Month: August 2024
Let Your Wallet Rest Easy With This 25% Off Deal on Zoma Mattresses This Labor Day
Zoma’s mattresses and pillows are now a staggering 25% off this Labor Day so you can get a better night’s sleep just as evenings start to get longer.
Zoma’s mattresses and pillows are now a staggering 25% off this Labor Day so you can get a better night’s sleep just as evenings start to get longer.
SpaceX resumes Falcon 9 launches after the FAA clears it for flight
Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cleared SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket for flight on Friday after temporarily grounding it following a failed landing earlier this week. The company has already pulled off two launches since the FAA’s decision, putting 42 more Starlink satellites into orbit, it announced in a post on X today.
The agency said that while the investigation of the landing incident remains open, flights can continue, “provided all other license requirements are met,” according to CNN. SpaceX had requested a return to flight on Thursday, the same day the FAA initially grounded the rocket, reports Reuters.
Falcon 9 delivers 42 @Starlink satellites, including 26 with Direct to Cell capabilities, to low-Earth orbit in back-to-back launches from Florida and California pic.twitter.com/1eaiEn64f7— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 31, 2024
Aside from regular Starlink flights, SpaceX is also preparing to launch Polaris Dawn, a private mission to send billionaire Jared Isaacman and three others through the Van Allen radiation belts to perform the first private astronaut spacewalk.
SpaceX is also expected to send two astronauts to the International Space Station on NASA’s Crew-9 mission as soon as September 24th. The US space agency just bumped two astronauts from that mission in order to make room for astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who NASA plans to bring back to earth in February after their Boeing spacecraft was found to be unfit for a crewed return flight.
Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cleared SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket for flight on Friday after temporarily grounding it following a failed landing earlier this week. The company has already pulled off two launches since the FAA’s decision, putting 42 more Starlink satellites into orbit, it announced in a post on X today.
The agency said that while the investigation of the landing incident remains open, flights can continue, “provided all other license requirements are met,” according to CNN. SpaceX had requested a return to flight on Thursday, the same day the FAA initially grounded the rocket, reports Reuters.
Falcon 9 delivers 42 @Starlink satellites, including 26 with Direct to Cell capabilities, to low-Earth orbit in back-to-back launches from Florida and California pic.twitter.com/1eaiEn64f7
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 31, 2024
Aside from regular Starlink flights, SpaceX is also preparing to launch Polaris Dawn, a private mission to send billionaire Jared Isaacman and three others through the Van Allen radiation belts to perform the first private astronaut spacewalk.
SpaceX is also expected to send two astronauts to the International Space Station on NASA’s Crew-9 mission as soon as September 24th. The US space agency just bumped two astronauts from that mission in order to make room for astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who NASA plans to bring back to earth in February after their Boeing spacecraft was found to be unfit for a crewed return flight.
How a Group of Teenagers Pranked ‘One Million Checkboxes’
After game developer Nolen Royalty launched his short-lived viral site “One Million Checkboxes” in June. (Any visitor could check or uncheck a box in the grid — which would change how it displayed for every other visitor to the site, in near real-time.) “Within days there were half a million people on the site,” he says in a new video, “and people checked over 650 million boxes in the two weeks that I kept the site online.”
But he also explains how what happened next was even more amazing:
He’d stored the state of his one million checkboxes in a million-bit database — 125 kilobytes — and got a surprise after rewriting the backend in Go. Looking at the raw bytes (converted into their value in the 256-character ASCII table)… they spelled out a URL.
Had someone hacked into his database? No, the answer was even stranger. Somebody was writing me a message in binary.”
“Someone was sitting there, checking and unchecking boxes to form numbers that formed letters that spelled out this URL. And they were probably doing this with a bot, to make sure those boxes remained checked and unchecked in exactly the way that they wanted them to.” The URL led to a Discord channel, where he found himself talking to the orchestrators of the elaborate prank. And it was then that they asked him: “Have you seen your checkboxes as a 1,000 x 1,000 image yet?” It turns out they’d also input two alternate versions of the same message — one in base64, and one drawn out as a fully-functional QR code. (And some drawings….)
“The Discord was full of very sharp teens, and they were writing this message in secret — with tens of thousands of people on the web site — to gather other very sharp teens. And it totally worked. There were 15 people when I joined, over 60 people in the Discord by the time that i left.
“I tried to make it hard for them to draw, but… no problem. They found a way. And they started drawing some very cool things. They put a Windows blue-screen-of-death on the site. They put sexy Jake Gyllenhaal gifs on the site. At the end I removed all my rate limits for an hour as a treat, and they did a real-time [animated] Rickroll across the entire site.”
The video ends with the webmaster explaining why he thought their project was so cool. “As I kid, I spent a lot of time doing dum stuff on the computer, and I didn’t get into too much trouble when I, for example, repeatedly crashed my high school mail server. There is no way that I would be doing what I do now without the encouragement of people back then. So providing a playground like this, getting to see what they were doing, provide some encouragement and say, ‘Hey this is amazing’ — was so special for me.
“The people in that Discord are so extraordinarily talented, so creative, so cool, I cannot wait to see what they go on to make.”
Link via Kottke.org
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
After game developer Nolen Royalty launched his short-lived viral site “One Million Checkboxes” in June. (Any visitor could check or uncheck a box in the grid — which would change how it displayed for every other visitor to the site, in near real-time.) “Within days there were half a million people on the site,” he says in a new video, “and people checked over 650 million boxes in the two weeks that I kept the site online.”
But he also explains how what happened next was even more amazing:
He’d stored the state of his one million checkboxes in a million-bit database — 125 kilobytes — and got a surprise after rewriting the backend in Go. Looking at the raw bytes (converted into their value in the 256-character ASCII table)… they spelled out a URL.
Had someone hacked into his database? No, the answer was even stranger. Somebody was writing me a message in binary.”
“Someone was sitting there, checking and unchecking boxes to form numbers that formed letters that spelled out this URL. And they were probably doing this with a bot, to make sure those boxes remained checked and unchecked in exactly the way that they wanted them to.” The URL led to a Discord channel, where he found himself talking to the orchestrators of the elaborate prank. And it was then that they asked him: “Have you seen your checkboxes as a 1,000 x 1,000 image yet?” It turns out they’d also input two alternate versions of the same message — one in base64, and one drawn out as a fully-functional QR code. (And some drawings….)
“The Discord was full of very sharp teens, and they were writing this message in secret — with tens of thousands of people on the web site — to gather other very sharp teens. And it totally worked. There were 15 people when I joined, over 60 people in the Discord by the time that i left.
“I tried to make it hard for them to draw, but… no problem. They found a way. And they started drawing some very cool things. They put a Windows blue-screen-of-death on the site. They put sexy Jake Gyllenhaal gifs on the site. At the end I removed all my rate limits for an hour as a treat, and they did a real-time [animated] Rickroll across the entire site.”
The video ends with the webmaster explaining why he thought their project was so cool. “As I kid, I spent a lot of time doing dum stuff on the computer, and I didn’t get into too much trouble when I, for example, repeatedly crashed my high school mail server. There is no way that I would be doing what I do now without the encouragement of people back then. So providing a playground like this, getting to see what they were doing, provide some encouragement and say, ‘Hey this is amazing’ — was so special for me.
“The people in that Discord are so extraordinarily talented, so creative, so cool, I cannot wait to see what they go on to make.”
Link via Kottke.org
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Our first peek at the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE may have come from an FCC filing
The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is most likely launching very soon, as it passes through regulators in the US.
It seems the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is now imminent – and thanks to a filing with the regulatory body the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) in the US, we may now have our first proper look at the upcoming mid-ranger.
As spotted by MySmartPrice, the Galaxy S24 FE now appears to have passed through FCC inspection, a part of the standard process for gadgets that are going on sale in the US. The phone has also previously been spotted at regulators in India.
Have a read through our Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review and you’ll see that these mid-range ‘Fan Edition’ versions of the flagships are still well worth considering as smartphone upgrades – offering decent specs at a decent price.
And Samsung clearly thinks it’s worth putting a Galaxy S24 FE handset out into the world. You might remember there was no FE version of the Samsung Galaxy S22, which launched in 2022, but it seems the series is now very much back.
What to expect
The Galaxy S24 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
The photos included in the filing don’t really tell us much about the phone, but the associated documents give its dimensions as 162 mm x 77.3 mm – for comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S24 measures 147 mm x 70.6 mm.
It looks as though the Exynos 2400 processor is going to be powering the phone, and there will be support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and 5G, as you would expect. Reverse wireless charging tech, up to 9W, is also mentioned in the documentation.
Based on leaked renders we’ve already seen, it looks as though this handset is going to follow the design cues of the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus, although the build won’t be quite as premium (and it’ll cost less as a result).
Given that support documents for the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE have already started popping up on Samsung’s websites, we shouldn’t have to wait much longer for the official unveiling – and we’ll of course keep you informed.
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Treat Yourself to a Big-Screen TCL TV and Get a Free NFL Shop Gift Card
Take advantage of these Labor Day deals on a variety of TCL models and start the new NFL season in style.
Take advantage of these Labor Day deals on a variety of TCL models and start the new NFL season in style.
Roborock’s pet-ready Q5 Pro robot vacuum is on sale for under $200
Roborock’s Q5 Pro is a powerful cleaning machine that does exceptionally well with pet hair. | Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
We highlighted some great deals on Dreame robot vacuums in our roundup of the best Labor Day deals, but if you don’t want to spend a grand on a vacuum, you might want to check out Roborock’s ongoing anniversary sale. Now through September 4th, Roborock is taking more than 40 percent off many of our favorite models, including the Q Revo (now $599.99) and the S8 MaxV Ultra (now $1,099.99). If you’re on a tighter budget, though, the best deal available is on the Roborock Q5 Pro, which is down to an all-time low of $179.99 ($250 off).
In many ways, Roborock’s big-wheeled robot vacuum / mop hybrid is made to tackle pet hair. The midrange vacuum features dual rubber brushes and 5,500Pa of suction power, which allows it to suck up pet hair and dirt from carpets impressively well. It also features a huge 770ml bin — preventing you from having to empty it every day — and a removable mopping pad that can clean up whatever dust the Q5 Pro doesn’t catch on its initial pass. It offers the same software features as the Q Revo and S8 MaxV Ultra, too, meaning you can still set digital keep-out zones and take advantage of features like lidar mapping and voice controls via Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri.
That being said, the Q5 Pro is Roborock’s entry-level model, so there are trade-offs. It lacks an auto-empty dock (unless you opt for the more expensive Plus model), and it won’t actually scrub your floors like a high-end robovac might. It also lacks AI-powered obstacle avoidance, though, thankfully for anyone with kids or a cluttered household, it can still dodge shoes and larger objects well enough.
A few additional ways to save
The Stagg EKG Electric Kettle is available from Amazon, Sur La Table, and Fellow starting at around $132 ($33 off), matching its lowest price to date. The beautiful pour-over kettle lets you set your desired water temperature with the twist of a knob, giving you a quick means for consuming your favorite beverage at the optimal temp. It also features a built-in stopwatch, which allows you to ditch your smartphone timer while brewing coffee or steeping tea.
You can grab Amazon’s Smart Plug at Amazon and Best Buy for $19.99 ($5 off), which is one of its better prices to date. If you want to control traditional gadgets like fans or lamps with a smartphone app or your voice, the hub-less plug will allow you to do just that. However, just be aware you can only use it on indoor gadgets, and the plug only integrates with Amazon Alexa.
ChomChom’s reusable pet hair remover is down to just $19.99 ($11 off) at Amazon right now, nearly matching its all-time low of $17 or so. The super-handy contraption picks up unwanted cat and dog hair from furniture with ease, often better than adhesive-laden lint rollers, which is why we’re big fans of it here at The Verge.
Roborock’s Q5 Pro is a powerful cleaning machine that does exceptionally well with pet hair. | Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
We highlighted some great deals on Dreame robot vacuums in our roundup of the best Labor Day deals, but if you don’t want to spend a grand on a vacuum, you might want to check out Roborock’s ongoing anniversary sale. Now through September 4th, Roborock is taking more than 40 percent off many of our favorite models, including the Q Revo (now $599.99) and the S8 MaxV Ultra (now $1,099.99). If you’re on a tighter budget, though, the best deal available is on the Roborock Q5 Pro, which is down to an all-time low of $179.99 ($250 off).
In many ways, Roborock’s big-wheeled robot vacuum / mop hybrid is made to tackle pet hair. The midrange vacuum features dual rubber brushes and 5,500Pa of suction power, which allows it to suck up pet hair and dirt from carpets impressively well. It also features a huge 770ml bin — preventing you from having to empty it every day — and a removable mopping pad that can clean up whatever dust the Q5 Pro doesn’t catch on its initial pass. It offers the same software features as the Q Revo and S8 MaxV Ultra, too, meaning you can still set digital keep-out zones and take advantage of features like lidar mapping and voice controls via Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri.
That being said, the Q5 Pro is Roborock’s entry-level model, so there are trade-offs. It lacks an auto-empty dock (unless you opt for the more expensive Plus model), and it won’t actually scrub your floors like a high-end robovac might. It also lacks AI-powered obstacle avoidance, though, thankfully for anyone with kids or a cluttered household, it can still dodge shoes and larger objects well enough.
A few additional ways to save
The Stagg EKG Electric Kettle is available from Amazon, Sur La Table, and Fellow starting at around $132 ($33 off), matching its lowest price to date. The beautiful pour-over kettle lets you set your desired water temperature with the twist of a knob, giving you a quick means for consuming your favorite beverage at the optimal temp. It also features a built-in stopwatch, which allows you to ditch your smartphone timer while brewing coffee or steeping tea.
You can grab Amazon’s Smart Plug at Amazon and Best Buy for $19.99 ($5 off), which is one of its better prices to date. If you want to control traditional gadgets like fans or lamps with a smartphone app or your voice, the hub-less plug will allow you to do just that. However, just be aware you can only use it on indoor gadgets, and the plug only integrates with Amazon Alexa.
ChomChom’s reusable pet hair remover is down to just $19.99 ($11 off) at Amazon right now, nearly matching its all-time low of $17 or so. The super-handy contraption picks up unwanted cat and dog hair from furniture with ease, often better than adhesive-laden lint rollers, which is why we’re big fans of it here at The Verge.