Nuclear Monster

  • The most beloved mechanical keyboard among some is IBM’s Model M keyboard, it popularized the buckling spring switch for the utmost tactility and sound. Now, Unicomp is making a Mini M in a familiar design that sacrifices the number pad in order to use less desk space than the original Model M. Unicomp also swapped out the detachable PS2 cable for a new detachable USB wire.

    This Mini M is only available in black, and there are two keycap color options (All Gray or White & Gray) however the buckling spring switches most likely aren’t compatible with most custom keycap sets. Those custom keycap sets are designed to work with Cherry MX-compatible switches that have a different mounting mechanism for keycaps.

    The Mini M is available now from Unicomp for $121.

  • Daft Punk announced their retirement via the above video titled Epilogue today after almost three decades of making tremendous music. What a career.

  • NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance has several cameras that record high resolution footage to give us these never before seen views of our neighbor Mars and the landing process it takes to get there.

    NASA and JPL also released this amazing audio giving us an opportunity to hear what standing on Mars sounds like with the noise of the rover filtered out:

    and including the noise from the rover:

  • Mary-Ann Russon for the BBC:

    The ruling on Friday was Uber’s last appeal, as the Supreme Court is Britain’s highest court, and it has the final say on legal matters.
    Delivering his judgement, Lord Leggatt said that the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Uber’s appeal that it was an intermediary party and stated that drivers should be considered to be working not only when driving a passenger, but whenever logged in to the app.

    Uber has been exploiting workers for years now by pretending the workers aren’t employees. Uber sets the pay rate, decides who is allowed to drive, what kind of vehicles are allowed to be used, when driving may occur, the price charged to the customer, and is definitely an employer even if the relationship happens through a phone application.

    Congrats to the App Drivers & Couriers Union for helping to deliver this victory for labor rights for workers in the United Kingdom especially on this part of the win as they describe it:

    The court further clarified that working time for the purposes of calculation of the minimum wage and holiday pay would be from logon to log off including stand by time. The court rejected Uber’s argument that if drivers are workers then working time should only be calculated as journey time with a paying passenger. This decision alone has significant implications for reducing urban congestion, pollution and poverty since Uber will now have the correct economic incentive to efficiently utilise driver and vehicle working time.

  • Collecting The Lost Vikings, Rock N Roll Racing, and Blackthorne the Blizzard Arcade Collection is out now for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One with only backwards compatibility bringing the pack to the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

    These games are still available as free downloads from Blizzard’s site, and have been for a long time, so it is a little surprising to see Blizzard charging $20 for them now, but you also get them bundled with assorted other add-ons for Overwatch, Diablo 3, and other games, and a few upgrades like widescreen support, the ability to rewind over mistakes, save-anywhere support, and co-op. Blackthorne also got a weird interactive let’s play kind of thing that Blizzard calls “watch mode” where you can drop in at any time and control the game. Neat.