@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

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JulianOliver, to random
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Some powerful presentations today, at Day1 of the ADA Symposium 2024, with model data sovereignty in an indigenous context riding high. My keynote 'Machine Cult', that opened the symposium, went quite well. It may have been recorded. Will confirm tomorrow and report back. https://ada.net.nz/events/rising-algorithms/#Schedule

JulianOliver, to random
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Duckduckgo down

JulianOliver, to random
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For those of you in Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington, I'm launching a new piece, 'The Closed World', next week at the Dominion Observatory. Commissioned for the ADA Symposium, 2024, it has been a very interesting challenge putting this piece together.

I look forward to sharing a project page for The Closed World soon.

https://ada.net.nz/uncategorized/the-closed-world-julian-oliver/

JulianOliver,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

Ought to mention also that on the 25th I'll be opening the symposium with a new lecture, 'Machine Cult'. Hope to see some of you there!

https://ada.net.nz/uncategorized/keynote-one-machine-cult/

JulianOliver,
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@theowatson Yay, thanks friend!

JulianOliver, to random
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Look I do think it's worth mentioning that the Moon is drifting away from the Earth 3.8cm each year and that this just so happens to be around about the amount our fingernails grow in the same period.

JulianOliver, to random
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Depressing reveal during the unboxing of my new 600W ATX PSU.

JulianOliver, to random
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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

JulianOliver,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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

JulianOliver,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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

JulianOliver,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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

JulianOliver,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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

JulianOliver,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

@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, (edited )
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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

JulianOliver,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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

evnnbd, to random
@evnnbd@mamot.fr avatar

Hey @JulianOliver
I just want to let you know that the discourse page of criticalengineering.org is down.

JulianOliver,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

@evnnbd Thanks, on it!

JulianOliver, to random
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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,
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

Excellent descrip of what I saw last night & into this morning, even during the entry R1 Blackout level. I was surfing the 40/30/20m bands & found an eerie & persistent 'quiet earth' that I had never before seen.

Why? During intense solar storms the lower ionosphere becomes extremely electron-dense, and so radio reliant on ionospheric bounce loses energy - becoming degraded or lost altogether - due to increased collisions in this new high-density environment:

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/solar-flares-radio-blackouts

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
@JulianOliver@mastodon.social avatar

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

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