News gathered 2024-07-22
(date: 2024-07-22 08:15:32)
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Trump Freaks Out Over Biden Leaving Race.
https://politicalwire.com/2024/07/22/trump-freaks-out-over-biden-leaving-race/
Jill On Money: Still coping with inflation
date: 2024-07-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
When the government released the June Consumer Price Index, there was a sigh of relief among economists. The overall CPI rate actually slid by 0.1 percent in June from May. For the 12 months through June, CPI increased by 3% and the core rate, which strips out food and energy, was up 3.3%, the smallest 12-month increase since […]
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/07/22/jill-on-money-still-coping-with-inflation/
One final July heat wave for Bay Area on tap as temps to approach 100 in hottest areas
date: 2024-07-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
The weather service issued an excessive heat warning and a heat advisory for areas of the region.
Trump assassination bid puts spotlight on US gun violence
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
The recent assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump should be a “wake-up call” on gun violence, says U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who recently declared firearm violence in America a “public health crisis.” But disagreements on how to resolve the matter prevail. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has more.
https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-assassination-bid-puts-spotlight-on-us-gun-violence-/7708001.html
Brr Wants A Job
date: 2024-07-22, from: brr, an Antarctica IT blog
8 months post-ice, it’s time for something new!
https://brr.fyi/posts/brr-wants-a-job
California’s power grid stood up to a recent heat wave but summer is far from over
date: 2024-07-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
California grid operators are still on the lookout for potential problems as the summer wears on.
NASA Research Volunteers to Begin Next Simulated Mission to Mars
date: 2024-07-22, from: NASA breaking news
NASA selected a new team of four research volunteers to participate in a simulated mission to Mars within HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Erin Anderson, Sergii Iakymov, Brandon Kent, and Sarah Elizabeth McCandless will begin their simulated trek to Mars on Friday, Aug. 9. The volunteer crew […]
Russia convicts 2nd American journalist in secret trial
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
Trial of Alsu Kurmasheva a ‘mockery of justice’ says RFE/RL president as Russia sentences journalist to more than 6 years in jail
https://www.voanews.com/a/russia-convicts-2nd-american-journalist-in-secret-trial/7707995.html
Websites clamp down as creepy AI crawlers sneak around for snippets
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Shrinks training pool, but hurts services like the Internet Archive
The internet is becoming significantly more hostile to webpage crawlers, especially those operated for the sake of generative AI, researchers say.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/ai_training_data_shrinks/
Here’s how technology’s tumble cooled California’s growth
date: 2024-07-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
The stall of one industry – creator of cutting-edge products and sky-high salaries – is roughly California’s entire GDP slowdown.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/07/22/heres-how-technologys-tumble-cooled-californias-growth/
Broken trust: Cal State is mending how it handles sexual discrimination cases
date: 2024-07-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
Changes are underway one year after scathing audits showed how the California State University system failed to handle reports of sexual discrimination, harassment and assault in its Title IX offices.
After the CrowdStrike outage and Biden’s big announcement, how’s the economy adjusting?
date: 2024-07-22, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Economic markets take a beat to adjust to Biden’s announcement that he won’t seek re-election; what the entire cybersecurity industry can learn from Friday’s CrowdStrike outage; and a new law makes it easier to pull emergency cash from a retirement account.
When ChatGPT summarises, it actually does nothing of the kind.
date: 2024-07-22, from: Ben Werdmuller’s blog
<div class="known-bookmark">
<div class="e-content">[Gerben Wierda at R&A IT Strategy & Architecture]
“ChatGPT doesn’t summarise. When you ask ChatGPT to summarise this text, it instead shortens the text. And there is a fundamental difference between the two.”
The distinction is indeed important: it’s akin to making an easy reader version, albeit one with the odd error here and there.
This is particularly important for newsrooms and product teams that are looking at AI to generate takeaways from articles. There’s a huge chance that it’ll miss the main, most pertinent points, and simply shorten the text in the way it sees fit.
<p>[<a href="https://ea.rna.nl/2024/05/27/when-chatgpt-summarises-it-actually-does-nothing-of-the-kind/">Link</a>]</p>
</div>
</div>https://werd.io/2024/when-chatgpt-summarises-it-actually-does-nothing-of-the-kind
Why Delta is still canceling flights as other airlines return to normal
date: 2024-07-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
Three days after a computer update problem caused more than 5,000 flight cancellations around the world, things are pretty much back to normal — except at Delta Air Lines.
US Secret Service chief set for grilling by Congress over Trump shooting
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
DHS Has a DDoS Robot to Disable Internet of Things ‘Booby Traps’ Inside Homes
date: 2024-07-22, from: 404 Media Group
“NEO carries an onboard computer and antenna array that will allow officers the ability to create a ‘denial-of-service’ event to disable ‘Internet of Things’ devices that could potentially cause harm while entry is made.”
https://www.404media.co/dhs-has-a-ddos-robot-to-disable-internet-of-things-booby-traps-inside-homes/
US, Japan to hold security talks on July 28
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
TOKYO — Foreign and defense ministers from Japan and the United States will hold security talks in Japan on July 28 in an effort to push forward what U.S. President Joe Biden called a historic upgrade in the alliance.
The so-called “2+2” talks will cover extended deterrence, a term used to describe the U.S. commitment to use its nuclear and conventional forces to deter attacks on allies, Japan’s foreign ministry said on Monday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also hold a bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa during the visit, while U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will hold three-way talks with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea.
Tokyo and Washington in April announced a series of initiatives to strengthen their ties in what Biden called the most significant upgrade since the U.S.-Japan alliance, which was first signed in 1951, began.
These include efforts to deepen cooperation between defense industries and upgrade military command structures to improve coordination, as both countries look to deter regional threats they see emanating from China, North Korea and Russia.
“These historic 2+2 talks will cement our shift from a focus on Alliance protection to one of Alliance projection,” U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said.
“Through a transformation of the command structure of the United States forces in Japan, aligned with Japan’s own groundbreaking launch of its joint command next March, the Alliance will be ready and equipped to respond to the security challenges of the Indo-Pacific for decades to come.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/7707913.html
Homeland Security secretary names independent panel to review Trump assassination attempt
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
Panel will review Secret Service policies and procedures before, during and after July 13 assassination attempt
Vacuum of Space to Decay Sooner Than Expected (but Still Not Soon)
date: 2024-07-22, from: Quanta Magazine
One of the quantum fields that fills the universe is special because its default value seems poised to eventually change, changing everything.The post Vacuum of Space to Decay Sooner Than Expected (but Still Not Soon) first appeared on Quanta Magazine
What can a Los Gatos man do to bring native bees to his yard?
date: 2024-07-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
And what’s the best approach for backyard yellowjackets?
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/07/22/what-can-a-los-gatos-man-do-to-bring-native-bees-to-his-yard/
Oracle coughs up $115M to make privacy case go away
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Big Red agrees not to capture personal details after two-year class action
Oracle has agreed to cough up $115 million to settle a two-year class action lawsuit that alleged misuse of user data.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/oracle_settles_privacy_case/
San Francisco homicide: Man fatally shot in daylight brawl
date: 2024-07-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
The man was shot around 2:30 p.m. Friday on Sixth Street between Market and Mission streets.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/07/22/san-francisco-homicide-man-fatally-shot-in-daylight-brawl/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Democrats Rally Around Harris As Trump Splutters.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/democrats-harris-trump-biden
Heat-related deaths in Texas climb after hurricane left millions without power
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
Spring, Texas — As the temperature soared in the Houston-area home Janet Jarrett shared with her sister after losing electricity in Hurricane Beryl, she did everything she could to keep her 64-year-old sibling cool.
But on their fourth day without power, she awoke to hear Pamela Jarrett, who used a wheelchair and relied on a feeding tube, gasping for breath. Paramedics were called but she was pronounced dead at the hospital, with the medical examiner saying her death was caused by the heat.
“It’s so hard to know that she’s gone right now because this wasn’t supposed to happen to her,” Janet Jarrett said.
Almost two weeks after Beryl hit, heat-related deaths during the prolonged power outages have pushed the number of storm-related fatalities to at least 23 in Texas.
The combination of searing summer heat and residents unable to power up air conditioning in the days after the Category 1 storm made landfall on July 8 resulted in increasingly dangerous conditions for some in America’s fourth-largest city.
Beryl knocked out electricity to nearly 3 million homes and businesses at the height of the outages, which lasted days or much longer, and hospitals reported a spike in heat-related illnesses.
Power finally was restored to most by last week, after over a week of widespread outages. The slow pace in the Houston area put the region’s electric provider, CenterPoint Energy, under mounting scrutiny over whether it was sufficiently prepared.
While it may be weeks or even years before the full human toll of the storm in Texas is known, understanding that number helps plan for the future, experts say.
What is known about the deaths so far?
Just after the storm hit, bringing high winds and flooding, the deaths included people killed by falling trees and people who drowned when their vehicles became submerged in floodwaters. In the days after the storm passed, deaths included people who fell while cutting limbs on damaged trees and heat-related deaths.
Half of the deaths attributed to the storm in Harris County, where Houston is located, were heat related, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
Jarrett, who has cared for her sister since she was injured in an attack six years ago, said her “sassy” sister had done everything from owning a vintage shop in Harlem, New York, to working as an artist.
“She had a big personality,” Jarrett said, adding that her sister had been in good health before they lost electricity at their Spring home.
When will a complete death toll be known?
With power outages and cleanup efforts still ongoing, the death toll likely will continue to climb.
Officials are still working to determine if some deaths that have already occurred should be considered storm related. But even when those numbers come in, getting a clear picture of the storm’s toll could take much more time.
Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, which uses death certificate data to identify storm-related deaths, estimated that it may not be until the end of July before they have even a preliminary count.
In the state’s vital statistics system, there is a prompt to indicate if the death was storm related and medical certifiers are asked to send additional information on how the death was related to the storm, Anton said.
Experts say that while a count of storm-related fatalities compiled from death certificates is useful, an analysis of excess deaths that occurred during and after the storm can give a more complete picture of the toll. For that, researchers compare the number of people who died in that period to how many would have been expected to die under normal conditions.
The excess death analysis helps count deaths that might have been overlooked, said Dr. Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.
What do different toll numbers tell us?
Both the approach of counting the death certificates and calculating the excess deaths have their own benefits when it comes to storms, said Gregory Wellenius, director of the Boston University School of Public Health’s Center for Climate and Health.
The excess death analysis gives a better estimate of the total number of people killed, so it’s useful for public health and emergency management planning in addition to assessing the impact of climate change, he said.
But it “doesn’t tell you who,” he said, and understanding the individual circumstances of storm deaths is important in helping to show what puts individual people at risk.
“If I just tell you 200 people died, it doesn’t tell you that story of what went wrong for these people, which teaches us something about what hopefully can we do better to prepare or help people prepare in the future,” Wellenius said.
Hemingway fans celebrate the author’s 125th birthday
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/hemingway-fans-celebrate-the-author-s-125th-birthday/7707920.html
Wish You Were Here: Cycling through Portugal and Spain
date: 2024-07-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
A Sunnyvale couple’s recent trip to Spain and Portugal included plenty of bicycle adventures.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/07/22/wish-you-were-here-cycling-through-portugal-and-spain/
TasteFood: Grilled steak with an herbaceous Portuguese sauce
date: 2024-07-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
Grilled coulotte steak gets saucy with a Portuguese salsa that’s similar to chimichurri.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/07/22/tastefood-grilled-steak-portuguese-sauce/
EU gave CrowdStrike the keys to the Windows kernel, claims Microsoft
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Was a 2009 agreement on interoperability to blame?
Did the EU force Microsoft to let third parties like CrowdStrike run riot in the Windows kernel as a result of a 2009 undertaking? This is the implication being peddled by the Redmond-based cloud and software titan.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/windows_crowdstrike_kernel_eu/
Musket Balls Fired in Early Revolutionary War Battle Unearthed in Concord
date: 2024-07-22, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Colonial militiamen fired the lead balls on April 19, 1775—and likely missed their mark
Laptop Ban? In 2024? What About My Facetop?
date: 2024-07-22, from: 500-ish blog, A collection of posts by M.G. Siegler of around 500 words in length.
US envoy to UN visits Haiti, reaffirms aid pledge amid security, humanitarian crisis
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
Beyond Trans Archives, Beyond Trans Medicine
date: 2024-07-22, from: Care
<p>“Where does such profound love, overflowing with significance, appear in formalized, statistical data indexing and what people’s post-treatment lives mean to the world? What does it mean, to medical history or analysis, to begin with people’s relations rather than their records?”</p>https://logicmag.io/issue-21-medicine-and-the-body/beyond-trans-archives-beyond-trans-medicine
Examining Kamala Harris’ Climate Credentials
date: 2024-07-22, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: England’s wet and cold summer has been linked to a concerning decline in insect populations • At least 11 people died in northern China after torrential rain caused a bridge to collapse • The West Coast’s record-breaking heat wave will last at least through Wednesday.
THE TOP FIVE
- A quick look at Kamala Harris’ climate record
President Biden announced yesterday he will not run for re-election and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, for the 2024 Democratic ticket. Tributes from his colleagues poured in quickly, with many hailing Biden’s decision as brave and patriotic, and others recounting his accomplishments during three-and-a-half years in office, including his climate record. “Biden will leave office with easily the strongest climate record of any president — and one of the stronger environmental records, generally, in decades,” wrote Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer. Biden signed the largest investment in clean energy and decarbonization in American history, oversaw a revitalization of American industrial strategy, passed the bipartisan infrastructure law and CHIPS and Science Act (both of which funded or expanded climate-friendly programs), and moved quickly to regulate greenhouse gas emissions using executive authority. “Democrats had tried and failed for 30 years to pass a climate law through the Senate,” Meyer said. “Biden succeeded.”
Would a President Harris carry on this legacy? As Bloomberg noted, her own climate agenda as a presidential candidate in 2019 was more ambitious even than Biden’s. She called for a carbon tax, a ban on fracking and fossil fuel leases on public lands, and $10 trillion in spending to curb greenhouse gas emissions. She also was an early co-sponsor of the Green New Deal. She supported a pollution fee, a crackdown on fossil fuel companies, and as a top attorney in California, spearheaded several investigations into and lawsuits against major oil companies. She has also been a vocal advocate for protecting frontline and disadvantaged communities bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.
- Biden awards $4.3 billion in grants to fund community-driven climate
solutions
The Biden administration this morning announced the 25 recipients of more than $4 billion in Climate Pollution Reduction Grants to “implement community-driven solutions that tackle the climate crisis, reduce air pollution, advance environmental justice, and accelerate America’s clean energy transition.” The EPA estimates that the projects, when taken together, would have the greenhouse gas reduction potential equivalent to 971 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2050. The grants will fund projects across 30 states and one Tribe. The largest grant, of $500 million, will go to California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District project to decarbonize transportation and goods movement in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Other large-sum recipients include:
- The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection ($450 million to fund heat pump installations)
- The Illinois EPA ($430 million for decarbonizing industry and buildings, freight electrification, agriculture, and renewables deployment)
- The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources ($421 million for carbon sequestration through natural and working lands)
- The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ($396 million for industrial decarbonization)
- The Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy ($300 million for climate-smart agriculture)
The CPGR program was created under the Inflation Reduction Act. EPA administrator Michael Regan said these funds would be allocated by the fall. As E&E News noted, this timeline “would make them virtually impossible for a new administration to rescind.”
- Rivian opens EV ‘charging outpost’ near Yosemite
EV startup Rivian opened a first-of-its-kind “charging outpost” – or, as Engadget calls it, a “crunchy not-gas station.” It’s a rest stop, basically, but instead of filling up with gas you top up your EV charge and get a chance to use the bathroom, grab some snacks, and even do some reading at the onsite library. The outpost, which has five DC fast chargers, is located about 24 miles outside of Yosemite National Park in Groveland, California, and sits on the site of an old gas station. It’s the first of what Rivian hopes will be many such EV rest stops near national parks and other high-traffic areas.
Rivian
- Azerbaijan suggests fossil fuel extraction can continue under Paris
Agreement
Azerbaijan, the host of this year’s COP29 climate summit, has set up an international fund to pool money from polluting countries and governments to help poorer countries adapt and build resilience to the climate crisis. Contributions to the “Climate Finance Action Fund” will be voluntary and will only go ahead if pledges reach $1 billion collectively between at least 10 countries. Meanwhile, “negotiations on the core outcome of the summit — a new, large-scale financial aid target to support climate action in developing countries — remain deadlocked,” Politico reported. The fund is one of 14 non-binding initiatives Azerbaijan announced on Friday, none of which “directly address” fossil fuel use. At a press conference on the same day, the summit’s chief executive Elnur Soltanov suggested that reducing fossil fuel extraction was not necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. “We should somehow delineate between a 1.5C alignment and this view about hydrocarbons,” Soltanov said. Azerbaijan is heavily dependent on income from fossil fuels, which make up more than 90% of its exports.
- Trump says he is ‘totally for’ EVs
Former President Donald Trump over the weekend changed his tone slightly on electric vehicles, telling a crowd at a rally in Michigan that he’s “totally for” EVs so long as they don’t make up 100% of the market. He said something similar at an event last month, announcing he was a “big fan” of EVs: “I think a lot of people are going to want to buy electric cars but…if you want to buy a different type of car you have to have a choice—some people need to go far.”
Trump has repeatedly vowed to end the (non-existent) EV “mandate” if he’s elected in November and has a history of complaining that EVs run out of battery. A report in The Wall Street Journal suggests his blossoming “bromance” with Tesla CEO Elon Musk may be inspiring the messaging shift. The two men have reportedly been chatting behind the scenes, and Musk has endorsed Trump. “He’s very nice when he calls,” Musk told an investor recently, adding that he can be very persuasive. “I was like, you know, electric cars I think are pretty good for the future, America’s the leader in electric cars…buy America.” At the Michigan event over the weekend Trump said he “loves” Elon.
THE KICKER
“We can turn a wrench in an oil and gas field to reduce methane emissions. There’s no wrench we can turn to slow emissions from the Amazon or permafrost.” –Rob Jackson, author of a new book on climate solutions called Into the Clear Blue Sky
https://heatmap.news/politics/kamala-harris-climate-change-record
A look at Biden’s economic legacy
date: 2024-07-22, from: Marketplace Morning Report
On the heels of the President’s announcement that he won’t seek re-election, assessing how history will remember the Biden economy. Plus, continued fallout from Friday’s CrowdStrike outage and global tech meltdown
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/a-look-at-bidens-economic-legacy
Two Russians sanctioned over cyberattacks on US critical infrastructure
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Supposed hacktivist efforts previously linked to the Kremlin’s GRU
Flying under the radar on Clownstrike day last week, two members of the Cyber Army of Russia Reborn (CARR) hacktivist crew are the latest additions to the US sanctions list.…
Why homelessness has more than doubled in LA County’s once-affordable northern desert
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The LAist
The Antelope Valley has seen a worrisome rise in homelessness. Most are living unsheltered in inhospitable conditions.
Has homelessness changed in your neighborhood since Mayor Bass took office?
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The LAist
As homelessness continues to be a top concern for Angelenos, LAist wants to hear from you. Tell us what’s shifted — or not — in your neighborhood.
https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/los-angeles-homelessness-survey-in-your-neighborhood
Confronting Impossible Futures
date: 2024-07-22, from: One Useful Thing
We shouldn’t be certain about what is next, but we should plan for it
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/confronting-impossible-futures
New Yorkers react to Biden exiting presidential race
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
Hours after 81-year-old President Joe Biden announced he was abandoning his bid for reelection and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the nomination, VOA spoke with Americans on the streets of New York about their reactions to the historic news.
https://www.voanews.com/a/new-yorkers-react-to-biden-exiting-presidential-race-/7707770.html
Democrats face new challenges after President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from 2024 campaign
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
After weeks of speculation and intense pressure from within his own Democratic Party, U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection campaign and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor sent shockwaves across the nation Sunday. VOA’s Richard Green has more on how Biden’s withdrawal reshapes the 2024 race for the White House.
Investors react to Biden leaving the Presidential race
date: 2024-07-22, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: After Joe Biden announced he’s dropping out of the presidential race, Kamala Harris has secured the backing of some of the Democrats’ biggest donors; so what are investors thinking? Students in Bangladesh continue their protests a day after the Supreme Court eliminated most of the government job quotas they were fighting against. In Spain, concerns about tourism’s impact on locals has sparked protests on the island of Mallorca, with hundreds of people taking to the streets.
The Clacktop: A Thinkpad Yoga with a mechanical keyboard
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Impressively home-made, this is the sort of laptop we wish we could buy new
A Thinkpad Yoga, modded with a mechanical keyboard, may serve as a wake-up call to both Lenovo and Framework.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/clacktop_modded_thinkpad_yoga/
Israel’s Netanyahu walks political tightrope on Washington trip following Biden’s exit from race
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
Jerusalem — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left for Washington on Monday, leaving behind a brutal war to make a politically precarious speech before the U.S. Congress at a time of great uncertainty following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race.
With efforts ongoing to bring about a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, rising concerns about the war spreading to Lebanon and Yemen, and the U.S. in the midst of a dizzying election campaign, Netanyahu’s speech has the potential to cause disarray on both sides of the ocean.
The risks only increased with Biden’s decision Sunday to drop out of the race for president, especially since the choice of a replacement Democratic nominee — and the potential next American leader — are still up in the air.
Before stepping on the plane, Netanyahu said he would emphasize the theme of Israel’s bipartisanship in his speech and said Israel would remain America’s key ally in the Middle East “regardless who the American people choose as their next president.”
“In this time of war and uncertainty, it’s important that Israel’s enemies know that America and Israel stand together,” he said, adding that he will meet Biden during his trip and thank him for his support for Israel.
A person familiar with Biden’s schedule confirmed Sunday that the president will host Netanyahu at the White House. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said the exact timing of the meeting has not been established because Biden is recovering from COVID-19.
Netanyahu is scheduled to address Congress on Wednesday. He is also expected to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris, who is seeking the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
Netanyahu will deliver his congressional address with an eye on several audiences: his ultranationalist governing partners, the key to his political survival; the Biden administration, which Netanyahu counts on for diplomatic and military support; and Donald Trump’s Republican Party, which could offer Netanyahu a reset in relations if he is reelected in November.
His words risk angering any one of those constituencies, which the Israeli leader cannot afford if he hopes to hold on to his tenuous grip on power.
“There are a few land mines and pitfalls on this trip,” Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, said before Biden’s withdrawal. “He is thought of as a political wizard who knows how to escape from traps. I am not sure he still knows how to do that.”
It is Netanyahu’s fourth speech to Congress — more than any other world leader. During his address, his far-right governing partners will want to hear his resolve to continue the war and topple Hamas.
The Biden administration will look for progress toward the latest U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal and details on a postwar vision. Republicans hope Netanyahu besmirches Biden and bolsters the GOP’s hoped-for perception as Israel’s stalwart supporter.
The war, which was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, has tested Israel’s ties with its top ally as never before.
The Biden administration has stood staunchly beside Israel. But it has grown increasingly alarmed about the conduct of the Israeli military, the continued difficulties of getting humanitarian aid into Gaza, especially after the short-lived U.S. military pier off Gaza coast, as well as Israel’s lack of postwar plans and the harm to civilians in Gaza. Similar concerns will likely persist if Americans elect a new Democratic president.
Biden earlier this year froze the delivery of certain bombs over fears they would be used in Israel’s incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which at the time sheltered more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
The U.S. abstained from a United Nations Security Council vote in March that called for a cease-fire and the release of hostages but did not link the two. Netanyahu called the decision a “retreat” from a “principled position” by Israel’s ally.
Biden has had to walk a fine line of his own. He has faced harsh criticism from progressive Democrats and many Arab Americans. Even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking elected U.S. Jewish official, lambasted Netanyahu in March for his handling of the war.
Some Democrats will likely demonstrate their anger toward Biden and Netanyahu by skipping Wednesday’s speech. Netanyahu is also likely to be hounded by pro-Palestinian activists during his trip.
The last time Netanyahu spoke to Congress in 2015 was at the invitation of the Republican Party. The trip drove Israeli-American politics deep into the partisan divide as Netanyahu railed against then-President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal.
Netanyahu has not shied away from making Israel a partisan issue. With his nationalist conservative ideology, he has been perceived as throwing his support behind Republican candidates in the past, rankling Democrats and Israelis who want to keep the U.S.-Israel relationship bipartisan.
It’s unclear if he will meet Trump. If there is a meeting, it could expose Netanyahu to accusations that he is once again taking sides. But if he doesn’t meet with Trump, the former president could feel slighted.
The speech also offers Netanyahu opportunity. He will be able to show Israelis that despite the tensions with the Biden administration, U.S. support for him remains ironclad.
“He wants the Israeli public to believe that he is very much still very welcome in the United States. And this shows that the American people are with him,” said David Makovsky, director of the program on Arab-Israel Relations at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
For critics of Netanyahu, that embrace is unacceptable and grants legitimacy to a deeply polarizing leader whose public support has plummeted. Netanyahu faces widespread protests and calls to resign over the failures of Oct. 7 and his handling of the war.
In a letter to Congress, 500 Israeli writers, scholars and public figures expressed their dismay over the invitation to Netanyahu, saying he will use the platform to advance misguided policies that align with his far-right governing partners.
“His only interest is preserving his own power,” they wrote. “Does the United States Congress wish to support such a model of cynical and manipulative leadership in these times?”
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu will be joined by rescued hostage Noa Argamani and her father. But for many of the families of hostages held in Gaza, the trip is an affront.
“This is not the time for trips,” Ayelet Levy Shachar, whose daughter Naama was kidnapped on Oct. 7, told reporters.
“Netanyahu: First a deal, then you can travel.”
Biden’s decision to bow out goes viral on Chinese social media
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
Taipei, Taiwan — The news of U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection campaign quickly became a trending topic on Chinese social media platforms Monday.
In a statement released on Sunday afternoon U.S. time, Biden announced his decision to not run for a second term and vowed to focus his energy on fulfilling his duties as president.
So far, the Chinese government has remained tight lipped about the decision. At a regular press briefing on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning declined to comment, and said the “presidential election is an internal affair of the United States.”
Online, however, the entry “Biden withdrew from the election” attracted more than 400 million views on the China’s microblogging site Weibo and tens of thousands of comments.
Other topics went viral as well. Topics such as “Zelensky respects Biden’s decision to withdraw from the election,” “Harris praised Biden,” and “Trump thinks Harris is easier to beat” were all in the top 20 searches Monday on Weibo, which is similar to the social media site X.
Several major media outlets in China, including the state-run Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, and the Global Times, covered Biden’s withdrawal from the race extensively.
Many Chinese netizens expressed the view that Biden’s decision ensures that Trump will win the election in November while some said things have suddenly changed for Ukraine, referring to Trump’s repeated criticism of U.S. military aid to Ukraine. “Tonight will be a sleepless night for Zelensky,” Chinese netizen “Yo-Huai-To-Bi” from northeastern Shandong province wrote on Weibo.
Other Chinese netizens argued that the United States will continue to compete with China and try to contain the country’s rise regardless of who wins the election in November.
“We shouldn’t be too happy about this news because Trump will likely continue Biden’s strategies toward China and he might roll out harsher measures,” a netizen called “BIGTREE33” from China’s southeastern Fujian Province wrote on Weibo.
Some Chinese commentators said the Democratic Party will have very little chance of winning the presidential election in November without Biden.
“No faction in the Democratic Party can rebuild a campaign that can challenge Trump within a short time, so after Biden withdrew from the race, the Democrats will return to a very divided situation,” Jia Min, an affiliated researcher at Shanghai Development Research Foundation, told Shanghai Morning News in a video.
Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of China’s state-run tabloid Global Times, wrote on X that whoever becomes the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate will make little difference to the presidential race in November.
“Because Trump’s personality is so outstanding, American voters are now divided into two groups: Trump lovers & Trump haters,” he wrote, adding that November’s election will be a choice between Trump or “anyone.”
Harris vs. Trump
After Biden endorsed U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris to be the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party and Harris vowed to win the Democratic Party’s nomination, the entry “Could Harris defeat Trump” quickly became a trending topic on Weibo.
More Chinese netizens seem to believe Harris has very little chance of beating Trump in the presidential election. “If Hillary Clinton couldn’t beat Trump back then, Harris would just be a joke,” a netizen named “Falling in Love with Jia-tze-hu” from Shandong Province wrote on Weibo.
Some Chinese analysts said Harris lacks the experience and achievement to serve as the next president of the United States.
“Looking at Harris’s overall track record, her performance as vice president has not been particularly outstanding, and she has not achieved satisfactory results,” Sun Chenghao, a fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, told Chinese online media outlet the Paper.
Beijing-Washington rivalry to continue
While Biden’s decision to pull out of the presidential race will likely shape the development of the U.S. presidential election, some analysts say the Chinese government may think that these developments won’t change the fact that Beijing and Washington are engaged in an intense competition.
“Beijing’s view is that the U.S. and China are in this rivalry, and it will continue no matter who runs in the election,” Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told VOA by phone.
Other experts say the Chinese government may not have clear expectations about how different candidates may focus on issues related to China.
“Despite being the vice president, Harris hasn’t said that much on foreign policy, especially compared to the known track records of both Biden and Trump,” said Timothy Rich, a political scientist at Western Kentucky University.
“So, a known Trump, however erratic, may be easier [for Beijing] to prepare for than Harris,” he told VOA in a written response.
If November’s election becomes a race between Trump and Harris, Rich thinks a potential Trump victory would mean more tariffs on Chinese commodities and a more explicit view of trade as a zero-sum game. A potential Harris administration, he adds, may adopt a more nuanced approach to address Washington’s trade relationship with China.
On the issue of Taiwan, Rich said the fact that the Republican National Committee excluded Taiwan from the party platform may suggest Trump is “thinking transactionally about how cutting off support for Taiwan could lead to some big trade agreement with China.”
“In contrast, I can’t see a Harris administration deviating on support for Taiwan much from her predecessor,” he told VOA.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
With honor and decency, Joe Biden exits the race.
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editorials/biden-leaves-presidential-race-20240721.html
Unit4 ends support for research costing tool used to plan the Covid vaccine
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
UK university users face migration path following plan to withdraw support for product some build £1M solutions around
Exclusive Software used to cost the University of Oxford’s Covid vaccine research has become the subject of an end-of-life announcement from enterprise application developer Unit4.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/unit4_ends_support_for_research/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
“The first party to retire its 80-year old candidate is going to be the one who wins this election.”
https://politicalwire.com/2024/07/22/flashback-quote-of-the-day-139/
Next-generation US jet fighter program may get hit by budget woes
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The U.S. Air Force’s ambitious next-generation fighter jet program, envisioned as a revolutionary leap in technology, could become less ambitious as budget pressure, competing priorities and changing goals compel a rethink, defense officials and industry executives said.
Initially conceived as a “family of systems” centered around a sixth-generation fighter jet, the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program is meant to replace the F-22 Raptor and give the United States the most powerful weaponry in the sky well into the mid-21st century.
When it was first proposed, expectations were high, including an unmatched stealth capability to keep it invisible from even the most sophisticated radar, laser weapons and onboard artificial intelligence to process masses of data coming from the latest in sensor technology.
However, sources said the current development budget of $28.5 billion over five years ending in 2029 could be spread out over more time or scaled-back as the Pentagon searches for a cost-effective solution.
Sources briefed on the Air Force’s internal budget deliberations said the anticipated 2026 fiscal-year NGAD budget of $3.1 billion would be slashed as funding shrinks, with one source adding that diminishing funds could stretch development by two more years.
While it is unclear how much the overall program will cost, it could eventually total well over $100 billion if 200 aircraft are produced, including initial costs - plus maintenance and upgrades over time. There are currently 185 F-22s in service — the plane NGAD is meant to replace.
The Air Force is also reviewing the concept for the jet - perhaps moving to a larger single-engine jet, from what is believed to be a two-engine design, or even shifting more funding to a less expensive unmanned drone to best address future air superiority needs given the potential budget cuts, industry experts said.
“NGAD was conceived before a number of things: before the threat became so severe, before CCAs [drone program] were introduced into the equation and before we had some issues with affordability that we are currently facing,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said on Saturday at Britain’s Royal International Air Tattoo, the world’s largest military air show.
“Before we commit to the 2026 budget, we want to be sure we are on the right path,” he added on a program that will be a popular talking point at the Farnborough International Airshow this week.
The shift in focus comes as the Air Force grapples with substantial cost overruns in several vital, and expensive, programs. For example, its Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program, which is set to replace the aging Minuteman III missiles, has ballooned 81% over budget, to around $141 billion.
Budget pressure has forced the Air Force to reassess its spending priorities across various modernization efforts which also include increasing production of the new B-21 bomber made by Northrop GrummanNOC.N.
U.S. aerospace and defense companies Lockheed Martin LMT.N and Boeing BA.N have responded to the Air Force’s request for proposal for the NGAD system, sources told Reuters.
While defense firms are not exactly desperate for orders with conflicts in Ukraine and Israel driving already-strong demand, NGAD was one of several potentially giant programs many hoped would feed the bottom line in the years ahead.
An Air Force spokesperson told Reuters the department is currently building its fiscal 2026 budget which will be released early next year. Representatives for Boeing did not return requests for comment. Lockheed would not comment on NGAD.
“The part that seems to be getting stalled and re-evaluated is the air vehicle itself, the central platform,” said J.J. Gertler, a senior analyst at aerospace and defense analysis firm the Teal Group.
“The Air Force is now making sure that that’s what they actually want and possibly changing their mind,” he added.
Possible new configurations might be shifting to a single engine for the jet to save on up-front cost and long-term maintenance. Twin-engine jets are much more expensive to buy and operate, but they are more dependable and faster, therefore more deadly in a dogfight than their single-engine foes.
Another key component emerging from this restructuring is the possibility of shifting funds toward the unmanned fighter drone known as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft initiative.
Development of the less expensive drone platforms, designed to operate alongside the main jet, does not face budget changes.
Microsoft’s CISPE settlement includes a suspension of audits for members
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Cloud group companies free of Redmond’s compliance cops for 2 years in return for ditching EC antitrust complaint
EXCLUSIVE Part of Microsoft’s settlement with a bunch of cloud providers in Europe to make an antitrust complaint disappear is a two-year moratorium on software audits, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.…
Using the M.2 HAT+ with Raspberry Pi 5
date: 2024-07-22, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ M Key enables you to connect M.2 peripherals such as NVMe drives and other PCIe accessories to Raspberry Pi 5’s PCIe interface.
The post Using the M.2 HAT+ with Raspberry Pi 5 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/using-m-2-hat-with-raspberry-pi-5/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The Best Places to Eat Before a Concert in NYC.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/best-restaurants-before-a-concert-nyc-1235054857/
Democratic officials, donors back Harris after Biden exits US presidential race
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Momentum appeared to be on the side of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, as a groundswell of Democratic lawmakers, governors and financial donors expressed their support for her to be the party’s presidential nominee in the November election after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Biden followed his surprise announcement Sunday by issuing his own endorsement of Harris to face former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee.
Harris, who is 59, quickly announced that she would seek the nomination. She was a senator from the country’s most populous state, California, when Biden picked her in 2020 as his running mate after Harris’ challenge to Biden and other primary contenders fell apart.
Her approval ratings in national surveys have largely reflected Biden’s, but some surveys of likely voters show Harris faring slightly better than he does against Trump. In a few, she has polled ahead of Trump.
Harris said in a statement that Biden, by withdrawing from the race against Trump, “is doing what he has done throughout his life of service: putting the American people and our country above everything else.”
“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party – and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump,” she said. “We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”
Early Monday, the Harris campaign said it had collected $49.6 million in small-dollar donations since Biden withdrew and she announced her candidacy. That stood in contrast to weeks of waning support for Biden, particularly among top donors, following his stumbling performance in a late June debate against Trump.
The Association of State Democratic Committees said in a statement that an “overwhelming majority” of state party leaders backed Harris as the party’s nominee, with several abstaining for procedural reasons.
Sunday’s outpouring of support for Harris also included at least one Biden Cabinet member, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who said he would do “all I can” to help elect Harris.
If Harris is accepted by the party to replace Biden, she would be the first Black woman and South Asian major party presidential nominee in the 248-year history of the United States.
Biden’s announcement Sunday followed a rising chorus within the Democratic Party urging him to “pass the torch” amid his declining national poll numbers and concerns raised by his debate performance. During the debate, the 81-year-old president often appeared to lose his train of thought, failed to forcefully press his case against the 78-year-old Trump or defend his own tenure in the White House.
Biden persevered, insisting he would not quit the race unless “the Lord Almighty” asked him to or if he was shown polling numbers that he could not beat Trump a second time or advised by his doctors he was not physically able to continue.
But on Sunday, he said in a statement, “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” which ends in six months in January.
Biden said he plans to address the nation about his decision later this week.
Trump responded to the announcement by assailing both Biden and Harris.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve - And never was!” Trump posted on social media, adding that Harris was just as bad as Biden.
“Harris will be easier to beat than Joe Biden would have been,” Trump told CNN.
Many Republicans reacted by calling for Biden to resign as president.
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, who is second in the presidential line of succession behind Harris, called on Biden to step down, claiming if he is unfit to keep his candidacy alive for another four-year term, he is also unfit to remain as president until Jan. 20.
If Biden were to resign, Harris would immediately be sworn in as the country’s 47th president, at least until the inauguration for the victor in the November 5 election.
Names of other prominent Democrats have been floated as potential candidates other than Harris, including several state governors: Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Gavin Newsom of California. Shapiro and Newsom endorsed Harris on Sunday.
It was not immediately known who Harris might pick as her vice-presidential running mate.
Former president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, who served as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama but lost the 2016 presidential contest to Trump, endorsed Harris in a statement.
Obama, whom Biden served with as vice president for eight years, thanked Biden for his patriotism in leaving the race, but did not endorse Harris or any other Democrat to be the party’s presidential nominee.
Media reports in the hours following Biden’s withdrawal quoted sources close to Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, now an independent, saying he was considering rejoining the Democratic Party to try to replace the president at the top of the party’s ticket.
There are two ways for Democrats to replace Biden as the party’s standard-bearer.
One would be a virtual vote among delegates to the Democratic National Convention next month in Chicago that would lock in a new nominee in early August. Chances are this process would favor Harris, avoiding conflict at the Aug. 19-22 convention in front of a national television audience.
The other way Democrats could pick a new nominee would be an “open” convention in which several candidates, including Harris, would seek the presidential nomination, a scenario the party hasn’t experienced since 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson dropped his plans to run for reelection in face of widespread opposition to his handling of America’s war against North Vietnam.
Some Democrats are suggesting the party quickly hold a “mini primary” to allow Harris and anyone else to openly compete.
Biden has no public events on his schedule for Monday. The White House said details on his schedule for the rest of the week will be forthcoming.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is headed to Washington to address Congress on Wednesday and said he also plans to meet with Biden.
Some material for this article came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The 38 Essential Restaurants in New York City.
https://ny.eater.com/maps/best-new-york-restaurants-38-map
Serco appoints former GDS leader Tom Read to digital leadership role
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Read also served at UK’s MoJ, where outsourcer paid fine over electronic tagging fiasco
UK outsourcing provider Serco has appointed Tom Read, head of central government’s digital agency, to the role of group chief digital and technology officer.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/serco_appoints_former_gds_leader/
Hundreds of migrants in new caravan headed for US border
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico — Hundreds of migrants from around a dozen countries left from Mexico’s southern border on foot Sunday, as they attempt to make it to the U.S. border.
Some of the members of the group said they hoped to make it to the U.S. border before elections are held in November, because they fear that if Donald Trump wins, he will follow through on a promise to close the border to asylum-seekers.
“We are running the risk that permits (to cross the border) might be blocked,” said Miguel Salazar, a migrant from El Salvador. He feared that a new Trump administration might stop granting appointments to migrants through CBP One, an app used by asylum-seekers to enter the U.S. legally — by getting appointments at U.S. border posts, where they make their cases to officials.
The app only works once migrants reach Mexico City, or states in northern Mexico.
“Everyone wants to use that route” said Salazar, 37.
The group left Sunday from the southern Mexican town of Ciudad Hidalgo, which is next to a river that marks Mexico’s border with Guatemala.
Some said they had been waiting in Ciudad Hidalgo for weeks for permits to travel to towns further to the north.
Migrants trying to pass through Mexico in recent years have organized large groups to try to reduce the risk of being attacked by gangs or stopped by Mexican immigration officials as they travel. But the caravans tend to break up in southern Mexico, as people get tired of walking for hundreds of kilometers.
Recently, Mexico has also made it more difficult for migrants to reach the U.S. border on buses and trains.
Travel permits are rarely awarded to migrants who enter the country without visas and thousands of migrants have been detained by immigration officers at checkpoints in the center and north of Mexico and bused back to towns deep in the south of the country.
Oswaldo Reyna, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant, crossed from Guatemala into Mexico 45 days ago and waited in Ciudad Hidalgo to join the new caravan announced on social media.
He criticized Trump’s recent comments about migrants and how they are trying to “invade” the United States.
“We are not delinquents,” he said. “We are hard-working people who have left our country to get ahead in life, because in our homeland we are suffering from many needs.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/hundreds-of-migrants-in-new-caravan-headed-for-us-border/7707657.html
Facebook prank sent techie straight to Excel hell
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
When someone kicks a chair across the room out of fear they’ll be fired it’s stopped being funny
Who, Me? It’s another Monday, dear reader, which means the working week has begun anew. On the bright side, it also means another dose of the reader-submitted tales of IT hijinks we call Who, Me?…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/who_me/
Today in SCV History (July 22)
date: 2024-07-22, from: SCV New (TV Station)
2000 – Historic Larinan house in Pico Canyon burns down [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-july-22/
HCL’s back-to-office plan: come in three days a week, or forget about holidays
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Indian tech workers’ union calls for a strike over 14-hour day proposal
HCL Technologies has devised a measure to make sure its India-based employees change out of their pajamas and head into the office: making on-premises attendance a condition of eligibility for leave.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/hcl_india_wfh_leave_eligibility/
Curiosity rover is crushing it: ran over a rock and found pure sulfur
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
An unexpected splash of yellow on the red planet
The Curiosity rover has found something surprising: rocks made of pure sulfur.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/curiosty_rover_sulfur/
Google, Oracle, and Microsoft make their case for VMware migrations – HPE on the outer?
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
New instance types and discounts galore, and Broadcom all smiles as its preferred licensing finds more friends
Google Cloud has delivered a Broadcom-compliant version of its cloudy VMware offering, and pitched it as a keenly priced migration target.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/vmware_cloud_migration_options/
A Campaign Reset
date: 2024-07-22, from: Dave Karpf’s blog
Thank you, Mr. President.
https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/a-campaign-reset
Cellebrite got into Trump shooter’s Samsung device in just 40 minutes
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Also: Second-string Russian hackers sanctioned; Senators demand answers from Snowflake, and more
Infosec in brief Unable to access the Samsung smartphone of the deceased Trump shooter for clues, the FBI turned to a familiar – if controversial – source to achieve its goal: digital forensics tools vendor Cellebrite.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/infosec_in_brief/
LIVE: NASA is with you from Oshkosh
date: 2024-07-22, from: NASA breaking news
NASA Aeronautics Returns to Oshkosh Sunday, July 21 at 8:30 p.m. EDT NASA will appear at Oshkosh with a full slate of interactive exhibits, informative activities, and fascinating people to meet. But if you can’t make it we’ve got you covered. Enjoy the show virtually right here on this page. John Gould will be onsite […]
https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/live-nasa-is-with-you-from-oshkosh/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-07-22, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Last night I went to sleep at 3:30am because I was watching TikTok’s.
And I don’t regret a single moment.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112827688781371497
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
No one cares who Aaron Sorkin endorses for president.
Chinese researchers create four-gram drone that might fly forever
date: 2024-07-22, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Plus: Former Samsung worker jailed for leaking secrets; Robo-cabs reach Shanghai airport; and more
Asia in brief Chinese researchers have created a drone that weighs just over four grams – less than a sheet of printer paper – and may be able to fly indefinitely.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/asia_tech_news_roundup/
Salud Carbajal Praises Biden for ‘Putting Country Above Ego’
date: 2024-07-22, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Congressmember endorses Kamala Harris as Dems’ new presidential candidate.
The post Salud Carbajal Praises Biden for ‘Putting Country Above Ego’ appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/07/21/salud-carbajal-praises-biden-for-putting-country-above-ego/
Biden’s decision to drop out crystalized Sunday; his staff knew one minute before the public did
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — At 1:45 p.m. Sunday, President Joe Biden’s senior staff was notified that he was stepping away from the 2024 race. At 1:46 p.m., that message was made public.
It was never Biden’s intention to leave the race: Up until he decided to step aside Sunday, he was all in.
His campaign was planning fundraisers and events and setting up travel over the next few weeks. But even as Biden was publicly dug in and insisting he was staying in the race, he was quietly reflecting on the disaster of the past few weeks, on the past three years of his presidency and on the scope of his half-century career in politics.
In the end, it was the president’s decision alone, and he made it quietly, from his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, sick with COVID-19, the first lady with him as he talked it through with a small circle of people who have been with him for decades.
“This has got to be one of the hardest decisions he’s ever made,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., the president’s closest ally in Congress, who spoke with him Sunday. “I know he wanted to fight and keep going and show that he could beat Donald Trump again, but as he heard more and more input, I think he was wrestling with what would be the best for the country,” Coons said in an interview with The Associated Press.
This story is based on interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the president’s thinking over the past few weeks, days and hours as he made his decision. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to talk about private discussions.
Deciding to leave the race
It wasn’t until Saturday evening that Biden began to come to the conclusion that he would not run for reelection. He started writing a letter to the American people.
Biden had been off the campaign trail for a few days, isolated because of COVID-19, when it all started to deeply sink in — his worsening chances of being able to defeat Donald Trump with so much of his party in open rebellion, seeking to push him out of the race — not to mention the persistent voter concerns about his age that were only exacerbated by the catastrophic debate.
Biden was at his beach home with some of his and Jill Biden’s closest aides: chief strategist Mike Donilon, counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, White House deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal, senior adviser to the first lady.
By Sunday, his decision crystalized. He spoke multiple times with Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he would endorse. He informed White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, and his longtime aide and campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon.
A small group of senior advisers from both the campaign and the White House were assembled for the 1:45 p.m. call to relay Biden’s decision, while his campaign staff released the social media announcement one minute later.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.
Just about a half-hour later came his public vote of support for Harris. It was a carefully choreographed strategy meant to give the president’s initial statement full weight, and to put a period on the moment before launching forward into the next step.
“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” Biden said in another post on X. “Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump.”
About that debate
It’s not like things had been going great before the June 27 debate. In an August 2023 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, fully 77% of U.S. adults said Biden was too old to be effective for four more years. Not only did 89% of Republicans say that, but so did 69% of Democrats.
And it hadn’t gotten any better by April, when more than half of U.S. adults thought Biden’s presidency hurt the country on issues like the cost of living and immigration.
But Biden had insisted — to himself, to the nation, to his supporters — that he would be able to bring voters around if he got out there, told people about his record, explained it to them. Talked to them. Looked them in the eye.
He had a lifetime of experience that told him that if he stuck to it, he’d overcome. His campaign was so confident, in fact, that they arranged to go around the Commission on Presidential Debates to set up a series of faceoffs with Trump under a new set of rules.
That produced the June 27 debate that set Biden’s downfall in motion. Biden gave nonsensical answers, trailed off mid-sentence and appeared to stare blankly in front of an audience of 51 million people. Perhaps most distressing to other Democrats, Biden didn’t go after Trump’s myriad falsehoods about his involvement in the violence around the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, abortion rights or immigration.
Biden and his team blamed the night on so many different things. He had a cold. He was jet-lagged. He needed to get more sleep. That night opened the door for his party to push him out.
A slow acceptance
Publicly and privately Biden was fighting to stay in the race. He was working to convince voters that he was up for the task for another four years. He was frustrated by the Democrats coming out publicly against him, but even angrier about the leaks and anonymous sources relaying how even former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were working to get him to drop out.
It looked like he’d won out a couple times; the chorus of naysayers seemed to die down. He had some well-received speeches mixed with so-so TV interviews and a day featuring an extended news conference in which he displayed a nuanced grasp of policy but also committed a few gasp-inducing gaffes.
But the doubts didn’t go away.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer eventually invited top Biden staff to a meeting on July 11 to talk about their concerns. It didn’t go well. Senators expressed their concerns, and almost none of them said they had confidence in the president. But even afterward, Schumer was worried it wasn’t getting to Biden.
Following the meeting, Schumer called Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Obama. Schumer decided that day to request a meeting with Biden.
At a July 13 meeting in Rehoboth, Schumer told Biden he was there out of love and affection. And he delivered a personal appeal focused on Biden’s legacy, the country’s future and the impact the top of the ticket could have on congressional races — and how that could potentially affect the Supreme Court. That same day came the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Schumer told the president he didn’t expect him to make an immediate decision, but he hoped Biden would think about what he said, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
Biden responded, “I need another week,” and the two men hugged.
Sunday’s decision
It was full steam ahead until Biden pulled the emergency brake.
The president had lost his voice, but he was recovering well and his doctor had sent an update to the public shortly before 1 p.m. on his condition. His small circle decided to post the statement on X on Sunday, rather than let it leak out for days before he was prepared to address the nation, which he is expected to do sometime early this week.
Much of his campaign was blindsided, and it was clear by how little had changed after he dropped out. For hours after the announcement, Biden’s campaign website reflected that he was still running and KamalaHarris.com still redirected to Biden’s page.
Even Harris’ statement announcing her intent to succeed Biden was sent from “Joe Biden for President.”
After the public announcement, Zients held a senior staff call, sent out an email and spoke with Biden’s cabinet. The president was also making personal calls.
“Team — I wanted to make sure you saw the attached letter from the President,” Zients wrote in the staff email. “I could not be more proud to work for President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the American people — alongside all of you, the best White House team in history. There’s so much more to do — and as President Biden says, ‘there is nothing America can’t do — when we do it together.’”
Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat who had called for Biden to bow out, was gardening with his wife when the news broke, and said he was momentarily “stunned.” Senators texted each other questioning if it was really happening.
Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal was at an event in his state, and there was spontaneous applause when it was announced to the crowd that Biden wouldn’t run, he said.
There was a sense of excitement and energy in the crowd “that has been completely lacking,” Blumenthal said.
“It was also, let’s be blunt, a sense of relief,” he said. “And a sense of reverence for Joe Biden.”
By Sunday evening, Biden for President had formally changed to Harris for President.
O’Malley Dillon told campaign staff their jobs were safe, because the operation was shifting to a campaign for Harris.
Glass-ceiling breaker Kamala Harris could be Democratic presidential nominee
date: 2024-07-22, from: VOA News USA
President Harris?
date: 2024-07-22, from: Ben Werdmuller’s blog
I didn’t post about it — what is there to say that hasn’t been said elsewhere? — but former President Trump was almost shot last week. The would-be assassin’s motive is muddy (he was a Republican), but the bullet or a sliver of glass narrowly missed him, taking a nip out of his ear. He’s been using it as political ammunition ever since, and the entire RNC, which started the following day, was in essence a stage show about toxic masculinity, featuring guests like Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan (who tore off his shirt to reveal another shirt with the Trump / Vance logo on it), and the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. At one point, during a Michigan rally following the event, Trump pulled a guy out of the crowd to remark how well-defined his arms were. His campaign, his policies, his demeanor are Idiocracy come to life.
As for his Vice Presidential candidate, I’d love to see a lot more people talking about JD Vance’s support for Curtis Yarvin, who believes in the reinstatement of slavery, in replacing the democratically elected government with a CEO king, and that Hitler was acting in self defense.
I have many differences with Joe Biden: most notably, his failure to take a strong stand against the ongoing slaughter in Gaza, and his war-faring foreign policy history throughout his career. But he’s not Donald Trump and he’s not JD Vance. Domestically, the Biden Presidency undoubtedly had some strong progressive successes over the last four years, in ways that genuinely helped vulnerable Americans. I voted for him in 2020. And certainly, were he the Democratic nominee, I would have voted for him again.
It seems almost certain that the Democratic nominee will be Kamala Harris. If that turns out to be the case, I’ll absolutely vote for her. With enthusiasm.
What I hope is that she can paint a picture of the world she wants to create. Biden never quite achieved that for me: he even memorably said to donors, that “nothing would fundamentally change” if he was elected. America needs change; it needs equity; it needs a renewed compassion, stronger safety nets, a leg up for people who need it, and a mentality that nobody should fall through the cracks. A focus on strong communities and bonds based on empathy rather than breaks for the rich and military might. A focus on a democratic, inclusive world and not just an American one. Beyond just not being Trump and not being Vance, those are my hopes for a Harris Presidency.
https://werd.io/2024/president-harris
New Podcast Talking Postgres
date: 2024-07-22, from: PostgreSQL News
What is Talking Postgres?
Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano is a monthly podcast where we talk about the human side of Postgres, databases, and open source. Previously called “Path To Citus Con”, each of the 17 episodes published so far includes 1 or 2 amazing guests from the Postgres world. As for the new Talking Postgres name, it’s been called “a sensible move”, “a great name”, and “more fitting”—since the episodes are all about Postgres things.
- Talking Postgres is available via most podcast apps and also on YouTube.
- Catch up on the past 17 episodes at talkingpostgres.com.
- You can also subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode. And yes, there is an RSS feed on the subscribe page.
Podcast is recorded LIVE on Discord
Usually on the 1st or 2nd Wednesday of the month, we record the podcast live on Discord. So while most people download and listen to episodes after they are published, you can also join the live recordings on the Microsoft Open Source Discord to be part of the parallel live text chat. The text chat is quite fun.
Guests scheduled for future episodes
- David Rowley for Ep18 on Tue Aug 6 at 4:00pm PDT (an unusual timeslot due to David’s geography) to discuss How I got started as a developer & in Postgres
- Melanie Plageman and Richard Guo in Sep or Nov (date TBD) to discuss Becoming a Postgres committer 😊
- Tom Lane for Ep20 on Wed Oct 9 at 10:00am PDT to discuss How I got started as a developer & in Postgres
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/new-podcast-talking-postgres-2896/
CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor also linked to Linux kernel panics and crashes
date: 2024-07-21, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Rapid restore tool being tested as Microsoft estimates 8.5M machines went down
CrowdStrike’s now-infamous Falcon Sensor software, which last week led to widespread outages of Windows-powered computers, has also caused crashes of Linux machines.…
Biden is out, but is Harris in? California Democratic delegates now have sway in wild election
date: 2024-07-21, updated: 2024-07-21, from: The LAist
With President Joe Biden announcing today he won’t seek reelection and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, some California Democratic delegates quickly went along. The Democratic National Convention will decide the new nominee.
Episode 136 - Getting On TRAC
date: 2024-07-21, from: Advent of Computing
Have you ever formed a bad first impression? Way back when I formed a hasty impression of this language called TRAC. It’s been called a proto-esoteric language, and for good reason. It’s outlandish, complex, and confounding. But, after the urging of some listeners, I’ve decided to give TRAC a second look. What I’ve found is, perhaps, more confusing than I ever imagined. This episode we are looking at the wild history of TRAC, how it actually pioneered some good ideas, and why it feels so alien.
Selected Sources:
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/800197.806048 - 1965 TRAC paper
https://github.com/gmilmei/trac64 - TRAC64 processor in “modern” C
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/365230.365270 - 1966 TRAC paper, with more code!
https://adventofcomputing.libsyn.com/episode-136-getting-on-trac
Biden drops out and endorses Kamala Harris. What happens next?
date: 2024-07-21, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The LAist
The biggest question now hanging over the party’s next steps: Will anyone besides Harris run, or will Democrats essentially anoint her Biden’s successor without a public process?
https://laist.com/news/politics/biden-drops-out-and-endorses-kamala-harris-what-happens-next
Biden drops out of presidential race: What’s next?
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Signal
Biden endorsed Harris as the party nominee, but the Democratic ticket is still uncertain. By Jacob Burg and Emel Akan Contributing Writers President Joe Biden pulled out of the 2024 presidential […]
The post Biden drops out of presidential race: What’s next? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/07/biden-drops-out-of-presidential-race-whats-next/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Kamala v. Trump: A choice between democracy and dictatorship.
Biden Created A Crisis — His Withdrawal Is An Opportunity
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Lever News
The president damaged his party, but finally made the right decision. Now, there are huge opportunities, if Dems don’t repeat their mistakes.
https://www.levernews.com/biden-created-a-crisis-his-withdrawal-is-an-opportunity/
American Climate Policy Needed Biden
date: 2024-07-21, from: Heatmap News
What is so striking, in immediate retrospect, about many of Joe Biden’s accomplishments as president is how many of them depended on him.
Democrats had tried and failed for 30 years to pass a climate law through the Senate. Biden succeeded.
Now Biden, the 46th president of the United States, is dropping out of the presidential race. He announced the news today on the social network X, endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, who will now presumably take over the party’s nomination.
Biden has not done everything climate activists wanted. He has not declared a “climate emergency,” a legally controversial maneuver that could let him order individual companies to change their behavior and spend funds without Congress’s approval. And he has seemed flummoxed by how to sell his decarbonization program to the public without ignoring the economy’s ongoing dependence on fossil fuels. During his presidency, American oil and natural gas production has hit an all-time high, and the country has become the world’s largest fossil fuel exporter. Biden has not really advertised that fact, which would be popular, but he hasn’t run away from it, either — America’s achievement of energy dominance has sat in an odd, under-noticed spot in the discourse.
But Biden will leave office with easily the strongest climate record of any president — and one of the stronger environmental records, generally, in decades. Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in clean energy and decarbonization in American history. It is the first U.S. law that ties clean electricity incentives directly to the country’s carbon emissions, ensuring that tax credits will remain in place until the country hits its goals. But more broadly, he oversaw a revitalization of American industrial strategy, passing the bipartisan infrastructure law and CHIPS and Science Act, which both funded or expanded climate-friendly programs.
His administration also moved quickly to regulate greenhouse gas emissions using executive authority. In the past three years, the Environmental Protection Agency has begun to restrict heat-trapping emissions from power plants, cars, trucks, and oil and gas infrastructure. He also paused the government’s approval of new permits for liquified natural gas export terminals, although that pause has since been overturned by a federal court.
Could another president have accomplished as much? Even though the Inflation Reduction Act is largely the product of a Democratic Senate — of lawmakers drafting text on the issues that they know best — making that into law required Biden’s personal credibility with the labor movement and the party’s cadre of older, working class voters. It is difficult, if not impossible to imagine Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia — one of the chamber’s decisive votes in 2022 — negotiating and voting for the IRA without Biden’s persona. Biden could talk about the law’s aims to revitalize labor, could cast infrastructure and clean energy as jobs programs, without projecting the condescension or cross-class voyeurism that younger Democrats might have summoned.
His sense — which seemed to be held too by his most successful chief of staff, Ron Klain — that politics is above all a game of coalition management meant he was able to keep the fragile Democratic Party in line through the process. Biden often seemed, as his biographer Franklin Foer, put it, a man from a different time — “the last politician.”
But a tension between policy success and political setback has also defined Biden’s presidency. Again and again, he would pull off some difficult domestic policy — and then fail to communicate it to voters. He was foiled, in part, by the high inflation that plagued the U.S. economy throughout the first years of his term. But as his presidency went on, Biden also seemed to struggle with communication specifically. He never successfully sold voters — and specifically young people — on the value of his administration or on his climate accomplishments. As I wrote earlier this month, even voters who say they prioritize climate change told pollsters that they knew little about the IRA. That was and remains a tremendous missed opportunity, especially since — regardless of what voters say or know — a Trump administration and a Republican majority would gleefully gut the IRA if given the chance.
Now the Democratic party and its politicians must pick up where Biden’s team leaves off and defend his domestic climate accomplishments. Many of the IRA’s investments — and the ultimate fate of the EPA’s crackdown on greenhouse gas pollution — will be left to Harris to fight for. Whether she can convince voters that they are worth supporting will determine the long term success of America’s most important decarbonization policy — and whether it, or any climate policy, can survive the country’s deteriorating politics.
https://heatmap.news/politics/joe-biden-dropping-out-legacy
OpenBSD gets hardware accelerated video decoding/encoding
date: 2024-07-21, from: OS News
Only yesterday, I mentioned one of the main reasons I decided to switch back to Fedora from OpenBSD were performance issues – and one of them was definitely the lack of hardware acceleration for video decoding/encoding. The lack of such technology means that decoding/encoding video is done using the processor, which is far less efficient than letting your GPU do it – which results in performance issues like stuttering and tearing, as well as a drastic reduction in battery life. Well, that’s changed now. Thanks to the work of, well, many, a major commit has added hardware accelerated video decoding/encoding to OpenBSD. Hardware accelerated video decode/encode (VA-API) support is beginning to land in #OpenBSD -current. libva has been integrated into xenocara with the Intel userland drivers in the ports tree. AMD requires Mesa support, hence the inclusion in base. A number of ports will be adjusted to enable VA-API support over time, as they are tested. ↫ Bryan Steele This is great news, and a major improvement for OpenBSD and the community. Apparently, performance in Firefox is excellent, and with simply watching video on YouTube being something a lot of people do with their computers – especially laptops – anyone using OpenBSD is going to benefit immensely from this work.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140290/openbsd-gets-hardware-accelerated-video-decoding-encoding/
1989 networking: NetWare 386
date: 2024-07-21, from: OS News
NetWare 386 or 3.0 was a very limited release, with very few copies sold before it was superseded by newer versions. As such, it was considered lost to time, since it was only sold to large corporations – for a massive almost 8000 dollar price tag – who obviously didn’t care about software preservation. There are no original disks left, but a recent “warez” release has made the software available once again. As always, pirates save the day.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140287/1989-networking-netware-386/
US lawmakers stunned by Biden withdrawal
date: 2024-07-21, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-lawmakers-stunned-by-biden-withdrawal/7707095.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Biden’s Exit Puts The Spotlight On Harris And The DNC Delegates.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/bidens-exit-puts-the-spotlight-on-the-dnc-delegates
A look at Biden’s nearly 50 years in political office
date: 2024-07-21, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/a-look-at-biden-nearly-50-years-in-political-office/7707051.html
Using StrongED as a scripting aid for Python programming – MUG meeting, 24th July
date: 2024-07-21, from: RiscOS Story
There will be an out of schedule meeting held by the Midlands User Group (MUG), at which the group’s own John Rickman will discuss the use of StrongED as a scripting tool when programming in Python. MUG meetings are usually held on a Saturday afternoons, with some being held in person, and some online using Zoom. However, this meeting will instead be held on Wednesday, 24th July, at 7:30pm – presumably to get around other commitments, and possibly in the interests of encouraging attendance; a Saturday afternoon in the middle…
https://www.riscository.com/2024/stronged-scripting-aid-mug-24th-july/
WimpInfo 1.24 released
date: 2024-07-21, from: RiscOS Story
WimpInfo is a small application that was previously supplied by Quantum Software, and is now hosted here on RISCOSitory after Stuart Halliday announced he was shutting down the software house. Its purpose is to provide information about whatever is underneath the mouse pointer – information about windows, icons, menus, and so on. This can be useful to programmers when developing their applications to ensure their code is doing what they think it’s doing, and that they’ve set up those windows, icons, menus, and so on correctly. Fred Graute, of StrongED…
https://www.riscository.com/2024/wimpinfo-1-24-released/
‘Twisters’ whips up $80.5M at box office, while ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ looms
date: 2024-07-21, from: VOA News USA
ONEXPLAYER M1 is a mini PC with Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, OCuLink, and USB4
date: 2024-07-21, from: Liliputing
The ONEXPLAYER line of handheld gaming PCs have been around since 2021. But parent company One Netbook has been selling other types of computers including mini-laptops and tablets for even longer. Now the company is branching out with the introduction of a mini PC positioned as a compact gaming solution, although the upcoming ONEXPLAYER M1 could also […]
The post ONEXPLAYER M1 is a mini PC with Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, OCuLink, and USB4 appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/onexplayer-m1-is-a-mini-pc-with-intel-core-ultra-9-185h-oculink-and-usb4/
Pelosi’s successful move to help nudge Biden out: ‘For her, it’s all about winning’
date: 2024-07-21, updated: 2024-07-21, from: The LAist
Pelosi was one of key democrats that called on Biden to drop out of Presidential race
Radxa introduces ROCK 2A and ROCK 2F single-board PCs with RK3528A chips
date: 2024-07-21, from: Liliputing
Radxa has unveiled two low-cost single-board computers powered by Rockchip RK3528A processors with four ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores, Mali-450 graphics. The Radxa ROCK 2A is a credit card-sized computer with a Raspberry Pi-like 40-pin GPIO header, while the Radxa ROCK 2F is a smaller board with fewer ports. But both support 4K video playback, WiFi […]
The post Radxa introduces ROCK 2A and ROCK 2F single-board PCs with RK3528A chips appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/radxa-introduced-rock-2a-and-rock-2f-single-board-pcs-with-rk3528a-chips/
Californians and Hollywood react to Biden’s decision to drop out
date: 2024-07-21, updated: 2024-07-22, from: The LAist
Under significant pressure to step down, Biden says in a letter posted to social media it was his “greatest honor” to serve his country.
https://laist.com/news/politics/president-joe-biden-drops-out-of-presidential-race
Road Trippin’ with the Beach Boys
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Signal
The Beach Boys have made some of the most famous California music of all time. Among the band’s most popular hits are “California Girls,” “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “Good Vibrations,” “Barbara Ann,” […]
The post Road Trippin’ with the Beach Boys appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/07/road-trippin-with-the-beach-boys/
Deputies respond to firearm assault in Newhall
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Signal
Deputies with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station responded to an assault with a deadly weapon in Newhall on Saturday night, according to officials. Law enforcement personnel responded to a […]
The post Deputies respond to firearm assault in Newhall appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/07/deputies-respond-to-firearm-assault-in-newhall/
EV-Friendly Route 66 Road Trip
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Signal
By Visit California Trace the east-to-west path of this historic highway while also enjoying a few modern twists — like exploring it in an electric vehicle. This trip starts in […]
The post EV-Friendly Route 66 Road Trip appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/07/ev-friendly-route-66-road-trip/
Tips for Seniors to Safeguard Their Mental Health
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Signal
The wide-ranging impact and reach of mental health issues garnered considerable attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the virus as well as mandates designed to reduce its spread led to […]
The post Tips for Seniors to Safeguard Their Mental Health appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/07/tips-for-seniors-to-safeguard-their-mental-health/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Transcendental money is the amount of money required to transcend time.
http://scripting.com/davenet/2000/10/19/transcendentalMoney.html
Developing and Scanning My Own Color Film: A Rewarding, Infuriating Hobby
date: 2024-07-21, from: 404 Media Group
The magic of shooting, developing, and scanning my own photos has been one of the most rewarding hobbies I can imagine, but is also deeply frustrating.
https://www.404media.co/developing-and-scanning-my-own-color-film-a-rewarding-infuriating-hobby/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Opening your Threads account up to the fediverse.
https://www.theverge.com/24107998/threads-fediverse-mastodon-how-to
Electriq Power’s Inventory Auctioned Off for $4.9M
date: 2024-07-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The unknown buyer plans to restart the bankrupt solar company that left Santa Barbara County homeowners with liens, says bankruptcy trustee.
The post Electriq Power’s Inventory Auctioned Off for $4.9M appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/07/21/electriq-powers-inventory-auctioned-off-for-4-9m/
Toxic Herbicide Endangering Pregnant Farmworkers and Babies
date: 2024-07-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara County and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are warning farmers that the widely used herbicide DCPA, or Dacthal, has “serious, permanent, and irreversible health risks.”
The post Toxic Herbicide Endangering Pregnant Farmworkers and Babies appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/07/21/toxic-herbicide-endangering-pregnant-farmworkers-and-babies/
Killer Ants Invade Montecito
date: 2024-07-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office is battling an infestation of the destructive, potentially deadly red imported fire ants.
The post Killer Ants Invade Montecito appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/07/21/killer-ants-invade-montecito/
LEVER WEEKLY: Vance Takes Center (Far-Right) Stage
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Lever News
The Republican platform is embracing guns even after Trump’s assassination attempt, and more from The Lever this week.
https://www.levernews.com/lever-weekly-vance-takes-center-far-right-stage/
Managing Classic Mac OS resources in ResEdit
date: 2024-07-21, from: OS News
The Macintosh was intended to be different in many ways. One of them was its file system, which was designed for each file to consist of two forks, one a regular data fork as in normal file systems, the other a structured database of resources, the resource fork. Resources came to be used to store a lot of standard structured data, such as the specifications for and contents of alerts and dialogs, menus, collections of text strings, keyboard definitions and layouts, icons, windows, fonts, and chunks of code to be used by apps. You could extend the types of resource supported by means of a template, itself stored as a resource, so developers could define new resource types appropriate to their own apps. ↫ Howard Oakley And using ResEdit, a tool developed by Apple, you could manipulate the various resources to your heart’s content. I never used the classic Mac OS when it was current, and only play with it as a retro platform every now and then, so I ever used ResEdit when it was the cool thing to do. Looking back, though, and learning more about it, it seems like just another awesome capability that Apple lost along the way towards modern Apple. Perhaps I should load up on my old Macs and see with my own eyes what I can do with ResEdit.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140281/managing-classic-mac-os-resources-in-resedit/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-07-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Ghost has determined that the reason to support ActivityPub is to get interop with Mastodon.
https://activitypub.ghost.org/mapping-out-activitypub-support/
A California medical group treats only unhoused patients — and makes money doing it
date: 2024-07-21, updated: 2024-07-21, from: The LAist
These doctors, nurses, and social workers are fanning out on the streets of Los Angeles to provide health care and social services to homeless people
Thoughts on digital communities
date: 2024-07-21, from: Manu - I write blog
<p>I had some interesting exchanges recently with <a href="https://kevquirk.com">Kev</a>, <a href="http://ruk.ca">Peter</a>, and <a href="https://renecoignard.com">René</a>, all touching on the topic of communities, both on and offline. Communities, especially here in the digital space, are something I’m very interested in. It’s something I find myself thinking about often and I constantly have ideas for things I should try. But let me ask you a more fundamental question: what even is a community? Always useful to grab a definition as a starting point:</p>A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with a shared socially significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, town, or neighborhood) or in virtual space through communication platforms.
I think this is a good definition. We begin by making it clear that we need “living things” to have a community and considering the weird AI phase we’re going through that’s probably worth stating. So bots are out, humans are in.
We then move on to what makes a community a community: the sharing of some “socially significant characteristic”. In the context of online communities, I like to refer to that as the “what are we here for” characteristic. At a fundamental level, members of a community have to share the same motivations to be there in the first place. If those motivations start to diverge then things quickly fall apart.
It’s like politics. You can have different ideas on how things should be done—and we can debate those forever—but we have to agree that, at a fundamental, level we do want to move in the same general direction: make the place better. The devil’s in the details and we can discuss what better means but there has to be at least some common ground in the overall direction. Without that, things will fall apart. And things might fall apart even with a common ground!
Back to online communities. I have my place here on the web. I’m happy with my site, I’m happy with my projects. But I keep thinking that maybe there’s something else that can be done, that I should be doing. I keep bouncing around various digital places—mostly forums—and I have yet to find one that truly feels like the place where I want to be. Some move too fast, some don’t move at all. Some are narrowly focused on one thing, others are not focused at all and it’s pure chaos. And I don’t blame those places or the people who tried to create them. Creating a community is hard. Figuring out the right mixture of people is complicated. Figuring out the right amount of people is complicated. Group dynamics are never easy to navigate.
I’d love to know what you think about all this. Are there online places where you feel at home? Is there something you’re missing? Do you even care about all this? Let me know!
<hr>
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David Hegg | Making the Most of Marriage
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Signal
By David Hegg Over the years, I have watched in anguish from a front-row seat as couples, good people all, have ended their marriages in divorce. They started fine. Most […]
The post David Hegg | Making the Most of Marriage appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/07/david-hegg-making-the-most-of-marriage/
Larry Moore | Cease and Desist
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Signal
This letter is addressed to (far-left liberal) Signal contributors. Well, by the grace of God and a serendipitous turn of the head, your fondest wish was denied. If the assassin’s […]
The post Larry Moore | Cease and Desist appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/07/larry-moore-cease-and-desist/
Rick Barker | U.S. Military Branches
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Signal
People who were not in the military, and even some who were, often confuse the actual names of the individual branches, and the most frequent mistake is when everyone is […]
The post Rick Barker | U.S. Military Branches appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/07/rick-barker-u-s-military-branches/
Rob Kerchner | A Wise Decision?
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Signal
Joe Biden foolishly and illegally cancels the student debts of rioting college kids who themselves laud and protect killers and rapists. Rob Kerchner Valencia
The post Rob Kerchner | A Wise Decision? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/07/rob-kerchner-a-wise-decision/
Google URL Shortener links will no longer be available
date: 2024-07-21, from: OS News
In 2018, we announced the deprecation and transition of Google URL Shortener because of the changes we’ve seen in how people find content on the internet, and the number of new popular URL shortening services that emerged in that time. This meant that we no longer accepted new URLs to shorten but that we would continue serving existing URLs. Today, the time has come to turn off the serving portion of Google URL Shortener. Please read on below to understand more about how this will impact you if you’re using Google URL Shortener. ↫ Sumit Chandel and Eldhose Mathokkil Babu It should cost Google nothing to keep this running for as long as Google exists, and yet, this, too, has to be killed off and buried in the Google Graveyard. We’ll be running into non-resolving Google URL Shortener links for decades to come, both on large, popular websites a well as on obscure forums and small websites. You’ll find a solution to some obscure problem a decade from now, but the links you need will be useless, and you’ll rightfully curse Google for being so utterly petty. Relying on anything Google that isn’t directly serving its main business – ads – is a recipe for disaster, and will cause headaches down the line. Things like Gmail, YouTube, and Android are most likely fine, but anything consumer-focused is really a lottery.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140279/google-url-shortener-links-will-no-longer-be-available/
Today in SCV History (July 21)
date: 2024-07-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1952 – 7.5-magnitude Kern County earthquake devastates Tehachapi; damage spread from San Diego to Las Vegas [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-july-21/
AFC Bournemouth and Wrexham AFC Battle to 1-1 Draw Before Sold-Out Crowd at Harder Stadium
date: 2024-07-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
UC Santa Barbara’s Harder Stadium hosted a match up of two up-and-coming British teams.
The post AFC Bournemouth and Wrexham AFC Battle to 1-1 Draw Before Sold-Out Crowd at Harder Stadium appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
The Transiting Los Angeles Podcast – #9: The Future, Revisited
date: 2024-07-21, from: Transiting Los Angeles
In this episode, John offers some updates on Metro’s ongoing construction projects and shares some thoughts on even more projects in the works.
https://transitinglosangeles.com/2024/07/20/podcast-9-the-future-revisited/
What CrowdStrike teaches us about risks & resilience
date: 2024-07-21, from: Om Malik blog
I had to bite my tongue and not comment on this tweet from FTC Chair Lina Khan, who tried to make the current CrowdStrike situation a crisis because of “big tech” and “consolidation.” “How is it that you don’t understand systems, or their inherent complexity?”, I wanted to scream. Well, if you give someone a …
https://om.co/2024/07/20/what-crowdstrike-crisis-teaches-us-about-risks-resilience/
Mike Garcia | By Uniting, We Shall Stand
date: 2024-07-21, from: The Signal
Abraham Lincoln ended his First Inaugural Address with a plea for national unity. “We are not enemies, but friends … Though passion may have strained, it must not break our […]
The post Mike Garcia | By Uniting, We Shall Stand appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/07/mike-garcia-by-uniting-we-shall-stand/
Flying home in the age of #CrowdStroke
date: 2024-07-21, from: Ze Iaso’s blog
Autobiographical notes on my trip home from DevRelCon 2024
https://xeiaso.net/notes/2024/flying-home-crowdstroke/
Full Circle Weekly News 375
date: 2024-07-21, from: Full Circle Magazine
Credits
- Host: @bardictriad, @zaivala
- Bumper: Canonical
- Theme Music: From The Dust - Stardust
- https://soundcloud.com/ftdmusic
- CC BY 4.0