When all else fails, blame it on the cloud? It seems like that’s the script for just about every outage that makes the news lately, like the Wyze camera outage this week that kept people from seeing feeds from their cameras for several hours. The outage went so far that some users’ cameras weren’t even showing up in the Wyze app, and there were even reports that some people were seeing thumbnails for cameras they don’t own. That’s troubling, of course, and Wyze seems to have taken action on that quickly by disabling a tab on the app that would potentially have let people tap into camera feeds they had no business seeing. Still, it looks like curiosity got the better of some users, with 1,500 tapping through when notified of motion events and seeing other people walking around inside unknown houses. The problem was resolved quickly, with blame laid on an “AWS partner” even though there were no known AWS issues at the time of the outage. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: security cameras, especially mission-critical ones, have no business being connected with anything but Ethernet or coax, and exposing them to the cloud is a really, really bad idea.
The next Great American Eclipse is rapidly approaching, and if you don’t already live close to the path of totality, chances are pretty good that you’re already out of luck in terms of travel and accommodations. Hotels and campgrounds are booked solid, most at egregiously inflated rates, and flights to the airports along the path are likely going to be hard to come by in the days before and after the big event on April 8. Based on experience, whatever effort is needed to get into the path of totality is worth it, but if you just can’t find a place to stay on the ground, Delta Airlines might just have a solution for you. They’re running a special flight 1218, from Austin, Texas to Detroit, Michigan, pretty much right down the centerline of totality. It takes off from Austin at 12:15 PM CT and arrives in Detroit at 4:20 PM ET, my dude. That means the Moon’s shadow will catch up to the plane, an Airbus A220-300, somewhere over Missouri or so, when the plane will be at cruising altitude and well above the clouds. That should be pretty spectacular for the lucky few on the currently sold-out flight; we just hope they’ve all considered the fact that once the show is over, they’ll be in Detroit.
“The Worm” returns! For the upcoming Artemis II Moon mission, NASA is dusting off their nostalgia-laden “worm” logo, emblazoning the booster and the Orion capsule with the unmistakable twisty letters. Presented as an alternative to the equally iconic “meatball” logo, the worm dates back to 1975 but didn’t really catch on until the Space Shuttle program. Like vexilologists, logologists — if that’s the correct term — have strong opinions about both designs, the details of which are probably best left alone. We will say that NASA is going hard with the worm, though, with letters 2 meters tall on the booster. Like it or hate it, it’s a bold choice.
Remember, kids — never drive through water of unknown depth. And that goes even when you’re driving a Cybertruck, which is supposed to be nigh-impervious to water, as well as bullets and rocks. The electric vehicle has a “Wade Mode” — it really should have been “Ford Mode,” but wasn’t for obvious reasons — that is supposed to pump up the air suspension to maximum height as well as put positive pressure on the battery compartment, to prevent water ingress. The YouTube video that accompanies the article shows someone giving this a try, and all things considered, it worked out pretty well. The truck performed admirably even in a puddle deep enough that the hood (or frunk, whatever) was awash. The water did rip off some plastic trim pieces, which would probably cost about $11,000 to get fixed (just kidding — maybe), and the tailgate and tonneau cover buttons wouldn’t work afterwards either. That the truck survived more or less intact isn’t really the point, though, as anyone who has driven through even a few inches of running water can attest. Water always wins.
Speaking of water, if your iPhone takes a dunk in the porcelain throne, you might be best advised to lay off the rice. That’s what Apple support says, anyway, as the common home remedy for a waterlogged phone may end up “allow[ing] small particles of rice to damage your iPhone.” We assume the mechanism of injury would be dust and broken bits of rice kernels entering the USB-C or Lightning jack. We could see how this would be a problem, especially if the rice nubbins get rehydrated by the water and swell up in there. Maybe silica gel would be a better choice?
And finally, New Mind just dropped a cool video on the evolution of wiring harnesses. He starts with the laughably simple electrical system of the Model T Ford and progresses all the way up to the harnesses needed for EVs. The side-trip into wire insulation types and the different terminations used over the years was fantastic too. We recently did a piece on automative wiring harnesses, so this video was much appreciated.
“- once the show is over, they’ll be in Detroit.” LOL
I would absolutely combine that with a visit to the Henry Ford museum!
https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/henry-ford-museum/
AirBnB renter: beware of last minute cancellation!! A few people I knew had reserved houses only for the host to cancel it and relist them at a much higher price. AirBnB can’t do anything about it and you’re unlikely to find an alternate place at your original price close to path of total darkness.
Fortunately my brother lives in Ann Arbor, I can just crash at his place overnight, then drive south to a decent public place within the path of total darkness and set up my camera, lawn chair, cold 6-pack non-alcoholic drink, and play Sudoku for a while.
What is this thing called “non-alcoholic drink”?
Water is a good example, you’d use it to flavor your vodka. Cola is another one for adding a splash of color to your whiskey..
“The eclipse will enter the United States north of Eagle Pass in Texas”. This seems to be a place where lots of things enter our country.
How tall should a wall be to stop the darkness comming at thy?
That depends, is it African darkness or European darkness?
Dark Side darkness. Let the anger (where the f i put those matches? barbeque is gone), let the fear (what was that noise? baaaaaats), let the fury conquer you (ffffffff, the beer is getting warm). Now how tall the wall should be, so the fright you’ll never see?
“The truck performed admirably”
The one thing I’ve learned over the years is that if a vehicle doesn’t come out of a possible flood with zero damage, it’s got *waaay* more damage than the obvious stuff that stops working quickly.
The key for drying things fast is air flow. Heat helps, but I’d choose airflow if you had to decide between the two.
Oof, yeah if the water is high enough to touch anything more than the rubber of your tires, or moving enough to be very noticeable, you’re going to have a hard time. A car is a lot less massive than its own volume worth of water and it’s hard to push through very much even if the car stayed perfectly functional in every way.
This an anecdote, not motoring advice… but I drove my Ford (Mercury) Capri convertible through a foot of water washing over a bridge. Water was leaking in under all the doors. Kept it in first, kept the revs up, it was fine. Nothing broke. Everything dried out. These cars are famous for being rubbish in general, and in particular for the convertible roof leaking when it rains – maybe they’re just used to being wet :-)
But yeah, generally a bad idea to drive through floodwaters. Not recommended. But it did feel badass :-)
first off team meatball all the way. rather not use a logo that is associated with exploding space shuttles. horrible safety record for a space craft.you got to walk before you can run but we were running pretty well during the apollo program and we ran right off the cliff with the shuttle program. its sort of like the thing russians have about not launching on the 24th of october. worm is just tainted.
second, dont use rice, use silica gel packets. not only will they do the job, but some time in a hot box and they are totally reusable (if you live somewhere dry and warm you can just leave them outside). they are often emblazened with the words “do not eat” and sometimes “throw away” they are neither toxic nor are they trash. and you dont have to worry about ingress because its in a packet.
Wyze have a history of being irresponsible with security, up to and including having all customer details hacked. At this point they have no business trying to steer blame outside of themselves, and no one should ever purchase their products.