https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-67853392


"Campaigning Australian journalist and filmmaker John Pilger has died aged 84, his family has announced.
A statement by his relatives on X said he died in London on Saturday.

They described Pilger as "simply the most amazing and loved dad, grandad and partner".
He was a vocal and sometimes controversial critic of Western foreign policy. He was also outspoken over the treatment of Indigenous Australians.
Pilger was born in Bondi, New South Wales in 1939, but was based in the United Kingdom since the 1960s. He worked for outlets including Reuters and the Daily Mirror.
He was best known for his work as a foreign correspondent, including reporting on the Vietnam War, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, and from the United States during the turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s.

He was in the same room when Robert Kennedy was assassinated while running to be the Democratic nominee for the 1968 presidential election, according to his website.
He made numerous documentaries, including the 1979 film Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia, about the country under Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge, as well as many about Australia and its treatment of Indigenous Australians."

Interesting doco on Al Jazeera recently

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/counti...ctric-cars

I need to replace either my Mac desktop or laptop in 2024 and would welcome advice and opinions on the best options for me. Please note, I am a confirmed Mac user so I am not looking to change systems!

I currently have a 2011 27" iMac and a circa 2015 13" MacBook Air. Both are unable to be updated to the latest operating systems (the past few to be honest!) and as I'll be using Adobe Creative Cloud (InCopy, Acrobat, etc) and Word, I need something a bit more up to date.

I mostly use the desktop unless travelling, and I am likely to be doing a little travelling for work so I am thinking a laptop may be the better option. I use an ergonomic keyboard with my desktop and would most likely buy a larger external monitor to use the laptop on a desk when working at home. I'd love a MacBook Pro but am not sure I can afford or justify the extra expense, so I will probably be looking at another MacBook Air.

I asked on an editing site I belong to and got some good advice - the usual go for the most memory you can, etc. Some also recommended taking my iMac in and having the drive replaced with a solid state drive. I am not even sure if this is an option with my 2011 model, and I wouldn't know who does it. I am in Manawatu if that helps.

Having the drive replaced is one option, but as I have some old software loaded on the iMac (Photoshop, iTunes, iPhoto, etc) that can't be transferred to a new machine, I am worried I'd lose all that by having the drive replaced. I know once I replace my iPhone X (yes, I keep my things for a while, lol!) I won't be using these things, but I'd like to keep them if possible.

I don't do gaming or edit videos, etc, so the laptop won't need massive capacity. I'd also like advice on what type of monitor to go for and what size (I love my 27" screen now), and how this all gets set up.

Most of us will remember him from The Full Monty.



https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/ce...dies-at-75


"Tom Wilkinson, the Oscar-nominated British actor known for his roles in The Full Monty, Michael Clayton and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, has died, his family said. He was 75.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-6766...lO8T1Wfr5k

I don't know how I feel about this. I can understand the action from the violence point of view, but from a commercial cost? Surely there are better ways to deal with such an incredible talent...

I have two identical Acer Chromebook 317 with Jasper Lake HD Audio Pro cards. They have both been converted to MX Linux 23 OS. One works perfectly, the other has the card disabled & locked, so I can not enable it. Sound works on a USB card, but Jasper is disabled. I have checked the settings on both except that one card , & they are identical. 
How can I enable the Jasper Lake card? 

Here are the information sheets for both computers. Jasper Lake sound card is disabled in the second one 
  info-317-1.txt (Size: 6.17 KB / Downloads: 2)
  info-317-2.txt (Size: 6.24 KB / Downloads: 1)

Israel seems hell bent on going rapidly down the wrong path.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/...te=2581933

┬á "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli forces will not lower the intensity of fighting and are ÔÇ£deepening operations in southern GazaÔÇØ, with the┬áair force hitting┬á100 targets in 24 hours.

• United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has appointed Sigrid Kaag as GazaÔÇÖs aid coordinator, but the path ahead for humanitarian relief remains difficult with no breaks in fighting.
  

Humans are crazy.

Hi.

Im finally planning to ditch my xtra.co.nz email .
I'd prefer a email host that doesnt ~read~ or scrape my emails . So I dont want to use gmail 0r outlook.com

Ive been looking at zohomail & protonmail , the basic paid versions
I dont have a domain name , Im not sure if the paid version of these offers basic personal email hosting .

Any others I could consider ?
Cheers

This is a big deal, not only can the deep learning models study their effectiveness, but also the toxicity in humans.
MRSA is pretty serious and becoming prevalent in hospitals. This could be a gamechanger in drug development.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/12/20...s-using-ai

Don't know if we will see anything change anytime soon, but its rumored that windows 12 will support it.
It's not like Microsoft haven't done ARM windows builds earlier however. 

Still skeptical how it would stack up against x86 for games.
https://www.pcgamer.com/2024-could-be-th...-new-chip/