Free Republic

Chinese state television has censored World Cup games to remove shots of maskless crowds after the sight of joyous fans celebrating in packed stadiums stoked anger back home, where hundreds of millions remain under strict pandemic restrictions. A well-attended opening ceremony in Qatar – with no social distancing – led to users of Chinese social media platforms complaining that it contrasted with the severe isolation they felt under President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy. Chinese netizens said it was “weird” to see hundreds of thousands of people gathering in a carnival-like atmosphere while they were still forced to live under a...

Published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, researchers found that problematic smartphone use is linked with low self-esteem as well as negative cognitive outcomes.The majority of people who live in industrialized countries have smartphones. The fear of being without one’s smartphones is known as “nomophobia” and has become a social problem. Research shows that people who have smartphone addiction tend to report more loneliness and experience self-regulation deficits..adsslot_t0TixwWES7{ width:468px !important; height:60px !important; } @media (max-width:1199px) { .adsslot_t0TixwWES7{ width:468px !important; height:60px !important; } } @media (max-width:767px) { .adsslot_t0TixwWES7{ width:300px !important; height:250px !important; } }Furthermore, people who have...

The owner of hacking forum called Breached told BleepingComputer that it was responsible for exploiting the weakness (originally obtained from another hacker called "Devil") and dumping the user records. It said that it also obtained 1.4 million Twitter profiles for suspended accounts, obtained via another API, but only shared those privately among a few individuals. On top of all that, security expert Chad Loder has revealed that tens of millions more Twitter records may have been collected using the same API. Once again, data collected may include private phone numbers along with public information. Loder posted a redacted sample on...

Google could be facing more calls from activist investors urging CEO Sundar Pichai and team to cut its OpEx base further, given slowing growth. However, we discuss why Google has been relatively consistent with its OpEx spending over time. Moreover, its OpEx margins have also been trending down, unlike Meta Platforms. Notwithstanding, Google needs to reaccelerate its top line growth to justify a material re-rating. We discuss why the market has likely reflected significant uncertainties in its execution due to substantial macro and competitive headwinds. Maintain Buy. Thesis Google (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) employees have been anxious over the past month after...

@SenMarkey .@elonmusk could respond to my tweets but failed to respond to my letter by yesterday’s deadline and answer basic questions about Twitter verification. Congress must end the era of failed Big Tech self-regulation and pass laws that put user safety over the whims of billionaires.

I'm looking for flash drives (USB 3.1 or 3.2 memory sticks) with 3D NAND memory if such are out there? MLC would be next best. I'm looking more for reliability than speed. Most useful would be a 256 GB stick. A dual drive (USB A and USB C connection on either end) would be best.Recommendations?

If I use a 64 GB micro-SD card in a dashcam only rated for a 32 GB card, I know the dashcam will only recognize ~32 GB (slightly less, actually) of this card. But, as sectors go bad, will the cam recognize only the ~32 GB minus the lost sectors, or, will it begin to use previously unused / recognized sectors, maintaining useable memory close to 32 GB?

There is no official information on the release date. And since this is Tesla’s first-ever smartphone, we cannot make any speculations based on past releases. However, as per various news outlets (Mashbable India), the Tesla Pi Phone will likely launch in December 2022. If not in December 2022, we can expect the launch in January 2023. We will update you as more information on the same becomes available.

An Irish-based senior executive with Twitter has secured a temporary High Court injunction preventing the social networking giant from terminating her employment. The order was secured by Sinéad McSweeney, who is Twitter’s Global Vice President for Public Policy. She claims that by not responding to a generic and vague email sent to all Twitter employees by its owner, multibillionaire Elon Musk, earlier this month, she has been treated as if she is no longer employed by the company. […] Mr. Musk, she claims, has since the takeover been running the company “in an unorthodox manner” and has been rehiring and...

I've been looking at new (or slightly used) laptops. Many if not almost all have touchpads that do not also have any kind of associated buttons or a trackball. So, if I am working in a document and want to select a sentence or block of text to copy and paste, how is that readily accomplished? I've read reviews by owners of such in which they complain of no easy way to do such selections, which seems like an astonishing lack of functionality. The laptops I've been looking at are 14" or 15.6", so there is certainly lots of real...

The Washington Post is reporting that Elon Musk made several “woke” staff members “cry” when he started rolling out his free speech agenda at Twitter. In a Tuesday tech report, the newspaper accuses Musk of undermining Twitter’s ability to “protect vulnerable communities.” The article, written by reporters Cat Zakrzewski, Faiz Siddiqui, and Joseph Menn, argues that Musk imposed his will on the company by gutting the “Trust and Safety team.” The team previously handled the censorship of Twitter users and deliberated to “define dangerous language.” The piece, headlined “Musk’s ‘free speech’ agenda dismantles safety work at Twitter, insiders say,” suggests...

JUST IN - Elon Musk makes a new poll to offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts -- if not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam

I needed this. LOL! https://twitter.com/i/status/1595250835096621057

With iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models, you can use Emergency SOS via satellite to text emergency services when you're out of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage. You can also use the Find My app to share your location with people via satellite. How Emergency SOS via satellite works Emergency SOS via satellite can help you connect with emergency services under exceptional circumstances when no other means of reaching emergency services are available. If you call or text emergency services and can't connect because you're outside the range of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage, your iPhone tries to connect you via...

A particularly insidious dark pattern is the inclusion of unexpected fees during the checkout process. By this time, the company knows most people will already be committed to the transaction. Lengthy user agreements are another common dark pattern. Most people will simply click the OK button without reading the pages and pages of terms. As long as a business can point to a disclosure anywhere on its site, it can claim customers were informed. Consumers can try to protect themselves by always looking closely for added fees or prechecked boxes when they reach the checkout screen of an online purchase....

Head of Apple’s App Store, Phil Schiller, has deleted his Twitter account

Between Saturday and Sunday Trump's twitter account followers grew back to its original 83 million followers. Those were likely already in his account. They were just deposited back in it. Since then an additional 4.4 million followers have come into his account. These are new people. We'll see if this pace of new additions continues. Trump as per his agreement with Truth Social can't have his stuff reposted for at least 5 hours. This five hours could be used to curate his tweets on Truth Social. The Tweets on Truth Social with the most likes over the next five hours...

Jack White is the latest celebrity to have harsh words for Elon Musk following his recent acquisition of Twitter. White specifically took umbrage with his decision (via Twitter poll) to reinstate Donald Trump’s official account, which was suspended following the events of January 6. “So you gave trump his twitter platform back,” White wrote. “Absolutely disgusting, Elon. That is officially an asshole move.” White also deactivated Third Man Records’ Twitter acount. “Why dont you be truthful? Tell it like it is; people like you and Joe Rogan (who gives platforms to liars like alex jones etc.),” White continued. “…you come...

For Trump everything is a negotiation. The simplest way for Trump to return to twitter is to enable a cross post. So that every time he posts to TruthSocial--the post is cross posted to to his account on Twitter. He could also stipulate that his cross post to twitter includes a link from twitter back to his account at TruthSocial. Musk might insist on reciprocity. But that's fine.

Galactica is an artificial intelligence developed by Meta AI (formerly known as Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research) with the intention of using machine learning to "organize science." It's caused a bit of a stir since a demo version was released online last week, with critics suggesting it produced pseudoscience, was overhyped and not ready for public use. The tool is pitched as a kind of evolution of the search engine but specifically for scientific literature. Upon Galactica's launch, the Meta AI team said it can summarize areas of research, solve math problems and write scientific code. Almost as soon as it...