computer.rip

I have attempted to provide an opinionated, but grounded in clearly-established fact, accounting of the 21st century UFO wave in this series:

- https://computer.rip/2023-02-14-something-up-there-pt-I.html

- https://computer.rip/2023-02-17-something-up-there-pt-II.html

- https://computer.rip/2023-06-07-something-up-there---nasa-and-uaps.html

It should be understood that I am advocating for a particular interpretation of events that I think is most likely---and is markedly less spectacular than what you typically see in the media. I also haven't really taken on Grusch yet but will probably do so soon.

I've been hesitant to write on Grusch because I do not personally feel him to be credible, but only time will tell. there are far too many similarities between Grusch, Bob Lazar, and Luis Elizondo, which clearly illustrates the need to be skeptical of people with fantastical claims and supposed intelligence backgrounds. Like Lazar before him, Grusch seems to be positioning his claims in such a way that they are not verifiable. It will likely take a couple of years for journalists to provide any serious review of Grusch's claims, if they ever do. These congressional hearings are far more show than substance and were never likely to produce any new information, or to seriously evaluate Grusch's credibility.

We can hope that something will emerge in coming months that will offer a more definitive appraisal of Grusch but, in the meantime, I think it's by far safest to assume…

This is still a concern in 2025. If your aircraft systems break, or if you don't want to be identified, there are surprisingly few ways of identifying you nonetheless.

It surprises many people to learn that we do not have full radar coverage of the continental United States, much less the oceans. Outside of the ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone), military bases, large airports, etc., planes are more or less tracked voluntarily by systems like ADS-B.

From the excellent Computers Are Bad newsletter, https://computer.rip/2023-02-14-something-up-there-pt-I.html :

""" It is a common misconception that the FAA, NORAD, or someone has complete information on aircraft in the skies. In reality, this is far from true. Primary radar is inherently limited in range and sensitivity, and the JSS is a compromise aimed mostly at providing safety of commercial air routes and surveillance off the coasts. Air traffic control and air defense radar is blind to small aircraft in many areas and even large aircraft in some portions of the US and Canada, and that's without any consideration of low-radar-profile or "stealth" technology. With limited exceptions such as the Air Defense Identification Zones off the coasts and the Washington DC region, neither NORAD nor the FAA expect to be able to identify aircraft in the air. Aircraft operating under visual flight rules routinely do so without filing any type of flight plan, and air traffic controllers outside of airport approach areas ignore…

I use Feedly / NetNewsFire for feeds, rather than newsletters, but in reality they're the same, just different consumption methods. Just interesting to see NNW was in HN recently. These are the most interesting things I keep in Feedly.

acoup.blog - A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - frequently linked to HN already. He's a great history writer, covering everything from Roman logistics, to analysis of current games and movies - eg. LotR battles.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC364qOwWXAzgRruHhhFMhVg - Croker vs Rover. A New Zealand guy restoring a 70s Land Rover. It's a Youtube channel, but both hilarious and informative. Infrequent too, so easy to cruise through at leisure.

Atlas Obscura - https://www.atlasobscura.com/ - interesting history/geography mix.

https://www.numberphile.com/ - Mathy easy-access but complex topics - mostly videos on Youtube. Very accessible, but interesting for a mostly non-math person to see real math at work.

https://waynehale.wordpress.com/ - Wayne Hale - NASA flight controller. Interesting views and analysis of current space / incident management topics vs how it was done for the shuttle, along with some other commentary. Infrequent and interesting.

https://computer.rip/ - Deeply geekly telco / 50s-70s computer history with some cold-war fun. Pretty in-depth, and a fun read.

https://www.cringely.com/ - Cringley - weekly-monthly tech posts on bigger tech strategy with an Appleish focus. He's been around SV for years. Was early at…

I think this is not true in most of the cases. The (security) technology behind the debit/credit cards using the SmartCard chip (IC) is pretty ubiquitous. It is the same as the security technology guarding the SIM cards in your phone and even your eSIM. Basically the protocols and the interface specifications are the same. In the end, they are just smart cards. Imagine this technology not being strong enough, because I remember the days when the security of the pre-paid public phone cards was quite rabish and any kid with some skills and knowledge could forge a card with unlimited credit.

It very happens that the father of the smart card technology to be a french guy [1] and the current biggest provider of this technology is the french aero-space/defense/security company Thales Group[2] followed by another frech company called IDEMIA.

There is a very nice biography of the technology [3].

[1] https://artsandculture.google.com/story/roland-moreno-s-ubiquitous-invention-archives-moreno/IgVxBPG64UEjJw?hl=en

[2] https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/technology/smart-cards-basics

[3] https://computer.rip/2023-09-03-plastic-money.html

> 1. What's the point? There are cheaper and better solutions. Abuse will be minimal because infinitely simpler solutions just aren't that expensive these days. This was a very valid concern in the 80s, but it's not anymore.

I would like to point out that there has recently been an interest in HF spectrum for use shaving milliseconds off the ping of high-frequency trading firms, since skipping off the ionosphere on HF bands can be slightly faster than more reliable microwave or fiber links. There is licensing trouble (a good rundown of this is at https://computer.rip/2024-10-12-commercial-HF-radio.html) and I'm sure they would love to just use ham spectrum, even if it means paying a fine later after they've cleaned up in the markets. If this works, there will be more than enough demand for such connectivity to swamp the ham bands in encrypted digital junk.

Hey, I didn’t read your comment as “obsidian is worse”, but “logseq’s way of operation/thinking fits me better”.

Yes, Obsidian has tons of plugins, but I use exactly none of them. The features they add is immense, but I need none of them, because I just write tons of long text files, not dissimilar to old, long text files ubiquitous on the web in the early days (think https://computer.rip style writings, but as technical docs).

The difference between the two is very fundamental as you say, one has an internal database while the other runs on simple Markdown files with minimal extra data on top (except search and index Obsidian keeps internally per vault).

Again, there’s no hard feelings, just a hat tip to the diversity of our brains, way of thinking and creativity of people for devising these different ideas regarding knowledge management. :)