TikTok’s stance on guns and gun-related content is clear: Do not post videos featuring firearms unless you’re in a “controlled environment.” Unfortunately, that policy isn’t enforced in any significant way. A quick look through its sprawling social network of short, goofy clips paints an alarmingly different picture — especially for a platform where one-third of the users are age 14 or under . Videos that demonstrate the process of manufacturing ammunition at home, 3D-printing guns, crafting hiding places for illegal weapons, tours of personal arsenals, shooting heavy firearms outdoors, and more appear to run rampant on TikTok. In a cursory search, Digital Trends discovered dozens of such clips which clearly violated TikTok’s community guidelines and managed to accumulate, in several cases, over half a million views and hundreds of comments. Most of these are not hard to find either. They’re filed under common hashtags like “#gun,” “#pewpew,” “#freedomseeds,” “#glock,” and more … [Read more...] about TikTok has a gun problem, and it’s doing nothing to fix it
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Raspberry Pi Controls Ceiling Fan with Radio Waves
Some of the most fun Raspberry Pi projects come with a warning label and this is one of them! River's Educational Channel recently shared a project in which a Raspberry Pi is used to control a ceiling fan using radio waves. This is an impressive project from beginning to end but be cautious if you choose to remake it yourself at home. Certain radio frequencies may be illegal to use without a proper license. After capturing the fan remote's signal and decoding it, the Raspberry Pi could be used in its place to issue commands to the Pi. An antenna is connected to the GPIO is used to transmit signals to the fan. Because of legality concerns, certain radio frequencies need to be avoided. This was resolved by adding a filter to remove the unwanted and illegal bands. Not only were the makers successfully able control the fan from a Pi but they also developed a custom GUI that can be accessed using a smartphone or PC. This GUI is pre-programmed with common light and fan … [Read more...] about Raspberry Pi Controls Ceiling Fan with Radio Waves
From hero to zero: The stunning demise of the iMac Pro
Apple has discontinued the iMac Pro . After introducing it in 2017 as “the fastest, most powerful Mac ever made,” the company has apparently decided it has become redundant. It is a spectacular fall in a mere four years for the machine that signaled Apple’s renewed commitment to the Mac. So, what went wrong? Did it lose its way among the upcoming Apple Silicon Macs or was it doomed from the beginning? As we pour one out for the iMac Pro, let’s consider what its failure tells us about the future of professional-level Macs. The flaw at the heart of the design Despite all the onstage bluster at its unveiling, Apple likely knew it was taking a gamble with the iMac Pro. Although it was housed in an iMac’s shell, the iMac Pro was a step above its all-in-one sibling. It married sleek design with workstation-class components, including Intel Xeon processors and AMD Radeon Pro Vega graphics chips. It was the first pro-level desktop Mac to come with an integrated display (a 5K one at … [Read more...] about From hero to zero: The stunning demise of the iMac Pro