There was some fuss this week about the news that a plane was hit by space debris. The plane, a United Airlines 737, was flying at 37,000 feet on a flight between Denver and Los Angeles when the impact completely shattered the right windshield, peppering a pilot’s arm with shards of glass. Fortunately, the heavily reinforced laminated glass remained intact, but the flight was immediately diverted to Salt Lake City and landed safely with no further injuries. The “space debris” report was apparently started by the captain, who reported that they saw what hit them and that “it looked like space debris.”
We were a bit skeptical about this initial assessment, especially since the pilots and everyone on board the flight were still alive, which we think would be spectacularly untrue if the plane had been hit by anything other than the smallest piece of space debris. It turns out our suspicions were justified when Silicon Valley startup WindBorne Systems admitted as much one of his high-altitude balloons took flight. The company, which uses HABs to collect weather data for paying customers, appears to have complied with all relevant regulations, such as filing a NOTAM, so why the collision occurred is a bit of a mystery.
However, their blog post about the incident contains a clue, as they made an immediate change to “minimize the time between 30,000 and 40,000 feet,” which is the sweet spot for commercial aviation. They also state that future changes will allow them to monitor flight tracking data and autonomously avoid aircraft. From this we infer that the balloons can at least control their altitude, which perhaps means that this one somehow got stuck at 35,000 feet. We would like to know more about these HABs; we wonder if there is a way to detect and recover these things, like with radiosondes?
In other, initially fake news, there was some commotion in amateur radio circles with news that sales of Hytera ham radios were being banned in the US. The report came in a video from Matt Covers Tech, and suggested that Hytera’s nifty talkie radios had somehow run afoul of regulators. We did some searching but couldn’t come up with anything to back up this claim until the indispensable Josh (KI6NAZ) from Ham Radio Crash Course got a hold of the story and did just that his usual bombshell analysis. TL;DW – no, sales of Hytera handy-talkies are not banned in the US, but yes, the company seems to be in big trouble with the FCC and the federal government over some of their other shenanigans, to the point of felony charges.
Pranks used to be pretty simple and, with the possible exception of a flaming, poop-filled paper bag catching the bushes next to your sidewalk on fire, usually harmless. But pranks seem to scale with time and technology, to the point where it is now possible fill a dead end street with 50 Waymos robotaxis. The stunt, which prankster Riley Walz describes in high-tech terms as “the world’s first Waymo DDoS attack” — we highly doubt it — was pulled off in a decidedly low-tech manner by enlisting fifty co-conspirators to simultaneously order a ride to San Francisco’s longest cul-de-sac. The Jaguar robotaxis dutifully arrived at the address and filled the narrow street with waiting cars. No one got into the cars, resulting in a $5 fine for a missed ride, but even if the riders did show up, we’re guessing the autonomous cars would have had the robotic equivalent of a stroke trying to figure out how to get out of each other’s way. Like most jokes, it was pretty cool, as long as you weren’t the one on the receiving end of the joke. It’s not clear if there were any consequences for Riley – again, we doubt it – but we imagine there would have been if someone on that street needed fire or ambulance while the attack was underway.
If you’re concerned about AI, you’re not alone. And while there’s plenty to worry about, according to Andy Masley, water use by AI data centers should not be one of them. In his excellent analysis, he looks at all the details of AI water use and comes to the compelling conclusion that, all things considered, US data centers really don’t use that much water – about 0.2% of the 132 billion gallons consumed nationwide every day. Even then, that fraction of a percent includes the water needed to generate the electricity for those data centers; take that out, and the number drops to about 50 million gallons per day. And those figures apply to all data centers; limited to just AI data centers, that number drops to about 0.008% of the freshwater consumed daily nationwide. We haven’t checked Andy’s math, of course, nor have we vetted his bona fides or checked whether he has an ax to grind in this area. But it is still an eye-opening article.
And finally, if you can’t get enough surveillance status while you’re on the go, you can now extend ubiquitous surveillance technology into the heart of your home with the world’s first portable toilet. The aptly named Throne One clips to the rim of your toilet and uses a series of sensors to monitor your gut health. The company doesn’t specify which sensors are used, but because the most important data points appear to be where your poop falls on the Bristol stool scale And if you measure hydration by the color of urine, there must be a camera in there somewhere. There’s room for multiple users too, and while we imagine the opposite of facial recognition could be used to distinguish one butt from another, we imagine it would be easier to determine who’s using the toilet via Bluetooth. There is also a microphone to listen to the “urine dynamics” for those who urinate while standing. Honestly, even though we’d never actually use this thing, we’d love to disassemble it and see what’s inside. Of course only new in box.
#Hackaday #Links #October