Harvard University disbanded its team of disinformation experts, led by Dr. Joan Donovan, after receiving a $500 million donation from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
The team at Harvard's Technology and Social Change Research Project was investigating Facebook's awareness of the harm caused by its platform.
The whistleblower disclosure emphasizes the importance of protecting public interest research from powerful corporate interests and calls for an investigation into potential inappropriate influence at Harvard.
Django 5.0 has been released, featuring new functionalities like database-computed default values, generated model fields, and field groups for form field rendering.
Django 4.2 has reached the end of mainstream support, so it's crucial for users to upgrade to ensure they receive security fixes.
Django 4.1 has also reached the end of extended support, making it necessary for users to upgrade to Django 4.2 or a later version.
DjangoCon Europe 2024 has been scheduled for June 5, 2024, in Vigo, Spain.
Django is a popular framework known for its simplicity, productivity, and built-in features like the admin system.
Alternatives like Wagtail and FastAPI are suggested by some users, highlighting the drawbacks of Django.
Discussions also cover topics such as using htmx for client-side rendering, performance issues with database queries, and the importance of monitoring and optimizing performance.
Disinformation scholar Joan Donovan accuses Harvard University of firing her to appease Facebook and violating her right to free speech.
Donovan claims her dismissal was due to Harvard receiving a $500 million pledge from Mark Zuckerberg's charitable arm and her involvement with the Facebook Papers.
Harvard denies firing Donovan and asserts that she was offered a part-time adjunct lecturer position, prompting Donovan to file a legal statement with the Education Department and Massachusetts attorney general for an investigation into her dismissal and Harvard's alleged deception of donors.
Recent discussions and incidents at Harvard University have raised concerns about research funding and the influence of major donors.
Allegations of research suppression, conflicts of interest, and unethical actions by university officials have been brought to light.
The discussions also explore topics such as academic freedom, the ethics of accepting restricted funding, and the role of bribery in economic systems, emphasizing the need for transparency and integrity in research institutions.
The conversation revolves around the Dogbolt Decompiler Explorer and its performance, along with other code disassembling and decompiling tools like Binary Ninja and Ghidra.
Hex-Rays and Vector 35 showcase their decompiling capabilities in HexRays Online, a sponsored platform.
The conversation also mentions "agoprev," a website for sharing binaries and making comparisons with similar platforms, and the popularity of the GCC Explorer tool. The creator of Godbolt denies any intentional influence from Dogpile.
YouTuber pilot Trevor Daniel Jacob has been sentenced to six months in federal prison for obstructing a federal investigation into a plane crash that he deliberately caused for online views.
Jacob destroyed the wreckage of the airplane and lied to investigators about its location, while also monetizing the crash through a YouTube video promoting a wallet.
The investigation was conducted by the United States Department of Transportation – Office of Inspector General, with assistance from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
A YouTuber has been sentenced to six months in prison for hindering a federal investigation into a plane crash, shedding light on the repercussions of cover-ups.
Failed cover-ups can garner attention and provide more evidence for prosecution, emphasizing the potential risks involved.
The conversation delves into violations of aviation maintenance regulations, intentional acts causing plane crashes, legal ramifications, potential penalties, control in aviation, and the limited implementation of "disgorgement."
The discussion covers various TV settings and features, including local dimming, HDMI overscan, microphones, frame interpolation, animation, video display, motion interpolation, and high frame rates in films.
Opinions on high frame rates vary, with some viewers finding it unnatural and uncomfortable, while others enjoy it.
Black frame insertion is mentioned as an alternative to reduce stuttering but results in a loss of brightness. Some individuals may experience headaches or migraines when watching videos with low frame rates.
Different TV models and their capabilities are also discussed, along with ad blocking and unskippable ads.
The debate around preserving the original artistic intent of creators is touched upon.
The academic article criticized by the author provides crime rate forecasts without including prediction intervals.
The author demonstrates with ARIMA models in Python how reasonable forecast error intervals should be included for accurate interpretation of trends.
The author highlights the importance of including error bars and criticizes the original article for overfitting models and misinterpreting correlations. They conclude that macro-level crime forecasts are not useful for policy response and suggest alternative methods for allocating resources to address crime.
Incorporating error bars or uncertainty intervals in forecasting and statistical analyses is crucial for improving the reliability of scientific models and forecasts.
Discussions highlight the value of forecasting in decision-making and the challenges of accurately measuring and predicting certain outcomes.
The preference for non-traditional economic ideas in academia, different terminology for representing uncertainty intervals, and the difficulty of estimating conditional quantiles are also covered in the discussions.
The author of the post found a way to make opponents concede in the game Magic: The Gathering Arena and informed the game developers about it.
The post explains why card games like Magic: The Gathering are generally more resistant to hacking.
The author discovered a bot logic within the game that runs locally on the player's machine and used it to make opponents automatically concede in a regular match. They shared the code and reported the issue to the game developers.
The article explores a user's experience in hacking Magic the Gathering: Arena to achieve a 100% win rate.
It discusses network traffic sniffing and encryption as measures to prevent cheating in the game.
The article also delves into the affordability and complexity of the game, including infinite loops, unresolvable game states, and the rules surrounding them.
Google's code review tool, Critique, is highly regarded and has a high satisfaction rate among software engineers.
The article discusses Google's guidelines for efficient code reviews and highlights the features of Critique, as well as recent advancements in AI-powered code review tools.
It provides insights into Google's code review process, including statistics on code review at the company, and concludes by highlighting the reasons why Critique is so highly regarded by Googlers.
This article explores different aspects of code reviews, including the use of various tools and the importance of consistent variable naming conventions.
It discusses subjective feedback, code readability, logic, and naming conventions, as well as nitpicking in coding.
The article also covers the role of code reviews in maintaining code quality, including the use of AI suggestions, the debate on how strict code reviews should be, and evaluating engineers based on comment quantity.
A judge in West Virginia has denied Amazon's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the company over a spy camera sold on its platform.
The plaintiff alleges that Amazon inspected the camera multiple times but failed to prevent it from being used to capture photos in her private bathroom.
The judge ruled that Amazon cannot claim shock as the product descriptions suggested using it to record private moments in a bathroom.
Hidden spy cameras disguised as everyday items are being sold on Amazon, causing controversy and raising questions about legality, ethics, and responsibility.
There is a debate about regulating third-party sellers and the decline in product quality, as well as concerns about invasion of privacy and the facilitation of potential illegal activities.
Different perspectives exist, with arguments made for legitimate uses of these devices as well as concerns about their potential misuse.
Zen is an open source ad blocker that is being discussed by users.
Users have expressed security concerns and suggested improvements like a FAQ section and the ability to choose upstream DNS servers.
There are mixed opinions about blocking ad traffic at the network level, and discussions also cover challenges of blocking network traffic and the importance of user-defined non-secure proxies.
Trustworthiness of software developers and the effectiveness of ad-blocking methods on platforms like YouTube are also topics of discussion.
Various ad-blocking tools and their performance are mentioned in the summary.
DoorDash is implementing operational changes in response to new minimum pay requirements for food delivery workers in New York City.
Dashers will now receive a minimum of $29.93 per hour, excluding tips, which is nearly double the NYC minimum wage.
The option to tip in the app will be shifted after checkout to accommodate increased fees, and the Dasher Priority Access program will be temporarily paused. DoorDash will also continue to engage with policymakers and expects further operational adjustments.
The discussion centers around food delivery services, particularly DoorDash and Uber Eats.
Topics include minimum pay for delivery workers, health risks for cyclists, tax implications for gig workers, concerns about delivery drivers' practices, tipping's impact on the restaurant industry, and the availability and sustainability of food delivery.
Other points of debate include alternative delivery models, the viability and profitability of food delivery platforms, challenges faced by these platforms, and the financial situation of companies like Uber.
Upgrading Kubernetes clusters can be challenging and complex, prompting the idea of implementing a long-term support (LTS) release with a fixed support period.
An LTS release could offer organizations a more manageable upgrade cycle and encourage better cluster management practices.
The revival of the LTS workgroup brings anticipation for potential progress in this area, which could benefit Kubernetes operators globally and simplify the third-party ecosystem.
There is an ongoing debate regarding whether Kubernetes needs a Long-Term Support (LTS) version.
Some argue for frequent upgrades to prevent outdated and unsupported software, while others emphasize the need for stability and LTS editions due to organizational constraints.
The discussion also includes alternative solutions, challenges of maintenance and continuous operation, system management, different approaches to updates, running Kubernetes on different platforms, and the importance of compatibility and careful planning.