NASA has selected 16 cool new futuristic space technology concepts for further study. Four of them are from NASA’s own Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), including a railway system on the moon to move cargo. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/futuristic-space-technology-concepts-nasa-jpl-niac…
Tag: jason
Red Hat Introduces Free RHEL for Open-Source Organizations
ZDNet brings an update about the future of Red Hat Enterprise Linux: When Red Hat, CentOS’s Linux parent company, announced it was “shifting focus from CentOS Linux, the rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), to CentOS Stream,” CentOS users were not happy. Now, in an effort to mollify them and to keep its promise to open-source organizations, Red Hat is…
Why Does the Apple TV Still Exist?
Apple commentator Jason Snell writes: Why does this product still exist, and is there anywhere for it to go next? Gruber and Thompson [two other columnists] suggest that perhaps the way forward is to lean into an identity as a low-end gaming console. Maybe amp up the processor power, bundle a controller, and try to use Apple Arcade to emphasize that…
Can you see Canopus, the 2nd-brightest star?
Here’s how to spot Canopus, the 2nd-brightest star in the sky as seen from Earth, on February evenings. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/few-know-the-second-brightest-star-canopus…
Safari 14 Added WebExtensions Support. So Where Are the Extensions?
At WWDC last year, Apple announced it was going to support Chrome-style browser extensions (the WebExtensions API) in Safari. Months after Safari 14’s release, are developers bothering with Safari? Jason Snell: The answer seems to be largely no — at least, not yet. The Mac App Store’s Safari extensions library seems to be largely populated with the same stuff that was…
Photographer Captures ISS Passing Between Jupiter and Saturn
During the Great Conjunction event in which Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer to each other in the sky than they have for hundreds of years, photographer Jason De Freitas captured a photo showing the ISS zipping between the two planets. PetaPixel reports: While planning to photograph the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, De Freitas realized that he could also include the…
Was this mystery radio signal really from Proxima Centauri?
Astronomers with Breakthrough Listen have detected a mysterious radio signal coming from the direction of the nearest star to the sun, Proxima Centauri. But is it really an alien signal or something more terrestrial? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/wow-signal-2020-blc1-proxima-centauri…
Flash Animations Live Forever At the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is now emulating Flash animations, games and toys in our software collection. Jason Scott writes in a blog post: Utilizing an in-development Flash emulator called Ruffle, we have added Flash support to the Internet Archive’s Emularity system, letting a subset of Flash items play in the browser as if you had a Flash plugin installed. While Ruffle’s compatibility…
Apple’s M1 Is Exceeding Expectations
Reviews are starting to pour in of Apple’s MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Mini featuring the new M1 ARM-based processor — and they’re overwhelmingly positive. “As with the Air, the Pro’s performance exceeds expectations,” writes Nilay Patel via The Verge. “Apple’s next chapter offers strong performance gains, great battery and starts at $999,” says Brian Heater via TechCrunch. “When Apple…
Will Parler Spread Misinformation – or Just Segregate It Onto a Single App?
“The rising popularity of alternative social media app Parler is raising concerns over the spread of misinformation and potential for radicalizing users on a platform that’s taken a hands-off approach to regulating content,” reports The Hill’s reporter on technology policy: The app has been boosted by conservatives, surging since Election Day, as Republicans amp up allegations of anti-conservative bias from social…