"Apple Watch has been credited with saving yet another life after alerting emergency services to what could have been a fatal fall," reports Apple Insider: On July 12, 25-year-old Brandon Schneider of Long Island visited the emergency room after suffering abdominal pain and a misdiagnosed kidney stone, reports People. Schneider asked to use the bathroom, where he lost consciousness and fell to the ground... Luckily, Schneider was wearing an Apple Watch. The device's fall detection feature recognized the event and alerted emergency services, as well as his father who was with him at the time. "My Apple Watch detected a hard fall, and I did not respond to the like haptic message that requires a response and 45 seconds," Schneider said in an interview with a local ABC affiliate. Subsequent CT scans revealed a fractured skull and multiple hematomas that were growing in size. He underwent brain surgery and woke up four days later. Though he doesn't remember much about the incident or surrounding days, he is on the mend and credits his survival to Apple Watch and an active lifestyle.

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"If you've ever dreamed of living 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,' now is your chance — as long as you've got a spare four to six thousand dollars sitting around," writes SFGate: This week, Walt Disney World announced more details about its new Galactic Starcruiser hotel opening in the spring, an immersive, two-day "Star Wars" experience that evokes the feeling of being in the movies. The tech will be more advanced than any other Disney experience, including Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland and the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge lands... "Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is a revolutionary new 2-night experience where you are the hero," according to Walt Disney World's website. "You and your group will embark on a first-of-its-kind Star Wars adventure that's your own. It's the most immersive Star Wars story ever created — one where you live a bespoke experience and journey further into a Star Wars adventure than you ever dreamed possible." There are lightsaber experiences, interstellar entertainment, characters hanging around and an overall feeling that you're closer to being in Star Wars than you've ever been in your life. The idea is that you're staying on a luxury space cruise, so immersive that the hotel's windows look out into "space" and you never leave the property unless it's to "board a transport" to Batuu, the land where Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge takes place. Admission to Hollywood Studios is included in the price, as is all of your food and non-alcoholic beverages. But really, for $4,809 for two nights' accommodations for two guests in a studio, they could throw in a space beer or two... But then again, for some Star Wars fans, you can't put a price on total immersion in the fandom, from cast members acting as though they're really intergalactic travelers to the ability to make infinite Wookee jokes free from the harsh judgements of people who wouldn't spend $4,000 to sleep in a "spaceship."

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"Part of the reason that misinformation about vaccines is so intractable is that it can be very lucrative," argues a new article in Slate: For years anti-vaccine figures have made money publishing books and giving speeches, and only in the past couple of years have major sites like YouTube started preventing anti-vaxxers from directly earning revenue from advertising. During the pandemic, as the coronavirus created new markets for health hoaxes, conspiracy theorists have been able to make money online by using the misinformation that they publicize on major sites like Facebook to sell supplements and books to followers via e-commerce shops. Now, vaccine skeptics with large followings are turning to crowdfunding platforms — both the relatively obscure GiveSendGo and the decidedly mainstream GoFundMe — to monetize their activities, often to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars... On GiveSendGo and GoFundMe, vaccine truthers often portray themselves as little guys in a fight against the pro-vaccine tyranny of big pharma, big tech, and big government, and in doing so rake in money from thousands of sympathetic donors. They're able to do it in part because of lax standards and moderation blind spots, and in part by operating in gray areas... Over the past few months, GiveSendGo has been hosting fundraisers for causes casting doubt on vaccines that have racked up huge sums... But it isn't just GiveSendGo, though, that's facilitating donations for efforts to resist coronavirus vaccines. GoFundMe is also providing services to these causes. There, however, skeptics have a workaround: They're not raising money to oppose vaccines, per se, but to oppose vaccine mandates... [T]here are numerous other GoFundMe campaigns to support people who are choosing to leave their jobs instead of getting the vaccine. GoFundMe does, however, appear to be placing banners with links to information from the CDC and WHO on fundraising pages that promote vaccine hesitancy, unlike GiveSendGo. "Fundraisers raising money to promote misinformation about vaccines violate GoFundMe's terms of service and will be removed from the platform," GoFundMe's senior communication manager Monica Corbett wrote in an email. "Over the last several years, we have removed over 250 fundraisers attempting to promote misinformation related to vaccines. Fundraisers for legal challenges do not violate our terms of service...." As the Daily Beast reported, users have in the past found ways to get around GoFundMe's ban on vaccine misinformation by crafting their campaigns in the name of anti-vax dog whistles like "medical freedom" and "informed consent...." [T]he platform has tried to crack down on vaccine misinformation, finding itself walking the content-moderation tightrope that other large social media platforms are familiar with, which inevitably leaves loopholes in place that purveyors of misinformation try to exploit.

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Amid fears that technology may be quietly eliminating many basic jobs, late last month several U.S. lawmakers "proposed legislation that would dole out regular stimulus checks — or guaranteed income — through monthly payments of up to $1,200 for adults and $600 for children," according to a local news report from WCCO TV: The program, if the legislation were to pass, would not immediately begin sending out $1,200 checks to most Americans. Instead, it would create a $2.5 billion grant program to fund pilot guaranteed income programs across the country. The programs would be studied from 2023 to 2027 and then the national program would begin in 2028, Minneapolis' WCCO-TV reported. Then the legislation would provide $1,200 per month to people making $75,000 or less per year. The heads of households with an income of up to $112,500 would receive $1,200 under the program. And $600 would be provided for each minor child. Though it's a long way from becoming law, one of the legislators proposing it says "We need a paradigm shift in how we measure and evaluate our economy. If my district, New York's 16th, was a country, it would have the 8th worst inequality in the world. Our barometers for economic success, as well as our policies, must be centered around meeting basic levels of care and dignity for all of our people." The bill proposes that a new Office of Guaranteed Income Programs be established in the U.S. Treasury Department to oversee all the payments. Though it seems like this would cost something like a trillion dollars a year...

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Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama might hold a second election to decide whether to join a union. But today the New York Times reports Amazon is also facing "a widening campaign to rein in the power it wields over its employees and their workplace conditions." Those efforts include a campaign by the Teamsters that would generally circumvent traditional workplace elections and pressure the company through protests, boycotts and even fights against its expansion efforts at the local level. Legislation in California would force Amazon to reveal its productivity quotas, which unions contend are onerous and put workers at risk... The Teamsters argue that holding union votes at individual work sites is typically futile at a company like Amazon, because labor law allows employers to wage aggressive anti-union campaigns, and because high turnover means union supporters often leave the company before they have a chance to vote. Instead, the Teamsters favor a combination of tactics like strikes, protests and boycotts that pressure the company to come to the bargaining table and negotiate a contract covering wages, benefits and working conditions. While the union hasn't laid out its tactics in detail, it recently organized walkouts involving drivers and dockworkers at a port in Southern California to protest the drivers' treatment there. They hope to enlist the help of workers at other companies, sympathetic consumers and even local businesses threatened by a giant like Amazon, partly to mitigate the challenges presented by high employee turnover... The union believes that it can pull a variety of political levers to help put the company on the defensive. Mr. Korgan cited a recent vote by the City Council in Fort Wayne, Ind., denying Amazon a tax abatement after a local Teamsters official spoke out against it, and a vote by the City Council in Arvada, Colo., to reject a more than 100,000-square-foot Amazon delivery station. While the Arvada vote centered on traffic concerns, Teamsters played a role in drumming up opposition... Other labor groups are pressing ahead with less orthodox efforts to increase the power of Amazon workers. Over the first six months of this year, a group called the Solidarity Fund, which raises money from individual tech workers, distributed over $100,000 in grants to workers seeking to organize their colleagues to push for workplace improvements. About half the money, in $2,500 increments, went to workers at Amazon. It funded a laptop to assist with organizing, as well as hiring a freelance graphic designer to help make pamphlets, among the varied efforts.

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I completely forgot about this Node script I wrote that lists all your Route 53 names, five years ago. This would make a very nice addition for Drummer scripting.

When I was in grad school I was famous for writing great error messages. That was from their point of view, and the time (mid-late 70s). From my point of view, then and now -- I was making tools that made computer science useful for people, not just better compilers and databases.

We spend a trillion on defense, but it doesn’t protect us against Russia or the virus. Humbly suggest perhaps we‘re spending all that money preparing for the wrong war.

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: Just ahead of the new school year, Microsoft and its nonprofit partner Code.org took to Twitter to recruit teens for Microsoft's inaugural MakeCode Insiders Program. Microsoft MakeCode is a code platform that allows kids to write programs for a wide variety of applications even if they have little or no previous coding experience; there's also a College Board-endorsed MakeCode AP CS curriculum, which can earn high school students college credit... MakeCode Insiders, Microsoft adds, will be recognized for completing key milestones with badges, including MakeCode Influencer ("This badge is earned when a MakeCode Wizard is chosen to represent our product to teens on social media."). MakeCode Influencers, Microsoft explains, "are teens who have graduated from the Insiders program and are selected to represent MakeCode on social media in various forms... Insider applications are due today, kids! This is Microsoft's first time running the "Insider" program, and the guidebook promises the larger program's Insiders "will focus on MakeCode Arcade, a coding editor for retro-style video games, offering feedback and ideas that will inform product decision."

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Google Chrome will disable JavaScript functions like alert() and confirm() inside cross origin-frames," reports Inside.com's developer newsletter. "As this is a breaking change, developers are encouraged to update their apps and debugging tools before the update." A Chrome engineering team member said the team is disabling alert() to protect users from being tricked by scammers. Some are complaining this has already affected programming tutorials and Javascript learning sites that sandbox user-provided code in cross-origin frames. For those affected by the changes, Chrome advises the following: - Get a few months' extension by signing up for the "reverse origin trial" so you can temporarily opt out of the change. - Check out the enterprise policy. The move has sparked controversy: - One Discord engineer criticized the fact such a major breaking change is happening without extensive discussion on the matter. - Another Twitter user echoed the sentiment of many when he argued the move will just hurt those who can't easily update sites while encouraging attackers to use pseudo alert functionality. One of Google's Chrome engineers explained on Twitter that "Major browser vendors are generally aligned about wanting to move the platform away from alert() and friends, even though it will unfortunately involve some breakage... "On breakage in general — breaking changes happen often on the web, and as a developer it's good practice to test against early release channels of major browsers to learn about any compatibility issues upfront."

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Excuse me, but if Cuomo can be arrested, and why not, then please arrest the Trump who was recorded trying to commit a fraud against the voters of Georgia and to overthrow the elected government of the US. Let's go already police, wtf are you waiting for.

I have a great Logitech keyboard, but the keys started sticking due to humidity so I bought a replacement. Just set it up. The instructions were horrible, just diagrams, no words. And the whole thing doesn't work if you plug the keyboard into charge it up before doing the setup. You gotta wonder if they test the instructions with human beings. But. Now that it's set up, having a brand new keyboard is one of the great pleasures of life. Like having a new car to drive. Every keystroke feels wonderful. But then one of my neighbors is cutting down trees, and making huge loud noise doing so, at unpredictable times. There goes my concentration! Oy.

"Last year, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart succeeded in getting Californians to vote in favor of a ballot measure exempting them from classifying drivers and delivery workers as employees," remembers CNN. So after their success with Californian's Proposition 22, "the companies are in the early stages of taking a similar approach in Massachusetts..." The Coalition to Protect Workers' Rights, an alliance that includes labor advocates and community groups, argued this week that the Massachusetts measure would "permanently create a 'second class' status" for the workers... [T]he proposed Massachusetts ballot initiative presents a minimum earnings guarantee of "120 percent of minimum wage" based on "engaged time," meaning the only time counted is when a driver is fulfilling a ride or delivery request but not the time they spend waiting for a gig. (An analysis from UC Berkeley Labor Center had estimated the pay guarantee under Prop 22 for Uber and Lyft drivers would be equivalent to a wage of $5.64 per hour, instead of $15.60 or 120% of a $13 minimum wage, given such loopholes.) Workers would also receive $0.26 reimbursement per engaged mile to cover vehicle upkeep and gas. (The UC Berkeley Labor Center previously pointed out that Prop 22's $0.30 reimbursement is lower than the IRS' estimated $0.58 per mile cost of owning and operating a vehicle.) While the proposal includes a health care contribution from a company for certain qualifying workers, that too is based on "engaged time" and only a small portion of workers would likely qualify, according to the Coalition to Protect Workers' Rights, due to minimum engaged time requirements... Some workers could also earn paid sick time, paid family and medical leave, and in lieu of worker's compensation, benefits for medical and disability in cases of on-the-job injuries. Workers would have the ability to appeal if their accounts are deactivated, and would receive training on public safety issues. It would also let gig companies avoid contributions to unemployment or Social Security, and deny app-based workers more robust legal protections around discrimination, including when it comes to compensation. Lyft, Uber and other members of the coalition, want their proposition included on November 2022 ballots, TechCrunch reports. (Though the question still has to pass a legal review and receive enough signatures from voters.) But a Boston Globe columnist argues the measure isn't just about gig-working conditions. "It's about the future of work in America." If voters side with the tech giants, the labor landscape will be transformed, immuring a giant and growing body of workers in a world with fewer benefits and protections. And where ride-hailing drivers go, nurses, restaurant workers, executive assistants, programmers, and others will surely follow. The tech giants who rule the world are already dreaming of the day when those workers, too, will be classified as mobile, independent contractors, with fewer benefits and less security than employees. "If they get away with this, every industry is going to line up to ask for an exception," said labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who has battled the gig companies for years. "And before you know it, the entire fabric of workplace protections will be gone..." Plenty of people are fine with the fact that that means there will always be a bunch of drivers milling around unpaid and unprotected, waiting for us to summon them. But if blue Massachusetts follows liberal California and approves the formal creation of a second-class workforce, the rest of the country will follow, as will other industries. "This is a question of whether we are going to be a society that recognizes the dignity of work," Liss-Riordan said.

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Advertisers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to come up with their winning slogans.

Officials warn that the severity of natural disasters is outpacing efforts to prevent their damage.