Apple had long resisted letting users change default apps on their iPhone. With iOS 14, however, you can choose your preferred Mail app and browser, and the beta of iOS 14.5 suggested that you could do the same with the Music app…but maybe not. 

more…

The post Poll: Would you change your iPhone’s default Music app if possible? appeared first on 9to5Mac.

On Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott decided to toss a big fat distraction on how Republicans turned that state’s energy market into a scheme that generates billions in instant profit from pure human misery. Abbott was just one of several Republican governors who have decided that, now that there’s reasonable leadership in Washington, there’s no longer any need for them to even pretend to be reasonable back at home. Expect them to wake up any day now and blame President Joe Biden for the hundreds of thousands of deaths that … wait a second. This just in:

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The Biden Administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas communities.

The Biden Admin. must IMMEDIATELY end this callous act that exposes Texans & Americans to COVID.

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 3, 2021

According to the CDC, there are currently more than 171,000 active cases of COVID-19 in Texas. In his no-masks, everything open to the fullest ruling this week, Abbott just gave every single one of those people, and the tens of thousands more who don’t even know they have COVID, permission to crowd into the nearest bar and restaurant and share their germs. Abbott didn’t just lift all mask requirements, he banned counties and localities from imposing local mask requirements. And he did it in a week when more than half the counties in Texas saw a sharp increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases. It’s the kind of action that has Republicans spending their Wednesdays defending the honor of Neanderthals.

But, surprisingly, there is one Republican governor who is going in the other direction.

Article URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.09301

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26347110

Points: 55

# Comments: 36

Article URL: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/03/06/nuclear-power-must-be-well-regulated-not-ditched

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26347073

Points: 89

# Comments: 92

Article URL: https://ffri.github.io/ProjectChampollion/part1/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26346980

Points: 17

# Comments: 0

Google Chrome releases will soon arrive more frequently than ever. From a report:In an announcement today, Google said it is updating the Chrome release schedule for the first time in over a decade. For a cool 10+ years now, Chrome stable releases have shipped every 6 weeks with new features, security fixes, etc. With improvements to testing and release processes, Google has realized that it can shorten the release cycle and will do so in Q3 of this year. Starting with Chrome 94, Google will move to a 4-week milestone release cycle. Freaked out at the possibility that Google might break features, remove things you like, or cause other issues with so many releases? Don't worry, Google is also introducing an Extended Stable release that will see milestone updates every 8 weeks. Now, it will still get updates every 2 weeks to address "important issues," but none of the new features or all security fixes that the 4-week milestones see will be included.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Article URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56281726

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26346879

Points: 30

# Comments: 18

It’s no surprise that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cares more about the rich than the economically vulnerable. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, DeSantis has not only downplayed the virus, but prioritized the health and safety of those he can profit from. 

While a majority of Florida’s eldest residents have struggled to not only sign up but receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, almost all wealthy people 65 years and older were vaccinated by mid-January, according to a community newsletter obtained by the Miami Herald. Additionally, those being vaccinated were ensured that despite most of the state being unable to receive their first dose, they would have access to both the first and second dose of the vaccine. 

The GOP appears to have decided that high voter turnout was responsible for their losses in the 2020 election, so Republican legislators are pushing 253 bills with provisions that restrict voting access in 43 states. #Colbert #ALateShow #Monologue

Article URL: https://medium.com/swlh/user-engagement-is-code-for-addiction-a2f50d36d7ac

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26346688

Points: 143

# Comments: 30

Nearly 70 indigenous rights, wildlife, and civil rights groups are calling on the Biden administration to tear down nearly 60 miles of border fencing erected by the previous administration in Arizona, as well as some fencing along other regions of the border. While President Joe Biden ordered a 60-day halt to review the legality of the project we were always told Mexico was going to pay for, fencing has cut through tribal lands and continues to harm communities and wildlife in the region.

“One of the longest wall sections in the report runs along 7 miles of the border near Quitobaquito Springs on Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument,” Arizona Daily Star reports, noting the arrests of a dozen Tohono O’odham protesters late last year. One activist was shot with rubber bullets by officers as he sang a traditional Tohono O’odham song. 

Hi everyone!

I just released the Practical Python Projects book! (https://practicalpython.yasoob.me)

I am happy to announce the first version as a release candidate. I have poured a lot of love into writing this book and would love to hear what you guys think. (A limited 100% off and discount coupons at the end)

This is not a pure beginner book. The book does assume some background Python knowledge. You need to know the basics like methods, functions, classes, and such. If I use something that is not typically covered in beginner Python books, I will explain it before I use it. There are no tests for these projects as they are really small and teach you how to glue different pieces together.

Some projects that we will be making

- A Twilio bot that keeps you updated with the latest match scores from the FIFA World Cup

- A Facebook Messenger bot the shares latest memes, jokes, and shower-thoughts scraped from Reddit

- An automated invoice generator and deploying it using Flask

- Making automated cinema-preshow by downloading and stitching together related movie trailers using moviepy

- Generating automated article summaries and overlaying them on top of images

- Understanding and decoding JPEG images using vanilla Python

- Creating a GUI application using PyQt for downloading online videos

- Implementing a TUI email client that allows reading emails in the terminal

The first 50 people can use the "hn-love" coupon (without the quotation marks) to get 15% off. I am also offering a 30-day no-questions-asked refund policy if you don't enjoy this book and don't learn anything new.

You can buy the book from https://practicalpython.yasoob.me You can get a free sample chapter from here: https://practicalpython.yasoob.me/sample/chapter2.pdf You can learn more about my writing style by reading any of my recent articles over at https://yasoob.me

(For detailed FAQ, you can head over to the book website: https://practicalpython.yasoob.me)

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26346586

Points: 18

# Comments: 1

That doesn't mean that Apple won't also be releasing LCD-based iPads and MacBooks enhanced by micro-LED and miniLED backlights.

Article URL: https://github.com/katharostech/ldtk-rs/blob/master/LICENSE.md

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26346451

Points: 74

# Comments: 51

Check out this list of language learning apps for kids if you want your child to learn a new language. They’re available for iPhone and iPad.

One billion years from now, Earth's atmosphere will contain very little oxygen, making it uninhabitable for complex aerobic life. From a report: Today, oxygen makes up around 21 per cent of Earth's atmosphere. Its oxygen-rich nature is ideal for large and complex organisms, like humans, that require the gas to survive. But early in Earth's history, oxygen levels were much lower -- and they are likely to be low again in the distant future. Kazumi Ozaki at Toho University in Funabashi, Japan, and Chris Reinhard at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta modelled Earth's climatic, biological and geological systems to predict how atmospheric conditions on Earth will change. The researchers say that Earth's atmosphere will maintain high levels of oxygen for the next billion years before dramatically returning to low levels reminiscent of those that existed prior to what is known as the Great Oxidation Event of about 2.4 billion years ago. "We find that the Earth's oxygenated atmosphere will not be a permanent feature," says Ozaki. One central reason for the shift is that, as our sun ages, it will become hotter and release more energy. The researchers calculate that this will lead to a decrease in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as CO2 absorbs heat and then breaks down. Ozaki and Reinhard estimate that in a billion years, carbon dioxide levels will become so low that photosynthesising organisms -- including plants -- will be unable to survive and produce oxygen. The mass extinction of these photosynthetic organisms will be the primary cause of the huge reduction in oxygen. "The drop in oxygen is very, very extreme -- we're talking around a million times less oxygen than there is today," says Reinhard.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As the preparation for Apple’s upcoming App Tracking Transparency feature continues, LinkedIn has announced that it will stop using the “Identifier for Advertising,” or IDFA data. This means that the LinkedIn app will not be required to show the App Tracking Transparency prompt to users.

more…

The post LinkedIn will stop collecting IDFA data on iOS due to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Article URL: https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2021/3/250713-understanding-deep-learning-still-requires-rethinking-generalization/fulltext

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26346226

Points: 7

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.joshwcomeau.com/css/the-importance-of-learning-css/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26346141

Points: 22

# Comments: 7

Apple says that iOS 14.5 users won't be able to set a "default" music streaming app after all, but the feature is based on Siri's intelligence instead.