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Sign of the times

460K views 8K replies 41 participants last post by  ekim68 
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Activists rally to save Internet Archive as lawsuit threatens site


The Internet Archive is a massive endeavor-it's an online library aiming to "provide Universal Access to All Knowledge." It has digitized millions of web pages, movies, photos, recordings, software programs, and books that might otherwise be lost to history.

But it's neither un-censorable nor outside the bounds of copyright law. And now open internet supporters are wondering how to save it before it disappears.
 
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Porsche Taycan Turbo bows to humble Tesla Model 3 in 500 km endurance race


During the recently-conducted 500 km electric car race "Ignitis ON: get to know Lithuania!" in Druskininkai, Lithuania, a stunning black Porsche Taycan Turbo proudly crossed the finish line in 5 hours 47 minutes and 14 seconds. That was very impressive for the Taycan Turbo, which made its debut in the race this year. But inasmuch as the 500 km race was a big win for Porsche's flagship electric car, there was one little detail that tempered its victory.

One minute and seven seconds before the proud Porsche Taycan Turbo completed the race, a humble Tesla Model 3 crossed the finish line, earning first place.
 
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The Internet Needs a New Architecture that Puts Users First


Quarantine has changed the way we connect, online and off. As we rely on the internet more and more for work, social connections, and basic needs, it is time to talk about the future of meaningful online experiences, and the need for a new internet architecture. We need a user-focused, localized internet. This competitive architecture would deliver an experience that values real-time connectivity over one-way advertising and puts control with the user, not with big tech platforms.
 
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Poll: Americans are the unhappiest they've been in 50 years


ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - It's been a rough year for the American psyche. Folks in the U.S. are more unhappy today than they've been in nearly 50 years.

This bold - yet unsurprising - conclusion comes from the COVID Response Tracking Study, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. It finds that just 14% of American adults say they're very happy, down from 31% who said the same in 2018. That year, 23% said they'd often or sometimes felt isolated in recent weeks. Now, 50% say that.
 
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The Story of Robinhood


Over the weekend, I learned of a 20 year old who died from suicide after thinking he racked up a $730K+ debit on Robinhood, a free online stock trading platform that's become exceedingly popular with young "traders" placing risky bets on highly volatile companies amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Sadly, it was later revealed that the way the platform displayed account balances led the young man to believe he owed so much money.
 
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Japan's Fugaku surpasses Summit as world's most powerful supercomputer


The world's most powerful supercomputer has just fired up. A newcomer named Fugaku has nabbed the number one spot in the Top500 list of supercomputers, surpassing Summit, the reigning champion of the past few years.

Fugaku is installed in the RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan, and only just began some operations this month. The Top500 list primarily ranks systems based on a metric called High Performance Linpack (HPL), and Fugaku boasts a HPL of 415.5 petaflops. That makes it 2.8 times more powerful than runner-up Summit, on 148.8 petaflops.
 
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The Fastest ISP In America Is Community Owned And Operated


We've long noted that community broadband networks are just an organic response to the broken, uncompetitive US broadband market. While you'll occasionally see some deployment duds if the business models aren't well crafted, studies have shown such networks (there are 750 and counting now in the States) offer cheaper, faster service than many incumbents. In short, these communities grew so frustrated with America's mediocre, patchy, and expensive broadband service, they built their own.
 
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NASA Names Headquarters After 'Hidden Figure' Mary W. Jackson


NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Wednesday the agency's headquarters building in Washington, D.C., will be named after Mary W. Jackson, the first African American female engineer at NASA.

Jackson started her NASA career in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of the agency's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer, went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. In 2019, she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
 
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Charter seeks FCC OK to impose data caps and charge fees to video services


Charter, unlike other ISPs, isn't allowed to impose data caps and faces limits on charges for interconnection payments because of conditions applied to its 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable. The conditions were imposed by the Federal Communications Commission for seven years and are scheduled to elapse in May 2023. Last week, Charter submitted a petition asking the FCC to let the conditions run out on May 18, 2021 instead. The FCC is seeking public comment on the petition.
 
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Radar system could let cars see what's around the corner


While today's cars are getting increasingly good at detecting other vehicles on the road ahead, they can still be surprised by traffic that shoots out from intersecting streets. A new radar system could help, by letting those cars "see" around blind corners.

Developed at Princeton University by a team led by Asst. Prof. Felix Heide, the setup incorporates relatively inexpensive Dopler radar units.
 
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