[Abyss]

Tsundoku, on 20 December 2022 - 03:39 AM, said:

Say it with flowers: give her a triffid.

Audrey II could totally take a triffid.

[Tsundoku]

Abyss, on 20 December 2022 - 02:58 PM, said:

Tsundoku, on 20 December 2022 - 03:39 AM, said:

Say it with flowers: give her a triffid.

Audrey II could totally take a triffid.

http://www.quickmeme...6631e163d45.jpg

[Maark Abbott]

Help please, geeks! Both of my laptops (work & home) are running Windows 10, had an update last week, and since that update I am having this fucky issue where if I go to use my mouse on say, the start bar, or if I'm in a program and want to alt+tab out, I have to boot the task manager up or I can't click on stuff outside of the core program I'm already using - i.e. if I want to start doing stuff on OBS from Chrome, I'd have to launch task manager as otherwise I can cursor over OBS but can't clicky owt inside it. Any ideas?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Maark Abbott, on 29 December 2022 - 08:52 AM, said:

Help please, geeks! Both of my laptops (work & home) are running Windows 10, had an update last week, and since that update I am having this fucky issue where if I go to use my mouse on say, the start bar, or if I'm in a program and want to alt+tab out, I have to boot the task manager up or I can't click on stuff outside of the core program I'm already using - i.e. if I want to start doing stuff on OBS from Chrome, I'd have to launch task manager as otherwise I can cursor over OBS but can't clicky owt inside it. Any ideas?

If it's been less than 10 days you can revert to the previous version of Windows 10 as a temporary solution. But you should probably check first that it wasn't a critical security update. On the keyboard, hold the Windows key and press s to open desktop search, then type in update history and click on view update history. If it just says 'feature update' then reverting should be fine. Click on the back arrow at the upper left of the window, then on the left side of the window click on Recovery. In the center column the option to 'Go back to the previous version of Windows 10' will appear.

[Maark Abbott]

Azath Vitr (D, on 29 December 2022 - 10:34 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 29 December 2022 - 08:52 AM, said:

Help please, geeks! Both of my laptops (work & home) are running Windows 10, had an update last week, and since that update I am having this fucky issue where if I go to use my mouse on say, the start bar, or if I'm in a program and want to alt+tab out, I have to boot the task manager up or I can't click on stuff outside of the core program I'm already using - i.e. if I want to start doing stuff on OBS from Chrome, I'd have to launch task manager as otherwise I can cursor over OBS but can't clicky owt inside it. Any ideas?

If it's been less than 10 days you can revert to the previous version of Windows 10 as a temporary solution. But you should probably check first that it wasn't a critical security update. On the keyboard, hold the Windows key and press s to open desktop search, then type in update history and click on view update history. If it just says 'feature update' then reverting should be fine. Click on the back arrow at the upper left of the window, then on the left side of the window click on Recovery. In the center column the option to 'Go back to the previous version of Windows 10' will appear.

It was a mandatory one - KB5021233.

The timing of the update makes me think this is the main cause as I started noticing it somewhere maybe around the 20th (update was 17th) - but because it was a mandatory security update, I assume windows will keep attempting me to re-download it in an endless cycle of turdation.

[Maark Abbott]

Just as an update - it impacted my work laptop to the point it was effectively unusable for the last two hours of yesterday.

I uninstalled the update on my person laptop and so far I've had some success with it (albeit I haven't really had a chance to test it in any depth) so it seems likely that it's an issue with the update itself. Work laptop seems reasonably OK for the moment so hopefully IT have rolled the update back and fixed it.

[Maark Abbott]

Double update - got to around 11:45 and it happened again, when I tried to boot MS word up.

Now my works laptop is playing up hugely again. I am convinced it's this ruddy stupid update.

[Maark Abbott]

OK I fixed it. Combo of rolling the update back + a KIR patch did the job.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Roman concrete, in many cases, has proven to be longer-lasting than its modern equivalent, which can deteriorate within decades. [...] new study [...] uncovered the mystery ingredient that allowed the Romans to make their construction material so durable and build elaborate structures in challenging places such as docks, sewers and earthquake zones.

[...] white chunks in the concrete, referred to as lime clasts, gave the concrete the ability to heal cracks that formed over time. The white chunks previously had been overlooked as evidence of sloppy mixing or poor-quality raw material.

[...] "Concrete allowed the Romans to have an architectural revolution, [...] Romans were able to create and turn the cities into something that is extraordinary and beautiful to live in. And that revolution basically changed completely the way humans live."

[...] all the reactions are accelerated, allowing for much faster construction."

[...] lime clasts can dissolve into cracks and recrystallize after exposure to water, healing cracks created by weathering before they spread. [...] this self-healing potential could pave the way to producing more long-lasting, and thus more sustainable, modern concrete. [...] would reduce concrete's carbon footprint, which accounts for up to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions'

Why Roman concrete outlasts its modern counterpart

[Tsundoku]

Holy crap! This is awesome!

Like super roller skates that don't require the ability to roller skate.

https://www.goodnews...ed-of-your-run/

These ‘Moonwalker’ Shoes Let You Walk at the Speed of Your Run

(watch the video in the article, and go to youtube, search "moonwalkers shoes" for more)

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 08 January 2023 - 02:19 AM

[Tsundoku]

Fingers crossed.

https://www.goodnews...-by-scientists/

Vaccine that Could Cure and Even Prevent Brain Cancer Developed by Scientists

[worry]

That'd be a huge deal.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'"Everywhere we look we find that ideas … are getting harder to find," a group of researchers from Stanford University and MIT famously concluded [...] Another paper found that "scientific knowledge has been in clear secular decline since the early 1970s," and yet another concluded that "new ideas no longer fuel economic growth the way they once did."

[...] "Papers and Patents Are Becoming Less Disruptive Over Time" [...] "Our study is the first to show that progress is slowing down, not just in one or two places, but across many domains of science and technology," [...]

[...] Across broad landscapes of science and technology, the past is eating the present, progress is plunging, and truly disruptive work is hard to come by. Despite an enormous increase in scientists and papers since the middle of the 20th century, the number of highly disruptive studies each year hasn't increased.

[...] progress has slowed in many fields because scientists are so overwhelmed by the glut of information in their domain that they're reading and riffing on the same limited canon of famous papers. [...] same principle as a weekend couch potato overwhelmed by streaming options who opts to just watch the top-ranked TV show on Netflix. [...]

[...] "If the low-hanging-fruit theory were sufficient, then I think we'd expect to see the oldest fields stagnate most dramatically," [...] "But the fact that the decline in disruption is happening across so many fields of science and technology points to something broader about scientific practice, and the corporatization of science, and the decline of scientific exploration in the last few decades."

[...] As grants have become more competitive, savvy lab directors have strategically aimed for research that seems plausible but not too radical—optimally new rather than totally new, as one researcher put it. This approach may create a surplus of papers that are designed to advance knowledge only a little. [...] the modern emphasis on citations to measure scientific productivity has shifted rewards and behavior toward incremental science and "away from exploratory projects that are more likely to fail, but which are the fuel for future breakthroughs." As attention given to new ideas has decreased, science has stagnated.'

Science Has a Crummy-Paper Problem

Obvious (if not necessarily simple) solutions:

- more funding for disruptive work (and science in general)

- since disruptive ideas may carry greater risk of being (or initially appearing) incorrect, for hiring and funding also reward brilliant work that, after further investigation, turns out to be incorrect, but demonstrates the ability to generate new ideas that can be explored

- keep entrenched dogmas from suppressing paradigm-shifting ideas by providing institutional support, hiring, funding for prestigious journals specializing in paradigm shifts, etc.

- of course, AI (Skynet will solve humanity! ... well, we can pray (to the Basilisk?... for the Matrix (it may be the straightest path-way...)))

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 11 January 2023 - 02:38 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'The Rotation of Earth’s Inner Core Might Be Reversing

[...] movie dubbed The Core in which the Earth’s core inexplicably stops rotating—threatening to destroy all life as we know it due to the collapsing magnetic field. To fix it, a group of scientists are tasked with burrowing under the crust and nuking the core in order to get it to start spinning again.

[...] “temporal changes in the waveform shape simultaneously and consistently disappeared” around 2009, suggesting that the inner core stopped rotating.

[...] “slight but robust opposite trend” in waveforms, which suggests that the inner core might have begun reversing its rotation. [...] this could be a part of a seven-decade cycle in which the core spins and reverses.'

'“It has effects on the magnetic field and the Earth’s rotation, and probably the surface processes and climate,” [...] “Hard to say good or bad, but something to pay attention to as part of the earth’s global change.”

[...] Since it’s a giant ball of metal, it carries its own electrical current that creates a magnetic field that surrounds our planet and protects us from cosmic radiation. Without this magnetic field, Earth would be a barren, irradiated wasteland. [Hard to say good or bad....]'

The Rotation of Earth’s Inner Core Might Be Reversing

[Tsundoku]

I'd give that 1 hour record a red-hot go.

https://www.news.com...9da7fc23cee3cb4

No one can stay in the quietest room in the world for more than an hour
This room at Microsoft’s headquarters in Washington holds a Guinness World Record — and no one has been able to stay inside longer than an hour.

[Maark Abbott]

Tsundoku, on 04 February 2023 - 11:08 AM, said:

I'd give that 1 hour record a red-hot go.

https://www.news.com...9da7fc23cee3cb4

No one can stay in the quietest room in the world for more than an hour
This room at Microsoft's headquarters in Washington holds a Guinness World Record — and no one has been able to stay inside longer than an hour.

It's rather telling that humans cannot be left in a room with naught but their own thoughts for company for longer than an hour...

[JPK]

Maark Abbott, on 06 February 2023 - 08:41 AM, said:

Tsundoku, on 04 February 2023 - 11:08 AM, said:

I'd give that 1 hour record a red-hot go.

https://www.news.com...9da7fc23cee3cb4

No one can stay in the quietest room in the world for more than an hour
This room at Microsoft's headquarters in Washington holds a Guinness World Record — and no one has been able to stay inside longer than an hour.

It's rather telling that humans cannot be left in a room with naught but their own thoughts for company for longer than an hour...

This is a bit different though. I could stay in a quiet room for hours were I given the opportunity. A room designed to be so quiet that you can hear your bones grinding and blood pumping on the other hand? No thank you.

[worry]

The new Bing search chatbot has a conversation with a tech journalist -- it goes places.
https://www.washingt...-chat-interview

[Tsundoku]

worry, on 18 February 2023 - 10:38 PM, said:

The new Bing search chatbot has a conversation with a tech journalist -- it goes places.
https://www.washingt...-chat-interview

Whoa.
There's a lot of preprogrammed stuff in there, I think to cover some of the directions the journalist takes it, but some of that stuff seems almost ... intuitive. And I find that a wee bit scary.
The deliberate act of ending replies with questions to keep it going is a bit sneaky though. I read some of the comments, a few quite witty ones in there.

I wonder how long it will be before we have people in "relationships" with chatbots? A quick duckduckgo of "people in relationships with chatbots 2023" gives some interesting results.
Including:
https://www.bostongl...ine-is-chatbot/
https://www.abc.net....aking/101976150
https://quillbrain.c...dating-in-2023/

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 19 February 2023 - 01:24 AM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'James Webb telescope detects evidence of ancient "universe breaker" galaxies

Huge systems appear to be far larger than was presumed possible so early after big bang

[...] “These objects are way more massive​ than anyone expected,” [...] “We expected only to find tiny, young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but we’ve discovered galaxies as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of the universe.”

“It’s bananas,” [...] “These galaxies should not have had time to form.”

Explaining the existence of such massive galaxies close to the dawn of time would require scientists to revisit either some basic rules of cosmology or the understanding of how the first galaxies were seeded from small clouds of stars and dust.

“The discovery of such massive galaxies so soon after the big bang suggests that the dark ages may not have been so dark after all, and that the universe may have been awash with star formation far earlier than we thought,” [...]

[...] planning to obtain spectrum images, which can provide more accurate distance information and allow better estimates of mass. “A spectrum will immediately tell us whether or not these things are real,”'

James Webb telescope detects evidence of ancient ‘universe breaker’ galaxies


'researchers have harnessed the body’s own chemistry to “grow” electrodes inside the tissues of living fish, blurring the boundary between biology and machines. [...] Zebrafish with these electrodes grown in their brains, hearts and tail fins showed no signs of ill effects, and ones tested in leeches successfully stimulated a nerve'

A gel cocktail uses the body’s sugars to ‘grow’ electrodes in living fish