Last minute geek

1. Hitting the Books: How to sling a cat through interstellar space
(English/engadget)

... books on science and technology we can find and... Read all  ...

2. Fedora at 15: Why Matthew Miller sees a bright future for the Linux distribution
(English/Linuxtoday)

TechRepublic: Fedora project leader Matthew Miller discusses lessons learned from the past, future architectural changes, as well as hot-button topics, including systemd. Read all  ...

3. Jim Meskimen impersonates 20 celebs in 2 minutes in remarkable deepfake video
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

The deepfake technology in this video is far from flawless, but Jim Meskimen's voices and mannerisms more than make up for it. Watch him recite a poem of his own composition as John Malkovich, Colin Firth, ...

4. Video demonstration of new "invisibility cloak"
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Canadian camouflage developer HyperStealth Biotechnology Corp released a series of videos demonstrating their new "patent-pending" "Quantum Stealth Light Bending Material (Invisibility Cloak)." Here is ...

5. Researchers print electronic tattoos directly onto the skin
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... can be sewn into clothing.... In two recent papers, Franklin, Williams and colleagues at Duke demonstrate a low-temperature technique for printing electrical components—including leads and transistors—onto ...

6. There's a galaxy-sized security hole in Samsung's S10 smartphone
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Let me break it to you as gently as possible: If you dot your tapping swiping and scrolling on a Samsung Galaxy S10, your handset's security is currently a joke. According to TechCrunch, an S10 user in ...

7. If you're looking to ditch your vape then you need to check out the Genius Pipe
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

As much as vaping has taken over the market during the last decade, there's still a lot of questions about the technology, as well as health concerns that we're just now finding out about. One thing you ...

8. Google Books redesign makes it easier to find background info
(English/engadget)

It's Google Books' 15th birthday, and the tech giant is celebrating it by giving the service a makeover. The redesigned version makes each title's most pertinent information easier to access ...

9. Attribution is hard: the incredible skullduggery used to try to blame the 2018 Olympic cyberattack on North Korea
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... down into the devastating cyberattack on the South Korean Olympic games in 2018, which shut down whole swathes of Korean tech infrastructure and compromised the ability to carry out the games. But the ...

10. Ace Marks is making high-end dress shoes affordable
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... business to remove the middlemen and use modern technology to create world-class, handcrafted footwear the doesn't cost an arm and a leg. They bypass retail and brand markups by selling online and employ ...

11. Motorola invite hints at a 'reinvented' RAZR
(English/engadget)

Earlier this year a Motorola exec confirmed to Engadget that the company was hard at work on foldable phone technology, and rumors about a new RAZR-branded device just won't go away. Now CNET reports ...

12. Apache Rya matures open source triple store database
(English/Linuxtoday)

Open source triple store database technology used by the U.S. Navy moves forward as a stable, mature project at the Apache Software Foundation. Read all  ...

13. Endel's Apple Watch app generates soothing sounds on your wrist
(English/engadget)

If you primarily use your Apple Watch for all its health and wellness-related features, you'll want to check the new app from AI music startup Endel. Technically, Endel has been available as an Apple ...

14. Cable is bullshit, and so is 5G: give me fiber or give me death!
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... these problems. These days, that's 5G, a technology for delivering wireless broadband to devices close to its antennas that does nothing at all to solve the slow speeds in the lines connecting those towers ...

15. Wyden's "Mind Your Own Business Act" would force online services to respect Do Not Track
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Do Not Track was a standardized way for browsers to tell services that their owners did not consent to having their activities and usage logged; however, it was subverted by Big Tech and big media companies ...

16. Trump appointed the author of "100 Secrets and Habits of the Illuminati for Life Success" to the Commission on Presidential Scholars
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... The Scholars demonstrate exceptional accomplishments in academics, the arts, career and technical education and an outstanding commitment to public service." Is it any surprise that Trump's idea of an ...

17. Something exciting is coming with Ubuntu 19.10
(English/Linuxtoday)

TechRepublic: Ubuntu 19.10 includes one feature that should have every user and admin overcome with the feels. Read all  ...

18. Berkeley city council unanimously votes to ban facial recognition technology
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Berkeley has joined the swelling ranks of cities (pioneered by nearby Oakland) that have passed ordinances banning the government's use of facial recognition technology, after a unanimous city council ...

19. What the hell is a "dimension" anyway?
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Caltech theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, author of Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime, explains the concept of a "dimensions" at five different levels of complexity. ...

20. Elon Musk tells the court he's "financially illiquid"
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, but he says his wealth is tied up in his equity stake in Space Exploration Technologies Corp., and shares in Tesla, and that he has no intention of selling his ...

21. Paris zoo opens a new exhibit with an immortal mutant slime mold called "The Blob"
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

The blob has no mouth, but I must scream. To be fair, it doesn't a stomach, or eyes, or feet, or anything resembling a brain, either (at least as far as modern science would define it). It's not technically ...

22. Cut your own vinyl records at home with this machine
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... technology thought lost to the ages—Polaroid film—with his Impossible Project. So if anyone can pull off the Phonocut, it’s probably this team. Read the rest Read all  ...

23. BILL-E is a cute robot that builds structures block by block
(English/engadget)

A new robotics breakthrough could revolutionalize how we build everything from airplanes to bridges and even massive superstructures. A team of researchers at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology's ...

24. ‘Harry Potter: Wizards Unite’ gathered location data while users slept
(English/engadget)

... As part of an extensive report on how tech companies are mapp... Read all  ...

25. You can tell Alexa to pay your bills (if you're in India)
(English/engadget)

Amazon Pay users in India can now ask Alexa to pay their utility, internet, mobile and TV bills, according to TechCrunch. Indian Amazon Pay users can take advantage of the cross-platform functionality ...