What Silicon Valley has to lose from it.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Reopening Schools
A Cold-War Antiseptic
This seems like it should be a bigger deal:
“The drug, miramistin, was developed for the Soviet Space Program. While little known in the West, it blocks or kills flu, human papillomaviruses (HPV), coronaviruses, adenoviruses and HIV, according to University of Manchester scientists.” [Emphasis added]
Congressional Space Follies
Linux Problem
When I do a ‘dnf update’ I get the following message:
Package skypeforlinux_8.62.0.83-1.x86_64.rpm is not signed
The downloaded packages were saved in cache until the next successful transaction.
You can remove cached packages by executing ‘dnf clean packages’.
Error: GPG check FAILED
It won’t update anything until I resolve this, but I have no idea how to do so. I don’t understand why it won’t install anything because there’s a problem with one package.
[Update a while later]
OK, new mystery. I want to set up Windows as a virtual machine, so I hooked up an SSD to put it on. But when I do so, I don’t see anything in the file manager. What’s even weirder is that when I look at /dev, all I see is sdb and sdb1, with no sda. But I know that my OS is on an SSD (presumably sda1), and /home is on a separate hard drive (which would be sdb1). How is this machine even running?
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, I’ve tried two different SSDs with two different cables, but I am not getting an sdc. I shouldn’t have to reboot, should I?
[Update a few more minutes later]
Never mind, bad power connector. But I still don’t understand why I’m not seeing my boot/root drive as sda.
[Update a while later]
OK, I rebooted, and now I see all the drives.
Forcing Schools To Reopen
Don’t do it, but don’t force parents to pay for closed schools, either.
“Fund students, not systems.” Yes.
Academia
This is a great opportunity to destroy it.
Honestly, it has been committing slow suicide for years, but yes, time to put it out of its (and our) misery.
The Far Side
Gary Larson is baaaaaack.
Wow, it’s been decades since his last one.
Boeing’s Spaceship
…it still really, really sucks.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Sorry, link is fixed.
I’m starting to wonder if Boeing will ever fly crew on Starliner. It’s clearly not going to happen this year, and Starship work continues apace.
Heterogeneity, And Covid
Some thoughts from Tyler Cowen.
We really need to get a better understanding of how our genetics interact with the disease.
[Update a while later]
The benefits of pooled testing.
I don’t understand why they haven’t been doing this. Other than, of course, continued incompetence at the CDC.