lidel's stream of shared things

Mechanical Watch

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 17:25:15 +0200

In the world of modern portable devices, it may be hard to believe that merely a few decades ago the most convenient way to keep track of time was a mechanical watch. Unlike their quartz and smart siblings, mechanical watches can run without using any batteries or other electronic components.

Over the course of this article I’ll explain the workings of the mechanism seen in the demonstration below. You can drag the device around to change your viewing angle, and you can use the slider to peek at what’s going on inside

Would you click? - A story by The Citizen Lab

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 14:24:21 +0200

Would you click? - A story by The Citizen Lab:

This is the story of one of Europe’s largest-known cases of state-run phone hacking. A plot with three ingredients: A sophisticated mercenary spyware sold to governments around the world. Over 65 people targeted and infected. A big threat to fundamental rights and democracy.

The World’s Worst Oil Related Disaster You’ve Never...

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 22:28:00 +0200

The World’s Worst Oil Related Disaster You’ve Never Heard Of

Steven Donziger was the lawyer who represented indigenous Ecuadorans in a landmark case that won them a massive judgement against Chevron Texaco in 2011 and found Chevron responsible for decades-long oil pollution in the Amazon.

However, with billions of dollars at their disposal and a refusal to accept responsibility, Chevron has worked to have Donziger disbarred, his bank accounts frozen, a lien put on his apartment, exorbitant fines charged to him, and have him be prohibited from earning money. As of August 6, 2019, based on criminal contempt charges, a court has seized his passport and put him on house arrest.

As part of VICE’s Climate Uprise initiative and the “I Was There When…” Series, we sit down with Donziger in his home to hear his story and witness the price he’s had to pay for trying to hold a corporation accountable.

The greatest music collection in the world vanished in 2016

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 16:08:38 +0200

The greatest music collection in the world vanished in 2016:

RIP What.cd, one of humanity’s greatest cultural achievements.

Paretotopian goal alignment | Eric Drexler | EA Global: London...

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 14:22:45 +0200

Paretotopian goal alignment | Eric Drexler | EA Global: London 2018

What if humanity suddenly had a thousand times as many resources at our disposal? It might make fighting over them seem like a silly idea, since cooperating would be a safer way to be reliably better off. In this talk from EA Global 2018: London, Eric Drexler argues that when emerging technologies make our productive capacity skyrocket, we should be able to make the world much better for everyone.

Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars ...

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 14:58:44 +0100

Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission captured thrilling footage of its rover landing in Mars’ Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. The real footage in this video was captured by several cameras that are part of the rover’s entry, descent, and landing suite. The views include a camera looking down from the spacecraft’s descent stage (a kind of rocket-powered jet pack that helps fly the rover to its landing site), a camera on the rover looking up at the descent stage, a camera on the top of the aeroshell (a capsule protecting the rover) looking up at that parachute, and a camera on the bottom of the rover looking down at the Martian surface.

The audio embedded in the video comes from the mission control call-outs during entry, descent, and landing.

For more information about Perseverance, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/perseverance

Jeffrey Sachs on the End of American Supremacy

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 21:15:39 +0100

Jeffrey Sachs on the End of American Supremacy:

The Columbia economics professor discussed his radical new vision for U.S. foreign policy. Instead of a world where America reigns as the sole superpower, Sachs outlined his plan for a new international system of equals, where America shares power and collaborates with former geopolitical rivals to solve today’s global crises.

Alan Kay's answer to Should web browsers have stuck to being document viewers?

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 15:20:13 +0100

Alan Kay's answer to Should web browsers have stuck to being document viewers?

George Hotz: Fully Self-Driving Cars Are a ‘Scam’...

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 00:29:44 +0100

George Hotz: Fully Self-Driving Cars Are a ‘Scam’ and Silicon Valley 'Needs To Die’

When I first spoke with Hotz in the summer of 2017, he predicted that by 2020, cars would take their own wheels for large stretches without humans paying attention and that by 2022 they would achieve full self-driving ability in limited areas.

“None of that’s true,” he says now. “Profitable robo-taxis are still a decade away.”

Hotz thinks the automated vehicle industry has surrendered to what he views as the vices of modern Silicon Valley, focusing on growth and hype rather than delivering truly innovative products. To find out why he’s soured on the space and to take the Comma 2 for a test drive, I caught up with Hotz at the Airbnb Comma.ai rented off the Las Vegas Strip during CES, the largest consumer electronics show in the world.

Penalties For Illegal Streaming Shoehorned Into Covid Relief Bill

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 16:41:18 +0100

Penalties For Illegal Streaming Shoehorned Into Covid Relief Bill:

The US Congress has passed a 5,000-page long Covid-19 stimulus bill that, rather incongruously, includes measures against for-profit, illegal streaming services.

China-Based Executive at U.S. Telecommunications Company Charged with Disrupting Zoom Video Meetings Commemorating Tiananmen Square Massacre

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 21:27:32 +0100

China-Based Executive at U.S. Telecommunications Company Charged with Disrupting Zoom Video Meetings Commemorating Tiananmen Square Massacre:

A complaint and arrest warrant were unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Xinjiang Jin, also known as “Julien Jin,” with conspiracy to commit interstate harassment and unlawful conspiracy to transfer a means of identification. Jin, an employee of a U.S.-based telecommunications company (Company-1 [Zoom]) who was based in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), allegedly participated in a scheme to disrupt a series of meetings in May and June 2020 held to commemorate the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in the PRC.

The meetings were conducted using a videoconferencing program provided by Company-1, and were organized and hosted by U.S-based individuals, including individuals residing in the Eastern District of New York. Jin is not in U.S. custody.

WTF Happened In 1971?

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 20:15:55 +0100

WTF Happened In 1971?

Apple watching & logging EVERY APP YOU OPEN with new OS,...

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 17:10:28 +0100

Apple watching & logging EVERY APP YOU OPEN with new OS, bypass firewalls and VPNs

It gets even worse. Additional reading:

NVIDIA Maxine, cloud-native video streaming AI SDK [..]...

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 15:24:10 +0200

NVIDIA Maxine, cloud-native video streaming AI SDK

[..] slash bandwidth use while make it possible to re-animate faces, correct gaze and animate characters for immersive and engaging meetings. Learn more: https://nvda.ws/3l9foIn

tldr:

Nvidia just replaced video codecs with a neural network.

We’ll all be controlling digital face puppets of ourselves on video calls in the future!

RFC 8890: The Internet is for End Users

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 22:29:23 +0200

RFC 8890: The Internet is for End Users:

The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) has published RFC 8890, The Internet is for End Users, arguing that the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) should ground its decisions in what’s good for people who use the Internet and that it should take positive steps to achieve that.

Why does this need to be said? Is it going too far? Who else could they favour, and why should you care? As the author of the RFC and a member of the IAB that passed it, here are my thoughts.

"I Have Blood On My Hands": A Whistleblower Says Facebook Ignored Global Political Manipulation

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 02:31:06 +0200

"I Have Blood On My Hands": A Whistleblower Says Facebook Ignored Global Political Manipulation:

A 6,600-word internal memo from a fired Facebook data scientist details how the social network knew about specific examples of global political manipulation — and failed to act.

Hints of life on Venus

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 19:02:01 +0200

Hints of life on Venus:

An international team of astronomers, led by Professor Jane Greaves of Cardiff University, today announced the discovery of a rare molecule – phosphine – in the clouds of Venus. On Earth, this gas is only made industrially, or by microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments.

We Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy

Sun, 13 Sep 2020 18:03:05 +0200

We Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy

What's Wrong with Social Science and How to Fix It: Reflections After Reading 2578 Papers

Sat, 12 Sep 2020 16:09:49 +0200

What's Wrong with Social Science and How to Fix It: Reflections After Reading 2578 Papers:

Yes, you’re reading that right: studies that replicate are cited at the same rate as studies that do not. [..]

I think the most plausible explanation is that scientists don’t read the papers they cite, which I suppose involves both malice and stupidity.7 Gwern has an interesting write-up on this question, citing some ingenious bibliographic analyses: “Simkin & Roychowdhury venture a guess that as many as 80% of authors citing a paper have not actually read the original”. Once a paper is out there nobody bothers to check it, even though they know there’s a 50-50 chance it’s false! [..]

Why not do away with the journal system altogether? The NSF could run its own centralized, open website; grants would require publication there. Journals are objectively not doing their job as gatekeepers of quality or truth, so what even is a journal?

Blade Runner: San Francisco SF drone footage during the...

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 22:41:17 +0200

Blade Runner: San Francisco

SF drone footage during the #BayAreaFires on 9/9/20, set to Blade Runner 2049 music.

From comments:

Didn’t realise Mars was this colonized.
- That WOULD explain the scarcity of habitation modules and the exorbitant cost of living…