Day: July 11, 2020

TikTok Pulls Out of Hong Kong

AmiMoJo quotes TechCrunch: TikTok announced that it would pull out of Hong Kong, which is facing an unprecedented wave of control from the Beijing government after the promulgation of the national security law. “In light of recent events, we’ve decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong,” said a TikTok spokesperson. The…


The F-16’s Replacement Won’t Have a Pilot At All

“The next combat aircraft to enter the U.S. Air Force inventory will not be a manned sixth-generation fighter or even the Northrop Grumman B-21,” reports Aviation Week. “By fiscal 2023, the Air Force expects to deliver the first operational versions of a new unmanned aircraft system (UAS) called Skyborg, a provocative portmanteau blending the medium…


Hack Together Your Own Bat Signal

Bats use echolocation to see objects in front of them. They emit an ultrasonic pulse around 20 kHz (and up to 100 kHz) and then sense the pulses as they reflect off an object and back to the bat. It’s the same type of mechanism used by ultrasonic proximity sensors for object-avoidance. Humans (except perhaps…


It’s a charger sale: Save up to 40% on a trio of ways to power your phone, laptop and more – CNET

Aukey’s car charger, wireless charging pad and 30,000-mAh power bank are packed with intriguing features. …read more Source:: CNet


Right to Repair Advocates Accuse Medical Device Manufacturers of Profiteering

A new Motherboard article interviews William, a ventilator refurbisher who’s repaired at least 70 broken ventilators that he’s bought on eBay and from other secondhand websites, then sold to U.S. hospitals and governments to help handle a spike in COVID-19 patients. He’s part of a grey-market supply chain that’s “essentially identical to one used by…


Hamilton on Disney Plus: 6 surprising things to watch for – CNET

Let me tell you what I wish I’d known, when I was young and hadn’t seen the show yet. …read more Source:: CNet


‘Guilty’ Verdict for Russian Who Stole 117M Dropbox and LinkedIn Login Codes in 2012

In 2012 “Russian hacker” Yevgeniy Nikulin breached the internal networks of LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Formspring, and then sold their user databases on the black market, reports ZDNet. (He stole 117 million login codes, according to Bloomberg.) Nikulin was arrested in 2016 (while on vacation in the Czech Republic), and after an extradition battle spent years…


AI Site Claims Simulated Conversations With Famous Dead Scientists

Slashdot reader shirappu writes: AI|Writer is an experiment in which artificial intelligence is used to simulate both real and fictitious famous personalities through written correspondence. Users can ask questions and receive explanations from simulated versions of Isaac Newton, Alfred Hitchcock, Marie Curie, Mary Shelley, and many more. The Next Web calls it “a new experiment…


Aerodynamics for Dummies

We don’t know if aerodynamics is really a subject for dummies, per se, but if you are interested in flying or building drones and model aircraft, [Jenny Ma’s] new video that you can see below will help you get an easy introduction to some key concepts. (Embedded below.) The show starts with coverage of lift,…


Terry Pratchett’s Earliest Stories To Be Published In September

Long-time Slashdot reader sjritt00 writes: A final collection of Terry Pratchett’s early stories will be published in September as The Time-Travelling Caveman. These stories appeared in the Bucks Free Press and Western Daily Press in the 1960s and early ’70s and introduce many of the themes which later power his Discworld series. The Guardian reports…