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Tag: tech

12jan26

Published January 12, 2026 by Warren Ellis

I blew off everything last night: made harissa lamb shanks with truffled mashed potato, then a jar of cold ginger tea, then a jar of blood orange orangeade. But it turns out I still can’t make hummus.

TODAY:

  • Here in the UK, Ofcom is “investigating” X over sexual deepfakes, which could lead to a fine of 10% of X’s global revenue, while Musk is appearing in public with Pete Hegseth, signalling a return to the Trump administration fold.
  • Erich von Daniken died. At least one generation will remember his weird books being on the shelves of every charity shop in the world.
  • Autofocusing eyeglasses. (which makes me smile, see STATUS below)

OPERATIONS: Today is scripting and figuring out my schedule for the next few weeks, because I am appallingly behind and need to sort myself out.
STATUS: My near vision has been slowly deteriorating over the last five years or so, and I’ve been needing very strong light to read some print. Herself saw me struggling to read a small-print label yesterday, and handed me a pair of her +2 reading glasses that were laying around, as an experiment. And suddenly holy shit. Mortifying. I held on to the glasses and spent an hour reading THE NOMA GUIDE TO FERMENTATION without needing a powerful reading light. I’m 58 next month and have just ordered my first pair of reading glasses. I am mortified, to be honest.
READING: SPIES: THE EPIC INTELLIGENCE WAR BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, Calder Walton (UK) (US+) and THE NOMA GUIDE TO FERMENTATION (UK) (US+)
LISTENING:


LAST WATCHED: rewatching SMILEY’S PEOPLE on iPlayer

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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11jan26

Published January 11, 2026 by Warren Ellis

If you didn’t yet get today’s newsletter, it seems the Beehiiv service is on a bit of a slowdown – as I write this, 75 minutes after the scheduler sent it out, it’s still only 68% delivered. if you didn’t get yours, it’s here:

https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/p/2026

I am at the time of writing still waiting for the system to send it to ME.

TODAY:

  • Neuromorphic computers. “A. field that applies principles of neuroscience to computing systems to mimic the brain’s function and structure.” Very good at partial differential equations, it turns out, which are good for fluid dynamics, weather patterning, structural stress mechanics. But here’s the good bit, buried at the bottom:

The researchers believe that neuromorphic computing could help bridge the gap between neuroscience and applied mathematics, offering new insights into how the brain processes information.

“Diseases of the brain could be diseases of computation,” Aimone said. “But we don’t have a solid grasp on how the brain performs computations yet.”

If their hunch is correct, neuromorphic computing could offer clues to better understand and treat neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

  • The dark matter bones of a failed galaxy. That was worth waking up for.

Now, an international team of researchers claims to have used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to discover an entirely new type of celestial object: dubbed “Cloud-9,” it’s a “starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud,” per the European Space Agency. The lack of stars caught the team by surprise, indicating Cloud-9 was a “fossil leftover” — what ScienceAlert memorably termed the “dark-matter bones of a failed galaxy.”

OPERATIONS: Not sure what today is yet. I have a lot of competing thoughts and I’m waiting for them to settle a bit. While also knowing in the back of my head that I have to go shopping and clear the kitchen! But I’m thinking I need to get back into a project I started developing last year, because I know the artist is waiting for the pitch document…
STATUS: the temperature outside is starting a slow climb again, so I can shrug out of the heavy layers in a little while and dress less like a Dark Ages snow-cave hermit.
READING: SPIES: THE EPIC INTELLIGENCE WAR BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, Calder Walton (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: New Music Show

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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Snowsky Retro Nano DAC

Published January 3, 2026 by Warren Ellis

I asked for the Snowsky Echo Mini DAP (digital audio player) for Xmas. I got the Snowsky Retro Nano DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) instead, because it turns out those two devices look exactly the fucking same in pictures.

A DAC improves and amplifies digital music and allows it to be pumped through wired headphones. You can Bluetooth it to a networked device or USB it for a hard connection to a computer or anything with a USB-C hole.

My office speakers are actually an ancient Altec Lansing inMotion portable set that is no longer made. They connect to the computer through the computer’s headphone jack. I Bluetoothed the Retro Nano to my phone and plugged the speakers into the Retro Nano’s headphone jack. Suddenly all the podcasts trapped on my phone sound better.

There’s an app that goes with it called FiiOMusic, which can set equalisers – I’m on iPhone, so the app can only reach what’s in iTunes. I experimented with “Breath Of Odin” by Julian Cope, and on the “classical” setting it picks out all kinds of sound detail that is otherwise barely there just playing the mp3.

I was a little frustrated that I didn’t get the mp3 player – the sound is great on the cheap player I picked up last year but the UI is awkward – but I am finding uses for the DAC and I suspect I will uncover more. The thing comes with a lanyard, so you can hang it around your neck, plug earbuds or 4.4mm IEMs into it, Bluetooth it to your phone and then walk away from your phone and just listen. Which has an appeal to me these days.

Snowsky Retro Nano on Amazon.

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Pebble Index Ring

Published December 9, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Introducing Pebble Index 01 – a small ring with a button and microphone. Press the button, whisper your thought, and it’s sent to your phone. It’s added to your notes, set as a reminder, or saved for later review.

It’s private by design (no recording until you press the button) and requires no internet connection or subscription. It’s as small as a wedding band and comes in 3 colours. It’s made of durable stainless steel and is water-resistant. Like all Pebble products, it’s extremely customizable and built with open source software.

Here’s the best part: the battery lasts for years. You never need to charge it.

https://repebble.com/index

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morning computer magnetic folklore

Published December 1, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Technology is always changing, quickly becoming dated or even obsolete as new updates are released. Remember LaserDiscs? What about 8-tracks? For Japanese musical trio Open Reel Ensemble, analog contraptions meet digital combinations to make unique and experimental sounds. Using reel-to-reel recorders from the 1970s and 1980s as musical instruments, the stage and studio setup is just as interesting as the recordings.

Delving into a nostalgic technology, the group describes their hybrid contraptions and techniques as “magnetic folklore instruments. They tap into a sense of nostalgia for reel-to-reel, also known as magnetic tapes. They’ve described their genre as “Magnetikpunk.”

China and Japan are also building “maglev” (magnetic levitation) train lines, the article points out — though it also includes this quote from rail expert and author Christian Wolmar. “Hyperloop is unworkable. The infrastructure it needs would be amazingly expensive to build and it can’t deliver the capacity to compete with high-speed railways or airlines. “It doesn’t integrate with existing transport modes, the infrastructure required to reach city centers would cause intolerable noise and disruption. And there are doubts over energy costs, capacity and passenger safety if something goes wrong at such high speeds…. “[T]he economics of it just don’t work.”

Scientists have captured an exceptionally rare, high-resolution view of an active region that produced two powerful X-class solar flares—an achievement rarely possible from Earth. Using the GREGOR solar telescope in Tenerife, researchers recorded the explosive activity of the sun’s most energetic sunspot group of 2025, revealing twisted magnetic structures and the early stages of flare ignition with unprecedented detail. The flares triggered fast coronal mass ejections that lit up Earth’s skies with vivid auroras in the nights that followed.

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/

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morning computer loops

Published November 25, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Shusei Nagaoka / Androla in Labyrinth | 1984 |

Scientists in Switzerland have created a robot the size of a grain of sand that is controlled by magnets and can deliver drugs to a precise location in the human body, a breakthrough aimed at reducing the severe side effects that stop many medicines from advancing in clinical trials…

Fucking finally. I remember talking about this at the Architectural Association probably fifteen years ago.

Work has begun on a looped Christian landmark named the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, which was designed by UK studio Snug Architects to rise over 50 metres in Warwickshire.

I wasn’t sure what made this Christian art, as it’s obviously a Mobius loop:

Set to be built near Coleshill, the monument will be made up of 188 differently shaped precast concrete elements clad in one million white bricks.

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Each brick on the looping wall will represent the story of an answered prayer, which visitors will be able to read via a mobile app.

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/

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18nov25

Published November 18, 2025 by Warren Ellis

ooh fuck me it’s chilly out there

TODAY:

OPERATIONS: I am a little bit caught up, so today I am planning ahead a little, converting an outline and developing some other stuff.
STATUS: 8hrs 6m sleep, inbox 80 – most of which are work emails I need to keep front and centre, tickets and notes to self. Formatting a cheap SD card with hammers so I can load recently purchased music on to it for the mp3 player.
READING: finished THE FALL, Albert Camus (UK) (US+).
LISTENING: THE SHUTOV ASSEMBLY, Brian Eno
LAST WATCHED: MEN OF THE MANOSPHERE (BBC)

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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morning computer brain work

Published November 18, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Roger Dean.

While companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink are hard at work on brain-computer interfaces that require surgery to cut open the skull and insert a complex array of wires into a person’s head, a team of researchers at MIT have been researching a wireless electronic brain implant that they say could provide a non-invasive alternative that makes the technology far easier to access.

They describe the system, called Circulatronics, as more of a treatment platform than a one-off brain chip. Working with researchers from Wellesley College and Harvard University, the MIT team recently released a paper on the new technology, which they describe as an autonomous bioelectronic implant.

Sportswear brand Nike has unveiled its Mind 001 and Mind 002 trainers, designed in collaboration with neuroscientists to improve the connection between mind and body.

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Described as the company’s “first neuroscience-based footwear”, the shoes were created using data collected from brain scans at Nike’s recently established Mind Science Department.

“These are the first shoes designed from the brain down, not the ground up,” Nike chief science officer Matthew Nurse told Dezeen.

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/

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morning computer sunfall

Published November 17, 2025 by Warren Ellis

After six momentous leaps from a small aircraft, skydiver Gabriel C. Brown completed his mission. Brown is friends with astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy and now, also one of his collaborators. Together, the pair created a stunning image that shows the adventurous subject falling in front of the sun.

How to Brew Solar Powered Coffee

This guide explains how to construct an energy-efficient coffee maker powered by a small solar panel.

Google’s new “Project Suncatcher” aims to launch Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) into space, creating a solar-powered, satellite-based AI network capable of scaling machine learning beyond Earth’s limits. Google says a “solar panel can be up to 8 times more productive than on earth” for near-continuous power using a “dawn-dusk sun-synchronous low earth orbit” that reduces the need for batteries and other power generation.

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/

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telemetry 1nov25

Published November 1, 2025 by Warren Ellis

On All Hallow’s Eve, Jennifer Lucy Allan turns the cards and listens for what they reveal, tracing sonic lines across the tarot deck. From the ghostly atmospherics of William Basinski’s Wheel of Fortune, to the arcane explorations of early electronic pioneer Ruth White and Swiss krautrock mystic Walter Wegmüller, the spread unfolds in unexpected ways, its order uncertain, its juxtapositions surprising. Expect new sounds from Argentinian artist aylu, whose spiritually-charged album journeys from personal struggle to collective resistance, as well as slow-motion noise conjured by New Zealand’s drone trio Surface of the Earth.

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