A schoolteacher using an interactive whiteboard is surprised by an alert. Their school is in “hard lockdown.” They knew — instantly — something was about to happen, and “got everybody into a corner,” they later told CNN. Classroom doors at the school are always locked, so they then “turned off Read more…
“The Impact of AI on Computer Science Education” recounts an experiment Eric Klopfer conducted in his undergrad CS class at MIT. He divided the class into three groups and gave them a programming task to solve in the Fortran language, which none of them knew. Reminiscent of how The Three Read more…
Digital rights activists want device manufacturers to disclose a “guaranteed minimum support time” for devices — and federal regulations ensuring a product’s core functionality will work even after its software updates stop. Influential groups including Consumer Reports, EFF, the Software Freedom Conservancy, iFixit, and U.S. Pirg have now signed a Read more…
An intense heatwave across the US west has brought unusually warm temperatures to the region — some of the highest of the season — and broken heat records. Millions of Americans from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Seattle are under heat alerts. Even before this latest bout of extreme weather, Read more…
Electrocuted, flaming bird carcasses are falling off of power lines and causing wildfires across the U.S. This surprisingly common phenomenon has been responsible for at least three Colorado wildfires so far this summer. These events are not isolated. A 2022 study found that electrocuted birds caused 44 wildfires in the Read more…
“SpaceX deployed its 7,000th Starlink satellite this week, making the vast majority of active satellites around earth part of a single megaconstellation. “The Starlink communications system is now orders of magnitude larger than its nearest competitor, offering unprecedented access to low-latency broadband from anywhere on the planet.” According to the Read more…
Boeing’s “beleaguered” Starliner spacecraft “successfully landed in New Mexico just after midnight Eastern time. After Starliner made a picture-perfect landing, Stich told reporters that the spacecraft did well during its return flight. “It was a bullseye landing,” he said. “It’s really great to get the spacecraft back….” He said while Read more…