What a tease. The cloud is "close to Earth", "40 moons in width".

Oh, it's 300 light-years away.

Judging by the headline - "...Unmployment" - DOGE must have convinced someone that letters cost money and we need to slash how many vowels we use.

"...along with slower wager growth"

I thought online gambling was booming...

(sorry - couldn't resist)

"...inhalable particular matter has fallen..."

Which particular matter are we talking about? Possibly the particulate matter that is particular to some cities?

"...it came equipped with rover-penetrating radar..."

Couldn't they just peek around the rover?

Lens manufacturers have been offering firmware updates for some years now. And it seems that, like with other devices, the firmware update sometimes goes sideways. Example;

https://petapixel.com/2024/02/...

Setting aside L4S for just a moment, couldn't it also be just that Comcast has higher-than-average latency overall? So anything would improve it? Could they have gotten a 30%(?) improvement by tweaking other parameters in their routers?

Is this an isolated group within Facebook who read a couple articles about how Linux enables some negative things, therefore Linux=Bad?

Suddenly I wish Linux had a 30% desktop market share and someone in that group suddenly realized they had Linux on their desk...

Reading recreationally is a choice and reflects (in some small part) education and emotional/intellectual development. Did you grow up eager to learn new things?

I wonder what the level of recreational reading is (relative to the general population) with the slashdot community... We tend to be educated and intellectually 'busy'.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I always have a stack of books waiting for me to read. I even installed a wall-light to make reading in bed easier.

I've use Let's Encrypt certs for years and never donated. [shame]

But the article reminded me of my 'civic duty' and I've now donated.

Thanks

Does anyone remember Bernie Krause - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... - who gave us (among other things) Gorillas in the Mix?

He sampled lots of animal sounds (late 1980's), then used those samples as the basis of various (electronic) musical instruments. An elephant was the bass and even the tiny sound of a crayfish snapping its claw was used as the sound of a drum stick lightly tapping a cymbal.

Seemed pretty cool at the time...

Looking up words in a dictionary, looking up syntax in a style guide, are fine for translating grocery lists and simple news stories.

But once you hit more nuanced work (novels, poetry, etc.), translation can be a real art. I watch a fair bit of German-language television, though I'm a native-English speaker. And it's always interesting to hear what is said, then look at the subtitles. You get a feel for how a language is evolving.

Translation involves making choices about both the literal and implied meanings of words, grammar, syntax. It can even require a knowledge of the social, economic and cultural environment that the work was written in.

I have trouble believing that AI can interpret nuanced meanings. Humans need years of experience to convey meaning accurately.

All of us here have seen good, bad and mediocre software and hardware development over the last 40+ years. We've even gotten used to seemingly-endless bugs as evidence of ever-progressing functions. Identify, correct, come out with the next rev.

But when I think of the mindset that developed spacecraft for NASA in the 60s & 70s, they never had that luxury. It (mostly) had to be right the first time. Very limited chance to correct it later. Roadside service calls not an option.

So when I hear about a device on Voyager that has been off for 40+ years and is suddenly needed, and it still works, I'm like OMFG. Engineers toiled over that to make sure it was rock solid. It was personal to them. It was dedication, intellectual rigor and pride.

It's rather uplifting.

Why not just bring back to ability to power up a Mac from the keyboard. Macs could do that for years, until they dropped the ADB ports.

No place more convenient than the place you're putting your fingers anyway...

--If you need to talk...get a real friend in meatspace or shy of that, find a shrink to talk to....--

And there is the core of it. Online presence has taken the place of real human contact. We are experiencing the downside of this 'convenience'.