Brent Simmons, the developer of the NetNewsWire RSS reader, is questioning his decision to put an unread count next to each feed, reasoning that it encourages people to be too obsessive about reading every item:

Instead of a dozen bookmarks, people had a hundred feeds. Or two hundred. Or two thousand.

And there was a tyranny behind keeping track of unread items and showing an unread count. People reacted in different ways, but many people felt like they always had to go through everything.

Including me. To this day.

I did not know this was going to happen. That was not the idea: it was a side effect of reasonable (at the time) choices.

I like seeing these counts on feeds where I need to read all items that are posted, but that's only a small percentage of the 100-120 feeds I follow. It would be nice to turn that off for others I read more casually.

Feedly presents unread counts on each feed and folder of feeds. There's a Mark As Read button to clear a count, but when you click it, the confirmation dialog acts like it's an extremely consequential decision: "Are you sure you want to mark this entire source as read? This operation cannot be undone."

I've posed a question on the RSS-Public mailing list: Do you think feed readers should count unread items?

Facing the ongoing impacts of pollution and derailments, activists in East Palestine, Ohio, and Baltimore are teaming up to pursue justice for their communities.

Frontline communities continue to pay for plastics—from production to pollution. Now advocates are trying to reach consensus on a global plastics treaty before it’s too late.

The Heritage Foundation has a plan to rewrite the rules of government under a second Trump term, and they’ve helpfully laid it all out for public viewing.

The United States has historically provided hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid to Israel. The flow of taxpayer funds to Israel’s military has only increased since Israeli forces

Instead of Project 2025's white supremacist vision for voting rights, Progress 2025 envisions universal early voting, a national federal holiday and more.

An extremely tight race for the presidency is sparking a last-minute, Black-led GOTV effort aimed at Black voters in swing states.

To show their support of a future Madame President, Gov. Tim Walz and others in the party are publicly relinquishing male power and privilege.

To live up to its stated ideals, the United States must finally cede power to the people.

Marjorie Kelly's new book critiques the U.S. economy's embrace of "wealth supremacy," and explores alternate models of democratic economies.

Analyst Lindsay Koshgarian counters President Biden’s claim that American interests require funding Israeli militarism.

Author Scott Fulford explores the impact that pandemic-related government social spending had on American families.

Finding our way to a viable human future will require the guidance of a true eco-nomics, grounded in biology and ecology rather than finance and capital.

Christine Ahn and Marie Berry report back from the powerful Feminist Peace Summit, held in Denver recently.

AI is trained on data from our health care system as it exists, which means the data is contaminated by racial, economic, and regional disparities. But there are solutions.

Even while trying to appeal to white women, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance continue to push policies that will harm them—and all women.

In an Election Day conversation, Serene Khader reflects on how women were mobilized by attacks on their bodily autonomy, and what post-election organizing can look like.

handy reference

Works good for me.

Beat the clock as you test yourself with our quiz to celebrate the end of the Olympics!

Newsround presenter De-Graft Mensah tells the story of his trip to Ghana where he found out more about his family's history and the impact of the British Empire in the West African nation.

Anna, aged eleven, won a competition to open Latitude Festival with her poem, The Mother Tree. She told Newsround about her experience.

Does it seem like there are more spiders around the house right now? And do the spiders you spot seem bigger than those you've seen in recent months? Spider expert, Dr Sara Goodacre, is here with some arachnid answers.

It's been an unusual season so far with teams that have previously struggled doing well, and champions Man City losing four in a row!

Nowadays, it seems that everything we do tends to be somehow automated. The very same is happening in electrical distribution systems. The distribution system at the medium voltage (MV) or low voltage (LV) levels is designed using different structures such... Read more

The post The essentials of automation applied to distribution systems via PLCs, SCADA, IEDs, and RTUs appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Communication systems of electric utilities have become increasingly critical to electric system protection, operation, and maintenance. For fast tripping and clearing of system faults, communication-aided relaying has become a common protection scheme, particularly in line protection. Control centers depend on... Read more

The post Schematics and docs needed for communication systems of substation protective relaying system appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Electrical distribution systems comprise a large number of remote applications and locations, and it has traditionally been challenging to monitor and regulate these remote applications and sites. Utility companies have been installing remote terminal/telemetry units, often known as RTUs, at... Read more

The post Three most common SCADA applications in MV/LV distribution systems you SHOULD know appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Cabling in power substations is very important due to the fact that they are the longest parts of a system and therefore act as efficient antennas that pickup and or radiate noise. In HV substations, there are different kinds of conductors... Read more

The post The problem of induced voltages in control cables in high voltage substations appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved Xcel Energy’s 2019 Integrated Resources Plan (IRP), which guides the utility’s direction over the next 15 years.

When combined cycle plants are run at low loads, problems often arise with overspray from attemperators using traditional mechanical atomization. To address this issue, plants can upgrade to steam atomization attemperators.

Everyone agrees Winter Storm Uri was a wake-up call. While the ERCOT grid operated successfully through Winter Storm Landon, some work remains to ensure the grid doesn’t snooze during the next major winter weather event.

It's unbelievable that 2016 is here and the school year is half over, but that also means we are closer to the busiest time of year for those of us in the assessment industry.

I hope everyone has created and follows a secure assessment policy, but if not, John Kleeman, founder of Questionmark, created Ten tips for Securing Your Assessment System, which provides a secure foundation for your assessment system.  It seems security breaches most often occur as we get busy and are more prone to creating shortcuts in our work, but a "system" should help minimize these errors.  Please read John's post in its entirety and address any weaknesses in your assessment security:

What can you do to make your assessment system more secure? How can you avoid a disruptive data breach where people’s personal information is disclosed? Using a vendor who takes security seriously reduces risk, as I wrote in my blog article Eight ways to check if security is more than skin deep. But security involves both vendor and user. This post gives ten good practice tips on how you as a user or administrator of an assessment system can reduce the risk of data breaches.

1. Don’t give yourself or other administrators unnecessary privileges. Follow the principle of least privilege. It may sound counter-intuitive, but most administrative users don’t need access to all capabilities and data within your system. Limiting access reduces the impact of a data breach if an account is compromised or someone makes a mistake. If you are using Questionmark, allocate appropriate roles to limit people to what they need.

2. When someone leaves the project or organization, remove their access. Don’t allow someone who has left your team to still have access to your assessment data.

3. Follow good password security. Do not share passwords between people. Do not use the same password for two accounts. Choose strong passwords and change them periodically. If someone asks you for your password, never, ever give it. And if a web page doesn’t look right, don’t type your password into it.

4. Install all the patches and secure the system. A common cause of security breaches is failing to install the latest versions of software, and attackers exploit known vulnerabilities. You need to be proactive and always install the latest version of system and application software, set up good technical security and follow the vendor’s recommendations.

If you haven’t got the time or resources to do this properly, move to a cloud solution. In a cloud SaaS solution like Questionmark OnDemand, the vendor is responsible for updating Windows, updating the application, monitoring security and ensuring that everything is up to date.

5. Install good quality antivirus / anti-malware software. Reportedly there are nearly a million new or variant malware and viruses produced each day. Protect your computer and those of your co-workers with up to date, professional software to address this threat.

6. Protect any downloaded data. Questions, assessments and reports on results are generally safer on a server or in an on-demand service than on a workstation. If you need to download data locally, set up security procedures to protect it and try to ensure that any download is temporary only.

7. Dispose of data properly. Deleting a file on a computer doesn’t erase the data, it simply erases the index to it. If you use a reputable service like Questionmark OnDemand, if a disk is repaired or reaches end of life, it will be securely destroyed for example by degaussing. But if you download data locally or use installable software to manage your assessments, you need to do this yourselves. A recent study suggested that about half of used hard drives sold online contain residual data. Make sure this is not your assessment data!

8. Be careful about clicking on a link or attachment in an email. Phishing attacks use email or malicious websites (clicking on a link) to collect sensitive information or infect your machine with malware and viruses. Such attacks could even be aimed at your organization or assessment activity directly (this is called spear phishing!). Think before clicking.

9. Be aware of social engineering. Social engineering is when someone tries to trick you or someone else into a security breach. For example someone might ring up and claim to be a student who wants their results, but really is an imposter. Or someone might spoof an email from your boss asking for the questions for the next test to review. Be wary of strange phone calls or emails that ask for something urgent. If something seems suspicious, clear it with a security professional before you give them info or ask a caller to hang up and call them back on an official number.

10. Conduct security awareness training. If you’re not already doing this, organize training sessions for all your authors, proctors, administrators and other users to help them be security aware. if you can, deliver tests after the training to check understanding. Sharing this blog article with your co-workers would be a great way to start.

To see more Questionmark posts click HERE.

The auxiliary DC control power system is considered the most crucial element of a protection, control, and monitoring system. The failure of the direct current (DC) control power can result in the inability of fault detection devices to identify faults,... Read more

The post Auxiliary DC power system used for fault detection, trip coils and remote operation appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

To be honest, transmission and distribution networks are full of problems. But that’s nothing new, and you already knew that. This technical article will shed some light on solving some pretty severe problems in transmission and distribution networks by using... Read more

The post Controlling power system parameters through reactive power (VAr) compensation appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Once the branch circuit loads are calculated, the feeder circuit loads may be calculated by applying demand factors to the branch circuit loads. General Lighting Loads (Article 220.42) Show window or track lighting (Article 220.43) Receptacles in other than dwelling... Read more

The post 8 NEC Basic Feeder Circuit Sizing Requirements appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

A lighting control system is to be developed. The system will be controlled by four switches, SWITCH1, SWITCH2, SWITCH3, and SWITCH4. These switches will control the lighting in a room based on the following criteria: Any of three of the... Read more

The post Let’s develop the simple PLC program for lighting control system appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

There are a lot of opportunities to optimise lighting system in (almost) any industrial facility. Seven practical energy-efficiency opportunities to reduce energy use cost-effectively are given below: Lighting controls Replace T-12 tubes by T-8 tubes Replace mercury lights with metal halide or... Read more

The post 7 energy-efficiency improvement opportunities in lighting system appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

New Articles Entry: 'Writing in English problems and solutions' has just been added to the Articles area of UsingEnglish.com.

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This technical article discusses criteria and requirements for designing protection systems for busbars in HV/EHV networks. One of the most critical requirements is reliable busbar relay protection to assure power system integrity during fault conditions. This requirement is further emphasized because... Read more

The post Design issues in HV busbar protection systems (substation topology and DC power supply) appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

High voltage power substations are complex networks of power and control connections, represented by design elements like- Single Line Diagrams, layout and block diagrams, schematics, logic diagrams, schedules, and so many more. Wiring diagrams and schematics, in a sense, are... Read more

The post Tricks in designing and analyzing schematics and diagrams of high voltage substations appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

This technical article we will go through a number of existing applications for conducting a wide range of electrical studies. However, the practice says that studies involving load flow and fault analyses are the most commonly utilized programs in power transmission... Read more

The post Eleven most important calculations you can perform with power system analysis software appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Schematic drawings, also known as electrical or circuit diagrams, are essential tools for understanding and designing electrical circuits. Mastering schematic drawing is a fundamental skill for field engineers, allowing them to effectively troubleshoot, maintain, and modify electrical schemes. This technical... Read more

The post Fundamental concepts of schematic drawings for true field engineers (hands on HV schemes) appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.