skybrian's recent activity

  1. Comment on Google receives response from project suncatcher prototype satellite in space in ~space

    skybrian
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    More info in this article: Google Takes the A.I. Data Center Race to Outer Space: ...

    More info in this article: Google Takes the A.I. Data Center Race to Outer Space:

    MVP contains four specialized computer chips called “tensor processing units,” which have the computing power of one server in a data center. The satellite’s solar panels will supply only about one kilowatt of power — roughly the amount needed to run a hair dryer — to the chips.

    But that will be enough for Google to test its hardware against the harsh conditions of space. The satellite will answer simple A.I. queries and operate for a year, though it is set to circle Earth for up to six years. Eventually, it is expected to succumb to Earth’s gravitational pull and burn up as it descends through the atmosphere.

    Mr. Manyika said Google’s expectations for the satellite were tempered.

    “We don’t expect, to be perfectly frank, that we’ll have anything usefully operational in the next few years,” he said, comparing the mission to the company’s early efforts to build driverless cars. “Remember how Google was researching for like 15 years, before anything showed up? I think this is going to look like that.”

    ...

    Planet Labs agreed to launch two satellites for Google in 2027. But the internet giant soon said it wanted to be up in orbit this year and was willing to take on risks to meet that timeline, said Eric Stevens, a director of systems engineering at Planet Labs. To speed up, Google installed its chips into a ready-made Planet Labs satellite and began testing it.

    The biggest challenge was how to cool the A.I. chips, which heat up when they perform calculations and process information. Fans, which typically help dissipate the heat, do not work in space. So the Silicon Valley company instead developed a cooling system that uses layers of conductive material to expel the heat into space.

    The bottom layer is made up of Google’s A.I. chips, which sit on a green motherboard. The next layer consists of “thermal interface material,” a pale green putty that comes in sheets like Fruit Roll-Ups and connects the chips to layers of aluminum and copper, radiating heat away from the motherboard. Finally, there is a radiator panel, which projects heat into space.

    The chips can operate for about 15 minutes in space before needing to be shut down so they can cool off, said Travis Beals, Google’s senior director of product management for Project Suncatcher. During that time, the chips can process short queries so Google’s A.I., known as Gemini, can respond.

    Google is already looking ahead. Next year, it plans to launch a pair of satellites. It also has designs for fleets of more than 80 satellites that will fly in close formation and communicate with one another as they process A.I. queries. And Google is meeting with designers to potentially build a custom satellite the length of a soccer field.

  2. Comment on Finland launches criminal investigation into Google's clearing of forest for data centre site in ~enviro

    skybrian
    Link Parent
    I think something must have gone wrong with that calculation? 330 hectares is 3.3 square kilometers. Taking the figure from the latest year, 3.3/1551 is 0.2%. Though it might still be a lot to do...

    I think something must have gone wrong with that calculation? 330 hectares is 3.3 square kilometers. Taking the figure from the latest year, 3.3/1551 is 0.2%.

    Though it might still be a lot to do in one place.

  3. Comment on Halloween Night! in ~talk

    skybrian
    Link
    I 3D printed a Daft Punk helmet for a party, which is not very practical as costumes go, but was fun to make. Though it was a bit stressful since I was travelling and started with only a week to...

    I 3D printed a Daft Punk helmet for a party, which is not very practical as costumes go, but was fun to make. Though it was a bit stressful since I was travelling and started with only a week to go, designing parts as I go. By the end, I had to get each part right on the first print and didn't get it done until the morning of the party.

    Today we're giving out Halloween candy. It's pretty chill. We got maybe a dozen kids so far. There are elaborately decorated houses a few blocks away that I'm sure get a lot more.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on Finland launches criminal investigation into Google's clearing of forest for data centre site in ~enviro

    skybrian
    (edited )
    Link
    I wanted to know a little more about the Finnish forest industry so I made a graph. Apparently over 1000 square kilometers of forest are clear-cut each year. Perhaps not that much in one place,...

    I wanted to know a little more about the Finnish forest industry so I made a graph. Apparently over 1000 square kilometers of forest are clear-cut each year. Perhaps not that much in one place, though?

    More could be done. ChatGPT tells me that it should be possible to find the largest clear-cut areas using open GIS data.

  5. Comment on Binance suspends withdrawals after crypto hackers steal $6.3 billion in ~tech

    skybrian
    Link Parent
    I don't get what you mean. Was any claim was made that they are exclusive?

    I don't get what you mean. Was any claim was made that they are exclusive?

  6. Comment on Linux kernel TCP flaw affects Ubuntu, Red Hat and other distributions in ~comp

    skybrian
    Link
    From a Hacker News comment:

    From a Hacker News comment:

    Exploitability over the internet is unlikely, most ISP routers drop packets with IP options fields.

    Successful exploit requires multiple CPU cores to process packets, so systems with just a single core or packet processing pinned to a single core are not affected.

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Google receives response from project suncatcher prototype satellite in space in ~space

    skybrian
    Link
    From the article: [...]

    From the article:

    On October 1, we launched our prototype satellite for Project Suncatcher. The launch marked the first step in our long-term research moonshot to explore powering AI compute in space. Since then, we've spent the last few weeks completing our commissioning checklist, which included powering up the host and TPU trays and successfully running early machine learning tests. This week, we reached our "Hello World" milestone: the first-ever AI response from a data center class TPU in orbit.

    [...]

    Following this initial output, we tested space-themed limericks and telemetry prompts reporting the technical status of the payload systems. Next, we will continue with a series of tests to evaluate how TPUs perform under thermal stress and radiation exposure in orbit. Verifying our TPUs can reliably execute workloads in space paves the way for our next milestone of twin interconnected satellites in 2027.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on Linux kernel TCP flaw affects Ubuntu, Red Hat and other distributions in ~comp

    skybrian
    Link
    From the article: [...] [...] [...] [...]

    From the article:

    A flaw in the Linux kernel's TCP code, tracked as CVE-2026-98432, affects Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and other Linux distributions. The kernel's own CVE team rates it 9.8 out of 10 on the CVSS scale.

    Anthropic said on October 27 that its AI model wrote an exploit that uses the flaw to let a remote attacker with no credentials run commands as root on Linux servers with a multipath TCP listener.

    [...]

    The flaw is a race condition in the code that sets up new IPv4 TCP connections. It can make the kernel read memory it has already freed, a bug type known as a use-after-free.

    The kernel fix credits Anthropic researcher Xinyang Ge with reporting the bug. Neither the CVE record nor the fix mentions multipath TCP (MPTCP). The link between that feature and this bug comes from Anthropic's post.

    [...]

    Anthropic's post says the flaw "was patched upstream and backported to all maintained stable kernel branches." For distribution users, that fix arrives only in the vendor's kernel package. Debian, Oracle Linux, SUSE, and Amazon Linux have shipped fixed packages, at least for some of their kernels, but Ubuntu and RHEL have not.

    [...]

    The kernel's CVE team added the 9.8 score to the CVE record on October 24, nine days after publishing the CVE.

    Its score assumes an attacker who sends a TCP connection request carrying IPv4 Record Route or Timestamp options, then resends the request to try to win the race. The team rated attack complexity low, saying both sides of the race are "attacker-induced."

    [...]

    Red Hat's CVE page rates the flaw Moderate, scoring it 5.9 because the race is hard to win. It says the most likely result is a kernel crash, with memory corruption possible in theory, and that "no confidentiality or integrity impact has been demonstrated."

    Red Hat's machine-readable advisory file, updated on October 29, lists the impact as Important and scores the flaw 8.1, with high confidentiality and integrity impact. Red Hat's bug tracker changed the issue's severity from medium to high the same day. On that day, the CVE page showed Moderate and 5.9.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on Binance suspends withdrawals after crypto hackers steal $6.3 billion in ~tech

    skybrian
    Link
    From the article: [...] [...] [...] [...]

    From the article:

    Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said on Thursday that it had halted withdrawals after it was attacked by hackers who made off with more than $6 billion in digital coins, in what appears to be the biggest crypto heist in history.

    [...]

    The attack appeared to be the work of “North Korea’s elite hacking unit,” according to TRM Labs, a crypto research firm. The firm had “high confidence” in its assessment, it said, based on features of the hack that resembled previous thefts. TRM Labs estimated that the hackers had shifted about $2.4 billion in crypto coins “beyond any issuer’s reach.”

    Binance initially believed that the attackers might have compromised its systems through an engineer’s laptop, leading to unauthorized withdrawals. But on Friday, the company said it had found “additional points of breach,” calling the attack a “complex hack.”

    [...]

    Binance added on Friday that it had started to recover some of the stolen crypto assets as well as set aside billions of dollars to cover customers’ losses. It said it was on track to allow customers to withdraw money from their accounts within two days.

    [...]

    News of the security breach caused chaos in the crypto industry, which has faced a string of damaging cyberattacks over the years. In February 2025, Bybit, one of Binance’s top rivals, lost $1.5 billion to North Korean hackers — the largest crypto heist at the time. The Binance attack appears poised to top it.

    The price of Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, dropped below $80,000 for the first time in more than a month. Crypto-linked stocks also took a hit on Friday: the U.S. exchange Coinbase fell more than 11 percent; the brokerage Robinhood shed nearly 8 percent; and Strategy, a company that buys and sells enormous amounts of Bitcoin, dropped 10 percent in early trading.

    [...]

    Binance plays a crucial role in the crypto industry. It is the world’s largest marketplace for digital coins, a platform that customers use to swap traditional currencies for Bitcoin, Ether and other types of crypto.

    But like many crypto exchanges, it also operates as something akin to a bank. Customers store their holdings on Binance, relying on the exchange to keep their funds safe.

    As news of the apparent theft spread on Thursday, Binance’s industry peers rushed to its aid. Tether, a major crypto platform, said it had frozen more than $1.5 billion in crypto related to “a potential Binance hack.” Circle, another crypto firm, said it had frozen more than $800 million “associated with the incident.”

    3 votes

  13. Comment on Evacuees arrive to safety from besieged Ukrainian city of Oleshky in ~society

    skybrian
    Link
    From the article: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

    From the article:

    Trapped for years by heavy fighting and threatened by starvation amid constant bombardment on the front in Ukraine, hundreds of civilians made it to safety on Saturday after the most ambitious evacuation operations since Russia invaded nearly five years ago.

    [...]

    The dayslong operation around the city of Oleshky is now the longest localized cease-fire since 2022, said Dmytro Lubinets, a Ukrainian lawmaker and the parliamentary commissioner for human rights. He said it would remain in effect until 10:59 p.m. Sunday local time in Kyiv.

    [...]

    Russia and Ukraine have imposed restrictions on media reporting from the scene and have declined to give numbers of evacuees. Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi of Ukraine announced in Parliament on Friday that 527 people were being evacuated to Ukraine but swiftly retracted the statement.

    The issue is sensitive because Russia’s ombudsman has said not many people wanted to leave, and Ukrainian officials have expressed concern that people have been living under Russian coercion. A Russian military blogger, Vladimir Romanov, posted on Telegram that 17 buses were heading to Ukraine and four buses to Russia. Soon after, he deleted his post.

    [...]

    After both sides declared a localized cease-fire that started on Tuesday, Russian and Ukrainian officials traveled together, on the first mission of its kind, to evacuate civilians.

    The Russian military spent two days demining access roads Then Mr. Lubinets and Ms. Lantratova set off Thursday night with a fleet of 25 buses that could carry 750 people, as well as ambulances and trucks of humanitarian aid.

    The agreed-upon route for the evacuation was through Russian-held territory, so only Russian forces were involved.

    [...]

    About 24,000 people lived in Oleshky in when 2022 began, but most fled early on. Yuri Sobolevsky, deputy chairman of the Kherson regional council, the local Ukrainian governing body, said many of those who remained were older people, a population that dwindled as things worsened.

    [...]

    With the rising dominance of drones in this war, Oleshky fell squarely in the armies’ widening “kill zone,” where anything that moves on the ground can be seen from above as a target.

    This year, the drone warfare has grown markedly more intense. Russian soldiers and drone pilots operate out of ruined buildings in Oleshky, using it as a base to strike Kherson. The city, where more than 40,000 people live, is hit daily by drones and bombs.

    Ukrainian drone pilots, in turn, try to hit the Russian military in Oleshky.

    “It’s the constant accumulation of drones on both sides,” said Roman Kostenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker and the chairman of the defense and intelligence committee. “The intensity of combat operations has grown due to the fact that there are more drones, more crews and the enemy has set a goal to destroy Kherson.”

    In addition, most roads in and out of the city have been mined and traffic is targeted by drones. Trucks stopped delivering food and medicine to Oleshky months ago because of the danger. Many people have lost electricity, heat and gas service.

  15. Comment on Extreme poverty in India falls to 2.6% from 27.1%: World Bank in ~society

    skybrian
    Link Parent
    My guess is that the more typical case for very low income would be sustenance farmers who grow their own food and are in trouble if there's a bad harvest.

    My guess is that the more typical case for very low income would be sustenance farmers who grow their own food and are in trouble if there's a bad harvest.

    5 votes

  16. Comment on Anthropic's Claude AI blocks video game cloning and reverse-engineering — sweeping new restrictions also hit legitimate developers and basic troubleshooting tasks in ~tech

    skybrian
    Link Parent
    Yeah, I suppose "don't trust strangers" is the more generic version of this. What sort of relationship can you have where neither side trusts the other? But large businesses can be built by...

    Yeah, I suppose "don't trust strangers" is the more generic version of this. What sort of relationship can you have where neither side trusts the other?

    But large businesses can be built by acceptably managing (not solving) certain trust problems. For example, riding in a car driven by a stranger. Or buying random stuff from Chinese companies you never heard of. Or buying food in a supermarket.

    In the last problem, government regulation plays an important role, but most of the food you eat has likely never been physically near a government inspector.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Anthropic's Claude AI blocks video game cloning and reverse-engineering — sweeping new restrictions also hit legitimate developers and basic troubleshooting tasks in ~tech

    skybrian
    (edited )
    Link
    The people cloning games will learn to use some other LLM instead. But if Anthropic didn’t do anything to stop them, they’d be criticized for that too. Or in the case of cybersecurity...

    The people cloning games will learn to use some other LLM instead. But if Anthropic didn’t do anything to stop them, they’d be criticized for that too. Or in the case of cybersecurity restrictions, the LLM might even be banned by the US government.

    I suspect that not being a widely-used AI company would be the only reliable way to avoid criticism. They will probably muddle through, attempting to improve the enforcement of their restrictions so they affect legitimate users less, while still making plenty of mistakes. Compare with social media moderation.

    More generally, the lesson learned by any provider of online services is that users cannot be trusted. They do what they can to get more users without trusting them.

    5 votes

  19. Comment on Andromeda in southern spring in ~space

    skybrian
    Link
    From the article:

    From the article:

    Explanation: Looking toward the north from Mullion, New South Wales, Australia, the Andromeda Galaxy never gets more than a few degrees above the horizon. During the southern hemisphere spring, Andromeda is highest in the sky around midnight though. And in this telephoto scene from October 10/11, multiple exposures were used to reveal the spiral galaxy in tantalizing detail as it climbed above rolling Australian hills. Also known as M31, the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the brightest objects in the Messier catalog, but is only visible to the unaided eye as a small, faint, fuzzy patch. Digitally tracked and stacked frames were combined with a foreground shot in the deep astro-image composite to reveal the galaxy's greater extent in planet Earth's night. In the springtime night skyscape,the closest large spiral galaxy spans nearly 6 full moons.

    2 votes