Mastodawn

XKCD: Satellite Pollution

Title text: We're working to make sure the images are as up-to-date and accurate as possible, with a minimum number of sponsored galaxies.

In XKCD world, this is tech's solution to light pollution by LEO constellations and its effect on astronomy - 100-mile wide banners hanging off satellites with pictures of stars and galaxies, mostly inaccurate.

Problem solved!

@sundogplanets

https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Credit: Randall Munroe
#XKCD
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Schamschula 2d ago

Gary Rosenzweig 2d ago

I was a Mac Pro user from 2008 to 2021. When the Mac Studio came out it was so obviously exactly what I and many others needed that I never even considered the new Mac Pro. It is so easy to expand storage with Thunderbolt and really not necessary to have PCIe slots anymore. Today was no surprise.

Schamschula 3d ago

I find it ironic that Google and Bing ask web masters to provide a a sitemap.xml file.

This assumes either (1) that the web master hasn't properly linked all pages or (2) that their bot's algorithm is too inefficient to extract links, and they would rather some else would do their work for them.

I think its option (2).

I'm not going to use my own bot to build such a tree for a couple of million URLs. This would take several months, by which time several hundreds new URL will have been added.

Schamschula 3d ago

Another iPadOS GUI fail: When it changes Focus, it presents a pop-up with an X button. That button doesn't close the pop-up, but rather it changes your Focus mode.

Schamschula 4d ago

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nixCraft 🐧4d ago

my advice is still the same. get a cheaper (used) thinkpad (or brand of your choice) and install Linux or *BSD that doesn't have corporate backing or age/kyc verification nonsense added. always install an ad blocker, script blocker, and dns level filtering just in case for your own safety (also install those on your parents and friends family computers).

say no to microslop and their stupid apps. enough is enough.

Schamschula 5d ago

Bing webmaster tools asks me to add a <H1> heading to all pages, as it otherwise can't figure what the title of a page is. Apparently Microsoft's AI is not very advanced!

Schamschula 6d ago

I read some people play replace the CMOS battery roulette on their servers: Replace the battery with a live mother board. I chose the safe route: shut down the machine! Sure enough, I dropped the old battery as I was removing it. I had to retrieve it from below some hardware components. The machine is back in service.

Schamschula Mar 18

Peter Gleick Mar 18

The only MAGA that makes sense.

Schamschula Mar 14

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AkaSci 🛰️Mar 14

NASA uses a value of π = 3.141592653589793 with 15 decimal digits for interplanetary navigation.

Calculating the circumference of the circle with radius = 32 billion km, slightly larger than the distance of the Voyager 1 spacecraft, and π with 15 digits, gives an error of just 1.5 cm.

Calculating the circumference of the Universe with radius = 46 billion light years, with an accuracy equal to the diameter of a hydrogen atom, requires 37 decimal digits.
🔭
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/how-many-decimals-of-pi-do-we-really-need/
#PiDay
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Schamschula Mar 14

AkaSci 🛰️Mar 14

Happy Pi Day 🥧
And Happy Birthday to Albert Einstein.

Here are a few mathematical representations of π developed over the ages. Can you identify the mathematicians behind these equations?

Pi (π) is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. It is an irrational, transcendental number; its decimal digits continue infinitely without repeating.

π = 3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi
#PiDay2026 #PiDay
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