MrAureliusR @amrowsell@mastodon.sdf.org

After listening to the flight director's loop from the Apollo 13 incident, I was sort of amazed by how haphazard and seat-of-the-pants the whole thing was. Of course, their expertise and decisions were correct in hindsight, but listening to the recording it stands out to me that they make mistakes. They screw things up. Things get lost in translation from flight to CAPCOM and back, etc. Despite the amazing outcome, even the best of the best at the time made mistakes. What mattered is that 1/2

This is AWESOME
1st-ever photo of a black hole to be revealed | CBC News

Tomorrow, scientists are expected to unveil the first-ever photograph of a black hole.

1st-ever photo of a black hole to be revealed
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/black-hole-photo-1.5089403

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Happy birthday SDF!

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Been checking out the Yggdrasil "overlay" network. It's sort of a network that runs adjacent to the public internet. You can connect to it via public peers, and then from there you have access to the full network. Would be really cool if SDF became a public peer!

We want to keep the O₂ and that kind of stuff working, we'd like to have RCS. But we've got the Command Module system, so we're in good shape if we need to get home. Let's solve the problem, but let's not make it any worse by guessin'."

"FLIGHT
Okay, now, let's everybody keep cool. We've got the LM still attached, the LM spacecraft is good, so if we need to get back home we've got a LM to do a good portion of it with. Okay? Let's make sure we don't do anything that's going to blow our CSM electrical power with the batteries, or that will cause us to lose the MAIN - the FUEL CELL number 2.

they were constantly double-checking each other and keeping an eye on the checklists, etc. They listened carefully to what the astronauts were telling them, and the flight director kept everyone focused on the issue at hand, both making it clear that they were time-critical, but that rushing things would only make things worse. It was correct to spend a bit more time to get it right than guess and blow the whole thing. Their attitude was well-summarized by Gene Kranz soon after the accident:

After listening to the flight director's loop from the Apollo 13 incident, I was sort of amazed by how haphazard and seat-of-the-pants the whole thing was. Of course, their expertise and decisions were correct in hindsight, but listening to the recording it stands out to me that they make mistakes. They screw things up. Things get lost in translation from flight to CAPCOM and back, etc. Despite the amazing outcome, even the best of the best at the time made mistakes. What mattered is that 1/2

I love logic analyzers... :D

Working on writing a C++ program to emulate the Enigma cipher machine. Yeah, it's been done before (about a million times) but it's a good learning exercise for me as I really need to expand my C++ usage.

Oh yeah, my article got published in the latest 2600! Check it out if you have a copy -- it's all about fiddling with ancient Microsoft Paint formats :)

I switched to KDE after using GNOME for... many years a few weeks ago. I've got to say... it's definitely *way* more optimized for a modern desktop environment. GNOME has to catch up in a lot of areas. KDE Connect alone made the switch worthwhile, but the fact it's actually snappier and faster is impressive also. #kde

So my 2600 article was accepted -- forgot to post that after my original toot here a while back. Unfortunately it wasn't in the issue that I just received, though they did say it would be in the next "issue or two", so hopefully it'll make the summer or fall issue, whichever is next (always get that mixed up). Will post here when I see it in print!

Just submitted an article to 2600 for the first time... here's hoping they like it!

"EECOM
FLIGHT, I've got a feeling we've lost two fuel cells. I hate to put it that way, but - I don't know why we've lost them. It doesn't all tag up. And it's not an instrumentation problem, the best I can tell right now.

The other shoe drops. 27 minutes past the accident, and the picture is becoming clearer. The situation is dire. Only one fuel cell remains, and the gas for it is leaking slowly out to space."