board77

The Last Homely Site on the Web

Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.

Post Reply   Page 132 of 138  [ 2750 posts ]
Jump to page « 1130 131 132 133 134138 »
Author Message
Jude
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Mon 22 Feb , 2021 1:47 pm
Aspiring to heresy
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 19650
Joined: Wed 23 Feb , 2005 6:54 pm
Location: Canada
 
I'm not sure this is worth starting a new thread, so I'll just ask it here:

The Boeing 737 Max as been cleared for flying again, after being grounded for 2 years. Would you be willing to fly in it?

_________________

[ img ]

Melkor and Ungoliant in need of some relationship counselling.


Top
Profile Quote
Frelga
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Mon 22 Feb , 2021 8:54 pm
A green apple painted red
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 4621
Joined: Thu 17 Mar , 2005 9:11 pm
Location: Out on the banks
 
Not if I can help it. They issued a software patch for a fundamentally flawed design.

Of course now 777 is grounded after a United plane landed simultaneously in several states. But in that case it landed safely with one engine on fire and in pieces, so I'd feel much better about it.

_________________

GNU Terry Pratchett


Top
Profile Quote
Jude
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Mon 08 Mar , 2021 7:19 pm
Aspiring to heresy
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 19650
Joined: Wed 23 Feb , 2005 6:54 pm
Location: Canada
 
I thought this was a cute story :)

The super valuable treasure one man found in the walls of his home
Quote:
David Gonzales was a home contractor in Elbow Lake, Minn. Population 1,200. For years, he would tear down old walls and put up new ones for his customers. He had a fun habit while renovating homes — he would leave a quarter between the walls, hoping that sometime in the future someone would find the tiny treasure with the date on it.

In 2013, he purchased his first home for $10,000 and it was in dire need of restoration. As he was tearing down the walls, he noticed the old house was insulated with newspapers — which was common practice back in the 1930s when the house was first built.

As he removed the newspapers from between the walls, he noticed what looked like a comic book stuck between the pages of the newspapers. When he pulled it out and looked at it, he saw he was holding a copy of Superman Action Comics #1, dated 1938.

So Gonzales went home and looked it up on the Internet. That's when he realized Action Comics #1 was valuable. His Superman comic was not pristine, as it had stood between the walls for seventy-five years. The cover had a rip, the pages were yellow from age. But Gonzales eventually put it up for auction — where it sold for $175,000.

Someone had either tucked that comic book between the newspaper pages as insulation, or like David Gonzales, they had left it there hoping someone in the future would find the tiny treasure with the date on it.

That tiny treasure was worth 16 times the cost of David Gonzales's house.

_________________

[ img ]

Melkor and Ungoliant in need of some relationship counselling.


Top
Profile Quote
LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Tue 09 Mar , 2021 2:24 am
The Grey Amaretto as Supermega-awesome Proud Heretic Girl
Offline
 
Posts: 21755
Joined: Thu 24 Feb , 2005 3:46 pm
 
That's very cool!

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

_________________

[ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
yovargas
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Fri 12 Mar , 2021 4:15 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 14774
Joined: Thu 24 Feb , 2005 12:11 pm
 
Someone bought a jpg for $69 million because the high-end art market is a mountain of baffling nonsense:


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/arts ... eeple.html


Top
Profile Quote
LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Sat 13 Mar , 2021 12:45 am
The Grey Amaretto as Supermega-awesome Proud Heretic Girl
Offline
 
Posts: 21755
Joined: Thu 24 Feb , 2005 3:46 pm
 
What in the world? Why?

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

_________________

[ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
yovargas
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Sat 13 Mar , 2021 12:15 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 14774
Joined: Thu 24 Feb , 2005 12:11 pm
 
I've read a few articles trying to understand what exactly is going on here, and as far as I can tell the answer is HAVING TOO MUCH MONEY MAKES RICH PEOPLE CRAZY


Top
Profile Quote
LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Sat 13 Mar , 2021 2:14 pm
The Grey Amaretto as Supermega-awesome Proud Heretic Girl
Offline
 
Posts: 21755
Joined: Thu 24 Feb , 2005 3:46 pm
 
I would like to test this theory personally; so please, everyone, send me all of your money, and we can all observe what happens from there. I will willingly make this sacrifice for science.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

_________________

[ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
yovargas
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Sat 13 Mar , 2021 3:36 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 14774
Joined: Thu 24 Feb , 2005 12:11 pm
 
Well, it doesn't work if you just ask people for money, you have to earn it by doing things that have great value, like selling people your one of a kind jpgs.


Top
Profile Quote
Frelga
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Sat 13 Mar , 2021 9:35 pm
A green apple painted red
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 4621
Joined: Thu 17 Mar , 2005 9:11 pm
Location: Out on the banks
 
AFAIK, the collector who resold the whatsit got the money, not the artist.

_________________

GNU Terry Pratchett


Top
Profile Quote
Frelga
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Sat 17 Apr , 2021 2:07 am
A green apple painted red
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 4621
Joined: Thu 17 Mar , 2005 9:11 pm
Location: Out on the banks
 
BBC
Mystery tree beast turns out to be croissant

Yes, that's an actual story.

_________________

GNU Terry Pratchett


Top
Profile Quote
nienna
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Sat 17 Apr , 2021 4:21 pm
The best things in life are not things
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 1959
Joined: Thu 02 Jul , 2009 3:32 pm
Location: west of West
 
:LMAO:

_________________

There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.
~Diana Cortes


Top
Profile Quote
LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Sat 17 Apr , 2021 5:00 pm
The Grey Amaretto as Supermega-awesome Proud Heretic Girl
Offline
 
Posts: 21755
Joined: Thu 24 Feb , 2005 3:46 pm
 
I saw that. Amazing! :rofl:

_________________

[ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
Jude
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Sat 17 Apr , 2021 11:47 pm
Aspiring to heresy
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 19650
Joined: Wed 23 Feb , 2005 6:54 pm
Location: Canada
 
They must have been reading "A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking". :D

_________________

[ img ]

Melkor and Ungoliant in need of some relationship counselling.


Top
Profile Quote
LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Sun 18 Apr , 2021 6:59 pm
The Grey Amaretto as Supermega-awesome Proud Heretic Girl
Offline
 
Posts: 21755
Joined: Thu 24 Feb , 2005 3:46 pm
 
:rofl:

_________________

[ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
Jude
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Fri 30 Apr , 2021 12:44 pm
Aspiring to heresy
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 19650
Joined: Wed 23 Feb , 2005 6:54 pm
Location: Canada
 
Apple users can say no to being tracked with new software update
Quote:
Apple Inc. rolled out a software update for its mobile devices on Monday that gives users the option of stopping apps from tracking their location and sharing other identifying information with third parties.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant launched the latest version of its operating software, iOS 14.5, to the more than one billion people with iPhones around the world, including Canada, starting Monday morning.

While the upgrade contains a number of changes, one of the biggest is the addition of a beefed up privacy requirement the company is calling App Tracking Transparency, which any app that "collects data about end users and shares it with other companies for purposes of tracking across apps and websites" must abide by.

Services such as Facebook and others currently have the ability to track users on mobile devices in order to learn more about them to target advertisements and other location-based services to them. In some instances, the tracking is in place even if the user is not actively using the app in question.
Quote:
Apps can still monitor users
To be clear, apps will still be able to monitor their users even if they decline.

The iOS user agreement will still allow data collection if it is spelled out in an app's privacy policy. The changes only affect whether app developers share data they collect with third parties, or mix their data with outside data from third parties to help target ads.

So users will still be targeted by ads, even if they decline.

A social network like Facebook, for example, can still target ads based on first-party data of their own, such as which Facebook groups users join or which posts they like. But if Facebook wants to target ads based on data from which third-party websites people have used their Facebook credentials to log into, it will need to seek explicit permission.
There's a lot more in the linked article, if you care to read it.

Without getting too excited about it, this looks like a positive step.

It also means that when I finally get around to getting a mobile phone, I'll probably look at Apple first.

_________________

[ img ]

Melkor and Ungoliant in need of some relationship counselling.


Top
Profile Quote
Frelga
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Sat 01 May , 2021 5:19 pm
A green apple painted red
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 4621
Joined: Thu 17 Mar , 2005 9:11 pm
Location: Out on the banks
 
I don't think there's that much difference between them and Google, TBH. Android has had granular permissions for several versions now, such as giving an app access to location on case by case basis, and gives users a reasonable by modern standards control over what they do with your data. And both collect a lot of data on you that you can't stop (Google lets you export or delete a large part of it. I don't know if Apple does.)

Facebook, otoh, is evil and I would not put it on my phone.

FWIW, my Pixel 4a5g is costing me 300 over 2 years, and is a perfectly good modern phone. And it has a headphone jack, which I badly missed.

_________________

GNU Terry Pratchett


Top
Profile Quote
Jude
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Mon 03 May , 2021 2:30 pm
Aspiring to heresy
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 19650
Joined: Wed 23 Feb , 2005 6:54 pm
Location: Canada
 
My understanding is that the main change is that the privacy settings are put front and centre when you install the new software, rather than having to look for the individual settings. And most users probably don't even know that they need to look for them.

Also, Mark Zuckerberg has made public statements saying these changes are detrimental. I interpret that as a good sign. Has he made any public statements criticizing the privacy settings on Android?

_________________

[ img ]

Melkor and Ungoliant in need of some relationship counselling.


Top
Profile Quote
Frelga
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Mon 03 May , 2021 4:27 pm
A green apple painted red
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 4621
Joined: Thu 17 Mar , 2005 9:11 pm
Location: Out on the banks
 
Don't know if he did, but in Android, you are asked before the app *uses* the permission. Your choices are to allow this one time, any time you are using the app, or always, including in the background. If you choose one time, you get asked again the next time you use the app.

_________________

GNU Terry Pratchett


Top
Profile Quote
Estel Dúnadan
Post subject: Re: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Wed 05 May , 2021 12:01 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 112
Joined: Fri 04 Nov , 2016 8:45 am
 
Saw this today: [url}https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... ium-bigger[/url]

I hope the farmer amicably puts it back! It's crazy but it's an international incident!


Top
Profile Quote
Display: Sort by: Direction:
Post Reply   Page 132 of 138  [ 2750 posts ]
Return to “The Symposium” | Jump to page « 1130 131 132 133 134138 »
Jump to: