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owl writes:

https://www.jmargolin.com/xy/xymon.htm

During my time at Atari/Atari Games I worked on several XY games. This article represents what I know about XY Monitors. XY was Atari's name for what the Computer Graphics industry calls '"Random Scan" and the Video Game Community calls "Vector Games." The major parts of the XY Monitor are the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT), the Deflection Amplifiers, and the High Voltage Supply.

Original Submission

Boeing Paper Trail Goes Cold Over Door Plug Blowout

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Boeing has come in for criticism from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) over documentation detailing who was responsible for failures in the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 door plug attachment.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy spoke before the Senate Commerce Committee on March 6. Responding to a question from ranking member Senator Ted Cruz regarding cooperation from the parties involved in the incident, Homendy said: "Boeing has not provided us with the documents and information that we have requested numerous times over the past few months. Specifically with respect to opening, closing, and removal of the door and the team that does that work at the Renton facility."

[...] Investigations have since focused on the door plug and how it was fitted. A preliminary investigation found that the door plug had not been properly bolted into place following work to deal with damaged rivets at the edge of the door frame.

"Wow," said Cruz. "Are you telling us that even two months later, you still do not know who actually opened the door plug?"

"That's correct, Senator," replied Homendy. "We don't know, and it's not for lack of trying." Homendy acknowledged that it can take a while for all the paperwork to be forthcoming. "But for this one, it's two months later."

Homendy told the committee that despite inquiries, the NTSB had not received the names of the 25-member team handling the door plugs. It had also not received all the records regarding the work to deal with the door plug and was having to use email dates and photographs to work out the timeline.

"It's absurd that we don't have that," said Homendy.

owl writes:

https://hellgatenyc.com/nypd-warrantless-subpoena-copwatcher-social-media

The NYPD sent a sweeping subpoena seeking information from the social media account of the president of a New York City police accountability organization in February, records reviewed by Hell Gate show, only to withdraw its subpoena when told they would need to justify the subpoena in court.

Michael Clancy, better known to friends on and off social media as Rabbi, received a notice last month from X, formerly known as Twitter, alerting him to the fact that the NYPD had sent X a subpoena requesting "all records consisting but not limited to all subscriber name(s), Email address(s), Phone number(s), account creation date, IP logs with timestamps (IP address of account logins and logouts), all logs of previous messages sent and received." The subpoena also requested "all videos sent and received, including but not limited to meta-data. exit data about the messages and videos" for the account.

The notification included a copy of the subpoena, which warned X not to tell Clancy of its existence. "You are not to disclose or notify any customer or third party of the existence of this subpoena or that records were provided pursuant to this subpoena," the document read.

But X, following its own corporate policy, told Clancy anyway, and suggested he might want to get some legal representation to fight the subpoena, recommending the American Civil Liberties Union.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Banana Pi's low-cost router supports 2.5G+5G WiFi with LAN ports:

Banana Pi is now selling a fully built Wi-Fi 6 router with some solid features for just $30 excluding shipping via Ali Express. This router uses OpenWRT firmware and dual-core Arm A9 Processor-based Triductor TR6560 SoC with Triductor's TR5220 WiFi 6 chipset.

The company has been selling this WiFi 6 router board on its own, but now you can buy an out-of-box unit that contains an enclosure for the board with six external antennas, Ethernet cables, and a power adapter with either EU or US plugs. The only difference here is that one of the LAN ports is removed.

[...] The router supports the 802.11ax bandwidth protocol and provides WPA3 password protection. Power over Ethernet is optional and can be added via a module, but it needs to be soldered. Banana Pi's wiki page specifies that its 2.4G signal works up to 40 meters to provide 573.5 Mbps bandwidth and 5G works up to 160 meters up to 2,401.9 Mbps.

Read the specs here.

Related:

• Celebrating 20 years of OpenWrt with Hardware Design
• OpenWRT Package Manager Vulnerability Allows Remote Code Execution
• Reunited with LEDE, OpenWrt Releases Stable 18.06 Version

Original Submission

taylorvich writes:

https://newatlas.com/energy/sand-battery-finland/

A new industrial-scale 'sand battery' has been announced for Finland, which packs 1 MW of power and a capacity of up to 100 MWh of thermal energy for use during those cold polar winters. The new battery will be about 10 times bigger than a pilot plant that's been running since 2022.

The sand battery, developed by Polar Night Energy, is a clever concept. Basically, it's a big steel silo of sand (or a similar solid material) that's warmed up through a heat exchanger buried in the center, using excess electricity from the grid – say, that generated during a spike from renewable sources, when it's cheap.

That energy can then be stored for months at a time, with reportedly very little loss, before being extracted as heat on demand. This could theoretically be converted back into electricity, although with some energy loss. But Polar Night says that the most efficient method is to just use the heat itself.

In a chilly place like Finland, that means feeding it into the local district heating system, which shares heat produced from industry or energy production through the community. Networks of pipes carry this heat as hot water or steam to warm up houses, buildings, even swimming pools. In this case, the new sand battery would be trialed in the district heating system of the Finnish municipality of Pornainen, run by a company called Loviisan Lämpö.

This new sand battery is expected to stand 13 m (42.7 ft) tall and 15 m (49.2 ft) wide, providing an output power of 1 MW and a capacity of 100 MWh. That, the companies claim, equates to a week's worth of Pornainen's heat demands in winter, or a month's worth in summer. By comparison, Polar Night's previous sand battery stands 4 x 7 m (13 x 23 ft), for a nominal power rating of 100 kW and a capacity of 8 MWh.

Original Submission

wirelessduck writes:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/02/broadcom-owned-vmware-kills-the-free-version-of-esxi-virtualization-software/

Since Broadcom's $61 billion acquisition of VMware closed in November 2023, Broadcom has been charging ahead with major changes to the company's personnel and products. In December, Broadcom began laying off thousands of employees and stopped selling perpetually licensed versions of VMware products, pushing its customers toward more stable and lucrative software subscriptions instead. In January, it ended its partner programs, potentially disrupting sales and service for many users of its products.

This week, Broadcom is making a change that is smaller in scale but possibly more relevant for home users of its products: The free version of VMware's vSphere Hypervisor, also known as ESXi, is being discontinued.

ESXi is what is known as a "bare-metal hypervisor," lightweight software that runs directly on hardware without requiring a separate operating system layer in between. ESXi allows you to split a PC's physical resources (CPUs and CPU cores, RAM, storage, networking components, and so on) among multiple virtual machines. ESXi also supports passthrough for PCI, SATA, and USB accessories, allowing guest operating systems direct access to components like graphics cards and hard drives.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Reddit aims for $6.4bn valuation ahead of initial public offering:

Reddit, one of the most popular websites in the world, is hoping for a valuation of up to $6.4bn (£5bn) when its shares go public next week.

The social media company, which has never made a profit, will float shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

A filing in the US revealed that Reddit and its investors are hoping to sell 22 million shares for between $31 and $34 each.

However, many users worry the move will fundamentally change the website.

Some shares will be specially reserved for some Reddit users and moderators.

The company is planning an initial public offering (IPO) which would make some of its shares publicly available to buy for the first time.

"Our users have a deep sense of ownership over the communities they create on Reddit," wrote co-founder Steve Huffman in a letter to prospective investors released a few weeks ago.

"We want this sense of ownership to be reflected in real ownership - for our users to be our owners. Becoming a public company makes this possible."

Reddit, which was founded almost 20 years ago, is an online forum where users can post questions and comment on topics that interest them.

[...] However, some users are worried that the IPO would change the site for the worse.

"When the most important customers shift from [users] to shareholders, the product always [suffers]," said one person.

"It becomes 'what can we do this quarter to squeak out an additional point of revenue', instead of 'how can we make this product better'."

[Hmmm, a site built on user-submitted topics and user-submitted comments that has never made a profit might be worth $6B . . . maybe after the new site is set up we should IPO while the iron is still hot! --hubie]

Original Submission

SomeGuy writes:

The Verge is reporting, in what appears to be a surprise move, that Microsoft is ending support for its Android subsystem in Windows.

Microsoft is ending support for its Android subsystem in Windows 11 next year. The software giant first announced it was bringing Android apps to Windows 11 with Amazon's Appstore nearly three years ago, but this Windows Subsystem for Android will now be deprecated starting March 5th, 2025.

"Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android" (WSA), reads a new support document from Microsoft. "As a result, the Amazon Appstore on Windows and all applications and games dependent on WSA will no longer be supported beginning March 5, 2025."

If you currently use Android apps from the Amazon Appstore, then you'll continue to have access to these past the support cutoff date, but you won't be able to download any new ones once Microsoft makes its Android subsystem end of life next year. [Since] March 6th [2024], Windows 11 users will no longer be able to search for Amazon Appstore or associated Android apps from the Microsoft Store.

Original Submission

taylorvich writes:

https://newatlas.com/biology/tap-honeybee-colony/

Delivering a gentle automated tap to the outside of a hive and recording the honeybees' collective response can give an indication of the colony's health without having to look inside, new research has found.

At last check, there were an estimated 115,000 to 125,000 beekeepers in the US, most of whom were hobbyists. In particular, ownership of honeybee colonies appears to have risen in recent years, with amateur apiarists wanting to help preserve these powerful pollinators in addition to generating their own source of sweet, sticky goodness.

But caring for honeybees can be tricky. Colonies follow very specific activity patterns throughout the year; they should be very busy in warmer months and idle when it's cold. So, they need to be checked regularly for health and productivity. Beekeepers can inspect hives by opening them, but this invasive process risks harm to the colony, particularly the all-important queen.

A new study led by researchers from Nottingham Trent University in the UK suggests they have a solution: gauging health by gently tapping the hive and listening for the bees' collective response.

"It's a bit like a bear that falls asleep for the winter; sometimes, you cannot tell if the animal is alive or not," said Martin Bencsik, the study's lead and corresponding author. "A gentle tap, causing a tiny, but measurable reaction, will reveal whether the animal is in its normal state or not."

The researchers' 'gentle tap' was delivered at random times by an electromagnetic shaker attached to a hive's outer wall, driven by a computer that provided a 0.1-second pulse at 340 Hz. The honeybees' response was recorded by an accelerometer embedded in the middle of the hive's frame, which was sensitive to the insects' vibrations.

upstart writes:

SpaceX Plans Test Launch of Super Heavy and Starship:

The third flight test of Starship is targeted to launch Thursday, March 14. The 110-minute test window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT (8:00 a.m. ET).

A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to stay tuned to our X account for updates.

Starship's second flight test achieved a number of major milestones and provided invaluable data to continue rapidly developing Starship. Each of these flight tests continue to be just that: a test. They aren't occurring in a lab or on a test stand, but are putting flight hardware in a flight environment to maximize learning.

The third flight test aims to build on what we've learned from previous flights while attempting a number of ambitious objectives, including the successful ascent burn of both stages, opening and closing Starship's payload door, a propellant transfer demonstration during the upper stage's coast phase, the first ever re-light of a Raptor engine while in space, and a controlled reentry of Starship. It will also fly a new trajectory, with Starship targeted to splashdown in the Indian Ocean. This new flight path enables us to attempt new techniques like in-space engine burns while maximizing public safety.

This rapid iterative development approach has been the basis for all of SpaceX's major innovative advancements, including Falcon, Dragon, and Starlink. Recursive improvement is essential as we work to build a fully reusable transportation system capable of carrying both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, help humanity return to the Moon, and ultimately travel to Mars and beyond.

Original Submission

wirelessduck writes:

Google's swanky new "Bay View" campus apparently has a major problem: bad Wi-Fi. Reuters reports that Google's first self-designed office building has "been plagued for months by inoperable or, at best, spotty Wi-Fi, according to six people familiar with the matter." A Google spokesperson confirmed the problems and said the company is working on fixing them.

Bay View opened in May 2022. At launch, Google's VP of Real Estate & Workplace Services, David Radcliffe, said the site "marks the first time we developed one of our own major campuses, and the process gave us the chance to rethink the very idea of an office." The result is a wild tent-like structure with a striking roofline made up of swooping square sections. Of course, it's all made of metal and glass, but the roof shape looks like squares of cloth held up by poles—each square section has high points on the four corners and sags down in the middle. The roof is covered in solar cells and collects rainwater while also letting in natural light, and Google calls it the "Gradient Canopy."

According to one AI engineer assigned to the building, which also houses members of the advertising team, the wonky Wi-Fi has been no help for Google pushing a three day per week return-to-office mandate.

"You'd think the world's leading internet company would have worked this out," he said. Like others, he spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity because Google has not authorized them to talk about work conditions.

Managers have encouraged workers to stroll outside or sit at the adjoining cafe where the Wi-Fi signal is stronger.

Original Submission

[We have had several complaints recently (polite ones, not a problem) regarding the number of AI stories that we are printing. I agree, but that reflects the number of submissions that we receive on the subject. So I have compiled a small selection of AI stories into one and you can read them or ignore them as you wish. If you are making a comment please make it clear exactly which story you are referring to unless your comment is generic. The submitters each receive the normal karma for a submission. JR]

Image-scraping Midjourney bans rival AI firm for scraping images

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/03/in-ironic-twist-midjourney-bans-rival-ai-firm-employees-for-scraping-its-image-data/

On Wednesday, Midjourney banned all employees from image synthesis rival Stability AI from its service indefinitely after it detected "botnet-like" activity suspected to be a Stability employee attempting to scrape prompt and image pairs in bulk. Midjourney advocate Nick St. Pierre tweeted about the announcement, which came via Midjourney's official Discord channel.

[...] Siobhan Ball of The Mary Sue found it ironic that a company like Midjourney, which built its AI image synthesis models using training data scraped off the Internet without seeking permission, would be sensitive about having its own material scraped. "It turns out that generative AI companies don't like it when you steal, sorry, scrape, images from them. Cue the world's smallest violin."

[...] Shortly after the news of the ban emerged, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque said that he was looking into it and claimed that whatever happened was not intentional. He also said it would be great if Midjourney reached out to him directly. In a reply on X, Midjourney CEO David Holz wrote, "sent you some information to help with your internal investigation."

[...] When asked about Stability's relationship with Midjourney these days, Mostaque played down the rivalry. "No real overlap, we get on fine though," he told Ars and emphasized a key link in their histories. "I funded Midjourney to get [them] off the ground with a cash grant to cover [Nvidia] A100s for the beta."

Midjourney stories on SoylentNews: https://soylentnews.org/search.pl?tid=&query=Midjourney&sort=2
Stable Diffusion (Stability AI) stories on SoylentNews: https://soylentnews.org/search.pl?tid=&query=Stable+Diffusion&sort=2

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Russian troops in Ukraine have allegedly been using SpaceX’s Starlink terminals to get internet access during the ongoing war that has seen hundreds of thousands of casualties on each side. And now, House Democrats are finally asking hard questions of SpaceX leadership about how this could be happening, according to an open letter published on Thursday.

The letter to SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell from some top Democrats in the House makes the case that Starlink’s high-speed satellite internet access is considered essential to Ukraine’s continued ability to fight against Russia’s invasion, which first started in February 2022.

The letter from the Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Rep. Robert Garcia of California, stresses that Russia’s use of Starlink tech would be “potentially in violation of U.S. sanctions and export controls.”

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on February 15 that Russian troops have been using Starlink internet for “quite a long time,” according to Ukraine’s Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov.

Russia is believed to be acquiring the Starlink terminals from black market sellers, sometimes posing as German appliance manufacturers according to the Journal, but SpaceX leaders presumably have insight into who and how these terminals might be used by illicit Russian actors. For example, Musk shut off Starlink access for Ukrainian-controlled devices in Crimea early in the war, ostensibly to stop an “escalation” of the conflict.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

For more than 45 years, the Voyager 1 spacecraft has been cruising through the cosmos, crossing the boundary of our solar system to become the first human-made object to venture to interstellar space. Iconic in every regard, Voyager 1 has delivered groundbreaking data on Jupiter and Saturn, and captured the loneliest image of Earth. But perhaps nothing is lonelier than an aging spacecraft that has lost its ability to communicate while traveling billions of miles away from home.

NASA’s Voyager 1 has been glitching for months, sending nonsensical data to ground control. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have been trying to resolve the issue, but given how far the spacecraft currently is, the process has been extremely slow. Things are looking pretty bleak for the aging mission, which might be nearing the end. Still, NASA isn’t ready to let go of its most distant spacecraft just yet.

“The team continues information gathering and are preparing some steps that they’re hopeful will get them on a path to either understand the root of the problem and/or solve it,” a JPL spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email.

The anomaly may have something to do with the spacecraft’s flight data system (FDS). FDS collects data from Voyager’s science instruments, as well as engineering data about the health of the spacecraft and combines them into a single package that’s transmitted to Earth through one of the probe’s subsystems, the telemetry modulation unit (TMU), in binary code.

FDS and TMU, however, may be having trouble communicating with one another. As a result, TMU has been sending data to mission control in a repeating pattern of ones and zeroes.

Related:
    Humanity's Most Distant Space Probe Jeopardized by Computer Glitch
    Engineers Work to Fix Voyager 1 Computer

Original Submission