Boing Boing

Solid objects turn out to be mostly made of empty space and whirling particles, but we act as though they're solid, because we rarely have to interact with them in such a granular way that involves their underlying complexity.In the same way, solid iron-clad concepts turn out to be riddled with exceptions that we generally ignore because they're easy to deal with on a case-by-case basis. But when a programmer has to create a system that everyone can use, suddenly these "edge cases" grow to devour the project.For example: human names are (really) weird. Building a system that can accept all the names people have is really hard. There's actually a giant list of human concepts that are hard to capture in software design.A worthy addition to that list: Dave Delong's Calendrical Fallacies, AKA lies programmers believe about dates.An hour will never occur twice in a single dayFalse. On days when we “leap back” for the Daylight Saving Time shift, one hour occurs twice. For example, in the United States, the hour that occurs twice is the 1 AM hour. This means that on these “fall back” days, correctly-implemented clocks will go from 1:58 … 1:59 … 1:00 … 1:01 … … 1:59 … 2:00 … 2:01 …This leads to some interesting questions: If a user has set an alarm to wake up at 1 AM on that day, what happens? Does the alarm go off the hour after the midnight hour? Read the rest

Jack Poulson is one of several googlers to quit the company over Project Dragonfly, the company's secret plan to launch a Chinese search tool that will incorporate state surveillance and censorship on behalf of China's authoritarian government.Now, Poulson has sent a letter to the US Senate detailing the internal workings of Project Dragonfly, confirming that the tool is designed to block such queries as "student protest" and "Nobel prize," and to facilitate tracking users whose search history reveals an interest in politically sensitive topics.Google confirmed that this product has been developed, but insisted that the product is "not close to launch."The letter alleges Google is working on:* A prototype interface designed to allow a Chinese joint venture company to search for a given user's search queries based on their phone number* An extensive censorship blacklist developed in accordance with Chinese government demands. Among others, it contained the English term "human rights", the Mandarin terms for 'student protest' and 'Nobel prize', and very large numbers of phrases involving 'Xi Jinping' and other members of the CCP* Explicit code to ensure only Chinese government-approved air quality data would be returned in response to Chinese users' searchEx-Google employee warns of ‘disturbing’ China plans [Dave Lee/BBC] Read the rest

As the tide of public opinion turns against monopolism, Amazon has become the poster child for irredeemable, late-stage capitalism; the company's ham-fisted attempts to burnish its reputation have not stemmed the tide.As a result, union drives among Amazon workers -- including those at Amazon subsidiaries like Whole Foods -- have gained steam.Like other giants -- McDonald's, Walmart, etc -- Amazon is staunchly opposed to unionization by its workforce. In a 45-minute video aimed at Amazon managers and leaked to Gizmodo, the company sets out a playbook for suppressing unionization drives. Gizmodo did not release the video in order to protect its source, but it does describe each of the video's six sections in detail, and supplements it with screenshots (Amazon accused Gizmodo of "cherry-picking" in its characterization of the video, but declined to release the video in full, or clarify what the video's actual message was).Here are a few of the (extensive) examples “that can indicate associate disengagement, vulnerability to organizing, or early organizing activity,” according to the video:* Use of words like “living wage” and “steward”* Distribution of petitions and fliers* Associates raising concerns on behalf of their coworkers* Wearing union t-shirts, hats, or jackets* Workers “who normally aren’t connected to each other suddenly hanging out together”* Workers showing an “unusual interest in policies, benefits, employee lists, or other company information”* Increased negativity in the workplace* “[A]ny other associate behavior that is out of character”The training video then asks managers to listen to 10 hypothetical employees and select whether their remarks constitute a “warning sign” or “innocent interaction.” Workers loitering in the break room after their shift, asking for a list of the site’s roster, or complaining about the absence of a living wage fall into the “warning sign” category. Read the rest

Do your college essays still give you nightmares? You're not alone. A blank page or screen can be a terrifying sight, but a University of Cambridge tutor's new course can help you hit that keyboard with confidence.Dr. Clare Lynch has de-mystified academic writing and communication for students, business executives and government officials worldwide, and that experience is packed into her comprehensive course Writing With Impact: Writing That Persuades. Whether you're looking to present your best self in a business proposal, cover letter or blog, Lynch's examples will clear the path to winning prose. Over 4 hours of training, you'll develop your voice and confidence as a writer and learn valuable persuasion techniques that professional writers use. Whether you're writing outreach emails or commerce posts, you'll be able to improve your writing skills and get better results.This course is only $9.99 when you enroll today. Read the rest

Team Coco has announced that Conan O'Brien is going on an 18-U.S.-city stand-up comedy tour with his "funniest friends."Info below (links mine):Tickets Go on Sale Friday, September 28Featuring Rory Scovel, James Veitch, Marina Franklin, and Flula Borg.Fri, Nov 2 - Washington, D.C. (Warner Theatre)Sat, Nov 3 - Atlantic City (The Music Box)Sun, Nov 4 - Detroit, MI (The Fillmore)Tue, Nov 6 - Boston, MA (Wilbur Theatre)Wed, Nov 7 - Port Chester, NY (Capitol Theatre)Thu, Nov 8 - New York City, NY (Beacon Theatre)Featuring Ron Funches, James Veitch, Taylor Tomlinson, and Flula Borg.Thu, Nov 15 – Atlanta, GA (The Tabernacle)Fri, Nov 16 - Houston, TX (Revention Center)Sat, Nov 17 - Austin, TX (ACL Moody Theatre)Sun, Nov 18 - Nashville, TN (War Memorial Auditorium)Wed, Nov 28 - Chicago, IL (Chicago Theatre)Thu, Nov 29 - Minneapolis, MN (The Orpheum Theatre)Fri, Nov 30 - Milwaukee, WI (Riverside Theatre)Featuring Deon Cole, Ron Funches, James Veitch and Flula Borg.Sun, Dec 9 - Los Angeles, CA (The Wiltern)Featuring Ron Funches, Laurie Kilmartin, Moses Storm, and Flula Borg.Tue, Dec 11- Seattle, WA (Moore Theatre)Wed, Dec 12 - Denver, CO (Paramount Theatre)Fri, Dec 14 - Vancouver, BC (Queen Elizabeth Theatre)Sat, Dec 15 - San Francisco, CA (The Masonic) Read the rest

In All You Need is “Love”: Evading Hate Speech Detection, a Finnish-Italian computer science research team describe their research on evading hate-speech detection algorithms; their work will be presented next month in Toronto at the ACM Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Security.As Big Tech has gotten bigger and taken on an outsized role in some of the most toxic and dangerous trends in world affairs -- from institutional misogyny to acts of genocide -- there have been louder and louder calls for the platforms to police their users' conduct and speech. The platforms have responded by promising a mix of algorithmic systems and human moderation, and have fielded some of these algorithms and even made them available for testing by the likes of the team behind this research.Their findings replicate the filter-evasion findings from other domains, where even the most sophisticated systems can be beaten with trivial countermeasures (for example, Chinese image censorship can be defeated by simply flipping a banned image). This team discuss several tactics of varying efficiency, but the most promising and easiest to implement was simply adding the word "love" to a hateful message, while running the "hate" words together in camel-case (e.g. "MartiansAreDisgustingAndShouldBeKilled love."Yesterday, I wrote about Corynne McSherry's "five lessons from the copyright wars" for people who want the platforms to take a more active role in policing user speech. This paper raises a sixth lesson: "The filters are unlikely to prevent the kind of activity you're worried about." In the same way that Youtube's Content ID filters are routinely subverted by copyright infringers, so too should we expect any kind of hate-speech filter to be easy for dedicated harassers to evade, meaning that the people they'll be most effective against are those who are caught accidentally -- say, because their discussion of how traumatic it was to be subjected to harassment is algorithmically mistaken for harassment itself. Read the rest

Australia's marvelous television is exemplified by A Current Affair, a current affairs programme specializing in filmed confrontations with ne'erdowells such as this shirtless pastor, described (perhaps accurately) by the reporter as Serial Pervert Con Man in a prelude to a low-quality public fistfight. See also the excellent Australian highway patrol show, Highway Patrol Australia. Read the rest

In 2014, Facebook bought the messaging system Whatsapp for $22B; it was a weird fit, because Whatsapp founders had decried Facebook's surveillance-based business model and targeted advertising, and had promised its users "No ads, no games, no gimmicks."Late last year, the cofounders of Whatsapp left Facebook, saying little at the time -- but then, in the midst of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Brian Acton, one of the founders, tweeted "It is time. #deletefacebook."Acton has said little in public since, but in a long, revealing interview with Forbes's Parmy Olson, he frankly discusses the bad decision he made to trade his vision for the company he'd built for billions, and how he should have understood that Facebook would never keep its promises to preserve Whatsapp's autonomy and privacy protections. He also reveals that when he left the company, he declined an offere of $850,000,000 in unvested stock in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement that would have kept him from discussing any of this.The interview is a revealing look at the internal culture of Facebook, particularly how the company's senior management kids itself -- and the employees -- that taking actions that make its products simultaneously worse and more profitable is actually good for the company's users.It's really clear from the interview that Whatsapp users should expect to have their activity tracked and used as part of Facebook's overall, creepy surveillance. I stopped using all Facebook products a few years ago. I don't visit Facebook pages, I block its beacons, and I migrated my family off of Whatsapp for group messaging. Read the rest

"It's horrible!" declares mum, who nonetheless sticks with the virtual reality game, comforted by the warmth and affection of her animal companion. Read the rest

For two years, a group of die-hard Star Trek fans labored to create Stage 9, a totally noncommercial virtual replica of the USS Enterprise built with Unreal Engine; they assumed that when CBS Vice President for Product Development John Van Citters was serious in 2016, when he publicly acknowledged the debt that Star Trek owes to its fans and assured people creating fan media that "They’re not going to hear from us. They’re not going to get a phone call, they’re not going to get an email. They’re not going to get anything that’s going to ruin their day one way or another and make them feel bad, like they’ve done something wrong."But then the fans got a cease and desist from CBS, ordering them to shut down Stage 9.They tried to talk to the lawyer who sent the letter (that person left for vacation right after sending it); they tried to talk to Van Citters. No one would return their calls. Finally, they got in touch with the lawyer who sent the letter, offering to make any changes that would put CBS at ease. The lawyer told them they had to take their project down -- or else.CBS and Paramount publish fan art guidelines that Stage 9 seems to have adhered to. When CBS/Paramount sued the team behind the crowdfunded Star Trek fan-film Axanar (previously) the company pointed to these guidelines as evidence of their good faith. Star Trek was famously saved from cancellation by fans who had kept the story alive through unauthorized fiction and art, and who rallied to keep the show on the air. Read the rest

Most aquatic animals propel themselves with a tail or fluke, so roboticists have long been interested in the remarkable speeds possible by mimicking sea lion propulsion with front flippers. Don’t be fooled by a sea lion’s big, sweet eyes and playful demeanor—these guys move through water like a torpedo. While most animals swim using a tail or fluke, sea lions clap their fore flippers into their bodies to propel themselves to incredible speeds. It’s an elegant, efficient movement that land-dweller Megan Leftwich, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at George Washington University, wants to reproduce in robotic form. • How Sea Lions Are Inspiring the Future of Underwater Transport (YouTube / Great Big Story) Read the rest

Gritty was unveiled lately to the dismay of children, the ironic apprecation of a few adults, and the abject horror of everyone else. Benstonium, a Pittsburgh virality node, photoshopped the Flyers' new mascot into the background of a series of stock photos. Read the rest

Brian McManus looks at the engineering challenges behind the Curiosity's thin aluminum wheels, which are sustaining significant damage on the Martian surface.The damage has prompted NASA to commission new wheel options. One of the most promising is a spring tire made of nitinol, similar to the ones Goodyear developed for the lunr rover, but much more lightweight despite better load-bearing properties.• How NASA Reinvented The Wheel - Shape Memory Alloys (YouTube / Real Engineering) Read the rest

Executives from Google, Twitter, AT&T, Amazon, Apple, and other big tech companies told a U.S. Senate panel today they support updating federal law to protect data privacy, but they want Congress to block California's tough new privacy rules.The U.S. Commerce Department said earlier this week it is seeking comments on how to set nationwide data privacy rules, after The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect in May, and California adopted stringent new rules the following month.From Reuters:In June California Governor Jerry Brown signed data privacy legislation aimed at giving consumers more control over how companies collect and manage their personal information, which Alphabet Inc’s Google and other big companies had opposed as too burdensome. The rules take effect in 2020.Amazon vice president Andrew DeVore said at the hearing that California’s law was hastily written and the law’s definition of “personal information” goes beyond information that actually identifies a person. “The result is a law that is not only confusing and difficult to comply with, but that may actually undermine important privacy-protective practices,” he said.Massive breaches of data privacy have compromised personal information of millions of U.S. internet and social media users, including notable breaches at large retailers and credit reporting agency Equifax Inc (EFX.N).“The Holy Grail is preemption” of state rules,” Schatz said. “You are only going to get there if this is meaningfully done.” He said Democrats would not replace a “progressive California law with a non-progressive federal law.”One possibility: The FTC could be given new authority to write federal privacy rules. Read the rest

There is now a fourth allegation, and it involves physical assault. NBC News reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee is inquiring about at least one additional allegation of misconduct against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.Republican Senate investigators are reported to have asked Kavanaugh about the new complaint during a phone call Tuesday with Kavanaugh and Republican staff. On that call, Kavanaugh denied the allegation in the letter, and a spokesman for the committee would not comment to reporters.According to an anonymous complaint sent to Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, Kavanaugh physically assaulted a woman he socialized with in the Washington, D.C., area in 1998 while he was inebriated.The sender of the complaint described an evening involving her own daughter, Kavanaugh and several friends in 1998.“When they left the bar (under the influence of alcohol) they were all shocked when Brett Kavanaugh, shoved her friend up against the wall very aggressively and sexually.”“There were at least four witnesses including my daughter.” The writer of the letter provided no names but said the alleged victim was still traumatized and had decided to remain anonymous herself.A Democratic source said the minority wasn’t satisfied by the Republicans’ questions about the incident during the call, calling them cursory, and believed it should be investigated more deeply.NBC News reached out to the White House for comment, and received none.When the first claim of sexual assault against Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee came out, many of us said there would likely be more than one Kavanaugh victim. Read the rest

Is there any doubt he is the goodest of boys?From 3puppy Stylish Pet Salon, in Japan.OMG that side-eye! The way he shakes his little butt! View this post on Instagram #포메 짜짱이 짜장~짜장 볼륨🎵을 높여!!ㅋㄱㅋ♥️ . . 춤추는강아지🎶 귀여웡.ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ . . 펫스타일리스트 @sunwoo_89 신들린 가위손 선우쌤 ㅋㅋㅋ✂️✂️ ✔ (For licensing or usage, contact licensing@viralhog.com) #강아지삼총사#강남애견미용 #포메미용잘하는곳 #포메곰돌이컷#스트레스없는강아지미용실 #강아지미용 #ポメ#ポメラニアン#子犬#博美犬 #小狗#puppy#pomeranian#pome #불금A post shared by 강아지삼총사(Stylish Pet Salon) (@3puppy) on Jun 28, 2018 at 4:52am PDT There's a 'Night at the Roxbury' version.Also, Ducktales.[Reddit, and Original Source] Read the rest

Luke aka Sadface is a pixel artist who also creates these fun and informative videos that show you how to make pixel art animations.They're all available for free on YouTube, and there's a cool thread of excerpts on IMGUR. You can support Sadface_RL on Patreon, and check out how every time there's a new video, there's a corresponding image (GIF) based demonstration over at the Patreon.Below: “Making an Archway,” and “Pixel Art Tutorial / Walkthrough on Trees without Leaves.” And a fun bonus, below: “Self-Assembling Pixel Art.” Read the rest

Oh my.......🐱🐱“NSFW.” Video and low-rez GIF follow.🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱NSFW🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱[via] Read the rest

Fellow Californian and apparent rap sensation Lil Xan has eaten too many hot cheetos.Apparently the flaming hot cheetos caused him to both bleed internally, and to vomit blood. Having had these cheetos, I do not understand the attraction.Via the BBC:On Tuesday, the 22-year-old alarmed fans by posting a photo of himself in the back seat of an ambulance on his Instagram story.He quickly posted a new clip revealing: "I was in the hospital not due to any drugs but I guess I ate too many Hot Cheetos and it ripped something in my stomach open so I puked a little blood".It's not the first time the snacks have been in the news because of health concerns.In July, a mother said snacks, including Hot Cheetos, may have been partially to blame for her daughter's gallbladder surgery.She said the teen regularly ate bags of corn snacks before stomach pains led to the operation. Read the rest

There are lots of calls for the platforms to police the bad speech on their platform -- disinformation and fake news; hate speech and harassment, extremist content and so on -- and while that would represent a major shift in how Big Tech relates to the materials generated and shared by its users, it's not without precedent.For more than 20 years, online platforms have had a legal duty to police their users' copyright enforcements, responding to unproved accusations of copyright infringements by (usually) removing materials, generally without a moment's thought.Everybody hates this: users, copyright holders, the platforms themselves. Now, maybe it doesn't have to be this way, but if we're going to ask the platforms to expand their policing duties without turning into (more of) a shitshow, it's worth considering the lessons we've learned from decades of copyright enforcement.EFF's Legal Director Corynne McSherry offers five lessons to keep in mind: 1. (Lots of) mistakes will be made: copyright takedowns result in the removal of tons of legitimate content.2. Robots won't help: automated filtering tools like Content ID have been a disaster, and policing copyright with algorithms is a lot easier than policing "bad speech."3. These systems need to be transparent and have due process. A system that allows for automated instant censorship and slow, manual review of censorship gives a huge advantage to people who want to abuse the system.4. Punish abuse. The ability to censor other peoples' speech is no joke. If you're careless or malicious in your takedown requests, you should pay a consequence: maybe a fine, maybe being barred form using the takedown system. Read the rest

Anything Star Wars gets my attention, but today's stage of VR doesn't excite me. Maybe this will be the thing...I dunno what a VR series is either. TV you virtually live?Via Venture Beat:Vader Immortal: Episode I — the first in a three-part series — was written and executive produced by David S. Goyer, and it takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope (a period the excellent Darth Vader comics tackle as well). Players trek to Vader’s castle (it first “new canon” appearance is in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) on the volcanic world of Mustafar in a “yet untold” story in the Star Wars universe.“Whether it’s hearing Darth Vader’s breathing behind you and physically turning to face him in person or wielding a lightsaber with your own hands, Vader Immortal captures the ultimate wish fulfillment,” Oculus head of experience Colum Slevin said in a statement. “Untethered VR immerses you in this universe and places you at the center of this amazing story.” Read the rest

"Everything’s fine the way it is. Trump…that was us. He’s our guy. Tax cuts for the rich? Hell yeah, I’m rich as fuck. Climate change? That’s a “you problem”…I’ll be dead soon. Sure, school shootings are sad, but I haven’t been in a school for 50 years." Voter registrations close soon in many key states. Register here. (via Kottke) Read the rest

Audio-Technica's Sound Burger was a weird record player that sounded ok to me, if memory serves. Crosley makes a USB version.Around 10 years ago Crossley brought it back, but at $150 it was too expensive for my tastes! Now you may own a USB "Sound Burger" for a mere $50.I do not own a record player. I own very few vinyl LPs, but I wanted to make a recording of one. I borrowed this USB turn-table from a pal and it worked, I have absolutely no complaints! If I wanted a record player that took up very little space and can output USB, this would be the one.Crosley CR6020A-BL Revolution Portable USB Turntable with Software for Ripping & Editing Audio via Amazon Read the rest

"Something about the pen and paper / I can look at all my ideas / And I can see them"(Super Deluxe, thanks UPSO!) Read the rest

Veterinarians at the Maryland Zoo outfitted an injured Eastern turtle with a wheelchair built from Lego. An employee of the zoo found the turtle whose shell had been injured in a nearby park. “He had multiple fractures on his plastron, the bottom part of his shell. Because of the unique placement of the fractures, we faced a difficult challenge with maintaining the turtle’s mobility while allowing him to heal properly,” said Ellen Bronson, the zoo's sensior director of animal health. From Local21News:Zoo officials say there aren’t devices small enough for turtles to use so they got creative and drew sketches of a customized wheelchair. The sketches were then sent to a friend, who is also a LEGO enthusiast.“The sketches proved to be a success and the turtle received his very own multi-colored LEGO brick wheelchair just a few weeks after surgery. The turtle is roughly the size of a grapefruit. The small LEGO frame surrounds his shell and sits on four LEGO wheels,” said Garrett Fraess, veterinary extern at the zoo. Read the rest

You can own the reception desk from Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch! Hundreds of props from The Office are now up for auction. Items include the likes of Angela's stuffed cat, Dwight's wolf art, and myriad desk items like calculators, computer screens, desk lamps, files, keyboards, beets, bears, Battlestar Galactica. The Office auction (Screenbid) Read the rest

Continuing to be blind to their own contradictions, Melania is off to visit Africa.Via Talking Points Memo:Mrs. Trump will travel next month without President Donald Trump, who raised ire across Africa this year after his private complaint about the continent’s “s-hole countries” was leaked to journalists. He said earlier Wednesday that he and his wife “love Africa.”Trump later offered a partial denial in public but privately defended his remarks, The Associated Press reported in January. Trump also didn’t deny the comment when he was asked about it while hosting Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House in April.While the first lady tours the vast African continent, the president is expected to be in the midst of aggressive campaigning for November elections in which his Republican Party’s control of both houses of Congress is at stake. Read the rest

Giving medicine to one of my cats – or any pet I've ever had – has always been a source of anxiety, for me as well as them. With their frantic squirming, strange cries, frightened glares, and ultimately letting the medicine fall out of their mouths, it's never pretty. I at first thought that maybe the cat in the top video was just an abnormally people-pleasing feline, but then I found this other video (below) with more examples of cats taking their pill as if it were a piece of candy. Apparently there's a simple process to giving a cat a pill that I have never mastered, but I'll make sure to watch these videos again the next time I return from the vet's office with a sick cat. Read the rest

Watching this boy in Mumbai get run over by an SUV made me gasp. But even more shocking is the way that, after looking for a moment as if he's been flattened into a pancake, he pops up and runs off as if he wants to play. Read the rest

Finding a Fortnite squad of 'mature' players who have been around the block, if not The Island, a few times can be tough. Here is a discord for Fortnite players over the age of forty.A small group of friends and I regularly play Fortnite together -- but it can be hard putting together a full squad. We've also discussed trying to set up some scrims and/or tournaments for the older set, but we need a bigger boat! Senior League here we come!Mostly we are Xbox players, but todays news about cross-platform play opening up led us to create a Discord for older players.We tend to play regularly later on Tuesday, but a few of us can be found playing each night.You can join the discord here.The age limit is not enforced, no id will be checked. Read the rest

As posted by Taiyo Masuda to Instagram. The headline, being accurate and complete, requires no further elaboration. (via Nicole Cliffe) Read the rest

One great use of the Force is chores - telekinetically, of course. Samsung may not exactly be the Force, per se, but they are at least making vacuuming a whole lot easier and more fun. Their POWERbot Star Wars Limited Edition Stormtrooper Robot Vacuum is just too cute not to order around.Like Samsung's standard POWERbot, this geeky-clean version has an easy out-of-the-box set-up and charges up at a wall unit that plugs into a standard outlet. But power it on, and you'll instantly feel like Vader lording it over the troops. The Stormtrooper Robot Vacuum fires up with an enthusiastic "Let's go!" before launching into the "Star Wars" theme as it crawls along your soon-to-be clean floor. Armed with a Full View 2.0 sensor, it tracks down dirt as doggedly as the real thing tracks down rebels, moving easily under couches and grabbing particles in corners that other, circular vacuums can't. It detects different surface types and can optimize its suction accordingly. It even responds to commands in an appropriately Imperial way ("Freeze" for stop, for instance).At a discounted $372, it's the nerdiest way to keep your floors spotless. Read the rest

Surya Raghavendran started fixing phones when Apple tried to charge him $120 to fix the defective screen they'd installed in his phone; instead, he followed online instructional videos and fixed it himself.That was in ninth grade. Now, Raghavendran is 17 and runs his own business, SKR Screen Repair.But SKR Screen Repair is in trouble: Apple's newest Ios version uses DRM to prevent third party screen repairs, locking out third-party screens.The change prompted Raghavendran to branch out into politics and advocacy: he's joined with Environment Michigan and US PIRG to advocate for a Right to Repair bill (previously) in Michigan. Raghavendran meets with state lawmakers and has circulated a petition and compiled personal stories about the need to protect independent repair.Repair services account for 4% of US GDP, and they create community jobs that let neighbors help each other get more use out of their own property, while diverting electronics from landfills.The new laws would be about more than just getting companies like Apple out of the way of scrappy businesses like SKR Screen Repair. Right to repair activists want big companies to turn over diagnostic information, repair manuals, and anything else that would help consumers repair their own devices.For Proctor, every teenager like Raghavendran who gets involved in the fight for the right to repair brings that change one step closer to reality.“This is an all hands on deck project,” Proctor said. “That includes hands like Surya’s, which are being blocked by policies which refuse to allow him access to things he needs to properly fix stuff. Read the rest

Firefox Monitor is a new service from Mozilla that draws on data from Have I Been Pwned? (previously) to keep you informed when your data is breached and shows up online. The service also includes important advice, including "Treat security questions like extra passwords" by creating "long, random answers." It's good advice: certainly, it's easier to put into practice than convincing your mother to travel back in time and change her "maiden name." Read the rest

Facebook's acquisition spree -- including huge-dollar payouts for Instagram and Whatsapp -- was supposed to shore up the company's crumbling user base by creating a "family" of semi-independent companies with diverse approaches to business, sharing a back-end of engineering, marketing and other resources, but offering very different propositions to users.But the departure of the Whatsapp founders earlier this year touched off speculation that their independence had been crushed by the Facebook mothership -- these suspicions were largely vindicated by the Whatsapp founders' participation in #deletefacebook campaigns and open criticism of Facebook's surveillant approach to business.This week, the founders of Instagram also quit Facebook, and insider whispers have it that they, too, left because Facebook had compromised their independence.Techcrunch's Jon Russell says that it's all a sign that Facebook senior management have not been able to live up to their promise of independence for their acquisitions, and that the facebookization of Instagram -- surveillance, toxic "engagement" tactics, and general creepiness -- can't be far behind.Over at Instagram, a similar situation seems to have happened with Systrom and Krieger. As TechCrunch’s Josh Constine reports, sources suggested that the leadership’s “weakening independence” from Facebook was a source of frustration for them that ultimately led to their untimely exit.Reading the short farewell note from Systrom seems to hammer that home. There’s no thank you for Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg or any other Facebook executive. Systrom instead stated that Krieger and he are keen to explore their “curiosity and creativity again” by building new products. Read the rest

With only weeks to go before the most important midterm election in living American memory, the deadline for voter registration is fast approaching in many key states: here's how to register to vote. As a foreigner with a green card, I don't get a vote (though, this being America, I am allowed to give money to political candidates), but I have to live with the consequences of this election, just like you. If you enjoy Boing Boing, or my books, or, you know, democracy, please do this -- I'd consider it a personal favor. Read the rest

Even though the DoJ has expressly prohibited using the No-Fly list to gain leverage over potential informants, the FBI has continued its longstanding practice of blackmailing American citizens by putting them on the No-Fly list because they refused to work as informants.The FBI is being sued (again) for doing this: Oregon resident Yonas Fikre was added to the No-Fly list while he was out of the country in Sudan; he was told by the FBI that the only way he could come home was to turn informant, whereupon they would remove him from the list.Fikre is suing the FBI in federal court, and the Bureau is desperate to escape the courtroom, so they removed him from the No-Fly list and asked the judge to end the trial.But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals says that Fikre still has standing to sue the FBI. Fikre was kidnapped and tortured by UAE police, at the behest of the FBI. He ended up stuck in Sweden, and is seeking an admission that he should never have been put on the list, as well as damages for his significant hardship. The notice filed by the government averred only that “counsel recently was advised by the Terrorist Screening Center that [Fikre] has been removed from the No Fly List.” Absent an acknowledgment by the government that its investigation revealed Fikre did not belong on the list, and that he will not be returned to the list based on the currently available evidence, Fikre remains, in his own words, “stigmatiz[ed] . Read the rest

Mexico's governance crisis continues: beyond the clandestine mass graves, the kidnapping of elected officials (and assassination of political candidates) and coordinated attacks on anti-corruption candidates, there's the well-known problem of corrupt police officers and whole departments, including, it seems, the Acapulco police department, who have been raided and disarmed by federal forces, with two officers charged with murder and the rest under investigation. (Image: Tomascastelazo, CC-BY-SA) Read the rest

Walmart is blockchaining its supply chain, including the lettuce. The Wall Street Journal:Pinpointing the source of food contamination can improve public safety, cut the amount of time illness goes unchecked and could save money for retailers and farmers who can be swept into overly broad product recalls, said Frank Yiannas, head of food safety at Walmart. Millions of bags and heads of romaine lettuce had to be thrown out as an eruption of E.coli linked to romaine spread through 36 states early this year. As investigators worked, 210 people got sick and five died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you thought all the blockchain corporate pivoting of last year was a joke, you underestimated something about the intended customer. Read the rest

For weeks, Honeywell Home customers have been complaining about outages with their Honeywell "Total Connect Comfort" apps, which allow them to remote control their smart thermostats; several days ago, customers started complaining that the app had stopped working altogether.Honeywell says that the outage only lasted for a few hours on Tuesday, and adds that its products can still be manually set by people who able to physically access them. Honeywell's smart thermostats are sold on the basis that they can be remotely controlled, and Honeywell's customers include many people who cannot readily access their thermostats: people with mobility issues, and landlords and their property managers who manage several properties at once.Honeywell customers say that they found the company unresponsive to complaints about the reliability of the app in the days and weeks before the outage, and dispute the company's claims about the short, limited duration of the outage. Despite Honeywell's assurances, one customer told Business Insider they first encountered issues four days ago, and had run into issues earlier in the month before that. There are also multiple Honeywell customers complaining on social media about technical problems before Tuesday. Honeywell’s 'smart' thermostats had a big server outage and a key feature stopped working entirely — and customers were furious [Rob Price/Business Insider] Read the rest

Pixelmash is clever indeed: create your resolution-independent art with the same freeform speed as you might in any other painting app, then let it nondestructively pixelize it, with 1-pixel outlines, adjustable gradients and dithering.Pixelmash's resolution-independence lets you do really cool things... Like create animations using layer transforms rather than having to paint every frame pixel-by-pixel. Or make outlines, shading, and dithering easily adjustable by having them applied as layer effects. Or easily create different resolutions and color variants of the same image. Or convert photos or other hi-res artwork into pixel art using layer effects and the resolution slider.Free demo, $15 to pre-order. Read the rest

Kosmic is the first human to beat Super Mario Bros in 4 minutes and 55 seconds, a time so good it is less than a second slower than the best tool-assisted speedrun. Mashable:When Kosmic says he's tied with the [tool-assisted] run at 4-1, that means his inputs are matched up exactly with the program's and he can't physically do any better.From there, Kosmic continues to nail everything almost perfectly, slipping up so minorly that most viewers who aren't familiar with the nuances of Super Mario Bros. speedruns won't even recognize when it happens.As YouTuber and speedrunning historian points out in his thorough analysis of Super Mario Bros. speedruns, speedrunners have been whittling down the world record for well over a decade. Top runners are at a point where they can only hope to improve their times by shaving off milliseconds.Supreme pixel-precise coordination is not enough: you have to know all the game's technical extremities to get close. Here's an explainer video (featuring one of Kosmic's earlier record runs) describing all the bugs and tricks exploited along the way. Read the rest

Move aside Fail Whale, now the internet has a Snail Whale (and other strange beasts).Digital Culture's interactive Hybridizer app allows you to digitally create cryptozoological creatures using the 17th c. art of engraver Matthäus Merian. His work has been digitized, split in half, and animated by the team of Kajetan Obarski, Igor Hardy and Tukasz Kozak.Give it a whirl. (Nag on the Lake) Read the rest

Some people will do anything for attention. Oh, wait, this benefits charity. On Tuesday, for his 50th birthday, Will Smith faced his fears and bungee jumped out of helicopter into the Grand Canyon. Entertainment Weekly:The video was hosted by Smith’s longtime friend and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air costar Alfonso Ribiero, and Smith’s family was also on hand for the 1,000-foot leap, including mom Caroline; wife Jada Pinkett-Smith; and kids Trey, Jaden, and Willow.The stunt was live-streamed to raise awareness and donations for Global Citizen’s education campaigns. The organization is known for its commitment to end extreme poverty by 2030. Read the rest

This is a prank of epic greatness. “My roommate left town for a few days, so naturally i decided to put a mini golf course in her room,” says khicagokid -- “complete with a water hazard.”The video is astonishingly good.HIGHLIGHTS: • “the water hazard was made of 400 dixie cups full of water. this part wasn't necessary, but at the same time it felt completely necessary.”• the holes were completely operational • it all started when i found this piece of astroturf on the side of the road... i can't believe someone would get rid of this beauty. it was less astroturf than i wanted, but i made it work. View this post on Instagram ⛳️ 🏌️‍♂️A post shared by ACMCIC (@acmcic) on Sep 20, 2018 at 11:24am PDT Read the rest

Cat vs. Lazy Susan. What in the heck is this bamboozle. Who's lazy now, Susan?[via] Read the rest

One son, who has autism, hates being photographed. His sibling does not mind it. Mom is a photographer. She comes up with a creative parenting solution, and some amazing images, below.Mom's incredible solution?Let the kid who can't stand being seen in photographs dress up as Tyrannosaurus Rex.Photographer and mom Samantha, aka Roaming Magnolias, shared this incredible gallery of photos on Reddit/IMGUR today. We'd like to know if she adopts adults, too, because we're ready to be her kids also.Samantha writes:My son, Levi, is autistic. He doesn't like having his photos taken because he gets uncomfortable with things like eye contact and smiling on command. So instead of begging and pleading for a few good photos, this year him and Lola went a different route. Why not let him wear a t-rex costume and make the best of it? 😂 Read the rest

Here are some timely resources for sexual violence survivors and the people who love them.RAINN is an important non-profit organization that has been advocating for the rights and dignity of sexual violence victims for a long time. They put out a statement on the Cosby verdict today, and some great advice for people who have survived sexual violence, and their loved ones. Because days like today are tough.RAINN [The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network] is America's largest anti-sexual violence org, and they help survivors via the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.4673) and the Safe Helpline. Spanish-language resources are here.Hearing about sexual violence in the media and online can be very difficult for survivors and their loved ones. Remember to take care of yourself during these times. Below is a thread of resources:— RAINN (@RAINN) September 24, 2018Those of us who have survived sexual violence can become deeply affected when we're exposed to a lot of content about that issue. That's what's happening right now. We're seeing a lot of coverage of sexual assaults involving political and entertainment figures this week. Much of this amplifies what victims are told: we lie, we make it up, it's our fault, and besides if it happened it wasn't that bad anyway. It's difficult. Here are ways to get through it safely, in the form of a Twitter thread from RAINN.[Or if you prefer, here's the Threader App version.]Physical and emotional self-care after trauma: https://t.co/F3tFNAcxRa— RAINN (@RAINN) September 24, 2018Practicing self-care when sexual violence is present in the news and on social media: https://t.co/TdkCLt7rU8— RAINN (@RAINN) September 24, 2018Managing flashbacks: https://t.co/SHegMtYAow— RAINN (@RAINN) September 24, 2018Self-care for loved ones of survivors: https://t.co/kJJNkQlRAV— RAINN (@RAINN) September 24, 2018Every survivor has different methods of self-care and managing the effects of sexual violence. Read the rest

Eccentric spectacle-maker Scott Urban kickstarted his Reflectacles in 2016: ray-ban-style frames inset with highly retroreflective material that is visible from hundreds of meters and strobes under a flash, making for fantastic photos. Later that year, Urban launched an all-white frame that was highly reflective in the infrared range, throwing back so much IR that they overwhelmed the sensors in low-light-capable CCTVs, which come equipped with infrared LEDs used to paint low-light scenes with invisible illumination that their sensors can resolve.Now, Urban has announced the Phantom, an all-black, infrared-reflecting Reflectacle that doesn't advertise its reflective nature, but which can increase your facial privacy in public spaces.Urban is planning to kickstart the Phantom later this year or early in 2019. Read the rest

One man was unafraid. An underestimated voice of wisdom, he tried to warn us all, decades before the 2016 elections. His name was Buddy Hackett.In this audio clip (uploaded ages ago by someone else), comedian Buddy Hackett tells Merv Griffin a pretty good joke about Donald Trump that you should probably not listen to on speakers in front of kids or your boss.Wait for it. Seriously, this one's good.If you liked that, here's Buddy trying to keep his jokes clean on Johnny Carson's show, below. This 'uncensored' collection of Hackett's standup work is a great place to start, or return, if you're old enough to know who he is already. He had so much blue material in his act, there's a part two of the dirty stuff. A lot of it was super racist, and super sexist. I don't wish to argue about it on the internet.[Thank you, JB!] Read the rest