ArduinoMania

Appropriately enough, the famously fast writer Brandon Sanderson took no time at all to break Pebble's record for the most-funded Kickstarter project ever. The fantasy and sci-fi author's project, which is funding the self-publication of four secret novels, topped the $20.3 million that the Pebble Time smartwatch raised in 2015 within just three days. After 30 days, Sanderson's campaign has now wrapped and, buoyed by his fervent fanbase, he has raised $41,754,153.

Sanderson plans to release all four books next year, three of which are set in his Cosmere universe. His backers will receive them as e-books, audiobooks or physical editions based on their level of backing. The campaign rewards also include eight boxes of swag that backers will receive throughout 2023.

To celebrate his success, Sanderson and his team have donated to all literary projects on Kickstarter that aren't too unsafe for work and don't break the platform's terms of service. As noted by The Mary Sue, they donated to more than 300 projects altogether and highlighted some of them in a video, which should direct some more backers their way. One project the team backed is a parody of Sanderson's record-breaking campaign called "Surprise! Four secret books NOT by a famous fantasy author!" — Sanderson backed it with $1.

Amazon spent around $4.3 on consultants last year in an effort to prevent unionization of its warehouses, according to company filings with the US Department of Labor. Workers were required to attend meetings led by the consultants who discussed anti-union talking points ahead of key union votes in Bessemer, Alabama and Staten Island, New York, HuffPost has reported.

Companies are required to disclose financial details when consultants speak directly to workers about unionization. Very few have spent even $1 million on union avoidance over several years, according to a recent report, while Amazon spent multiple times that in just 2021 alone. Some consultants were paid up to $3,200 per day.

The meetings are legal and usually held when employers discover efforts to organize unions. They're called "captive audience meetings" by labor organizers because attendance is normally non-optional. Typically, the consultants will focus on union dues and potential loss of wages due to work stoppages. They also help company's come up with strategies to defeat unions.

Amazon workers recently voted in two union drives in Bessemer and Staten Island. At Bessemer, workers voted 993-875 against unionizing, but 416 votes have been challenged, so the final result is far from established. However, as it stands now, the Staten Island union is currently ahead 1,518 to 1,154 (a margin of 364) votes, with counting set to resume today.

Back in 2021, engineer Ken Pillonel did what Apple refuses to do when he made the world’s first iPhone with a working USB-C port. Now, Pillonel has flipped the script with his latest project: the first Android phone with a Lightning connector.

Admittedly, an Android phone with a Lightning port doesn’t have nearly the same sort of cross-over appeal as a USB-C iPhone, but that’s OK. In his initial video, Pillonel says the device was meant to be more of a fun project created to “balance the chaos” unleashed by his previous device, with the release deliberately timed for April Fools’ Day.

However, putting this thing together was no joke, because while the concept might be silly, the Lightning port on the Android phone (in this case a Samsung Galaxy A51) is fully functional for both charging and data transfer. “[This] was a complex modification that required some out-of-the-box thinking,” said Pillonel. And when I got the chance to ask about the project’s biggest challenges, Pillonel told Engadget the hardest part was figuring out how to make everything actually work together.

“The Lightning cables sold by Apple are not ‘dumb,’” he said. “They will only charge Apple devices. So I had to find a way to trick the cable into thinking it was plugged into an Apple device. And the whole thing needs to fit inside the phone, which is another challenge in itself.”

Thankfully, Pillonel has learned a thing or two since his previous project, which helped lay the groundwork for his latest device. “I would say it was easier to do than the first USB-C iPhone for two reasons,” he said. “The first is that I’m getting better at it because I’m learning new things every day, so hopefully I can finish these mods faster and faster. The second reason is that the quality of the finished product is nowhere near what it was for the iPhone.”

And while I would posit that an Android phone with a Lightning port is a definite downgrade in terms of usability compared to a standard USB-C port, that doesn't seem to bother Pillonel. “I don’t expect anyone in their right mind wanting to do this to their device,” he said. “It was for fun, I just wanted to see if I could do it.”

So what’s the next move for this unique gadget? For those looking for more details about what went into the project, Pillonel says he’s working on a full-length explanation video coming soon to his YouTube channel. As for the phone itself, Pillonel says he’ll probably just keep it after running into issues when he put the original USB-C iPhone up for auction on eBay, which ended up garnering fake bids in excess of $100,000.

“I didn’t want to force trying to sell it because that’s not really who I am. I want to focus on my engineering and science projects,” Pillonel said. And while these custom mods might not be everyone’s dream device, they’re a great example of what can be done even without the help of the companies that originally made them.

A team of almost 100 scientists part of the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium has successfully sequenced the most complete human genome yet. If you're thinking "Wait a minute — didn't scientists produce the complete human genome sequence almost two decades ago?" Well, you wouldn't be wrong. The Human Genome Project finished sequencing 92 percent of the human genome back in 2003, but the techniques available at the time left the remaining 8 percent out of reach until recent years. Thus, 200 million DNA bases remained a mystery for the longest time. 

In a series of papers published in Science, the T2T Consortium has reported how it managed to fill in almost all of the missing spots except for five, leaving only 10 million and the Y chromosome only vaguely understood. After the papers went out, the consortium's scientists have revealed on Twitter that they have figured out the correct assembly for the Y chromosome and that they will publish another paper with the latest results.

Research lead Evan Eichler from the University of Washington likened sequencing a DNA to solving a jigsaw puzzle. Scientists have to break the DNA into small parts and then use sequencing machines to piece them together. Older tools could only sequence small sections of DNA at once, so it's like solving those unnecessarily tough puzzles with tens of thousands of repetitive, almost identical pieces. Newer tools can sequence longer segments of DNA, which makes finding the correct sequence much more achievable.

To make the process less complicated, the team used a cell line from a failed pregnancy called a mole, wherein the sperm enters an egg that doesn't have its own set of chromosomes. That means the team only had to sequence one set of DNA instead of two. Then, they used a technique called Oxford Nanopore to complete assemblies of centromeres, which are dense knobs in the middle of chromosomes. Oxford Nanopore has a relatively high error rate, however, making it less than ideal for sequencing sections with repetitive DNA. For those regions, the team used another technique called PacBio HiFi, which can sequence shorter sections with 99.9 percent accuracy. 

Eichler said the previously unknown genes include ones for immune response that help us survive plagues and viruses, genes that help predict a person's response to drugs and genes responsible for making human brains larger than other primates'. "Having this complete information will allow us to better understand how we form as an individual organism and how we vary not just between other humans but other species," Eichler said. 

The consortium's work cost a few million dollars to achieve, but sequencing is getting cheaper and cheaper with new technologies. Adam Phillippy, another lead author for the studies, said the hope is for individual genome sequencing to cost as little as $1,000 within the next decade. That could make DNA sequencing a part of routine medical tests, which might help doctors create tailor-made treatments for individuals. 

A training document used by Facebook’s content moderators raises questions about whether the social network is under-reporting images of potential child sexual abuse, The New York Timesreports.The document reportedly tells moderators to “err on the side of an adult” when assessing images, a practice that moderators have taken issue with but company executives have defended.

At issue is how Facebook moderators should handle images in which the age of the subject is not immediately obvious. That decision can have significant implications, as suspected child abuse imagery is reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which refers images to law enforcement. Images that depict adults, on the other hand, may be removed from Facebook if they violate its rules, but aren’t reported to outside authorities.

But, as The NYT points out, there isn’t a reliable way to determine age based on a photograph. Moderators are reportedly trained to use a more than 50-year-old method to identify “the progressive phases of puberty,” but the methodology “was not designed to determine someone’s age.” And, since Facebook’s guidelines instruct moderators to assume photos they aren’t sure of are adults, moderators suspect many images of children may be slipping through.

This is further complicated by the fact that Facebook’s contract moderators, who work for outside firms and don’t get the same benefits as full-time employees, may only have a few seconds to make a determination, and may be penalized for making the wrong call.

Facebook, which reports more child sexual abuse material to NCMEC than any other company, says erring on the side of adults is meant to protect users’ and privacy and to avoid false reports that may hinder authorities’ ability to investigate actual cases of abuse. The company’s Head of Safety Antigone Davis told the paper that it may also be a legal liability for them to make false reports. Notably, not every company shares Facebook’s philosophy on this issue. Apple, Snap and TikTok all reportedly take “the opposite approach” and report images when they are unsure of an age.

Invite-only social audio platform Clubhouse will let users limit who can see their full profiles due to increased security threats related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a company blog post. Users can now change their profile settings to “protected”, which will only allow pre-approved followers to view the rooms and clubs they’ve visited, as well as replays. Unapproved followers won’t be able to see when a user is online. Clubhouse also won’t recommend protected profile holders to other users they don’t know.

“We're grateful we've become a meeting place for people around the world to connect during this time, but we also know that times of conflict and upheaval make it increasingly important to be mindful of your presence online and what you share,” wrote the platform in its post.

The nearly two-year-old platform has been slow to roll out moderation and safety features for its many users, despite regular instances of harassment and abuse on the app. A number of Clubhouse users have faced targeted harassment on the platform, including doctors giving advice on the Covid-19 pandemic, Jews, Palestinians, women and people of color. It's also very hard to remain anonymous on the platform. Clubhouse requires a phone number to join, and (unless you opt out) will recommend other Clubhouse users in your phone’s contact list. It also requires you to use your real first and last name in order to create a profile. 

Clubhouse remains one of the few Western tech companies that hasn’t temporarily restricted services for Russian users, or been banned in Russia. For many anti-war Russians, Clubhouse remains one of few viable options for relaying information to the outside world. Meanwhile, many users from Ukraine have flocked to Clubhouse to discuss the ongoing invasion. Given the app’s lack of anonymity, it’s likely such users would need an extra security measure.

But as far as privacy goes, Clubhouse only offers the bare minimum, even with protected profiles. Users will still be able to see the names, usernames, bios and any linked social media on protected profiles. The platform also turned off its “Replay” feature for all users in Ukraine, meaning that conversations will no longer be recorded by default. Besides that, Clubhouse users are left to use their best judgment when it comes to expressing views that could get them in trouble with their government or disclosing personal information.

The initial results of a second union election at Amazon's BHM1 warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama have finally come through. Workers have voted against unionization in a closely contested 993-875 vote (with 59 voided votes) out of 6,153 workers eligible to cast a ballot. Turnout appears to have been considerably lower this time around, as more than 3,000 employees cast ballots in the early 2021 vote. However, 416 votes have been challenged — more than enough to change the outcome — so the definitive result might not be available for some time.

The tally brings BHM1 to the possible end of a long and messy saga. Bessemer workers voted against unionization in early 2021, but the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Amazon violated labor laws by allegedly interfering with the vote. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) accused Amazon of repeatedly trying to intimidate workers through measures like an unauthorized ballot box and anti-union campaign material. While Amazon disputed the claims, the NLRB ultimately ordered a second vote.

The rerun election didn't go smoothly, either. The RWDSU has maintained that Amazon interfered with the second vote by removing pro-union posters, forcing attendance of anti-union meetings and limiting time spent on company grounds to discourage organization. Before the vote, the RWDSU also accused Amazon of illegal retaliation against worker Isaiah Thomas' pro-union efforts. The company has again argued that its actions are legal.

BHM1 was the first major Amazon facility in the US to hold a union vote, but it's no longer the only one. One Staten Island warehouse, JFK8, is already voting on possible unionization, and early vote totals show the grassroots Amazon Labor Union ahead by several hundred votes. Another facility in Staten Island is scheduled to hold its own unionization vote starting in late April. Simply put, there's a growing desire for workers to have a say in their conditions at at Amazon's — whether those efforts succeed, however, remains to be seen.

You no longer have to copy-paste or otherwise contort yourself to share a YouTube clip through Snapchat. As of today, Android and iOS users can share YouTube videos directly through the Snapchat Camera, whether it's to Stories or individual Snaps. You can apply creative layers like text, and automated stickers will take Snapchat viewers directly to a video in either the YouTube app or a web browser.

You just need to tap "share" in the YouTube app and choose Snapchat when it's an option. This is the first time you can visually share YouTube links, Snap said.

This won't be as alluring as sharing vertical videos from common alternatives like TikTok and Instagram. It should save you some hassle if you find a must-see YouTube video, though, and it should be particularly helpful for sharing Shorts that are well-suited to Snapchat's app.

A “bug” in Facebook’s News Feed ranking algorithm injected a “surge of misinformation” and other harmful content into users’ News Feeds between last October and March, according to an internal memo reported byThe Verge. The unspecified bug, described by employees as a “massive ranking failure,” went unfixed for months and affected "as much as half of all News Feed views."

The problem affected Facebook’s News Feed algorithm, which is meant to down-rank debunked misinformation as well as other problematic and “borderline” content. But last fall, views on debunked misinformation began rising by “up to 30 percent,” according to the memo, while other content that was supposed to be demoted was not. “During the bug period, Facebook’s systems failed to properly demote nudity, violence, and even Russian state media the social network recently pledged to stop recommending in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine,” according to the report.

More worrying, is that Facebook engineers apparently realized something was very wrong — The Verge reports the problem was categorized as a “severe” vulnerability in October — but it went unfixed until March 11th because engineers were “unable to find the root cause.”

The incident underscores just how complex, and often opaque, Facebook’s ranking algorithms are even to its own employees. Whistleblower Frances Haugen has argued that issues like this one are evidence that the company needs to make its algorithms transparent to outside researchers or even move away from engagement-based ranking altogether.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that the bug had been fixed, saying it “has not had any meaningful, long-term impact on our metrics.”

Still, the fact that it took Facebook so long to come up with a fix, is likely to bolste calls for the company to change its approach to algorithmic ranking. The company recently brought back Instagram’s non-algorithmic feed partially in response to concerns about the impact its recommendations have on younger users. Meta is also facing the possibility of legislation that would regulate algorithms like the one used in News Feed.

Multiple publications are reporting that E3 2022 is fully canceled. Both the physical and a planned digital version of the gaming convention have been scrapped for this year, according to IGN and Variety. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which organizes the show, has yet to respond to Engadget's request for confirmation. GamesBeat has received official statement confirming the cancelation, though. 

In January, the ESA announced that E3 would be an online-only event, citing concerns over "COVID-19 and its potential impact on the safety of exhibitors and attendees." That statement was provided to GamesBeat, and according to today's statement to the publication, the ESA said "E3 will return in 2023."

This story is developing, please refresh for updates.