Long-time Slashdot reader sandbagger brings the news that Charles 'Chuck' Geschke, the co-founder of Adobe, had died at the age of 81. The company started in co-founder John Warnock's garage in 1982, and was named after the Adobe Creek which ran behind Warnock's home, offering pioneering capabilities in "What you see is what you get" (or WYSIWYG) desktop publishing. Gizmodo reports: "This is a huge loss for the entire Adobe community and the technology industry, for whom he has been a guide and hero for decades," Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen wrote in an email to staff. "As co-founders of Adobe, Chuck and John Warnock developed groundbreaking software that has revolutionized how people create and communicate, " he continued. "Chuck instilled a relentless drive for innovation in the company, resulting in some of the most transformative software inventions, including the ubiquitous PDF, Acrobat, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and Photoshop." After earning a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, Geschke met Warnock while working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, according to the Mercury News. The two left the company in 1982 and founded Adobe to develop software. Their first product was Adobe PostScript, which Narayen lauded as "an innovative technology that provided a radical new way to print text and images on paper and sparked the desktop publishing revolution."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Long-time Slashdot reader sandbagger brings the news that Charles 'Chuck' Geschke, the co-founder of Adobe, had died at the age of 81. The company started in co-founder John Warnock's garage in 1982, and was named after the Adobe Creek which ran behind Warnock's home, offering pioneering capabilities in "What you see is what you get" (or WYSIWYG) desktop publishing. Gizmodo reports: "This is a huge loss for the entire Adobe community and the technology industry, for whom he has been a guide and hero for decades," Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen wrote in an email to staff. "As co-founders of Adobe, Chuck and John Warnock developed groundbreaking software that has revolutionized how people create and communicate, " he continued. "Chuck instilled a relentless drive for innovation in the company, resulting in some of the most transformative software inventions, including the ubiquitous PDF, Acrobat, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and Photoshop." After earning a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, Geschke met Warnock while working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, according to the Mercury News. The two left the company in 1982 and founded Adobe to develop software. Their first product was Adobe PostScript, which Narayen lauded as "an innovative technology that provided a radical new way to print text and images on paper and sparked the desktop publishing revolution."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The US space agency is ready to attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.

The US space agency is ready to attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.

Texas TV station KPRC 2 reports that two men are dead after a Tesla "crashed into a tree and no one was driving the vehicle, officials say." Long-time Slashdot readers AmiMoJo and McGruber both submitted the story: There was a person in the passenger seat of the front of the car and in the rear passenger seat of the car. Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said authorities believe no one else was in the car and that it burst into flames immediately. He said it he believes it wasn't being driven by a human. Harris County Constable Precinct 4 deputies said the vehicle was traveling at a high speed when it failed to negotiate a cul-de-sac turn, ran off the road and hit the tree. KPRC 2 reporter Deven Clarke spoke to one man's brother-in-law who said he was taking the car out for a spin with his best friend, so there were just two in the vehicle. The owner, he said, backed out of the driveway, and then may have hopped in the back seat only to crash a few hundred yards down the road... Authorities said they used 32,000 gallons of water to extinguish the flames because the vehicle's batteries kept reigniting. At one point, Herman said, deputies had to call Tesla to ask them how to put out the fire in the battery.

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An anonymous reader writes: Debian Project Secretary Kurt Roeckx has announced the results of a closely-watched vote on what statement would be made about Richard Stallman's readmission to the Free Software Foundation's board. Seven options were considered, with the Debian project's 420 voting developers also asked to rank their preferred outcomes Option 1: "Call for the FSF board removal, as in rms-open-letter.github.io" Option 2: "Call for Stallman's resignation from all FSF bodies" Option 3: "Discourage collaboration with the FSF while Stallman is in a leading position" Option 4: "Call on the FSF to further its governance processes" Option 5: "Support Stallman's reinstatement, as in rms-support-letter.github.io" Option 6: "Denounce the witch-hunt against RMS and the FSF" Option 7: "Debian will not issue a public statement on this issue" While all seven options achieved a quorum of votes, two failed to achieve a majority — options 5 and 6. ("Support Stallman's reinstatement" and "Denounce the witch-hunt...") The option receiving the most votes was #7 (not issuing a public statement) — but it wasn't that simple. The vote's final outcome was determined by comparing every possible pair of options to determine which option would still be preferred by a majority of voters in each possible comparision. In this case, that winner was still the option which had also received the most votes: Debian will not issue a public statement on this issue. The Debian Project will not issue a public statement on whether Richard Stallman should be removed from leadership positions or not. Any individual (including Debian members) wishing to (co-)sign any of the open letters on this subject is invited to do this in a personal capacity. The results are captured in an elaborate graph. Numbers inside the ovals show the final ratio of yes to no votes (so a number higher than 1.00 indicates a majority, with much higher numbers indicating much larger majorities). Numbers outside the ovals (along the lines) indicate the number of voters who'd preferred the winning choice over the losing choice (toward which the arrow is pointing). The winning option is highlighted in blue.

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An anonymous reader writes: Debian Project Secretary Kurt Roeckx has announced the results of a closely-watched vote on what statement would be made about Richard Stallman's readmission to the Free Software Foundation's board. Seven options were considered, with the Debian project's 420 voting developers also asked to rank their preferred outcomes Option 1: "Call for the FSF board removal, as in rms-open-letter.github.io" Option 2: "Call for Stallman's resignation from all FSF bodies" Option 3: "Discourage collaboration with the FSF while Stallman is in a leading position" Option 4: "Call on the FSF to further its governance processes" Option 5: "Support Stallman's reinstatement, as in rms-support-letter.github.io" Option 6: "Denounce the witch-hunt against RMS and the FSF" Option 7: "Debian will not issue a public statement on this issue" While all seven options achieved a quorum of votes, two failed to achieve a majority — options 5 and 6. ("Support Stallman's reinstatement" and "Denounce the witch-hunt...") The option receiving the most votes was #7 (not issuing a public statement) — but it wasn't that simple. The vote's final outcome was determined by comparing every possible pair of options to determine which option would still be preferred by a majority of voters in each possible comparision. In this case, that winner was still the option which had also received the most votes: Debian will not issue a public statement on this issue. The Debian Project will not issue a public statement on whether Richard Stallman should be removed from leadership positions or not. Any individual (including Debian members) wishing to (co-)sign any of the open letters on this subject is invited to do this in a personal capacity. The results are captured in an elaborate graph. Numbers inside the ovals show the final ratio of yes to no votes (so a number higher than 1.00 indicates a majority, with much higher numbers indicating much larger majorities). Numbers outside the ovals (along the lines) indicate the number of voters who'd preferred the winning choice over the losing choice (toward which the arrow is pointing). The winning option is highlighted in blue.

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Hope you don't mind me saying this, but the Mac Finder should have a Bookmarks menu.

A Facebook content moderator (contracted through Accenture) quit their position in Austin, Texas — but also left a critical internal note which was later leaked by a senior tech reporter at BuzzFeed who described it as "blistering." SFGate also calls it "a harrowing account of what it's like to work as a Facebook content moderator." The message describes content moderation as a job that takes a significant toll mentally and physically and has led some coworkers to go on psychiatric medication for the first time or self-medicate with alcohol and drugs... "Content analysts are paid to look at the worst of humanity for eight hours a day..." The employee in question allegedly acknowledges that Facebook has made improvements to their wellness program, but still claims it to be inadequate, stating that managers view their employees' brains "as machines," rather than taking into account the consequences of workplace stress. But the note also points out that "Those who spend the most time in the queues have the least input as to policy... It can take months for issues to be addressed, if they are addressed at all..." Content analysts should be able to communicate directly with those responsible for designing policy... The fact that content analysts are hired by outside agencies makes these things impossible. There are no established avenues for communication with Facebook full-time employees, and we can face penalties if we attempt to contact them. The last line of the note offers this benediction for Facebook. "I hope you figure out a way to stop constantly starting PR fires and traumatize people en masse."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A Facebook content moderator (contracted through Accenture) quit their position in Austin, Texas — but also left a critical internal note which was later leaked by a senior tech reporter at BuzzFeed who described it as "blistering." SFGate also calls it "a harrowing account of what it's like to work as a Facebook content moderator." The message describes content moderation as a job that takes a significant toll mentally and physically and has led some coworkers to go on psychiatric medication for the first time or self-medicate with alcohol and drugs... "Content analysts are paid to look at the worst of humanity for eight hours a day..." The employee in question allegedly acknowledges that Facebook has made improvements to their wellness program, but still claims it to be inadequate, stating that managers view their employees' brains "as machines," rather than taking into account the consequences of workplace stress. But the note also points out that "Those who spend the most time in the queues have the least input as to policy... It can take months for issues to be addressed, if they are addressed at all..." Content analysts should be able to communicate directly with those responsible for designing policy... The fact that content analysts are hired by outside agencies makes these things impossible. There are no established avenues for communication with Facebook full-time employees, and we can face penalties if we attempt to contact them. The last line of the note offers this benediction for Facebook. "I hope you figure out a way to stop constantly starting PR fires and traumatize people en masse."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"In Microsoft's ongoing endeavor to convert people to its rebooted Edge web browser, it's launching a new Kids Mode that makes it easy for parents to control how their children surf the web," reports Gizmodo: Parents have the choice between two versions, one for ages five to eight years and one for ages nine to 12 years. Both enable the strictest level of tracking prevention in Edge and Bing SafeSearch by default to filter out adult text, images, and videos from search results. The only difference between the two age ranges is that the older one includes a newsfeed with curated articles from MSN for Kids. Don't worry though: It focuses on more kid-friendly topics like fun science and animal facts rather than breaking news and politics, Microsoft said. Kids Mode also restricts what sites kids have access to, with roughly 70 popular kids sites allowed from the get-go (any additional allowable sites have to be added to the list individually). If a child tries to view a site that's not on that list, they're met with a cutesy block page, pictured below, that prompts them to ask an adult for permission.

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I'd love to see an exercise bike that's tuned up for podcasts. Not sure exactly what that means. But I don't like competing on my bike rides. I more prefer to learn stuff. In a somewhat organized way.

Most of the podcasts I listen to are suffering from the same problem CNN and MSNBC are. They had a great knuckle-biter story to cover for the last five years, amped up by another knuckle-biter, and now the first one is gone, and the second is waning. Leaving them without anything to talk about.

I'm really not worried about Trump anymore, and I'm vaccinated, and I have the mask-wearing and social distancing down. I don't travel and I'm fine with that. I enjoy my work, and summer is coming!

I found for example that the Trippi podcast was fascinating in the run-up to the election, but now, I don't care so much about what's on the mind of a classical campaign runner (with apologies to Joe, who is a great guy). It's a very specific thing he does, and only vitally interesting to me in-season.

The whole current-events-osphere needs a re-think.

BTW, there's a whole neighborhood on his 25 acres. Unbelievable how fast things grow, esp in Florida.

BTW, there's a whole neighborhood on his 25 acres. Unbelievable how fast things grow, esp in Florida.

I don't know if I've ever told this story about my uncle at his hippie commune outside St Augustine, FL. Once I went to visit, on vacation from my Silicon Valley startup. When I arrived at his little off-grid geodesic cottage in the woods, he showed me they had pinned up an article in Business Week with a picture of me, which labeled me as President Dave Winer of Living Videotext. My uncle who had changed my diapers when I was an infant, thought this was insanely funny. He told me they started calling each other President Ken, or President Dot, or President Pumpkin (one of their dogs) or President Dump Kitty (one of the cats). I didn't object because in my mind I had a terrible case of impostor syndrome. No one in California dared make fun of it, but here in the woods with my dear uncle and friends, it seemed fine.