Day: June 7, 2020

America’s Switch To Remote Learning For 50 Million Students Called ‘A Failure’

“This spring, America took an involuntary crash course in remote learning,” writes the Wall Street Journal, noting it affected 50 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade. “With the school year now winding down, the grades from students, teachers, parents and administrators is already in: It was a failure…” The problems began piling up almost…


Cool off with this 350-square-foot portable air conditioner for $300 – CNET

As temperatures start to rise, self-isolate in comfort while saving $70. …read more Source:: CNet


Bryan Lunduke Explains Why Linux Sucks in 2020

Roblimo once called it “a tradition, not just a speech” — Bryan Lunduke’s annual “Linux Sucks” presentations at various Linux conferences. But before you get too upset, in his 2014 interview with Slashdot Lunduke admitted “I love Linux, I have made my whole life around Linux. I work for Linux companies. I write for Linux…


Build this Cyberdeck in a Cave with a Box of Scraps

Desktop 3D printing has been a big enabler for the cyberdeck community, as it’s allowed individuals to create unique frames and enclosures which would have been far more difficult and time consuming to produce using traditional methods. But what if you don’t have access to a well-stocked workspace, and need to do your building with…


Could Brain Diseases Like Alzheimer’s Be Treated With Flashing Lights?

Writing for Quanta magazine, an adjunct professor of neuroscience at the University of Maryland described an intriguing study led by MIT neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai: Incredible as it may sound, the researchers improved the brains of animals with Alzheimer’s simply by using LED lights that flashed 40 times a second. Even sound played at this charmed…


Mozilla Eyes Decentralized Web-Based Videoconferencing Platform ‘Meething’

Last month Techcrunch reported that Mozilla had gone “full incubator” by holding a startup lab called Fix the Internet, followed by “a formal program dangling $75,000 investments in front of early-stage companies…” Fix the Internet had many key themes, including collaboration and decentralization (as well as user-controlled data and privacy-protecting social networks). That event “drew…


YouTube reschedules virtual graduation with Obamas, Lady Gaga – CNET

Celebration was postponed out of respect for George Floyd’s memorial service. …read more Source:: CNet


Will Schools Turn to Surveillance Tech to Prevent Covid-19 Spread?

An anonymous reader quotes Wired: When students return to school in New Albany, Ohio, in August, they’ll be carefully watched as they wander through red-brick buildings and across well-kept lawns — and not only by teachers. The school district, with five schools and 4,800 students, plans to test a system that would require each student…


Adjustable Jig Eases PCB Stencil Alignment Process

PCB stencils make application of solder paste a snap, but there’s a long, fussy way to go before the paste goes on. You’ve got to come up with some way to accurately align the stencil over the board, which more often than not involves a jury-rigged setup using tape and old PCBs, along with a…


Astronomers Have Found a New Planet Like Earth Orbiting a Star Like the Sun

Iwastheone quotes MIT’s Technology Review: Three thousand light-years from Earth sits Kepler 160, a sun-like star that’s already thought to have three planets in its system. Now researchers think they’ve found a fourth. Planet KOI-456.04, as it’s called, appears similar to Earth in size and orbit, raising new hopes we’ve found perhaps the best candidate…