At the #AAS237 conference yesterday I went to a panel discussion on the effect of large constellations of satellites on astronomy from the ground. The thousands of satellites @spacex and others want to launch are a serious problem. 1/n

The launch of so many satellites might change the appearance of the night sky for ever and the trails they leave in astronomers' cameras and the potential for interference with radio telescopes are serious problems 2/n

Those problems are particularly acute for those searching for near-Earth or threatening asteroids, for example, though any large survey of the sky is affected. 3/n

It was good to see @spacex, Amazon's Kuiper project and @oneweb present, and to hear that the latter have dropped their plans from more than 40,000 satellites to 'only' 6372. All the speakers were positive about working together. 4/n

@OneWeb And a lot has been done. All three companies talked about making sure their satellites were fainter than 7th magnitude soon after launch, which would make them invisible to the naked eye and avoid the worst problems for large surveys 5/n

@JugglingJelly Bridges are a perfect example of engineering.

The purpose of Engineering is Deskilling.

If you can build a bridge you can eliminate the skilled workers required to operate the ferries to get people across the river.

1/n

By eliminating the skilled ferries it means that the cost of crossing rivers is lowered, making it accessible to more people.

2/n

More accessibility is good for the economy because it means that more people can do business by crossing that bridge.

3/n

The single market was a economic engineering. It removed requirements by aligning and agreeing standards. It deskilled the customs industry by removing the requirement for expensive customs "ferrymen".

4/n

Brexit has had the effect that it has burned the economic bridge that we had with the single market meaning we're having to rapidly increase the skills of the customs agents in an unrealistic timeframe.

5/n

A thread on windows facts you actually don't know.

Two different types of windows operating system:
1. Windows -> Old windows that doesn't exist anymore.
2. Windows NT -> The version that is used nowadays in modern microsoft computers.

1/n

Windows : It was old version of windows operating system. It was used in Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME and was a ancestor of the old 16 bit versions of windows.

More 👇

2/n

Windows NT: It is the never/modern version of Windows, It is used in every Windows version avaiable today. It was Firstly used in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Windows NT comes with more recent/modern design that microsoft intiated in the early 1990s Windows.

More 👇

3/n

Windows NT was designed as 32 bit processors capable. It had some new features like: Virtual memory, Multithreading and multiprocessor support.

In other words, Windows NT was/is a Modern Operating system.

4/n

Both(Windows and Windows NT) operating systems were made compatible of Win32 API, so that applications running on Windows can also run on Windows NT.

In 2001, Microsoft finally decided to eliminate the Windows product and offer only NT based systems.

5/n

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So lets talk Dominion and @elenaparent. Over a year ago, when the machines were being purposed, she fought hard against them.

"Democratic state Sen. Elena Parent, who opposes the type of equipment the state is preparing to purchase

World needs a new Internet. Let’s get our shit together and finally build the Web3. Otherwise this world will be either in flames or under digital totalitarian control. Thread

Today's internet has massive integrity problems making the global human community vulnerable. We can’t verify who we communicate with or what the source of information is.

Our digital identities and information are managed by very few oligopolies, and our access to the services we need can be blocked by those very same oligopolies.

For application developers, the current internet does not work either. Their access to consumers can be blocked by their application being removed from a store or by not getting accepted into the app stores app's business model not matching the oligopolies’ business models.

Governments have their share of challenges with the current Internet as well. While freedom of speech is the core value of democratic societies, the social media platforms offer an incredibly powerful tool for bad actors to spread misinformation and manipulate masses.

#SamsungUnpacked
1/9
THREAD ABOUT SAMSUNG and my Disappointment:

Samsung, when are you gonna make a device again which makes the fans not being disappointed in you?

In the past couple of years, when i watch Unpacked, my reaction is not "Awesome" or "Cool" or "i like that"

2/9
mostly it's "Oh no, another disappointment"

Why?
A few reasons here:
Removing Headphone jack, Removing Iris Sensor, Removing SD Slot, Removing Charger, Removing Headphones, Removing Heart rate Sensor, Removing IR Blaster, yet still Increasing prices and so on and so on.

3/9
I use your products for over a decade and i never was so disappointed in you like in the past (2 to 3 years)
You were a company that listened to the consumers.

If we weren't happy with or about something, you changed it with the next S or Note Device.

4/9
But now, all that counts is just the Money and that's actually pretty sad.

You mock Apple and other companies, just to follow them a few weeks or months later.

I appreciate your commitment to new technology and innovation but i CAN NOT support you with your decisions you

5/9
made in the past 2 to 3 years.

It makes me sad to see which path you're taking and that you don't care that you leave your roots.

But hey, who am i, right? I don't have millions of followers. So no reason to listen to me?!

LIVE at 1pm: @AjitPaiFCC joins @AEItech for his final speech as Chairman of the FCC. He'll discuss the tough choices he made that shaped U.S. communications policy.

Tune in:

.@AjitPaiFCC: I'll "walk you through four of the most challenging calls I had to make over the past four years.
The details and circumstances of these episodes vary, but I think it’s important to say up front that the underlying principle guiding my decisions never changed."

"I said repeatedly that every decision I would make at the FCC would be an independent one, based on the facts and the law. Nothing more. Nothing less. In my view, that must be the lodestar for any FCC leader." - @AjitPaiFCC

"Net neutrality advocates approached the issue with a religious fervor, and the press corps covering the issue was broadly sympathetic to their position." - @AjitPaiFCC

"It was clear that there was no real political upside for me to re-open this fight. ... But investment in high-speed networks had declined for two straight years for the first time outside of a recession in the Internet era." - @AjitPaiFCC

Just gonna leave this here. When we released the Alternative Influence Network report (@beccalew is the author), many were criticial of the humble recommendation that social media companies should review accounts as they gained popularity.

Becca wrote, “In a media environment consisting of networked influencers, YouTube must respond with policies that account for influence and amplification, as well as social networks.” This recommendation was simple, clear, and I told every company of the implications.

I wonder if we would be in this situation today if some of the more prominent disinformation voices had supported this recommendation, instead of saying that deplatforming threatened free speech.

Too busy trying to spot a bot maybe? Too worried about declining data stockpiles?

It’d abhorrent to have been arguing for simple policy fixes for years and only have support for them when hell touches down for the white middle class. BIPOC and women have been organizing for decades to get policies enforced for community safety online.

Instead of learning their work and policy recommendations and doing everything we can as researchers to help get these shared concerns on the table, I see white men rebranding as “disinformation,” “extremism,” and “conspiracy” experts.

It’s bumming me out.