September 24, 2015
Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf Released

The newest version of Ubuntu, 15.10 has been set upon the world. As usual the ReleaseNotes has most of the information that you’re looking for.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:49 PM
September 23, 2015
Pebble Announces Round Smartwatch

Pebble Round appeared on the Pebble Smartwatch site today. Basically it’s what you’d expect from Pebble, it’s a smartwatch, using the same colour e-paper display, battery life measured in days, iPhone and Android compatibility, etc.

Looks like they got around the ‘flat tire’ look of the Android round smartwatches by making the bezel wider (probably hiding a square(ish) display behind it that only uses the circle). Also they specifically say “battery life measured in days” and not the “7-10 day battery life” from before (though I don’t remember 100% if that’s how they said it before). Maybe the smaller profile means less battery by a bit? Who knows.

It’s a bit of a surprise to those of us who backed the Pebble Time on Kickstarter, when not everyone has all their rewards yet, but we do get an interesting discount deal (details in the blog).

Posted by Arcterex at 11:17 AM
September 17, 2015
AVG Now Can Sell Your Browsing Data

AVG anti virus just updated their privacy policy. it says that they can and will sell your browsing history to 3rd parties.

As the first comment says, time to look for a new anti-virus if you’re on windows and care about your privacy.

Sigh.

Posted by Arcterex at 12:44 PM
September 16, 2015
9th-grader Arrested In Dallas For Bringing Homemade Clock to School

America, you’re turning into a parody of yourself.

Irving 9th-grader arrested after taking homemade clock to school.

[…] So the 14-year-old missed the student council meeting and took a trip in handcuffs to juvenile detention. His clock now sits in an evidence room. Police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb — though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it’s a clock.

The number of things in this article, and I do urge you to actually read it, that should jump out and grab you are astounding.

  • He’s still suspended
  • “School Police”? Is this the new normal now?
  • Arrested for a ‘hoax bomb’.
  • Handcuffed - “his hands cuffed behind him and an officer on each arm” - is that really needed for a 13 year old?

But he’s a brown kid so it’s all ok right?

Seriously this is messed up. The kid wants to invent stuff, does invent stuff, and because he’s not white (and let’s not fool ourselves that that has nothing to do with it) he’s getting screwed over because of a bunch of stupid scared people. But it’s ok I guess, “He’s vowed never to take an invention to school again” and if the scared people of Texas are lucky he’ll stop inventing things completely, hide any smarts he has and work a nice safe factory job away from any sort of intelligent thinking at all. Cause we wouldn’t want him to be smart and think or anything like that would we?

Posted by Arcterex at 07:19 AM
September 08, 2015
Ardbeg Brews Space Whisky

Ardbeg’s space whisky tastes “noticeably different” from Earth-matured whisky:

The biggest difference was in the tasting, though. In the triangle tests conducted, almost all participants picked out a difference between the space whisky and the mundane Earth-matured control.

As a relatively new Scotch and Whiskey drinker, I’d appreciate Ardbeg sending me a sample to test, please and thankyou.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:34 AM
September 02, 2015
Videos of Ships Going Through Storms

Mesmerizing Videos of Ships.

I’m just going to say “no” right now.

Posted by Arcterex at 03:55 PM