Nick @internic@qoto.org

NASA Deploys Sail of Experimental Spacecraft Propelled Purely by Light
https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-deploys-sail-of-experimental-spacecraft-propelled-purely-by-light?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Space @space-ScienceAlert

On the path to a new era in science.

In 14 days, we will be celebrating the opening of the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin (MPZPM)!

The MPZPM is an interdisciplinary joint research center of Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL), the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Elrangen-Nürnberg & the Uniklinikum Erlangen.

More 👉 https://bit.ly/About-MPZPM

R.I.P., Les Earnest - computing pioneer and curmudgeonly trouble maker (in a good way) https://web.stanford.edu/~learnest/

Absolutely trolling the commenters by guesting on an EDC/gear show and ostentatiously not covering my keys' bittings when showing off what's in my pockets. But it turns out that they're all just common keys like the CH751 & FEOK1 plus a classic KW1 stamped "HOME" cut to a bitting of 42069.

A reporter just sent me a link to this: https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/LmD-lumen-orbit-data-centers-in-space

He wants to interview me about some fucking start-up company's planned 16 km^2 solar panels and fucking *AI data centers in orbit*

I think maybe I'll just walk into the middle of my hayfield and scream for a while instead. @Jason want to join? (Others are welcome too). Screaming begins in 5... 4... 3...

NASA is known for its cool tools, and the space agency has developed another: an autonomous underwater robot. A fleet of these robots will dive deep under Antarctica’s polar ice to help scientists better understand how rapidly the ice is melting due to climate change. Learn more about Project IceNode in this video from CNN: https://flip.it/YJQaRs
#Science #NASA #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #Antarctica

The Russia-Tenet overpaid pundit operation reminds me of when a Russian literary agent suggested I could get an $100,000 advance to write a book about Kaspersky. After I explained that the company would not get any say over the content, he disappeared.

Oh here we go, Starfleet has dusted off the old "DOMINION, DOMINION, DOMINION" Playbook. How predictable.

Hey RFK Jr! Kiss my vaxxed butt!

#COVID #Flu

Against my better judgment, I posted something similar on LinkedIn, and OMG the "stay in your lane" responses dominate. It's almost as if half the security professionals in this country see absolutely zero connection between national security and cybersecurity.

It's about f'in time the big publications pressed Mr. Trump on his statements this past week that supporters just needed to vote for him one more time, and then "you don't have to vote again." Trump's response -- which is that if he's elected "the country will be fixed" and their votes won't be needed -- seems pretty unambiguous. It is absolutely unreal that this is the GOP candidate for president, and that this blatantly antidemocratic statement alone does not somehow disqualify him from running.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/30/us/harris-trump-election

I'm reading a lot about #ChatGPT4o and #htr, so I figured I'd spot-check it with this document: https://fromthepage.com/lva/va-revcon-74-76/work-7811594-024/display/33996304

The results were better than nothing, but still not great.

In particular, it was not able to read Lord Dunmore's name, nor read either of two references to "Emancipate our Slaves". If you've been following historical debates about the #1619project , you can imagine how problematic it would be to rely on this transcription for full-text search.

For what must the 10th time in 15 years, I re-learned that Levi-Civita is just a single person.

A #security question for #infosec folks: Is it advisable for the typical user to use a continuously running antivirus/anti-malware software package on MacOS? (I'll put a poll but I'm even more interested if anyone is willing to elaborate or point to informative articles on the topic.)

Can anyone point me to the source of this David Parnas quotation about certifying software engineers? "When someone builds a bridge, he uses engineers who have been certified as knowing what they are doing. Yet when someone builds you a software program, he has no similar certification, even though your safety may be just as dependent upon that software working as it is upon the bridge supporting your weight."

I’d hoped by now we’d see some substantial, effective legal challenges to existing LLMs’ reliance on stolen IP. In December we learned that Apple was seeking licensing deals with news publishers…and in June they announced their OpenAI partnership.

So long as vendors and end users have no serious legal exposure, there’s no market for ethical LLMs. That’s a real condemnation of the U.S. IP regime and legal system.