A happy working environment has always been a priority, but even more so now that more people than ever are working from home. Here are a few of the home office essentials I’ve accrued and think might help out if you are building a setup of your own.
more…
Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.
Software updates on macOS have been challenging for a few years. Between rapid OS releases, Apple silicon authentication requirements, and endless user deferring prompts for weeks at a time, it’s become harder for IT teams to strike the right balance between security and productivity. On one hand, devices need to stay up to date for security and support reasons. On the other hand, you can’t disrupt users in the middle of their workday with forced reboots or surprise upgrade prompts in the middle of a meeting.
more…
Itâs a familiar frustration for ridehail users: you open the Uber or Lyft app, enter your destination, and discover that your intended trip costs several times more than expected. The culprit is surge pricing, one of ridehailâs most important and controversial innovations. Customers grumble about higher fares, but Uber and Lyft executives have insisted that surge pricing benefits them by attracting additional drivers, which allows the companies to fulfill more trips and reduce wait times.
That justification makes intuitive sense, but it raises an awkward question about robotaxis, which are expanding across the US, from San Jose, California, to Washington, DC. If surge pricing is intended to expand the driver pool, why is it now being used by companies with driverless vehicles?
Waymo, which offers robotaxi trips in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, charges surge pricing during peak times, as did Cruise, its now-defunct competitor. Assuming a robotaxi fleet is already fully deployed, higher fares cannot expand vehicle supply in the way they could for Uber or Lyft. Instead, riders simply need to pay extra, assuming they can afford to, or search for another way to travel.
…
Whether anything ever lived on Mars is unknown. And the present environment, with harsh temperatures, intense radiation, and a sparse atmosphere, isn’t exactly propitious for life. Despite the red planet’s brutality, lichens that inhabit some of the harshest environments on Earth could possibly survive there.
Lichens are symbionts, or two organisms that are in a cooperative relationship. There is a fungal component (most are about 90 percent fungus) and a photosynthetic component (algae or cyanobacteria). To see if some species of lichen had what it takes to survive on Mars, a team of researchers led by botanist Kaja Skubała used the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences to expose the lichen species Diploschistes muscorum and Cetrarea aculeata to simulate Mars conditions.
“Our study is the first to demonstrate that the metabolism of the fungal partner in lichen symbiosis was active while being in a Mars-like environment,” the researchers said in a study recently published in IMA Fungus. “X-rays associated with solar flares and SEPs reaching Mars should not affect the potential habitability of lichens on this planet.”
© Martin Harvey
.jpg)
Star Wars Zero Company will release sometime in 2026, according to an announcement from Disney and EA. The game’s title was revealed earlier this week.
Alongside the release year, the two companies also shared a bit more information about what you can expect from the game. “In Star Wars Zero Company, players will step into the shoes of Hawks, a former Republic officer, to command an elite squad of cunning operatives through a gritty and authentic story set in the twilight of the Clone Wars,” according to a press release.
You’ll be able to customize Hawks’ appearance and class, and team members you recruit can “be personalized from a range of original Star Wars character classes and species.” Your team members can also “forge bonds” to “unlock powerful combat synergies that can turn the tide of battle.”
Zero Company will launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S.
Bit Reactor is leading development on Zero Company alongside Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games. The game was initially announced without a title in January 2022 as part of a three-game set of Star Wars titles that Respawn would be working on. The other two games are Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and a new FPS game.
