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scanny

578 karma · joined March 13, 2019

Solutions Architect in the earth observation and GIS industries.
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scanny··on Semantic search across major museums
Would make sense to have a copywrite filter so you can specify to see only public domain images.
scanny··on Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike
It would be interesting to get a breakdown of what goes into something like the MQ-9, given they were introduced back in 2007 I wonder how difficult it would be to spin up a replacement using more COTS tech to lower the price and lead time for new builds.

I presume a lot goes into the satellite comms system, dealing with jamming, and certifying anything that flies.

In my complete ignorance I would presume a prop-driven unmanned aircraft built for loitering and dropping farily common ordnance with a quality optical package should be something that a bunch of defence companies could roll out quickly for the pentagon?

scanny··on PicoCAD v2 Release, a lowpoly 3D modeler
Nifty little low poly 3d modeling software that I didn't even realised released a v2. It's fun for hobbiests and artists (nothing close to blender).
scanny··on Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites
Unfortunately the share button doesn't seem to save the state fully, the sensor selection/bookmarking doesn't carry through.

Cool app though, have it on a large screen at our work to visualise the constellations we work with as a fun screensaver type thing.

scanny··on Organic Maps
Would you consider using cache storage for enabling offline capabilities? Maybe I am in the minority but I usually go to organic maps for offline usage.
scanny··on Organic Maps
This is my regular hiking and cycling map, fantastic for offline use as well!

Edit: didn’t know about the ads / proprietary server issues. I guess this is the only sort of place to find out unless users are browsing the GitHub repo.

scanny··on Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?
I got a Sovol Sv07+ and it’s decently fast, large build space, and can crank out miniatures that are ‘good enough’ for table top.

Wish the resin printers didn’t have the toxic fumes problem though, then I’d get one of them too.

scanny··on Overthinking GIS (2024)
QGIS for ArcMap/ArcGIS Geoserver for their REST based servers (ArcGIS Enterprise). GRASS and GDAL do the leg work of much processing found in the spatial toolboxes and such.

However those tools do not have the polish that ESRI kit does, but at leas you’re not paying the licensing!

- former ESRI consultant

scanny··on Is the attack helicopter dead?
Those shaped charges weren’t envisioned coming from directly above, especially precisely dropped on the engine or on hatches, hence the drones are hitting spots with little to no armour compared to the front and sides.
scanny··on American WWII bomb explodes at Japanese airport, causing large crater in taxiway
Usually shrapnel, working out the depth at which it exploded, the nature of the explosion (recorded on video), and historical evidence of bombing.

There is a buch of forensic methods around this.

scanny··on Tō Reo – A Māori Spellchecker
Awesome work, love to see the effort on the technical front of bringing a language into broader use!
scanny··on Stop Killing Games – European Citizens' Initiative
This is a great initiative from Ross, fingers crossed it picks up momentum.
scanny··on Indonesia is trying to block LGBTQIA content from the internet
To be devils advocate here we also have to promote healthy eating, getting screened for cancer, or smoking PSAs. Just because something might be classified as "superior" doesn't mean that it will always self promote or be accessible.
scanny··on Satellites Spotting Ships
That's not exactly how it works. The satellite operator will be taking paid orders to scan over specific areas of the earth, about 4km in width or so.

So you have to have a pretty good idea where the carrier is, and then you get an image delivered with some latency as the satellite will need to pass over a ground station that downlinks the data.

So it isn't free (although umbra has a CC BY 4.0 license for their data, much more permissive than other providers. Nor is it easy to search huge amounts of the ocean for the carrier.

What most entities probably do is tip and cue, which is use a sensor with coarser resolution to get an approximate location and then use a sensor with finer resolution to look closer.

scanny··on Helldivers 2 PSN account linking update will not be moving forward
This has been brought up by a collective, in response to Ubisoft removing an online-only racing game from players libraries after purchase when they shut it down.

https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

scanny··on What if dreaming is the whole point of sleep?
In some languages , like German, children are referred to as “it” for quite some time as they grow
scanny··on Rooster King: A multimedia zine website collage album memoir thing
Great experience reading through this, the multi-media collage is really nicely put together!
scanny··on Opera becomes the first major browser with built-in access to local AI models
From my understanding it comes from a law passed that allows unlimited access by state intelligence services in China to any firms customer data.

  "The most controversial sections of the law include Article 7 which potentially compels businesses registered or operating in the People's Republic of China to hand over information to Chinese intelligence agencies such as the MSS and to conceal the fact that they do so." [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Intelligence_Law_of_t...
scanny··on Yahoo is buying Artifact, the AI news app from the Instagram co-founders
I have found ground.news [1] decent, it limits the AI to creating quick summaries and assessing which side of the political spectrum news articles and organisations fall. The rest is up to the reader.

1. https://ground.news/

scanny··on Ask HN: Recommendations for Bavaria/Swiss Alps
Depends greatly on the season and how long you have, but for a few tips:

Munich: Cool little artist district with a boat railway bridge - https://maps.app.goo.gl/13Zjw2usCbvcsr1UA

Inner city surf wave with a great spectating spot - https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ha1EQBvRoG1dLoyw5

South of Munich:

Murnau is a beautiful town with great views of the alps, reachable via train, and there is a great resteraunt near protected wetlands I can recccommend - https://maps.app.goo.gl/m9317uf5j7qKw8ML6

Cheimsee is also beautiful, little islands with a castle on a lake and a beergarden - https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZbxWRT7cDh66nzbS7

Further into the Alps you can find Königsee which is stunning, has great hiking, and plenty of history - https://maps.app.goo.gl/6fXAN1KwP8PqmTHc7

If you're into snowsports then now is a great time to get into the mountains and rent some gear to have a fun day. For hiking it is probably better to wait for the snow to thaw and then do a hut to hut treck if you can.

As a note, I do not reccommend going to see the Disneyland Castle, a.k.a. Neuschwanstein. It'll involve lots of crowds, a rushed tour, and a mediocre experience overall.

Enjoy!

scanny··on A battery has replaced Hawaii's last coal plant
likewise, learning to sail as a kid and having to go around these large partially submerged objects just kicked off some irrational fear in me (and stil does today, though to a lesser degree).
scanny··on I made an app that runs Mistral 7B 0.2 LLM locally on iPhone Pros
I think there is some cost associated with iPhone app development ($100-$300 plus submission costs), as opposed to android, when it comes to publishing, it seems fair enough for an individual to charge a dollar or two to recoup that.
scanny··on Dynamic Map and Dungeon Generator
I stumbled across this and thought it would be an interesting thing to share. The tool is web-based (electron too) and can generate entire continents that also zooms down to the dungeon level. Ontop of this it has generated encounters and stories that are linked to locations on the map, and allows virtual table top sesions with moving counters and light sources.

trailer with features: https://youtu.be/cHwHRlzU-Gk?t=54

docs: https://docs.hexroll.app/

It even has it's own scripting language: https://docs.hexroll.app/scroll/scroll-tutorial/

Kudos to Ithai Levi who made this, take a look at some of the code here: https://github.com/hexroll/hexroll-backpack

scanny··on Hitler-Mannerheim Recording
I wonder why there is only a single recording of him in a more natural setting, over 12 years as chancellor I would have expected something more!
scanny··on Quake Brutalist Jam II
Fantastic work from these artists, the engine really just lends itself to these environments it seems!

As a side Anyone know of a good way to get the geometry of Quake maps out as a 3d model? I thought it would be quite cool to view these on the web. Either individual buildings or as a fly-through.

Edit:

Found the following leads:

    1. https://github.com/sbuggay/bspview
    2. https://github.com/passiomatic/elm-quake3-renderer
If you download the jam, go into the "maps" folder and on the following url, https://sbuggay.github.io/bspview/ (1), use the "Load Map" button you can see a basic version (broken skyboxes) if you load a .bsp file.
scanny··on EU's concealment of secret 'expert list' on CSAM regulation is maladministration
I wonder why it is that the Netherlands hosts 77% of urls for child exploitation

    Netherlands 77%
    US – 5%
    France 4%
    Russia 2%
    Lativia 2 %
    Luxembourg 2%
      (Internet Watch Foundation Annual Report, 2020)

 - from OPs link https://enough.org/stats_exploitation
scanny··on Can’t send email more than 500 miles (2002)
For those who are curious as I was: https://www.managementpro.com/my-car-wont-start-after-i-buy-...
scanny··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2023)
Apologies! here is the new link: https://silver-antonetta-18.tiiny.site/
scanny··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2023)
European Space Imaging | Spatial Software Engineer | Munich, DE | Fulltime

Looking to onboard someone who has a background in the geospatial industry and has had some experience working with front-end development / web mapping.

We are launching a satellite tasking GUI and need someone to work with the lead front-end developer in delivering this.

  - Experience with modern front-end frameworks such as React or Vue, in particular for frontend web map applications
  - Python experience in geospatial software development projects, opensource geospatial libraries in particular
  - Be self-motivated, and friendly!
  - Be willing to come and work with us in München!

We're a team of 4, the fifth is joining at the end of the month, and hopefully this role will bring us up to 6.

If you know anyone, including recent grads and the like, who would be interested please feel free to pass it on :)

PDF of the job posting: https://file.io/AiN4zh0k7sdK Contact is in the PDF.

Edit: New link https://silver-antonetta-18.tiiny.site/ (I have no idea why that link expired, it was set to two weeks..)

scanny··on How to find a street in 2 minutes [video]
This seems to cover some of that workflow

https://github.com/rowheat02/osm-gpt

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