Category Archives: News

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Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux

Posted on 2026-04-22 by pappp

Source: Hacker News

Article note: This is _majestic_ bullshit. Windows 95 and a fairly modern Linux kernel cooperatively running in Ring 0.
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The Mystery in the Medicine Cabinet: Acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and what to know

Posted on 2026-04-20 by pappp

Source: Hacker News

Article note: Huh, I also was under the impression that Ibuprofen was generally safer for frequent low-level use, but that's pretty convincing that Acetaminophen is generally safer except at overdose levels or with certain specific counter-indications. I'd like to see parallel information for some of the other pain relievers like Naproxen (which has generally been my preference for low-level joint pain).
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Got an Old Kindle? It Might Not Work Anymore

Posted on 2026-04-19 by pappp

Source: Hacker News

Article note: It sounds like you can still load content over USB. Which is frankly the primary way I've used my (not so old that it's affected) Kindle, getting books from DRM-free stores or "otherwise" and shoving them on with calibre. With the crippling, it might be an opportunity to pick up some very old ones for cheap to torture with custom firmware or the like.
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It Is Time to Ban the Sale of Precise Geolocation

Posted on 2026-04-17 by pappp

Source: Hacker News

Article note: Yes. The details of _how_ we make it untenable to gather, retain, sell, or give access to that kind of data are legitimately complicated, but making it, at very least, such a liability risk no one is willing to do it would be a great move.
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Academic fraud may be the symptom of a more systemic problem

Posted on 2026-04-15 by pappp

Source: Hacker News

Article note: This. I'm instructional faculty not research faculty in large part because the incentives around research careers are so gross.
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Why Aren’t the Kids Out Protesting Against Trump?

Posted on 2026-04-14 by pappp

Source: NYT > Education

Article note: Looking at the current college cohort: Brainrot is Real. We're seeing a lot of formerly-unusual problems that look like executive function disorders. Students who don't know how to focus for long enough to do deep work - even college sophmore focus on a bench for a couple hours "deep." Occasionally even "sit and read this 3 page assignment" deep. Students who turn in lab reports with fever-dream mashups of labs from multiple weeks because they barely know what happened or when. It's visible as a third peak on some exams that are usually bimodal. It's justifiably freaking a bunch of my colleagues out. I'm not sure what exactly it is about the tasp of continuous dopamine hits from short-form content that leads to it, but something always makes me uncomfortable about even hearing that shit. I think there might be some conflating factors on the political apathy front, this generation grew up learning that a staggering fraction of supposed public servants are monsters who almost flauntingly won't be held accountable for anything, ever, and watching mass movements have essentially no effect (Remember OWS? Remember how absolutely nothing came of it?).

The lack of a thriving youth movement in opposition to Trump is a canary-in-the-coal-mine warning of the deterioration of American exceptionalism.

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I Ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii

Posted on 2026-04-08 by pappp

Source: Hacker News

Article note: Well, this is absurd and delightful.
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Author of Red Mars calls ‘bullshit’ on emigrating to the planet

Posted on 2026-03-27 by pappp

Source: Hacker News

Article note: I love Kim Stanely Robinson's Mars books, especially for the amount of science and geopolitics he got plausible-to-right in them... but his later (2015) novel Aurora is basically to make the contrasting "extra-planetary colonization isn't going to work, we don't get a backup planet if we ruin this one" point, so it's very much not surprising that this is his current position. (also, it's ...just reality. Human biology is pretty picky about the conditions suitable for long-term habitation, and creating and sustaining them is hard.)
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Supreme Court rejects Sony’s attempt to kick music pirates off the Internet

Posted on 2026-03-25 by pappp

Source: Ars Technica

Article note: Great! For a whole bunch of reasons. Not cutting people off of utilities for incidental misuse. Not penalizing businesses for their users' behavior (and thus incentivizing them to spy on users). Unanimous. Applicable to other industries.

The Supreme Court today decided that Internet service providers cannot be held liable for their customers' copyright infringement unless they take specific steps that cause users to violate copyrights. The court ruled unanimously in favor of Internet provider Cox Communications, though two justices did not agree with the majority's reasoning.

The ruling effectively means that ISPs do not have to conduct mass terminations of Internet users accused of illegally downloading or uploading pirated files. If the court had ruled otherwise, ISPs could have been compelled to strictly police their networks for piracy in order to avoid billion-dollar court verdicts under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The long-running case is Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment. Cox was hit with a $1 billion verdict for music piracy in 2019. Although the damages award was overturned in 2024, a federal appeals court still found that Cox was liable for willful contributory infringement.

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Tracy Kidder, Author of ‘The Soul of a New Machine,’ Dies at 80

Posted on 2026-03-25 by pappp

Source: Hacker News

Article note: Aw, Soul of a New Machine is such a good read. I never finished House but enjoyed the start, and have been meaning to at least take a shot at a couple of his others (Among Schoolchildren and Home Town especially).
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