looked like, but from various intelligence sources, American engineers sketched out their best guess as to the weapon’s dimensions. Within two days, Merle Tuve’s scientists had assembled a full-scale model of the drone, covered it in chicken wire to reflect radio waves, and strung it up between the two towers. With only a 20-foot wingspan, it was much smaller than a normal aircraft—a little over half the width of a Japanese Zero. Gunners needed the most sensitive fuses available to ensure that rounds exploded at the ideal distance: within 25 feet. An analysis of the New Mexico tests concluded that if the anti-aircraft guns were accurate enough in their aim, the fuse had an 86 percent chance of knocking a V-1 out of the sky.
Within days, the test results were on their way to England.ALL of which piece by piece, by the time of the Soviet launching of Sputnik 1, led to the creation of ...
THE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY (ARPA)
…
algorithm desert ants use to regulate foraging is like the
Traffic Control Protocol (TCP) [updated with correct spelling] used
to regulate data traffic on the internet.
Both ant and human networks use positive feedback: either from
acknowledgements that trigger the transmission of the next data
packet, or from food-laden returning foragers that trigger the exit
of another outgoing forager.
This research led some to marvel at the ingenuity of ants, able to
invent systems familiar to us: wow, ants have been using internet
algorithms for millions of years!
( WIRED, too, flirted with the concept of “anternet”
in its Jargon Watch column last year.)
…
in the graph below.
Matt Simon - WIRED
Never forgetting that ...
just one month after Cop26 ended in Glasgow, the warning that the 300-metre thick, 50-mile wide Thwaites glacier has started to crack up has been met with silence from governments preoccupied by Covid-19 and the return of normal politics. The danger is that the many actions pledged in November to address global heating will be shelved for another year, to become just one more risk in an increasingly dangerous world. Thwaites underlines that global heating and glaciers do not wait for politicians, and every year action to reduce climate emissions is delayed only accelerates global disaster.
…
f
establishing as part and parcel of the planned city-wide installation
of Fibre Cable Network, the latest updated version of Canon's
Networked Colour, Exemplar Demonstrator, in a Copy Shop
which was being built in a disused factory, which when I first arrived,
was surrounded by brand-new park benches on which very friendly,
under-employed workers sat talking and smoking.
When at first the money started flowing into East Germany, the
authorities had so much and so little to spend it on in Dresden,
that they replaced and expanded massively the number of old
'park-benches' to facilitate the situation. On arrival at the airport,
on that first occasion, internally painted wooden tunnels had been
erected for the passengers to walk through, from the aircraft to
the terminal building, and on exit I was met by a sea of Trabant
taxis and their drivers vying for my trade. That first journey, what
with the state of the unmaintained roads and the interminable wait
at the multitude of traffic light controlled junctions, took 25
minutes or more. The last visit, taking the same route in a
Mercedes Benz, took less than 10, despite all the roadworks
engaged in the installation of fibre-optic network cables
throughout the city. What a contrast to the situation today
where it appears that Dresden has risen from the ashes and
Dortmund has become the old Dresden !!!???
…
y giants that are the latest recruits to be drafted in by the top brass.
It's an awkward pairing for an industry known for its largely liberal political stance. “Battles and wars have been won or lost based upon either bad, no or late information,” Brigadier General David Krumm declared at industry conference on the US military’s cloud computing infrastructure held in Virginia earlier this year.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who is believed to be the favourite
to win the JEDI contract, is unapologetic about his involvement.
“One of the jobs of a senior leadership team is to make the right
decision even when it is unpopular,” he told an audience in San
Francisco earlier this month. “This is a great country – it needs to
be defended.”
Google isn't as firm in its resolve. The company pulled out of the running for JEDI just ahead of the deadline, citing ethical concerns following pressure from staff. It also attempted to appease concerns by releasing principles for use of its artificial intelligence tools. That's not to say, however, that similar military deals are now off the table for Google. CEO Sundar Pichai last week made it clear that employee politics did not impact its decisions. “Throughout Google’s history we have given our employees a lot of voice and say but we don’t run the company by holding referendums [sic],” he said when quizzed at Wired magazine’s 25th birthday party in San Francisco.
Pichai added that Google hoped to “work with the military many times” because ultimately Google cherishes its values “but we can enjoy that because of the way our country is defended”. Pichai’s patriotism may have had something to do with Bezos’ comments hours earlier. When asked to defend his stance on JEDI, he aimed shots at Google stating: “If big tech companies turn their back on the Department of Defense then this country is in trouble”.
Cynics accuse those turning their backs of sour grapes. Many of the big names eyeing up the JEDI contract are suspicious that the Department of Defense has just one contender in mind: Amazon. The application information is strict on certain certifications that only Amazon could currently fulfill, rivals claim.
Within days of Google pulling out for “ethical reasons”, IBM and Oracle both launched public protests over the tendering process accusing the military of moving the goalposts, stifling competition and, the strongest allegation of all, putting people’s lives at risk.
Sam Gordy, IBM’s military contract chief wrote in a blog post: “No business in the world would build a cloud the way JEDI would and then lock in to it for a decade. JEDI turns its back on the preferences of Congress and the administration, is a bad use of taxpayer dollars and was written with just one company in mind. America’s warfighters deserve better”.
Microsoft has submitted a bid despite an open letter anonymously signed by people claiming to be employees. But what is strange about JEDI is the objections to the deal were made to it without anyone knowing exactly the contract would entail. So what does the government intend to do with it?
…
Added by Michael Grove at 12:57 on November 28, 2018