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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Does current AI represent a dead end? (Antony Barry)
2. Diamond Batteries (Stephen Loosley)
3. Re: US Military, "We want to share data, and fight the way we
want in actual warfare scenario.? (Tom Worthington)
4. Protecting Undersea Internet Cables Is a Tech Nightmare
(Kim Holburn)
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Message: 1
Date: Sat, 7 Dec 2024 13:53:04 +1100
From: Antony Barry <[email protected]>
To: Tom Worthington <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] Does current AI represent a dead end?
Message-ID:
<caecotwxssodc7yst14ejz8fdn-bqtqzm3hpayjx8-99ucpg...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
On Sat, Dec 7, 2024 at 9:35?AM Tom Worthington <[email protected]>
wrote:
> The clever bit about Generative AI is it produces useful results without
> apparently "knowing" anything. There are other ways to do AI.
>
> This form of criticism seems to be saying: "But it shouldn't work!".
>
>
I think we could go back to Edsger W. Dijkstra, the computer scientist. The
quote is:
?The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than
the question of whether a submarine can swim.?
Tony
--
Mob:04 3365 2400 Email: [email protected], [email protected]
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sat, 07 Dec 2024 23:30:25 +1030
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Diamond Batteries
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
What is the new battery that never dies?
By Curtis Lancaster BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2v48003l8o
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1h826fx/scientists_and_engineers_have_created_a_carbon14/
[Photo caption: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Carbon-14 diamond
battery sample looks like a hazy blue square surrounded by tiny white dots.
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority]
Scientists and engineers have created a battery that has the potential to power
devices for thousands of years.
The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) in Culham, Oxfordshire, collaborated
with the University of Bristol to make the world?s first carbon-14 diamond
battery.
Scientists say it could be used with medical devices like ocular implants,
hearing aids and pacemakers, minimising the need for replacements.
Sarah Clark, director of tritium fuel cycle at UKAEA called it a "safe,
sustainable way" to provide continuous power.
[Photo caption: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Eight people stand in
front of equipment in a lab. There are five men and three women. They are all
smiling at the camera. United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority}
Members of the diamond battery team at UKAEA
She added: "They are an emerging technology that use a manufactured diamond to
safely encase small amounts of carbon-14.?
How does it work?
The battery uses carbon-14, a radioactive isotope of carbon, which has a
half-life of 5,700 years meaning the battery will still retain half of its
power even after thousands of years.
The prototype batteries are 10mm x 10mm with a thickness of up to 0.5mm.
Carbon-14 was chosen because it emits a short-range radiation, which is quickly
absorbed by any solid material.
It is safely held within a diamond ? the hardest substance known to humankind ?
which means no short-range radiation can escape.
It functions similarly to solar panels but instead of using light particles, it
captures fast-moving electrons from within the diamond structure.
The battery could also be used in extreme environments ? both in space and on
earth ? where it is not practical to replace conventional batteries.
Professor Tom Scott, from the University of Bristol, said: ?Our micropower
technology can support a whole range of important applications from space
technologies and security devices through to medical implants. We're excited to
be able to explore all of these possibilities, working with partners in
industry and research, over the next few years.?
The battery also provides a safe way of dealing with nuclear waste.
Carbon-14 is generated in graphite blocks in some nuclear fission powerplants.
The UK holds almost 95,000 tonnes of graphite blocks and, by extracting
carbon-14 from them, their radioactivity decreases, reducing the cost and
challenge of safely storing the waste.
You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
---
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2024 08:53:44 +1100
From: Tom Worthington <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] US Military, "We want to share data, and fight the
way we want in actual warfare scenario.?
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
On 7/12/24 01:28, Stephen Loosley wrote:
> New joint data standards could come in early 2025
> By Lauren C. Williams Senior Editor December 5, 2024
> https://www.defenseone.com/defense-systems/2024/12/new-joint-data-standards-could-come-early-2025/401450/
>
>... new data standards next year that
> will make it easier for combatant commands and services to conduct
> large, exercises in virtual environments. ...
Good luck with that. I spent years at Australian DoD working on data
standards and did not get very far.
--
Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au
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Message: 4
Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2024 10:14:26 +1100
From: Kim Holburn <[email protected]>
To: Link mailing list <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Protecting Undersea Internet Cables Is a Tech
Nightmare
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
https://spectrum.ieee.org/undersea-internet-cables-protection-tech
?Protecting Undersea Internet Cables Is a Tech Nightmare
A recent, alleged Baltic Sea sabotage highlights the system?s fragility
When the lights went out on the BCS East-West Interlink fiber optic cable
connecting Lithuania and Sweden on 17 November, the
biggest question wasn?t when internet service would be restored. (That?d come
another 10 or so days later.) The outage?alongside a
cable failure the next day of an undersea line connecting Finland and
Germany?soon became a whodunit, as German, Swedish, and
Finnish officials variously hinted that the damage to the lines could
constitute acts of ?sabotage? or ?hybrid warfare.? Suspicion
soon centered around Russia or China?especially given the presence of a
Chinese-flagged cargo vessel in the area during both incidents.
The outages underscore how much of the global communications and financial
system hinges on a few hundred cables of bundled glass
fibers that are strung across ocean floors around the world, each cable about
the same diameter as a garden hose. And, says Bryan
Clark, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Hudson Institute,
defending undersea fiber optic cables from damage and
sabotage is increasingly challenging. The technology to do so is nowhere near
bulletproof, he says, yet the steep cost of failing to
protect them is too high to consider simply writing them off. (NATO is
currently investigating future internet backup routes through
satellites in the case of undersea cable failures. But that technology is only
in a preliminary, proof-of-concept stage and may be
many years from real-world relevance.)
?In the past, when these kinds of cable cutting incidents have happened, the
perpetrator has tried to somehow disguise the source of
the disruption, and China?s not necessarily doing that here,? Clark says. ?What
we?re seeing now is that maybe countries are doing
this more overtly. And then also they may be using specialized equipment to do
it rather than dragging an anchor.?
Clark says protecting undersea cables in the Baltic is actually one of the
less-challenging situations on the geostrategic map of
seafloor cable vulnerabilities. ?In the Mediterranean and the Baltic, the
transit lanes or the distance you have to patrol is not
that long,? he says. ?And so there are some systems being developed that would
just patrol those cables using uncrewed vehicles.?
In other words, while the idea of uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) regularly
patrolling internet cableways is still in the realm
of science fiction, it?s not that far removed from science fact as to be out of
the realm of soon-to-be-realized possibility.
But then comes the lion?s share of the undersea internet cables around the
world?the lines of fiber that traverse open oceans across
the globe.
In these cases, Clark says, there are two regions of each cables? path. There?s
the deep sea portion?the Davy Jones? Locker realm
where only top-secret missions and movie directors on submarine jags dare
venture. And then there are the portions of cable in
shallower waters, typically nearer to coasts, that are accessible by present
day anchors, submersibles, drones, and
lord-knows-what-other kinds of underwater tech.
Moreover, once an undersea cable ventures into the legal purview of a given
country?what?s called a nation?s exclusive economic zone
(EEZ)?that in particular is when fancy, newfangled tech to defend or attack an
undersea line must take a backseat to old-fashioned
military and policing might.
Smiling portrait of Bryan Clark in a suit.
Satellite imaging and underwater drones, says the Hudson Institute?s Bryan
Clark, are two technologies that can protect undersea
fiber optic lines. Hudson Institute
?If you were patrolling the area and just monitoring the surface, and you saw a
ship [traveling] above where the cables are, you
could send out Coast Guard forces, paramilitary forces,? Clark says. ?It would
be a law enforcement mission, because it?s within the
EEZs of different countries who are owners of those cables.?
In fact, the Danish navy reportedly did just that concerning the Baltic voyage
of a Chinese-flagged chip called Yi Peng 3. And now
Sweden is calling for the Yi Peng 3 to cooperate in an inspection of the ship
in a larger investigation of the undersea cable breaches.
One-Million-Plus Kilometers of Open Cable
According to Lane Burdette, research analyst at the internet infrastructure
analysis firm TeleGeography, the vastness of undersea
internet lines points to a dilemma of shoring up the high-vulnerability shallow
regions and setting aside for the time being the
deeper realms beyond protection.
?As of 2024, TeleGeography estimates there are 1.5 million kilometers of
communications cables in the water,? she says. ?With a
network this large, it?s not possible to monitor all cables, everywhere, all
the time. However, new technologies are emerging that
make it easier to monitor activity where damage is most likely and potentially
prevent even some accidental disruption.?
At the moment, much of the game is still defensive, Clark says. Efforts to lay
undersea internet cable lines today, he says, can
also include measures to cover the lines to prevent their detection or dig
small trenches to protect the lines from being severed or
dragged by ships? anchors.
Satellite imaging will be increasingly crucial in defending undersea cables,
Clark adds. Geospatial analysis offered by the likes of
the Herndon, Va.-based BlackSky Technology and SpaceX?s Starshield will be
essential for countries looking to protect their
high-bandwidth internet access. ?You?ll end up with low-latency coverage over
most of the mid-latitudes within the next few years,
which you could use to monitor for ship operations in the vicinity of known
cable runs,? Clark says.
However, once UUVs are ready for widespread use, he adds, the undersea internet
cable cat-and-mouse game could change drastically,
which UUV being used offensively as well as defensively.
?A lot of these cables, especially in shallow waters, are in pretty well-known
locations,? he says. ?So in the Baltic, you could see
where Russia [might] deploy a relatively large number of uncrewed vehicles?and
cut a large number of cables at once.?
All of which could one day render something like the Yi Peng 3 situation?a
Chinese-flagged freighter trawling over known runs of
undersea internet cabling?a quaint relic of the pre-UUV days.
?Once you?ve determined where you?re pretty sure a cableway is, you could drive
your ship over, deploy your uncrewed vehicles, and
then they could loiter,? Clark says. ?And then you could cut the cable five
days later, in which case you wouldn?t be necessarily
blamed for it, because your ship traveled over that region a week ago.?
--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
+61 404072753
mailto:[email protected] aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request
------------------------------
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