Lemmy.ca

• Robot chefs are replacing humans at some South Korean highway restaurants.
• Tech companies say robots can help solve labor shortage in an aging nation.
• Workers say their roles have been downgraded from chefs to cleaning staff.

Hey all,

I'm not sure how many people follow the ListenBrainz playlist, but if you do, you may have realised that the playlist hasn't been updated in a little bit to reflect the most recent shares.

This is because I'm working on doing catchup in creating a playlist for another community I've made called NC-SA Bops. While you're free to check it out if you want, this post is only to address why I haven't updated this community's playlist, which is because of the large amount of work needing to go into that playlist, namely adding new entries to MusicBrainz in order to get them added.

The playlist here will be updated to reflect the latest shares in the near future, and I do apologise if there's any inconvenience caused.

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The "problem" is that wind, solar, and batteries for overnight storage can now outcompete fossil fuel generation on price, which means that the patrons who back the Republican party stand to lose a lot of money.

An indie title named MOUTHOLE is about to be removed from Steam. Prior to getting delisted, it transitioned to a free game, allowing players to add it to their libraries and keep it even after the removal.

MOUTHOLE

BARRA DO MAMANGUAPE — Brazil. It’s hard to imagine today, but manatees were once hunted and eaten. These gentle sea mammals were considered a delicacy in Brazil, with their meat consumed by local fishermen and their skin and oil exported to Europe during colonial times. This exploitation pushed the species to the brink of extinction. Fortunately, those days are long gone. In Barra do Mamanguape—a fishing community on Brazil’s northeastern coast—manatees have gone from being a source of food to beloved local icons. Barra is an estuary where river and sea meet, creating warm, calm waters that are perfect not just for the people who live there, but also for a thriving manatee population. Until the 1980s, little was known about these animals. When their conservation status was finally assessed, they were already critically endangered. The urgency to protect this little-understood species sparked a wave of conservation efforts. One such initiative is Viva o Peixe-Boi Marinho (Long Live the Sea Manatee), launched in 2013. The project focused on engaging the local community to end manatee hunting. Conservationists worked side by side with fishermen—both those who had hunted manatees and those who hadn’t—holding talks, joining fishing trips, and building trust. Slowly but surely, perceptions began to shift, turning former hunters into advocates. Today, manatees play a key role in the local economy, drawing eco-tourists and supporting small businesses. The project also rescues and rehabilitates stranded animals and has saved around 60 manatees since the 1990s. Mongabay visited Barra do Mamanguape to…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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In the U.S., drug prices are shaped by complex negotiations involving pharmacy benefit managers that act as middlemen between drugmakers and employer clients and health insurers and have been criticised for inflating costs. In Europe, countries generally have public health systems that negotiate directly with manufacturers and keep costs down.

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Trump said if drugmakers do not cut prices they could be hit with tariffs.

Gotta give it up for something that isn't easier than traveling abroad, but still way easier and cheaper than living in a stationary home.RVs are cheap, abundant and provide all the comforts of home, while costing hundreds of times less.

From bit of a Rambler via this RSS feed

#CouchPeloton Overall #TrollTips standings after stage 5: rhondafg is 1st with 91 points, @[email protected] is 2nd with 89 points, and @[email protected] is 3rd with 83 points

#CouchPeloton

Uber announced a new type of ride that travels along a set route, comes every 20 minutes, includes up to two other passengers, and costs up to 50 percent less than an UberX ride. In other words, a bus.

For years, Uber and its smaller rival Lyft have been gently mocked online for occasionally releasing products that closely resemble public transportation. That’s likely to crop up again with the launch of Route Share, a fixed route car service that requires the customer to walk a few minutes to a predetermined pickup spot, and then again to their exact destination. The service will only be available in select cities and only during commuting hours in the morning and evening.

But I regret to inform you that Uber has already heard all your jokes and snide comments about Uber inventing the bus. And as long as the end product is well-liked and more affordable than its other ridehail services, it feels like the end goal is what counts.

“We are complementary to public transit,” says Uber’s product chief Sachin Kansal, in an interview. “We think of this as a journey towards lower and lower car ownership, as people transition from driving themselves over to using products like Uber Share and now Route Share.”

Route Share is being announced during Uber’s annual Go/Get product event, in which the ridehail company unveils new features for its for-hire vehicle and food delivery apps. This year’s event is structured around the theme of affordability. And Route Share, with its extra walking and limited availability, is among Uber’s cheapest ride to date.

The company says it will be up to 50 percent less expensive than taking an UberX. Uber offers the example of a ride from the Upper West Side to the Lower East Side of Manhattan: while a normal UberX trip would cost $38, the Route Share version would only set you back $19.

“People are feeling more and more uncertain,” Kansal said. “They’re seeing prices go up in different realms of their life.  And that is definitely generating some anxiety.”

Uber has been down this route before (no pun intended), asking customers to wait a little longer or walk a little further in exchange for cheaper fares. Uber Pool was the first attempt to persuade riders to sacrifice a little convenience for more efficient ridesharing, but that service suffered from poor planning, unrealistic expectations, and a lack of proper driver outreach. Kansal says that Uber Share, its current iteration, is doing much better, clocking in nearly one million rides a month.

Route Share will be available during weekday commute hours (6-10AM and 4-8PM local time) in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston, and Baltimore. Other cities will be added in the future. And starting today, riders in those cities can select the option to see nearby routes — with pickups every 20 minutes — and book a seat from seven days to 10 minutes before any scheduled pickup.

Uber is also announcing a new price lock feature, in which a customer can lock in a certain price for up to 10 routes for a fee of just $2.99 a month. If the upfront price is lower than the locked-in price, customers will get that lower price. Kansal says the feature is for customers who use Uber frequently to make the same trip and would like some predictability in what they pay. The new feature is available in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, San Francisco, Washington DC, and soon the rest of the country and Brazil.

For even more discounts, customers who know they’re going to take a set number of trips a month — anything from five to 20 rides — can now prepay for those trips at a reduced rate. Riders can expect discounts of up to 15 percent when purchasing prepaid passes.

On the Eats side, Uber is finally revealing details from its partnership with Open Table. The restaurant reservation app will be integrated into the Uber app to make reserving a table and booking a car to a restaurant easier. Rides booked through the Open Table integration will also be discounted. And Uber One subscribers will get access to exclusive dining establishments that aren’t open to everyone. And for grocery orders, Uber Eats customers can now use a new slider feature to indicate how much money they want to save, which prompts the app to find generic products that may be cheaper than name brand items.

Taken together, Kansal says these product announcements will help take some of them bite out of using Uber — especially at a time when people are concerned about rising costs.

“The truth of the matter is that the people who are commuting on our platform on a daily basis are not just businesspeople who are on business travel going to the airport and stuff,” he said. “Everyday workers are commuting on our platform, shift workers are commuting on our platform, nurses [and] restaurant chefs are commuting on our platform.”

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"Amazing! The mummified remains of a prehistoric cave-painter, still clutching his brush! ... Seems he made an enemy, though."

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“Well, well … seems we’ve found what’s been causing that ringing sensation in your ear, Mr. Foley.”

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• MusicBrainz: https://musicbrainz.org/artist/5dc7b78d-7777-4dd7-87e2-fbe9f42f7e42

Democrat John Ewing unseated Republican Mayor Jean Stothert in Tuesday's officially nonpartisan election to lead Omaha, a victory that ends the GOP's 12-year hold on Nebraska's largest city.

Stothert conceded the race after 9 PM local time with Ewing ahead 54-46, though more votes remained to be counted.

Ewing, who will be Omaha's first Black mayor, overcame a large fundraising disadvantage in his campaign to deny Stothert what would have been an unprecedented fourth term.

But Ewing, who serves as Douglas County treasurer, benefited from voters' unhappiness with the incumbent. The challenger argued Stothert had failed to solve the city's transportation problems and strengthen the police force during her long tenure.

Ewing also sought to tie the mayor to Donald Trump, whom Stothert has tried to avoid associating with during her time leading this Democratic-leaning city. Ewing additionally enjoyed the support of former state Sen. Mike McDonnell, a Democrat-turned-Republican who came in third during the first round of voting.

BRUSSELS ― The European Commission was wrong to refuse the release of Ursula von der Leyen’s text messages with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, an EU court has found.

Reporters had asked to see the secret messages between the Commission president and the drug company boss, which they exchanged ahead of a multibillion euro vaccine deal agreed between Pfizer and the EU.

The judgment is likely to have huge repercussions for transparency and accountability in the EU and delivers a massive blow to von der Leyen’s reputation.

Intel is notching up an impressive collection of bugs and flaws of late, what with crashing 13th and 14th Gen CPUs, the latest Arrow Lake chips needing a fair bit of post-launch work to get them running (not all that) optimally, all that good stuff. Now the company has announced some exciting new bugs that afflict not just its CPUs, but also Arc GPUs.

Let's start with some familiar sounding bugs involving Core Ultra processors. "Description: Incorrect initialization of resource in the branch prediction unit for some Intel Core Ultra Processors may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable information disclosure via local access," says the official security advisory.

In other words, the bad guys can gain access to your rig. Intel says it is, "releasing microcode updates to mitigate these potential vulnerabilities," which impact Core Ultra 5, 7, and 9 CPU models across both desktop and laptop.

The second CPU bug afflicting those same chips is described as, "a potential security ['flaw'? Even Intel's bug reports have bugs, it seems...] in the Intel Integrated Connectivity I/O interface (CNVi) for some Intel Core Ultra Processors may allow escalation of privilege."

Again, a microcode fix is in the oven. In both cases, Intel advises that PC owners should contact their system provider for an update to fix the problem, but it's not clear if the fix has already been released by Intel.

Next up, some novel GPU flaws, one of which excitingly has been given a "HIGH" severity by Intel. "Potential security vulnerabilities in some Intel Graphics Driver software may allow escalation of privilege, denial of service, or information disclosure," Intel says.

The bug actually applies to all Intel iGPUs from 7th Gen CPUs onwards and also includes the latest Arc GPUs, like the Arc B580. Happily, the solution is a driver update that's already available, links to which you can find here. The fix specifically for discrete Arc GPUs is here.

Finally, we have this advisory pertaining to Intel's Endurance Gaming Mode software. "A potential security vulnerability for some Endurance Gaming Mode software may allow escalation of privilege," Intel says.

Intel Endurance Gaming Mode is an app for laptops that monitors real-time frame rates. The idea is to keep power consumption in check by setting a target frame rate and then reducing GPU frequency and power to match, resulting in improved battery life.

The fix for this is both an update to Endurance Gaming Mode version 1.5.651.0, available here, and that latest GPU driver we mentioned before, available here.

All of which means if you have Intel laptop, say, with both the relevant CPU and GPU and you happen to use Endurance Gaming Mode, perhaps you'd better get patched up. And fast.

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

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cross-posted from: https://jlai.lu/post/19454496