An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission has unfairly shut New York state out of a planned $20.4 billion broadband-funding program, US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last week. ISPs in 48 states are eligible for funding in the FCC rural-broadband program, which will distribute the money over 10 years to providers that expand their networks to new homes and businesses. The FCC said it blocked New York and Alaska from Phase I of the program "because of previously established programs to fund rural broadband in these states." (Phase I will distribute $16 billion of the $20.4 billion.) The FCC previously established a separate funding program for Alaska with $1.5 billion over 10 years. But Schumer and Gillibrand say New York has only gotten its fair share of nationwide FCC programs, rather than something extra. Schumer and Gillibrand's letter urged Pai to reverse the decision and let New York-based ISPs participate in the fund, which is supposed to provide broadband access to up to 4 million rural homes and businesses nationwide. "The FCC is undermining New York State's due process and penalizing New York for proactively creating a program to address unserved communities across the state," their announcement said.

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He has called it all of these things: "mythical", "a hoax", not a hoax, and "a very serious subject".

Atlassian today announced an update to Jira Software, its popular project and issue-tracking tool, that brings a number of major updates to the roadmapping feature it first introduced back in 2018. From a report: Back in 2018, Atlassian also launched its rebuilt version of Jira Software, which took some of its cues from Trello, and today's release builds upon this. "When we launched that new Jira experience back in October 2018, I think we had a really good idea of what we were trying to do with it and where we were taking it," said Jake Brereton, the head of marketing for Jira Software. "And I think if you fast-forward 14 months to where we are today, we just had some really strong validation in a number of areas that are over the target and that that investment we made was worth it." With this release then, Jira Software's roadmapping tool is getting progress bars that show you the overall status of every roadmap item and that give you a lot more information about the overall state of the project at a glance. Also new here are hierarchy levels that let you unfold the roadmap item to get more in-depth information about the stories and tasks that are part of an item. You can also now map dependencies by simply dragging and dropping items, something that was missing from the first release but that was surely high on the list for many users. Atlassian is also introducing new filters and a number of UI enhancements.

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Apple on Thursday pushed back against EU lawmakers' call for a common charger, warning the move could hamper innovation, create a mountain of electronic waste and irk consumers. From a report: Apple's comments came a week after lawmakers at the European Parliament called for a common charger for all mobile phones and amended a draft law to say the ability to work with common chargers would be an essential requirement for radio equipment in the bloc. A move to a common charger would affect Apple more than any other company as its iPhones and most of its products are powered by its Lightning cable, whereas Android devices are powered by USB-C connectors. "We believe regulation that forces conformity across the type of connector built into all smartphones stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, and would harm consumers in Europe and the economy as a whole," Apple said in a statement.

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So far people seem to like the RSS version of the nightly email. I don't like the way it looks in readers, and I want more features, but if that's where some people want to read my stuff, of course I'm happy. The important thing is that you read, listen and watch (and think of course).

Security researchers from CyberMDX, a cyber-security company specialized in healthcare security, have disclosed today technical details about six vulnerabilities they are collectively referring to as MDhex. From a report: The vulnerabilities impact seven GE Healthcare devices meant for patient vital signs monitoring. These are devices installed near patient beds, meant to collect data from sick patients, and send it back to a telemetry server, monitored by clinical staff.

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An idea for a recurring sketch on a comedy show. Two actors, one who plays a Trump supporter. Someone who speaks like an actual Trumper, who says things that echo what's said on Fox. Vary the gender, where they're from, etc. Each time, they discuss current events with someone who is not a Trump supporter, a really good actor, serious, plays it straight. Now here's where it gets interesting. The Trump supporter realizes how wrong it was to support Trump. They do something to demonstrate that they see the light. Remember, they're actors. It's scripted. So the outcome is always the same. I would love to watch this, just for the release. Also it would really piss off Trump supporters, which is an extra bonus. Worth trying maybe on SNL or the Daily Show.

Streaming service touts its large collection of titles, but a majority are uploads -- and questionable films are in the mix [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; an alternative source wasn't immediately available.]. From a report: When Walter Wilson, a construction worker from North Carolina, sat down to watch the blockbuster "Avengers: Endgame" on Amazon Prime Video, he ended up seeing something very different: a 2007 documentary, also titled "Endgame," directed by far-right talk show host Alex Jones. Mr. Jones's videos have been banned from many mainstream sites like Apple's iTunes and Facebook for promoting outlandish conspiracy theories. "Endgame" purported to document a clandestine organization of bankers and politicians bent on establishing a "blueprint for global enslavement." Its availability on Amazon.com's streaming service highlighted a fact not widely known among subscribers: The e-commerce giant accepts nonprofessional and questionable content to offer a video library that in Amazon's style can dominate the competition through sheer volume. While the video service is known for original movies and shows that have won Oscars and Emmys -- such as "Manchester By the Sea" and "Transparent" -- the site also carries thousands of conspiracy-theory videos, amateur productions and short instructional clips. Similar to Alphabet's YouTube, some videos are uploaded by individuals who made them or by others owning the rights to the content. Others Amazon bought in bulk as part of vast libraries of amateur content. An Amazon spokeswoman says the company has sought a broad selection of content, including videos from award winners and independent producers.

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India's largest and the world's highest gamma-ray telescope is set to go live later this year, aiming to provide a new window into distant stars and galaxies in the universe. From a report: The Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment Telescope (MACE) in Hanle, Ladakh, is placed at an altitude of 4,300 metres above sea level. It is the world's second-largest, ground-based gamma-ray telescope with a 21-metre-diameter dish. The largest telescope of the same class is the 28-metre-diameter telescope, which is part of the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) in Namibia. "The installation of the telescope is complete and trial runs are being carried out. It will go live later this year. The first science results from this project will come in a year or two," Nilay Bhatt, a researcher at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), told ThePrint. The project is a collaboration of scientists from BARC, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, along with the Electronics Corporation of India Limited.

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A third version of For No One, this time in the studio.

A Trump unencumbered by the Constitution could make this happen very quickly imho.

Memphis Meats, a Berkeley, Calif.-based startup, says it's one step closer to bringing cell-based meat to consumers' mouths. From a report: The company plans to build a pilot production facility with funds raised from high-profile investors including Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Kimbal Musk, as well as two giant players in the animal protein and feed space, Cargill and Tyson Foods. The company says its latest funding round has brought in $161 million in new investment. "People thought this was all science fiction" when the company was founded back in 2015, Uma Valeti, the co-founder and CEO of Memphis Meats, told NPR in an interview at the company's headquarters. "Everything that we've done at Memphis Meats [has] started to show that this can be done," Valeti said. "This is real." Interest in cell-based meat production and other meat alternatives has increased amid growing awareness of the environmental impact of traditional livestock agriculture. Valeti and his team walked us through the process of producing cell-based meat. It starts with the selection of specific types of animal cells that can grow to become meat. Next, the cells are fed and put in a "cultivator" -- similar to a fermenting tank â" where they can grow and form muscle and connective tissue. The process is analogous to the way breweries grow yeast cells to produce beer. Only here, they're growing animal cells.

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Have you ever seen the closing argument in the Clinton impeachment by former Senator Dale Bumpers? If not it's a treat, you deserve it, it gives an idea of how trials bring out amazing things in people.

Having served jury duty twice, once through deliberations to a verdict, I was really impressed at how deep random people from all walks of life can go, given an opportunity to get immersed in understanding other humans. I sense a bit of that starting to happen here. It's not imho in any way a foregone conclusion what will come out of this.

It's also interesting, listening to the Bumpers speech, I hadn't listened to it in a a long time, how much this impeachment must hurt for Hillary Clinton. No one gave a shit about her in the Clinton impeachment, yet Bumpers does touch on it. And now she's a subject of controversy again because she dared to say what she actually thinks about Bernie Sanders.

A longtime friend Dan Conover isn't watching the impeachment, arguing basically there's no new information, but I think he's making a mistake. You could say the same about going to see a historic play like Hamilton. You know the outcome, so why pay the huge price in money and time to go see it. Because something other than information is transmitted.

I keep hearing that the outcome of The Trial of Trump is either acquit or remove, but there's a third possibility that we should prepare for. He might not be removed but is not acquitted either. Say the vote is 55 to convict vs 45 to acquit. He remains president, but a majority of the Senate voted to remove him. That's not a win. It shakes his tree. "Keep fucking with us and maybe lose some more support in the Senate and maybe next time we have enough votes to put you out." Before you say that's not going to happen, it might. The Repubs are at least as savvy as we are (heh, we're babes in the woods compared to McConnell), and know that some of their senators come from purple states like Maine, Colorado and Arizona. And there may be other senators who may want to vote to convict because they're more independent, like Romney, Murkowsky and Alexander, for example. The Repubs have room to help some of those senators without giving up ten more months of stacking the courts with unqualified Republicans. They might want to send a signal to El Presidenté that the US isn't quite his banana republic yet. It's not an impossible outcome. It's all negotiable in politics.

I am watching the trial, hoping for a moment like this.