Celebrate the 91st anniversary of Pluto’s discovery

The I Heart Pluto Festival 2021 is a free event running from February 13 – 18 hosted by Lowell Observatory. Join in with nightly virtual events! Source: https://earthsky.org/space/i-heart-pluto-festival-2021-virtual-events-91st-anniversary…

Less air pollution during Covid-19 restrictions, says study

NASA researchers have found that since February, pandemic restrictions have reduced global nitrogen dioxide concentrations by nearly 20%. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/how-much-covid19-related-pollution-levels-deviated-from-norm-2020…

Greg Kroah-Hartman: ‘Don’t Make Users Mad’

From a recent report:
Greg Kroah-Hartman, the Linux Foundation fellow currently responsible for stable Linux kernel releases, shared the lessons he’s learned as a kernel developer that are applicable to other developers at this year’s Linux App Summit. He started by showing how he could succinctly distill the essence of the talk into a single four-word slide: “Don’t make your users mad….”…

Is Bitcoin’s Growth Driven By Speculative Investors?

“Bitcoin is now trading near $18,000, up almost 100% in six months,” notes Bloomberg columnist Lionel Laurent, “and it’s flirting with an all-time high reached in 2017 (which, given it was followed by an ugly crash, faithful Bitcoiners would rather forget)…” . But what exacty does that mean? He challenges the notion that Bitcoin is the new wealth-protecting investment like gold,…

Why Smartphone Cameras Struggle To Capture San Francisco’s Orange Sky

The apocalyptic orange sky in San Francisco Wednesday was the talk of the town — and well beyond. However, many people found their efforts to capture the surreal images stymied, as their iPhones “corrected” the smoke-filled sky to a more natural hue. Axios reports: Smartphone cameras do a great job in many situations thanks to software that automatically tries to improve…

‘Linusgate’: Debian Project Leaders Want To Ban Linus Torvalds For His Manners

Artem S. Tashkinov writes: 253 emails have been leaked from private (high-level) mailing lists of Debian, in which its representatives vocally complain about the talk Linus Torvalds gave at the most recent DebConf conference. Some people insist that he should be permanently banned from future conferences because the language he uses is inappropriate and infringes on the project’s Code of Conduct….

Can Tesla Build Cheaper Electric Cars With Advanced (and Cobalt-Free) Batteries?

“One of the main reasons we’re not all driving electric vehicles is the price,” argues a transportation writer in Forbes — explaining how Tesla hopes to finally change that: The company is placing a huge bet on rechargeable battery technology that doesn’t use cobalt. This is one of the main elements making lithium ion batteries so expensive. It’s also fraught with…

Bryan Lunduke Explains Why Linux Sucks in 2020

Roblimo once called it “a tradition, not just a speech” — Bryan Lunduke’s annual “Linux Sucks” presentations at various Linux conferences. But before you get too upset, in his 2014 interview with Slashdot Lunduke admitted “I love Linux, I have made my whole life around Linux. I work for Linux companies. I write for Linux magazines, but it really blows…” This…