“There are no outdoor sports as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship.”
—Ai Weiwei
Source: Bit of News Daily Digest 🍃
Typographer Adrian Frutiger dies aged 87
R.I.P. Adrian Frutiger, legendary type designer.
Swiss typographer Adrian Frutiger, designer of typefaces including Univers, Avenir and the eponymous Frutiger, has died
‘Hackers’ at 20:
Wow! The 20th anniversary of Hackers is upon us. Hack the planet!
‘Hackers’ at 20:How a 20-year-old, mostly inaccurate flop predicted the future, reshaped sci-fi, and won over the real hacker community.
Source: ‘Hackers’ at 20:
About That Brain-Freezing Cryonics Story in the New York Times | MIT Technology Review
TL;DR: there are big gaps in the promise that we could re-animate or upload a frozen brain.
It is this purposeful conflation of what is theoretically conceivable with what is ever practically possible that exploits people’s vulnerability.
Source: About That Brain-Freezing Cryonics Story in the New York Times | MIT Technology Review
Important Win for Fair Use in ‘Dancing Baby’ Lawsuit | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Have I mentioned recently that I love the EFF? Because I do.
Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that copyright holders like Universal must consider fair use before trying to remove content from the Internet.
It also rejected Universal’s claim that a victim of takedown abuse cannot vindicate her rights if she cannot show actual monetary loss.
“Today’s ruling sends a strong message that copyright law does not authorize thoughtless censorship of lawful speech,” said EFF Legal Director Corynne McSherry. “We’re pleased that the court re
Source: Important Win for Fair Use in ‘Dancing Baby’ Lawsuit | Electronic Frontier Foundation
37 rental cars – 2 days – 185,000 miles – FlyerTalk Forums
This clever member of the noteworthy travel-hacking forum FlyerTalk has posted about his recent trip to Funchal (Madeira, Portugal). TL;DR: He successfully exploited this promotion to earn 185,000 “miles”!
Interestingly, I once visited there, albeit under different circumstances.
Two weeks before my trip, Avis Funchal called me. A man explained that there had been an error in the system, and that 18 bookings had been created in my name.
I told him that there must indeed be an error, because it’s supposed to be 37. After typing a bit at his computer, he told me that this was nonsense, and that he would combine all the rentals into one. I explained about the promotion and that I would really appreciate 37 individual rentals.
He seemed to understand, but ended the conversation by saying “you will pay for this”, so it was unclear if he was onboard with it or not.
Source: 37 rental cars – 2 days – 185,000 miles – FlyerTalk Forums
Scientists have discovered why running makes you happy – The Washington Post
TL;DR: Leptin is a hormone that affects satiety and dopamine release. Researchers broke this pathway in mice and they ran a lot more because they didn’t get the dopamine from running.
In an experiment with mice, researchers compared normal mice to those that were genetically engineered to lack a leptin-sensitive protein called STAT3 that relays the leptin signal to release the reward chemical dopamine.
…the genetically engineered mice ran an extraordinary amount, nearly twice as much as the normal mice…
The new study supports previous research in humans that showed that low leptin levels are associated with exercise addiction and fast marathon times.
Source: Scientists have discovered why running makes you happy – The Washington Post
Dark corners of Unicode / fuzzy notepad
Unicode (that thing that gives us Emoji) is actually very complex… which kind of makes sense when you realize it’s trying to be the system to represent all of human written language. 😉
here is a collection of curiosities I’ve encountered in dealing with Unicode that you generally only find out about through experience. Enjoy.
The Apple ISA
Apple is on track to diverge from ARM and x86 to design its own proprietary instruction set. This good for the future of hardware–software co-design.
With all of Apple’s vertical integration efforts (own ALL THE THINGS) it certainly seems likely that they’ll want to bring this last piece in-house as well. The linked article astutely recognizes that small steps towards this have been made with the Apple Watch—apps are no longer delivered in bytecode, but instead in LLVM IR, which paves the way for their future proprietary ISA.
Source: The Apple ISA
Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear, Dune
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
– Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear, Dune