“Look Ma! I’m suing Twitter”
Believe us, we’re as sick of Twitter news as you are. Musk’s version of Twitter, not even two weeks old yet, already looks different from what we’ve grown accustomed to. Verification checks are sold for $8, half the staff is gone, and impersonatinG accounts lands you a ban. Oh, and Elon Musk has a class-action suit to deal with now. Yeah, it hasn’t been the best two weeks for the platform – least of all for Twitter’s ex-employees.
See, Musk wasn’t allowed to fire half of Twitter’s staff, according to the suit. At least, not without two months of warning first. The mass firing is in breach of both the federal and Californian WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Acts. Shannon Liss-Riordan, the person behind the suit said it was filed to “make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights.”
The suit already has five plaintiffs involved, one of which has already been fired, with three others havIng their accounts locked as a sign of impending termination. Contractually, not physically. Manu Cornet, one of the five plaintiffs, showed their plans to join the class action on Twitter.
Was not planning on doing anything like this initially… But… Look Ma I’m suing Twitter. pic.twitter.com/xxdO0bA4ZV
— ma.nu (@lmanul) November 4, 2022
Source: The Verge
The Sun and the Moon (are getting nearer)
After months of trying to get Artemis 1 up into space, NASA is finally ready to try again on Monday, 14 November. Whether it’ll actually make it off the ground this time… remains to be seen. We’re hoping that it does – we certainly wouldn’t want to see it blow up into a blaZing ball of flames. No. That would be bad. And kind of cool. No, it would be bad. Good luck, NASA.
In preparation for the launch, Artemis 1 made its way back onto the launchpad on Friday, 4 November.
“Teams will continue working to configure SLS and Orion for the upcoming Nov. 14. launch attempt,” NASA said in an update.
“Teams recharged, replaced and reinstalled several of the radiation instruments and the crew seat accelerometer inside Orion ahead of the crew module closure for roll,” NASA wrote before the rollout. “Technicians will refresh the specimens for the space biology payload at the launchpad. The crew module and launch abort system hatches are closed for the roll to the pad, and engineers will perform final closeouts at the pad prior to launch.”
We’ll keep you updated on the Artemis 1 mission over the course of the week. You’ll be able to watch the takeoff live over here at Stuff. Keep an eye out.
Source: Digital Trends
Sticks and Drones
When you picture a drone, the first thing that comes to mind are the exorbitant prices, right? R30,000 for a piece of plastic that flies? Nope. R500 plus-minus for a drone made of sticks? Yup. And yes, someone has built one.
A DIY copter made in Yemen from sticks and a simple motor. Talk about drone proliferation – this is about as simple as it gets. https://t.co/ZijUdQnxRM pic.twitter.com/1Kk6lvqwXf
— Samuel Bendett (@SamBendett) October 28, 2022
All this quadcopter needed to take off was a receiver, battery, propellors, wires, a few motors, and most importantly: sticks found lying around outside. It’s not the most elegant solution. But it sure is cool.
“Obviously, some experience building and flying such quadcopters is helpful in making sure the drone can be properly stabiliZed, but a lot of those requirements and knowledge is freely available online as well,” says Samuel Bendett, an analyst at the Centre for Naval Analysis. “The main point of this video is that the quadcopter frame can be assembled from any products freely available. And the rest of the components can be relatively easily procured or even built/3D printed if necessary.”
Source: Pop Sci
Commodore 128
People can be awesome. Well, most can. Scrolling social media can often make people forget that. Then yoU see someone create an accordion out of two vintage Commodore 64s or watch a video of Lars Andersen, a real-life Robin Hood, in action. If your faith in humanity isn’t restored after seeing these, we’re not sure what will.
Last month, a Swedish software (and hardware?) engineer, Linus Åkesson, showed off his newly built project. Dubbed “The Commodordion”, it melds two vintage Commodore 64s together with a string of floppy disks holding it all together.
Of course, it can play music. Linus showed off the Commodordion in a YouTube video, detailing the process of building the instrument. He can play a melody with his right hand and controls the rhythm’s chords and bass with his left.
Obviously, plenty of work goes into a project like this. Linus goes into a bit more detail on the process of building the Commodordion on his website. If copying him is within your realm of possibilities, give it a shot.
Source: Ars Technica
