Trump leans into anti-migrant rhetoric at final Georgia rally as early voting puts state on a knife-edge

Posted inU.S.
Speaking in Macon city, the former president said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1790 if he won electionDonald Trump’s final Georgia rally filled the Atrium Health amphitheater in the city of Macon on Sunday, with early voting tallies showing that supporters from the state’s middle could prove to be decisive in the waning days of the election.Trump was an hour and a half late to the event and wore a black-and-gold “Make America Great Again” cap. Sticking to familiar themes, the former president said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1790, the law under which Japanese, Italian and German Americans were interned during the second world war, and would pursue the death penalty for undocumented immigrants who kill an American. Continue reading...

Will Charging Cables Ever Have a Single Standardzed Port?

Posted inTech
The Atlantic complains that our chaos of different plug types "was supposed to end, with USB-C as our savior." But part of the problem is what they call "the second circle of our cable hell: My USB-C may not be the same as yours. And the USB-C you bought two years ago may not be the same as the one you got today. And that means it might not do what you now assume it can." A lack of standardization is not the problem here. The industry has designed, named, and rolled out a parade of standards that pertain to USB and all its cousins. Some of those standards live inside other standards. For example, USB 3.2 Gen 1 is also known as USB 3.0, even though it's numbered 3.2. (What? Yes.) And both of these might be applied to cables with USB-A connectors, or USB-B, or USB-Micro B, or — why not? — USB-C. The variations stretch on and on toward the horizon. Hope persists that someday, eventually, this hell can be escaped — and that, given sufficient standardization, regulatory intervention, and consumer demand, a winner will emerge in the battle of the plugs. But the dream of having a universal cable is always and forever doomed, because cables, like humankind itself, are subject to the curse of time, the most brutal standard of them all. At any given moment, people use devices they bought last week alongside those they've owned for years; they use the old plugs in rental cars or airport-gate-lounge seats; they buy new gadgets with even better capabilities that demand new and different (if similar-looking) cables. Even if Apple puts a USB-C port in every new device, and so does every other manufacturer, that doesn't mean that they will do everything you will expect cables to do in the future. Inevitably, you will find yourself needing new ones. Back in 1998, the New York Times told me, "If you make your move to U.S.B. now, you can be sure that your new devices will have a port to plug into." I was ready! I'm still ready. But alas, a port to plug into has never been enough. Obligatory XKCD. Read more of this story at Slashdot.