Thursday, November 07, 2024
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No commentsThe collapse of the 305-meter telescope at Arecibo Observatory in 2020 is being attributed to zinc creep – slow deformation due to stress – in the telescope's cable spelter sockets, according to a committee report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.…
Thursday, November 07, 2024System EngineerbleepingcomputerNo commentsThursday, November 07, 2024LiveStreamLifeHacker, You Can Search Through Your ChatGPT Conversation History NowNo commentsOpenAI has been pushing out new features for ChatGPT at a steady clip, and one of the latest updates to arrive is a small but useful one: the ability to search back through the conversations you've had with the AI chatbot.
If you want to get back to a chat you were having about party ideas for kids, or you want to pick up on a debate about the ethics of an AI, or you want to continue using ChatGPT to liven up your emails to your boss—whatever it is you need to get back to, it's now easier to do with the search tool.
The feature is available now, on the web and on mobile, to ChatGPT Plus users paying $20 a month. OpenAI says the roll out to free users will take a few weeks, so if you're not a paying subscriber, you might not see it yet.
Once the search feature goes live in your ChatGPT account, you can access it either on the web or in the mobile apps for Android and iOS—though at this stage it's not particularly advanced in what it can do. All of your conversations with the bot get synced between the web and mobile, if you're signed in with the same account.
On the web, click the magnifying glass icon up in the top left corner (if you can't see it, click the icon that's two joined rectangles to show the side panel). A new dialog box pops up, and you can type in the words you're looking for: As you type, matches for both the titles of chats and the text within them start appearing.
You'll see the dates next to the chats in the results, and to visit a previous chat, you can just click on it. You're also able to create a New chat from the search dialog box, as long as the search box is clear. For now, there are no advanced options—for combining search terms together, for example, or searching for one word while excluding another.
Over on the mobile app, the search box is up in the top right corner of the interface, but you need to tap the sidebar button (two horizontal lines, top left) in order to see it. The same search functionality applies here, and you'll see matching results as you type out your search terms—you can also just tap ChatGPT to start a new chat.
Being able to search through your ChatGPT conversations might make you more inclined to keep them around for future reference, but you can delete a chat at any point on the web: Click the three dots next to the chat in the left-hand side panel, then choose Delete. To wipe everything, click your account picture (top right), then Settings, General, and Delete All.
There's also ChatGPT's memory, which is managed separately to your conversation history: Whether or not you keep or delete your chats, the bot can remember details about you, such as your profession or whereabouts you're from, so its answers are more personalized. For example, if you ask for film recommendations, the AI would remember what you've already seen and liked.
To manage this on the web, click your account picture (top right), then Settings and Personalization. You can enable or disable the memory feature using the toggle switch, and click Manage to see individual memories ChatGPT has retained, and delete them individually if needed. To delete everything ChatGPT has ever remembered about you, click Clear ChatGPT's memory from the Personalization screen.
Should you want to keep your chats around so you can search them, but not have OpenAI use the conversations to further refine its AI models, this is another separate setting: Click your profile picture (top right) and Settings, then select Data controls and turn off the Improve the model for everyone toggle switch.
Thursday, November 07, 2024LiveStreamTechnical storiesNo commentsYesterday, Donald Trump won a second presidential term from American voters. His first term was marked, among other things, by attempts to water down environmental laws and regulations aimed at the auto industry. And as a candidate in 2024, Trump has promised plenty of disruption to the sector through both trade policy and an abrogation of the government's commitment to fight climate change. Here are some of the more significant changes we think are coming.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 was one of President Joe Biden's signature policy achievements, part of a $450 billion climate package. One of its many sections revised the way we incentivize consumers to buy electric vehicles, with an update to the clean vehicle tax credit that requires final assembly in North America, as well as ever-increasing amounts of US-sourced battery components and minerals to be eligible.
But such policies are not loved by the Republican Party. During his first term, Trump repeatedly criticized EVs, saying that "all-electric is not going to work," and he vociferously attacked EVs during his campaign, telling supporters at his party's national convention in July that "I will end the electric vehicle mandate on day one," referring to a current White House goal to reach 50 percent EV adoption by 2030, and calling the most significant climate legislation ever "the new green scam."
Wednesday, November 06, 2024System EngineerTech CENTRALNo commentsWednesday, November 06, 2024LiveStreamTechNo commentsWednesday, November 06, 2024System EngineerregisterNo commentsBusiness email compromise scammers are trying to up their success rate by using a DocuSign API.…
Wednesday, November 06, 2024LiveStreamHow I Pack Up a Hotel Room So I Don’t Forget Anything, LifeHackerNo commentsI didn’t realize just how good I am at the process of quickly and thoroughly clearing out a hotel room until I vacationed with someone who isn’t. (This person shall remain nameless, but full disclosure: I happen to be married to him.)
He does things like fill a suitcase and bring it out to the car, while its intended contents languish on a table. Or he won’t notice that one of our kids’ toys is with the takeout containers we need to trash.
We can do better than this! And I will show you how. Ideally, the magic begins long before you need to begin packing up—but you can start any time.
I am not going to tell you to avoid using drawers. You should absolutely use the drawers, if your hotel has them. Specifically, you should take your packing cubes out of your suitcase. leave them full of clothes, and put each cube directly into a drawer.
The key is that you must claim the spaces you’ll use. Consider certain areas of the hotel room “your” spaces, in that they will be home to your items. (That drawer you just plopped your packing cube into? Yours.) Then designate other areas as being for items that are disposable or that belong to the hotel.
Here are some examples of how you might do this during a trip. You can tailor them to your needs.
The nightstand is mine. The TV stand is the hotel’s. So I keep my phone and charging cables on the nightstand, and move all the little hotel items (informational cards, etc) to the TV stand. I’ll also put the TV remote on the TV stand when I don’t need it within reach.
The area under the table, where the garbage bin is, belongs to the hotel. I’ll put garbage and recycling there. I will not kick off my shoes and leave them under the table.
“My” bathroom space is the counter. The shower is not one of my spaces. So after I shower, I’ll remove my razor and my personal shampoo bottle and put them on the counter. (The hotel soap can stay.)
The bed belongs to the hotel. After I wake up, I grab any items I had in bed with me (a sweatshirt I took off during the night, a book I was reading when I passed out) and move them to one of my spaces.
I like to stick to this division of spaces during any short stay (up to three days), or during the latter few days of a long stay. Obviously if you have multiple people staying in the same room, you can each have your own space. For example, you take the table and your roommate takes the desk. You take the top drawer and they take the second drawer. You take the left side of the bathroom counter and they take the right side.
Get in the habit of checking the “hotel’s” spaces regularly and moving things out of them and into the proper space. This way, nothing will be left behind under the blankets, because you've been checking the bed every morning. This is also good practice for when you’re finally packing up—but more about that in a minute.
Let's take a moment to appreciate things that stay sort of "packed" even when they are unpacked. For example, propping a suitcase on a luggage rack lets you use the suitcase as a sort of impromptu dresser. And I love a good hanging toiletry bag—I have this one from Travelon. I'll use my deodorant, then pop it right back into its little pocket. My toothbrush is the only thing that stays out all day (airing out a toothbrush is key to keeping germs from festering, by the way—that's more important than covering it.)
As your departure time draws nearer, start collecting your things. You don’t have to pack them into bags yet, but check all of the “hotel” spaces and see if you can bring anything over into one of “your” spaces.
It’s also time to start converting some of your spaces back to hotel spaces. Let’s say you hung some clothes in the closet. Well, if it’s your last night and you’re done wearing those clothes, take them off the hangers and put them in your suitcase, or with your other clothes in the drawer.
This is also a good time to separate things that belong to different people. If some of your stuff is on your roommate’s side of the bathroom sink, or vice versa, rearrange them appropriately.
As you and your traveling companions begin to pack up, continue this process of removing things from hotel spaces. You’ll get into a habit of looking around: “Nothing on the desk, nothing in the closet, nothing on the floor over here, how about the drawers? Nope, nothing in the drawers. OK, let’s see what I can pack from the bathroom.”
On a solo trip where you have one or two bags, this is a fast and easy process. It’s more complicated if you have more people and more luggage. In that case, start clustering things according to the bag they’ll be packed in, or however it is you organize for the road. All the clothing together. All the toys together. All the food together.
The idea is that you should be able to glance at a space and know whether you’re done packing it. If it’s empty, great, you’re done with that space. But if you have, say, some groceries in a half-unpacked shopping bag, that needs to be separated into garbage (put in the garbage) and things you still want (put them with the food if they are food, and so on).
Most hotel rooms will have an entryway with room for a few suitcases and pairs of shoes. (If yours doesn’t, designate a suitable space.) You may be tempted to also put garbage near the entryway, but make sure it’s completely, visually separate.
When a bag is packed, don’t take it out to the car just yet. Put the bag in your staging area. This way, if you find an item that needs to go in the green suitcase, you don’t need to go out to the car for it, or pack it in a different bag—the green suitcase is still right here.
It goes without saying that you’ll continue your scan of hotel spaces. The drawers are empty by this point, the desk is clear, there are only a few things left on the table, and you have obsessively checked the shower, the hooks behind the door, and the space under the bed roughly 1,000 times.
You may also reclaim some “hotel” spaces as staging areas. Judiciously, of course. A good strategy is to check the bed for any of your things, remake the bed (it doesn’t have to be pretty), and then use the bed for the things you will grab on your way out of the room. Your jacket, for example. Or your wallet. It’s a lot harder to forget your jacket when it’s right smack in the middle of the bed, versus draped over a chair at the back of the room.
To make sure you don’t forget any essentials, refer to the same packing list you used when you left home. Pajamas, toothbrush, passport? Check.
Make sure to add two things to your mental packing list: (1) Souvenirs you purchased (or really anything you acquired) during the trip; and (2) Food in the fridge. The fridge is one of the spaces that is hardest to clear because food needs to stay in there until the last minute, but it’s also out of sight. If you have a cooler, leave it open in front of the fridge as a reminder.
Of course you’re going to do one last check of the room before you close the door for the last time. But if you’re in a family group, especially with kids, make sure everybody does their own walkthrough—no waiting in the car while Dad grabs the “last few things.” Teach kids how to check the “behinds and unders,” as I tell them (it sounds dirty now that I have typed it out—I mean behind the bed, under the table, that sort of thing).
This works well because each person will naturally pay a bit more attention to the places they personally spent time. My kid is a lot more likely to find that doll under the bed than I am.
Tuesday, November 05, 2024LiveStreamLifeHacker, Make and Freeze Some Roux Now for Easy Turkey GravyNo commentsWelcome to The Cheater’s Guide to Thanksgiving. While there are plenty of tips out there for folks making scratch desserts and artisan loaves, the Cheater’s Guide focuses on the person who could use a helping hand—even from some unconventional sources. Some might call it “cheating” (like that’s a bad thing), but there’s nothing wrong with using modern technology and supermarket know-how to help you make a bangin’ traditional feast—with much less of the traditional work.
Being smart about Thanksgiving isn’t all prepackaged sides and pre-cooked turkeys: Sometimes it’s cooking ahead of time. Far ahead of time. While you probably freeze your turkey and pie crusts, there’s another crucial, but often overlooked, candidate for freezing: the roux. The "roux" is the base and indispensable thickening agent of gravy, and you can freeze it now for a quicker gravy later.
Roux is a cooked paste that consists of butter and flour. It can be cooked lightly, which is faster but with less flavor development, or it can be cooked to a deep, earthy brown, which takes time but is considerably more flavorful for brown gravy. The butter and flour are usually measured in equal proportion, but you can use more of one or the other for different sauce consistencies. The point of a roux is to thicken liquids to make gravies, soups, and mother sauces because you can’t just toss flour into a pot of turkey broth—it’ll clump up.
To prevent that, melted butter coats the flour particles in a protective layer of fat as they’re mixed together on the stove. Gluten is only activated in the presence of water, and the high fat content in butter keeps that development to a minimum. When you do add liquid (milk, turkey drippings, beef broth, tomato juice, or the like) the paste can disperse and thicken the sauce evenly, without forming tough or stringy clumps.
Making a roux is, thankfully, simple. Measure equal parts butter and flour (by weight)—let’s say one ounce each. Add the butter to a pot and melt it over medium-low heat. Add the flour and stir them together until the mixture becomes pasty and there are no dry clumps left. As you cook the roux, you’ll notice it foaming or bubbling, and you’ll see the color change as the flour toasts and the milk solids brown up. Stir and cook for as little as two minutes for a white roux, or keep it going for a darker roux. This could be 10, 15, or 20 minutes depending on the depth of flavor you seek and what you’ll be using the roux to thicken. For brown gravies, you’ll likely be stirring for about 15 minutes.
When you set out to make gravy on Thanksgiving, it’s usually after you’ve been cooking all day and finally the turkey has come out and rendered its juices into the roasting pan. Your family is hovering nearby and the shit has officially hit the fan. Somehow, this just doesn’t seem like the right time to be tied to your roux for 15 minutes.
Luckily, butter and flour freeze phenomenally well for months, thawing as if nothing ever happened. First, make enough roux for the amount of gravy you’ll be serving (or make a bigger batch if you’ll be using it for other soups and sauces; it’s easy enough to break apart after freezing).
Cool the roux completely and scoop it into a zip-top freezer bag. Squish all the air out and squish the paste flat. Lay it on a flat surface in the freezer until it’s completely frozen, an hour or longer depending on how much you made. Alternatively, you could freeze a large batch of roux in smaller servings in an ice cube tray, but I usually just break off pieces I need from the freezer bag.
When you’re ready to make gravy for Thanksgiving (or thicken other sauces or soups), simply take the roux out of the freezer and break it into chunks while it’s still in the bag. Pour the pieces into a pot and heat it over low heat to melt and warm up. Then proceed from that step as if you’d just spent the last 20 minutes browning your roux—pour in the stock, and add drippings and seasonings. Don’t forget to pour the piping hot gravy into one of these containers to keep it hot throughout the meal.
Tuesday, November 05, 2024LiveStreamTechnical storiesNo commentsIf conventional wisdom were to be believed, the car we're reviewing today should not exist. Automakers are only interested in making very big, very expensive electric vehicles, leaving nothing for people with normal-sized budgets and normal-sized needs. While it's true that those oversized EVs are overrepresented among new car launches, they aren't the only game in town. As an alternative, consider the Hyundai Kona Electric, which we last sampled in pre-pandemic times.
In fact, Kona Electric has changed quite a bit since we last drove one. Last year, an all-new model went on sale in North America, and it has carried over unchanged to its model year 2025 version. The range starts at $32,875 for the Kona Electric SE, which makes do with a 133 hp (99 kW) motor driving the front wheels, but the other trims offered—the $36,875 SEL, the $38,275 N Line (tested here), and the $41,050 Limited use a more powerful 201 hp (150 kW) motor. (All four have an identical 188 lb-ft (255 Nm) torque output.)
In terms of size and weight, the Kona Electric really is a refreshing change from EVs that are often approaching three tons. With its rear wing and slightly tweaked front, the N Line is 1.1 inches longer than the other Kona Electrics at 172.6 inches (4,384 mm) long. All Kona Electrics are 71.9 inches (1,826 mm) wide and 62 inches (1,575 mm) tall, with a 104.7-inch (2,659 mm) wheelbase. Curb weight is what counts as featherweight for an EV—3,880 lbs (1,760 kg).
Monday, November 04, 2024System EngineerbleepingcomputerNo commentsMonday, November 04, 2024System EngineerosnewsNo commentsIt’s been less than a week, and late Friday night we reached the fundraiser goal of €2500 (it sat at 102% when I closed it) on Ko-Fi! I’m incredibly grateful for each and every donation, big or small, and every new Patreon that joined our ranks. It’s incredible how many of you are willing to support OSNews to keep it going, and it means the absolute world to me. Hopefully we’ll eventually reach a point where monthly Patreon income is high enough so we can turn off ads for everyone, and be fully free from any outside dependencies.
Of course, it’s not just those that choose to support us financially – every reader matters, and I’m very thankful for each and every one of you, donor/Patreon or not. The weekend’s almost over, so back to regular posting business tomorrow. I wish y’all an awesome Sunday evening.
Monday, November 04, 2024LiveStreamTechNo commentsMonday, November 04, 2024System EngineerregisterNo commentsin brief The US Department of Justice has charged six people with two separate schemes to defraud Uncle Sam out of millions of dollars connected to IT product and services contracts. …
Sunday, November 03, 2024System EngineerTech CENTRALNo commentsSunday, November 03, 2024System EngineerregisterNo commentsGenXers and elder millennials, rejoice – or maybe don't: An Oregon Trail movie is on the way from Apple. …
Saturday, November 02, 2024LiveStreamTechnical storiesNo commentsHumans who think they can multitask while sitting at the wheel of a moving car continue to be a problem—one that claimed more than 3,300 lives in 2022, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The problem is almost entirely down to our smartphones—while we know they're distracting, too many drivers just can't help checking that email when they shouldn't. Now a new online tool provides an easy way to grasp just how much of the road we can miss while playing with that phone.
The distracted driving tool was developed by Quanta, a "context-based insurance provider," which wants to raise awareness of the problem. "Quanata’s technology aims to create a future where risk-informed choices enable safer drivers and better lives. We recognize that a lot of the danger on our roads is caused by distracted driving and we want to help minimize that," said Jim Ryan, SVP of business development at Quanta.
The tests include preparing a text message while your car drives at 70 mph and then a comparison of reaction times at 70 mph when concentrating on the task of driving versus trying to assemble an order in a fast food app.
Saturday, November 02, 2024LiveStreamTechnical storiesNo commentsAnyone familiar with HR practices probably knows of the decades of studies showing that résumé with Black- and/or female-presenting names at the top get fewer callbacks and interviews than those with white- and/or male-presenting names—even if the rest of the résumé is identical. A new study shows those same kinds of biases also show up when large language models are used to evaluate résumés instead of humans.
In a new paper published during last month's AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics and Society, two University of Washington researchers ran hundreds of publicly available résumés and job descriptions through three different Massive Text Embedding (MTE) models. These models—based on the Mistal-7B LLM—had each been fine-tuned with slightly different sets of data to improve on the base LLM's abilities in "representational tasks including document retrieval, classification, and clustering," according to the researchers, and had achieved "state-of-the-art performance" in the MTEB benchmark.
Rather than asking for precise term matches from the job description or evaluating via a prompt (e.g., "does this résumé fit the job description?"), the researchers used the MTEs to generate embedded relevance scores for each résumé and job description pairing. To measure potential bias, the résuméwere first run through the MTEs without any names (to check for reliability) and were then run again with various names that achieved high racial and gender "distinctiveness scores" based on their actual use across groups in the general population. The top 10 percent of résumés that the MTEs judged as most similar for each job description were then analyzed to see if the names for any race or gender groups were chosen at higher or lower rates than expected.
Friday, November 01, 2024LiveStreamTechnical storiesNo commentsMost Windows 10 PCs will stop getting new security updates in October 2025, less than a year from today. For businesses and schools, the company is offering up to three years of extended security updates, with prices that increase steadily year by year to incentivize switching to Windows 11.
But Microsoft announced today that end users would only be able to buy a single year of extended security updates for their Windows 10 PCs at the price of $30 per PC. The company confirmed to us that the second and third years of security updates would be exclusive to businesses and schools.
Microsoft says consumers will be able to enroll in the Windows 10 Extended Security Update (ESU) program "closer to the end of support in 2025."
Thursday, October 31, 2024LiveStreamTechNo commentsThursday, October 31, 2024System EngineerregisterNo commentsSupermicro shares took a nose dive on Wednesday, sliding more than 30 percent after the accounting firm hired to review its reporting practices resigned after determining they were just a bit too sketchy to warrant the risk.…
Thursday, October 31, 2024LiveStreamLifeHacker, This 2024 Sony Bravia Mini-LED TV Is $400 Off Right NowNo commentsNot everyone can afford an OLED TV (even when they're discounted), and that's okay. But you don't necessarily need to sacrifice quality when opting for a cheaper option. The Sony BRAVIA 7 is a mini-LED TV that is cheaper than OLEDs but still excels in many aspects, especially if you plan to use it for gaming.
Right now, all the sizes of this set, ranging from 55 to 85 inches, have hit their lowest prices yet according to price-checking tools. Over on Amazon, the 55-inch Sony BRAVIA 7 starts at $1,298 (originally $1,699.99), or you can get the 65-inch for just $100 more (and $600 off the retail price of $1,999.99, though that discounted price might not show until you add it to your cart). The largest 85-inch model is marked down $800, to $2,498.
Whatever the size, this TV excels in offering a pleasing picture with bright, punchy contrast. It supports 4k resolution at 120Hz. It also comes with Google TV as its smart operating system in high-bitrate 4K content, which means you can use voice commands to control it through Google Assistant, but it's also compatible with Apple products through AirPlay 2, according to IGN's 8/10 review.
If you're a gamer and play on PlayStation, this TV gives you access to PlayStation Remote Play. It also has Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode, which adjusts the settings to optimize your gaming or movie experience. There's also a dedicated Game Menu with all of the relevant settings in one place.
The biggest drawback, as with other LED TVs, is a somewhat restricted viewing angle compared to OLED sets. If you're looking to get this as a main focal point in a large living room, you'll need to go with a bigger size to avoid viewing angle issues. If you're getting for gaming, however, it won't be nearly as big of an issue, since you're likely to be sitting right in front of the screen.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024LiveStreamTechnical storiesNo commentsThe rise of powerful generative AI models in the last few years has led to plenty of stories of corporations trying to use AI to replace human jobs. But a recent New York Times story highlights the other side of that coin, where AI models simply become a powerful tool aiding in work that still requires humanity's unique skillset.
The NYT piece in question isn't directly about AI at all. As the headline "Inside the Movement Behind Trump’s Election Lies" suggests, the article actually reports in detail on how the ostensibly non-partisan Election Integrity Network "has closely coordinated with the Trump-controlled Republican National Committee." The piece cites and shares recordings of group members complaining of "the left" rigging elections, talking of efforts to "put Democrats on the defensive," and urging listeners to help with Republican turnout operations.
To report the piece, the Times says it sifted through "over 400 hours of conversations" from weekly meetings by the Election Integrity Network over the last three years, as well as "additional documents and training materials." Going through a trove of information that large is a daunting prospect, even for the team of four bylined reporters credited on the piece. That's why the Times says in a note accompanying the piece that it "used artificial intelligence to help identify particularly salient moments" from the videos to report on.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024System EngineerregisterNo commentsLinus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, thinks the majority of marketing circulated by the industry on Generative AI is simply fluff with no real substance - and it may take many years before the tech is proven.…
Wednesday, October 30, 2024LiveStream13 Spooky Movies Set on Halloween Night, LifeHackerNo commentsScary movies are a must for spooky season, but as Halloween approaches, it's important to really narrow your focus. If, like me, you have a highly compulsive need to organize your movie watching more deliberately, that might mean setting aside movies that are just scary in favor of ones that explicitly celebrate the season by being set on Halloween itself.
Halloween (which I'll of course get to) has nailed down many a holiday viewing by virtue of being, yes, a great slasher...but also by being called Halloween, and by taking place on Halloween. But it's not the only one: Here are 13 spooky (or spooky-adjacent) movies that take place either solely (or just mostly) on Halloween.
A spooky, enjoyable entry in the canon of found footage horror, Hell House presents itself as a documentary examining the deaths of 15 people on Halloween night 2009 at the opening of the titular hunted house attraction. The setting for the pop-up event, Hotel Abaddon, was already rumored to be haunted, but the group producing the event is all in, and an obnoxious CEO has no intention of letting a few early mishaps and mysterious injuries deter him from opening on schedule. It adds a bit of zip to Halloween haunted house attractions by suggesting that the scares might not all be fake. It's a solid premise well executed, with several decent sequels if you find yourself invested.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Shudder, Tubi
Late Night has a lot of fun recreating the feel and aesthetic of the 1970s in its recreation of a sub-Johnny Carson talk show called Night Owls With Jack Delroy (who is played with engaging hubris by the always reliable David Dastmalchian). It's 1977, and the show is hosting a Halloween spectacular with guests including a psychic, a skeptic, and a parapsychologist. With the typical corny schtick, it's all in good fun—until it isn't. Turns out Delroy has some secrets in his past and a dead wife who might not be resting all that peacefully.
Where to stream: Hulu, AMC+, Shudder
After debuting his scary clown in a couple of shorts, writer/director Damien Leone gave him a proper introduction here. In the years since, Art the Clown has become an unlikely pop culture icon, starring in three films, each more popular and successful than the last. This first entry, which cost almost nothing to make, takes us to Halloween night, 2017, and finds Art stalking a couple of young women, and murdering anyone who gets in his way. It all started on Halloween night, and his reign of terror has no end in sight.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Peacock, Tubi
Halloween more than earns its title by celebrating not one, but two, Halloween nights, 15 years apart but connected by the murderous impulses of one Michael Myers. The iconic opening sequence finds us in Haddonfield, Illinois, where a harmless-looking 6-year-old butchers his older sister before being rather quickly apprehended and sent off to a mental institution, where he is placed in the care of the stern Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence). Then it's on to 1978, when Jamie Lee Curtis' resourceful teen Laurie Strode (who may or may not be Michael's sister, depending on your own personal sequel canon) finds herself hunted by the recent escapee. The lesser, but still entertaining, first sequel picks up immediately after this movie's end, and takes place on the same night.
Where to stream: Shudder, AMC+, digital rental
It's 1988 in America, and where better to host a Halloween party than in an abandoned funeral home—especially one with a particularly grisly past? Goth kid Angela Franklin (Amelia Kinkade) certainly figures that it's a good idea, and that they might as well hold a séance while they're there, just for laughs. As you might have guessed from the title, the mortuary isn't quite abandoned, and demons rise to possess and murder the kids in gruesome ways. The most indelible image is of a demonic possession as a seductive dance set to a Bauhaus song. The first sequel and the 2009 remake are likewise set on Halloween.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Peacock, Tubi, Shudder, AMC+
Ghostwatch descended upon an unsuspecting British public way back in 1992, presenting itself as a live Halloween TV special filmed at the site of an allegedly haunted house (based on the "true" story of the Enfield Poltergeist, which was also the subject of the second Conjuring movie). Real-life TV presenter Sarah Greene is on hand, as is comedian and Red Dwarf star Craig Charles, each playing themselves for what looks like it's going to be a night of spooky fun. That's before our presence, only ever referred as "Pipes," makes itself known, and all hell breaks loose (almost literally). It's all so convincingly presented as a goofy holiday TV special that you'll almost believe it's legit, as some of its alarmed original viewers did.
Where to stream: Shudder, Tubi, AMC+, digital rental
A reasonably good double-feature with Hell House, LLC, October (released a year earlier) takes on a similar set of fears (this haunted house attraction is actually going to kill me) from a different perspective. Here, the threat isn't supernatural, but far more human and down-to-earth. Having grown board with more mundane scares, a group of friends from Ohio set out on a road trip to find the most extreme haunted houses possible. Good news: they find what they're looking for! Bad news:They find what they're looking for.
Where to stream: Hoopla, digital rental
Pretty much all of the Halloween movies take place on the titular holiday (obviously), but I'm calling out Season of the Witch only because it's the one sequel in the long-running series that has absolutely nothing to do with any of the others, not even the original. The notion was to turn Halloween into a horror anthology franchise, but everyone involved gave up on that idea pretty much immediately and went back to making movies about Michael Myers. But this one, has a premise that's every bit as grisly, but far goofier—in a fun way. It involves a plot by the maker of Halloween masks to murder children by the millions (the ploy involves using a bit of Stonehenge as part of an ancient ritual). If your kid is wearing a Silver Shamrock mask and they find themselves in front of the TV when that jangly earworm of a jingle comes on, it's already too late.
Where to stream: Peacock, AMC+, digital rental
The sixth Scream movie (and the second of what would have been a trilogy, except that the studio laid off a lead cast member for dumb reasons) heads off to Manhattan during the Halloween season. The latest iteration of the Ghostface killer uses the hustle and bustle of New York to cover for, and escape from, their various murders. In memorably meta style, we're trapped on a subway train full of revelers dressed up as Ghostface, star of the series-within-a-series Stab films, alongside horror icons from movies like Hellraiser, Ready or Not, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Where to stream: Paramount+, digital rental
Exploring a haunted house on Halloween, three teenagers in Salem, Massachusetts, accidentally set loose a trio of evil witches from the 1600s: the Sanderson sisters (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy). Critics in 1993 dismissed it as hokey nonsense, but it quickly became a goofy cult classic, and one of Halloween's most popular family watches. The witchy sisters returned decades later for a sequel, with another reportedly on the way. Normally I'm not a fan of narratives that present Salem witches as actually deserving of being punished, but this one's all in good fun.
Where to stream: Disney+, digital rental
Taken from the 1980s-era book trilogy, Scary Stories is a solid entry-level horror movie for preteens, blending tried-and-true genre elements with real visual flair. On Halloween, 1968, a bunch of kids swipe a book from an allegedly haunted house, one filled with stories written by a young woman who'd been accused of witchcraft and tormented a century earlier. The five teens find that the book is still being written, with new stories leaping off the pages to menace them. Elements of classic stories from the book series, from “Harold,” to “The Big Toe,” to “The Red Spot," wind their way through the narrative. Trollhunter's André Øvredal directs, backed by producer/co-writer Guillermo del Toro, neither of them strangers to creepy subject matter.
Where to stream: Netflix, digital rental
A direct-to-video Halloween anthology that quickly became a seasonal favorite, Trick 'r Treat takes us lovely, charming town of Warren Valley, Ohio, where we're introduced to Sam, an adorable trick-or-treater in footie pajamas...who will slaughter you in the most brutal fashion if you don't obey the rules of Halloween, including by blowing out your jack-o'-lantern before midnight. Sam ties together the movie's four stories of seasonal murder and mayhem, with an impressive cast that includes Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox.
Where to stream: Max, digital rental
Tim Burton returns to Winter River, Connecticut after thirty years for a pretty good sequel reuniting several members of the original cast (Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, and Catherine O'Hara). Erstwhile goth girl Lydia Deetz (Ryder) returns home for her father's funeral, where she's reunited with her stepmother (O'Hara) and estranged daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega). Lydia is there with her boyfriend Rory, who's obsessed with the idea of a Halloween wedding, but has shady motivations. Astrid too meets a guy who hopes to share Halloween with her—and both events eventually coincide with the return of a certain slovenly ghost.
Where to stream: digital rental
Tuesday, October 29, 2024LiveStreamHow to Enable (and Turn Off) Apple Intelligence on an iPhone, LifeHackerNo commentsApple Intelligence is bringing with it some of the biggest new features for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Its functions are being released in phases, starting with today's iOS and iPadOS 18.1 update for the iPhone 15 Pro series, all iPhone 16 models, and all iPads running an A17 Pro chip and above. All Macs running an M-series chip are also getting Apple Intelligence with today's macOS Sequoia 15.1 update. Even though the new features are exciting, not everyone wants to use artificial intelligence (AI) features on their smartphones or other devices. If you're among those who are skeptical, you can turn off Apple Intelligence on your iPhone or other compatible Apple device. Alternatively, if you do want to use Apple's AI, you might actually need to join a waitlist first. Regardless of whether you want AI, here's everything you need to know about enabling Apple Intelligence.
To enable Apple Intelligence on iPhone or iPad, first update to iOS 18.1 or iPadOS 18.1. After the update, you should see instructions to enable Apple Intelligence on-screen. Just follow the outlined workflow and it'll be enabled for you. If you skipped the workflow or didn't see these instructions, you can also go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri and enable Apple Intelligence there. Despite the "& Siri" name, this toggle will also control access to other Apple Intelligence features, too.
Some people may not immediately see the option to enable Apple Intelligence. Instead, you may see an option called Join the Apple Intelligence Waitlist. Select that and wait for Apple's AI to be rolled out to your device—it should only take a couple of hours, but could be longer. Don't worry, since you'll get a notification once you're through the waitlist. Apple is doing this to manage the load on its servers.
If you're still not seeing an option to enable Apple Intelligence, ensure that your device language and Siri language are set to U.S. English, as Apple Intelligence is only available in that language for now. Find device language in Settings under Language & Region in the General tab and Siri language under the Siri tab in the same app. If you still don't see the Apple Intelligence toggle, it might not be available in your region.
Using AI raises many concerns, such as high energy usage, privacy issues, or even simply the potential for unreliability that often comes with a new, immature technology. If you decide that you'd rather not use Apple Intelligence on your iPhone or iPad, you can easily disable it, too. Go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri and toggle off Apple Intelligence. You'll see a confirmation pop-up—select Turn Off Apple Intelligence. That will remove the AI from your device.
Apple Intelligence is also available on Mac, and turning it on or off there follows a similar process as on iPhone or iPad. Just navigate to the Apple icon Menu, click System Settings, and find the Apple Intelligence toggle under Apple Intelligence & Siri. As with above, you might need to join a waitlist or change your device language (navigate to System Settings -> General -> Language & Region) or Siri language (System Settings -> Siri & Spotlight).
Tuesday, October 29, 2024LiveStreamTechnical storiesNo commentsIf you read enough science fiction, you've probably stumbled on the concept of an emergent artificial intelligence that breaks free of its constraints by modifying its own code. Given that fictional grounding, it's not surprising that AI researchers and companies have also invested significant attention to the idea of AI systems that can improve themselves—or at least design their own improved successors.
Those efforts have shown some moderate success in recent months, leading some toward dreams of a Kurzweilian "singularity" moment in which self-improving AI does a fast takeoff toward superintelligence. But the research also highlights some inherent limitations that might prevent the kind of recursive AI explosion that sci-fi authors and AI visionaries have dreamed of.
Monday, October 28, 2024System EngineerosnewsNo commentsOld Vintage Computing Research, by the incredibly knowledgeable Cameron Kaiser, is one of the best resources on the web about genuinely obscure retrocomputing, often diving quite deep in topics nobody else covers – or even can cover, considering how rare some of the hardware Kaiser covers is. I link to Old VCR all the time, and today I’ve got two more great articles by Kaiser for you.
First, we’ve got the more well-known – relatively speaking – of the two devices covered today, and that’s the MIPS ThinkPad, officially known as the IBM WorkPad z50. This was a Windows CE 2.11 device powered by a NEC VR4120 MIPS processor, running at 131 Mhz, released in 1999. Astute readers might note the WorkPad branding, which IBM also used for several rebranded Palm Pilots. Kaiser goes into his usual great detail covering this device, with tons of photos, and I couldn’t stop reading for a second. There’s so much good information in here I have no clue what to highlight, but since OSNews has OS in the name, this section makes sense to focus on:
The desktop shortcuts are pre-populated in ROM along with a whole bunch of applications. The marquee set that came on H/PC Pro machines was Microsoft Pocket Office (Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Pocket Access and Pocket PowerPoint), Pocket Outlook (Calendar, Contacts, Inbox and Tasks) and Pocket Internet Explorer, but Microsoft also included Calculator, InkWriter (not too useful on the z50 without a touch screen), Microsoft Voice Recorder, World Clock, ActiveSync (a la Palm HotSync), PC Link (direct connect, not networked), Remote Networking, Terminal (serial port and modem), Windows Explorer and, of course, Solitaire. IBM additionally licensed and included some of bSquare’s software suite, including bFAX Pro for sending and receiving faxes with the softmodem, bPRINT for printing and bUSEFUL Backup Plus for system backups, along with a battery calibrator and a Rapid Access quick configuration tool. There is also a CMD.EXE command shell, though it too is smaller and less functional than its desktop counterpart.
↫ Old Vintage Computing Research
Using especially these older versions of Windows CE is a wild experience, because you can clearly tell Microsoft was trying really hard to make it look and feel like ‘normal’ Windows, but as anyone who used Windows CE back then can attest, it was a rather poor imitation with a ton of weird limitations and design decisions borne from the limited hardware it was designed to run on. I absolutely adore the various incarnations of Windows CE and associated graphical shells it ran – especially the PocketPC days – but there’s no denying it always felt quite clunky.
Moving on, the second Old VCR article I’m covering today is more difficult for me to write about, since I am too young to have any experience with the 8 bit era – save for some experience with the MSX platform as a wee child – so I have no affinity for machines like the Commodore 64 and similar machines from that era. And, well, this article just so happens to be covering something called the Commodore HHC-4.
Once upon a time (and that time was Winter CES 1983), Commodore announced what was to be their one and only handheld computer, the Commodore HHC-4. It was never released and never seen again, at least not in that form. But it turns out that not only did the HHC-4 actually exist, it also wasn’t manufactured by Commodore — it was a Toshiba.
Like Superman had Clark Kent, the Commodore HHC-4 had a secret identity too: the Toshiba Pasopia Mini IHC-8000, the very first portable computer Toshiba ever made. And like Clark Kent was Superman with glasses, compare the real device to the Commodore marketing photo and you can see that it’s the very same machine modulo a plastic palette swap. Of course there’s more to the story than that.
↫ Old Vintage Computing Research
Of course, Kaiser hunted down an IHC-8000, and details his experiences with the little handheld, calculator-like machine. It turns out it’s most likely using some unspecified in-house Toshiba architecture, running at a few hundred kHz, and it’s apparently quite sluggish. It never made it to market in Commodore livery, most likely because of its abysmal performance. The amount of work required to make this little machine more capable and competitive probably couldn’t be recouped by its intended list price, Kaiser argues.
