In this image released by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division, board a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III assigned to the 176th Wing, Alaska Air National Guard, as part of a force projection exercise to Shemya Island, Alaska, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Sept. 13, 2024. (Airman 1st Class Hunter Hites/U.S Air Force via AP)
The latest generation of Kindle’s 7-inch e-readers have a new look and new accessories. But are they worth the upgrade given Amazon’s new Kindle prices?
Whether you're starting a new business venture and need Microsoft Office's help or you just want to get better organized in your personal life, it's a good time to take advantage of this deal.
Whether you're starting a new business venture and need Microsoft Office's help or you just want to get better organized in your personal life, it's a good time to take advantage of this deal.
Adobe Acrobat is a go-to PDF tool for many people, but you don't necessarily need a subscription to handle everyday tasks. Free alternatives like PDFgear on Windows and Preview on Mac can handle many common PDF tasks.
Some disappointing, but perhaps not entirely unsurprising news this week out of Denmark — after announcing last year that they would transition away from Microsoft’s proprietary software, the realities of making it work seem to have caught the government off guard. The word is that a trial program immediately ran into problems when government employees that had been given Collabora tried to collaborate with their peers running Office, and has since been quietly abandoned.
Although there’s probably a joke to be made about different parts of the government not knowing what the other ones are talking about, the reality is that if one group of staffers can’t reliably access the data being produced by another, that’s a pretty big problem. Of course, had they simply asked us nerds, we could have advised them that these sort of issues are inevitable if you don’t fully commit to the effort.
Had the entire government moved to the Open Document Format (ODF) at once they would have avoided the issue, at least when it came to newly created documents, but obviously that’s a considerably larger undertaking than installing Collabora or OpenOffice on a few dozen machines and calling it a day. There’s no word yet on how this stumble will impact Denmark’s larger effort to free themselves of proprietary software, but we’d hazard a guess it’s not a great sign. Hopefully things go better for the Dutch.
Speaking of users trying to improve their personal software situation, The Verge has an interesting article on a recent trend of frustrated users pointing AI tools like Claude at their smart TVs, with a few success stories posted to social media showing off interfaces that have been stripped of ads or replaced with something else entirely. It’s compelling stuff for anyone who’s unhappy with their current smart TV experience, but the whole thing isn’t quite as technically impressive as it might seem on the surface.
As the TV’s in question are running Android, all the AI tools need to do is connect to them over Android Debug Bridge (ADB) and uninstall any offending packages that might be providing ads, and similarly creating a customized launcher interface is a matter of spinning up an Android app and installing it over the network. The results may look like arcane magic to the uninitiated, so we appreciate The Verge pointing out that it’s all pretty basic stuff for anyone familiar with Android development.
On the subject of extracting unwanted components, a delicate operation to remove the masts of the sunken WWII cargo ship SS Richard Montgomery was completed successfully earlier this week off the coast of Sheerness, England. To those unfamiliar with this particular vessel that might not sound like a big deal, but when you’re dealing with a wreck holding an estimated 1,400 metric tons of explosives that have been deteriorating since 1944, even approaching the area needs careful planning and coordination.
Masts of the SS Richard Montgomery in 2014. Image Credit: Christine Matthews
There was a concern that the masts and their supporting structures were on the verge of collapsing into the hull of the wreck, which experts warned could potentially trigger an explosion large enough to endanger life and property. Actually removing the explosives from the ship itself will be a far larger undertaking, but at least for the time being, removing the masts has helped stabilize the situation.
Finally, if you’re looking to learn about something a little more local than a potentially explosive situation in Sheerness (apologies to anyone in Sheerness), check out Local Wikipedia. Created by [Ed Jefferson], the site lets you filter Wikipedia pages by their distance from your location or whatever other landmark you wish. By default it shows results that are within 1.5 miles, but if you don’t have anything too exciting within range it will start opening up the radius to pull in more results.
See something interesting that you think would be a good fit for our weekly Links column? Drop us a line, we’d love to hear about it.
Following the judge's ruling this week, plaintiffs are still seeking to delete or expunge any copies of sensitive OPM data that DOGE agents still possess.
Stirling Allen, part of the Dynamic Environments Group with NASA’s Launch Services Program Office, showcases a commercial digital software at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The software performs finite element modeling to support shock and vibration analysis and ensure spacecraft and rockets can withstand harsh vibration, shock, stress, or other physical forces before launch, strengthening mission safety in the process.
NASA/Clayton Rougelot
Rockets vibrate, shake, and flex intensely as they climb into space, and spacecraft packed with delicate scientific instruments must survive those forces. Before any rocket leaves the ground, NASA engineers work to predict how those stresses will affect every part of a spacecraft.
To do that, engineers in the Dynamic Environments Group with NASA’s Launch Services Program Office at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have streamlined how they ensure spacecraft and rockets can withstand harsh vibration, shock, stress, or other physical forces, strengthening mission safety in the process.
Using a commercial digital software tool in a new way, the engineers developed a standardized modeling workflow for finite element modeling to strengthen shock and vibration analysis and ensure hardware is prepared for the extreme environments of launch and ascent.
“This computer-based method helps predict how rockets and spacecraft behave under extreme conditions before hardware is built and helps identify weak spots and potential failure risks early so the team can address the findings,” said Brian Beaver, chief of the Flight Analysis Division with the Launch Services Program Office at NASA Kennedy.
The team recently used the software for the first time while certifying a commercial launch provider’s rocket selected for a NASA mission. The commercial partner provided vibration testing but not shock testing. The Dynamic Environments Group determined shock testing was needed and used a template the group created to run what-if comparisons, visualize structural behavior, and answer complex questions that would have required extensive manual modeling in the past. The team verified the company’s testing results for flight environments, and the analysis provided new insights addressing shock during transport.
“We are using a tool that’s existed for decades, but it’s not normally used by the dynamic environments disciplines,” said Alex Hardt, aerospace engineer with the Launch Services Program Office at NASA Kennedy. “But we’re changing that. We’re using it in a relatively new area of dynamics.”
Although rockets and spacecraft are designed to absorb shocks and vibrations, those forces can cause wear and tear or potentially flight failures, especially during launch and ascent.
“We define how severe the random vibration levels and shock levels are, and then we verify that all the parts going on future rockets have been tested to those levels, maximizing their longevity,” Hardt said.
Software time saver
For decades, engineers have estimated shock and vibration environments using rules of thumb or by scaling previous data to estimate how each rocket component or spacecraft equipment would be impacted once assembled and flown. The approach worked, but relied heavily on engineering judgment and simple approximations drawn from past missions.
Because most dynamic environments engineers use finite element modeling tools infrequently, they often need to re-learn complex workflows. The software replaces older tools and provides a standard template that guides engineers more quickly and thoroughly through vibration profiles and shock conditions.
Finite element analysis is a powerful simulation technique that breaks a complex structure into smaller components so computers can accurately predict how a spacecraft or rocket could respond to specific forces or launch environments. This is important because issues can be addressed on the ground; once the rocket leaves the launch pad, most problems cannot be repaired or corrected, making early identification essential.
“We’ve used it to get really valuable insight very quickly into verifying a provider’s system,” Hardt said. “It’s already provided some really deep insight into something that normally takes a lot of effort.”
Hardt says having the ability to visualize non-intuitive dynamics problems using finite element models also highlights the software’s valuable impact on learning, efficiency, and alignment with NASA’s people focused culture. The workflow can help the engineers share knowledge, refine assessments with additional flight data, and increase proficiency with modeling tools. This capability already has saved months by allowing the team to run analysis independently without having to request and wait for analysis reports or data, and by helping them identify risks that weren’t previously considered.
NASA’s Launch Services Program Office is responsible for launching rockets delivering spacecraft that observe the Earth, visit other planets and explore the universe, from weather satellites to space telescopes to Mars rovers. The team is constantly adopting new tools like this to give the agency the highest practical chance of success for each mission.
"Anytime there's a new problem, it takes a little while to get it going and get state and local communities used to a new grant program," said Chris Currie.
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