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Comment Re:What is the user interface? (Score 1) 141

by ForkInMe (#65450865) Attached to: Do People Actually Want Smart Glasses Now?
I think eye tracking will be needed to make any of this work in any way that is really acceptable to the vast majority of end users - look up at a menu bar, it highlights the "tabs" you are looking at, look for a second or two and it selects that drop-down, you scroll down with your eyes and make a selection the same way. Good for answering or rejecting an incoming call, opening a book or video app, etc.. Wireless connection to a keyboard and mouse would further extend its capabilities.

Comment So Overblown (Score 2) 98

by ForkInMe (#64319193) Attached to: Tech Layoffs Highest Since Dot-Com Crash
I personally know 3 people that were laid off in the last 6 months (2 laid off, 1 contract not renewed) and they were unemployed exactly as long as they wanted to be...landing great jobs in smaller firms that had been talking to them for months. And the 1 on contract was offered a job at the company in lieu of the contract but it was going to be onsite so she turned it down to take another offer.

Submission + - Precision Agriculture Has Its Cassandra. His Name Is Kevin. (substack.com) 1

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: Farming in the United States is in the midst of a major transformation — the biggest since the arrival of mechanized agriculture more than a century ago.The transformative technology back then was the internal combustion engine, which allowed farmers to power a wide range of new machines and mechanize previously manual implements from tractors and reapers to combine harvesters.The transformative technology now? Precision agriculture, a catch-all term that describes a constellation of technologies that includes Internet- and GPS connected agricultural equipment, highly accurate remote sensors, “big data” analytics and cloud computing.

Once it is broadly adopted, precision agriculture technology promises to further reduce the need for human labor to run farms even more than the combustion engine did. (Autonomous equipment means you no longer even need drivers!) But the risks it poses to small farms and farming communities are much bigger than that. First, as the USDA notes on its website (https://www.nifa.usda.gov/grants/programs/precision-geospatial-sensor-technologies-programs/adoption-precision-agriculture): the scale and high capital costs of precision agriculture technology tend to favor large, corporate producers over smaller farms. Then there are the systemic risks to U.S. agriculture of an increasingly connected and consolidated agriculture sector, with a few major OEMs having the ability to remotely control and manage access to- and maintenance of vital equipment on millions of U.S. farms. That includes the risk of disruption due to cyber attacks on precision farming hardware, software and services — an issue that agricultural equipment makers are scrambling to address (https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulfroberts/2021/06/20/under-scrutiny-big-ag-scrambles-to-address-cyber-risk/), but reluctant to discuss.

The biggest risk, however, comes from the reams of valuable and proprietary operational data that precision agriculture equipment generates and collects about the operation of a farm — from soil quality to the application of fertilizers and other agents, to crop yields. For centuries, such information resided in farmers’ heads, or on written or (more recently) digital records that they owned and controlled exclusively, typically passing that knowledge and data down to succeeding generation of farm owners. Precision agriculture technology wrests it from the farmer’s control and shares it with equipment manufacturers and service providers — often without the explicit understanding of the farmers themselves, and almost always without monetary compensation to the farmer for the data. Over time, this massive transfer of knowledge from individual farmers or collectives to multinational corporations risks beggaring farmers by robbing them of one of their most vital assets: data, and turning them into little more than passive caretakers of automated equipment managed, controlled and accountable to distant corporate masters.

That’s a dark view of the future — and one that its hard to hear over the “rah rah rah!” of precision agriculture’s (corporate funded) boosters. But its not like nobody sees the writing on the wall, or is sounding the alarm bell. The blog Fight to Repair News (http://fighttorepair.news) recently interviewed Kevin Kenney an Alternative Fuel Systems Engineer at Grassroots Energy in Nebraska and one of the loudest voices warning about the dangers posed by precision agriculture technologies, including the wholesale theft and monetization of proprietary farmer data.

Comment Dead and Buried (Score 2) 26

by ForkInMe (#63859146) Attached to: Meta Is Killing Two Oculus Quest Games Without Explanation
Not sure about Dead and Buried 2 but I got an email from Meta saying that they were ending support for the original Dead and Buried........" We are reaching out to let you know that Dead and Buried will no longer be supported as of Friday, March 15, 2024. You can continue to hunt ghosts and other creatures in Dead and Buried on your Rift, Rift S, or Quest (via link) devices until 11:59 PM PT on that date. For every user that battled it out in the old saloon, robbed a runaway train, or lived out your wildest westest fantasies to your heart’s content, we thank you for your support! "

Submission + - Nvidia details Neural Texture Compression, claims significant improvements over (techspot.com)

Submitted by indominabledemon
indominabledemon writes: âThe new algorithm is simply called neural texture compression (NTC), and as the name suggests it uses a neural network designed specifically for material textures. To make this fast enough for practical use, Nvidia researchers built several small neural networks optimized for each material. As you can see from the image above, textures compressed with NTC preserve a lot more detail while also being significantly smaller than even these same textures compressed with BC techniques to a quarter of the original resolution.â



Pretty good if it wonâ(TM)t end up as a proprietary technology, but then also this:



âHowever, NTC does have some limitations that may limit its appeal. First, as with any lossy compression, it can introduce visual degradation at low bitrates. Researchers observed mild blurring, the removal of fine details, color banding, color shifts, and features leaking between texture channels. Furthermore, game artists won't be able to optimize textures in all the same ways they do today, for instance, by lowering the resolution of certain texture maps for less important objects or NPCs. Nvidia says all maps need to be the same size before compression, which is bound to complicate workflows. This sounds even worse when you consider that the benefits of NTC don't apply at larger camera distances. Perhaps the biggest disadvantages of NTC have to do with texture filtering. As we've seen with technologies like DLSS, there is potential for image flickering and other visual artifacts when using textures compressed through NTC. And while games can utilize anisotropic filtering to improve the appearance of textures in the distance at a minimal performance cost, the same isn't possible with Nvidia's NTC at this point.â

Submission + - The 2023 Video Game Hall Of Fame Inductees

Submitted by Dave Knott
Dave Knott writes: The four class of 2023 inductees into the Video Game Hall Of Fame have been announced.

Barbie Fashion Designer : "The 1996 hit Barbie Fashion Designer emerged at a time when many games were marketed to male players. Published by Digital Domain/Mattel Media, it proved that a computer game targeted to girls could succeed, selling more than 500,000 copies in two months. The game helped greatly expanded the market for video games and in the process opened important—and ongoing—discussions about gender and stereotypes in gaming. Barbie Fashion Designer was also innovative in bridging the gap between the digital and the physical, allowing players to design clothes for their Barbie dolls and print them on special fabric."

Computer Space : "Nutting Associate’s Computer Space appeared in 1971 and was the first commercial video game. Inspired by the early minicomputer and previous World Video Game Hall of Fame inductee—Spacewar! (1962)—the coin-operated Computer Space proved that video games could reach an audience outside of computer labs. While not a best-seller, it was a trailblazer in the video game world and inspired its creators to go on to establish Atari Inc., a video game giant in the 1970s and 1980s."

The Last of Us : "Released by Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2013, The Last of Us jumped into an oversaturated field of post-apocalyptic zombie games and quickly stood out among the rest with its in-depth storytelling, intimate exploration of humanity, thrilling game jumps and cutscenes, and its memorable characters. More than 200 publications named it the game of the year in 2013. Its story has since made the jump to Hollywood, inspiring an HBO adaptation in 2023 watched weekly by millions."

Wii Sports : "Wii Sports launched with the Nintendo Wii home video game system in 2006 and introduced motion-based technology to living rooms across the world. With a simple swipe of the controller, players could serve a tennis ball, hurl a bowling bowl, throw a left hook, or drive a golf ball. The simple mechanics made the game accessible to almost anyone—allowing it to be played by young children and seniors alike—and helped to redefine the idea of who is a “gamer.” Ultimately, the game helped Nintendo to sell more than 100 million Wii consoles worldwide."

Comment I see the problem... (Score 0) 99

by ForkInMe (#63363721) Attached to: Teens Are Stealing More Cars. They Learn How on Social Media.
only 175 arrests but over 11,000 stolen cars - also, kids are dumb and I'd bet they get caught at a higher rate than a career criminal so 85-90 kids arrested out of 11,000 stolen vehicles does not a story make. I have no real point hear except that you can make numbers say whatever you want with enough effort and obfuscation.

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