SoylentNews

Boyfriend and girlfriend are out. ‘Partners’ are in. Here’s why more millennials are changing how they define their relationships.

Microsoft to hold HoloLens 2 press event next month

Microsoft is holding a press event at Mobile World Congress next month, and it looks like we’ll get some details on HoloLens 2. The software giant will hold its event on Sunday February 24th at 5PM CET (11AM ET), and CEO Satya Nadella, Technical Fellow Alex Kipman, and CVP Julia White will all be in attendance. Kipman’s name indicates this will likely be a HoloLens 2 event, given his close involvement with this project.

[...] Microsoft has been working on its next-generation HoloLens headset for years. Codenamed Sydney, the headset is expected to include an improved field of view, and be a lot lighter and more comfortable to wear. HoloLens 2 will also include Microsoft’s latest generation of the Kinect sensor and a custom AI chip to improve performance. Microsoft is also rumored to be using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 850 processor inside the HoloLens 2, making it an ARM-powered device.

Pence declares 'ISIS has been defeated' on the same day as deadly Syria attack

On the same day that an ISIS-claimed attack killed US service members in Syria, Vice President Mike Pence declared that "the caliphate has crumbled and ISIS has been defeated."

Pence's remark to the Global Chiefs of Mission conference at the US State Department came about an hour after the US-led coalition confirmed that American troops had been killed in an explosion in Manbij.

"U.S. service members were killed during an explosion while conducting a routine patrol in Syria today. We are still gathering information and will share additional details at a later time," the tweet from Operation Inherent Resolve said.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, which the ISIS-affiliated Amaq agency said was carried out by a suicide bomber with an explosive vest.

Pence Declares ISIS ‘Defeated’ Hours after Group Brags of Killing U.S. Troops

Mission Accomplished.

Gunman who killed officer left a note accusing police of hitting him with 'sonic waves'

The gunman who killed an officer in Northern California left behind a letter accusing the Davis police department of hitting him with "ultra sonic waves."

A man on a bicycle shot Davis police Officer Natalie Corona, 22, Thursday night as she responded to a triple-car crash in the city of Davis. He was later found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

[...] Limbaugh left behind a letter, according to Davis police spokesman Lt. Paul Doroshov, who read the letter on camera to CNN affiliate KMAX.

"The Davis police department has been hitting me with ultra sonic waves meant to keep dogs from barking. I notified the press, internal affairs, and even the FBI about it. I am highly sensitive to its affect [sic] on my inner ear," the letter reads. "I did my best to appease them, but they have continued for years and I can't live this way anymore."

The letter is signed "Citizen Kevin Limbaugh."

Facebook Removes Page That Aimed to 'Expose' R. Kelly Accusers

A newly launched Facebook page that sought to defend R. Kelly and "expose" his accusers in the aftermath of Surviving R. Kelly has been pulled off the social network for violating terms of service.

On Monday, after the six-part docuseries' weekend run on Lifetime, TMZ reported that "[Kelly] and his camp" were behind a pair of sites – a Facebook page called Surviving Lies and an in-the-works website bearing the same name – that aimed to clear his name and discredit his accusers. It has not been confirmed whether Kelly is actually behind the pages.

After the Facebook page launched Monday, its operators posted a previously surfaced audio recording that allegedly contradicted the story of one of the women who appeared on Surviving R. Kelly.

Also at Vulture and Billboard.

So there's a new semester starting, Java 11 (the next LTS version) has been released, so - for the sake of my students - I wanted to update all of my Java installations and examples to Java 11. They were previously at Java 8, or in some cases 9 (to show the new module system).

Java 11 - what a fricking mess.

First, let's talk about the API documentation. For as long as I can remember, the Java documentation has offered a hierarchical frame-view that shows packages in the top-left, classes in the bottom left, and details on a particular class on the right. This provides a convenient overview, and allows you to move around within the hierarchy. With the advent of the module system, the top-left was adapted to show modules - same idea, works just as well. This has been eliminated in Java 11. Instead of a hierarchy of views, you have a search field. While it is a very intelligent search field, it hardly replaces the overview one had with the three hierarchical frames. Why remove something that has worked so well, for so long, and is so ingrained in the way people work?

Second, JavaFX has been removed. As someone who spent too many years fighting with Swing bugs in desktop GUIs, JavaFX has been nothing but a huge relief. Simple concepts like focus-change work in JavaFX, whereas they never did in Swing. I won't pretend it doesn't have problems, but it is massively better than Swing ever was - and deserves to be part of standard Java. According to Oracle, removing JavaFX from Java "makes JavaFX easier to adopt". Um...because people now have to hunt down and install external libraries?

Third - I'm working on behalf of my students here - so I'm updating various kinds of installations, to create a walkthrough. It turns out that, as of Java 11, Oracle says that non-commercial users should use OpenJDK. But OpenJDK on Windows does not come with an installer - you are supposed to unpack the files in the right place, and set environment variables and (if you need them) registry entries manually. Seriously?

Meanwhile, Ubuntu has seen fit to lie about what version of OpenJDK they have in their repositories. In a post from February 2018, they document the fact that they have an SRU called "OpenJDK-11" that actually delivers Java 10. As of today (9 Jan 2019, four months after Java 11 was released), installing OpenJDK-11 still gives you Java 10.

Then we have tooling. Because JavaFX is no longer part of Java, you have to do a lot more fiddling with module-paths and command line parameters. This is not fun - and for students just learning, it is frankly a catastrophy. In Eclipse, of course, there is e(fx)clipse, which is supposed to handle all this for you. Sadly, Eclipse 2018-12 (the current version as of this writing) is delivered with e(fx)clipse 3.3.0. Which - this has been known since September - borks your Eclipse installation to the point that it no longer starts. To fix this, you have to re-install Eclipse and specifically fetch a patched version (4.3.1) of e(fx)clipse.

And this patched version? It does nice things like define JavaFX as an external library, but as far as I can tell, selecting this library does absolutely nothing. You still have tie JavaFX via a self-defined user library, you still have to pass module parameters to the VM - the plug-in seems to actually do nothing at all.

All in all, is seems that many different parties have conspired to make Java 11 a total disaster. I'm just trying to imagine how I am supposed to walk fresh, never-programmed-before students through an installation process with the kinds of problems described above. What an utter mess!

Uber driver pleads guilty to killing six people between rides

An Uber driver charged with killing six strangers in between picking up passengers pleaded guilty to murder in Michigan on Monday, just before attorneys were set to interview jurors for his trial.

[...] The 48-year-old Dalton answered “yes” to a series of questions, admitting that he shot eight people at three locations. After his arrest, police quoted Dalton as saying a “devil figure” on Uber’s app was controlling him on the day of the shootings.

Could this "devil figure" be an undocumented feature of Uber's app that is being pushed out to some drivers to test mind control?

This morning, as I'm having my first morning cigarette and getting my first sips of coffee in me, The Roomie joins me outside and starts telling me about how this highly educated youtuber has declared war on IQ tests. Which goes to show two things:

1. The Roomie is a bastard.
2. Education offers no warranty against idiocy.

IQ tests are quite good at testing what they actually test. They're also astoundingly bad at testing what they don't actually test. Unless you're talking about the extreme ends of the scale and you think they aren't very good tests, you don't understand what they really test and need to shut up now before you look like an even bigger dumbass. You're basically saying that screwdrivers are shitty tools because they make lousy hammers. That a high school dropout understands this while a guy with a PhD by his name doesn't demonstrates my second point quite nicely.

Arizona police investigate after 'vegetative patient gives birth'

Police in the US state of Arizona have launched a sexual assault investigation amid reports a patient in a vegetative state for a decade gave birth.

The woman is a patient in a clinic run by Hacienda HealthCare near Phoenix.

Hacienda HealthCare gave no details but said it was aware of a "deeply disturbing incident".

A local CBS station said the baby was healthy and quoted a source as saying that staff had been unaware the woman was pregnant.

The woman has not been identified.

"It's a miracle!" says an Anonymous Coward.

Sexism Claims From Bernie Sanders’s 2016 Run: Paid Less, Treated Worse

Bernie Sanders says he was not aware of claims of sexism in 2016 campaign

Bernie Sanders apologizes for allegations of sexism in 2016 campaign

Sexism Isn’t a Problem for Just the Bernie Sanders Campaign

We have to get the weird old capitalist out of the room. #Warren2020!