Armed services committee house

The recently updated website for President Joe Biden's White House carried an invitation for tech specialists savvy enough to find it. Hidden in the HTML code on https://www.whitehouse.gov was an invitation to join the U.S. Digital Service, a technology unit within the White House. "If you're reading this, we need your help building back better," the message said. Former President Barack Obama launched the service in 2014 to recruit technologists to help revamp government services - for example by modernizing Medicare's payment system or reforming hiring practices across government agencies. Tech specialists join the Digital Service for typically one or two years. … [Read more...] about In hidden message on White House website, Joe Biden calls for coders

Majungasaurus crenatissimus was a 21-foot-long (6.4 meters) predator that was "pretty much the top dog" in what is now Madagascar 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period, said Stony Brook University graduate student Sara Burch. Burch analyzed a recently discovered, nearly complete forelimb of this ancient animal, the first ever found preserved. In contrast to the dinosaur's bulky body, Burch found that its arms weren't even a foot (0.3 meters) long. … [Read more...] about Big Mean Dinosaur Had Stubby Little Arms and Fat Fingers

Sometimes when we as tech journalists write opinion pieces, speculative essays, or the occasional hot-take, we necessarily do so before we've had the benefit of extended time with a device or service to reflect on our initial impressions and hands-on opportunities. It's not often that we have the time, or the opportunity, to revisit those early thought pieces. Oh, sure, we revisit big-ticket items and flagship devices like the OnePlus 8 Pro after six months or so, but that's certainly not true of most devices, apps, or services. At least, not for me. … [Read more...] about After further review, I think I can now get behind Amazon Music’s feature stuffing

But despite those efforts, many deaf and hard of hearing viewers still found the inauguration inaccessible. Most broadcast stations didn’t have an ASL interpreter on-screen and used automated captions, which are notoriously inaccurate. In what some saw as a particularly frustrating move, several live streams switched to a wide shot of the crowd in the middle of Hall’s signing of the pledge, cutting off the only portion of the event during which signing appeared at center stage. … [Read more...] about Inauguration Day was more accessible than ever, but there’s still a ways to go

Although Beeper integrates with world’s most popular messaging services like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Slack, Twitter, Discord, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, it’s the support for Apple’s iMessage that’s perhaps most interesting. iMessage is only officially available on Apple devices, and it’s often cited by users as something that prevents them switching to Android. Migicovsky says Beeper should allow iMessage to work on Android, Windows, and Linux, but admits that it’s “using some trickery” in doing so. … [Read more...] about Pebble founder promises iMessage on Android and Windows with universal chat app