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wa7iut

@wa7iut@mastodon.radio

Licensed since 1967. Boise, Idaho, USA. Doing a lot of wireless IoT professionally (mainly BLE). Working on getting back on the air, with a magnetic loop this time. Like SWL'ing and CW.

Getting Started with Bluetooth Low Energy book:
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/getting-started-with/9781491900550/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertdavidson

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

wdlindsy , to random
@wdlindsy@toad.social avatar

As Lisa Needham notes, Louisiana's Ten Commandments law is designed to give the right-wing Supreme Court justices who want to erase the line between church and state cherry-picked pseudohistorical examples to justify that erasure.

Driven by a powerful evangelical minority, a number of states are "hoping to bend the Constitution until it breaks."


/1

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/louisiana-ten-commandments-law-alito-thomas

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@wdlindsy

Which church tho! There was a time when quality entertainment for the Church of England was burning Baptists at the stake.😱

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

I just disconnected my work laptop from my home office monitor and keyboard for the last time. It’s a little sad. But mostly a happy thing.

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@jerry

on the brightside, you still have a monitor and keyboard…

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

There is a really crazy paper where they did the "mirror dot" test for self recognition on ants. BUT. It's in the "Journal of Science" which isn't "Science" ... and it's odd to have an insect paper not in an insect journal.

And this is their webpage:

https://www.journalofscience.net

Listen I just want this paper to be real, but it's kind of out there and the journal IDK.

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@futurebird @enriquericos

New York Ants!

loren , to random
@loren@flipping.rocks avatar

Burrowing owls sound like a thing someone made up and not just an adorable owl that lives in a hole in the ground

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@loren

they live in my field, they like badger holes

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

Apparently I am “I have no idea where I put my wallet 3 days ago” years old 😕

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@jerry
no job, no wallet 😱

loren , to random
@loren@flipping.rocks avatar

carpenter bee off to work

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@loren
I saw a lot of wild bees of various types in the hills above Boise today.

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

Apologies for the downtime on infosec.exchange. Hetzner performed some switch maintenance that was supposed to only cause "momentary packet loss", but in fact disconnected servers from the vlan until I manually refreshed the vlan.

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@jerry

imagine it must get tiring manually fanning the vlan and serving it lemonade until it’s refreshed.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I decided to find out if any progress had been made on the science behind why some ants are attracted to electrical fields. After filtering out exterminators (it's so demoralizing to search for information on creatures you love and find nothing but people who know nothing about them boasting about how they will kill them all) I found what looked like a blog. But, who the heck is "James Brown"? Never heard of the dude. Maybe he could be my new friend if he likes ants enough to blog about them!

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@futurebird

only James Brown I know 😂

https://youtu.be/xeSwrFKFNFw?si=yGyMyx2kZC-ZomjB

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@futurebird @wmd @alexwild

I wonder if a non-profit search engine is possible. I can’t believe Google is willing to burn down their brand like this. Also, an opening for curated information services like Wikipedia and Encylopedia Brittanica.

I was initially skeptical of Wikipedia and I feel a little bad about the article I contributed about hummingbirds hitching rides on the backs of geese (it didn’t last long) but Wikipedia has proven very reliable for what I need.

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@futurebird @wmd

I’ve been contributing too, though annually and recommend everyone who uses it also contribute what you can. They are generally the first place I look for information. The techical articles in the areas I know about have been very good quality. Certainly should be supported. Anything free means you’re the product.

fulelo , to random
@fulelo@journa.host avatar

V The Economist:

has become a scientific superpower

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/06/12/china-has-become-a-scientific-superpower

According to the Leiden Ranking of the volume of scientific research output, there are now six Chinese universities or institutions in the world top ten, and seven according to the Nature Index. They may not be household names in the West yet, but get used to hearing about Shanghai Jiao Tong, Zhejiang and Peking (Beida) Universities in the same breath as Cambridge, Harvard and ETH Zurich.

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@futurebird @fulelo

financialization of the US economy and moving manufacturing off-shore, mainly to China (Designed in California, built in China) accelerated China’s mastery of technology. The science is apolitical and available to anyone willing to work hard. The recent US policies to deny China access to US chips is a it’s root racist policy, assuming the Chinese won’t figure it out. Our politics is shortsighted and often racist. I could go on but I’m out of chars.

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@futurebird @fulelo

Sorry, one more thing. I received my PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsbugh, PA back in the 90s. 65% of the grad students then were from Asian countries, most from PRC. Many used to stay here after graduation and add to the US economy. Our anti-immigrant attitudes/policies now discourage that. We reap what we sow. Our politics, especially on the right is stupid and short sighted. It’s embarrassing…

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@futurebird @fulelo

The history of the place being primarily vocational explains a lot. It’s university w/o all those pesky departments of english, history, and philosophy 😱. Mostly, I blame the bag pipes!

I’ve always been a “hands-on” type who spent my formative years in the basement building ham radios, so it suited me 😂. I also had a great advisor, Stan Charap, who came from Brooklyn, NYC and had the gravitas of a rabbi.

My office mates were from France, Greece, and PRC.

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@futurebird @fulelo

Given the Pittsburgh winters, I spent a lot of time figuring out how to navigate from Hammerslag Hall to Hamburg Hall via steam tunnels w/o going outside. That meant traversing the Robotics Institute where you might get run over by someone’s robot project.

CMU, far more than other universities I’ve had experience with, emphasizes collaboration across departments. That’s a real strength. Most universities are so siloed, even discourage working outside of one’s department.

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@codefolio @futurebird @fulelo

Speaking of vocational, I really resonated with this paper, “Shop Class as Soulcraft” by Mathew Crawford. I’m also a motorcycle enthusiast, so this and “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Pirsig express better than I can my feelings about getting your hands dirty and craftsmanship.

or, as they’d say at CMU, “My Heart is in the Work.”

https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/shop-class-as-soulcraft

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@futurebird @codefolio @fulelo

unless one of those robots ran over you😂

loren , to random
@loren@flipping.rocks avatar

i saw the most perfect bee today

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@loren

that will never fly, wings are too small

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@loren

amazing bee detail when you zoom in tho! (considering it was flying)

futurebird , (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

There are a lot of analog horror works that try to make moths scary and ... I just don't get it. Moths are such silly little floofs. Total disasters. Just fuzzy ones.

How can that be scary?

Oh there's a skull on the fuzzy wuzzy little moth? It's like a teddy bear trying to be in a biker gang.

Oh the moths are huge? Huggable at last!

Creatures with no intimidation factor. Only spooky trait is liking The Nitetime but that's because they are shy :(

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@futurebird

cool name tho!

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Lost in all the jokes about "I'd rather be electrocuted than eaten by a shark." -Trump

(It's right up there with "But let me tell you something that I found out: A werewolf can kill a vampire. Did you know that? I never knew that." - Herschel Walker Ah, yes, Republican wisdom!)

But lost in all the kerfuffle was another curious comment from Trump about sharks:

"I watched some guys justifying it ... They bit off the young lady’s leg ... These people are crazy."

So, about THAT. 1/

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@futurebird

“Some men see things as they are and ask, "Why?" I dream things that never were and ask, "Why not?"

  • Robert F. Kennedy

“I say, ‘What would happen if the boat sank from its weight, and you’re in the boat, and you have this tremendously powerful battery, and the battery’s now underwater, and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there?”

-Donald Trump

loren , to random
@loren@flipping.rocks avatar

Hanging out with a muskrat AMA

wa7iut ,
@wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

@loren

what version of Muskrat Love do they like the best?
https://youtu.be/N2BuP-NcJ5Q?si=V6UBXXEQQ7dh7WAJ

18+ futurebird , (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

There are all kinds of people in the world who see things in all kinds of different ways.

(US pol/ Trump tw)

A "truth" from Lara "Women For Trump" on Truth Social. Trump2024 Our very last chance to save our Country. (praying hands, US Flag) An AI image of Trump and Melania Holding hands, as they never have in life, as they look at a candle together. They both look sad and pensive as they have never looked in life. "Re-electing Trump is no longer a political choice it's a survival choice."
ALT
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    • wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @futurebird

    can’t unsee that tho!

    jerry , to random
    @jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

    Did I buy a lensbaby? Yes, yes I did. I am so, so sorry for your feed

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @jerry

    whiskers are sharp, tail is fuzzy!

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @jerry
    it’s a neat effect. I stand by my statement, sir!

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    I'm getting a lot of flack for calling ants without agriculture "hunter gatherer ants" but I think its totally valid and will NOT be stopping.

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @llewelly @futurebird

    do the agrarian ants ever think they could get in better shape on a Paleo ant diet?

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    It was always exciting and important when as a child I’d pepper some adult with questions and (at last) they would say “you know what? I don’t know. Let’s ask this other person or let’s look it up!”

    LLMs are like the kind of adult who just makes up some plausible BS rather than say “I don’t know” those kinds of adults didn’t really think my questions mattered they didn’t think I’d remember or notice they’d lied to me. I always noticed. I think these systems trigger me because of it LMAO.

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @futurebird

    One way to look at LLMs as a business is as an extension of the sociopathic business model that privatizes the commons for profit and socializes the losses. They want to scrape everyone’s data and sell it back to us. LLMs are engines for plagiarism. Mansplaining as a service! 😱

    jerry , to random
    @jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

    Another day of being annoyed that my lifelong quest to understand why “c” is the speed it is and not some other speed ending up at the fine structure constant and physicists saying 🤷 at why the fine structure constant is what it is.

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @jerry

    c, it’s not just a good idea, it’s the LAW!!

    jerry , to random
    @jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

    Experimenting….

    #bloomscrolling

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @jerry

    I thought it was a beautiful shot but also interested in how you did it. Thanks for showing that.

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    I just got my fixie out of the shop and was able to ride it again. I forgot how much I loved this bike. When I went to pick it up the bike shop guy was like "um did you know one of your tires is off of a wheel chair?"

    ... I did not... but I guess it was strange that it was gray. I used to get my bike fixed by a guy in the park who worked out of his van BEST prices in the city. ... but yeah, IDK where he got his parts... LMAO

    I almost wish I could be a messenger again. It was a life.

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @futurebird

    That explains this wheel chair I saw.

    jerry , to random
    @jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

    Lots of tornados lately. I blame traffic circles.

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @jerry
    makes sense given the butterfly effect, etc.

    dymaxion , to random
    @dymaxion@infosec.exchange avatar

    Police remote-scanning the NFC tags in your library book and cross-referencing them with your plate from the ANPR was not on my dystopia checklist. Time to go back to barcodes.

    https://archive.is/bYszD

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @glennf @mikemccaffrey @dymaxion

    there’s considerable hype in that company’s claims. It’s possible to scan for Bluetooth, WiFi, and Cell from the side of the road. NFC only is good for a few cm at most (by design). RFID passive tags like in clothes at stores are only readable for 10 ft or so at most, seems highly unlikely from the roadside too.

    mastodonmigration , (edited ) to random
    @mastodonmigration@mastodon.online avatar

    So now SpaceX, with no working spacesuit, and years behind on it's multi-billion dollar moon lander, is lobbying NASA to go to the Hubble Space Telescope.

    "A successful private mission could improve Hubble's ability to point at celestial objects and, by boosting its orbit, extend its life by years... however, an accident could leave the multibillion-dollar telescope broken — or, even more tragically, tethered to the dead bodies of the astronauts sent to repair it."

    https://www.npr.org/2024/05/16/1250250249/spacex-repair-hubble-space-telescope-nasa-foia

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @mastodonmigration

    kill Starlink before it’s too late. No need for it.

    randahl , to random
    @randahl@mastodon.social avatar

    New satellite imagery shows, a number of Su-27 and MiG-29 aircraft at the Belbek airbase in occupied Crimea wondering, if Putin's invasion of Ukraine was among his better ideas.

    image/jpeg

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @randahl

    that’s a real shame… 😂

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    I will NOT let Pica bully me! I'm bigger than her and she can't "make" me do things!!

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @futurebird @pdkoenig

    That's because they always show up!!

    jerry , to random
    @jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

    Apparently flipper zeros can destroy cell phones? https://komonews.com/amp/news/nation-world/student-using-hacking-device-wreaks-havoc-at-utah-high-school-grand-county-moab-flipper-zero-handheld-device-disrupting-school-operations-search-warrant-student-disciplined

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @jerry

    “Do your due diligence as a parent and protect your kid from these devices, because they can get themselves in trouble,” Blanton said.

    Trouble! Right here I say, trouble right in River City!

    jerry , to random
    @jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

    Sadly I am losing the battle with my sleeping pills. Have a good night and enjoy the aurora! Looking forward to pictures tomorrow.

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @jerry

    nite! nite!

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    A new AMNH PBS video about the local ants around here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmQnOFFWKOE

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @futurebird

    local heroes!

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    This one particular ant is driving me crazy!

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @futurebird

    is it the one quietly humming and then shouting BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!. That would bug me too!

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    The overhead for the AI on a minecraft ant is so great that the mod creators limit the colonies to just 20 ants to prevent lag. Fine for gameplay 20 feels like a lot.

    Interesting the kind of things they do: remember the location of their nest, find a path back, collect leaves etc. are so taxing.

    In the real world a colony of 1000+ is typical. Some colonies have millions of ants. And real ants have much more to "process" Kind of gives you a sense of the scale of the intelligence of a colony.

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @futurebird

    also, doesn’t take a nuclear reactor to run the colony!

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    Over and over AI is being deployed as a way to avoid the high cost of human mental labor.

    You'd rather have a bank of servers huffing clouds of carbon into the air than just paying some people to solve the design problem.

    I know hiring programmers to work on UI isn't glamorous, and the work is slow, the results aren't flashy, but we just can't keep on skipping this step or wishing that some cocktail-shaker full of matrices and stolen data will paper over the issue.

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @futurebird

    “cocktail-shaker full of matrices and stolen data will paper over the issue.”

    Perfect! 😱😂

    CatsOfYore , to random
    @CatsOfYore@varmint.town avatar

    Proud. 🏆 Photo from my collection, ca. 1970s.

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @CatsOfYore

    mine too!

    image/jpeg

    jerry , to random
    @jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

    I am hearing all about dogs with flamethrowers on their backs. How does anyone get them to stand still long enough to strap it on? And is it normal to have some of the fur get singed?

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @jerry

    it’s possible

    jerry , to random
    @jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

    Wednesday night at the beach means beer and bingo at the outdoor bar

    image/jpeg

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @jerry

    Bingo!!

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    Somewhere someone is trying to think of a way to make the ants and birds pay rent. Remarkably they move in wherever they please. They don’t even have lease. Granted the kind of rent you might extract from this new market is of low value. Mostly bottle caps and cake crumbs— but consider the volume: and the potential to collect with little overhead using an app. Let’s disrupt nature!

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @futurebird

    the spiders could be put to work developing Web 3.0

    elizabethtasker , (edited ) to random
    @elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

    Japanese badgers--reports Emma Dangerfield @nntokyo--are solitary, unlike their European comrades which live in pairs or large sets.

    I'm feeling this, badger-buddies. I too moved to Japan for a quieter life 🤣

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @elizabethtasker

    https://youtu.be/EIyixC9NsLI?si=clghZ3PDDI-6XzSs

    wdlindsy , to random
    @wdlindsy@toad.social avatar

    Jess Piper on how right-wing trolls taunt her when she speaks out about the shortcomings of her home state of Missouri by telling her just to move to New York or California.

    But it's not just right-wing trolls: as she reports, she also routinely gets the very same advice from leftist allies who appear to think they're entitled to judge her for living where her family lives, a state that's her state, too.

    #Missouri #Republicans
    /1

    https://jesspiper.substack.com/p/just-move

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @wdlindsy

    She’s right on about the deep pocketed outside money focusing on rural states. Idaho has the Koch funded Idaho Freedom Foundation attacking all aspects of state politics and getting extremist into high office. I’ve lived here since ‘79 and seen the state go from fairly balanced (used to have Sen Frank Church as Senator along with Sen Jim McClure). Now we have Sen Mike Crapo and Sen James Risch making National Policy.

    elizabethtasker , (edited ) to random
    @elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

    OK, OK... so IMPORTANT QUESTION. Can we say "globally" when discussing the entire surface of a celestial body such as Phobos? That Martian moon baby isn't remotely spherical. It's a potato.

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @elizabethtasker

    “global” in other fields, like CS, means more like universally, so there’s that

    wa7iut ,
    @wa7iut@mastodon.radio avatar

    @elizabethtasker

    I like “Spudally” though, since the motto of the place where I live is: “Famous Potatoes.” Defining an appropriate spudsoid of revolution for your “tater projection” mapping won’t be easy!

    a large truck carries a giant potato with snow capped mountains in the background

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