Jump to content

Captainant

Certifiably Surly
  • Posts

    14526
  • Joined

  • Days Won

    6

Posts posted by Captainant

  1. 8 hours ago, CycleTex87 said:

    The launch today is scrubbed due to one of these 1970’s left over engines jammed up.  Try again at the end of the week. 

    It was unclear to me if it was the engine or a flow line from the tanks, considering they earlier in the sequence had a leak in one of those lines that delayed the launch. Still haven't cleared a full wet dress rehearsal... 

    Honestly, I'm more offended at them just expending and destroying those beautiful masterpiece engines that flew STS!

     Harrison Ford That Belongs In A Museum GIF

  2. Bump

    FTC Sues ‘Massive’ Data Broker for Selling Location Info on Abortion Clinics

    Quote

    The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued Kochava, a large location data provider, for allegedly selling data that the FTC says can track people at reproductive health clinics and places of worship, according to an announcement from the agency.

    The news is a dramatic move from the FTC in a post-Roe United States, and signals that the agency will take steps against what it identifies as privacy violations around reproductive health and location data.

    “Defendant’s violations are in connection with acquiring consumers’ precise geolocation data and selling the data in a format that allows entities to track the consumers’ movements to and from sensitive locations, including, among others, locations associated with medical care, reproductive health, religious worship, mental health temporary shelters, such as shelters for the homeless, domestic violence survivors, or other at risk populations, and addiction recovery,” the lawsuit reads.

    In its announcement, the FTC says its lawsuit is seeking to stop Kochava’s sale of sensitive location data and “require the company to delete the sensitive geolocation information it has collected.”

    “Where consumers seek out health care, receive counseling, or celebrate their faith is private information that shouldn’t be sold to the highest bidder,” Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement published with the announcement. “The FTC is taking Kochava to court to protect people’s privacy and halt the sale of their sensitive geolocation information.”

    As for why the FTC may have targeted Kochava specifically, Zach Edwards, a researcher who has closely followed the data trade, told Motherboard in an online chat “they are huge. Massive. And have more data broker partners than almost anyone in my opinion.”

    On its website, Kochava says it delivers “better insights and actionable data in one operational platform.” Kochava sells a spread of products and capabilities based on different datasets, including letting clients gauge the effectiveness of televised adverts.

     

    In its lawsuit, the FTC includes a screenshot of Kochava data available for sale via Amazon Web Services data marketplace. That data includes the unique Mobile Advertising ID (MAID) linked to a device—either an IDFA for Apple devices or an ADID for Android—as well as that device’s precise GPS coordinates for a particular point in time. The lawsuit explains Kochava’s process for requesting a sample of the data and it seems very straightforward.

    “A purchaser could use an ordinary personal email address and describe the intended use simply as ‘business.’ The request would then be sent to Kochava for approval. Kochava has approved such requests in as little as 24 hours,” the lawsuit says. One day of the sample data included over 327,480,00 rows and 11 columns data regarding over 61 million unique devices, and the sample included precise location data gathered in the seven days prior to the request being approved, the lawsuit adds.

    With this data, the FTC says that by taking that data and plotting it with mapping programs “it is possible to identify which consumers’ mobile devices visited reproductive health clinics.”

    As Motherboard has reported, armed with a MAID third parties can unmask phone users, by turning to certain companies that provide deanonymization services at scale. These companies offer personal information that they have linked to a specific MAID. Even without that service, it can be possible to identify people based on just the location data itself, such as seeing where a device is usually overnight and determining that is where the person sleeps.

    The FTC alleges just that. “In fact, in just the data Kochava made available in the Kochava Data Sample, it is possible to identify a mobile device that visited a women’s reproductive health clinic and trace that mobile device to a single family residence. The data set also reveals that the same mobile device was at a particular location at least three evenings in the same week, suggesting the mobile device user’s routine. “The data may also be used to identify medical professionals who perform, or assist in the performance, of abortion services,” the lawsuit adds.

    Kochava, in a way, knew this lawsuit was coming. Earlier this month, Kochava filed its own lawsuit against the FTC after reviewing a copy of the FTC’s proposed complaint. At the time of that lawsuit, Kochava defended its data collection practices in a statement to Ars Technica. “Kochava operates consistently and proactively in compliance with all rules and laws, including those specific to privacy. Nonetheless, Kochava has been threatened by the FTC with a lawsuit and a proposed settlement, the merits upon which are not accurate. This is a manipulative attempt by the FTC to give the appearance that it is protecting consumer privacy despite being based on completely false pretenses,” the statement read. After receiving the FTC complaint, Kochava announced a feature called “Privacy Block” which it says “removes health services location data from the Kochava Collective marketplace,” Ars Technica added. 

    Kochava did not immediately respond to Motherboard’s request for comment on Monday regarding the FTC filing its lawsuit. The FTC declined to comment on why it targeted Kochava specifically.

    Motherboard has reported on multiple companies selling location data products related to abortion clinic visits. In May, Motherboard found SafeGraph was selling location data of people who visited abortion clinics for as little as $160. Motherboard then found another firm called Placer.ai provided heat maps of where abortion clinic visitors live. Both companies removed the data for sale after Motherboard’s findings.

    Here's the meat of the issue:

    In its lawsuit, the FTC includes a screenshot of Kochava data available for sale via Amazon Web Services data marketplace. That data includes the unique Mobile Advertising ID (MAID) linked to a device—either an IDFA for Apple devices or an ADID for Android—as well as that device’s precise GPS coordinates for a particular point in time. The lawsuit explains Kochava’s process for requesting a sample of the data and it seems very straightforward.

    “A purchaser could use an ordinary personal email address and describe the intended use simply as ‘business.’ The request would then be sent to Kochava for approval. Kochava has approved such requests in as little as 24 hours,” the lawsuit says. One day of the sample data included over 327,480,00 rows and 11 columns data regarding over 61 million unique devices, and the sample included precise location data gathered in the seven days prior to the request being approved, the lawsuit adds.

    With this data, the FTC says that by taking that data and plotting it with mapping programs “it is possible to identify which consumers’ mobile devices visited reproductive health clinics.”

  3. here's an unlocked NYT link (thanks /r/nasa lol) that details the scrub a little better:

    Quote

    Mike Sarafin, the Artemis I mission manager, said that the technical issues previously described combined with a problem with a vent valve and weather issues later in the launch window would’ve made liftoff a no-go on Monday.

    “We felt like today was the right thing to do,” said Jim Free, a NASA associate administrator, addressing whether the agency should have done more rehearsals before trying to launch. He added, “We’re not going to have all the implications and data today.”

    “We’re preserving the option for Friday,” Mr. Sarafin said in response to a reporter’s question, suggesting NASA wanted to retry a launch in 96 hours. He added that the problem is not with the engine but with the bleed system to get the engine to the right temperature. Mr. Sarafin later said there was a “nonzero chance” of a Friday launch, but he wouldn’t say how likely it was be to happen.

    Got dang boeing valves have delayed this ship so many times!

  4. 2 minutes ago, RockyMountainHighHorn said:

    Doesn’t matter who you support, show some actual news, we know this trump..thing will be there tomorrow. 

    In fairness, the SLS launch will be there tomorrow as well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    Edit: also some of the YouTube coverage is truly professional quality. Everyday Astronaut does fantastic mission coverage and background videos on all things space flight. I'd go there over broadcast any day

    • Haha 1
  5. Seems like valves have been the consistent problem every time the rocket is "wet". Hell they still haven't really completed a full wet rehearsal, so it's unsurprising to see more teething troubles. @Sgt Hulkthis is more than just a little delay though lol. SLS was "ordered" in 2010 with a 2016 delivery date, under the assumption that there would be no integration hell (lol) because it was existing tech and a known mission profile. Not very comparable to the falcon heavy development cycle at all, which was using new engines, a new mission profile, and integrating loads of brand new tech. 

    Shit, I'd bet anyone a case of beer that this ends with a roll back to VAB. Boeing can't tolerate ANY risk whatsoever, which is going to further limit their launch opportunities 

    • Hook 'Em 1
  6. 8 minutes ago, Sgt Hulk said:

    Unfortunately in this industry cost plus is the best way to go. We went to FFP and it’s a fucking nightmare because companies are already tacking on a what of fee on the back end since they are locked in. Add on the millions of reviews and bullshit modifications because requirements generation sucks. I worked all the cost plus efforts with ULA.  When we finally rolled SpaceX in and went to firm fixed price only it became an administrative nightmare because the government had gotten used to asking and getting whatever they want because of cost plus and then going to SpaceX and asking for the stuff that we want on a firm fixed price contract ended up costing so much more administrative headache and then trying to get approval to mod the contracts and figuring out scope determination. In 2019 and 2020 I did an internship with Boeing for a year to learn the industry side of things and companies dealing with firm fixed price space efforts are bidding out because of the unknowns. The governments problem is lazy contract administration on cost plus efforts they’ve increased oversight to the point where nobody wants to truly do the job because it’s just become an administrative headache

     

    7 minutes ago, Sgt Hulk said:

    Sorry for the run-on ramble that was voice to text.  Bottom line it’s expensive because we the government suck shit when it comes Defining the requirement risk version and getting off our own dicks to allow industry and the professionals to move the project along couple that with 100% mission insurance and do you have a recipe for cost overruns and midway through the project oh shit I didn’t know we need that damn let’s go ask them how much it’s gonna cost to get it

    Super interesting insight, thank you for sharing! I hear ya that it's important for flexibility because you can't really define requirements when you don't have a full problem statement to design against (or it changes), but bruh. 4 billion a launch is absurd. Not to mention that we can't make any more RS25's, and there's better engine tech out there now so we don't have all the headaches and costs of hydrogen fuel. 

    I think NASA's problem is the same problem of very large enterprises I see in my job: they try to centrally control everything and have so many rules and procedures that exist because they exist that they spend more time on paperwork than on actually building towards an outcome. SpaceX doesn't have any magic voodoo, they're just willing to accept failure as an outcome while in development. And they've structured their design to be very modifiable without increasing cycle time during manufacturing, which enables the actual design feedback loop

    • Hook 'Em 1
  7. Godspeed to every engineer working on this giant candle! I hope we get a lunch this morning, but the Everyday Astronaut folks that are on location are reporting that engineers are still chasing some small interstage leaks. 

    Two hour launch window though, if they aren't in the final countdown in an hour and a half, we're recycling for Sept 2, and then Sept 5. If they miss Sept 5th, they roll back to VAB. 

    Big day today. They've never actually done a fully stacked launch sequence on this design. It'll be fucking spectacular though!

    • Like 1
  8. 28 minutes ago, Sgt Hulk said:

    They rattle our windows too my house is about 8 miles as the crow flies so we see the flames and everything else.  I just feel like mission assurance on this one is leaving zero maybes zero what ifs.  I’ll prob be wrong since I wrote it. But a mission failure will have the Boeing haters out in full force 

    I mean, a fuckup on this rocket is a multi billion dollar mistake and it's pretty reasonable to want to avoid that lol. But it also highlights the main problem with SLS - it's horrifically expensive and is not a sustainable way to take us to the stars. It doesn't need to be this expensive. We didn't have to be use mastercrafted and incredibly expensive and complex RS25's as expendable booster engines.

    It's incredibly mismanaged if you're Joe public taxpayer, and incredibly well managed if you're a Boeing shareholder. I've got no beef with spending billions and billions on space - in fact I'd love increasing funding! But cost plus contracts and the old way of doing things is spending more to get less

    • Hook 'Em 2
  9. On 5/10/2022 at 3:53 PM, Porterhouse said:

    Way off. I’m more bullish on gas than crude long term. The days of extended $3.50-$4.00 are gone for the foreseeable future. Believe me, I wish they would go down temporarily. 

    I do agree we could snap our fingers and nearly double gas production - if we had takeaway capacity - we don’t. 

    Lol there's pages and pages from March-July  of y'all complaining about "Biden this" and "Biden that" about prices for crude and refined products, including doomsaying by you in other posts saying we'd never see treefiddy a gallon again. The first bullet point is just reminding you of your prior stances lol

  10. 28 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

    Thanks. This also suggests that all loans had an administrative hold placed on payments back in 2020.  My FFELP loans certainly did not. Perhaps cause they were consolidated and farmed out to a servicer.  I am sure it will be an interesting discussion when I call HESC and ask them to refund me $1k and point them to the website.

    Well yeah if you refinance and the debt is no longer served by the federal government.... It's no longer federal debt lol. That's odd though, because my federal DIRECT and Stafford loans were definitely on zero interest, but they were also serviced through myfedloan

  11. IDK if Skorpios "beat" Bloodsport, or if BS was just beat to hell and back. They mentioned during the talking head bit before the fight that they were running out of spares for the final. Id bet if Skorpios had to run that gauntlet we'd see a similar soft victory for BS. 

    Either way, bit of a low key bracket this week, I'm excited to see who will round out the tournament bracket

  12. 8 minutes ago, slorch said:

    My favorite tactic by those who espouse such ideals are those who tell us those ideals/ relationships/ tactics don't exist or are completely misunderstood; as if we don't live on the same fucking planet.  

    Honestly wether you're consuming fox, or swimming in it's wake via boomer social media or people uncritically repeating the same talking point... We don't live on the same planet. You're happy to take whatever UNGA BUNGA LEFT BAD and run with it because your brain runs off of fear and can be controlled like cattle by pushing the right fear propaganda. 

    I'd love for you to give some real examples of what your assert, but you'll simply retort "it's so OBVIOUS! Many people are saying!". At least it's what you did last time. 

    • Hook 'Em 6
    • Like 2
  13. Just now, Trey3216 said:

    Jesus, you constantly assume everything under the sun

    Lol. Guys. Let's talk actual and specific reality here then. Your thesis is that college is expensive because of the glut of "bullshit" degrees that won't pay for themselves. Take a look for yourselves. 

    https://catalog.utexas.edu/general-information/appendices/statistical-summaries/

    What degrees would you broadly call "bullshit"? Let's talk outside of rhetoric, be specific. Because looking at that, there's far more hard science and "stem" degrees conferred than liberal arts (presuming that's your bugaboo that you won't put a name to). A ton of masters programs too - all of which are critical for the undergrads education as well. Who do you think actually runs office hours and grades shit?

  14. 8 minutes ago, Trey3216 said:

    I also don’t feel the business of higher education is allocating resources in an intelligent manner, and they do it because the free money train for them is perpetual at the behest of the federal government.

    But you would say getting a trilly in tax cuts and using that to buy the largest ever round of stock buybacks to enrich shareholders at public expense, and TOTALLY not affecting inflationary trends whatsoever amirite, is an intelligent allocation of taxpayer resources?

    Because this is less money going out now, and I sure don't remember any complaints back then. 

    I don't disagree that higher ed isn't fucked seven ways to Sunday. But last I checked, privatizing things further and limiting the scope of degrees offered as equals is only going to make things worse. 

  15. 9 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

    Aggy sucking doesn't mean college football sucks.

    No, but when you're arguing that college is expensive primarily because of "bullshit professors and bullshit department administrators and bullshit buildings" it certainly does sound like you just want to cancel any non-STEM (read: unprofitable and/or bullshit) degrees, which is how I interpreted him

  16. 1 hour ago, Trey3216 said:

    Until the government starts pushing back on, we’ll, the government for guaranteeing massive amounts of loans for bullshit degrees which require bullshit professors and bullshit department administrators and bullshit buildings to fund.  The federal government’s complicity in the skyrocketing cost of continued education is well-known, and is moreso the nexus rather than the universities themselves, even if the universities were more than eager to overspend to pump out the bullshit.   

    UNGA BUNGA EDUCATION BAD!!!!

    The rising cost of higher education is a function of our state contributing less and less to universities, and the creation of student loan backed bond sales. People shouldn't be profiting off of student debt. If education is merely an economic transaction, you're going to be leaving out the third of the country that is too poor to participate in economics

  17. 8 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

    Not just any horn, that's Eric Berger of Space City Weather! Also, I liked some of his turns of phrase lol

    "Who doesn't want to watch a huge, Brobdingnagian rocket consume millions of kilograms of fuel and break the surly bonds of Earth's gravity?"

    Really excellent article though, and he's got loads of credibility from his own primary sourced interviews in 2009 that had NASA administrators bad talking falcon heavy and talking about SLS as if it were already real. In 2009. I think the whole thing is nicely summed up by his line

    "Those who have focused on the "space race" this year between SLS and Starship have missed the point. The real question is not which of the two super heavy-lift rockets launches first. Rather, it's "how many Starships will launch between the first and second flights of the SLS rocket?"

    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...