Esther Schindler (Slashdot reader #16,185), shares some thoughts from long-time tech reporter Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: We’d like an easy way to judge open-source programs. It can be done. But easily? That’s another matter… Plenty of people have created systems to collect, judge, and evaluate open-source projects, including information about a project’s popularity, reliability, and activity….

Netflix and HBO could dominate Sunday, but it could be a big year for The Mandalorian and Schitt’s Creek. …read more Source:: CNet

Popular Mechanics reports: A U.S. Air Force aircraft electronically impersonated a Malaysian plane while flying over the South China Sea this week. The RC-135W Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft flew off China’s Hainan island on Tuesday, coming within 55 miles of the Chinese mainland. The caper was outed on Twitter by a think tank operated by…

Chrome, Mac or Windows, there are options here to help you with remote learning and beyond. …read more Source:: CNet

There are negative-one hacks to this project. Someone lost at their game, lost their temper, then raged at their Xbox controller with some horsepower. The result is that [Taylor Burley] gets a free controller with a non-responsive joystick out of the deal, and since he had nothing to lose, he decided to heat up the…

AT&T’s offer includes the Series 3, Series 4, Series 5, Series 6 and SE — but you also need to add a new line. …read more Source:: CNet

“The sky is clear, the breeze is strong. A perfect day to make the long sea voyage to Mythyn,” writes BBS history blogger Josh Renaud. “You prepare your galley, hire a crew of sailors, and cast off. But a few hours into your trip, the dreaded words appear: ‘Thou seest rippling waters…’” He’s describing the…

Apple’s noise-canceling earbuds are sweet, but there cheaper options if you’re not able to swing the $250 price tag. …read more Source:: CNet

“Russia has announced an intention to independently explore Venus a day after scientists said there was a gas that could be present in the planet’s clouds due to single-cell microbes,” reports Euronews: The head of Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters that they would initiate a national project as “we believe that Venus…

An anonymous reader quotes ZDNet: Microsoft has finally published a support document detailing its workaround for the August 2020 Patch Tuesday update for Windows 10 version 2004 that caused blue screens of deaths (BSODs) on newer Lenovo ThinkPads and broke Windows Hello biometric login… It’s the same as Lenovo’s earlier workaround but comes with a…