We’ve looked at the age-old OS upgrade conundrum from every angle. Here’s what we recommend. …read more Source:: CNet

A spacecraft bound for the planet Mercury will take a first look at the target tonight, when it makes its first-ever flyby of the small rocky world during an incredibly close encounter tonight. Space.com reports: The mission, called BepiColombo, is a joint project of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency…

The Nintendo 64 was one of the consoles that properly heralded in the era of 3D gaming. However, its controller is of a design we wouldn’t consider ideal today. For the FPS games that were so popular on the N64, a mouse and keyboard could do much better. [The Hypocaust] set out to make it…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: An oral antiviral drug appears to cut the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 by roughly 50 percent in people newly diagnosed with the infection and at risk for severe disease, pharmaceutical company Merck announced Friday morning. The drug-maker and its partner, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, released…

Finally, someone decided to answer the question that nobody was asking: what if [Benjamin Franklin] had had a drone rather than a kite? Granted, [Jay Bowles] didn’t fly his electricity-harvesting drone during a thunderstorm, but he did manage to reach some of the same conclusions that [Dr. Franklin] did about the nature of atmospheric electricity….

sciencehabit shares a report from Science.org: In late 1791 and early 1792, on the eve of the French Revolutionary Wars, Queen Marie Antoinette engaged in a secret correspondence with her confidant and rumored lover, Swedish Count Axel von Fersen. Nearly 50 letters from that exchange survive at the French National Archives. But certain passages in…

On Thursday, the California DMV issued autonomous deployment permits to Cruise and Waymo, “which is a necessary step if the robotaxis are to charge passengers for their rides,” reports The Verge. From the report: San Franciscans might have to be night owls to catch a Cruise; the DMV’s authorization gives Cruise permission to operate on…

The device, also known as a Medusa, would work with CCTV to cite offending vehicles and reduce overall noise pollution. …read more Source:: CNet

Whether it’s your first credit card or you’re simply trying to rebuild credit, these are the best cards for you. …read more Source:: ZDNet

The technology underpinning the elections will be scrutinized a year before citizens head to the polls …read more Source:: ZDNet