motd - 11/##/2023
-----------------
11/30/2023 Advice for a calmer digital life:
https://www.datagubbe.se/sage/
11/29/2023 African penguins identify their mates based chest patterns:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/african-penguins-tell-each-other-apart-by-their-polka-dot-patterns-180983327/
11/29/2023 20th Anniversary edition of Beyond Good & Evil is coming:
https://www.engadget.com/beyond-good--evil-is-getting-a-20th-anniversary-edition-in-early-2024-183535329.html
11/28/2023 Applying Si to olive leaves promotes their growth:
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-laboratory-silicon-olive-growth.html
"The results showed that a foliar application of silicon
of between 10 and 20 milligrams per liter favored growth,
as the plants increased in size and grew more shoots, as
well as exhibiting leaf stomata of greater density. As
indicated by the research team, these beneficial effects
may be associated with an increase in the absorption of
nutrients, such as potassium, an element that the plant
needs to grow."
11/28/2023 New model for superconductivity:
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v16/s170
"The researchers found that the order parameter in each
case is determined by the effective repulsion energy
between two electrons located at the same atomic site in
the crystal divided by the electron kinetic energy. This
suggests that materials exhibiting stronger
electron-electron repulsion should sustain larger
superconducting currents and have higher Tc's. It also
supports a particular mechanism for electron pairing that
leads to superconductivity -a counterintuitive concept
known as attraction by repulsion."
11/28/2023 Disable SharePlay on iOS:
1. Goto Setting->FaceTime
2. Turn off "SharePlay"
From: https://osxdaily.com/2023/11/28/how-to-turn-off-shareplay-on-iphone/
11/28/2023 How to delete live wallpapers in MacOS Sonoma:
https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos-sonoma/tips/how-to-delete-macos-sonomas-live-wallpapers
11/27/2023 Updated qlZipInfo to Google Toolbox for Mac v.4.0.0, and
libarchive v.3.7.2 (includes some uudecode and 7zip fixes).
Also added support for some IPSW files:
https://github.com/srirangav/qlZipInfo/releases/tag/v.1.2.6
11/27/2023 Why low dose aspirin is 81 mg:
https://www.clinicalcorrelations.org/2019/02/22/the-history-behind-aspirin-81/
11/27/2023 Disable NameDrop on iOS 17:
1. Goto Settings->Generally->AirDrop
2. Turn off "Bringing Devices Together"
From: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/11/27/iphone-namedrop-warning-mdp/
11/22/2023 Bacteria may be one of the causes of itching:
https://www.statnews.com/2023/11/22/mystery-scratch-itch-staphylococcus-aureus-bacterium/
"[R]esearch showed that when [the bacteria] S. aureus
invades the skin, it releases 10 different enzymes, or
proteases. One of them, called V8, latches on to a protein
on nerve cells called proteinase-activated receptor 1, or
PAR1. The scientists said they believe this starts a chain
reaction from the skin neurons, to the spinal cord, and to
the brain, which then triggers the urge to itch."
11/17/2023 Materials scientists:
https://xkcd.com/2856/
11/17/2023 Closed-caption audio descriptions that sound like band names:
https://wronghands1.com/2023/11/17/closed-caption-audio-descriptions-that-sound-like-band-names/
11/14/2023 Jim Burke's Connections Returns:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11/fans-of-connections-rejoice-rebooted-classic-sci-doc-series-returns-with-original-host/
11/13/2023 Reasons to prefer Blake3 over SHA256:
https://peergos.org/posts/blake3
Hash (https://github.com/srirangav/Hash) supports both.
11/13/2023 The myth and reality of Snow Leopard (MacOSX 10.6.x):
https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2023/11/5.html
Some of the fond recollections for Snow Leopard are probably
also due Lion (MacOSX 10.7.x) dropping Rosetta.
Tiger (MacOSX 10.4.x) is also probably remembered fondly
because it was the last version to include Classic.
11/13/2023 Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD failures may be hardware related:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/sandisk-extreme-pro-failures-are-due-to-design-flaw
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/sandisk-ssd-failures-are-due-to-hardware-flaw-says-data-recovery-expert
https://futurezone.at/produkte/sandisk-ssd-ausfaelle-western-digital-attingo-datenrettung-problem-hardware/402664391
11/13/2023 Ouch:
https://www.hedgerhumor.com/ouch-4/
11/13/2023 Fiber-based, biodegradable six-pack rings:
https://www.core77.com/posts/126244/The-Eco-Six-Pack-Ring
11/10/2023 Four Nancy Drew games now work on ScummVM:
https://www.scummvm.org/news/20231110/
11/10/2023 Staedtler wooden e-stylus with an eraser:
https://goodereader.com/blog/technology/new-staedtler-lumograph-mars-jumbo-has-an-eraser
11/10/2023 Dinky's "moon" is actual a two bodies:
https://www.livescience.com/space/asteroids/newfound-moon-around-asteroid-dinkinesh-is-actually-two-tiny-moons-touching
"On its first asteroid flyby on Nov. 1, NASA's Lucy
mission discovered that the main belt asteroid Dinkinesh
has a small moon orbiting it. Now, additional images have
revealed another surprise: Dinkinesh's moon is not one,
but two small satellites. The twin moons initially
appeared as one because they are so close together, they
touch as they orbit."
11/06/2023 Shortcut for extra low brightness on iOS:
https://practicalbetterments.com/create-a-shortcut-for-even-lower-phone-brightness/
Settings->Accessibility->Accessibility shortcut->Reduce White Point
11/06/2023 Elgato is printing the bandwidth and USB type on its cables:
https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/6/23948486/usb-c-cables-marking-speed-power-delivery-elgato
"I wish all manufacturers did this."
11/05/2023 Starfish are mostly head:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/02/world/starfish-head-body-plan-scn/index.html
"[N]ew genetic research suggests ... that sea stars are
largely heads that lack torsos or tails and likely lost
those features evolutionarily over time. The researchers
said the bizarre fossils of sea star ancestors, which
appeared to have a kind of torso, make a lot more sense in
evolutionary terms in light of the new findings.
...
'When we compared the expression of genes in a starfish
to other groups of animals, like vertebrates, it appeared
that a crucial part of the body plan was missing,' [one
of the researchers] said. 'The genes that are typically
involved in the patterning of the trunk of the animal
weren't expressed in the ectoderm. It seems the whole
echinoderm body plan is roughly equivalent to the head in
other groups of animals.'"
11/05/2023 Othello has been solved:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.19387
11/03/2023 Dinky has a "moon":
https://www.livescience.com/space/asteroids/nasa-finds-hidden-asteroid-swirling-around-another-one
11/02/2023 IJBOL:
https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=61137
11/02/2023 Nice short summary of isolated, closed, and open systems:
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/entropy-closed-system-increase/
11/02/2023 Missing 4:3 and 16:10:
https://rubenerd.com/i-miss-4-by-3-and-16-by-10/
11/02/2023 comm(1):
https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2019/11/24/comm-set-theory/
https://man.openbsd.org/comm.1
comm(1) showed up in Version 4 AT&T UNIX. I can't believe
I didn't know about this until recently.
11/02/2023 N-9?
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v16/186
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/physicists-elusive-isotope-nitrogen-9
"With seven protons and two neutrons, the lopsided atomic
nucleus of nitrogen-9 pushes the limits of what can even
be considered a nucleus at all.
...
Protons and neutrons, the subatomic particles that make up
atomic nuclei, are essentially glued together by the
strong nuclear force ...[, b]ut the force can't
hold together nuclei that have wildly skewed ratios of
protons to neutrons. Too many of either particle -
especially protons, which repel each other due to their
positive charge - and the nuclear bucket starts to
overflow.
Beyond this overflow point, which physicists call the
'drip line,' nuclei cannot fully bind their particles.
...
Finding a nucleus as far beyond the drip line as
nitrogen-9 - five protons beyond - was surprising ...
[because, u]ntil now, scientists had only ever found
isotopes up to four protons beyond the drip line."
11/02/2023 Windows 9x/ME patch for emulation issues:
https://github.com/JHRobotics/patcher9x
11/02/2023 iOS 17 supports visual lookup for laundry symbols:
https://osxdaily.com/2023/11/01/what-do-laundry-symbols-mean-your-iphone-will-tell-you/
Older
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10/##/2023 https://srirangav.github.io/motd/2023/10/motd.txt
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03/##/2023 https://srirangav.github.io/motd/2023/03/motd.txt
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02/##/2023 https://srirangav.github.io/motd/2023/02/motd.txt
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01/##/2023 https://srirangav.github.io/motd/2023/01/motd.txt
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##/##/2022 https://srirangav.github.io/motd/2022/motd.txt
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