In other news today...
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for Jeffing.after Jeffing
See here for General Category thread (for now, at least) talk about Elon Musk's hostile takeover of Twitter:
https://what.thedailywtf.com/topic/28448/in-other-hostile-takeover-tweets/
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@PleegWat Oddly enough Second Life does still exist and I'm given to understand by a friend of a friend who is into that kind of thing that it is still quite full of phallic objects.
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In actually cool news:
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The article @Dragoon linked in In other news today... said:
The design could someday enable a fully decarbonized power grid
It's a heat engine. It extracts electric energy from a difference in temperature. That makes no difference to whether that temperature difference is created by exothermic reaction involving fossil fuels or other way.
Their new demonstrations show that it converts heat to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency — a performance better than that of traditional steam turbines
AFAICT efficiency of a modern two-stage steam turbine system with external coal or oil heating is approaching 60%. But really, that value depends on the temperature ratio. Without static at what temperature ratio they have 40% it does not mean anything.
And unfortunately getting temperature-referenced efficiency values for any heat engine is a problem.
The team’s design can generate electricity from a heat source of between 1,900 to 2,400 degrees Celsius
Ok, so they even have better conditions than steam turbines that use high temperature of around 1,500°C. The 40% number does not look that impressive then.
Of course the article says how this is great that it can work with the higher temperature so they can make the “thermal batteries”. Now, I am pretty sure there were already other options for those temperatures as well. Not without moving part, granted, but moving parts are not a big issue for a solar powerplant if they can provide better efficiency.
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Spin for Jeffing.
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absorb excess energy from renewable sources such as the sun
The sun is not renewable. It's very, very long-term from a human perspective, and maybe by the time that becomes a problem we'll have moved on to other stars, but when it's core eventually burns out, there's no way to renew it. If we even still exist as a species, which seems unlikely.
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@cvi said in In other news today...:
Apparently the ship took the message about fucking itself to heart.Russian flagship was promoted to the ranks of submarines. Guess the post of Ukraine has to update their newly released stamps already.Not mentioned (though it may be obvious to most) - "Moskva" is the Anglicized Russian spelling of "Moscow".
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@HardwareGeek But nothing we do will speed up or slow down that process. So we're not really actively consuming it?
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@PleegWat said in In other news today...:
nothing we do will speed up or slow down that process.
Of course. I was just ing bout calling it renewable when it's not really. Unless, I suppose, the biblical "new heaven and new earth" includes a new sun.
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@HardwareGeek said in In other news today...:
absorb excess energy from renewable sources such as the sun
The sun is not renewable. It's very, very long-term from a human perspective, and maybe by the time that becomes a problem we'll have moved on to other stars, but when it's core eventually burns out, there's no way to renew it. If we even still exist as a species, which seems unlikely.
"What I say is that a sun won't last forever. That's all I'm saying. We're safe for twenty billion years, but then what?" Lupov pointed a slightly shaky finger at the other. "And don't say we'll switch to another sun."
There was silence for a while. Adell put his glass to his lips only occasionally, and Lupov's eyes slowly closed. They rested.
Then Lupov's eyes snapped open. "You're thinking we'll switch to another sun when ours is done, aren't you?"
"I'm not thinking."
"Sure you are. You're weak on logic, that's the trouble with you. You're like the guy in the story who was caught in a sudden shower and who ran to a grove of trees and got under one. He wasn't worried, you see, because he figured when one tree got wet through, he would just get under another one."
"I get it," said Adell. "Don't shout. When the sun is done, the other stars will be gone, too."
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@Watson Asimov is my favorite author, or one of my top two or three, at the very least, and that's one of my favorite stories of his.
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@HardwareGeek said in In other news today...:
@Watson Asimov is my favorite author, or one of my top two or three, at the very least, and that's one of my favorite stories of his.
I cannot stand the degree up his ass he has his hand. Which is odd, since Harlan Ellison has his hand about that far up his own ass. Perhaps it's the degree to which they're rubbing vs scratching.
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This was linked on Discord:
TL;DR: Video conference applications still send your audio stream to the application server, even when you "mute" your audio (at least sometimes). Researchers were able to intercept the data stream, recover the audio, and use a ML algorithm to determine with 80% accuracy what the user was doing (talking, typing, cleaning, etc.) while they thought their audio was muted. If some grad students can do it, you can be sure Google/Zoom/MS/etc. are mining your "muted" audio for all it's worth. Recommendation: Double mute; use your headset mic switch, if you have one, or if not, use system mic disable.
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@HardwareGeek said in In other news today...:
This was linked on Discord:
TL;DR: Video conference applications still send your audio stream to the application server, even when you "mute" your audio (at least sometimes). Researchers were able to intercept the data stream, recover the audio, and use a ML algorithm to determine with 80% accuracy what the user was doing (talking, typing, cleaning, etc.) while they thought their audio was muted. If some grad students can do it, you can be sure Google/Zoom/MS/etc. are mining your "muted" audio for all it's worth. Recommendation: Double mute; use your headset mic switch, if you have one, or if not, use system mic disable.
I basically knew that. My MacBook not only has a physical led turn on when the camera is active, but macOS also has an indicator when the microphone is on. And I’ve noticed both Zoom and MS Teams don’t turn the mic off when I click the mic off button. Well, I assumed that they do this only show “your mic is off” toasters (“you don’t fucking say ”), and not actually send this over the wire, but also thought “but how can I really know?”. Guess that wasn’t paranoia but I wasn’t paranoid enough.
Not sure if I ranted about it here before or figured people would say “eh, it’s a feature for the toasters”.
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@topspin said in In other news today...:
I basically knew that. My MacBook not only has a physical led turn on when the camera is active, but macOS also has an indicator when the microphone is on. And I’ve noticed both Zoom and MS Teams don’t turn the mic off when I click the mic off button.
I join Teams meetings with my phone and the iOS Teams app does turn the mic off when muting. Presumably because the App Store guidelines require it to actually do so.
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@topspin said in In other news today...:
@HardwareGeek said in In other news today...:
This was linked on Discord:
TL;DR: Video conference applications still send your audio stream to the application server, even when you "mute" your audio (at least sometimes). Researchers were able to intercept the data stream, recover the audio, and use a ML algorithm to determine with 80% accuracy what the user was doing (talking, typing, cleaning, etc.) while they thought their audio was muted. If some grad students can do it, you can be sure Google/Zoom/MS/etc. are mining your "muted" audio for all it's worth. Recommendation: Double mute; use your headset mic switch, if you have one, or if not, use system mic disable.
I basically knew that. My MacBook not only has a physical led turn on when the camera is active, but macOS also has an indicator when the microphone is on. And I’ve noticed both Zoom and MS Teams don’t turn the mic off when I click the mic off button. Well, I assumed that they do this only show “your mic is off” toasters (“you don’t fucking say ”), and not actually send this over the wire, but also thought “but how can I really know?”. Guess that wasn’t paranoia but I wasn’t paranoid enough.
Not sure if I ranted about it here before or figured people would say “eh, it’s a feature for the toasters”.
Yeah, and Teams will notice sound while you're muted and tell you that you're muted in the meeting and need to unmute if you want people to hear you.
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@boomzilla said in In other news today...:
Yeah, and Teams will notice sound while you're muted and tell you that you're muted in the meeting and need to unmute if you want people to hear you.
Pretty sure I've seen that happen in Zoom also.
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@HardwareGeek And people wonder why I insist on having a physical mic switch and why I cover cameras when they're not (supposed to be) in use.
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@boomzilla said in In other news today...:
@topspin said in In other news today...:
@HardwareGeek said in In other news today...:
This was linked on Discord:
TL;DR: Video conference applications still send your audio stream to the application server, even when you "mute" your audio (at least sometimes). Researchers were able to intercept the data stream, recover the audio, and use a ML algorithm to determine with 80% accuracy what the user was doing (talking, typing, cleaning, etc.) while they thought their audio was muted. If some grad students can do it, you can be sure Google/Zoom/MS/etc. are mining your "muted" audio for all it's worth. Recommendation: Double mute; use your headset mic switch, if you have one, or if not, use system mic disable.
I basically knew that. My MacBook not only has a physical led turn on when the camera is active, but macOS also has an indicator when the microphone is on. And I’ve noticed both Zoom and MS Teams don’t turn the mic off when I click the mic off button. Well, I assumed that they do this only show “your mic is off” toasters (“you don’t fucking say ”), and not actually send this over the wire, but also thought “but how can I really know?”. Guess that wasn’t paranoia but I wasn’t paranoid enough.
Not sure if I ranted about it here before or figured people would say “eh, it’s a feature for the toasters”.
Yeah, and Teams will notice sound while you're muted and tell you that you're muted in the meeting and need to unmute if you want people to hear you.
… for which they still wouldn't need to send the stream to the server, just monitor volume locally (and no, it's not smart, it shows the notice on any louder noise like sneezing)
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@topspin said in In other news today...:
why something with system privileges runs from a world-writable directory
To not run into a catch-22 while deleting its own installation directory?
There might be a better way to accomplish the same today. But that was a valid method of un-installing at least some time ago.
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@Boner
Username checks out.
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@Boner said in In other news today...:
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@Boner is it April Fool's again? Oh wait, it's
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Nice, I want that.
While you're at it, you should unfuck google's links from search results so that they actually go to the site. There's probably a browser add-on for Firefox but .
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@GOG said in In other news today...:
@Boner said in In other news today...:
My eyes are up here.
And yet, if you stare at a woman's eyes across the restaurant, they still call you a creep.
Sometimes you just can't win.
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@Zecc said in In other news today...:
@GOG said in In other news today...:
@Boner said in In other news today...:
My eyes are up here.
And yet, if you stare at a woman's eyes across the restaurant, they still call you a creep.
Sometimes you just can't win.
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@topspin said in In other news today...:
@Boner is it April Fool's again? Oh wait, it's
Are you suggesting a mission to ship Elon and his Muskites to Uranus? :take_
mymore_of_elons__money:
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@topspin said in In other news today...:
There's probably a browser add-on for Firefox
Sure the extension is for firefox too. After all, the extension hosts are almost the same now.
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@GOG said in In other news today...:
@Boner said in In other news today...:
My eyes are up here.
I don't care about your eyes. I have eyes.
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@dcon said in In other news today...:
@Arantor said in In other news today...:
@Bulb I thought Windows finally made writing to C:\ folder itself require elevation by default? Other folders vary but I thought root folder was now special.
In Win10, I can create a directory, but I can't create a file (just checked).
Same on Windows 7.
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@TwelveBaud said in In other news today...:
This is the science we need more of! But only if I get to eat the Golden Double Stufs
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@TwelveBaud … um, because it sticks better together than to the biscuits?
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@topspin said in In other news today...:
While you're at it, you should unfuck google's links from search results so that they actually go to the site. There's probably a browser add-on for Firefox but .
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@Bulb said in In other news today...:
@TwelveBaud … um, because it sticks better together than to the biscuits?
Almost. This because Oreos are cursed disgusting sugar delivery vessels vs proper sandwich cookies, to be quite exact. The fall of Hydrox was the death knell of American aesthetics.
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@Bulb said in In other news today...:
@TwelveBaud … um, because it sticks better together than to the biscuits?
This and also, I assume, in production the filling is squirted on one of the biscuits in more fluid form, creating the stronger bond, and the second biscuit is put on top, when the filling became more dense and less sticky, creating the weaker bond.
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@PJH said in In other news today...:
@topspin said in In other news today...:
@boomzilla they fuck up your shipping (literally) and then ask you to pay for it?
The ship's name?
Ever Forward
.Yes; besides being an ironic name, it belongs to the same company that blocked the Suez for 6 days with the
Ever Given
- Evergreen Marine Corp..Looking for the ship "Ever Free"...
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@JBert said in In other news today...:
a canine's gas-passing habits
The old bitch is passing less gas nowadays. I find that concerning but not unexpected.
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@boomzilla said in In other news today...:
lower insulin and glucose levels.
Wait, lower both? That implies actually using them. Not going to read the article but usually this kind of thing isn't all that great in positively stimulating things, just interrupting them....
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@remi said in In other news today...:
@cvi said in In other news today...:
The other amusing thing happened at the end of a day. Most people had left. Colleague had waited so he could print out a pile of transparencies on the shared local printer. However, I managed to sneak in a print job just before him. Double sided and with auto-stapling. Long story short: reading a 15 page research
papertransparency on double-sided printed transparencies is kinda difficult. I was somewhat surprised that the printer managed to put a staple through that, though.Oh yeah, I had forgotten about the race between the printer and computer to feed the right paper (or transparencies, but I remember doing that when printing e.g. cover pages on coloured paper or similar) and send the print job before someone else could submit another one. Or yelling in the corridor "wait a moment before printing anything!"
Those were
goodbad days.....send it to fucking Tray 1? Duh?
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@Tsaukpaetra said in In other news today...:
Wait, lower both?
Yes. It is possible for one's glucose level to be near or above the upper limit of normal and simultaneously for the body to require above-normal levels of insulin to keep the glucose level from being even higher. Thus the desire to lower glucose without requiring the body to produce so much insulin to achieve the lower glucose.
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@MrL said in In other news today...:
@Bulb said in In other news today...:
@TwelveBaud … um, because it sticks better together than to the biscuits?
This and also, I assume, in production the filling is squirted on one of the biscuits in more fluid form, creating the stronger bond, and the second biscuit is put on top, when the filling became more dense and less sticky, creating the weaker bond.
We had similar biscuits here (except they were white biscuits with chocolate or hazelnut cream; haven't seen them for a while, but maybe because I wasn't looking) and they'd unstick in similar way.
Then the “new” edition came out, and the cream stuck better to the biscuits than together, so they were harder to unstick and the cream would split. But customers were not happy, many liked the former behaviour, so the next edition was “new, even better, original recipe” that would unstick with the cream remaining on one side again (sometime you could even crack the biscuit with the cream and carefully take the cream off and eat it separately).