Category: reader

Couple Transforms Underground Former Nuclear Missile Silo Into AirBNB Rental

If you were looking for a place to crash in Eskridge, Kansas last year, you’d have been able to stay at Matthew and Leigh Ann Fulkerson’s “Subterra” home listed on AirBNB . It’s no ordinary home, being both subterranean and located in a former Atlas E missile silo.  But the Fulkersons have decked the place out, turning the Launch Control Room into a living room… …turning the Generator Room into a party space… …and fitting a massive country kitchen and dining hall into the space. They’ve even kept the original launch control desk. Alas, as of this month the Fulkersons are no longer taking reservations due to a “pending real estate transaction.” I assume that means they’re selling the space, and it does appear they’re moving on to bigger and better things. They’ve launched a GoFundMe campaign …to develop an Atlas F missile silo.  Apparently, that’s a thing .

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Couple Transforms Underground Former Nuclear Missile Silo Into AirBNB Rental

Linux Mint 19 Named ‘Tara’

BrianFagioli writes: Today, we get some information about the upcoming version 19 of Mint. The biggest news is that it will be called ‘Tara.’ If you aren’t aware, Mint’s distros are always named after a woman. Clement Lefebvre, Linux Mint leader, shares the following information: “The development cycle only just started so it’s a bit early to give details about Linux Mint 19, but here’s what we can say already: Linux Mint 19 is estimated to be released around May/June 2018. Linux Mint 19.x releases will be based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and supported until 2023. Linux Mint 19.x will use GTK 3.22. GTK 3.22 is a major stable release for GTK3. From there on, the theming engine and the APIs are stable. This is a great milestone for GTK3. It also means Linux Mint 19.x (which will become our main development platform) will use the same version of GTK as LMDE 3, and distributions which use components we develop, such as Fedora, Arch..etc. This should ease development and increase the quality of these components outside of Linux Mint.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Linux Mint 19 Named ‘Tara’

Underwater Research Team Encounters an Incredible "Fireworks Jellyfish"

E/V Nautilus , an underwater exploration organization, was using a Hercules remotely-operated vehicle to catch a crab when they stumbled upon this guy: The frilled tentacles of the Halitrephes maasi jelly came into view at 1225m in the Revillagigedo Archipelago off Baja California, Mexico. Radial canals that move nutrients through the jelly’s bell form a starburst pattern that reflects the lights of ROV Hercules with bright splashes of yellow and pink–but without our lights this gelatinous beauty drifts unseen in the dark. If the crab was smart, he’d have enlisted the help of the jellyfish to avoid capture. “Goddammit, that Hercules thing is coming back around…hey Halitrephes! Do a brother a solid, swim around in front of that thing to distract it while I ghost these motherf*ckers.”

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Underwater Research Team Encounters an Incredible "Fireworks Jellyfish"

40 common tourist scams to look out for

Here’s an infographic with 40 scams you should be aware of when you travel. Grifting creeps have tried pulling scams like this on me on various trips but luckily they weren’t good enough at their trade to stop me from figuring out what was happening before I lost any money. The Broken Camera Someone will ask you to take a photo of them and their group of friends. The camera won’t work, and when you go to hand it back, they will drop it can cause it to smash. The entire group will then demand money for repairs, or pickpocket you during the commotion. The Fake Takeaway Menu Scam artists will slide fake takeaway menus under your hotel door, in the hope that you order from them on an evening where you don’t feel like going out. You won’t receive any food though, just a frightening bank statement after they have used your card details to make their own copy. The Getaway Taxi Driver When you arrive at your hotel from the airport, the taxi driver will kindly take your bags out of the trunk for you. He’ll seem in a rush though, and quickly hop back into his car and drive off as soon as possible. This is because he’s actually left one of your smaller and less memorable bags in his taxi.

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40 common tourist scams to look out for

Microsoft releases Q#, a language for writing quantum algorithms

Is your New Years’ resolution to start writing quantum-computing algorithms as a side hustle? Hey, me too! So I’m going to spend this weekend playing around with Microsoft’s newly-released “Quantum Development Kit” . It includes their language Q# – designed for writing quantum-computing algorithms – as well as a little “universal quantum simulator” to test your code. Their “Hello, World” quickstart here has you entangle two qubits . Another demo, outlined in the video below , includes teleporting a message via entangled qubits. This is going to be a super weird weekend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7b4J2INq9c (Image via Wikimedia )

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Microsoft releases Q#, a language for writing quantum algorithms

Opera browser now includes cryptojacking protection

“Cryptojacking” is the latest trend in malware; by some estimates, there are at least 2,500 sites that illicitly run Javascript in your browser to secretly mine cryptocurrency . So the browser pushback has begun. Opera just announced its latest release includes anti-mining measures : Bitcoins are really hot right now, but did you know that they might actually be making your computer hotter? Your CPU suddenly working at 100 percent capacity, the fan is going crazy for seemingly no reason and your battery quickly depleting might all be signs that someone is using your computer to mine for cryptocurrency. Brave, Brendan Eich’s new startup browser, also implemented this type of blocking earlier this year . I hope this trend continues; there are lots of plugins that block cryptocurrency mining , but it’ll only become mainstream if it’s built as a default into mainstream browsers.

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Opera browser now includes cryptojacking protection

Print of "lost" britcom discovered in Nigerian basement and restored with X-rays and laser-cutters

In the early days of TV, it was routine to tape over the recording medium after the initial air-date, which means that no video record exists of many of the pioneering moments in television. (more…)

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Print of "lost" britcom discovered in Nigerian basement and restored with X-rays and laser-cutters

Scanning technique reads hidden writing in mummy boxes

Historians can use scanning to peek inside mummies without risking damage, but that hasn’t been true for the papyrus boxes those mummies were placed in before entering the tomb. If you’ve wanted to read the discarded everyday writing on that papyrus, you’ve typically had to destroy the boxes. That won’t be necessary from now on, though: researchers at University College London have developed a scanning technique that lets you read a mummy case’s writing while leaving it intact. If you scan the cases with light at different frequencies, you can make the ink glow and thus see under the paste and plaster that would normally obscure the text. A lot of the writing is unspectacular (the BBC describes them as shopping lists and tax returns), but that’s the point — it’s about discovering Egyptian history beyond royalty and other famous people. The technique has already found success with one mummy stored in Kent. It’s not certain that it’ll find widespread adoption, but it’s hard to see historians turning this down. Much as with techniques used to read closed books , this lets researchers have the best of both worlds: they can read ‘secret’ text without having to sacrifice priceless relics. Source: BBC

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Scanning technique reads hidden writing in mummy boxes

MediaPortal 1.19.0 Pre Release

We from Team-MediaPortal wish everyone a safe and happy 2018!  To celebrate the new year we have just released a Pre Release of MediaPortal 1.19.0 . Happy testing! Pre Releases are provided as a way for the community to test and give feedback on all the exciting things we have lined up for the next release. We allocate about one month for Pre Release testing. In that time we will only fix bugs, after which comes the final release! Highlights of this release  Bugfixes: We fixed some issues with MadVR We fixed an issue where MP was not able to manage audio volume correctly We updated SQLite to version 3.21. This reduces CPU load and add bugfixes We fixed TSreader crashing with MPEG2 stream We fixed some issues on MediaPortal Configuration New: We added some skin functions We provide a libbluray library based on our own fork.and updated to 1.0.2 (read information below) Along with the above items we kept consolidating our software. Note: For use Bluray with BD-J support, Java 8 must be installed. We recommend the version Java 8u151 in x86 version. Download-Link : Oracle Download Website Full list of changes You can review the complete change log for MP 1.19.0 Pre Release by using the link below: Changelog: MediaPortal 1.19.0 Pre Release Documentation of new features can be found at the following link: What’s new for MediaPortal 1.19.0 Pre Release Installation, Upgrade, Download and Feedback Installation Since we switched to .NET4 you need to make sure you have.NET4 installed on your computer (not needed if you are on Windows 8 because it comes with .NET4, but you NEED the .NET 3.5 features enabled! ). Otherwise you are not able to install MediaPortal and the installer just quits. Download-Link:  Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer) Aside from that when doing a clean installation of the 1.19.0 Pre Release there is nothing else to worry about. Upgrade Upgrading from MP 1.2.0 Beta or later to 1.19.0 Pre Release All MediaPortal 1.2.0 Beta installations can be upgraded to MP 1.19.0 Pre Release without losing your settings. Plugins: If you are running MediaPortal 1.6.0 or earlier, then it is possible that some of your previously installed plugins will be shown as incompatible after the upgrade to 1.19.0 Pre Release! Whether or not a plugin is incompatible depends on the MediaPortal subsystems the plugin uses. All plugins that work for the 1.7.1 HotFix release, should also work with the 1.19.0 Pre Release. Upgrading Extensions: The easiest way to upgrade your extensions is by launching the  MediaPortal Extension Installer , and let it check for updated versions. However this only works for extensions that use our MPEI system. If the author of the extension releases it as a stand alone installer, you must contact them for an updated version. General note about Upgrades Manually stop TV-Service! On some systems our installer is not able to update the TV-Server installation because its files are locked or the service can not be stopped. For upgrades to 1.19.0 Pre Release we recommend that you manually stop the TV-Service and make sure, via Windows Task Manager  (enable the “all users” option),  that the TvService.exe process is really gone before starting to upgrade. Custom TV-Service properties If you manually changed the properties of the TV-Service  (like restart on error options) , then you must redo these changes after the upgrade. The installer is not able to save and restore your custom service properties when it installs the new version of the TV-Service. Feedback Bugs If you think you found a bug then please post a detailed report in our Bug Reports Forum . Make sure your report includes  all the required information . Incomplete reports will be removed to keep the forum clean.  Download Finally – the download. We hope that you took the time to read this release news entirely because it includes vital information about the major changes.   If you would like to support MediaPortal, we would be happy to receive  a donation ! The Team wishes you a lot of fun with this new release! .::. Download – MediaPortal 1.19.0 Pre Release .::. :: Post a Comment ::

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MediaPortal 1.19.0 Pre Release