Pluralistic — Cory Doctorow’s news site and newsletter, where you can learn about African WhatsApp modders among other things. Mapnik — LGPLed software that combines pixel-perfect image output with lightning-fast cartographic algorithms, and exposes interfaces in C++, Python, and Node. pi node — A π-box is a modular system of radio/streaming broadcast, composed of multiples […]

AWS Bill Analysis — always interesting to see how to approach lowering your costs. In this case, the project owner works for Amazon on AWS, but still there were savings to be had. A Design Guide to Writing Offline-first Apps — In this article, we will be diving into some of the engineering challenges that […]

OpenAM — an open-access management solution that includes authentication, SSO, authorization, federation, entitlements and web services security. Building Relationships as a Remote Engineering Manager — And if you haven’t realized it yet, get used to this—you’re going to spend a lot of time writing. API Security Maturity Model — I’m not sure if I agree […]

The Uncensored Library — Reporters Without Borders built a library in Minecraft, in which you can read banned books. (via Gizmodo) Shmoocon 2020 Talk Recordings — everything from email addresses to Verilog by way of Zero Trust, social media, and choose-your-own-adventure ransomware. Differential Privacy: A Comparison of Libraries — We will have a look at […]

How the Great Firewall Discovers Hidden Circumvention Servers — really interesting CCC talk from a few years ago. The Challenge of Software Liability — Liability for insecure software is already a reality. The question is whether Congress will step in to give it shape and a coherent legal structure. XOXO Talks — video archive of […]

Inklewriter — open source interactive text adventure game creator. (Fun for adults, but also great to give to kids who love to read) (via Andy Baio) The Virus Survival Strategy Guide for Your Startup (Steve Blank) — Unfortunately, it’s no longer a normal market. All your assumptions about customers; sales cycle; and, most importantly, revenue, […]

Dos and Don’ts in Open Source (Olaf Geirsson) — really useful advice to would-be contributors and project owners. It’s tempting to respond to a welcome contribution with a quick, “This looks amazing, I will review tomorrow!” Consider giving a thumbs-up reaction instead and wait with commenting until you complete the review. Promises are estimates and […]

NASCAR Replaces Canceled Races with Esports Featuring Pro Drivers (Engadget) — the world is getting weirder. Firebase Scrutinized By Antitrust Regulators — Firebase tools give Google, the internet’s top ad seller, information on what consumers are doing inside apps that it can exploit to target ads to users, according to makers of Firebase alternatives. Journey […]

Stanza: A Python Natural Language Processing Toolkit for Many Human Languages — Stanza features a language-agnostic fully neural pipeline for text analysis, including tokenization, multi-word token expansion, lemmatization, part-of-speech and morphological feature tagging, dependency parsing, and named entity recognition. Code and models available for 66 languages. Dropbear SSH — Dropbear is a relatively small SSH […]

Potential Distributed Reading Group on Distributed Systems — for some folks, this will be a great time to start reading groups to work through papers. You’ll never get a time with less physical distraction. (Just remember to ration your socials time or you and your time will vanish into the maelstrom.) Jitsi Meet — open […]

If you’re already a software product manager (PM), you have a head start on becoming a PM for artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML). You already know the game and how it is played: you’re the coordinator who ties everything together, from the developers and designers to the executives. You’re responsible for the design, […]

Medtronic Releases Ventilator Designs — not open source, as the license is a limited-time limited-purpose license that retains rights. I imagine some corporate lawyers have done some frantic Googling for open meditech licensing clauses. dolt — version history for tabular data. Compare to sno, which is version control for geospatial and tabular data. Toast UI […]

Tasmota — Alternative firmware for ESP8266 with easy configuration using webUI, OTA updates, automation using timers or rules, expandability and entirely local control over MQTT, HTTP, Serial or KNX. Selfie 2 Waifu — deep learning constructs an anime character from your photo. Paper for the underlying technique. (via @tkasasagi) The Handbook of Cyber Wargames: Wargaming […]

Popcorn Linux — exploring how to improve the programmability of emerging heterogeneous hardware, in particular, those with Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)-diverse cores, from node-scale (e.g., Xeon/Xeon-Phi, ARM/x86, CPU/GPU/FPGAs) to rack-scale (e.g., Scale-out processors, Firebox, The Machine), in both native and virtualized settings. Additionally, the project is exploring how to automatically compile/synthesize/execute code on ISA-heterogeneous hardware. […]

Leaving Amazon (Tim Bray) — May 1st was my last day as a VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services, after five years and five months of rewarding fun. I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19. Observability is a Many-Splendoured Thing (Charity Majors) […]

Raman Spectroscopy — Low Cost, High Performances, 100% Open Source Raman Spectrometer. […] We currently offer the spectrometer in a Starter Edition version designed for teaching Raman spectroscopy and we will soon release a Performance Edition version which achieves a tested 12 cm-1 resolution at low costs. Great to see this getting into the hands […]

Super Bootable 64 — Super Mario 64 shipped before the SDK was finalised, and it had to be compiled with optimisations turned off. This meant the binary was easily reversed to source code, and now the unportable has been ported. This site probably won’t last long, because DMCA, but it’s technically a sweet feat. (via […]

After last month’s “all coronavirus, all the time” report, I was concerned that this month would be more of the same.  And there is, indeed, a lot of coronavirus. But there are many other trends and interesting items to look at–possibly a sign that people are working effectively from home. Coronavirus Coronavirus prompts serious discussion […]

Mathematics for Machine Learning — We wrote a book on Mathematics for Machine Learning that motivates people to learn mathematical concepts. The book is not intended to cover advanced machine learning techniques because there are already plenty of books doing this. Instead, we aim to provide the necessary mathematical skills to read those other books. […]

Yesterday saw the online premier of a mini-episode of a new animated comic series based on the classic Gilbert Shelton underground comic, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. As a hippie wannabe teen in the 70s, this (and Zap! Comics) was everything to me.

In 1969, life in San Francisco consists of free love, communal living, and political protest. Freewheelin’ Franklin Freek (Harrelson), Fat Freddy Freekowtski (Goodman), Phineas T. Phreakers (Davidson) and their mischievous, foul-mouthed cat, Kitty (Haddish) spend their days dodging many things —- the draft, the narcs, and steady employment -– all while searching for an altered state of bliss.

But after partaking of a genetically-mutated strain of marijuana, the Freaks wake up 50 years later to discover a much different society. Quickly feeling like fish out of water in a high-tech world of fourth-wave feminism, extreme gentrification and intense political correctness, the Freaks learn how to navigate life in 2020 -— where, surprisingly, their precious cannabis is now legal.

OK, sounds good. But is it? If the reaction to the first mini-episode is any indication, maybe the Freaks should have remained in their drug-induced coma. As one Facbooker commented: "Get yourself a collected set of the original comic and skip this drivel!"

Read the rest

A couple of days ago, Thomas Dolby posted this video to Twitter and YouTube of a track called "Corona and the Pirate Twins," a spoof of his 1982 hit, "Europa and the Pirate Twins." The song is credited to Dolby Kids. Thomas included the following note:

"This is what my mischievous offspring have been getting up to during the Lockdown."

Here is the original video for "Europa..."

Bonus track:

And here is Thomas Dolby doing a touching home solo version of his achingly beautiful "Screen Kiss" from 1984's Flat Earth. He did it as a tribute to Matthew Seligman, the celebrated bassist who recently died of COVID-19. Seligman played bass on Dolby's recordings, including Flat Earth, and also played for Bowie, Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Murphy, and countless others. He was also a member of the Soft Boys.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

Ironic toxic masculinity is in fashion! The Duke Cannon Naval Supremacy Big Brick of Bar Soap for Men [Amazon] promises that those thusly-soaped will smell of "naval supremacy", "productivity" or other humorously-abstract scents. (More traditionally "manly" odors such as tobacco, leather, burned vegetation, etc. are also available).

The veil of humor is threadbare -- "get clean and smell good without using feminine shower gels and accessories" -- but I'll admit that I do bathe in warm turpentine and it really helps.

Are you ready for images of the best “soap but for MEN” product you’ve ever seen? pic.twitter.com/kVAWb57UlF

— Shayna Moon, Unity Lich (@qorquiq) May 8, 2020

UPDATE: Here's a balding treatment called "Lethal Uprising", spotted by Greg Sideyr.

I'll see your Naval Supremacy, and raise you pic.twitter.com/UJE9wxeRvp

— ????Greg | Applied Eschatology ???? (@Greg_Sideyr) May 8, 2020

Looking forward to Internecine Violence Toothpaste, Shambolic Venezeulan Coup Ice Cream, and Silently Endure Prison Abuse Hemmorhoid Cream with Aloe Vera. Read the rest

The LockPickingLawyer easily opens this Yale Y500 Combination Key Access padlock with just a sliver of aluminum from a soda can.

Read the rest

A massive boom heard Wednesday night over Puget Sound on the northwestern coast of Washington was most likely an exploding meteor. Or that's what They want us to believe anyway. The American Meteor Society registered a dozen reports. Video above. Keep your eyes on the upper left of the frame.

"The more I read the more inclined I am to believe this was a fireball (which is a meteor that is larger and brighter than normal)," the American Meteor Society's Bob Lunsford said. "I'm certain now that this was a meteoric event."

From KOMONews:

Most meteors' explosions are heard about a minute or two after they explode due to the time it takes the sound to reach the Earth's surface, Lunsford said. Sound travels at 767 mph in standard atmosphere conditions, indicating this fireball exploded some 35 miles away.

"If this was larger than normal then the sound could have originated from a higher altitude. So a delay of 3 minutes is entirely possible," Lunsford said. "Meteors become visible at a height of around 50 miles so your estimate is well within that range."

Lunsford said because there was a boom, it’s very likely there are small, rock-sized pieces of the meteor somewhere on the ground. When a meteor causes a boom, it’s “pretty far down” in the atmosphere.

Read the rest

If you’re an entrepreneur or marketer who hasn’t embraced webinars yet, you probably need to rethink your strategies. Over 60 percent of marketers say they use webinars as a key part of their content marketing strategy — and over 70 percent say it’s the best way to generate high-quality business leads.

Thankfully, one of the silver linings to our new quarantine, work from home lifestyles lately is the explosion of conferencing software and Americans’ newfound enthusiasm for video group meetups. 

Vidthere is one of the services that has considered the needs of large and small groups trying to maintain connections over distance, offering a suite of web-based communication tools that centralizes everything in one easy-to-use place.

Vidthere is a live video platform for everyone, featuring loads of internal communications features as well as options to sell and market directly to customers.

With webinars emerging as a key means to engage customers and sell products, Vidthere gives you all the tools to do that from any location. Vidthere offers the opportunity to deliver live video webinars that are easy for both presenters and users. 

Vidthere is entirely web-based, so users never need to download any software to join a Vidthere session. As for sessions, they combine no-lag high-quality performance with the ability to scale to the size of an audience with no video loss. Plus, every Vidthere meeting or webinar has a powerful chat feature so users can engage easily.

As for presenters, Vidthere events support up to 30 meeting participants and an unlimited number of webinar viewers, with options to support screen sharing, video in video presentation, and a whiteboard mode, a full basket of tools to help contour any presentation just the way you want it. Read the rest

Drummers hear all the jokes. What do you call a drummer with half a brain? Gifted. How is a drum solo like a sneeze? You know it's coming, but there's nothing you can do about it. What do you call a drummer that breaks up with his girlfriend? Homeless.

Drummers hear the jokes — and laugh. Because they know they’re the thumping heartbeat of any band. They’re the ones with loads of equipment. And they’re the ones making all that noise while practicing. Yet try to play almost any song without drums and the lack of propulsion and power is instantly palpable.

Drummers are essential. Now, users can join their ranks — and they don’t even need to buy a massive drum kit or rattle their walls to do it. Created by drummers, Senstroke by Redison is the first sensor device that can teach anyone to play the drums and even reproduce the drummer experience, all without any physical drum set.

Just attach the patented Senstroke sensors to a pair of drumsticks and your feet, connect via Bluetooth, and instantly you can turn any surface into a virtual drumhead. Using the impact of the drumsticks and your feet positioning, the sensors reproduce the exact sounds your chosen drum element would make through the Senstroke app. 

Your legs, some cushions, a coffee table, they all become fair game as a drum surface while you refine your skills. And when you attach a pair of headphones, no one else even has to know you’re playing...well, Read the rest

The "transient bazaar" known as Lost Horizon Night Market is a covert operation. Worlds are imagined and then built inside the blank canvasses of empty box trucks. For the event, all the "proprietors," and their appointed box trucks, convene in an unsanctioned, though discreet, location. This location is disclosed to would-be "shoppers" via text just a few hours before it starts. Word of the market generally spreads rapidly but not publicly, definitely not by social media. If you're lucky enough to hear about it, you should go.

So, Happy Mutants, this is your heads up. Lost Horizon Night Market: Quarantine Edition is happening Saturday, May 9, from 6:59p EST until 11:59p EST, "rain or shine." This one is a little different, as the spaces are virtual, not in actual, physical trucks. I got a sneak peek yesterday of what's been created and can't wait to dive in deeper. Admission is free, though tips are appreciated. RSVP here.

Previously: Secret box truck 'night market' pops up again in NYC Read the rest

The flood stricken Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo says it is on track to lift its boil water advisory sooner than it was originally projected.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will not pay the full price for medical masks that do not live up to medical standards.

India top-order batsman Rohit Sharma is hopeful their tour to Australia at the end of 2020 is allowed to proceed.

Salomon Rondon says he was on his way to joining Manchester United in January only for Dalian Professional to block the move.

Former Proteas head coach Ray Jennings is adamant Aiden Markram should be chosen as Faf du Plessis' replacement as captain of the Test team.

March 2020 Pending Home Sales

Older Boomers: Single Females Buying Homes

Instant Reaction: Unemployment, May 8, 2020

The Delivery Man Synopsis The Delivery Man is a comedy television series produced by ITV that premiered in April of 2015. The Delivery Man follows the story of Matthew (played by Darren Boyd – Spy), a police officer who decides to switch careers in his mid-thirties and becomes a midwife. The Delivery Man is currently […]

One day, a teacher entered her classroom and placed a glass jar on the table. She put two large rocks into the jar until no more could fit. She asked the class if the jar was full and they all said, “Yes.” She responded, “Really?” She pulled out a pile of small pebbles, added them […]

The post How to Become Great by Managing Procrastination appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

Decision-making can be tough especially when the best choice isn’t glaringly obvious. We’re faced with this process every minute of the day. When do I wake up? What’s for lunch? Do I want to go out on a date with this person? What do I want to do with my life? Can I stay in […]

The post Stop Losing Sleep: 7 Steps for Stress-free Decision-making appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and finding the perfect gift for such a special occasion can be a really overwhelming task, particularly if you’re a last minute shopper. That’s why, to help you out, we’re sharing with you the best Mother’s Day gift ideas you can give to every supermom on your list. […]

The post DumbLittleMan’s Ultimate Gift Guide for Mother’s Day 2020 appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

Digital marketing is fast-paced with trends and new updates to existing systems continuously popping out. That’s why it is important to stay up-to-date with the latest strategies that can be beneficial in reaching new audiences. Keeping up to date with the marketing trends will also help a business stay ahead of their competition. The best […]

The post Five of the Best B2B Content Marketing Trends That Are Proven Effective To Gain New Clients appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

Christmas is not an official holiday in Japan, nor a widely observed religious holiday, but it is celebrated nonetheless in its own unique way. Here's some data that highlights Christmas in Japan.

Radoslaw Dobrolecki, US business development director at RTB House, discusses how artificial intelligence can help predict customer behavior at scale.

Michael Tiffany, co-founder and president of ad verification and fraud prevention firm White Ops, discusses the next evolution of fraudulent practices for 2018.

Omer Golan, founder and CEO of Outernets, discusses how artificial intelligence can improve the digital out-of-home industry.

William Bao Bean, managing director of Chinaccelerator, explains how investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning are helping marketers improve user targeting and return on investment.

Pandemic gives TV viewership boost, but will be short-lived   April 28, 2020 (New York, NY) – As stay-at-home orders remain in effect due to COVID-19, TV viewership and time […]

May 6, 2020 (New York, NY) – “Insider Intelligence” is being announced today as the brand name of the newly-formed parent company of eMarketer and Business Insider Intelligence (BII), both […]

Before I start recapping the month, let me begin with a greeting: “Hey, Kate from the future! Hey, people who were curious! I knew you’d look up this post! How are you doing? By the way, just how long is this going to last?!” Because this is the recap for March 2020 — a month …

AK Monthly Recap: March 2020 Read More »

The post AK Monthly Recap: March 2020 appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

Hi, Amazon. We’ve had a long history, ever since I ordered those first books and DVDs to be delivered to my college mailbox. You indulged my whims, from paleo cooking to crocheting, and you deposited a solid amount of cash in my bank account at the end of every month. Not to mention that fat …

Dear Amazon, We’re Breaking Up. It’s Not Me. It’s You. Read More »

The post Dear Amazon, We’re Breaking Up. It’s Not Me. It’s You. appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

The endangered Guatemalan Black Howler (Alouatta pigra) (sometimes called the Yucatan Howler or Yucatan Black Howler) is one of many species of howler monkey, which is what is known as a ‘New World’ monkey. Its range is throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, and includes the areas of Mexico, Belize, and of course Guatemala. The Guatemalan Black Howler prefers to live in very lush areas, mostly sticking to all types of rain forests such as the semi-deciduous, lowland and evergreen. Of its cousins and relatives, the Guatemalan Black Howler is the largest, and is also one of the largest ‘New World’ monkeys (which include marmosets, owl monkeys, sakis, spider, and woolly monkeys). It weighs in at 25 lbs on average in males (11-12 kg) and 14 lbs for the females (6-7 kg). Their fur is usually black and their tails are very long, and prehensile (meaning it can grab and be used to hang from branches with). They also have specialized teeth for their diet of mostly leaves, along with the males possessing a larger hyoid bone located near the vocal chords, which enables their loud calls.

The Guatemalan Black is a diurnal howler, which means it is active during the day and it sleeps at night, as well as being arboreal, meaning it dwells in the trees most of its life. They are a social species that lives in groups up to ten members strong, which helps in alerting, foraging, and general upkeep through grooming. Some groups can be as large as sixteen, while larger groups are plausible, however at these sizes it is unlikely to function as well as a smaller group. Their diets consist of mostly leaves, and fruits, however they will snack on a flower here and there and their favorite tree of all is the breadnut, which provides most food during some seasons.

Not a particularly active species, the Guatemalan Black Howler would rather lounge about during the day; eating takes up a quarter of the day while moving locations for eating consists of only about a tenth of their daily activity. The rest of the day is devoted to socializing and grooming, with some other random antics. Females are old enough to have offspring by four years of age, while males may take up to eight years to reach maturity, and their total life-spans are an average of twenty years.

The Guatemalan Black Howler’s binomial name (its species and genus) is Alouatta pigra, the Alouatta’s as a genus make up most of the Howler Monkeys, which are the largest of the New World Monkeys with but a few possible exceptions. Alouatta is home to all of the howler monkeys (ten species and ten subspecies), and belongs to the subfamily Alouattinae. Alouattinae belongs to the family Atelidae which is one of the four families of New World Monkeys; this includes the howler monkeys, along with spider monkeys, woolly monkeys, wooly spider monkeys, and Yellow-tailed Woolly Monkeys. Atelidae belongs to the Parvorder Platyrrhini, which contains all New World Monkeys, and includes Marmosets and Muriquis. Platyrrhini belongs to the infraorder Simiiformes, or ‘higher primates’, and this includes all New World and Old World monkeys from South America and Africa, and includes gibbons, great apes, and the family Hominidae of which we are members. Simiiformes belongs to the Suborder Haplorrhini, otherwise called dry-nosed primates; this includes all of the higher primates as well as Tarsiers. Haplorrhini belongs to the Order Primates, which is all related apes, monkeys, lorids, galagos, lemurs and human ancestors. Primates are in the class of Mammalia of the phylum Chordata in the Kingdom of Animalia.

Fact

The Guatemalan Black Howler is sympatric with another species, the Mantled Howler. Sympatric means that they share the same niche and territory, and encounter each other in the wild, they are also closely related.

Warning

The Guatemalan Black Howler is an Endangered Species, and is close to being classified as Critically Endangered if nothing is done to curb the loss of the species. In the next 30 years the IUCN expects to see a population loss of over 60%, making this species on the more endangered alive today. Major threats are habitat loss, poaching, and capture for use as ‘pets’.