Starlink, a division of SpaceX, is launching a Direct to Cell feature that will provide global LTE phones with uninterrupted access to text, voice, and data services.
The new technology, operating as space-based cellphone towers, allows connectivity in remote locations and removes dead zones, without necessitating modifications to the existing hardware or apps.
Leveraging SpaceX's know-how in rocket manufacturing and launching, Starlink aims to deploy these cell-service-supporting satellites in large numbers, with global cellular providers sharing network access in partnering nations.
The discussions range from satellite communication benefits in remote areas, challenges of using smartphones in extreme temperatures, and messaging apps in low-bandwidth situations, to the merits of dedicated devices over phones for safety in the wilderness.
Key focuses are the potential benefits of Starlink Direct to Cell and Starlink in remote areas, collaborations with companies such as Apple and Google, as well as pricing, regulatory, and licensing issues related to satellite services.
They also consider emergency communication devices like Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs), and compare the advantages and limitations of different satellite networks. Personal experiences provide insightful contexts.
The America the Beautiful - The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Access Pass, a free pass available to US citizens or permanent residents with enduring disabilities, can be obtained in person or online.
Applicants must furnish documents evidencing their permanent disability to acquire the pass.
The Interagency Access Pass aids people with disabilities by providing easier access to national parks and federal recreational lands.
The discussions cover a range of topics including difficulties experienced by individuals with disabilities, the reassessment of ADHD as a disability, and the broader understanding and perception of disabilities in society.
It also addresses matters concerning healthcare, housing, and the effects of ADHD on individuals' lives.
The conversations express a variety of opinions and viewpoints.
"Introduction to Modern Statistics (2nd Ed)" is a textbook authored by Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel and Johanna Hardin, derived from previous editions by Diez, Barr, and Çetinkaya-Rundel.
The book is available for free download, providing access to affordable educational material to students and enthusiasts alike.
The book is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, which permits and encourages the distribution and sharing of the work.
The post discusses the application of modern statistics and software called JASP to compare frequentist and Bayesian methods, which are statistical approaches to interpreting data.
The author advocates a shift towards the use of linear models and Bayesian techniques in statistics education, suggesting a need for a transformation in the current teaching methods.
The discussion includes personal struggles with math, possible negative attitudes towards it, and book recommendations for learning statistics, specifically highlighting "Statistics" by Carlson & Winquist. Commenters are interested in learning more about the application of Bayesian network frameworks and the use of the R programming language.
The topic revolves around the copyright legality of unlicensed fonts on the web, where US law disallows copyright of individual glyphs but permits for copyrighting the font file.
Trademarked fonts are protected under the law, while non-trademarked glyphs are not susceptible to copyright.
The author considers using public, non-creative, non-trademarked fonts to recreate licensed ones, recognizing the complexity of such an endeavor, and ends by asserting the significance of supporting font creators by purchasing fonts legally.
Google Cloud has introduced major price-performance enhancements to their Cloud Spanner database which include up to 50% higher throughput and 2.5 times more storage per node, without any extra cost.
The updated Cloud Spanner, renowned for high performance, availability, and scalability, now becomes an even more cost-optimal solution for organizations handling large data volumes and application requirements.
Comparatively, Spanner is now more cost-effective than Amazon DynamoDB. These updates are currently available for some instance configurations, with a complete rollout planned for all Spanner customers in the near future.
The discussion primarily centers around cloud service providers, specifically contrasting Google Cloud Spanner and Amazon DynamoDB on aspects like pricing and user experience.
Other discussed themes include support and reliability issues, suitability of different databases for particular applications, the usage of serverless computing, and the application of specialized databases.
There is an evident concern over vendor lock-in and pricing stability within the cloud services industry, reflecting users’ experiences and opinions.
Grind is an updated first-person shooter game for Amiga 500, developed with the Dread-Engine. It's built around a Steampunk/Lovecraftian aesthetic and features high-quality weapon designs.
The latest update includes a demo and a new level set in a city, with future development plans for additional levels and enemy types.
Music support, sound effects, and more levels are currently in progress, supported by a Patreon. Additionally, a Mega Drive version of the game is currently under consideration.
The focal point of the post is the game "Grind" for the Amiga 500, applauded for its meticulous detailing and exceptional 3D graphics, recalling the work of the Bitmap Brothers.
The conversation covers Sega's strategy towards 3D gaming and its influence on video game consoles.
Other subjects include the Amiga 500's constraints and potential, developer attempts at optimization, and comparisons with other gaming platforms, with numerous users expressing their admiration for the game's performance on Amiga 500, despite early doubt.
WordPress.com has launched the ActivityPub feature, allowing users to link their blogs with federated platforms such as Mastodon to reach a broader audience.
The ActivityPub plugin aids in effortless integration, enabling readers to follow blog posts and convert replies into comments on the blog.
Users can enhance their profiles with a custom domain and can activate this feature through their blog settings, intending to boost engagement and reach for WordPress.com blogs.
WordPress.com has integrated the ActivityPub, a decentralized social networking protocol, enabling users to publish and share content in the fediverse.
This move grants its extensive user base access to the decentralized social media movement, though some users express concern over moderation and the discrepancies in user interface (UI).
Note the distinction between WordPress.com, which implemented these changes, and the open-source iteration of WordPress.
"Obligator" is a project developing an OpenID Connect Provider (OP) server, designed for self-hosting with the specific goal to validate email ownership and communicate that to the application the user is accessing.
This project supports features like anonymous OAuth2 clients, multi-domain authentication, passwordless email login and configurable runtime via an API.
Currently, the project is in beta and not suitable for production usage until it has passed a security review.
The post is about Obligator, an OpenID Connect server tailor-made for self-hosting purposes.
Discussions expand to include alternative authentication services like Zitadel, Authentik, and Keycloak, delving into their challenges and limitations, including issues with email and social login options.
There is reference to Ory stack and others such as Hydra, Kratos, and Oathkeeper, with ongoing debates about their security measures and user interface aspects.
The article outlines how to create a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) all-sky camera using Raspberry Pi, a series of small and affordable computers that are widely used in tech projects.
The homemade camera is purposed to capture images of the entire night sky, specifically meteors, and can aid in scientific studies regarding meteor trajectories.
It provides an in-depth guide on the components necessary and the procedure for setting up the camera and also features other similar projects using such cameras for meteor study.
The article delves into the experience and advice from users utilizing Raspberry Pi cameras for all-sky photography, addressing typical concerns such as camera dome scratches, temperature impact on manual focus cameras, and leveraging cold weather for better long-exposure photographs.
Readers express a longing for high-quality cameras from Raspberry Pi, discussing specifics like exposure time, sensor size, low-light performance, potential sun damage, and primarily the limitations and quality of the Raspberry Pi HQ Camera in astronomy and similar projects.
The conversation acknowledges the limitations of MIPI cameras and emphasizes the crucial role of optics for high-quality imagery; some users recommend alternative cameras with superior quality and light sensitivity.
The llama.cpp code in a GitHub repository has been updated, incorporating parallel decoding with attention masks to enhance the code's efficiency.
Modifications include improving performance via KV cache optimization, multi-sequence decoding, and updates to RoPE, session saving/loading, as well as parallel processing.
Changes also encompass the disabling of concurrency optimization for graph topology modifications and adaptations in M2 Ultra model size tests.
The discussion examines the features of Apple's new M2 Ultra chip and analyzes the merits and demerits of utilizing cloud services as opposed to on-premises infrastructure.
It also debates the advantages and disadvantages of self-hosting services versus outsourcing them and explores the potential use of Apple Mac Minis in data centers.
The discussion also touches on the employment of Large Language Models (LLMs) as well as business opportunities and obstacles that arise in connection with an open-source technology called LLAMA.
K3s is a compact Kubernetes version built for IoT and edge computing, designed to function effectively in remote and resource-limited environments.
It is bundled as a single binary to lessen dependencies and make installation easier, supporting both ARM64 and ARMv7 architectures, making it suitable for small devices like Raspberry Pi to larger servers.
As a Cloud Native Computing Foundation sandbox project, users can start using K3s by downloading it and running it on their server, and then adding agent nodes.
The article discusses the author's positive experiences using K3s, a lightweight variant of Kubernetes, with sqlite for a single-node setup in a homelab setting.
The post also delves into a comparison between shared block storage solutions like Longhorn, Ceph, and Rook, and container orchestration platforms, specifically Kubernetes versus Nomad.
The suitability of these technologies is debated, with opinions ranging from Kubernetes being potentially overkill for many companies, to the recommendation of lightweight alternatives like K0s, and tools like Rancher Desktop, depending on specific needs and preferences.
The article gives an overview of the Curry-Howard correspondence, linking mathematical proofs and computer programs, suggesting equivalency between types and programs in computer science and propositions and proofs in logical disciplines.
Potential applications and implications of this correspondence are touched upon, including its pertinence to software verification procedures and the development of proof assistants.
It highlights that this link between computation and logic isn't confined to intuitionistic logic alone and mentions its foundational nature, evident in its discovery by multiple researchers.
The Hacker News discussion revolves around the correlation between mathematical proofs and computer programs, along with the role of mathematics in programming.
Participants voice challenges in achieving provably correct timing, the accessibility of abstract concepts, and the need for practical applications for learning.
The conversation also delves into the Curry-Howard Isomorphism and the use of theorem-proving languages to verify program properties.
Metric time is a system dividing the day into 10 hours, each hour comprising 100 minutes, and each minute containing 100 seconds, thereby simplifying mental math and dealing with different time zones.
In the metric time system, there is no distinction between AM and PM, with a day simply consisting of 10 hours.
The concept behind metric time is likened to monetary thinking, where each metric hour is equivalent to a 100-dollar bill and each metric minute akin to a 1-dollar bill, totaling to 1,000 minutes and 100,000 seconds per day.
The primary debate centers on the proposal of applying a decimal or metric system for measuring time, with advocates arguing it would streamline calculations and align with the existing metric system.
Critics, however, foresee potential issues regarding precision, implementation-related challenges, and societal adjustments that the new system might necessitate.
Discussions also extend to alternative time measurement systems and potential calendar reforms.
The author is reaching out for knowledge from individuals who have found permanent respite from tinnitus, a medical condition causing ringing in the ears.
The author shows skepticism towards treatments that merely diminish symptoms and is seeking to find out if complete relief is achievable.
This summary highlights online conversations around tinnitus, where people share personal experiences and strategies to manage the condition including but not limited to sound therapy and lifestyle adjustments.
The focus is on the essential role of tailored approaches, professional help when required, and the importance of hearing protection.
The discussions illuminate the impact of tinnitus on mental health and introduce emerging treatments, underlining the fact that while there is no broad cure for tinnitus, individual strategies can help manage it.
On October 11, 2023, Microsoft Corporation disclosed that it has received Notices of Proposed Adjustments (NOPAs) from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) relating to tax years between 2004 and 2013.
The IRS has demanded an extra $28.9 billion in taxes in addition to penalties and interest, revolving around the issue of intercompany transfer pricing.
Microsoft insists on disputing the NOPAs through administrative appeals and possibly judicial proceedings, evidently not expecting a final resolution or significant changes in its tax contingencies within the subsequent 12 months.
The IRS is demanding an additional tax payment of $29 billion from Microsoft for not correctly allocating its income and expenses from 2004 to 2013. Microsoft is contesting these proposed adjustments, and the resolution is expected to take over a year.
While Microsoft has the financial capability to cover the tax payment, it could impact their future strategies and acquisitions, especially their rumoured plan to acquire a $30 billion company.
Despite Microsoft potentially facing regulatory penalties and scrutiny, the stock market response has been lukewarm, suggesting that investors are sceptical about Microsoft paying the full tax amount.