Jenn Boo-lari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

You would see
The biggest gift would be from me
And the card attached would say "AAAAAAAAA" 🎶​

Imagine the euphoria of getting this patch right and finally getting some sensible data back. Outstanding work.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024/04/22/nasas-voyager-1-resumes-sending-engineering-updates-to-earth/

I've been following this story since NASA's press release about the tech failure in December. I don't know why I'm so fond of the Voyager project. Probably because it's an amazing project that started before I was born, and I feel I'm very unlikely to see the beginnings of a new project like this. Cheers to the brilliant minds that engineered the solution based off of files written by people who haven't worked at NASA for decades.

And safe voyage, you two buckets of bolts.

During the pandemic, many office workers had no choice but to go home and work.

Four years later, a growing number of businesses appear to be allowing employees not just to work remotely, but outside of Colorado.

https://coloradosun.com/2024/04/20/colorado-remote-work-workers-comp/

I cried at the Voyager news today. I also know why.

Because for every techbro out there, there's a talented engineer quietly working to make things actually better.

That gives me hope.

Hope is in short supply these days.

Well, the secret's out. As many of you suspected, I am indeed Banksy. Need proof? Here, I'll give you the inside scoop of how I came up with my name. It's a combination of bank (my favorite place to withdraw money from) and syrup (because I like to pour maple syrup on pancakes lol).

#WritersCoffeeClub - Do you agree with Rose Tremain, who said you shouldn't plan a book's ending; it must be earned?

Earned by whom??? By the author? By the story? By the characters??

Anyway, it's not how I plan my stories: I see all of them as a film first (often several times) before I start writing. So even if I don't do a proper outline (or mindmap - a mindmap is better, really), I have a plan for the story. It might change a little during the writing process itself, but not much.

Ooooooo...

NASA recovered a space probe's 47-year-old computer with about as much memory as my old Commodore 64 over a distance of 15 billion miles so it can (hopefully) continue to do science work, and it reminds me of how much ingenuity used to go into computers back when the assumption was you couldn't consume the water and electricity of a small nation just to power Ask Jeeves.

My brother and I were driving through this small decaying town called Barnett, Mo, and we passed this old mill that looked very old, and grown over. It was covered with cool old signage, and looked really interesting, but there were 5 older people sitting in front of it by a table, and a hand painted sign that says Toxic Club. So, we drive back around, because we had to know, so we pull in, and ask "What is the Toxic Club?", and they say they are just out there most days with coffee and donuts to make sure that people get something to eat, and drink and have someone to chat with. That doesn't sound toxic at all, it sounds lovely.

Last November, NASA's Voyager 1 sent home garbled data, and engineers traced the problem to the flight data subsystem (FDS). The problem turned out to be a single chip in the FDS memory. They couldn't repair the chip but could move the affected code into sections and store them in different parts of the FDS system. They tested the new system this week, sending signals to the Voyager 1, 22.5 light-hours away. It worked, and Voyager 1 is back.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024/04/22/nasas-voyager-1-resumes-sending-engineering-updates-to-earth/

Happy 27th anniversary to Winamp!

⚡🦙⚡
The first version of ⚡Winamp⚡ was released as freeware on April 21st, 1997!
⚡🦙⚡

Winamp, it really whips the llama's ass!

#SilentSunday