1998 - Digital Systems first introduces a setup fee and annual fee for .bg domains. Other Bulgarian ISPs file a protest, calling .bg a national symbol, and send it to IANA, RIPE, the Bulgarian competition watchdog, Parliament and the President. The complaints are ultimately rejected by the Bulgarian courts and Digital Systems remained in charge of .bg.

[…]

2006 - Bulgarian media reports that management of .bg is to be transferred to the “First Public Internet Registry”, a new non-profit to be run by various stakeholders. The transfer depends on Register.BG voluntarily handing over control or trying to get a new court ruling.

2007 - The initiative to transfer management of .bg appears to have stalled, with Bulgarian media outlets criticising the lack of progress on the matter.

[…]

In both cases [(Australia and Kenya)] IANA acted because the state built a credible successor first, something that Bulgaria attempted but failed to do in 2006/2007. Until then, .bg stays the only EU country TLD in private hands.

There seems to be a path forward, the state just has to follow through. I suspect they could also buy the current company out instead of forcing it through the courts.

I was thinking more about things that are written for Linux and not necessarily ported to macOS. When I’ve tried things in an ARM VM there seems to be a lot less software compiled for ARM.

I’d be interested in buying one as a headless server, but a lot of the FLOSS software I’d like to run seem to prefer x86 processors.

Five years is too long for the buyers. The AI bubble will burst before then and then the market price will drop as the inflated demand disappears, especially if this continues long enough for more production capacity to come online.

They might not have had much of a choice in making the deal, though. Micron has been extracting the absolute maximum they can out of this situation. Make a deal or get nothing. Their clients will remember, though, and flag them as an unreliable supplier. Once this ends—and these always end—they’ll likely have a lower market share and end up having to cut prices.

Micron is optimistic in saying the demand won’t start easing until 2028. A lot of the rest of the technology manufacturing industry is about to grind to a crawl if not a halt because it’s nearly impossible to get components. Some companies are already delaying product launches and I think a lot more are about to this summer as they realize what’s happening. If non-AI businesses start to slow, the whole economy starts to slow, the AI demand will falter and that’s when the bubble bursts. I’m thinking maybe by the end of this year, more likely next year.

When the bubble bursts I’m guessing at least a couple of the companies Micron signed SCAs with will fold and Micron won’t get anything.

Not having read the article, I wonder if building an elevated array of photovoltaic panels over the batteries would make sense by shading them from the sun, giving more passive help with heat? A simple roof would be cheaper but solar panels would mean the site is also producing electricity, not just storing it.

These were the developer accounts to sign their software to run on Windows

Summary:

Scientists at Cornell University may be closing in on the long-sought “holy grail” of male contraception: a safe, reversible, nonhormonal method that completely halts sperm production. In a breakthrough mouse study, researchers used a compound called JQ1 to temporarily shut down meiosis—the critical process that produces sperm—without causing lasting harm. After treatment stopped, sperm production bounced back, fertility returned, and the animals produced healthy offspring.

Are there any sickos that use black text on white?

IIRC that’s the default on macOS if the theme is in light mode instead of dark mode. So probably.

I wonder if this means that in years to come, with reductions in environmental lead, we’ll see lower rates of Alzheimer’s and dementia

For all the breathless enthusiasm from the author, I feel like he’s overselling a lot of the impacts:

For Chief Technology Officers and IT procurement managers, the viability of Linux on Apple Silicon introduces a complex variable. Historically, engineering teams demanding Linux were relegated to Dell XPS or Lenovo ThinkPad units, which, while capable, often trail Apple in battery efficiency and thermal management. If the M3 becomes a first-class citizen in the Linux ecosystem, organizations may face increased pressure to support Apple hardware for backend engineers and DevOps professionals who require native Linux environments rather than virtualization.

Corporate purchases typically purchase new products either direct from the manufacturer or from the authorized resale channel. The M3 was introduced over two years ago and the only products I see Apple still selling with the M3 architecture are the Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) and iPad Air (M3). So any IT manager looking to procure a MacBook for an employee would need to find new old stock still in resale channel inventory or purchase a second-hand device, all for something that the article admits is still in an alpha stage of usefulness.

The progress the Asahi project is making on Apple Silicon is fantastic and important, but I think it will primarily benefit private individuals, not businesses. Perhaps in the future as the developers become more adept at reverse engineering hardware and if Apple makes fewer changes between generations then Linux could start supporting active Apple products, but it’s not there yet.

With Apple putting M-series chips in iPads and Linux gaining support for those chips, I’ll be very curious to see if we start seeing more Linux tablet support for iPads.

Looks like a piece of rawhide my dog’s been chewing on

I really hope to see them sometime. Whenever we’re in Quebec and there’s a good geomagnetic storm the weather is cloudy.

Writing’s on the wall

300 km out of 24 kWh?

Press X to doubt.

British advertising executive Rory Sutherland coined the term “doorman fallacy” in his 2019 book Alchemy. Sutherland uses the concept of the humble hotel doorman to illustrate how businesses can misjudge the value a person brings to the role.

To a business consultant, a doorman appears to simply stand by the entrance. They engage in small talk with those coming and going, and occasionally operate the door.

If that’s the entirety of the job, a technological solution can easily replace the doorman, reducing costs. However, this strips away the true complexity of what a doorman provides.

The role is multifaceted, with intangible functions that extend beyond just handling the door. Doormen help guests feel welcome, hail taxis, enhance security, discourage unwelcome behaviour, and offer personalised attention to regulars. Even the mere presence of a doorman elevates the prestige of a hotel or residence, boosting guests’ perception of quality.

When you ignore all these intangible benefits, it’s easy to argue the role can be automated. This is the doorman fallacy – removing a human role because technology can imitate its simplest function, while ignoring the layers of nuance, service and human presence that give the role its true value.

What began in 2022 as broad optimism about the power of generative AI to make peoples’ lives easier has instead shifted toward a sense of deep cynicism that the technology being heralded as a game changer is, in fact, only changing the game for the richest technologists in Silicon Valley who are benefiting from what appears to be an almost endless supply of money to build their various AI projects — many of which don’t appear to solve any actual problems.

On 9 December 2023, Halley’s Comet reached the farthest and slowest point in its orbit from the Sun when it was travelling at 0.91 km/s (2,000 mph) with respect to the Sun.

Anyone know what the embargo that wound up lasting 3 months was about? I’m assuming a security vulnerability that is now fixed?

Will these still function if they get maintenance from a different company?

The one area I would sorta disagree is on updates, although only inasmuch as they’re needed for security fixes on things connected to the internet. But if it’s not connected? No, no updates needed unless I encounter a bug or they add a new feature I really want.