@JulianOliver@mastodon.social
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JulianOliver

@JulianOliver@mastodon.social

Critical Engineering, tech art, techno politics, infosec, resilient infrastructure, communitarian survivalism, environmental defense, planetary futures.

I spend a lot of time helping defenders of human rights and the environment protect themselves with best-practice information and operations security. Alongside, I deploy secure infrastructure so they can safely organise.

Bows, arrows & rainforest conservation when I can.

Pākehā, Tangata Tiriti, he/him, herbivore

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

JulianOliver, to random
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For fellow RF geeks out there, an entertaining chart for getting your comms on in the current EM conditions. From https://hamradiofornontechies.com/current-ham-radio-conditions/

JulianOliver,
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Caved and set up the Buddipole. Will see if I can catch any solar bursts on 40m and 20m in radio land. Upconverter on battery to RTLSDR. Living dangerously, straight into lappie, gulp.

Nooelec Upconverter and RTL SDR

JulianOliver,
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@otte_homan haha

JulianOliver, to random
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Nasa says the solar storms could continue over the weekend. A good time to get the SDR out and look for EM blasts in radio land

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/10/business/sunspots-disrupt-phones-gps-scn/index.html

https://spaceweather.app/

JulianOliver, (edited )
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Edited post: my source and information was incorrect. Grid damage here in the South Island has not occurred at the present time, it is being reconfigured to avoid damage in anticipation of further G4 solar storms.

JulianOliver,
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Must be a bit of excitement in the ISS right now.

JulianOliver,
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@alex As I understand it it's both. Will try to confirm.

JulianOliver,
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@alex Yes it seems you are right. Editing the post.

JulianOliver,
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@alex Thanks, aware of that. My source info was out of context. Fixed!

JulianOliver,
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@alex wow! What a 0-30 MHz RF waterfall would have looked like 100+ years ago, just noisier.

JulianOliver,
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@alex So eerie.. If the noise is even pattern across spectrum, and in/outside the shack, could be line noise (balun, mode choke?). Sometimes moving the SDR to a new host can help, little embedded boards are quietest IME.

JulianOliver,
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RNZ taking it seriously, front page. Good to see.

Backup power sorted at home, in case the space weather gets particularly wild.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/516558/transpower-disconnects-some-north-island-power-assets-due-to-solar-storm

JulianOliver,
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We've hit G4, and entered R1 blackout. Loving this.

JulianOliver,
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Spent years studying and making jammers, and yet the true Teacher is a vast churning sphere of electromagnetic fire.

JulianOliver, (edited ) to random
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Researchers are calling for urgent regulation in advance of 'deadbots', simulations of the deceased that intervene upon the process of mourning itself.

Such tech would be a textbook example of rampant, self-serving techno-solutionism - of profit over care. Rather than such software being the fruit of recommendations from therapists and psychologists, to meet real needs, unregulated tech like this would instead be forced upon the vulnerable by a predatory market.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/09/digital-recreations-of-dead-people-need-urgent-regulation-ai-ethicists-say

JulianOliver, to random
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Understanding and getting atop the (now zoonotic) spread of the H5N1 virus is proving difficult as farmers in the US are being uncooperative. They're worried about losing revenue if the word gets out they have an infected herd, and also the issue of all their undocumented cheap labour.

While I'm here, I'm not reading countries urging the US to do all it can to contain the virus, nor calls for international investigations, nor derisive nicknames for it. Telling really.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/inside-the-federal-government-s-tug-of-war-with-states-on-the-bird-flu-outbreak/ar-BB1lTahb

JulianOliver,
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And a good interview on the issue:

https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/03/bird-flu-why-h5n1-keeping-awake-cdc-top-flu-scientist/

And another for my fellow Aotearoans:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018937164/the-mutant-bird-flu-lurking-on-our-borders

JulianOliver, (edited ) to random
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The very sharp and studied Teresa Ribera on the future of the EU, ahead of the forthcoming parliamentary elections:

"I think it’s been shown that it’s a huge error – and historically always has been – to think that looking for common territory with the far right is a way to pacify the far right [...] That never works."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/05/eu-at-risk-of-implosion-as-far-right-seeks-scapegoats-minister-warns

JulianOliver, to random
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On the curious thing of Mastodon unknowingly DDoS'ing websites, dubbed the 'fediverse effect' https://news.itsfoss.com/mastodon-link-problem/

JulianOliver,
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@fnwbr Agreed.

JulianOliver,
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@neoluddite Sort of. There is an inherent network inefficiency here. With the Slashdot effect it's GETs in individual browsers that generate that traffic, so corresponding to views. With Mastodon, it's federated servers and end point clients combined generating that traffic. In the case of the former, within a very short period of time.

JulianOliver,
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@neoluddite But I agree that with sufficient nominal resources, sane site optimisation, and proper tuning at the webserver, there is no reason a site in 2024 cannot stand straight during all but the most severe of blizzards.

JulianOliver, to random
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Learned a few things, OK more like 8, calibrating the MPU9250 accelerometer and magnetometer package for a new artwork. Was wondering why I was getting spurious compass drift, and remembered that the big speakers in the studio are errm giant magnets. So I built it up on a tripod, took it outside, ran the calib routine and it's tracking perfectly. Just needed that isolation.

Thoroughly recommend this sensor package btw, for any proj needing North and a gyro. Thanks for reading my shameless ad!

Closeup of the MPU9250/6500 accelerometer and magnetometer sensor package

JulianOliver, to random
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Good piece on the so-called 'dumphone boom', alongside the challenges of offlining in a world now so dependent on smartphones.

"Three in five gen-Zers say they’d like to be less connected to the digital world"

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/27/the-boring-phone-stressed-out-gen-z-ditch-smartphones-for-dumbphones

JulianOliver, to random
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Took the bus to town, everyone's on their phones. Got to town, everyone's on their phones.

I want to see a photography exhibition of people waiting for the train, vaping on the back porch, in a queue at a concert, friends sitting opposite at a cafe - all of them looking at their hand as though holding an invisible phone.

JulianOliver,
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@markusreuter love it. TY.

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