Stanford University announced strict new rules for undergraduates after a student tested positive for COVID-19: "The university already went to online classes last week," notes the Los Angeles Times. Now, noting county-wide restrictions on gatherings of more than 100 people, the university has also changed its dining hall procedures, and students "will be given pre-filled to-go containers and bottled or canned drinks. Students will then need to leave the dining hall and eat outdoors, in their dorm room or elsewhere." In addition, all other students have been asked to leave campus, reports SFGate, though "International students who cannot go home, students who have known health or safety risks, and students who are homeless can still remain on campus if a request is submitted." And the provost is also asking instructors to make winter quarter final exams optional for undergraduate students. In other news, Slashdot reader RobinH notes that the FIRST Robotics Competition has suspended its entire season and canceled its championships.

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Long-time Slashdot reader theodp spotted this announcement at Minecraft.net: As COVID-19 concerns prompt school closures around the world, many educators are turning to remote learning to keep students engaged. To help teachers and students stay connected to the classroom, Minecraft: Education Edition is now available through June 2020 for all educators and learners who have a valid Office 365 Education account... We have also compiled a special Minecraft remote learning toolkit, which includes more than 50 lessons, STEM curriculum and project-based learning activities so educators can use Minecraft: Education Edition with their students whether they are in school, at home or in another remote learning environment.

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Another must-listen podcast from Chris Lydon. The take-away is that our political system hasn't yet realized that we need to go to single-payer for all, now, if we want to have as good an outcome as Italy, which is to say a very shitty outcome. Ours is on track to be much worse because the uninsured can't enter the system, therefore will continue to infect even people with insurance. We're set suffer here in the US a lot more. There will be a debate tomorrow night, and if Biden isn't tuned into this, Sanders is going to clean his clock. And I suspect Biden isn't. And there's a chance that Sanders isn't thinking clearly either, but I kind of doubt it. Nothing focuses the mind like losing. Action-item: before the debate, Biden should give a speech outlining a Medicare-for-all-now program. Give Sanders proper credit. At the debate he can offer to delegate the implementation of this to Sanders. Create unity right there on the debate stage. The Democrats in Congress are not without power. Trump is crazy to think the only criteria people will care about is the stock market. People who unnecessarily lose friends and relatives to this disease are likely to care about that more. Never waste a good crisis. Now is the time to reform health care in the US.

In countries where websites, blogs and a free press are strictly limited, Minecraft "is still accessible by everyone," notes the official official web site for Reporters Without Borders (an international nonprofit defending freedom of information): Reporters Without Borders used this backdoor to build "The Uncensored Library": A library that is now accessible on an open server for Minecraft players around the globe. The library is filled with books, containing articles that were censored in their country of origin. These articles are now available again within Minecraft hidden from government surveillance technology inside a computer game. The books can be read by everyone on the server, but their content cannot be changed. The library is growing, with more and more books being added to overcome censorship. On March 12 — the World Day Against Cyber Censorship — the Uncensored Library will open its doors, giving young people around the world access to independent information, through a medium they can playfully interact with. The campaign runs under the hashtag: #TruthFindsAWay... Additional to banned articles from journalists, visitors of The Uncensored Library can find the Reporters Sans Frontières World Press Freedom Index and reports on the current press freedom situation of 180 countries in the world. They spent three months working with the design studio BlockWorks to assemble 12.5 million blocks into a vast structure with a neoclassical architecture. You can see it in a short film at uncensoredlibrary.com, or access it in Minecraft at visit.uncensoredlibrary.com

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An anonymous reader quotes the nonprofit environmental magazine Grist: On Sunday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a new set of guidelines for citizens hoping to help contain the burgeoning outbreak. They included working from home, if possible, avoiding subways during rush hour (a breeding ground for respiratory viruses), and walking or biking to work if possible to avoid crowding on public transportation... Now, less than a week later, it's clear that inexperience and physical impediments weren't enough to keep New Yorkers from adopting a more hygienic, climate-friendly, people-powered form of transportation. The city's Department of Transportation announced on Wednesday that it's seen a 50 percent increase in bike traffic on bridges connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn and Queens compared to last March. New York City's bike share program, Citi Bike, has also seen an enormous upswing in demand. Citi Bike announced on Thursday that rides are up 67 percent compared to a year ago... [T]he coronavirus pandemic has also caused a 15 percent drop in rush-hour traffic this week compared to the same time last year. That means less pollution for cyclists to choke on and fewer chances of dangerous collisions.

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A story from 2008. I was living in Berkeley. During the financial meltdown, I was driving on Solano Ave with my friend Tori. I asked if she thought the stores would still be there in a year. I imagined we were headed for the Stone Age, our economy would be based on barter, and a lot of us would die. Kind of the way I feel now. Tori paused and said they would still be there. And they were.

I wish the Washington Post would take down the paywall on this piece. Everyone should read it.

Just tried something funny. I ordered something on Amazon that won't be available till April. A bottle of off-brand hand sanitizer. $6. Let's see if the world still exists in April.

Ronald Reagan famously asked Mikhail Gorbachev if they could set aside their differences if the world was invaded by aliens. Gorbachev said hell yes.

"We don't often talk about power supplies, but Intel's new ATX12VO spec — that's an 'O' for 'Oscar,' not a zero — will start appearing soon in pre-built PCs from OEMs and system integrators, and it represents a major change in PSU design," reports PC World. "The ATX12VO spec removes voltage rails from the power supply, all in a bid to improve efficiency standards on the PC and meet stringent government regulations. But while the spec essentially removes +3.3-volt, +5-volt and -12-volt and +5-volt standby power from the PSU, they aren't going away — they're just moving to the motherboard. That's the other big change..." Long-time Slashdot reader UnknowingFool explains: If those voltages are required, the motherboard is expected to supply it by converting 12V power. Removing those two rails will shrink the connector from 24 pin to 10 pin. One of the main reasons is increased flexibility for future needs. That dependence on these separate rails has been reduced over time but current power supplies must dedicate a fixed amount to those rails. The example given is that a current 600W PS may only need 15% (90W) of total power dedicated to those rails but a decade ago may require 25% (150W). Switching to the MB supplying the power means more 12V power. A benefit is power supplies will be cheaper to make and also more power efficient. With two fewer rails, there is fewer connectors and parts and power supply makers can focus on efficiency of just one rail.

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Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a startling report from the Washington Post: Whisper, the secret-sharing app that called itself the "safest place on the Internet," left years of users' most intimate confessions exposed on the Web tied to their age, location and other details, raising alarm among cybersecurity researchers that users could have been unmasked or blackmailed. The data exposure, discovered by independent researchers and shown to The Washington Post, allowed anyone to access all of the location data and other information tied to anonymous "whispers" posted to the popular social app, which has claimed hundreds of millions of users. The records were viewable on a non-password-protected database open to the public Web. A Post reporter was able to freely browse and search through the records, many of which involved children: A search of users who had listed their age as 15 returned 1.3 million results. The cybersecurity consultants Matthew Porter and Dan Ehrlich, who lead the advisory group Twelve Security, said they were able to access nearly 900 million user records from the app's release in 2012 to the present day. The researchers alerted federal law-enforcement officials and the company to the exposure. Shortly after researchers and The Post contacted the company on Monday, access to the data was removed.

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Silver lining. People are searching for meaning in their lives. We're on the cusp of getting there. We need each other. Ads on TV are from a different world, one that is gone now. Meaning is here. Helping each other to survive. Can't get more meaningful than that.

Note to readers outside Ulster County. I'm going to start posting about my experiences in the area I live now. I think they will be of general interest. There are a number of people locally who read my blog and right now this is the only place I can post them.

I went to Hannaford's in West Hurley today. I was pleased to see the parking lot looked fine for a Saturday morning. I got a spot in the second row. Lots of empty spots.

First the general picture. The store is well stocked. Lots of canned goods, pasta, dairy, bottled water, snacks, beer, most everything on my shopping list. Where there were things missing I was able to improvise. The store people were in good spirits.

But there was no mistaking we're in a different world now. I could feel this immediately on entering the store. There were empty shelves. Something you don't generally see in America, but you do see in the third world. The produce section was mostly empty. Chicken, hamburger, pork -- mostly gone, what was there were specialty items.

The store is functioning. I had seen people say earlier that it was closed. We have to be careful about that. Before reporting rumors, let's go check it out. That was one of the reasons I went today, to see what was going on. I'm a big believer in people getting the news themselves. This is one of those times when that'll be important.

On NPR this morning, they said almost 50 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. This is going to be a huge problem, shortly.

An anonymous reader quotes VentureBeat: Sweden's Data Protection Authority (DPA) has slapped Google with a 75 million kronor ($8 million) fine for "failure to comply" with Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) after the internet giant reportedly failed to adequately remove search result links under right-to-be-forgotten requests. In a notable twist, the DPA also demanded that Google refrain from informing website operators their URLs will be de-indexed... Rather than asking website operators to remove a web page, Google — and other search engines — are required to hide the page from European search results. Since the ruling took effect, Google has received millions of de-indexing requests, though it reports that fewer than 45% have been fulfilled... The crux of the Swedish DPA's complaint is that Google did not "properly remove" two search result listings after it was instructed to do so back in 2017. "In one of the cases, Google has done a too narrow interpretation of what web addresses needed to be removed from the search result listing," the DPA wrote in its statement. "In the second case, Google has failed to remove the search result listing without undue delay." But inadequate and tardy removals are only part of the issue, according to Sweden's DPA, which also argues that Google should keep website operators in the dark about removal requests... If Google's latest fine is upheld — the company has three weeks to appeal — it would rank among the seven largest GDPR penalties of all time. Google confirmed to VentureBeat that it does indeed intend to file an appeal. "We disagree with this decision on principle and plan to appeal," the spokesperson said.

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