Daily Tech News 22 June 2024

• NASA has adjusted the scheduled return date of Boeing's Starliner, currently docked with the ISS, from June 26 to don't call us, we'll call you. (Ars Technica)
  
  In fact, the originally scheduled return was the 14th of June, which is in, uh, a week ago. NASA planners have repeatedly delayed the return:

  "We are letting the data drive our decision making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking and seeing how soon Elon can get a Crew Dragon up there."

  It is better than just saying YOLO and losing another two astronauts.

• The FDA has approved a gene therapy drug to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy. (Ars Technica)
  
  Good news, right?
  
  Well, the drug failed clinical trials last year, and FDA scientists and statisticians say there is basically no evidence the drug does anything at all.
  
  Derek Lowe, a pharmaceutical researcher who has been blogging about this stuff for about as long as blogs have existed notes that this is the fourth similar drug from this company that has received FDA approval without showing success in clinical trials. (Science)
  
  
  
• Have you ever seen one of those videos of what happens to a whale when it dies and sinks to the seafloor? That was the entertainment media and Game of Thrones, for an entire decade. (The Verge)
  
  They're waiting for the next whalefall, but worried that they might not survive that long.
  
  Oh no.
  
  Anyway.
  
  I read the first book in the series long before the TV show appeared - the series of books is called A Song of Ice and Fire, and the first book is called A Game of Thrones - and while it is is skillfully written the characters are miserable people. I didn't care about any of them, and I stopped reading.
  
  
  
• Softbank CEO Says AI That's 10,000X Smarter Than Humans Is Inevitable. (Hot Hardware)
  
  I'm sure he does.
  
  Softbank invested $16 billion in WeWork, an office sharing company now valued at $500 million, so I wouldn't give too much credit to their predictive abilities.
  
  
  
• Systemd 256.1 is out, fixing many many bugs. (The Register)
  
  It will still delete all your files if you look at it wrong, but it's supposed to do that.
  
  Fuck systemd.
  
  
  
• Is your computer too fast? Your screen too big? Your mouse too... Mouse? The Pocket 386 cures all that. (Liliputing)
  
  It's a pocket-sized notebook with an Intel 386SX running at 40MHz, 8MB of RAM - yes, megabytes, and a 7" 800x480 display.

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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