Today's (Sunday) Buffalo News has a nice story about Niagara Glen, https://buffalonews.com/2019/11/23/in-canadas-niagara-glen-an-inspiring-view-of-a-familiar-river/If you are visiting Niagara Falls, as a local I highly recommend this hike down into the gorge (North of the Falls). It's free, but you do have to climb down 80 steps...
RandomFactor writes:NASA has begun testing an aquatic rover designed to rove under the ice on worlds like Enceladus and Europa.The "Bouyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration" or BRUIE does not swim, but rather
Arthur T Knackerbracket submitted a link to an interesting hackaday story about a DIY video player. The approach taken is very simple, using a Raspberry Pi to do all of the heavy lifting. There's also no user interface. The Pi scans for any removable media that has been inserted, and if it finds something it automatically plays the video files contained on the card. For anyone interested in building a no-frills, portable video player this might just be the ticket.The project is detailed on github for those who might be interested.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.
Appalbarry writes:(Disclaimer: I wrote the article Creating Online Environments That Work Well For Older Users but suspect that many Soylentils will find it useful.)A significant part of the Internet-using population is aged 50 or older — including the people who invented it. Web designers need to understand what older users need and why it's not enough to just say, "I can read it, so what's the problem?"If you're my age you have no doubt run into more than a few web sites that are just plain useless, either because you can't read the text, or because they were designed using assumptions that those of us over forty years of age don't find useful. Whether it's our need for high contrast text, or our preference for actual words and paragraphs over video, the needs of older users often get ignored.We are the generation that invented and grew up with personal computers. It's absurd to suggest that we are less capable of using technology. In other words, you can't complain about old people not understanding tech, and then also complain that they've taken over Facebook and Twitter. Besides, we also usually have lots more disposable income, so catering to our needs is good for business.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.
martyb writes:We get a lot of story submissions here on SoylentNews. Well over 37,000 so far and still counting. (THANK YOU!)We occasionally see a story submission from an Anonymous Coward or new user that is an obvious attempt to increase the number of views of the linked story. We regularly decline to publish those stories. The self-seeking or self-promoting aspect is rather obvious. Or they have a political viewpoint they want to spearhead. They stand out from the more mainstream stories that you have seen posted here over the past 5+ years.The next-scheduled story gave me pause.I was somewhat hesitant because of the foregoing reasons. But, I decided to accept it anyway and I'd like to explain my reasoning. One, the story submission comes right out and candidly admits it is from the author. Two, the story provides a level-headed description of a technical problem, its causes, and suggestions for mitigations. Three, it provides reasons why the suggested changes would be beneficial to all readers; not just people in the target audience. Further, the submitter has been an active member and contributor to the site — even before it went live. I've seen him at work and have never seen any self-seeking behavior or pushing of an agenda of any kind. Quite the contrary, all of the contributions I have seen have been strictly for the benefit of the site and the community. Lastly, the submission had been reviewed by another editor and the only question is the one that is now posed to you here.What do you think?Is this the first step down a slippery slope? Should we have a "bright line" policy that strictly rejects even the appearance of self-promotion? Should the editors just use their best judgement, based on their past experience and informed from the feedback to this story? Other?Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.
Tesla Cybertruckhemocyanin writes:Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck. Apparently, many people think it's ugly. I absolutely love it. It took the jellybean esthetic of modern vehicles and ran it over. Twice. There's simply no point in saying anything about this truck -- you have to look at the pictures:https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/22/20976539/tesla-cybertruck-test-drive-electric-truck-pickup-video-features-price-elon-muskIn order to make this TFS less short, a few specs, but really, they don't matter until you see if it appeals to you which it either will or won't in spades. The low end 250 mile range version is supposed to be about $40k. The body is unpainted cold rolled stainless steel. Upmodels will have a towing capacity variously described as 10-14k pounds and at the top end, a 500 mile range. They'll cost a lot more."Bulletproof" Musk Cybertruck failbarbara hudson writes:Elon Musk bragged that his "cybertruck" was bulletproof to a 9mm round, but two separate attempts to demonstrate just how tough it is failed when ball bearings thrown by hand literally caused the windows to come crashing down in pieces. So much for safety glass; even on cyber trucks, windows sucks.https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/22/cybertruck-tesla-unveils-the-pickup-truck-we-have-to-have
upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for Deucalion.Bad news: 'Unblockable' web trackers emerge. Good news: Firefox with uBlock Origin can stop it. Chrome, not so much
NotSanguine writes:The New York Times is reporting on the background and pending charges against the owner of MyPayrollHR, a payroll processing firm who absconded with $26 million in funds earmarked for direct deposit to ~250,000 employees of ~4,000 companies.From the article:
aristarchus writes:On thing keeps me awake at night, and during the day, for that matter: GRBs. Gamma Ray Bursts. If one occurred relatively close to the earth, and was aimed right at us, well, things would not go well. And now, Looks like they may be stronger than thought..