h2g2bob @h2g2bob@mastodon.dbatley.com

#Galileo, the EU's own sovereign GPS, is relied upon by industry, every modern phone and every modern car. Yet earlier this month Galileo gave us an obscurely worded 5 day warning of a *test* that might take down the whole service. They also refused to clarify. Here I write on how during the test the satellites broadcast outdated data, and also urge the EU and EUSPA to take their users seriously. And not do such disruptive tests anymore please: https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/galileos-testing-communications/

Proof has been found that the actor Patrick Stewart canonically exists in the Star Trek universe
https://ironicsans.ghost.io/proof-that-patrick-stewart-exists-in-the-star-trek-universe/

I didn't realise the Swedish cement industry would be so interesting.

"Who owns your factory? Why?"

Blog All Dog-eared Pages: Dig Where You Stand by Sven Lindqvist

http://www.mcqn.net/mcfilter/archives/books/blog_all_dogeared_pages_dig_where_you_stand_by_sven_lindqvist.html

#history #WorkingClass

Announcing: https://justaqrcode.com.

Tired of "free" QR code generators that are full of ads and trackers, that share your data, and that want to sell you something? Me too. Here's my act of resistance: I made a one-page site that works entirely in your browser to generate a simple QR code. And that's all it does. You can download the HTML page and run it locally, even. Read the source; nothing up my sleeves. Just a QR code.

My offer to you -- I will continue to pay for the domain name and web hosting for it, myself. If you find it valuable, you can pay it back by creating your own useful thing for the world and releasing it for free. Let's take back the friendly web, one vexingly-monetized utility at a time!

#QRcode #Free #FriendlyWeb #Resistance

Parrot ftw!

Signal Messenger is warning that Recall, the AI tool rolling out in Windows 11 that will screenshot, index, and store everything a user does every three seconds, poses a risk to its users. Effective immediately, the Windows Desktop version will by default block the ability of Windows to screenshot the app. Of course, Microsoft provides no API to disable Recall from screenshotting specific apps, so Signal is getting creative. They are invoking a digital rights management API that blocks the screenshotting of copyrighted material.

https://signal.org/blog/signal-doesnt-recall/

UK geeky data/politics folks, could you have a glance over the constituency dashboards at https://open-innovations.github.io/constituency-api-test/ ?

Each dashboard tries to pull together all the data from our constituency hex maps site with each visualisation becoming a panel. Some things are just a number. But some end up as simple little line graphs and some end up as bar charts.

We've added a "relative rating" which gives an idea of how a constituency compares to others.

🚀 Voyager 1 isn’t done yet — not even close 🧠🔧📡

NASA just pulled off another miracle save:
🛰️ The spacecraft’s primary roll thrusters, offline since 2004, were believed permanently dead
🧯 With backup thrusters at risk of failure, JPL engineers gambled on a high-stakes heater reset
🔥 If wrong, it could’ve caused a small onboard explosion
📡 If right, it would restore control — 15.6 billion miles from Earth

They were right. The thrusters fired. Voyager 1 can still hold its course.

This wasn’t a reboot. It was old-school problem-solving, deep systems knowledge, and the audacity to trust an idea that might just work.

The most distant human object is still flying — because a team believed it could.

#Voyager1 #NASA #Space #Engineering #Resilience #DeepSpace
https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/15/voyager_1_survives_with_thruster_fix/

No joking for this #FailureFriday - an interim report on the foundering of the sailing megayacht Bayesian has been released by the MAIB, and it's absolutely eyepopping.

You can read the report for yourself - it's not overly technical - and I'll pull some bits out into a thread below.

https://www.gov.uk/maib-reports/foundering-of-the-yacht-bayesian-with-loss-of-7-lives#interim-accident-investigation-report-2025

Thinking about @stecks and my Mathematical Objects podcast.

Last season we chatted poetry, category theory, space-filling curves, parallelepipeds, voting systems & road sign regulations, we stared deep into an area the size of Wales and feasted on a universe of cake.

Search wherever you get podcasts or go https://aperiodical.com/podcasts/mathematical-objects/

In case you haven't seen it yet, check out the analysis of the devastating state of [mostly] modern #OpenSSL by members of haproxy at https://www.haproxy.com/blog/state-of-ssl-stacks - hard to imagine such massive performance regressions getting into mainline linux distributions unnoticed by the distributors. #linux #ssl

This might be of interest to some of you. A forthcoming documentary about the 90s free party movement in the UK.

The story goes well beyond kids dancing in fields, it was a civil liberties movement and it scared the hell out of the establishment who responded heavy handedly and sought to change the law to restrict the public in general.

https://djmag.com/news/documentary-90s-rave-culture-and-free-party-movement-premieres-month-watch-trailer

The organisation behind Wikipedia - the Wikimedia Foundation - has launched a judicial review challenge against Ofcom's categorisation rules under the #OnlineSafetyAct.

Not against the Act itself, just a specific approach taken by Ofcom to it.

More details here (Medium; sorry): https://medium.com/wikimedia-policy/wikipedias-nonprofit-host-brings-legal-challenge-to-new-online-safety-act-osa-regulations-0f9153102f29

Initial report into the substation fire which caused the power outage at Heathrow: https://www.neso.energy/publications/north-hyde-review

It's 05.45 and my #LonelyWalk for #NationalWalkingMonth starts on the southwest corner of J28 of the M25. I'm walking the #Havering sections of the A12 and A127 today.

First is the reworking of the shared path through J28 with toucans just appearing.

University of Exeter looks to be held in contempt of court over refusal to answer an FOI and wilful destruction of the information under the pretext of data rights https://informationrightsandwrongs.com/2025/05/07/foia-contempt-proceedings-against-university-of-exeter/

Last year, I walked from the M25 to the centre of London for #NationalWalkingMonth.

This year it will be another long walk, but in #Havering, my own London Borough where I shall be circumnavigating the A12 and A127, two Transport for London managed roads which create huge problems of severance,