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Comment Re:Companies have a lifespan, just like people (Score 2) 62

This is Peak Stupidity.

For a toilet manufacturer, yeah, pretty much.

TFA shows the camera clips onto the rim of your existing toilet, below the seat; it's not a toilet with a built-in camera - not yet anyway. In any case; seems super dumb. Also, it has a fingerprint reader at the toilet-rim level - yuk. Sure the reader is on the outside, but sill below the seat at rim level.

Comment Learning vs. just getting ahead. (Score 2) 159

... teachers who reported students producing passable assignments without understanding the material. A British survey found that 92% of university students now use AI and roughly 20% have used it to write all or part of an assignment.

I saw an extended report on ABC something like 20 years ago about students cheating in HS and college. Those interviewed said they didn't really care about learning the material. They just wanted to get good grades so they could get a good job and make lots of money so they could have a good life. Students using AI now seems like an extension or next step along those lines. Perhaps many just don't think it worth the time/effort to actually learn things when they can just look them up on the web - obviously ignoring the issue of how that information, if correct, got there. Maybe that's actually good enough for those that need to use information, but not create/discover anything new, but that thinking could slowly lead to knowledge stagnation over the long haul - for the individual and society.

Submission + - China tests world's first megawatt-level airship to capture high winds (interestingengineering.com)

fahrbot-bot writes: Interesting Engineering reports (also here) that China has successfully completed the first flight of its home-designed floating [in the air] wind turbine, the S1500, in Hami, Xinjiang.

The S1500 is a megawatt-scale commercial system that floats in the sky like a giant Zeppelin. Measuring approximately 197 feet long (60 meters), 131 feet wide (40 meters), and 131 feet tall (40 meters), it is by far the largest airborne wind-power generator ever built, according to Beijing SAWES Energy Technology Co., Ltd., one of the developers.

Unlike traditional turbines, the S1500 does not need a tower or deep foundation. This reduces material use by 40 percent and cuts electricity costs by 30 percent. The entire unit can be moved within hours, making it suitable for deserts, islands, and mining sites.

The S1500 features a main airfoil and an annular wing that together form a giant duct. Inside this duct are 12 turbine-generator sets, each rated at 100 kW. These rotors capture steady high-altitude winds and convert them into electricity. The power is transmitted to the ground via a tether cable.

High-altitude winds between 1,640 and 3,281 feet (500 and 10,000 meters) above the ground are stronger and steadier than surface winds. These winds are abundant, widely available, and carbon-free.

The physics of wind power makes this resource extremely valuable. “When wind speed doubles, the energy it carries increases eightfold, triple the speed, and you have 27 times the energy,” explained Gong Zeqi, a researcher from AIR.

This exponential growth shows why high-altitude turbines like the S1500 can generate much more power than conventional land-based systems.

SAWES also envisions the platform for rapid disaster response. The system can be deployed quickly after earthquakes or floods to supply electricity to lights, radios, and life-saving equipment.

“The airborne platform can be launched quickly after an earthquake or flood to keep lights, radios and life-saving equipment running,” said Weng Hanke, chief technology officer of SAWES.

Comment Re:Linux is cool now (Score 2) 116

I like minimalist PixeL (default with PiOS), but having Gnome being default on so many distributions is insane and holding Linux adoption back. I was recently re-exposed to Gnome when I installed Debian 13 with all defaults. I was really shocked how bad it was (Gnome, not Debian). WTF.

I recently stood up a VM with openSUSE Tumbleweed and GNOME, to check out if I liked the rolling release, and (again) didn't like GNOME compared to Cinnamon or even Mate. I used Ubuntu Mate until v18 then Canonical went completely Snap happy, so I switched to Mint Mate, then Cinnamon. Will be sticking with this for a while on the bare metal. I also tried a VM with Mint LMDE and it was okay, but I liked regular Mint better.

Comment Re:Linux is cool now (Score 4, Informative) 116

However, Linux desktop UI have been going off the deep end for years. I recently loaded Gnome and it won't even let me have desktop icons. Deeply, disturbingly anti-user mindset.

Try Mate or Cinnamon, based on GNOME 2 and 3 respectively, preferably on Mint. I'm using Mint 22.2 (Cinnamon).

Comment Practically, still have a month ... (Score 4, Interesting) 116

I noticed that the Edge (not that I use it) and Virus Definition updates are still happening on my Windows 10 system, as well as updated for third-party software, so since the major Windows updates happen/ed on "Patch Tuesday" there's still a month until the next one on Nov 11 and Windows gets completely left behind, from a practical point anyway.

I've had my (more capable) Linux Mint 22.2 (Cinnamon) system up for a *while*, but am (still) being lazy about moving all my files over to it. I've sync'ed my Firefox and Thunderbird configs and files, and converted all my MS Office and (older) Lotus 123/WordPro files to LibreOffice, and renamed a bunch of files to remove embedded white-space and make them more Linux / command-line friendly. Just need to bite the bullet and start copying things over ...

Am still not completely happy about the Linux alternatives to AxCrypt (ignoring the 34MB Linux command-line version); I'm considering "ccrypt" and/or "7z" for various things as they seem relatively simple and portable (even to Windows, ccyprt via Cygwin). Looked into and enabled native VIM encryption, but don't really want to be tied to it. For ccrypt there's a Emacs module that supports it and I've found/created Nemo actions/scripts for en/decrypting from the GUI.

Comment Wikipedia editors take the rules seriously. (Score 2) 79

at a Wikipedia conference ... two volunteer editors tackled an armed man who stormed the stage and threatened to kill himself

You're not allow to edit your own page.

On Wikipedia, you're not allowed to edit articles about yourself ...

(Happy everyone is okay and hope he gets some help.)

Comment Nope, you blew it (Score 2) 50

while it still includes two controllers featuring dials and number pads instead of joysticks, they're both wireless and charge when docked to the console.

Wireless, no matter how good, still has delays or blips which interrupt the signal. You need the consistent signal of a wired connection.

I know people will give me reasons why I'm wrong, but this is no different than having touchscreens for basic operations in a car. You need the analog touch for simplicity and reliability.

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