Watch the Synchronized Dance of a 6-Planet System. A star has been discovered whose planets orbit rhythmically around it — the inner planets at a 3/2 resonance and the outer ones at 4/3 resonance. (Watch the video — the orbiting planets play music.)
Just about two years after launching a feature in which NFT owners could show off their NFTs with special, hexagonal profile pictures, Twitter has apparently removed support for adding NFT avatars.
It's unclear if the move is spurred by the massively waning interest in NFTs, or if it's part of Twitter's broad slashing of functionality in the wake of Elon Musk's disastrous takeover and cost-cutting attempts.
Those who already had the hexagonal profile pictures now seem to have had them restored to their usual circular shape, and there's no longer any mention of the feature in Twitter's support documentation, and new NFT profile photos can't be uploaded. People can, of course, still right-click and save the images and upload them that way.
After posting a video (almost always an elaborate, well-produced and well-researched one) to his YouTube channel every week for ten years, Tom Scott is stepping back for a break.
I’ve been throwing stuff at the internet since 1999. And for many, many years, that stuff went almost nowhere. I had occasional bits of success, but could never make any of them last long-term. I remember thinking, so many times during all those years… will any of this stuff I’m making ever work?
Well, this did.
I didn’t know that, back when I was filming the first videos for the series that was then called Things You Might Not Know, I just held out my phone at arm’s length and talked into it for 90 seconds with almost no research! I really don’t like those videos now. But the first of them was published exactly ten years before this one. To the minute. 4pm, January 1st, 2014.
For the first month of that format, I was publishing a video almost every day, and then I settled down: one video a week. Mostly on location, near windswept infrastructure, although there’s computer science and linguistics in there too, and occasional green-screen animated videos. I experimented with other formats on other days, but the rule I set myself was: Monday, 4pm, something interesting.
Incredible. Scott has one of the few Weird Internet Careers that I am truly envious of — it just looks like so much fun getting to do all of that stuff and then telling people all about it.
Congratulations, Tom Scott — I hereby induct you into the Internet Hall of Fame! 👏 👏 👏 👏
I didn't expect it, but I got goosebumps all over again from this...
I’ve posted more than a few size comparison videos here over the years — Powers of Ten is the obvious one — but this one from Kurzgesagt is one of the best, showing how big everything in the universe is compared to humans, who seemingly find themselves smack in the middle. This video does an excellent job illustrating the similarity of structures and interdependency across different scales — how blood vessels are like city streets for instance or how very tiny proteins can affect the entire Earth.
I've only gotten COVID just last week, after 3 years and 9 months of avoiding it (to the best of my knowledge). It wasn't fun.
Giorgia Lupi makes infographics to help make sense of her illness: 1,374 Days: My Life With Long Covid. “Always in the back of my mind is the fear that I will never again experience the uncomplicated, illness-free joy of the life I used to have.”
{Hyperventilating slightly} They’re making a World of Goo 2 15 years after the original one was released?! Holy smokes! I loved World of Goo back in the day and I can’t wait to play this sequel. (via waxy)
Embark on a brand-new adventure with 9 new playable characters
Explore the Polus Replica map, a reproduction of a popular Among Us map
Battle with 15 new weapons, and rack up 20 new achievements
Hello, Xbox Wire readers! We hope you’ve completed your tasks, as our next DLC, Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting, is out today! If you hadn’t guessed already (or read the headline), it features characters, items and hilarious gags from Among Us, courtesy of our friends at Innersloth.
So, what’s new? Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting adds a new map, 9 new characters, 15 new weapons, 6 new music tracks, 1 new Adventure, 20 in-game-only achievements, and space ducks. Obviously.
Did we say new map? We meant a BRAND NEW map! Named Polus Replica, it’s an eerily accurate reproduction of the scientific base on Polus, featuring multiple bizarre biomes ripe for exploration by Survivors and Crewmates with tasks and treasure chests galore. Unfortunately, it’s also being invaded by your average space dwellers, like aliens and robots. Oh, and those space ducks. Expect the unexpected and do NOT trust the bins. Never trust the bins. Or the chicken nuggets. In fact, it’s a good idea to remain alert at all times and not trust anything.
The minute you land on Polus Replica you’ll be blasting away baddies with Among Us tasks turned into powerful weapons. Fire the supermassive sound waves of your Report! weapon, slice angry aliens in half with Lucky Swipe, and drop duplicitous foes to their doom with Just Vent. Survivors of all kinds should seek out one of the new gameplay mechanics we added to the DLC: Mini Crewmates! They will empower your Task-based weaponry (and just offer general companionship, which is nice).
On top of all this new content, daring Crewmates will also find an Adventure inside the DLC. Adventures are a remixed way to play Vampire Survivors that launched a few weeks ago. Oh, and just like our previous DLCs, Legacy of the Moonspell and Tides of the Foscari, Emergency Meeting will be playable entirely solo or in local co-op for up to 4 players. We can’t take any responsibility for suspicious behavior from your friends, however.
Lastly we want to say a big thanks to Among Us developers Innersloth who helped us a ton to make this happen. We feel our games have a lot in common, as indie games that were discovered and championed by a great community that keeps them going(Also memes)so we couldn’t have thought of a better game and team to make our first collab with! You are the real Crewmates!
That’s it from our side, hope you have fun being the bullet hell… in spaaaace! As always, if you want the latest on all things Vampire Survivors, make sure to follow us on X, head over to our Discord, or follow the Vampire Survivors Official Xbox Clubs page. We promise, there’s nothing suspicious on any of those.
The Survivors are desperate to hunt vampires, but are running out of places to look. Only one option remains: Be the bullet hell… in space!
Gather your most trusted Crewmates, prepare to eject the Impostors, and try to survive while mowing down thousands of extra-terrestrial foes in this expansion for Vampire Survivors. Turn classic Among Us tasks into outrageous weapons, upgrading your abilities after every roguelite run to overcome impossible odds with ease. Be alert to subterfuge as you explore the vast weirdness of the Polus Replica and keep your wits about you, as suspicious eyes are always watching .
9 Totally Trustworthy New Characters
A cast of courageous Crewmates assembled to take on the tumultuous tasks, including:
Crewmate Dino – Starry-eyed, optimistic, and unfortunately extremely tasty. Dino is a jack-of-all-trades who boosts stats whenever a task is completed (i.e. when you level up a weapon).
Engineer Gino – Few Crewmates come as close to truly competent task-work as Gino, who offers a selection of passive weapons from their toolbox every few levels.
Ghost Lino – Good Crewmates don't let a silly thing like death get in the way of their tasks. Lino can float through walls at will and can't be hurt, but can't deal damage either… what could be the goal of such suspicious game design?!
Shapeshifter Nino – Look at this bean! They can do all kinds of… wait, where did they go? And where did this snowman come from? Oh well, I'm sure you'll figure it out.
Guardian Pina – Everyone needs an angel on their shoulder. Pina isn't just there for moral support, though – they boost the defences of all nearby allies, and they love taking out the garbage.
Impostor Rina – A fellow Crewmate that is in no way some kind of duplicitous, well-disguised killer. One hundred percent all-natural-bean, right here. Nothing to see or think about.
Scientist Mina – Mina's scientific skill is matched only by their intense clumsiness. Thankfully, dropping potentially hazardous chemicals has a major upside when you're besieged by extra-terrestrial monsters.
Horse – It's a horse. Neigh, etc.
15 New Weapons
Transform your tasks into powerful weapons to defend yourself from Impostors, Shapeshifters, and all manner of extra-terrestrial weirdos. Blast away baddies with the supermassive sound waves of your Report! weapon, slice angry aliens in half with Lucky Swipe, and drop duplicitous foes to their doom with Just Vent. Lonely Survivors should seek out Mini Crewmates to empower their Task-based weaponry (or just for general companionship).
A Brand New, Perfectly Safe Stage
Polus Replica – an eerily accurate replica of the scientific base on Polus. This planet is packed with bizarre biomes ripe for exploration by Survivors and Crewmates, with tasks and treasure chests galore. Unfortunately, its also accidentally being invaded by your average space dwellers, like aliens, robots, and ducks. Expect the unexpected and do NOT trust the bins. Never trust the bins. Or the chicken nuggets. In fact, it's a good idea to remain alert at all times and not trust anything.
6 New Music Tracks
♫ Emergency Meeting
♫ Hide and Survive
♫ No Ducks Among Us
♫ No Aliens Among Us
♫ No Ghosts Among Us
♫ No Vampires Among Us
Vampire Survivors is a time survival game with minimalistic gameplay and roguelite elements. There's no place to hide, all you can do is try to survive a cursed night and get as much gold as possible for the next survivor, before Death inevitably puts an end to your struggles.
Starting Tips:
– Take your time to grab gems and items, they won't disappear.
– Get two or three offensive weapons at first, but focus on levelling them up one at a time.
– Armour and Luck are good starting power-ups to spend money on.
– Refund power-ups often, it's free, and try new upgrade paths.
Henrik H is contracting with a client, and that client uses a number of other contractors. Some of them have… interesting approaches to problem solving.
For example, one of the servers is a Windows server, which stores a lot of temp files on the D: drive. So someone needed to write a C# function that would check the available space, and if it exceeded some threshold, delete the temp files.
This is what they came up with.
private void Serverspacedelete()
{
System.IO.DriveInfo di = new System.IO.DriveInfo("D");
double byteCount = Convert.ToDouble(di.TotalFreeSpace.ToString());
string size = "0";
if (byteCount >= 1073741824.0)
size = String.Format("{0:##.##}", byteCount / 1073741824.0);// + " GB";
else if (byteCount >= 1048576.0)
size = String.Format("{0:##.##}", byteCount / 1048576.0);// + " MB";
else if (byteCount >= 1024.0)
size = String.Format("{0:##.##}", byteCount / 1024.0);// + " KB";
else if (byteCount > 0 && byteCount < 1024.0)
size = byteCount.ToString(); // + " Bytes";
if (size.Contains(','))
size = size.Substring(0, size.LastIndexOf(','));
if (size.Contains('.'))
size = size.Substring(0, size.LastIndexOf('.'));
int k = Convert.ToInt32(size);
if (k <= 10)
{
// code deleting temp files
}
}
What we have here is a developer who started this function by searching the Internet for "how to get free drive space c#" and found a sample program that would pretty print the size in human readable values. They copy-pasted some of that code here, commented-out the GB suffix, and were off to the races.
Which brings us to the attempts to trim the string- if it contains a ",", grab only everything before the last comma. If it contains a ".", grab everything before the decimal point.
I can only think that they wanted to maybe remove those symbols? Which they didn't need to, because Convert.ToInt32 can parse all of that just fine. But I can't think of a logical reason to do this otherwise.
The end result of this is that if they have less than 10 bytes free, they'll delete the temp files. If they have less than 10kb free, they'll delete the temp files. If they have less than 10MBs free, they'll delete the temp files. 10GB, same thing. But also, because of that comma substring, for anything less than 10TB.
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The founder of a software developer conference has been accused of creating fake female speakers to bolster diversity numbers—and some speakers are dropping out, with the event just nine days away.
Devternity is an online conference for developers that’s invite-only for speakers. In the past, it reportedly drew hundreds of attendees both when it was in-person in Latvia and even more after it moved online. Eduards Sizovs founded the event in 2015.
Most of us would probably agree that the internet now sucks. Is there a practical way to reframe my approach to how I use the internet so that I can still discover cool, new, interesting people and ideas, without wading through sixteen tons of angry garbage? (I'm seeking problem-solving strategies to make lemonade from lemons, not "just give up" cynicism, thanks!) What are the best punk rock, fuck-this approaches for discovering and enjoying the best and weirdest things that the internet still has to offer?
I still mourn old Twitter, which kept me connected to artists, thinkers, and other delightful weirdos. Meanwhile, Reddit's algorithm is so transparently manipulative and rich with rage-bait that it's an insult to one's intelligence. Metafilter isn't what it used to be whether we care to admit it or not. RSS readers are mostly a thing of the past, and even paid RSS readers feel "cheap" because most article headlines now read like stale advertising pitches.
Rather than spending my time lamenting this, I'd like to see if there's a way I can shake things up by shifting or reframing how I search (and use) the internet.
I'm already reading more books and enjoying other analog pleasures - that's not my question. This is about finding creative ways to still enjoy the modern internet in spite of its many, many flaws.
For example, I only found out about neocities because I happened to be in a gaming Discord where someone mentioned it. As another example, my spouse recently made me aware of kagi. However, both examples are the result of pure chance/luck on my part, rather than strategy.
I'd love to hear any practical tips that folks might have for how I can try to make the internet work for me, rather than the other way around.
After years of rumors, James Cameron has finally remastered The Abyss in 4K and is releasing it in theaters for one night only on December 6th. Here’s the trailer.
.
9 Totally Trustworthy New Characters
A cast of courageous Crewmates assembled to take on the tumultuous tasks, including:
Crewmate Dino – Starry-eyed, optimistic, and unfortunately extremely tasty. Dino is a jack-of-all-trades who boosts stats whenever a task is completed (i.e. when you level up a weapon).
Engineer Gino – Few Crewmates come as close to truly competent task-work as Gino, who offers a selection of passive weapons from their toolbox every few levels.
Ghost Lino – Good Crewmates don't let a silly thing like death get in the way of their tasks. Lino can float through walls at will and can't be hurt, but can't deal damage either… what could be the goal of such suspicious game design?!
Shapeshifter Nino – Look at this bean! They can do all kinds of… wait, where did they go? And where did this snowman come from? Oh well, I'm sure you'll figure it out.
Guardian Pina – Everyone needs an angel on their shoulder. Pina isn't just there for moral support, though – they boost the defences of all nearby allies, and they love taking out the garbage.
Impostor Rina – A fellow Crewmate that is in no way some kind of duplicitous, well-disguised killer. One hundred percent all-natural-bean, right here. Nothing to see or think about.
Scientist Mina – Mina's scientific skill is matched only by their intense clumsiness. Thankfully, dropping potentially hazardous chemicals has a major upside when you're besieged by extra-terrestrial monsters.
Horse – It's a horse. Neigh, etc.
15 New Weapons
Transform your tasks into powerful weapons to defend yourself from Impostors, Shapeshifters, and all manner of extra-terrestrial weirdos. Blast away baddies with the supermassive sound waves of your Report! weapon, slice angry aliens in half with Lucky Swipe, and drop duplicitous foes to their doom with Just Vent. Lonely Survivors should seek out Mini Crewmates to empower their Task-based weaponry (or just for general companionship).
A Brand New, Perfectly Safe Stage
Polus Replica – an eerily accurate replica of the scientific base on Polus. This planet is packed with bizarre biomes ripe for exploration by Survivors and Crewmates, with tasks and treasure chests galore. Unfortunately, its also accidentally being invaded by your average space dwellers, like aliens, robots, and ducks. Expect the unexpected and do NOT trust the bins. Never trust the bins. Or the chicken nuggets. In fact, it's a good idea to remain alert at all times and not trust anything.
6 New Music Tracks
♫ Emergency Meeting
♫ Hide and Survive
♫ No Ducks Among Us
♫ No Aliens Among Us
♫ No Ghosts Among Us
♫ No Vampires Among Us ![It's not just time zones and leap seconds. SI seconds on Earth are slower because of relativity, so there are time standards for space stuff (TCB, TGC) that use faster SI seconds than UTC/Unix time. T2 - T1 = [God doesn't know and the Devil isn't telling.]](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/datetime.png "It's not just time zones and leap seconds. SI seconds on Earth are slower because of relativity, so there are time standards for space stuff (TCB, TGC) that use faster SI seconds than UTC/Unix time. T2 - T1 = [God doesn't know and the Devil isn't telling.]")
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404 MediaSamantha Cole
