Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

June 18, 2024

Indian Startup Agnikul successfully launched worlds first fully 3D printed engine

Filed under: Astronomy / Space,Emerging Tech,My Thoughts — Suramya @ 5:27 PM

3D Printing is one of the few technologies from the last decade that has come close to accomplishing what it promised, some of the more Sci-fi style stuff is still in the works (Like 3D printing food) but for the most part it does what it promised unlike some of the other ‘ground-breaking’ tech like blockchain, NFT etc. etc. Folks have used 3D printing to print houses, sculptures, prosthetic eye and more.

On 30th May another major milestone was achieved proving the technology’s usefulness. An Indian Company called Agnikul tested its 3D printed Rocket by successfully launching it from the Satish Dhawan Space Center. The launch was a test of the engine block which was the world’s first rocket engine 3D printed as a single piece. The engine took just 72 hours to print and another two weeks to integrate with other systems. The rocket generated 6 kilonewtons of thrust during the test and flew 6.5 Kms into the air.

Now that the technology has been proven, the company is starting work on their commercial implementation of the engine called Agnibaan (Fire Arrow). Agnibaan will feature eight rockets and will be capable of carrying a 300-kilogram payload to an altitude of around 700 km. The configuration of the rocket will be modular allowing the team to configure it according to need.

In addition to being the worlds first 3D printed engine, Agnibaan was also India’s first launch from a privately owned launch pad. Thus far, all space launches were carried out from one of the two ISRO launch pads at Sriharikota. Agniaan on the other hand launched from a custom built launch pad called Dhanush (Bow). Dhanush is designed to support full mobility across all configurations of Agnibaan and is meant to be reusable.

With more private companies entering the market the Space Age has truly started in India.

Source: IEEE: Indian Startup 3D Prints Rocket Engine in Just 72 Hours

-Suramya

June 13, 2024

Denmark recalls Instant ramen noodles because they are ‘too spicy’

Filed under: Humor,My Thoughts — Suramya @ 7:18 PM

I have always thought that the food in most western countries was insufficiently spicy and in some places felt like they just boiled the food before serving it. This was a great problem for me during my years in the US till I discovered Mexican food and I have similar issues in other western countries as well.

I was surfing the web earlier today and found this news article that talks about how Denmark is recalling three flavors of instant ramen noodles because they were too spicy and it made me laugh. Even better was the response from the company (emphasis added by me):

We understand that the Danish food authority recalled the products, not because of a problem in their quality but because they were too spicy,” Samyang told the BBC News. “The products are being exported globally. But this is the first time they have been recalled for the above reason.”

The recall note states:

The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration says that the amount of the chili pepper extract in one pack of 3x Spicy & Hot Chicken, 2x Spicy & Hot Chicken, or Hot Chicken Stew “is so high that they pose a risk of the consumer developing acute poisoning.”

“If you have the products, you should discard them or return them to the store where they were purchased,” the agency implores

Considering the folks there think a dish spiced with just pepper is too spicy this is not too surprising but is funny. I wonder how the MTR Ready to Eat Meals would fare over there. My guess is that it would face similar issues unless the spice level was reduced drastically.

Source: Boingboing.net: Instant ramen recalled for being too spicy

– Suramya

June 6, 2024

IndiGo Launches Female Friendly Seat Selections

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 12:01 PM

Travel can be a pain for women because there are enough idiots in the world who will take the opportunity of a woman seated next to them to make them miserable for the entire flight by making unwelcome advances etc. IndiGo recently launched a program to try to address this issue. If the ticket is being booked for a female passenger then the system will show them the seats that are already occupied by women. This allows the passenger to book a seat that is next to a lady passenger. I first noticed this when I was checking in Jani for her flight. The below screenshot shows what it looks like:


Female Friendly seat selection option

I think this is a good move but as with all things there is an easy way to game the system so men can ensure they are seated next to a lady. Basically, I need to open two windows. In one window I would search for a flight ticket pretending to be a lady passenger. Since the payment is not required till after we do a seat selection I get to see which seats are occupied by women. Then I cancel the process and start a fresh one with the actual passenger details picking a seat next to a lady.

There is no easy way to detect and block this. One option would be to allow the seat selection only after making the payment for the ticket but that would mean folks would have to make a second payment for the seat selection as most of the options are paid ones, which would not be a user friendly experience.

Even with that, this is a good move and should help make the flights more comfortable for women.

Source: NDTV: IndiGo Launches Female-Friendly Seat Selection Option. Here’s What It Means

– Suramya

June 5, 2024

New transparent film lets in more light than glass while preserving privacy by blurring the view

Filed under: Science Related — Suramya @ 10:14 AM

In the ancient days we constructed our homes out of natural material such as clay, mud, wood etc and it had the advantage of keeping the house cool during the summer and warm during the winters. Unfortunately, due to the lack of appropriate materials these houses either had very small windows or used material that wasn’t clear making the insides of the houses a dark & gloomy place. This all changed once we had the technology to make glass windows cheaply and quickly. All of a sudden we could put in windows that allowed sunlight into the house without letting the wind inside. It was a game changer for housing.

Now all our houses have glass windows, some even have glass doors etc. Now we have a few different problems. Namely that glass is transparent and having large windows creates a privacy issue where folks can see inside the house. Hence we use curtains, frosted glass, window tinting etc to address this issue. Secondly, Allowing in ambient sunlight raises a room’s temperature requiring additional cooling for the room. This is a big enough problem that there is a thriving market for reflective glass, and window tinting. But there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Researchers at Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have designed an ultrathin film that when stuck over a regular pane of glass diffuses 73% of incident sunlight, creating a more comfortable and private indoor environment while simultaneously blurring the view through the window. In tests it was found that the film cooled ambient temperatures by as much as 6-degrees Celsius.

The team has successfully tested the film in outdoor tests in the KIT campus and their research has been published in the journal Nature Communications. The technology is still in early stages and it remains to be seen if it can be commercially produced but it does look quite promising. I am looking forward to more developments in this field.

Source: HackerNews: New material looks like frosted glass but lets in more light than a window

– Suramya

June 4, 2024

Thoughts on Book Clubs and reading

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 8:43 PM

As folks who know me know I read a lot of books. To give you an idea of what I mean by that, I read 209 books in 2023 and my goal is to read 365 books in a year. In 2024 I have read 99 books so far. (I am way behind in my reading this year due to various reasons)

A little while ago folks in my apartment complex started a book club and I was invited to join since I read a lot. Book clubs are interesting but I never saw the appeal because of multiple reasons. First, I read fast enough that by the time others in the club would finish a book I would be in my 4th or 5th one. The second issue is that I don’t particularly like dissecting a book and look for hidden meanings or life lessons etc in it. Lastly, in a lot of these clubs they seem to be more interested in hanging out/gossiping rather than book readings.

I have no issues discussing books but doing it in a structured way takes the fun out of it. Also not a lot of folks read the kind of books I do so that’s another issue I face. In the next meeting over here someone is actually preparing a presentation on the 3 Body problem and that just sounds like work to me. Personally when I meet with like minded folks I exchange book recommendations rather than the content of the books. That could also be because I mostly read fiction whereas a large majority of folks who are part of these clubs seem to prefer non-fiction books that can actually be dissected and have a lot of data to discuss.

As I mentioned in a previous post I have never been a part of any of the fandoms and I am glad that I didn’t. The issue with discussing books is that folks get too invested in it and that just takes the fun out of it.

However, all that being said I am glad book clubs exist as they give a way for people to connect and learn about books they might find interesting. Anything that gets people more interested in reading is great in my mind.

– Suramya

May 26, 2024

Reasonable to get angry if your kid was over at a friend’s and their parents invited other adults over without checking with you?

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 10:07 AM

Someone shared the image below and ever since I saw it I have been trying to figure out what the problem is. I think this is a very entitled take or someone who is suffering from the Main character syndrome (a term used to describe someone who often sees themselves as the main character in the story, and that everyone should cater to their whims)

Would you get angry if your kid was over at a friend’s house and their parents invited other adults over without checking with you? ‘Cause this happened to me yesterday and I still feel murderous. I picked 13 up as soon as she told me and didn’t make a scene, but I'm livid.
Would you get angry if your kid was over at a friend’s house and their parents invited other adults over without checking with you?

This is a very common thing that happens all the time. When we were kids we would go over to a friends place and hang out. If the parents had folks over we would be asked to keep it down or go play outside. I see the same thing with my friend’s kids, the kids play separately and the adults hang out separately. If your kid is at my place and I am taking them over to someone else’s house without telling you then you have full right to get upset. However, if we are at home then you don’t have any right to restrict / control who I have over at *my* place. Who are you to require that I should get your permission to have friends over at my place? If there was a specific person who you don’t want interacting with your kid, you can request that I don’t call them over when your kid is there. However, end of the day it is still my decision to agree or disagree with your request.

‘Feeling Murderous’ because you didn’t get to control someone else’s life and friends is just silly. If you feel so strongly about this then you should get some help to figure out why this is the case because it is not healthy (in my opinion).

Or it could just be that they are worried that their kid will interact with other ‘normal’ adults and realize that what their parent is putting them through is not normal behavior. Another possibility is that the kid is getting abused and they don’t want them telling an adult about it.

Whatever the reason behind the ranting, I feel bad for this person’s kids. Hope they stay safe and are able to get away from such a control-freak.

What do you think? Am I misreading the situation and do you think this kind of demand makes sense?

– Suramya

May 25, 2024

ICQ messenger shutting down after almost 28 years of service

Filed under: Computer Software,My Thoughts,Tech Related — Suramya @ 6:12 AM

I used ICQ for the first time around 1997/98 and it was an amazing experience to be chatting with someone on the other side of the planet for free. I had been using BBS’s to connect with people but for obvious reasons they were all local folks. ICQ was the first system that allowed me to connect to the international world for free. I think it was also the first system where I encountered the infamous A/S/L(Age/Sex/Location) question. It was quite popular over on AOL IM as well, but I first encountered it on ICQ. I think it was probably because there was no concept of a profile picture at that time and ICQ used a number instead of a custom screen name for user identification.

Unfortunately the system is going to be shutdown on June 26th with no explanation given on why it is being shutdown. That being said It is impressive that the system managed to stay up and running for so long. I think the last time I logged into ICQ was sometime in the late 2000’s. I wonder if I still remember the password to be able to log in one last time before it is gone for good.

What would be really cool is if VK makes the source code behind the server opensource so that others can setup an alternate ICQ server for folks to use. But I doubt that would happen.

Source: Bleepingcomputer.com: ICQ messenger shuts down after almost 28 years

– Suramya

May 24, 2024

OpenSSF launches Siren to provide real-time security warning for Open Source Software

Filed under: Computer Security,Interesting Sites,Security Tools,Tech Related — Suramya @ 6:41 PM

Securing OpenSource software (OSS) can be a bit of a challenge at times and a lot of the Infosec feeds that give information on Security issues in software are commercial paid entities. There are software that scan for OSS vulnerabilities but we can always use more threat intelligence networks.

Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) has launched a new threat intelligence sharing group called ‘OpenSSF Siren‘ that aims to provide real-time security warning bulletins and deliver a community-driven knowledge base to fill the gap between the open-source and enterprise communities.

The OpenSSF Siren is a collaborative effort to aggregate and disseminate threat intelligence specific to open source projects. Hosted by the OpenSSF, this platform provides a secure and transparent environment for sharing Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) and Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) associated with recent cyber attacks. Siren is intended to be a post-disclosure means of keeping the community informed of threats and activities after the initial sharing and coordination.

The Key features of the OpenSSF Siren include:

  • Open Source Threat Intelligence: shared with the community about actively exploited public vulnerabilities and threats.
  • Real-Time Updates: List members receive notifications via email about emerging threats which may be relevant to their projects, enabling swift action to mitigate risks.
  • TLP:CLEAR: To facilitate effective unrestricted transparent communication, the list follows the Traffic Light Protocol (TLP), Clear guidelines for the sharing and handling of intelligence.
  • Community-driven: Contributors from diverse backgrounds collaborate to enrich the intelligence database, fostering a culture of shared responsibility and collective defense.

You can sign up for it here: Siren Sign-Up
Source: OpenSSF sings a Siren song to steer developers away from buggy FOSS

– Suramya

May 23, 2024

Windows 11 will feature builtin Spyware in the near future or Recall AI as Microsoft Calls it

Filed under: Artificial Intelligence,Computer Security,Computer Software,My Thoughts,Security Tools,Tech Related — Suramya @ 7:24 PM

Till recently if you wanted to spy on someone and see what they have been doing on the computer, you had to infect their computer by making them visit a dodgy site or get physical access and download a RAT (Remote Access Trojan) & install it on the target’s computer, configure the Antivirus to ignore it and put in a backdoor so that you can access the data remotely. Obviously this was a lot of work so looks like some cyber criminals reached out to Microsoft (MS) and asked for help. MS being a super helpful company, has added a functionality called ‘Windows Recall’ to it’s windows 11 Preview build to solve this. Recall takes a snapshot (literally) of the screen every few seconds and stores it in a searchable database ‘stored locally’. Basically it does exactly what spyware does without having to install anything new on your system. As per the company below is how the Recall works:

Recall uses Copilot+ PC advanced processing capabilities to take images of your active screen every few seconds. The snapshots are encrypted and saved on your PC’s hard drive. You can use Recall to locate the content you have viewed on your PC using search or on a timeline bar that allows you to scroll through your snapshots. Once you find the snapshot that you were looking for in Recall, it will be analysed and offer you options to interact with the content. What actions you can take depend on the content and the chat provider capabilities in Copilot in Windows. For example, you may highlight a block of text and decide to summarise it, translate it, or open it with a text editor like Word or Notepad. If you highlight an image, you will be able to edit it or use your chat provider in Copilot in Windows to find or create a similar image.

Recall will also enable you to open the snapshot in the original application in which it was created, and, as Recall is refined over time, it will open the actual source document, website or email in a screenshot. This functionality will be improved during Recall’s preview phase.

The best part is that according to their own announcement the snapshots will not hide passwords/account numbers etc. However, it does block you from recording DRM’d video you might be watching because protecting that is important not simple things like personal information etc.

Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. That data may be in snapshots that are stored on your device, especially when sites do not follow standard internet protocols like cloaking password entry.

This is a gold mine for data thieves, abusers, industrial espionage, identity thieves and other cyber criminals. Once they have access to a PC they don’t need to do anything else except copy the data from the Recall DB to their own system and happily browse through the users personal data at their leisure.

I don’t think MS has thought about folks who use public computers such as the ones in an Internet Cafe or Hotels or Libraries. With this feature enabled all someone has to do is wait a few days then come back and copy incredibly private information that they can then sell/use. Privacy and Domestic Abuse experts are raising questions about this as well because sure as night follows day, abusers will use this to track what their victims are doing on a computer and that can go bad very quickly.

Even if the data is supposedly only on the local machine we don’t know when MS is going to force it to be uploaded to their servers using OneDrive or other similar setups. All the coverage I have seen for this functionality 99% of them have raised similar concerns about the security, privacy and quite frankly the need for this kind of surveillance.

Imagine what would a regieme like Taliban, China or other conservative/restrictive governments do with information they get from this system. You are dreaming if you think that they will not force MS to make this information available to them at the risk of losing access to that market if they don’t. Once you have the capability to do this, feature creep will happen for sure and we will end up in a Surveillance state.

The only Windows 11 system at my place is my wife’s laptop and you can be sure that I am going to disable this ‘feature’ as soon as it launches.

Source: Bleepingcomputer: Windows 11 Recall AI feature will record everything you do on your PC

– Suramya

May 22, 2024

Can’t tell if this guy is serious or just a troll

Filed under: Humor — Suramya @ 11:53 PM

It used to be quite easy to figure out when people were being serious or just posting nonsense because they are trolling. Unfortunately that is no longer the case. We have folks who actually believe that there are no such things are birds, others still insist that the earth is flat, still others think that Reptilian overlords have replaced humans in power to control humanity and so many more conspiracy theories.

But this one is just… wow! I honestly can’t tell if the guy is serious or not. I looked at their twitter feed and still couldn’t tell.


Christians against Satellites

If this is not a troll posting then they need serious help…

– Suramya

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