This goes deep. I've seen people say things like "US customs are too good, this wouldn't get past us" and nope that is definitely not true. This was all based on a lot of trust that is now broken.

Helion is expected to have its fusion generation device online by 2028 and to reach its target power generation of 50 megawatts or more within an agreed-upon one-year ramp up period. When the fusion device is fully up to speed producing 50 megawatts of energy, it will be able to power the equivalent of approximately 40,000 homes in Washington state.

While Helion’s deal with Microsoft is to get 50 megawatts online, the company eventually aims to produce a gigawatt of electricity, which is one billion watts, or 20 times the 50 megawatts it is selling to Microsoft.

Microsoft will pay for the megawatt hours of electricity as Helion delivers them to the grid.

Quit Clown

A Twitter data scientist who was set to resign reportedly told CEO Elon Musk what a lot of users are thinking these days: "I hope you’ll declare bankruptcy and let someone else run the company."

That anecdote and other eye-opening revelations are at the center of the just-released book "Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter," by New York Times reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, who take readers inside how Musk has transformed the social network, now called X, into a shambolic mess of bots and extremist hate accounts.

The departing employee was initially pleased that Musk had taken over the company, as flagged by Rolling Stone, but grew increasingly alarmed, especially after Musk shared a deranged and incorrect conspiracy theory about Nancy Pelosi's husband after a home invader attacked him with a hammer.

"It’s only really like the tenth percentile of the adult population who’d be gullible enough to fall for this," the data scientist told Musk during a face-to-face meeting.

"Fuck you!" Musk shouted back. Fail Whale

There are even more bonkers revelations in the book, but you don't really need to read all these anecdotes to get a sense that X-formerly-Twitter is adrift and that Musk is a terrible manager.

If you've spent any length of time on the site, you will be inundated with sex or porn bots and dubious accounts with paid blue checks peddling conspiracy theories, with Musk as chief pusher of fake news on the app.

Not to mention arcane tech glitches, like last year when the website became unusable due to "rate limit exceeded" messages.

And because of Musk's mismanagement and his mercurial presence on the app, advertisers and users have left in droves — leading Musk to sue advertisers over this supposed mass boycott.

Here's a thought: perhaps Musk should have listened to that data scientist and left the website in more competent hands.

👍👍👍

The tax breaks in the Inflation Recovery Act are crucial to making the deal economically feasible, according to Constellation. They provide a credit for every megawatt hour of nuclear energy produced.

lmao so instead of this funding the energy transition it's just subsidizing the AI grift

Two weeks before your subscription expires - they auto-renew if you didn't disable that function. I didn't disable the goddamned function and - of course - they auto-renewed me for the Cadillac plan that's $160 a year. My perfectly fine cheapie plan was $60.

I'm in the process of trying to get a refund and I'm not enjoying it.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a cheap tablet for notes, books and occasionally movies?

No idea how real this is, but seems like a fairly logical way for things to play out.

https://x.com/Saidi_Omary1/status/1836294235852583265

linky

With this project falling behind, and the reducing likelihood of delays in the Lunar Gateway/Artemis program, I think there's a good chance that NASA and the ESA will not have access to a space station following the ISS's decommission. It's not the only "public-private" partnership for an ISS successor, but I don't think the other candidates are making much progress either.

I also thought that this quote was pretty amusing, and highlights the futility of trying to privately fund commercial station projects:

To bring in some much-needed cash, Axiom Space started selling seats for trips to the ISS on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.

It was also awarded a NASA contract to fund a space suit for the first crewed mission to the lunar surface, Artemis III.

But the suit appears to have been a massive distraction — not to mention a major money pit — from its plans to build a space station. SpaceX trips to the existing orbital outpost were also not a sustainable solution to Axiom Space's woes.

"Turns out that there's not a lot of billionaires that want to set aside their life for 18 months to go train to be an astronaut for the ISS," a former Axiom executive told Forbes.

Question for the c/tech crowd:

Are there any good hacking challenge websites still out there?

I know a few went away, a few went corporate, and I only found one to still exist as is. I'm looking for more as I want relearn some skills and get more advanced on other skills.

Help a brother out?

Want to expand replies? Entire thread reloads and I have to scroll down again.

Want to go to a "controversial" sub that doesn't do front page bootlicking for billionaires and/or "influencer" sociopaths? Too bad, you need to log in. I have nothing left to log in with because fuck that.

Want to go to a less controversial but still cringe sub? Here's an introduction blurb and the rules but you need to log in. Like and subscribe. Ring the bell to keep ahead of future notifications. Eat Feastables. Eat the bug vomit chocolatey bar.

Fans of ultra-viral mobile gaming hit Flappy Bird who were stunned by the game's sudden removal from the iOS App Store 10 years ago were probably even more stunned by last week's equally sudden announcement that Flappy Bird is coming back with a raft of new characters and game modes. Unfortunately, the new version of Flappy Bird seems to be the result of a yearslong set of legal maneuvers by a crypto-adjacent game developer intent on taking the "Flappy Bird" name from the game's original creator, Dong Nguyen.

"No, I have no related with their game. I did not sell anything," Nguyen wrote on social media over the weekend in his first post since 2017. "I also don't support crypto," Nguyen added.

"Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed," Nguyen said in a 2014 interview after removing the game from mobile app stores. "But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever."

So how can another company release a game named Flappy Bird without Nguyen's approval or sale of the rights? Court filings show that a company called Gametech Holdings filed a "notice of opposition" against Nguyen with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in late 2023, seeking to invalidate his claim on the "Flappy Bird" name. When Nguyen, who lives in Vietnam, didn't respond to that notice by November, the US Patent and Trademark Office entered a default judgment against him and officially canceled his trademark in January, allowing Gametech to legally claim the name.

I fucked up my algo watching animal grooming and cute cat videos. Funny enough something I like to watch because it's soothing has turned into something that ruins my day.

Kind of fucked that people are using animal abuse for clicks.

New ai tech pessimism piece

My man ignores vast potential of ai to hit pentagon contracts of spreading misinformation on foreign soil (cause lib)

it's joever for Cniles (I am one of them 😔)

You heard me.

https://archive.ph/EmEYq

full disclosure i own a 3d printer too so maybe i am just projecting