Technology

Official account of Bluesky announced that it got 1 million new users since the registration was opened to everyone.

An abandoned mine in Finland is set to be transformed into a giant battery to store renewable energy during periods of excess production.

The Pyhäsalmi Mine, roughly 450 kilometres north of Helsinki, is Europe’s deepest zinc and copper mine and holds the potential to store up to 2 MW of energy within its 1,400-metre-deep shafts.

The disused mine will be fitted with a gravity battery, which uses excess energy from renewable sources like solar and wind in order to lift a heavy weight. During periods of low production, the weight is released and used to power a turbine as it drops.

Graber is "optimistic about human potential, even though I'm realistic about human nature." When Bluesky launched last year, it filled a gap that was desperately needed by people who were looking for alternatives to X, as it seemed like the ship formerly known as Twitter was possibly sinking. (Against all odds, it hasn't yet.)

Bluesky wasn't as confusing as Mastodon and wasn't owned by Meta like Threads. Bluesky looks and feels much like Old Twitter.

There was only one snag: It was available as a beta launch, only with an invite code, which was initially so hard to obtain that even Joe Biden couldn't get one. Starting Tuesday, Bluesky is finally out of "beta" and will be open to anyone — no codes needed.

Like Mastodon and Threads, Bluesky is an experiment in a new, "decentralized" way of running a social app, where users can create their own communities and moderation rules. (Bluesky also has its own moderation team.)

Jack Dorsey was involved in creating Bluesky while he was still at Twitter and now sits on its board. It's organized as a public benefit corporation.

Ultimately, it may not be a winner-takes-all competition between these X alternatives; the new approach to social may be to exist happily in smaller pockets without needing massive scale to survive. (Although Meta certainly would love to win the battle with Threads.)

More here - https://www.businessinsider.nl/bluesky-is-finally-open-to-everyone-but-will-anyone-come-we-ask-its-ceo/

A microfluidic DNA processor dubbed a "lab-on-chip" has been developed by RIT researchers, capable of not only computation but also reading and writing data stored within DNA. The prototype device supports artificial neural network computations on data stored within DNA, specifically microfluidic solutions of manipulated DNA molecules. The capabilities of this DNA CPU also extend to the expected mathematical and non-linear calculations you want to see from a CPU, and it should be capable of networking functionality with other devices.

Yandex selling up for "a significantly lower price than Yandex's ultimate value"

Of the major themes - the phishing emails with the highest volume - finance was the most popular, making up 54%. These emails related to topics such as invoices and payments. Notification phishing emails, which are those related to password expiration, reminders, appointments, required actions and the like, came second with 35%.

Shipping phishing emails were third at 7%. Response mode scams were fourth at 3%. These emails aim to elicit a response to queries; these queries could be fabricated by the threat actors, or sometimes they make use of legitimate emails as a result of hijacked email accounts.

My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube.

Through YT, for the past 15 years, the world has basically entrusted Google to be the custodian of pretty much our entire global video archive.

There's countless hours of archived footage — news reports, political speeches, historical events, documentaries, indie films, academic lectures, conference presentations, rare recordings, concert footage, obscure music — where the best or only copy is now held by Google through YouTube.

So what happens if maintaining that archival footage becomes unprofitable?

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