Patricia’s HP printer, which I used to use to scan, has died (don’t know if it’s a bad power supply, or it’s just bricked). My Brother DCP-L2540DW laser, which is a great printer, refuses to scan. I can see it with Simple Scan, but I get a message that it cannot connect to the scanner. I went to the Brother web site, and installed their own drivers from rpm (actually from a bash script), and still no joy. A Google search indicates that others have had similar issues, but none exactly like mine (for instance, they can’t print, either, whereas the printer works fine). Any suggestions for trouble shooting?
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Zuma
Did last night’s mission fail? No indication that there was a launch problem.
[Tuesday-morning update]
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s the story (so far) from Tim Fernholz.
[Update a while ago]
Here‘s a CNBC story. I have trouble believing the satellite cost “billions” of dollars, though I suppose it’s possible; Webb will.
The Webb Telescope
We had dinner with Leonard and Barbara David when we were in Colorado over the holidays. He told me that he’d been working on this piece about whether it’s too big to fail.
I’ve been concerned about the risk for years. I hope it works, but it’s not the approach I’d have taken. The next big telescope will be assembled in space, not launch origami.
John Young
Haven’t seen a story to link yet, but my Twitter TL is full of announcements that he’s departed earth for the final time. Flew in every NASA spacecraft except Mercury, first man to orbit the moon solo, and commander of the first Shuttle flight.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here‘s the NASA press release.
Virtual Assistants
Why you’ll fire Siri and do the job yourself:
I spoke to ObEN co-founder and CEO Nikhil Jain this week. He told me ObEN’s technology generates a 3D, computer-generated representation of the user’s face with a single selfie.
ObEN also learns to copy your voice. Once it’s got your voice down, it can do things with your voice that you cannot — speak Chinese, for example, or sing.
That “personality” is based not only on how you speak, but on what you know as well. It’s even possible to add knowledge manually.
Hard to imagine anything going wrong with that.
The End Of The Personal Car
I share Charles Cooke’s fear. And this will be like the argument over guns; safety versus liberty, the latter of which isn’t seen as a value by the Left.
The Intel Bug
This seems like a pretty major eff up. I’m running AMD, except for the new HP two in one I bought a couple weeks ago.
[Update a while later]
Linus Torvalds giving Intel both barrels over its CPU bug PR spin ??? https://t.co/f9MbPQhgz8 pic.twitter.com/Go02sQUN62
— The Register (@TheRegister) January 4, 2018
[Friday-morning update]
Gaps In Exploration
Are they “normal“?
If it’s exploration for exploration’s sake, probably. But if it’s for creation of wealth, I’d expect things to happen faster.
2018 Space Predictions
Dale Amon and Doug Weathers (former XCOR employees) have some.
I don’t understand what they mean by Cosmic Girl being in “the Hawthorne area,” though. I would assume it’s in Long Beach, by the Virgin Orbit facility.
America In Space
Keith Cowing is pessimistic.
I’m not. NASA isn’t able to lead, but America will continue to.
[Update a few minutes later]
Speaking of which…
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Launch now NET Jnuary 15th, with static engine test on Saturday. That will be impressive by itself, even without a lift off. If it’s successful, chances of a successful launch go way up. I suspect the biggest uncertainty is plume interaction between the cores, and that will resolve it.