2025-10-30 07:06:53
Jay Peters, writing for The Verge:
However, despite Elon Musk promising that Grokipedia would be a “massive improvement” over Wikipedia, some articles appear to be cribbing information from Wikipedia. At the bottom of the page for the MacBook Air, for example, you can see this message: “The content is adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.” In some cases, the cribbing goes farther than a rewrite: I’ve also seen that message on pages for the PlayStation 5 and the Lincoln Mark VIII, and both of those pages are almost identical — word-for-word, line-for-line — to their Wikipedia counterparts.
“Even Grokipedia needs Wikipedia to exist,” Lauren Dickinson, a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia tells The Verge. You can read Dickinson’s full statement in full at the end of this article.
At launch, Grokipedia is to Wikipedia as a chewed piece of gum is to a fresh piece of gum still in its wrapper. And imagine that the gum was chewed by someone with a dipping tobacco habit.
2025-10-30 04:26:02
Nick Vadala, reporting for the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Longtime WMMR-FM host Pierre Robert was found dead in his home Wednesday. He was 70.
Robert’s surname, I must point out, rhymes with Pierre (and with Colbert).
A native of Northern California, Robert joined WMMR as an on-air host in 1981. He arrived in the city after his previous station, San Francisco’s KSAN, switched to an Urban Cowboy format, prompting him to make the cross-country drive to Philadelphia in a Volkswagen van. “I came because of a relationship,” he told The Inquirer last year. “I was in love. The love part didn’t work out, but the job part did.”
As a newly minted Philadelphian, Robert began working at a local health food store as he interviewed for radio jobs around town, but found little luck initially. One day, while dining at Astral Plane, a long-closed restaurant formerly on Lombard Street, he introduced himself to WMMR program director Joe Bonnadonna and announcer Charlie Kendall, and despite getting on well with the pair, he learned there were no openings at the station.
But weeks later, he received a letter from Bonnadonna, and interviewed for a job at the station during a concert from Philly rock band The Hooters at the Chestnut Cabaret. He soon started working in the station’s music library and office making $3.50 an hour, and later began appearing on the air.
There’s no more Philadelphia a Philadelphia origin story than a radio host interviewing for his job during a Hooters concert at the Chestnut Cabaret — and then going on to stay at the same station for 44 years. Impossible for me to overstate just how much Robert’s voice was the voice of music for me and my entire friend group growing up and even through college. You tuned the dial to 93.3 FM and left it there.
My favorite bit of his was an obscure one, a character named Reginald the Butler. Robert always had Reginald on during the holidays, while spinning Christmas rock songs. But here’s a classic segment from 1988 with Robert and Reginald interviewing David Lee Roth, who was then on a solo tour and about to play the Spectrum.
Rest in peace, my fellow citizen.
2025-10-30 00:00:28
James Thomson:
I’ve released a small PCalc 4.11.1 update that’s out now for the Mac.
There was a bug with the theme getting reset, which I could have fixed in five minutes, but I ended up doing what I should have done over three decades ago, and added a dedicated section to the settings that puts all the visual customisation in one place.
No more having to search for all this stuff in a submenu somewhere!
After the glum news this week regarding Nisus Writer, it feels good to link to a similarly-aged Mac app that’s still thriving. If you’ve never tried PCalc, you’re missing out.
2025-10-29 23:14:29
Tim Hardwick, writing for MacRumors:
The Apple Maps EV Routing option will allow Toyota BEV users to plan travel routes that include stops for charging. Without it, drivers would have had to exit out of CarPlay in order to create a route that included charging stops.
Apple Maps’ EV Routing feature uses real-time data from the vehicle to guide drivers to their destinations more efficiently, automatically suggesting charging stops when needed. The system takes into account elevation changes and other driving conditions to decide when a recharge is necessary. If the vehicle’s battery level becomes too low, Apple Maps will automatically direct the driver to the nearest compatible charging station.
Meanwhile GM CEO Mary Barra is spending her lunch hour eating another jar of paste.
2025-10-29 22:51:30
The Onion, in February 2004: “Fuck Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades”.
2025-10-29 22:40:28
The Economist:
Presidents’ popularity tends to wane. In his second term Donald Trump’s has fallen faster than that of his recent predecessors.
Since modern polling began most presidents have started their terms with positive net approval ratings (the share of voters who approve of their job performance minus the share who disapprove). Both of Mr Trump’s terms began with public opinion split nearly evenly. In both cases his net approval rating quickly turned negative. Now it is -18, the lowest it has been since his inauguration — and three percentage-points lower than at any point in his first term.
State-by-state, Trump is only above water in nine states: Idaho, Wyoming, West Virginia, Montana, North Dakota, Utah, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.
Donald Trump’s presidential approval rating fell in recent days, tying the lowest level of his term, as more Americans frowned on his handling of the cost of living, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The three-day poll, which concluded on Sunday, showed 40% of Americans approve of the Republican leader’s job performance, compared to 42% in an October 15-20 Reuters/Ipsos poll. Trump’s popularity has been within a percentage point or two of its current level in every Reuters/Ipsos poll since mid-May. The share of people who say they disapprove of his performance has grown, from 52% in a May 16-18 poll to 57% in the latest survey.
So the Economist has him at -18, Reuters at -17.
