Microsoft has announced that it will cease providing support for Microsoft 365 applications on the Windows 10 operating system after October 14, 2025. This means that after this date, users who continue to utilize Windows 10 will no longer receive security updates, bug fixes, or technical support for their Microsoft 365 apps, which include popular productivity software like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. This effectively ends the functional lifespan of Microsoft 365 on Windows 10, although the applications may continue to operate for a period afterward, albeit with increasing security risks and potential compatibility issues.
This decision aligns with Microsoft's broader strategy of encouraging users to migrate to Windows 11, the company's latest operating system. While Microsoft will continue to support Windows 10 with security updates until October 14, 2025, the lack of support for crucial productivity applications like Microsoft 365 effectively makes Windows 10 a less desirable platform for businesses and individuals who rely on these applications for their daily workflow. This move underscores the importance of staying up-to-date with software updates and operating system upgrades to ensure ongoing compatibility and security. Users who wish to continue using Microsoft 365 with full support after the October 2025 deadline will need to upgrade their systems to Windows 11. Failing to do so could expose users to potential security vulnerabilities and limit their access to the latest features and functionalities offered by Microsoft 365. This effectively deprecates Windows 10 as a viable platform for continued use of the Microsoft 365 suite, pushing users towards the newer Windows 11 ecosystem.
This PetaPixel article details the fascinating process of designing and building a custom star tracker for astronaut Don Pettit, enabling him to capture stunning astrophotography images from the unique vantage point of the International Space Station (ISS). The project originated from Pettit's desire to create breathtaking images of star trails, showcasing the Earth's rotation against the backdrop of the cosmos. Conventional star trackers, designed for terrestrial use, were unsuitable for the ISS environment due to factors like vibrations from the station's systems and the rapid orbital speed, which presents a different set of tracking challenges compared to Earth-based astrophotography.
Driven by this need, a collaborative effort involving Pettit, engineer Jaspal Chadha, and a team at the Johnson Space Center commenced. They embarked on designing a specialized star tracker dubbed the "Barn Door Tracker," referencing its resemblance to a traditional barn door. This ingenious device employs two plates connected by a hinge, with one plate fixed to the ISS and the other housing the camera. A carefully calibrated screw mechanism allows for precise adjustment of the angle between the plates, enabling the tracker to compensate for the ISS's orbital motion and keep the camera locked onto the stars.
The design process was iterative and involved meticulous calculations to determine the required tracking rate and the optimal screw pitch for the hinge mechanism. The team also had to consider the constraints of the ISS environment, including limited resources and the need for a compact and easily operable device. Furthermore, the tracker had to be robust enough to withstand the vibrations and temperature fluctuations experienced on the ISS.
The Barn Door Tracker's construction involved utilizing readily available materials and components, further highlighting the ingenuity of the project. Testing and refinement were conducted on Earth, simulating the conditions of the ISS to ensure its effectiveness. Once finalized, the tracker was transported to the ISS, where Pettit put it to use, capturing mesmerizing star trail images that showcased the beauty of the cosmos from an unparalleled perspective. The article highlights the unique challenges and innovative solutions involved in creating a specialized piece of equipment for space-based astrophotography, showcasing the intersection of scientific ingenuity and artistic pursuit in the extreme environment of the ISS. The successful deployment and operation of the Barn Door Tracker not only facilitated Pettit's artistic endeavors but also demonstrated the potential for adaptable and resourcefully designed tools in space exploration.
The Hacker News post "Designing a Star Tracker for Astronaut Don Pettit to Use on the ISS" has generated several comments, discussing various aspects of the project and Don Pettit's ingenuity.
Several commenters praise Don Pettit's resourcefulness and "hacker" spirit, highlighting his ability to create tools and conduct experiments with limited resources in the unique environment of the ISS. They appreciate his commitment to scientific exploration and his willingness to improvise solutions. One commenter specifically refers to Pettit as a "MacGyver in space," encapsulating this sentiment.
A thread discusses the challenges of astrophotography from the ISS, focusing on the difficulties posed by the station's movement and vibration. Commenters explore the technical intricacies of compensating for these factors, including the importance of precise tracking and stabilization. The original design of the "barn door tracker" and its limitations are also discussed, along with the advancements achieved with the newer, electronically controlled tracker.
Another commenter notes the interesting detail about using parts from a Russian cosmonaut's treadmill for the barn door tracker, further illustrating the improvisational nature of work on the ISS. This anecdote sparks a brief discussion about the collaborative environment on the station, where astronauts and cosmonauts from different nations work together and share resources.
Some comments delve into the technical specifics of the star tracker, discussing the choice of motors, control systems, and the challenges of operating equipment in the harsh conditions of space. The use of off-the-shelf components versus custom-designed parts is also touched upon.
Finally, a few commenters express their admiration for the ingenuity and dedication of the individuals involved in designing and building the star tracker, acknowledging the complexities of creating a device that can function reliably in such a demanding environment. They also appreciate the opportunity to learn about the behind-the-scenes challenges and solutions involved in space exploration.
The website "IRC Driven" presents itself as a modern indexing and search engine specifically designed for Internet Relay Chat (IRC) networks. It aims to provide a comprehensive and readily accessible archive of public IRC conversations, making them searchable and browsable for various purposes, including research, historical analysis, community understanding, and retrieving information shared within these channels.
The service operates by connecting to IRC networks and meticulously logging the public channels' activity. This logged data is then processed and indexed, allowing users to perform granular searches based on keywords, specific channels, date ranges, and even nicknames. The site highlights its commitment to transparency by offering clear explanations of its data collection methods, privacy considerations, and its dedication to respecting robots.txt and similar exclusion protocols to avoid indexing channels that prefer not to be archived.
IRC Driven emphasizes its modern approach, contrasting it with older, often outdated IRC logging methods. This modernity is reflected in its user-friendly interface, the robust search functionality, and the comprehensive scope of its indexing efforts. The site also stresses its scalability and ability to handle the vast volume of data generated by active IRC networks.
The project is presented as a valuable resource for researchers studying online communities, individuals seeking historical context or specific information from IRC discussions, and community members looking for a convenient way to review past conversations. It's posited as a tool that can facilitate understanding of evolving online discourse and serve as a repository of knowledge shared within the IRC ecosystem. The website encourages users to explore the indexed channels and utilize the search features to discover the wealth of information contained within the archives.
The Hacker News post for "IRC Driven – modern IRC indexing site and search engine" has generated several comments, discussing various aspects of the project.
Several users expressed appreciation for the initiative, highlighting the value of searchable IRC logs for retrieving past information and context. One commenter mentioned the historical significance of IRC and the wealth of knowledge contained within its logs, lamenting the lack of good indexing solutions. They see IRC Driven as filling this gap.
Some users discussed the technical challenges involved in such a project, particularly concerning the sheer volume of data and the different logging formats used across various IRC networks and clients. One user questioned the handling of logs with personally identifiable information, raising privacy concerns. Another user inquired about the indexing process, specifically whether the site indexes entire networks or allows users to submit their own logs.
The project's open-source nature and the use of SQLite were praised by some commenters, emphasizing the transparency and ease of deployment. This sparked a discussion about the scalability of SQLite for such a large dataset, with one user suggesting alternative database solutions.
Several comments focused on potential use cases, including searching for specific code snippets, debugging information, or historical project discussions. One user mentioned using the site to retrieve a lost SSH key, demonstrating its practical value. Another commenter suggested features like user authentication and the ability to filter logs by channel or date range.
There's a thread discussing the differences and overlaps between IRC Driven and other similar projects like Logs.io and Pine. Users compared the features and functionalities of each, highlighting the unique aspects of IRC Driven, such as its decentralized nature and focus on individual channels.
A few users shared their personal experiences with IRC logging and indexing, recounting past attempts to build similar solutions. One commenter mentioned the difficulties in parsing different log formats and the challenges of maintaining such a system over time.
Finally, some comments focused on the user interface and user experience of IRC Driven. Suggestions were made for improvements, such as adding syntax highlighting for code snippets and improving the search functionality.
This blog post by Naehrdine explores an unexpected reboot phenomenon observed on an iPhone running iOS 18 and details the process of reverse engineering the operating system to pinpoint the root cause. The author begins by describing the seemingly random nature of the reboots, noting they occurred after periods of inactivity, specifically overnight while the phone was charging and seemingly unused. This led to initial suspicions of a hardware issue, but traditional troubleshooting steps, like resetting settings and even a complete device restore using iTunes, failed to resolve the problem.
Faced with the persistence of the issue, the author embarked on a deeper investigation involving reverse engineering iOS 18. This involved utilizing tools and techniques to analyze the operating system's inner workings. The post explicitly mentions the use of Frida, a dynamic instrumentation toolkit, which allows for the injection of custom code into running processes, enabling real-time monitoring and manipulation. The author also highlights the use of a disassembler and debugger to examine the compiled code of the operating system and trace its execution flow.
The investigation focused on system daemons, which are background processes responsible for essential system operations. Through meticulous analysis, the author identified a specific daemon, 'powerd', as the likely culprit. 'powerd' is responsible for managing the device's power state, including sleep and wake cycles. Further examination of 'powerd' revealed a previously unknown internal check within the daemon related to prolonged inactivity. This check, under certain conditions, was triggering an undocumented system reset.
The blog post then meticulously details the specific function within 'powerd' that was causing the reboot, providing the function's name and a breakdown of its logic. The author's analysis revealed that the function appears to be designed to mitigate potential hardware or software issues arising from extended periods of inactivity by forcing a system restart. However, this function seemed to be malfunctioning, triggering the reboot even in the absence of any genuine problems.
While the author stops short of providing a definitive solution or patch, the post concludes by expressing confidence that the identified function is indeed responsible for the unexplained reboots. The in-depth analysis presented provides valuable insights into the inner workings of iOS power management and offers a potential starting point for developing a fix, either through official Apple updates or community-driven workarounds. The author's work demonstrates the power of reverse engineering in uncovering hidden behaviors and troubleshooting complex software issues.
The Hacker News post titled "Reverse Engineering iOS 18 Inactivity Reboot" sparked a discussion with several insightful comments.
One commenter questioned the necessity of the inactivity reboot, especially given its potential to interrupt important tasks like long-running computations or data transfers. They also expressed concern about the lack of user control over this feature.
Another commenter pointed out the potential security implications of the reboot, particularly if a device is left unattended and unlocked in a sensitive environment. They suggested the need for an option to disable the automatic reboot for specific situations.
A different commenter shared their personal experience with the inactivity reboot, describing the frustration of having their device restart unexpectedly during a long process. They emphasized the importance of giving users more control over such system behaviors.
Several commenters discussed the technical aspects of the reverse engineering process, praising the author of the blog post for their detailed analysis. They also speculated about the potential reasons behind Apple's implementation of the inactivity reboot, such as memory management or security hardening.
One commenter suggested that the reboot might be related to preventing potential exploits that rely on long-running processes, but acknowledged the inconvenience it causes for users.
Another commenter highlighted the potential negative impact on accessibility for users who rely on assistive technologies, as the reboot could interrupt their workflow and require them to reconfigure their settings.
Overall, the comments reflect a mix of curiosity about the technical details, concern about the potential drawbacks of the feature, and a desire for more user control over the behavior of their devices. The commenters generally appreciate the technical analysis of the blog post author while expressing a need for Apple to provide options or clarity around this feature.
This GitHub project, titled "obsidian-textgrams," introduces a novel approach to managing and displaying ASCII diagrams within Obsidian, a popular note-taking and knowledge management application. The plugin specifically addresses the challenge of storing and rendering these text-based diagrams, which are often used for visualizations, technical illustrations, and quick sketches. Instead of relying on image embedding, which can be cumbersome and inflexible, obsidian-textgrams allows users to store these diagrams directly within their Markdown files as code blocks. This maintains the inherent portability and editability of plain text.
The plugin leverages a custom code block language identifier, likely textgram or similar, to delineate these diagrams within the Markdown document. This allows Obsidian, with the plugin installed, to distinguish them from standard code blocks. Upon encountering a textgram code block, the plugin intercepts the rendering process. Instead of displaying the raw ASCII text, it parses the content and dynamically generates a visual representation of the diagram. This rendering is likely achieved using a JavaScript library capable of interpreting and visualizing ASCII characters as graphical elements, connecting lines, and forming shapes based on the provided input.
This approach offers several advantages. Firstly, it keeps the diagrams within the text file itself, promoting version control friendliness and avoiding the need to manage separate image files. Secondly, it facilitates easier editing. Users can directly modify the ASCII text within the code block, and the rendered diagram will update accordingly, streamlining the iterative design process. Finally, this method likely preserves the semantic meaning of the diagram, as the underlying ASCII text remains accessible and searchable within Obsidian. This stands in contrast to raster image-based diagrams where the underlying information is lost in the pixel data. In essence, obsidian-textgrams transforms Obsidian into a more powerful tool for working with ASCII diagrams, offering a more integrated and streamlined workflow compared to traditional image-based approaches.
The Hacker News post "Show HN: Store and render ASCII diagrams in Obsidian" at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42112168 generated several comments discussing various aspects of the project.
Several commenters appreciated the utility of the tool, particularly for quickly sketching out diagrams within Obsidian. One user pointed out the advantage of having diagrams rendered directly within the note-taking application, rather than relying on external tools or image uploads. They specifically mentioned the convenience this offers for quick brainstorming and idea capture. This sentiment was echoed by another user who highlighted the speed and ease of use compared to traditional diagramming software.
The discussion also delved into the technical aspects of the project. One commenter inquired about the rendering process, specifically whether it was client-side or server-side. The project creator clarified that rendering is handled client-side using JavaScript within Obsidian. This prompted further discussion about potential performance implications for complex diagrams.
The choice of using Mermaid.js for rendering was also a topic of conversation. One commenter suggested PlantUML as an alternative, praising its flexibility and extensive feature set. They also pointed out PlantUML's wider adoption and the availability of server-side rendering options. This led to a discussion about the trade-offs between different rendering engines, considering factors like ease of use, feature richness, and performance.
Some commenters expressed interest in extending the plugin's functionality. One suggestion involved integrating with other Obsidian plugins, specifically those focused on graph visualization. Another user proposed adding support for other diagram formats beyond Mermaid.js, such as Graphviz.
Overall, the comments reflect a positive reception of the project, with users acknowledging its practicality and potential for enhancing the Obsidian note-taking experience. The discussion also highlighted areas for potential improvement and expansion, including exploring alternative rendering engines and integrating with other Obsidian plugins. There was a definite interest in the technical aspects of implementation and a healthy discussion regarding the chosen technical stack as well as some alternatives.
Summary of Comments ( 55 )
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42712807
HN commenters largely discuss the implications of Microsoft ending support for Office apps on Windows 10. Several express frustration with Microsoft's push to upgrade to Windows 11, viewing it as a forced upgrade and an attempt to increase Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Some highlight the inconvenience this poses for users with older hardware incompatible with Windows 11. Others note the potential security risks of using unsupported software and the eventual necessity of upgrading. A few commenters point out the continuing support for Office 2019, although with limited functionality updates, and discuss the alternative of using web-based Office apps or open-source office suites like LibreOffice. Some speculate this is a move to bolster Microsoft 365 subscriptions, making offline productivity increasingly dependent on the service.
The Hacker News post titled "Microsoft won't support Office apps on Windows 10 after October 14th" has generated a number of comments discussing the implications of Microsoft's decision. Several commenters express frustration and cynicism regarding Microsoft's perceived strategy of pushing users towards newer operating systems and subscription services.
One highly upvoted comment points out the confusion this creates for users, especially given that Windows 10 is still supported until 2025. They highlight the discrepancy between supporting the OS but not the core productivity suite on that OS, questioning the logic behind this move. The commenter suggests this is a tactic to force upgrades to Windows 11, even if users are content with their current setup.
Another commenter echoes this sentiment, expressing annoyance at the constant pressure to upgrade, particularly when they are satisfied with the performance and stability of their existing software. They feel this is a blatant attempt by Microsoft to increase revenue through forced upgrades and subscriptions.
The theme of planned obsolescence is also raised, with one user arguing that this is a classic example of a company artificially limiting the lifespan of perfectly functional software to drive sales. They express disappointment in this practice and the lack of consideration for users who prefer stability over constant updates.
Some commenters discuss the technical implications, questioning the specific reasons why Office apps wouldn't function on a supported OS. They speculate about potential security concerns or underlying changes in the software architecture that necessitate the change. However, there's a general skepticism towards these explanations, with many believing it's primarily a business decision rather than a technical necessity.
A few users offer practical advice, suggesting alternatives like LibreOffice or using older, perpetual license versions of Microsoft Office. They also discuss the possibility of using virtual machines to run Windows 11 if necessary.
Several comments mention the security implications, with some suggesting that this move might actually improve security by forcing users onto a more modern and regularly updated platform. However, this is countered by others who argue that forced upgrades can disrupt workflows and create vulnerabilities if not handled properly.
Overall, the comments reflect a general sentiment of frustration and skepticism towards Microsoft's decision. Many users perceive it as a manipulative tactic to drive revenue and force upgrades, rather than a move based on genuine technical necessity or user benefit. The discussion highlights the ongoing tension between software companies' desire for continuous updates and users' preference for stability and control over their systems.