2023-01-22

🟩Introduction

Hello dear readers, and welcome to the sixth edition of my weekly curios.

This week I found myself swept up in weekday chaos. If you were as well, my hope is that my collection this week helps you to step back and enjoy the tiny wonders that life can produce.

-crow

🟩Writing of the Week: Electro-Mechanical Soviet Space Computers

As we continue to trend towards “generalist” devices that do it all, I’m fascinated by devices that were purpose built to do one task very well. The “soviet space computers” I came across this week are no exception.

This thread by @kenshirriff@oldbytes.space goes into detail about one of these computers, and specifically how it functions (you can also read it as a blog post here).

It’s an interesting mix of mechanical components and electronics, that helped cosmonauts see their position above the Earth.

But if you want to scramble your position instead of locating it, a word of caution based on this next tale…

🟩Video of the Week: When Dongles Go Wild

This video (via Jack Rhysider of Darknet Diaries) tells the tale of a truck driver that caused a lot of unintentional chaos by using a small jamming device in his truck.

While not necessarily the focus of this story, it is a bit frightening how easy it is to cause pandemonium in modern society by targeting weak points in infrastructure (see the ongoing electrical grid attacks).

Let’s transition though from radio signals to light waves, and look at early photographic technology…

🟩Factoid of the Week: “Sun Writing” the First Photograph

I had always thought the first photographic process was the Daguerreotype, however it turns out that in 1827 that Joseph Nicéphore Niépce developed a process called “heliography” that captured the first photo (pictured above).

In French the process is called héliographie, which means “sun writing”, and it used combination of chemicals on a pewter plate to capture the image. The original is on display at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas.

Now let’s travel from the past to the present, and wrap up with my favorite post of the week…

🟩Post of the Week: Quick Pause

As I mentioned above, this week was definitely a bit of a whirlwind for me, but I appreciated this post from @colorfulmartian@peoplemaking.games to help ground me:

It’s a great reminder to step back and be present, if only for a few moments. So dear reader, I hope you can take some time to breathe in, pause, and be appreciative of the unique qualities you bring to the world.

🟩Afterword

Whether it’s old tech, obscure trivia, or just a thought provoking post, please do feel free to get in touch with me: @crow@lonely.town

From my cyber roost to yours, have a great week!

-crow