Lifeboat Foundation

The new generation of Starlink satellites remains above the accepted brightness threshold.

Unlike the nascent Iridium constellation — which really only found niche applications — Starlink is already proving its worth. For example, Starlink is currently keeping the Internet on in Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion.

The main concern in professional astronomy is the impact on current and upcoming all-sky surveys, such as the Vera C. Rubin telescope. This survey will scour the sky nightly down to a faint +22nd magnitude. A recent article in Nature notes that the 1.5-meter Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) telescope at Palomar sees Starlink streaks on 18 percent of its deep-sky images. A recent International Astronomical Union statement called for operational Starlinks to fall below +7th magnitude.

Continue reading “SpaceX: Why Starlink has some astronomers worried” »

If the combination of Covid-19 and remote work technologies like Zoom have undercut the role of cities in economic life, what might an even more robust technology like the metaverse do? Will it finally be the big upheaval that obliterates the role of cities and density? To paraphrase Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: The place to be was Silicon Valley. It feels like now the place to be is the internet.

The simple answer is no, and for a basic reason. Wave after wave of technological innovation — the telegraph, the streetcar, the telephone, the car, the airplane, the internet, and more — have brought predictions of the demise of physical location and the death of cities.

Remote work has become commonplace since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the focus on daily remote work arrangements may miss a larger opportunity that the pandemic has unearthed: the possibility of a substantially increased labor pool for digital economy work. To measure interest in digital economy jobs, defined as jobs within the business, finance, art, science, information technology, and architecture and engineering sectors, the authors conducted extensive analyses of job searches on the Bing search engine, which accounts for more than a quarter of all desktop searches in the U.S. They found that, not only did searches for digital economy jobs increase since the beginning of the pandemic, but those searches also became less geographically concentrated. The single biggest societal consequence of the dual trends of corporate acceptance of remote work and people’s increased interest in digital economy jobs is the potential geographic spread of opportunity.

Continue reading “Who Gets to Work in the Digital Economy?” »

Artificial intelligence is being used to design magazine covers and provide pictures for internet newsletters. What could possibly go wrong?

It all started with the headline over an entry in Charlie Warzel’s Galaxy Brain newsletter.

Watching the Alex Jones trial with an ex-Infowars staffer.

Continue reading “Where Does Alex Jones Go From Here?” »

Does that then prove he is a robot?

Close to a year after social media giant Facebook rebranded itself as Meta — to reflect its new strategy and vision to build the new version of the internet — its primary product, the famous metaverse, looks mediocre at best. But that is something CEO Mark Zuckerberg is failing to see, a Forbes.

Last October, when Facebook’s intent for a major rebranding was revealed, many questioned its timing. The company was going through a tough phase as whistleblowers revealed incriminating details of the company’s practices and regulators pushed for breaking up the company that also owns WhatsApp and Instagram.

Continue reading “Does Mark Zuckerberg Not Understand How Bad His Metaverse Looks?” »

Faster computers, tap-proof communication, better car sensors—quantum technologies have the potential to revolutionize our lives just as the invention of computers or the internet once did. Experts worldwide are trying to implement findings from basic research into quantum technologies. To this end, they often require individual particles, such as photons—the elementary particles of light—with tailored properties.

However, obtaining individual particles is complicated and requires intricate methods. In a study recently published in the journal Science, researchers now present a new method that simultaneously generates two individual particles in form of a pair.

6G radiation is affecting brain cells. As 6G as the successor of 5G is poised to take over the world, should we worry? I feel so.

Discovery could help assess new communication technology and also develop therapies to treat brain diseases, Beijing researchers say.

Wikimedia Commons.

The Elon Musk space company may be popular for ferrying astronauts and cargo missions on its reusable rockets, but its satellite internet services have also made a mark in recent times. When Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, it also tried to break the communication chain inside the country by attacking its fiber optic network. However, SpaceX’s terminals were flown in, and connectivity was restored in a matter of days.

Quantum computing technology could have notable advantages over classical computing technology, including a faster speed and the ability to tackle more complex problems. In recent years, some researchers have also been exploring the possible establishment of a “quantum internet,” a network that would allow quantum devices to exchange information, just like classical computing devices exchange information today.

Water is the most essential resource for life, for both humans and the crops we consume. Around the world, agriculture accounts for 70% of all freshwater use.

I study computers and information technology in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute and direct Purdue’s Environmental Networking Technology (ENT) Laboratory, where we tackle sustainability and environmental challenges with interdisciplinary research into the Agricultural Internet of Things, or Ag-IoT.

Continue reading “Saving water with wireless technologies is possible — but there are challenges” »