Just got notified from the American Astronomical Society that their survey on anticipated impacts of Reflect Orbital (whose business model is "we will beam sunlight down to Earth at night because woo space”; never mind the titanic impacts on circadian rhythms of every living thing on the planet) has really gained traction.

DarkSky International has an open letter you can sign, and we expect a public comment period from the FCC on this in the next few weeks. Hit up public.policy@aas.org if you have questions. #space #astronomy

(and shout out @sundogplanets for raising the profile of this issue before I heard about it anywhere else)

https://darksky.org/news/organizational-statement-reflect-orbital/

I don't want to laugh at someone's real distress but this IS very funny ...

A friendly reminder to never trust manufacturers privacy protections.

I was recently attempting to get an external camera functioning, so I started polling various video devices sequentially to find out where it appeared and stumbled across a previously unknown (to me at least) camera device, right next to the regular camera that is not affected by the intentional privacy flap or "camera active" LED that comes built in.

I had always assumed this was just a light sensor and didn't think any further about it.

The bandwidth seems to drop dramatically when the other camera is activated by opening the privacy flap, causing more flickering.
This was visible IRL and wasn't just an artifact of recording it on my phone.
I deliberately put my finger over each camera one at a time to confirm the sources being projected.

A friend of mine suggested this may be related to Windows Hello functionality at a guess but still seems weird to not be affected by the privacy flap when its clearly capable of recording video.

dmidecode tells me this is a LENOVO Yoga 9 2-in-1 14ILL10 (P/N:83LC)

Command I used for anyone to replicate the finding. (I was on bog standard Kali, but I'm sure you'll figure out your device names if they change under other distros):
vlc v4l2:///dev/video0 -vv --v4l2-width=320 --v4l2-height=240 & vlc v4l2:///dev/video2 -vv --v4l2-width=320 --v4l2-height=240

#Cyber #Security #Infosec #Lenovo #Privacy #Hacking

https://faultlore.com/blah/c-isnt-a-language/ deserves a fucking record for managing to trigger people into being extremely upset while also demonstrating that they don't understand the actual point being made

I'm an electrician.

I dare you to use ChatGPT to wire a plug.

This is why AI is absolute horse shit.

#chatgpt #aibullshit #aiisdangerous

PSA: Did you know that it’s **unsafe** to put code diffs into your commit messages?

Like https://github.com/i3/i3/pull/6564 for example

Such diffs will be applied by patch(1) (also git-am(1)) as part of the code change!

This is how a sleep(1) made it into i3 4.25-2 in Debian unstable.

Well, everyone, you can now submit a comment to let the FCC know what you think about SpaceX asking for 1 million satellites for "AI datacenters" whatever the fuck that means.

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-113A1.pdf

Comments due March 6.

I am having a very hard time believing this is really happening. Fuck you, SpaceX, and fuck you, FCC. This is not regulation, this is a fucking joke, that will destroy our ability to use satellites for centuries.

Old 1890s pump house, filled with rusted pipes. Algae and ferns add a fantastic pop of green, breathing life back into this space. Somewhere in Luxembourg.

#Industry #Photography #Rust #Abandoned #Machines #Ferns #Plants

The FLOSS weekly episode that I am on is now out! Quite a fun experience, even if being on a live stream is a little stressful at first. I guess you get used to it, though?

https://hackaday.com/2026/01/28/floss-weekly-episode-862-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/

😁😁😁

#archaeohistories

tee hee :)

The presumption that free software is sufficient or necessary to ensure all software you depend on is trustworthy is simultaneously naive and ignorant of what software is capable of. The only realistic way to develop trust in software is to trust the people who write it, and development processes associated with free software make that trust easier.

RE: https://tech.lgbt/@JadedBlueEyes/115967791152135761

Thread

You may have heard the line, if it’s stupid and it works it’s not stupid, but I guarantee you: it can be both.

https://cofe.rocks/objects/6d9c5c56-1795-47ab-90cd-c1f9e15382f0

There is much truth to this post about about #math textbooks.

Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)

I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.

If there is a cool bug fact that you genuinely love yourself, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time.

#Bugs #CoolBugFacts #Insects

Isn't just wonderful that clothes come with their sources? If you slice the different parts off with a seamripper, lay them all down, trace them on new fabric, cut them out, and stitch them back together, you can effectively clone and fork garments. I realize that this is probably real obvious to most people, but it only dawned on me recently.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to, most nights my laptop is stowed away to make room for the sewing machine on the nav table. It all began when the store that made the patrol cap that Rek and I wear stopped carrying it. The seams of the old worn-out cap were cut, new 14oz canvas was bought and the cap was cloned, twice! I enjoyed the process so much, I made a new messenger backpack, fixed ripped panels on my winter jacket, sown tartan wool arm warmers and some other things. At one point, I realized that I was wearing six items of clothing I had made or mended.

https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html

I will visit the FLOSS weekly podcast tomorrow to talk about cake_mq and (I expect) other topics related to (or not!) bufferbloat.

Listen live on the show's YouTube channel starting at 18:00 CET Tuesday: https://www.youtube.com/@FLOSSWeekly/live

Or find the podcast afterwards wherever you get your podcasts :)

The end of the #curl bug-bounty

https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2026/01/26/the-end-of-the-curl-bug-bounty/