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martyb writes:

The SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic has been with us for over six months. A recent check of https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ reveals just over 13 million cases, with over a half million deaths, and 4.9 million of which are listed as active. On a positive note, 7.6 million are listed as recovered.

Unfortunately, recovered does not necessarily mean being back to the same shape someone was in pre-infection (see below).

Statistically, there are bound to be some Soylentils who have been infected (or had friends or family members who were).

I'd like to offer an opportunity for us to pull together and share our collective experiences. If you've made it through, telling others of how it went can be helpful both for the one who shares, and also for those who were recently diagnosed. Fears, doubts, and worries act to drain energy better directed to recovery.

NB: Please be mindful that "the internet never forgets". I encourage all who respond to make use of posting anonymously.

With that caution, what has been your experience? How long between time of infection and onset of symptoms? How bad was it? How are things now? What do you know now that you wish you knew earlier? What did you hear about earlier but didn't realize they meant that?

Penultimately, I realize words are inadequate, but I sincerely wish and hope that all can be spared from this malady, and those who have been afflicted may have a speedy and full recovery.

Unfortunately, it looks like that may not be as likely as we would all hope and wish for...

takyon writes:

Linus Torvalds' Initial Comment On Rust Code Prospects Within The Linux Kernel

Kernel developers appear to be eager to debate the merits of potentially allowing Rust code within the Linux kernel. Linus Torvalds himself has made some initial remarks on the topic ahead of the Linux Plumbers 2020 conference where the matter will be discussed at length.

[...] Linus Torvalds chimed in though with his own opinion on the matter. Linus commented that he would like it to be effectively enabled by default to ensure there is widespread testing and not any isolated usage where developers then may do "crazy" things. He isn't calling for Rust to be a requirement for the kernel but rather if the Rust compiler is detected on the system, Kconfig would enable the Rust support and go ahead in building any hypothetical Rust kernel code in order to see it's properly built at least.

Linus Torvalds Wishes Intel's AVX-512 A Painful Death

According to a mailing list post spotted by Phoronix, Linux creator Linus Torvalds has shared his strong views on the AVX-512 instruction set. The discussion arose as a result of recent news that Intel's upcoming Alder Lake processors reportedly lack support for AVX-512.

Torvalds' advice to Intel is to focus on things that matter instead of wasting resources on new instruction sets, like AVX-512, that he feels aren't beneficial outside the HPC market.

Related: Rust 1.0 Finally Released!
Results of Rust Survey 2016
AVX-512: A "Hidden Gem"?
Linus Torvalds Rejects "Beyond Stupid" Intel Security Patch From Amazon Web Services

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for GrandFireWizard:

Proof virus tracking app doesn't work:

A Melbourne web app developer claims failings in the Government's COVID-19 tracking app have "dangerously exposed" him and his 15 staff to the wildly infectious disease.

Anushka Banbara said he and all of his workers were forced to get tested for coronavirus immediately when one of his employees came into close contact with a positive case on June 25.

Mr Banbara said his staff member was out for dinner with two others at a Caulfield restaurant for more than an hour.

"The next day my worker was told by one of his dinner guests there had been a positive case at his gym and he needed to be tested for COVID-19. That person and then my staff member tested positive," he said.

In that time, Mr Banbara's team had worked together in their Clayton office, but no one else tested positive.

[...] But Mr Banbara said he and none of his staff had been contacted by any health authorities.

"We have all been together for longer than 15 minutes and all had the tracking app, but still to this day we have had no communication from the government or the contact tracking team," he said.

"We work in a tech space so we trust the technology will work but instead we've been put at risk by this app, which was promised to work, but clearly doesn't."

[...] A government official admitted in May that the app doesn't work properly for iPhone users and its effectiveness "progressively deteriorates" the longer it is not open.

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

Absurdity of the Electoral College:

Here's one nice thing we can now say about the Electoral College: it's slightly less harmful to our democracy than it was just days ago. In a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that states have the right to "bind" their electors, requiring them to support whichever presidential candidate wins the popular vote in their state. Justice Elena Kagan's opinion was a blow to so-called "faithless electors," but a win for self-government. "Here," she wrote, "the People rule."

Yet while we can all breathe a sigh of relief that rogue electors won't choose (or be coerced) into derailing the 2020 presidential contest, the Court's unanimous ruling is a helpful reminder that our two-step electoral process provides America with no tangible benefits and near-limitless possibilities for disaster. To put it more bluntly, the Electoral College is a terrible idea. And thanks to the Justices' decision, getting rid of it has never been easier.

[...] The Electoral College, in other words, serves no useful purpose, other than to intermittently and randomly override the people's will. It's the appendix of our body politic. Most of the time we don't notice it, and then every so often it flares up and nearly kills us.

[...] Justice Kagan's words – "Here, the People rule" – are stirring. But today, they are still more aspiration than declaration. By declining to make the Electoral College an even great threat to our democracy, the Court did its job. Now it's up to us. If you live in a state that hasn't joined the interstate compact, you can urge your state legislators and your governor to sign on. And no matter where you're from, you can dispel the myths about the Electoral College and who it really helps, myths that still lead some people to support it despite its total lack of redeeming qualities.

More than 215 years after the Electoral College was last reformed with the 12th Amendment, we once again have the opportunity to protect our presidential-election process and reassert the people's will. Regardless of who wins the White House in 2020, it's a chance we should take.

Would you get rid of the Electoral College? Why or why not?

Also at:
Supremes Signal a Brave New World of Popular Presidential Elections
Supreme Court Rules State 'Faithless Elector' Laws Constitutional
U.S. Supreme Court curbs 'faithless electors' in presidential voting
Supreme Court rules states can remove 'faithless electors'

Original Submission

martyb writes:

At 100TB, the world's biggest SSD gets an (eye-watering) price tag:

The Exadrive from Nimbus has held the world record for the biggest solid state drive in the world for more than two years now but until recently, its price was only available on demand.

The company has now put the prices of its 50TB and 100TB models (either SATA/SAS) online, with the 50TB edition (EDDCT020/EDDCS050) costing $12,500 ($250 per TB) while the 100TB version (EDDCT100/EDDCS100) retailing for $40,000 ($400 per TB).

In comparison, Samsung's 30.72TB monster, the MZILT30THMLA, retails for $8,860 ($288 per TB) while your cheapest SSD will retail for under $90, albeit with consumer grade QLC NAND.

[...] Both drives come in a 3.5-inch form factor rather than the more popular 2.5-inch one. They use enterprise-grade MLC 3D NAND rather than QLC, providing a sequential read/write speeds of up to 500/460MB/s and up to 114,000/105,000 IOps reads/writes.

[...] The ExaDrive range has a five year warranty, is guaranteed for unlimited drive writes per day during that period and has a mean time between failures of 2.5 million hours.

By comparison, consider that the current world population is about 7.8 billion people.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/06/887540598/the-debate-over-the-word-irregardless-is-it-a-word

All right. Let's settle something here. The word irregardless - is it a word or is it not a word? Well, this is a debate that Merriam-Webster is now weighing in on in a tweet saying that it is, in fact, a word. And that has led to a whole lot of reaction online.

Merriam-Webster has confirmed that "irregardless" is a word in the dictionary, despite concerns from teachers that it is not.

So fellow Soylentils, irregardless of my opinion, what do your think?

See Also:
Is 'Irregardless' a Real Word?
Definition of irregardless

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

The Most and Least Expensive Cars to Maintain

The most expensive thing most Americans own, after their house, is their car. On average, Americans spend 5% of their income on purchasing a car. Another 5% goes towards ongoing maintenance and insurance costs.

But not every car costs the same to keep it running. And different cars have varying risks of leaving their drivers suddenly immobilized.

At YourMechanic, we have a massive dataset of the make and model of the cars we have serviced and the type of maintenance done. We decided to use our data to understand which cars break down the most and have the highest maintenance costs. We also looked into which types of maintenance are most common to certain cars.

Which Car Brands Cost the Most to Maintain?
Based on estimates of total car maintenance over 10 years

Rank	Car-Brand	Cost
1	BMW	$17,800
2	Mercedes-Benz	$12,900
3	Cadillac	$12,500
4	Volvo	$12,500
5	Audi	$12,400
6	Saturn	$12,400
7	Mercury	$12,000
8	Pontiac	$11,800
9	Chrysler	$10,600
10	Dodge	$10,600
11	Acura	$9,800
12	Infiniti	$9,300
13	Ford	$9,100
14	Kia	$8,800
15	Land Rover	$8,800
16	Chevrolet	$8,800
17	Buick	$8,600
18	Jeep	$8,300
19	Subaru	$8,200
20	Hyundai	$8,200
21	GMC	$7,800
22	Volkswagen	$7,800
23	Nissan	$7,600
24	Mazda	$7,500
25	Mini	$7,500
26	Mitsubishi	$7,400
27	Honda	$7,200
28	Lexus	$7,000
29	Scion	$6,400
30	Toyota	$5,500

What has been your experience in this regard ?

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Four years ago, three big tech companies had plans in the works to beam internet down to Earth from the sky, and each scenario sounded wilder than the next. SpaceX requested permission to launch 4,425 satellites into orbit to create a global internet hotspot. Facebook wanted to use solar-powered drones and laser-based tech to shoot wifi to antennas. And Google's Loon was building giant balloons to house solar-powered electronics that would transmit connectivity down from the stratosphere.

[...] Loon balloons made their (non-emergency) debut in Kenya this week, with 35 balloons transmitting a 4G signal to 31,000 square miles of central and western Kenya.

[...] Specially-developed software uses predictive modeling of stratospheric winds and decision-making algorithms to shift the balloons as needed for a more reliable connection down below (balloons need to be within 40 kilometers of users for the service to work). The software constantly learns to improve the balloons' choreography and thus the network's quality, and the system can function autonomously.

The electronics inside the balloons get a wifi signal from a local telecoms partner at a ground station. In Kenya, Loon partnered with Telkom Kenya, the country's third-largest carrier. The signal gets relayed across multiple nearby balloons that transmit it back down to peoples' phones and other devices. Each balloon can cover an area of 5,000 square kilometers (a little under 2,000 square miles, or about the size of the state of Delaware).

A field testing session in Kenya in late June registered an upload speed of 4.74 Mpbs, a download speed of 18.9Mbps, and latency of 19 milliseconds. For comparison's sake, the average speed in the US is 52 Mpbs upload and 135 Mbps download; so service will be a bit slower in Kenya. One other small problem: since the electronics in the balloons are solar-powered, they only send down a signal during daylight hours; service is currently available from 6am to 9pm.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

One reason a technique for cloning animals often results in oversized placentas, and hence failed births, has been uncovered in mice by an all-RIKEN team. This finding will help improve the success rate of the cloning method and could also shed light on fertility treatments for people.

[...] Now, Kimiko Inoue, Atsuo Ogura, and their co-workers, all at the RIKEN BioResource Research Center, have discovered that the overexpression of the largest imprinted microRNA clusters in mice is one of the main reasons why SCNT often produces placentas that are too large. When they corrected for this, they were able to double the birth rate.

A process known as genomic imprinting guides the early development of mammals by switching certain genes on and off as the embryo and placenta develop and grow. This can lead to the expression of genes from only one parent, depending on small molecules attached to the genetic sequence called epigenetic marks. The team found that SCNT placentas' lack of genomic imprinting based on the epigenetic mark histone methylation goes a long way to explaining their abnormal size.

[...] Inoue wasn't expecting to find that the culprit was a microRNA that didn't code for proteins. "I was surprised to discover that a non-protein-coding microRNA, and not a protein-coding gene, was the main cause of the oversized placentas produced by SCNT," she says.

The study has repercussions beyond SCNT. "We've demonstrated that non-coding microRNA plays an essential role in the healthy development of placentas," says Inoue. "I anticipate this will help us understand placental abnormalities and develop gene markers for assisted reproductive technologies for people."

-- submitted from IRC

Journal Reference:
Kimiko Inoue, Narumi Ogonuki, Satoshi Kamimura, et al. Loss of H3K27me3 imprinting in the Sfmbt2 miRNA cluster causes enlargement of cloned mouse placentas [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16044-8)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Apple has built its own Mac graphics processors:

Like iPhones and iPads, Apple Silicon Macs will use an Apple-designed GPU – something that makes complete sense when you consider this is how current iOS devices work. But it could be a reason for pause by some high-end users during the transition period from Intel-based hardware.

[...] You see, while Intel Macs contain GPU’s from Intel, Nvidia and AMD, Apple Silicon Macs will use what the company seems fond of calling “Apple family” GPUs. These use a rendering system called Tile Based Deferred Rendering (TBDR), which iOS devices already use.

It works differently from the Immediate Mode rendering system supported in Intel Macs: While the latter immediately render imaging data to device memory, the former makes more use of the GPU by sorting out each element first before submitting it to device memory.

You can find out more here.

The effect is that TBDR rendering delivers lower latency, higher performance, lower power requirements and can achieve higher degrees of bandwidth. The A11 chip and Metal 2 really consolidated this technique.

It’s important to note that the GPU in a Mac with Apple silicon is a member of both GPU families, and supports both Mac family and Apple family feature sets. In other words, using Apple Silicon and Rosetta, you should still be able to use software designed for Intel-based Macs.

[...] How will Apple exploit this? Will it ditch fans in order to make thinner Macs? Will it exploit the opportunity to explore a new design language for its PCs? At what point will an iPhone become all the Mac you ever need, given your choice of user interface and access to a larger screen?

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

Conventional wisdom has long been that one dog year was equal to seven human years. Now it appears that reality is not so simple.

[A] new equation developed to measure how a dog ages finds the family pup may be a lot older than we realize.

Researchers studying chemical changes to canine DNA found that dogs age very quickly during their first five years and much more slowly later on.

The findings, published recently in the journal Cell Systems, calculate that a 5-year-old dog would be pushing 60 in human years.

The new equation is far less intuitive than multiplying by seven: 16 ln(dog age in years) + 31 = human age in years, where "ln" is the natural logarithm function.

Using that equation:

• a 1-year-old dog is like a 31-year-old human;
• a 3-year-old dog is like a 49-year-old human;
• a 7-year-old dog is like a 62-year-old human.

By this time, dog aging has slowed down, so an 8-year-old dog is like a 64-year-old human.

Research was done by comparing methylation marks on dog and human DNA over time.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

https://medicine.uiowa.edu/content/study-pinpoints-brain-cells-trigger-sugar-cravings-and-consumption:

Most people enjoy a sweet treat every now and then. But an unchecked “sweet tooth” can lead to overconsumption of sugary foods and chronic health issues like obesity and type 2 diabetes. Understanding the biological mechanisms that control sugar intake and preference for sweet taste could have important implications for managing and preventing these health problems.

The new study, led by Matthew Potthoff, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience and pharmacology in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and Matthew Gillum, PhD, at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, focuses on actions of a hormone called fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21). This hormone is known to play a role in energy balance, body weight control, and insulin sensitivity.

[...] Potthoff and his colleagues previously discovered that FGF21 is made in the liver in response to increased levels of sugar, and acts in the brain to suppress sugar intake and the preference for sweet taste.

[...] Although it was known that FGF21 acted in the brain, identifying the exact cellular targets was complicated by the fact that the hormone’s receptor is expressed at very low levels and is therefore difficult to “see.” Using various techniques, the researchers were able to precisely identify which cells express the receptor for FGF21. By investigating these cells, the study shows that FGF21 targets glutamatergic neurons in the brain to lower sugar intake and sweet taste preference. The researchers also showed that FGF21’s action on specific neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus reduce sugar intake by enhancing the neurons’ sensitivity to glucose.

Journal Reference:
FGF21 Signals to Glutamatergic Neurons in the Ventromedial Hypothalamus to Suppress Carbohydrate Intake, Cell Metabolism (DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.06.008)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

YouTube is finally letting creators know exactly how they’re making money on YouTube:

YouTube creators in the company’s Partner Program can earn money a bunch of different ways — through advertising, subscriptions, donations, live-streaming features, and YouTube Premium revenue. There are a lot of variables, and now YouTube is finally gathering all of those numbers in one place and giving that information to creators in the form of a new monetization metric called RPM.

RPM, or revenue per mille, is a take on the standard metric YouTube creators already use referred to as CPM, or cost per mille (sometimes referred to as cost per thousand). Although the two sound similar, they do two different things. RPM is much more useful for creators who are trying to grow their channels and figure out where their monthly income is coming from.

CPM measures the cost of every 1,000 ad impressions before YouTube takes its share of revenue, but RPM shows a creator’s total revenue (both from ads and other monetization areas) after YouTube takes the cut. This doesn’t represent a change to how much creators are making. Rather, it helps creators better understand where they’re making their money and how the revenue share breaks down.

[...] Basically, if CPM is an advertiser-focused metric, RPM is tailor-made for creators. For example, RPM includes the total number of video views, including videos that weren’t monetized. This is designed to show creators how much they might be missing out on revenue-wise from videos that generate views but aren’t eligible for monetization and changes they can make to ensure future videos are monetized.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The French Parliament unanimously agreed on Thursday to introduce a nationwide age verification system for pornography websites, months after President Emmanuel Macron pledged to protect children against such content.

Macron made the protection of children against adult content online a high-profile issue well before the coronavirus crisis hit. In January, tech companies, internet services providers and the adult movies industry signed a voluntary charter, pledging to roll out tools to help ensure minors don't have access to pornographic content.

Within a broader law on domestic violence, the Senate decided in June to introduce an amendment requiring pornography websites to implement an age verification mechanism.

In order to enforce the law, the French audiovisual regulator CSA will be granted new powers to audit and sanction companies that do not comply — sanctions could go as far as blocking access to the websites in France with a court order.

The choice of verification mechanisms will be left up to the platforms. But lawmakers have suggested using credit card verification — a system first adopted by the U.K., which mulled similar plans to control access to pornography but had to drop them in late 2019 because of technical difficulties and privacy concerns. Italy also approved a similar bill in late June, which raised the same concerns over its feasibility and compliance with the EU laws.

[...] The Senate has already voted on the bill. Following an agreement today between senators and lawmakers from the lower house National Assembly, a final vote will be held again in the Senate where the bill is expected to pass.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Apple Warns Customers Not To Close Its Laptops With A Camera Cover Attached:

Though it might strike some people as obvious advice, Apple has published a support page that warns MacBook owners not to close their laptop with a camera cover in place. Damage like a cracked display could result, according to the company, because "the clearance between the display and keyboard is designed to very tight tolerances." MacRumors spotted the advisory, which Apple posted on July 2nd.

Those little plastic camera covers with a sliding mechanism are super common nowadays. Heck, I remember getting one as a holiday gift from The Verge's parent company, Vox Media. But they could spell disaster for your laptop screen if you shut the laptop with the cover still on, and Apple's laptop repairs are extremely costly. Even with AppleCare+ accidental coverage, the deductible isn't cheap.

Instead of using a cover, Apple says that customers can trust the green LED beside the camera on a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air that illuminates whenever the camera is active.

Apple does acknowledge that some people have no choice in the matter and might be required to use a camera cover by their employer. In those cases, the company says the cover should always be removed before closing the laptop.

Not just apple laptops but all of them. Have any of my fellow Soylentils besides myself suffered damage to your laptop due to this?

Original Submission