Miscellaneous Tech News
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Full-face hot-wax TikTok videos prompt warnings
Viral videos of people having full-face "hot wax" treatments on TikTok have led to warnings from skin experts.
They show softened resin covering subjects' face, mouth and neck - and partially penetrating their ears and nose - before being removed. A barber posting some of the most watched examples says it is beneficial. But the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) said: "Attempting to wax inside your nose or ears is not recommended." A UK-based skin specialist has also raised safety concerns about the risk of obstructed breathing. And one expert has suggested TikTok should add a warning. -
Bill Gates: Solving Covid easy compared with climate
Fifty-one billion and zero - the two numbers Bill Gates says you need to know about climate.
Solving climate change would be "the most amazing thing humanity has ever done", says the billionaire founder of Microsoft. By comparison, ending the pandemic is "very, very easy", he claims. Mr Gates's new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, is a guide to tackling global warming. Don't underestimate the scale of the challenge, he told me when we spoke last week. "We've never made a transition like we're talking about doing in the next 30 years. There is no precedent for this." Fifty-one billion is how many tonnes of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere each year. -
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Reddit removed 6% of all posts made last year
Reddit removed 6% of all content posted in 2020, according to the site's annual transparency report.
Of the 3.4 billion posts made by its users in 2020, 233 million were removed - almost all for spam. More than 99% of removals were classed as spam, with the remainder made up of a mix of offensive content - including harassment, violent speech and sexualisation of minors. The number of removed posts rose almost 30% year on year. More than 131 million posts were removed by the platform's automated moderator, while the rest were taken down personally by administrators. The automated moderator bot is used to approve posts made in Reddit's myriad small communities - called subreddits - and it has the power to remove any images or text submissions that contain banned words or phrases. -
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Nvidia limits crypto-mining on new graphics card
Graphics card-maker Nvidia says it will deliberately reduce the efficiency of its latest card by 50% when it is used to mine the crypto-currency Ethereum.
Crypto-currency enthusiasts have contributed to a shortage of graphics cards by snapping up supplies to use for non-gaming purposes. Nvidia said it had intervened to make sure its products "end up in the hands of gamers". But it will also sell a bespoke crypto-currency mining processor. Graphics cards (GPUs) are a crucial component of a gaming PC. A modern card can produce the high-resolution and high frame-rate graphics that gamers expect. But several factors, including manufacturing delays during the coronavirus pandemic, have contributed to a shortage. -
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https://klarasystems.com/articles/openzfs-draid-finally/
OpenZFS gets dRAID
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@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
https://klarasystems.com/articles/openzfs-draid-finally/
OoenZFS gets dRAID
Is that like druid?
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Margaret Mitchell: Google fires AI ethics founder
Google has fired the founder and co-head of its artificial intelligence ethics unit, claiming she violated the company's code of conduct.
In a statement, Google said an investigation found Margaret Mitchell had moved files outside the company. The ethics unit has been under scrutiny since December, following the departure of another senior figure, Timnit Gebru. Both women had campaigned for more diversity at Google and raised concerns about censorship within the company. Ms Mitchell announced the news in a tweet, which read "I'm fired". For the past five weeks she had been locked out of Google's systems, including her emails and calendars. -
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Musk: Starlink will hit 300Mbps and expand to “most of Earth” this year
SpaceX CEO teases higher speeds, lower latency, and near-global coverage.
Starlink broadband speeds will double to 300Mbps "later this year," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter yesterday. SpaceX has been telling users to expect speeds of 50Mbps to 150Mbps since the beta began a few months ago. Musk also wrote that "latency will drop to ~20ms later this year." This is no surprise, as SpaceX promised latency of 20ms to 40ms during the beta and had said months ago that "we expect to achieve 16ms to 19ms by summer 2021." It sounds like the speed and latency improvements will roll out around the same time as when Starlink switches from beta to more widespread availability. Two weeks ago, Starlink opened preorders for service expected to be available in the second half of 2021, albeit with limited availability in each region. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Musk: Starlink will hit 300Mbps and expand to “most of Earth” this year
SpaceX CEO teases higher speeds, lower latency, and near-global coverage.
Starlink broadband speeds will double to 300Mbps "later this year," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter yesterday. SpaceX has been telling users to expect speeds of 50Mbps to 150Mbps since the beta began a few months ago. Musk also wrote that "latency will drop to ~20ms later this year." This is no surprise, as SpaceX promised latency of 20ms to 40ms during the beta and had said months ago that "we expect to achieve 16ms to 19ms by summer 2021." It sounds like the speed and latency improvements will roll out around the same time as when Starlink switches from beta to more widespread availability. Two weeks ago, Starlink opened preorders for service expected to be available in the second half of 2021, albeit with limited availability in each region.Can't get Starlink here until 2022. Not that I need it now, just saying. 300Mbps is around or a little higher than what I get now for free.
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Spot: Boston Dynamics condemns robot paintball rampage plan
A US art installation that will let people control a paintballing robot in a mock art gallery has been condemned by the firm that made the robo-dog.
Boston Dynamics criticised the project, calling it a "provocative use" of its quadruped robot, Spot. It warned that if the "spectacle" goes ahead, Spot's warranty might be voided, meaning it could not be updated. The group behind it, MSCHF, argues that Spot or robots like it will probably be used for military applications. The group is known for creating viral stunts, stories and products. The project, entitled Spot's Rampage, is due to start at 13:00 EST (18:00 GMT) on Wednesday, and will let people "remotely control a Spot robot" via a website. -
Bill Gates: Bitcoin not for me, says ex-Microsoft chief
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has not invested in Bitcoin, he said in a live chat on the social network Clubhouse.
Mr Gates told host Andrew Sorkin that he preferred to invest in companies "that make products", citing malaria and measles vaccines as examples. The billionaire said he did not choose his investments on the basis of whether they would be worth more to others. In an earlier interview he had discussed Tesla founder Elon Musk's enthusiasm for the virtual currency. "My general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out," he told Bloomberg. "Elon has tonnes of money and he's very sophisticated, so I don't worry that his Bitcoin will sort of randomly go up or down." -
New slate of Starlink satellites launching.
https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-17-internet-satellites-launch-webcast
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@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
New slate of Starlink satellites launching.
https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-17-internet-satellites-launch-webcast
Scrubbed
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@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
New slate of Starlink satellites launching.
https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-17-internet-satellites-launch-webcast
Scrubbed
Dammit
