw this out to the Slashdot community — what NAS do you like for home use (and what disks did you put in it)? What have your experiences been?
Thanks!
171314878
submission
93 Escort Wagon writes:
Age discrimination is something many tech workers think about — especially once they get into their 40s and 50s. But imagine what it would be like if every job in every field shunned you at an even earlier age. In China, you apparently don't have to imagine...
"When Sean Liang turned 30, he started thinking of the Curse of 35 — the widespread belief in China that white-collar workers like him confront unavoidable job insecurity after they hit that age. In the eyes of employers, the Curse goes, they’re more expensive than new graduates and not as willing to work overtime.
Liang, now 38, is a technology support professional turned personal trainer. He has been unemployed for much of the past three years, partly because of the pandemic and China’s sagging economy. But he believes the main reason is his age. He’s too old for many employers, including the Chinese government, which caps the hiring age for most civil servant positions at 35. If the Curse of 35 is a legend, it’s one supported by some facts."
134921085
submission
93 Escort Wagon writes:
In a recent interview, President Donald Trump stated he is going to "start looking at" a pardon of Edward Snowden. Such an action would represent a complete turnaround for the President, who had previously stated that Snowden should be executed.
94259811
submission
93 Escort Wagon writes:
The personal cellphone belonging to Trump's Chief of Staff may have been compromised, Reuters reports in a story originating from Politico. This may have happened as early as last December. The issue was discovered when Kelly submitted the phone to the White House's tech support crew during the summer, complaining that the phone would not update correctly.
88082209
submission
93 Escort Wagon writes:
San Francisco bicyclists can breathe a sigh of relief, now that Uber has suspended testing of its autonomous fleet in the city. The company announced the decision after the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended the registration of the vehicles involved in the testing.
Uber remains "100 percent committed to California and will be redoubling our efforts to develop workable statewide rules."
81199021
submission
93 Escort Wagon writes:
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to launch a 130-foot autonomous ship this year. The Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel "will be the largest unmanned surface vehicle ever built at 130-feet long. It will be christened in April in Portland, Oregon, and then begin to demonstrate its long-range capabilities over 18 months in cooperation with the Office of Naval Research and the Space and Naval Systems Warfare Command."
My regards to Captain Dunsel.
