“The terms ‘allowlist’ and ‘blocklist’ describe their purpose, while the other words use metaphors to describe their purpose,” reads a change description on the source code for Android — from over a year ago. 9to5Mac calls it “a shortened version of Google’s (internal-only) explanation” for terminology changes which are now becoming more widespread. And Thursday…

Save on a health or ancestry DNA test, or sign up for a discounted subscription to online Ancestry records. …read more Source:: CNet

Although online voting in elections has been a contentious topic for decades already, it is during the current pandemic that it has seen significant more attention. Along with mail-based voting, it can be a crucial tool in keeping the world’s democratic nations running smoothly. This is where the OmniBallot software, produced by Democracy Live, comes…

You can also pick up the 75-inch size for $1,800. The sale ends Sunday. …read more Source:: CNet

Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: Vintage computing enthusiasts have recreated NASA’s legendary “Apollo Guidance Computer,” the 1960s-era assembly-language onboard guidance and navigation computer for the Apollo missions to the moon. Unfortunately, the software had been lost for the Apollo 10 mission (a manned “dress rehearsal” mission which flew to the moon eight weeks before Neil…

After seven years, Lego has finally unveiled a new Mindstorms kit, reports PC Magazine — the Lego Mindstorms Robot Inventor, available this fall for $359: The Robot Inventor kit lets kids (or adults) build five different robot models out of 949 pieces, ranging from a four-legged walker to a bipedal wheeled robot that can give…

Bjarne Stroustrup, the 69-year-old Danish creator of C++, just released a 168-page paper (published under a Creative Commons Attributions-NoDerivatives license) in the Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, detailing the growth of C++ from its 21st birthday in 2006 up through the year 2020. It begins by noting that by 2006, C++ “contained parts…

Most folks that have been poking around at multi-tool 3D printing know that lining up nozzles can be a gnarly, but necessary pain point. Existing methods either have us measure offsets with a vernier scale or with a series of pictures taken with an upwards-facing camera. And this step is not to be ignored! Any…

“Scientists in Japan successfully triggered a hibernation-like state in mice by activating a specific group of brain cells,” reports UPI, which points out that entering a hibernation-like state “could help astronauts conserve food and water, as well as avoid the ill-effects of microgravity, on long journeys through space.” The research, published this week in the…

We compare the specs and features of iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max to help you choose the best Apple phone. …read more Source:: CNet