Remote

swope

@swope@mstdn.plus

mastodon 4.6.9

Aerospace engineer working to make aircraft greener & safer.

He/him. 🇺🇲

[TBD - What else goes in a profile?]

0 Followers

0 Following

50 Posts

Joined June 02, 2023

swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social While doing environmental testing on a helicopter payload, I learned that NVMe drives (and perhaps all SSDs) can write data at high ambient temperatures >40 C, but the data is less permanent than if you write data at normal ambient temperatures. So on hot days we had to hurry and copy our 4TB drives after the flight because the data had a half-life of a dozen hours or so. That phenomenon is already documented, but I don't think it's widely known.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Artemis 2 photo

#nasa #artemis #Artemis2

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Nickiquote Was Asscender already trademarked?

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@stux@mstdn.social Do you mean to include plain-automation bots? I think those can be useful in some cases. But I agree that LLMs disguised as humans harassing humans is certainly bad.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

#losangeles #flying

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Nickiquote @BobLefridge I don't know this specific design, but typically airships operate at very low pressure - relying on the low density of helium for buoyancy and only a fraction of a PSI to maintain the shape of the envelope. I know of an observation balloon that became untethered in Iraq around 2006. The US military shot many holes in it trying to prevent it from drifting away, but the gas leaks out very slowly. It's a bit like trying to open a plastic blister pack with a pushpin. 📌

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@simplenomad "There's a turd floating through the air" -- Thomas Stafford Apollo 10, 1969

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ShiitakeToast This 2025 paper proposes an 80% hydrogen / 20% helium semi-rigid airship where the helium is positioned as a protective buffer around critical components. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405896325022232 @passwordsarehard4 @Nickiquote @BobLefridge

sciencedirect.com

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

View from the Metrolink AV line today in Southern California #socal #photography

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@passwordsarehard4 @Nickiquote @BobLefridge Lol ok. But seriously, I think the main flaw with airships is that helium is expensive and non-renewable. Once it escapes into the atmosphere it's gone on any human timescale, and we're probably past peak helium already.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

#tasmania in 2006

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@bontchev@infosec.exchange Slot machines have more uptime.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@floatybirb @The_Whore_of_Blahbylon

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@happydisciple@mendeddrum.org Yes, I imagine that something like that is going on. And the manufacturer is honest about the 35C max operating temperature. For the user, they write a bunch of data and immediately verify the data are good -- not looking closely at the temperature log. But hours/days later their files become corrupted. It's something to be aware of, and a curious physics question. @Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

I kinda supposed that there was an ideal temperature for writing that the drives try to maintain, but when ambient is too high they can't. Then what gets written is on the edge of being readable, and normal temperature storage losses degrade that in a few hours. Lots of hand waving on my part. We just made a procedure and carried on. But it would be pretty insidious to look at your data right after recording and it looks good, but it's gone the next week. @Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social @rachelplusplus@tech.lgbt

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@catsalad@infosec.exchange Looks like the head and tail loaded okay, but cat_body only got the LOD model.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mhoye@cosocial.ca I had no idea you could just say "pray with me" and then say a bunch of parody scripture and heresy and xtians are just like "amen".

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social Keep sending us your Hansens, Hadfields, and everything else wonderful from CSA.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 7mo ago

I saw the Gorillaz animated music video today on YouTube, and at about a minute in, Mowgli character crosses a dragon and transforms into Noodle.

I feel like there's some #Transgender symbolism going over my head.

Can anyone explain it to me?

Or am I doing a pareidolia?

https://youtu.be/ucRulNQsuYQ

Gorillaz - The Mountain, The Moon Cave and The Sad God

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Niwl@mastodon.gamedev.place It has a cute face.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@dotjayne Are you implying that some parrots are non-stochastic?

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social Wasn't the first proposal for a Europa melt-bot like 1999-2001? I don't think the Europa subsurface ocean was known until Galileo got there.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@elise I met some folks from https://www.neuro-space.de/ ... if their ride-along satellite on Artemis II was successful they may be growing soon? I think there may be a broader "new space" cluster in Berlin, too.

Home | NEUROSPACE

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social If you are a US citizen, let your representatives know. Once again the president is trying to hollow out NASA.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@clolsonus I like my current arrangement where I can go visit the snow when I want, but the snow doesn't come around to bother me.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@tainome How do I get tuned into corvidon?

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 22mo ago

Replying to

@wonderofscience@mastodon.social Sun circling? Looks to me like the Sun is just staying put, and the Earth is turning under the camera.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@evey@chaos.social I think that's intuitive for storage, but the hot-at-write-time weakness may be a little different. I'm imagining an array of cups and the drive controller is pouring water in them as the write operation. When the system is hot, the cups are jiggling and aiming the carafe is shaky. Not a lot of water gets in the intended cups, and some spills into the wrong cups. Enough goes in for the theshold of the immediate validity check, though. @job@bsd.network @Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@andi Sorry I don't have the data available on the case or internal temperatures. I agree that it was probably quite high. @Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@rachelplusplus@tech.lgbt

This is interesting.

Sadly, we didn't get the internal NVMe temperatures during our environmental testing.

I think the drives' spec said 35°C ambient for the max operating temperature, and we would typically see 45°C internal from nvme smart-log /dev/nvme0 (I might not be remembering the command correctly).

@Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social I would also like to know.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@reece These kinds of projects always remind me of "cake fail" images, for example

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@violanders Björk's genre is Björk. @reece

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@airy - that seems reasonable. I thought maybe falling in the water was a sort of rebirth - like Noodle was Mowgli in a past life. And, I wondered if the dragon was an allusion to something I didn't recognize. The dragon seems oddly specific looking. Oh well, animators can just be original without everything being a reference.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 22mo ago

Replying to

@charlotte@akko.chir.rs @superbetsy@mastodon.social Quaterniomas would avoid singularities. Nobody wants a their tree to get gimbal locked.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 21mo ago

Replying to

@kevin@mastodon.km6g.us I accidentally ordered AAAA batteries once. I still have them. Never seen thing that takes them.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

RE: @trending@live.acarsdrama.com

When you leave the fasten seatbelt sign on for 5 hours.

live.acarsdrama.com

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@sudo200@layer8.space Lol. Ymmv @Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Funcan Typically both. 🦜 @dotjayne

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ShadowZone@mastodon.social Good observations and I agree.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

X-59 is such an odd looking aircraft:
https://youtu.be/gR4Xuslczoo

The pilot has no forward window, and instead has a big TV. Some views of what the pilot sees are included in this video. There's an upper camera and a lower camera masked together.

NASA’s X-59 Flies Faster and Higher

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@reece You mention São Paulo is sprawly but also surprisingly dense with shorter apartment towers. Do you think North American cities could realistically replicate that built form organically through zoning reform, or does it require the kind of top-down density that's politically off the table here?

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 22mo ago

Replying to

@charlotte@akko.chir.rs Now I'm inspired to 3D print Julia sets as ornaments. (Here's an example, not my art.) https://i.materialise.com/shop/item/image/6d3987cf-843e-438e-9ce7-69f82d7f0874/780/585/preview.jpg @superbetsy@mastodon.social

i.materialise.com

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@abmurrow@hachyderm.io Upside-down flag indicates distress... 🇫🇷 = Keep clear of me, I'm in distress @Natasha_Jay@tech.lgbt

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@job@bsd.network No, I think it's more like using hot glue on plastic. While it's hot the glue sticks to the plastic, but as it cools your whole crafting project falls apart. (Just a metaphor, not the physics) @evey@chaos.social @Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

Then even at normal temperature, slow evaporation over days means the amount of water in those cups drops below threshold in enough cups to break ECC margins -- corrupting the files. I don't have a deep enough understanding of the physics to tell you if that analogy has much validity. But this is my hunch. @job@bsd.network @Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social @evey@chaos.social

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 22mo ago

Replying to

@charlotte@akko.chir.rs @superbetsy@mastodon.social Up, East, North would be right-handed. North, East, Down (NED) is more common in my field. This meme assumes a flat Earth.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 25mo ago

Replying to

@austincnunn @ZeKik @dan @davidzipper I still think the insurance companies are mainly on the hook for their own clients and not the other parties, averaged over all their claims/settlements/lawsuits, so they have the same selfish motivation to shift risk onto the other party. In shared-fault cases, do courts even consider the relative height or mass of the vehicles? I think society's math formulas have morphed over time to insulate the riskier vehicles from the real cost of their harm.

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swope @swope@mstdn.plus

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@valpackett@social.treehouse.systems That payload was writing continuously about as fast as the drives could go. Not a typical use case I think. @Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social

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