Another fun fact: official German spelling later changed “thal” to “tal” (both pronounced as a hard “t”), so now the valley is Neandertal, not “Neanderthal”

The slowness was not a tax on the real work; the slowness was the real work. It was how the work got good, and how the people producing the work got good

This line reminded me of a couple of articles, linked below, that I read on AI use in astrophysics. Developing junior researchers is a big part of the point of their work, so they really are going to have to limit their AI use to make sure development happens. But worry that industry won’t care; they’ve been hollowing out junior positions for years, because there’s no value in training a senior who is just going to jump ship to a company that doesn’t train juniors. That’s an existing problem, but AI seems likely to make it worse.

• The machines are fine. I’m worried about us. by Minas Karamanis
• Find the stable and pull out the bolt by Natalie B. Hogg

And that’s only, like, the most basic part of an industrial e-stop. On top of directly disconnecting the energy source, it also has to include redundant circuits (since it’s possible for a contactor to break and fail open, or weld and fail closed), and some even need to have signal pulses constantly going through them to actively confirm they haven’t been pressed. They absolutely should not just send a signal to a Linux computer, because general-purpose operating systems are too complex to be rated for safety.

This isn’t even my area of expertise yet I know this stuff. The fact that they failed at the very first requirement is really messed up.

Even if you press that big red emergency stop button on the mower itself, a hacker can send another command to unlock it, Makris says.

Holy cow. I work in factories, and I know enough about industrial safety to know that would not fly.

I host a CalDAV server (specifically Nextcloud’s Calendar app, though plenty of others exist, like Radicale) and all my devices sync with it.

“Sight impaired” as in “blind”, or close to it. That is, vision problems that can’t be corrected with lenses. A camera that can describe what your face is pointed at would be a game changer such people.

AsteroidOS mostly supports watches that come stock with Wear OS, which is a modified version of Android, which, guess what, runs a Linux kernel. These watches are on the more powerful end of the computing spectrum. As you say, there are a lot of smart watches that use pretty lean MCUs, but those aren’t running AsteroidOS or Wear OS, as noted in this FAQ entry.

Downvotes are to show that the content does not contribute to discussion. This comment is not related to the top-level post, and looks to be low-effort trolling, so it is not contributing to discussion, and deserves downvotes.

Actually, it’s more the opposite. Sorry, I don’t think I explained too well. The watch works just fine on its own without a smartphone. For functions that require phone and watch working together, Gadgetbridge lets them communicate (e.g. when you receive a text message on your phone, Gadgetbridge will let you read the text on your watch).

The apps on the watch will work with or without a smartphone. However, installing apps from the Bangle app loader requires the watch have a Bluetooth connection to a phone or computer. After apps are installed, they will run even without the Bluetooth connection.

Finally, note that the Bangle does not have an internet connection on its own; it has no cellular or wi-fi radios on board. So any apps that require a network connection (e.g. weather) will only work when paired to a phone with Gadgetbridge. I think there are other watches with wi-fi, but I’m not familiar with them.

I have been using a BangleJS 2 for the last year, and have quite liked it. There is a companion app, Gadgetbridge, to install on your phone, which is available through F-Droid (there is a Bangle-specific version of it, or a generic version that supports a bunch of other smart watches). There is also an app store (all free software) for apps that run on the Bangle itself. It includes a heart monitor, but no music streaming.

I’ve also been watching rePebble as they start making new Pebble smartwatches. I’ve never owned one, but a lot of people swear by them. They are now fully open source and have an app store. No idea if they can stream music.

I believe that’s pretty much what happened after the dot-com crash. A lot of fiber was laid during the bubble, it went dormant after the crash, but it was useful afterward as the internet continued growing.