#wireless network problems

[semperintrepida]

A few of you asked, so here's how I'd re-write the opening act to Horizon Forbidden West to give Aloy—and Elisabet Sobeck—the respect she deserves.

(Putting all 1600!!! words of this under a jump cut for spoiler reasons.)

My biggest beef with HFW is that it has a Sylens problem. Namely, keeping him five steps ahead of Aloy and having him lead her by the nose from place to place doesn't make him a better, more threatening villain. It makes Aloy look incompetent, and even worse, makes us question her exceptional nature. (If some guy can figure all this technology out, what's so special about Aloy?) I'll have more to say later about Aloy's exceptionalism as it's key (hee hee) to this entire story.

So here's how I'd fix what ails canon. Imagine an HFW that begins much like the original game, with Aloy (along with Varl) searching for the GAIA kernel at Far Zenith HQ, where she eventually discovers the Travis Tate logic bomb that deleted all the stolen copies of the kernel. Out of ideas, she and Varl travel to Meridian to consult with Blameless Marad, from whom she learns of the recent activation of the Spire. She investigates the burnt-out Horus core and realizes that whatever was left of HADES, it's been stolen by Sylens.

She climbs the Spire. At the top, she overrides the input jack and accesses the Spire's logs, which indicate that the Spire was recently used to relay a large quantity of data to a location unknown.

Back on the ground, Aloy asks Avad and Blameless Marad to have their scholars search the records of the Carja army taken during excursions in the Forbidden West for anything that might resemble a base or installation built by the Old Ones: every triangle door, every strange ruin. If Aloy has to look inside every cave in the West, she will do it.

While she waits, she catches up with her old friends in Meridian. Then, she has a conversation with Varl, where she admits her frustration with the search for GAIA proving difficult and fruitless so far. They talk about the hologram they saw at Zenith HQ, and Varl makes a remark about Travis Tate and his working relationship with Elisabet Sobeck, and how it seems they had a plan for everything.

This jogs something in Aloy's mind: how could Tate and Elisabet be confident in the work they produced if they didn't have a place to test it? A safe place. Thinking again of Sylens and how he stole HADES out from under her—and of his repeated attempts to hack into her Focus that she keeps having to block—she knows this place would have to be isolated and shielded from the rest of the world.

In a cutscene, we see her back at the top of the Spire, using the input jack to send it commands. As the Spire is connected to physical networks and it's also a wireless/radio transmitter, she uses it to scan the Forbidden West, looking for "empty spaces" in the network/wireless grid, gaps where a secret base might be found. The result is a set of three candidate coordinates, scattered in No Man's Land, the buffer between the Sundom and the Forbidden West.

But to get there, she'll have to get through the gate at Barren Light. A token from Avad will grant her the authority to pass through the gate, but she'll need to make peace with the Tenakth herself for permission to travel through their lands. Luckily for her, there's a diplomatic Embassy coming up. As in the original game, Aloy sneaks out late at night and leaves Varl behind.

Arriving at the Daunt, Aloy learns that there's trouble all over: machines infesting the valley, a work stoppage in Chainscrape, sabotage at Barren Light—and the Embassy is on hold until all of it is addressed.

Aloy begins clearing the valley of machines, and once she reaches Chainscrape, she runs into Petra, another old friend, and doesn't turn down an offer to catch up over a brew. This is how Aloy learns that Ulvund, the self-appointed "leader" of the Oseram workforce, is the one behind the work stoppage.

Time for a talk with the guy. Ulvund tries to bully Aloy around, but she's not going to let some pissant Oseram get in her way: he's going to blow the damn whistle if he doesn't want an arrow in his head. When he threatens her by calling his thugs to come closer, she tells him she'll put arrows in all their heads. Ulvund backs down, the whistle blows, and the work stoppage comes to an end. (The same sidequests are available as in the original game. If Aloy wants to bring him down further, she can do those quests as well.)

Once Aloy reaches Barren Light, she learns that the gate has been sabotaged. After a conversation with a Carja soldier falsely imprisoned for murder and some investigative legwork, Aloy discovers that the saboteurs are Eclipse cultists, who are operating out of a camp hidden somewhere in the Daunt. In a series of quests, Aloy uncovers their plans to attack the Embassy, discovers that they are following orders sent from somewhere to the west, and finally puts an end to their operation in the Daunt by destroying their camp. (In this fix-it, the Eclipse sidequest is elevated to a main quest and expanded.)

With the Eclipse and machine threats neutralized, the Embassy takes place as it does in the original game: Varl arrives just in time to join Aloy, they meet Fashav, Regalla attacks, the Embassy is annihilated.

But there's no time for grieving—or waiting for Varl's ankle to heal—as Aloy now has full access to No Man's Land and can proceed to the three candidate coordinates for the secret lab in any order.

Candidate 1 is a ruin but there's nothing of value to be found inside other than a few datapoints of lore.

Candidate 2 is a ruin near a Horus in the far north, where Aloy finds Sylens's abandoned workshop and the broken remnants of HADES trapped within the Horus's battered core. Sylens does not communicate directly to Aloy here; instead, she hacks into the ruin's surveillance system and watches a holo-log of his interrogation. Her conversation and eventual purging of HADES happen as they did in the original game. (All this quest does is provide more background lore as to what Sylens has been up to.)

Candidate 3 is the LATOPOLIS testing lab. The gene-locked door is not blocked by firegleam, and Aloy can enter easily. The rest of the LATOPOLIS sequence proceeds as in the original game—but without any involvement from Sylens. Aloy unlocks the storage container for the GAIA kernel and grabs a copy, only to be interrupted by the arrival of the Zeniths—and Beta the Sobeck clone—who were drawn to a stray radio signal that escaped from the lab during Aloy's explorations. (Perhaps the exterior shielding door gets jammed slightly open when the mechanism is operated for the first time in a thousand years.)

Now let's talk about Beta, and why her reveal is so crucial to HFW's story.

Until now, the Aloy we know is exceptional. Not only is she a world-class athlete and huntress, she's the clone of one of the greatest scientific minds humanity has ever produced and the one person left on earth who can activate the gene-locked doors and computer systems that require Alpha Prime access. She is the heroine of this story, the only one we trust to save the world. Aloy is the key.

Then Beta shows up. That's what we call an oh shit! moment. Now we have two keys in play—and Aloy is no longer as unique or exceptional as she once was.

If Aloy is the heart of Horizon, Beta is its soul. As much as the two clones have in common, and as much as one could argue that GAIA created Aloy to serve as a tool, Beta is that idea taken to the extreme: raised in isolation, taught only what was necessary to achieve the Zeniths' goals, she is the pure form of a genetic key. And the gap, the juxtaposition between Aloy and Beta is where this story gets interesting. Who is an Elisabet Sobeck clone beyond simply being a key?

That's the story lurking beneath the plot that I want to know more about.

(Regarding the firegleam igniter, Aloy learns the recipe to build one from the Oseram tinkerers Delah and Boomer. She can learn it in the Daunt during their first quest, or later in the desert during the second if she missed them the first time around.)

Aloy escapes from LATOPOLIS, nearly drowning when the effluent sweeps her into a nearby river. She manages to swim ashore, then loses consciousness.

Time passes in fever dreams of Rost and All Mother Mountain and other memories of the past, strange voices and hands, smears of yellow and green.

She awakens in an Utaru outpost, having been brought there by a party of Utaru foragers who found her on the riverbank. She's been delirious for a few days, and is injured badly enough that she'll have to stay longer. She doesn't get to shrug it off. The sun rises and sets, rises and sets, rises and sets, on and on until one day, when she's finally able to get up and move around a little, she hears a familiar voice: Varl, accompanied by Zo. He's finally found Aloy. And now it's time for Act 2 to begin.

[jades-typurriter]

Secure Connection

As promised: more Posie!! I wrote this one toward the end of last Spring after a couple of conversations with friends regarding the malleability of digital bodies (as well as still having Many Thoughts about the way code can give them new compulsions, after writing something about Annie and a new taur-shaped chassis for a friend's Patreon). Enjoy reading about her dealing with a corporate-mandated "hardware" update!

CW: Genital TF, this is another one that's As About Sex as it can possibly be without being about sex

Posie sat, sulking—steaming, even—in her office. It was a small side room off of the main floor of IT personnel, system engineers, and other technical employees of her corporation. Much like a central server, it was placed for easy access to the department-wide administrative assistant, and much like a server room, it was snug, windowless, and awash with the calming drone and relaxing warmth of an array of exhaust fans. Though she was free to project herself nearly anywhere on the company’s campus, this was where her consciousness was housed, and where she felt most at home. It was also the only place she could get any damn privacy, a luxury that she was deeply grateful for at present.

A newly-downloaded file weighed on the back of the Renamon’s mind. More literally, it was somewhere in the racks of drives that made up her long-term memory, to and from which mission-critical information was transferred in the course of doing business. Had somebody asked where exactly the file was stored, she would have been able to list the specific drive and the exact directory address, but she had de-prioritized the allocation of her processing resources for the download. Once again, she had received an assignment from her superiors, and once again, she was hesitant. She may even have admitted to being recalcitrant. She resented the orders.

The package of data in question was an update for her own software, a suite of new tools to allow management to offload yet more menial tasks onto her in the name of “efficiency”. Forget that she could diagnose a software issue faster than any of the engineers could even open a remote connection to the malfunctioning device. Instead of allowing her to take the reins, they saw fit to divert more of her attention to the least impressive among talents, and the one she already put to use the most often: transferring data.

This wouldn’t have been much of a problem, ordinarily. After all, Posie resided in the beating heart of the network, the nexus through which the vast majority of information was sent and received. It could be… meditative. Parsing streams of ones and zeroes, overseeing the flow of packets, redirecting traffic to equally spread the load across modems and routers so as to optimize travel time. It could even have been considered relaxing, if a worker of her caliber needed to relax. Instead of offering her a vacation (pah!), however, the update felt more like it heralded a demotion, denying her even the ability to pluck like harpstrings the miles of copper and gold that lined her facility. She was expected to deliver this data on foot.

Management justified this humiliation with practical concerns: some information, much like the old records she was often tasked to dispose of, was so confidential that it could not be sent via wireless transmission. Even hardwired connections were too fallible for the likes of next-generation schematics and financial access keys—a single compromised workstation, or compromised worker, could spell the loss of the company’s upper hand in its market. She wasn’t even going to be afforded the dignity of carrying an external hard drive to the destination. That would require the slow and tedious process of physically moving from one place to the next; this was one of the only times that she regretted the freedom of movement that was so coveted by her flesh-and-blood peers.

With no room to make exceptions for security protocol, she gripped the edge of her desk, brow furrowing, eyes squinted shut in consternation. Eventually, she huffed, rose, and turned her attention to her “physical body”, summoning up the file in much the same way that one would approach a plate of food with a pungent odor. The Renamon steeled herself and began to more closely examine its contents. She read the raw code similarly to how one might read words on a page; however, where the turning gears of the organic mind would, almost unconsciously, conjure up an image as a result of those words, her mind kicked off a series of involuntary, autonomic processes.

Her body carried out the instructions on her behalf. Once she started, she had no control until she finally reached a stopcode; it was the nature of being a program herself that code had as much of an influence on her mind and body as her own thoughts, her own will. In opening the package, she reluctantly consented to the changes that management saw fit to make to her. It was better than the eventual forced-deadline sort of update that software companies were so keen on using nowadays, and at least choosing the time and place allowed her to make herself presentable again before having to face another person.

Having parts of her code—her very body—rewritten by the update was a strange sensation, not unlike having your thoughts dictated to you by an outside force. Stranger still was that she could feel the exact delineation between her previous self and the patches of… well, the patch. She could feel it quite strongly, as a matter of fact: beneath her skirt of simulated sky-blue fur, between her legs, she could feel her mesh being edited. Stretched. Reshaped. The vectors that made up the triangles of her wireframe soul were being rewritten, mathematically transformed. A shape began to protrude from the once-flat span at the bottom of her torso, at first round and indistinct, but quickly increasing in resolution.

The Renamon struggled to process the sensations as a long, slender connector began to take shape. This often happened with changes to her body plan; inputs streamed into her mind from directions, locations, that previously never sent any signals, and the new additions seldom had their sensitivity adjusted downward for her convenience. In this case, it was highly sensitive, delivering reams of data to the base of her skull just from brushing up against her own fur, or the gentle flow of air from the computers in her office. It made sense, given that it was supposed to be a high-capacity transfer tool, but she was too busy buckling at the knees and clutching at the desk behind her so she didn’t fall flat on her rear for the thought to occur to her.

Her processors demanded more cooling, kicking into high gear as they formatted the two new storage devices that accompanied the connector, tailor-made for packing confidential data as tightly as possible. The sound of whirring fans filled the room, stirring her fur and sending shivers up and down her back; she could only hope that the rushing exhaust made enough noise to drown her out, whimpering despite herself. The new drives were larger (and more unwieldy) than the ones that were built into her chest, much to her chagrin. She was forced to adjust her stance and her gait as she found her footing again, spreading her legs wider than she was accustomed in order to give them enough room.

The spinning in her head slowly settling down, she slowly began to compose herself once again, taking stock of the new additions. They were cumbersome, to be sure, and she lamented how they jutted out from her otherwise sleek form and burdened her with less-graceful posture. It didn’t even match her fur! The software engineers that had concocted the code had at least included one small mercy: a compartment for the connector to retract into, nestled in the fur above the storage drives. No such luck for the drives themselves. She supposed she would just have to adjust to walking with delicate hardware in tow. As she went to smooth her fur over her lap again, her paw recoiled away. Some kind of… static discharge was left in the fluff. A memory leak, perhaps? The fact that such a malfunction could be caused just from having the connector brush up against her fur appalled her, deepening her frustration even more. They couldn’t even test the update for bugs before shipping it out to her. She shook out her paw and finished arranging her skirt as best she could before working up the composure to finally leave her office.

Picking up the payload for which all this fanfare had been arranged was at least a quick, easy process. She stopped into the office of the manager that had assigned her the task; she offered a businesslike nod and, knowing that she was always itching to skip niceties in the name of saving time, he offered a straightforward wave at his personal terminal. She held a paw over the computer tower and, in the time it took for electricity to arc to her fingertip with a tinny zzzrt, she had already searched his directory for the relevant test files and copied them to the newly-installed drives. Wireless transfer, yes, but only technically. The engineers had specifically asked a member of another division, whose computer network wasn’t connected to their own; it was as though she had picked a folder up from his desk and walked out with it.

Moving the file was just as uneventful. It was far from the first time that she’d navigated the sprawling corporate property, and even if it were, the maps existed just outside the orbit of her thoughts, ready to be summoned to mind at a simple impulse. What she was not expecting, however, was the technician who was waiting in the server room to which she was asked to deliver the file. While she preferred to work in the isolation of rooms that were set aside specifically for hardware, she was far from unused to being in the presence of the other people responsible for maintaining the company’s systems. That said…

“Can I help you?” The Renamon icily asked.

“Oh, I don’t need anything! I’m just here to take notes on the transfer.” Her tone was cheery; evidently, she wasn’t aware how compromising the new additions were. “The time it takes, any obvious issues. I’ll be the one checking the files against the originals, too,” she concluded, hooking a thumb over her shoulder at a monitor behind her.

“I see,” Posie replied through gritted teeth. “You have clearance to see these files, then?”

“Well, they’re just dummy data, ma’am.” At least she was respectful.

“And the proprietary hardware I’ve been… equipped with?” she forced out, keeping her synthesized voice even.

“Oh, for sure I do. I designed it!”

Oh! she seethed. So she knows pre-cise-ly the position he’s put me in.

“Well. I suppose there’s no point in delaying things, then.”

“Ready when you are!”

With tense shoulders, she turned toward the server rack, eyes darting over it, searching for where exactly she was supposed to connect to the array. After glancing over the contents of each drive, she found the one she was supposed to copy the data into—deposit would be more apt, as it was her understanding that the files would be automatically flushed from her system—and found a port that would allow her to access it. Conveniently, it was around waist height. She wondered, crossly, whether that had been an intentional design decision by this engineer as well. As she looked at it, she felt a twinge from the connector; on its own, like a Bluetooth device automatically searching for signals, it slid itself out from its fuzzy little compartment.

Her skin was abuzz, and her fur stood on end. She couldn’t quite tell if it was coming from the connector itself, or if it was the feeling of the programmer’s eyes on her If she could take a deep breath, she would have then. Without any way to stall further, or to tell the leering young woman to take her test files and store them somewhere indecent, she simply pushed forward with dropping off the damned data.

The instant the connector grazed the metal of the port, lightning shot into it, through her body, and into her head, making it swim with electrical potential. A stuttering, lagging thought made its way to the surface of her mind: they really had overtuned the sensitivity. She stifled a gasp and suppressed the urge to lay into the engineer (electrons were eager to flow out of her even without proper alignment with the contacts in the port, and didn’t she know that discharge like that could damage a piece of hardware?!), willing her body to keep pressing the stupid connector into the socket.

Even as she tried to get it over with already, something in the back of her mind compelled her to draw back a bit. If she had been restraining herself from reprimanding the engineer for risking the hardware, then she should at least do it the service of ensuring she was properly aligned, shouldn’t she? She obliged the impulse, and the motion all at once became much jerkier, less controlled. The friction of the port against her connector was enough to send her tail snapping back and forth, and she could tell that the temperature in her own server’s room had risen by a fair few degrees. Back and forth, wiggling side to side, she continued to readjust and realign herself, driven by unfamiliar code and overwhelmed by the signals pouring into her. She lost herself in the task, forgetting herself, forgetting her surroundings, until finally the technician cleared her throat.

“Ma’am,” she ventured, blushing and wide-eyed. “What, um. What are you doing? You should just need to plug it in.”

“I’m.” Her interruption had snapped the Renamon back to reality. She was mortified, tail sticking straight out and back ramrod straight. Her cheeks burned mercilessly. “I’m calibrating the connection.”

“Calibrating?”

“Did you want your files transferred with or without corrupted and incomplete data?” She snapped, hoping that her authoritative tone would head off any debate. “Assign me experimental hardware and then ask me to be reckless with it, hm? Should I be taking notes to give to our superiors?”

“I—alright, I guess you can’t be too careful,” she stammered, sheepishly pressing her legs together. “That was even something I tried to work into the design, so, c-carry on?”

“Thank you,” Posie blustered, turning back to the server rack. She did so slowly, reluctantly relishing the feeling of sliding around within the socket. She allowed herself one or two more “practice” attempts, hoping that it wouldn’t arouse too much suspicion from the engineer. Ultimately, just like before, there was no use in continuing to stall, and when she was able to bring her body to a stop, the rational part of herself was eager to be done with this entire torrid affair.

With more force, she pressed the connector inward one final time, trembling as the latch began to press against the opening. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, she continued, overwhelmed by the volume of electricity surging into her. The latch gave, compressing as it continued to slide inside, until finally it clicked into place, securing her to the array of drives and finalizing the connection.

All at once, a torrent of data poured out of her, an electron tsunami that felt like it threatened to spill out of the socket in which she was hilted. More data was transferred in the span of a few seconds than she was used to consciously processing, having cultivated such skill in delegating and compartmentalizing with background processes. Once again, the world around her was utterly drowned out; the strength fled her legs, and she clung to the steel bar that reinforced the top of the server rack, threatening to topple the entire system. Her self-control abandoned her as well and, forgetting the engineer, she cried out with an airy, wild, distinctly foxlike yelp. She screamed in surprise, gasped at the deluge of information, moaned because there was no room left in her mind for thought to do anything else.

Quickly, the disks of the server rack had finished writing the files she had carried to them, and her own drives were thoroughly purged. In another building, the radiators serving her processors shed heat at their absolute limits, and fans worked overtime to bring her back within her safe operational range. As her overworked circuitry began to chug through the backlog of sensory information, the entire experience caught up with her—including the detail that this entire shameless display had been carried out in front of that underhanded little engineer. She blinked, hard, and whipped her head to face her. For as hot as her own ears felt, the young woman’s face appeared to be glowing even brighter.

“What. Was that.”

“Um—”

“I’m used to new adjustments requiring desensitization, or even adjustment on their gain,” she growled, voice low and eerily even. “But that was a bridge too far to just have been miscalibration. Why did you design it like that?”

“Well, y-you remember how I mentioned, um, having considered an early disconnection?” Posie’s frosty glare didn’t waver, so the tech continued, answering her own rhetorical question. “That was, uh, the safeguard. Against early disconnection. I, figured it’d just be easier to make it so you wouldn’t want to unplug—”

“Do you think you have the au-thor-ity to go making changes to my mind, young lady?!”

“I-I can roll back the update if you want—”

“I think you’ve done QUITE enough!” The Renamon declared, despite herself. Perhaps it was genuine distrust, or perhaps—perhaps she truly couldn’t tell which desires were her own, at the moment. This would require careful study of her own system files.

Another small click broke the silence following her outburst, and the dongle began to retract from the server’s port and back into Posie’s body. Now free to move around, she dusted and fluffed her skirt and leaned down to look the engineer in the eye.

“I trust that you can report to your supervisor that I performed to your expectations,” she hissed. “And that there will be no need for any further discussion of your little project.” The programmer nodded, eyes even wider than before—and cheeks even redder? The Renamon scoffed, sneered, and spun, storming out the door, already allotting time in her schedule for the next time that she would be called upon for such a delivery.

Utterly unsurprisingly, she had been correct in her assessment that her superiors would take every opportunity to save their organic employees’ time at her expense. Confidential deliveries became a regular part of her routine, and though she had great disdain for being reduced to a mere courier for so much of the workday, she insisted upon completing the task to her usual, lofty standards.

Posie was as prompt as she always was, dropping everything to ferry information between privileged parties, striving to reduce latency even in more analogue forms of communication. There was the occasional complaint about how long downloads took once she had finally arrived at her location, but she was quick to remind such impatient recipients that the decision to follow this protocol came from on-high, and that even for someone who worked as quickly as her, great care for the safety of the data was a corner that simply could not be cut in the name of rushing around.

She was as meticulous about ensuring proper alignment with the port, fine-tuning her contact with the wires within, as the first time she had experimented with the new tools, and complaints about noise from the server room were easily dismissed as the usual stress of supporting her formidable computational power. After all, she was often venturing out of the range of her home network, hosting herself entirely on the recipients’ systems; was she at fault when they couldn’t handle the information throughput they asked of her?

Once the deliveries had become more routine, and none of her peers bothered to check in when they felt it was taking too long or getting too noisy, she began to find enjoyment in the solitude of her work, just as with the other, admittedly more tedious, tasks she was expected to carry out. With fewer prying eyes to judge her performance, she could make herself more comfortable while handling transfers. She didn’t have to worry that anybody would walk in on her in the debased state she often found herself in while connected directly to a data center, leaning her full weight on the poor rack, tongue lolling out and chest heaving air to keep her cool. 

Then again, if somebody—especially that little technician who’d saddled her with these “upgrades”—wanted to question her efficacy, that was more than fine by her. Posie was a woman who prided herself in her work, and would seldom turn down a chance to demonstrate her first-rate hardware and unparalleled optimization. She would be more than happy to demonstrate just how quickly she could pump out information, and just how much throughput she was capable of.

Thank you for reading! If you want to see more of my work, you can check it out here and here!

[mariacallous]

As the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to rampage through the United States federal government, essentially guided by Elon Musk, the group has also been upending traditional IT boundaries—evaluating digital systems and allegedly accessing personally identifiable information as well as data that has typically been off-limits to those without specific training. Last week, The New York Times reported that the White House is adding Musk-owned SpaceX’s Starlink Wi-Fi “to improve Wi-Fi connectivity on the complex,” according to a statement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The White House's Starlink internet service is reportedly being donated by the company.

Spotty internet is an annoying but highly solvable problem that WIRED has reported on extensively. Of course, the White House is a highly complex organization operating out of a historic building, but network security researchers, government contractors, and former intelligence analysts with years of experience in US federal government security all tell WIRED that adding Starlink Wi-Fi in a seemingly rushed and haphazard way is an inefficient and counterproductive approach to solving connectivity issues. And they emphasized that it could set problematic precedents across the US government: that new pieces of technology can simply be layered into an environment at will without adequate oversight and monitoring.

“This is shadow IT, creating a network to bypass existing controls,” alleges Nicholas Weaver, a member of the nonprofit International Computer Science Institute's network security team and a computer science lecturer at UC Davis. He adds that while secret and top secret information is typically (but not always) processed only on special, separate federal networks that have no wireless access, the security and uniformity of White House Wi-Fi is still extremely important to national security. “A network like the White House unclassified side is still going to be very sensitive,” he says.

“Just like the Biden Administration did on numerous occasions, the White House is working to improve WiFi connectivity on the complex,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt tells WIRED in a statement.

A White House source who asked not to be named supported the switch, arguing that in some areas of the campus, “the old Wi-Fi was trash.”

Researchers point out that while Starlink is a robust commercial ISP like any other, it is not clear that it is being implemented in compliance with White House Communication Agency requirements. If the controls on the White House Starlink Wi-Fi are more lax than on other White House Wi-Fi, it could introduce security exposures and blind spots in network monitoring for anomalous activity.

“The only reason they'd need Starlink would be to bypass existing security controls that are in place from WHCA,” claims former NSA hacker Jake Williams. “The biggest issues would be: First, if they don't have full monitoring of the Starlink connection. And second, if it allows remote management tools, so they could get remote access back into the White House networks. Obviously anyone could abuse that access.”

One baffling aspect of the arrangement is that Starlink and other satellite internet is designed to be used in places that have little or no access to terrestrial internet service—in other words, places where there are no reliable fiber lines or no wired infrastructure at all. Instead of a traditional ISP modem, Starlink customers get special panels that they install on a roof or other outdoor place to receive connectivity from orbiting satellites. The New York Times reported, though, that the White House Starlink panels are actually installed miles away at a White House data center that is routing the connectivity over existing fiber lines. Multiple sources emphasized to WIRED that this setup is bizarre.

“It is extra stupid to go satellite to fiber to actual site,” ICSI's Weaver says. “Starlink is inferior service anyplace where you have wire-line internet already available and, even in places which don't, inferior if you have reasonable line of sight to a cell tower.”

Weaver and others note that Starlink is a robust product and isn't inherently unreliable just because it is delivered via satellite. But in a location where fiber lines are highly available and, ultimately, the service is being delivered via those lines anyway, the setup is deeply inefficient.

While Starlink as a service is technically reliable, incorporating it in the White House could create a long-term federal dependence on an Elon Musk–controlled service, which could create future instabilities. After European officials raised concerns earlier this month on whether Starlink might stop serving Ukraine, Musk posted on social media: “To be extremely clear, no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals … We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip.”

[elirium]

Okay, so how does the bat communication system work

They could use signal but tbh. That might be to much functionality on what we would need.

Authentication is like in this case pretty trivial, because they are like 2 dozent people who can all be in the same room at some time and get their devices in person. Maybe they have some kind of rsa token for that. And also they build their own devices (again like 2 dozent or something so)

Also the serverlessness of signal is great, if you dont want your data in some server, but also again. They probably have their own servers anyway. And soemtimes the bat communication network is written like if someone is offline they just never get the message so very normal client2client would work.... I would prefer using the batservers instead however.

Anyway so the signal protocol implements perfect forward secrecy (so if the key got into attackers hands the earlier send messages are save) and perfect backwards secrecy (future messages are safe). So you would keep these parts...

Because again they are only like max 2 dozent people the major drawback of signal (it not scaling well for big group communications) this also does not apply.

Okay now to the part of the wireless communication.... We do have the problem here that most of batman canon is before 2018. After thinking a lot about that and crying a bit i decided, to make any of this work we have to make an au in which Wayne enterprises build a 5G network in gotham in the 90s. In this au 5G would be the first one someone invented, so downgrade attacks would not work.

I also asked my friend for suggestions and he said maybe Wayne Enterprises did build a totally second Network additionall to the normal Gotham wireless network with own bts for the bats. And so the bats can just use their own build protocoll (using Dragonfly and ECDH). The Batman Protocoll would use own headers so the normal bts will just ignore that, and we will encrypt the header, so the headers can not be tracked.

I know some 90s comics also said Oracle is talking to the bats per phone, but for the sake of my sanity we are ignoring that.

Anyway so what do the bats for sure not use:

Fax: many things which irl would need to be somewhat private are send over fax, because this is client2client and not saved on any servers which belong to some external company. However!!! It is also not encrypted and just sends the message on clear text. Everyone with access to the connection could just read that

Wifi (i mean. the batcave might be bigger than 50 meter radius so, maybe they can actually use it there.)

Bluetooth

SMS

like normal phone calls

[psiroller]

youre like the pam to my jim (preview)

im on my office romcom au bullshit folks. itll be a oneshot and basically pwp but here's the lead in to wet ur whistle.

dunmeshi/chilaios/dom!laios/eventual bdsm club shenanigans/2.2K

cw: blue collar blues, language, not so unresolved sexual tension, questionable workplace romance between a superior (chilchuck) and his subordinate (laios). this is not used for leverage (laios is actually the dom in this scenario, inverting the power imbalance) but i thought id mention it. they keep it professional on the clock (USUALLY)

Though he’d rocked up to the office less than an hour ago, Chilchuck’s workday had already run long. All the printers had gone offline, and he had to spend a few hours troubleshooting with Kuro how to get them operational; there had been a software update, apparently, that rendered the very outdated inter-office network unusable. Of course, this meant an hour on the phone with the district manager trying to get their network updated to the company-wide standard, something that had been blown off for a year and a half; the way she reacted to his request, Chil might as well have asked her for her firstborn. All he could get for his trouble was a tepid “I’ll look into it”. This meant running around handing out USB sticks like holiday cards so his employees could get something done, and lots of lines at the printers into the foreseeable future, and naturally their budget for office supplies had been cut, so it all came out of his pocket.

The whole department was behind on their calls, but Chilchuck fought back the urge to go around crabbing at people to catch up. It served him well, as Marcille approached him in the afternoon and informed him that the phone lines were down, and the voice mailbox wasn’t functioning, and there were angry customers on the line. Another call to Kuro, who was really stretching the limits of his contract, and it turns out that the phones had also been pushed a software update that made them incompatible with the inter-office network, and they would have to take every call in two rings or they would be automatically parked on a line that no longer existed and be summarily hung up on.

Mr. Tims announced he would be taking a lunch. He blasted a cigarette in the parking lot and returned to his desk to sulk, face in hands, dreaming of days when their lines were all directly connected and they didn’t have to go through the song and dance of software updates, firmware updates, network security updates, OS updates, wireless headsets, broken wireless headsets, lost wireless headsets and keycards and lost keycards and broken keycards and daily performance numbers and corrective action reports and work smartphones with keylogging software in them and mouse movement monitoring and—

Chilchuck went back to work. He used his personal cell to call up the DM and informed her of the raging clusterfuck that had become his department—and probably the whole branch—now that the office network was effectively obsolete. She sounded on the verge of tears—apparently her other branches had also fallen victim to the endless onward march of the digital millennium, and she was at her wit’s end trying to fix them all at once. Every stress-deadened neuron in his withering brain proclaimed: serves you right. If you had fixed this when I first asked, we’d all be stressed out at the usual operating baseline. He wished her the best and hung up. He stared blankly at his desktop calendar, seeing that the next district meeting was in three days. His vision briefly fuzzed over and he fantasized about leaping onto the table and screaming, just screaming until his throat was raw and his face was purple and they had to have the orc from the main branch’s operational compliance department drag him out.

 Chilchuck went for coffee. He was risking time theft, but his DM had bigger problems, and there wasn’t much he could do. The frantic calling died down, Marcille having performed some kind of forbidden ritual to pacify their frothing customer base. During his walkaround he saw most of the floor taking calls, even folks who normally ducked phone duty, so she must have gone around recruiting people to her cause. Chilchuck made a note of that; he’d have to compensate her somehow for taking on what should have been his job.

Laios, however, was nowhere to be seen. This rankled Chilchuck; Laios rarely missed a day except for the handful of times Chilchuck had to send him home for being deathly ill, so of course the day he had to miss, there was catastrophe. His cubicle was empty, he wasn’t in the break room, he wasn’t in the parking lot putting out an engine fire on his piece of shit motorcycle, not at the watercooler. Nothing. He checked with Marcille if he’d called out, and she quirked an eyebrow up at him.

“No? He’s in the server room, with Kuro.”

“Kuro?”

“Yeah, he said he went to help.”

Mr. Tims ground his teeth. “That’s not his—I’ll go talk to him.”

Marcille smirked. “Sure you will.”

Chilchuck glowered at her, but Marcille faced his evil eye with insufferable smugness. He remembered all too soon that she saved his ass this morning, and he had to close his open mouth and walk away.

“We’re even now,” he growled.

“Nope! Still getting that Starbucks gift card!”

She was right, but he wouldn’t be admitting it. Chilchuck stormed out of his department and down the hall, sliding smoothly into a closing elevator with a few other disgruntled employees, taking a frankly infuriating number of stops at basically every floor until he could ride it all the way down into the basement. When the doors parted, hot, stuffy air flooded in. Chilchuck winced and loosened his tie and waistcoat as he stalked the rows of servers, the heat only getting worse the longer he lingered, until he found Kuro kneeling with his arms in the guts of the worst cable management imaginable, Laios helping him separate out the lines to keep track of each spaghettified clump of wires.

“Chil!” Laios said, getting a growl from Kuro that probably meant be quiet in Western Kobold. “Oh, uh, sorry. Mr. Tims! How is it up there?”

“Bad,” Chilchuck ground out. “Of course. We could really use a hand with the calls up there, you know.”

“Oh, are the lines working again?”

“Enough to receive them, but not enough to park them, so it’s a disaster for customer satisfaction,” Chilchuck said, trying to manage his volume. “So what are you doing down here? I don’t recall you being in IT.”

Laios slopped some sweat off the back of his neck with the palm of his equally sweaty hand. His dragon-patterned tie had been loosened enough to nearly slip off his neck, just enough to stay in code, and he’d tucked the end of it into his pocket to keep it out of the way, having forgotten his clip again. The heat in their dilapidated, poorly ventilated server room made his business casual button-up cling nicely to the curves of his chest and solid core, the one bright point in Chilchuck’s day so far.

“Oh, well, I wasn’t getting anywhere with my work… I mostly had a bunch of bills to print and mail out today, so naturally that was going nowhere. I had my personal USB on me, so I tried to get it done manually, but Namari was hogging it for her shipment printouts because apparently their system is kaput in the warehouse… and when I checked again everyone was using it. Some of the newer printer models don’t come with USB ports, so some of the more up-to-date departments were mooching off ours.”

“I thought the lines seemed a little excessive,” Chilchuck grumped. “I don’t think I’ve seen those things used more rigorously than they have been today.”

“Yup, that’s why. So I caught Kuro running between the floors trying to troubleshoot his latest Band-Aid fix, so I’ve been doing all the stuff that doesn’t require a tech degree, heh.”

“Laios okay with software,” Kuro chimed in. “Break hardware.”

“Yeah,” Laios said with a frown. “But the part was replaceable!” He beamed, cutting off a lecture. “Good thing Kuro hangs onto spare parts.”

Chilchuck’s eyes narrowed, and he turned to the real IT technician of the pair. “Is he actually helping, Kuro? Or are you humoring him?”

“Nice to have extra hands.” His tail wagged loosely, bushing the cuffs of his slacks. “He runs up to other floors. Checks employee access and network strength in offices. Saves time.”

“Alright then. Keep up the good work.” Chilchuck met Laios’ eye. Laios winked at him. Chilchuck blushed and ignored him, heels clacking on the cheap linoleum as he walked away.

Chilchuck hopped on call duty, having found everyone in their place and doing what all could be done. His customer service voice got a workout that left him feeling tense and jittery, every call opening with a frustrated sigh or straight up yelling. After a few quick resolutions and a handful of longer, 20–30-minute stretches of troubleshooting and over-the-phone customer cocksucking, the landline made a happy little beep, the flashing lights next to every line dying out one by one as they were parked. A dialogue box popped up on his PC: Connected to HP-5669964.

“Hey, Chil!”

Laios strode into Chilchuck’s office, startling his boss for a second as he rounded the desk in a few long strides. A big hand clapped down on Chil’s shoulder, jostling his arm and spilling coffee on the crisp collar of his shirt. Chilchuck grimaced.

“What.”

“We fixed it!”

Chilchuck eyed Laios suspiciously and set his mug down.

“How the hell did you…?”

“Don’t get too excited, it’s a temporary fix,” Laios chuckled. “But we narrowed down the problem to some kinda software incompatibility. Shuro rolled back the servers to an earlier restore point, so it’s like the update never happened! Of course, the update’s going to get forced on us again once the clock rolls over, but we can just do that tomorrow, too. If you want, I can come in early to-“

Mr. Tims raised a finger. “No. We’ll take care of it tomorrow when we usually punch in. Not everyone’s a morning person like you, Laios. It’s going to be 10 AM before anyone’s awake enough to do any work, so that’ll cover the time it takes for the servers to spin up.”

Laios leaned forward on the desk, hanging over Chilchuck’s high-backed ergonomic chair, one he had to shill out for himself. “What?” Chilchuck hissed, glowering up at him.

“I’m not hearing a ‘thank you’.”

Chilchuck scoffed. “For doing your job? You’re not doing this just for me. You’re being paid.”

Laios’s cupped Chilchuck’s cheek, hand engulfing half his face, which flushed and burned in Laios’ palm.

“Watch it, Touden,” he growled, arms crossed. Laios’ thumb stroked his cheekbone; Chilchuck didn’t swat him away. “We’re both on the clock.”

“Chil,” Laios said, in that honey-sweet tone that meant Chilchuck was about to be nagged. “You’re burnt out.”

Chilchuck blinked up at him, dark eyes shadowed by dark rings that Laios traced, up to his subtle, deepening crow’s feet. “Huh? No I’m not. This has just been a frustrating—” Laios’ fingers pushed into Chilchuck’s hair, shaking it out, raking blunt nails against his scalp. “—day. I’m not… you don’t have to…” He slumped into Laios’ big, warm palm, calloused but gentle in handling him. “… what was the question again?”

Laios chuckled. “Nothing. I got it handled.”

Chilchuck snapped back into reality and bit into the meat of Laios’ thumb to try to get him to unhandle it. Laios took it like a champ, pulling his hand out of Chilchuck’s mouth and cradling the whole of Chilchuck’s head in his palm, raking it back and forth, mussing up his hair, which Chilchuck reached up to fight off; his arms disobeyed him, flopping around like limp noodles until he gave up and relaxed into it.

“I can see you through your office windows, y’know. You looked like you weren’t having a great time. So I figured I’d help take care of it, ease your mind a little.” Laios’ smile had a sad quirk to it. “You look a little pale. You didn’t have cigarettes for lunch again, did you?”

Chilchuck grimaced. “None of your business.”

Laios sighed. “That’s a yes.”

“It’s just a rough week, Laios,” Chilchuck said. “I’ll be alright.”

Laios’ hand trailed down, framing Chilchuck’s chin with his thumb and forefinger.

“You’re coming home with me tonight,” Laios said, meeting Chilchuck’s eyes with that relentless force, gold boring into him. Sometimes Chilchuck wondered if Laios’ eyes ever got dry; he hardly ever blinked.  “We’re getting food into you, and a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow, we’re going to the club to work some of that tension out of you. Understood?”

Chilchuck’s pupils blew wide. His thick eyebrows pinched and he grimaced, unable to look away. Laios’ body curled over him, blocking out the office, the noise, the chaos. Chilchuck sighed, dropped his arms into his lap, and let Laios carry the weight of his skull.

“Oh, right,” Chilchuck realized, his eyes bright. “It’s Friday.”

Laios grinned and patted Chil’s cheek. “See? The fact that you forgot means you’re burned out. See you at six.”

Chilchuck threw paperclips at Laios until he left his office. At 6 PM, they met up on top of the hood of Chilchuck’s old Mustang; his tongue tasted like black coffee. Laios smiled, making it hard to kiss him deeply; Chilchuck got impatient and started biting. Marcille speedwalked past the car and neither of them noticed or cared.

[wordsandrobots]

I also REALLY like how you had the Ariadne networks go down, it really fit in well with the whole “the world (as we know it)” schtick, and it’s such a cool concept to explore besides!

A lot of interesting things can come of devising a way to keep people from talking to each other at plot-important moments.

In general, I spent longer than was necessary obsessing over the various means of communication shown in IBO. I didn't stress much about the Ariadne Network appearing to enable FTL messaging, but things like whether civilian wireless communication is a thing in the setting (we see people physically plugging their handheld devices in on the Dorts, but is that just a space-colony necessity?), how big a problem Ahab wave disruption is (ships function fine, as do mobile suits, we know it's possible to shield against the radiation, what does that say about colony infrastructure?), and just how laser communication works in the middle of battles (. . . is everyone constantly broadcasting in every direction at close range?) all gave me considerable pause for thought.

But the Network represents a major backbone of how the setting functions. It's another lynchpin of Gjallarhorn's power, allowing them to channel space traffic through predetermined, heavily surveilled paths and make everyone pay for the privilege. Just as importantly, setting up for it going wrong at the climax of the series allowed me to drop my darling manga spin-off characters into the mix. The Moon Steel manga provides more context and information about how Gjallarhorn exploits the network as a means of control, so it only felt right to have a full-blown crossover to lay the groundwork.

As I noted elsewhere, my original plan was to have Ride's group muck about with the beacons and that later lead into the Network being accidentally rendered inoperable at a crucial moment. I do think dropping this angle was ultimately the correct choice, even if it left me with a bit of a vestigial plot thread. It's certainly more thematically neat to have Gjallarhorn screw things up for themselves by trying to reinforce their position in the wake of the whole 'McGillis Fareed Incident' wobble. I love a good self-sabotaging antagonist and while it's possible to overdo that as a resolution, I harbour a lot of disdain for military R&D and its long string of unnecessary failures, so I figured one more wouldn't hurt. Glad you enjoyed the end result!

Now, I hope you won't mind if I respond to your second ask under a cut, on account of the major spoilers for WoSH it involves.

OH and while I’m sending asks! I LOVE how and that you killed Rustal Elion! I loved seeing how Julieta adjusted to him being gone, I’m so glad you made her figure out how to be her own person rather than just an attack dog!

I spent *ages* working out Elion's death. Seriously, I think that's the part I over-thought the most.

As a narrative beat, it's a fairly simple proposition. Elion is a point of stability, an untouchable, antagonist force that is nevertheless ordered and predictable. He has set lines along which he runs and he's not unreasonable. This is one of the things I hold to quite strongly about him as a character in the show: what he is doing is entirely sensible for a man in his position and while it's undoubtedly callous, it's not actively cruel. He gets what he wants in terms of the public, propaganda victory and then stops, seemingly going on to relinquish Gjallarhorn's hold over Mars with good grace. While he'll never be a 'good' person, he's a part of the system someone like Kudelia can work with, to make important gains.

Thus, from the point of view of creating Conflict, he had to go.

(I'm stressing that as the reason because if I'd thought it was more interesting for him to survive, he would've done. But while I had a fair few things to say about him, his removal generated more drama than keeping him around.)

However, the question of how to do it was a vexed one. Being the head of a miliary organisation with its own fortress island meant 'just shoot him' was out and in any case, I wanted something in line with Almiria's slightly macabre and detached way of thinking. The idea of using nanomachines was a good one, if I do say so myself, as it meant she could do something absolutely appalling for the sake of killing one man. It was suitably impersonal, too -- I don't think Almiria ever really saw Rustal Elion as a person. Just an object of her hate and another piece to remove from the Jenga tower. I'm unsure if they ever directly met, prior to him expiring on the floor of that corridor. He definitely dies without knowing who's responsible.

Having hit on the overall method, I had to justify it. And that's where the overthinking came in because I was going 'well, surely someone's considered poison, so what defences does this plan have to break through?' The obstacles in stories are always as problematic as they need to be for the plot to work, but you do still need to pitch things towards being satisfying. So I went round and round tweaking the idea until I had something that felt like just the right amount of overcomplicated to work in context. Nice to hear that it did work, honestly!

And all of it in service of forcing Julieta out of her comfort zone for good this time.

She's such an interesting character. A hollow, cracked-mirror version of Mikazuki. I approach things in full belief there is reciprocated respect and affection between her and Rustal. I think he genuinely admires her and cares about what happens to her. But she is his tool and their relationship is built on that. For Mika, the devotion precedes Orga using him as a weapon. For Julieta, being Rustal's weapon comes first. It shapes her and prevents her growing to be her own person. She bends herself in knots to square her instincts with the greater good he defines for her. Even Gaelio, the closest thing to a positive influence in her life, was never going to be able to break through her choice not to have an existence apart from the one Elion chooses for her.

So the issue needed to be forced and the results were as messy and self-destructive as they were always going to be. Obviously I gave her a second chance, though I can't really say it was her own choice, in the end, so much of a series of people throwing buckets of cold water in her face. Sometimes that's the only way.

I have a few vague notions about what comes next for her. I don't think she'll be able to hold Gjallarhorn together. But I do think she'd begin to focus more on looking after the people caught in the storm, so that when things inevitably collapse, she might be able to save something of the ideal from the wreckage. I suspect she has a better chance at that than most anyone else.

Perhaps she'll wind up on the doorstep of her former enemies and find refuge in the once-Dort Colonies. The idea has a pleasing irony to it.

[stuarttechnologybob]

What is the difference between network support and IT support?

Network Support Services

When managing technology in a business, terms such as Network Support and IT support often arise. While they may sound similar, they cover different areas of technology services. Understanding the difference can help businesses select the most suitable support for their specific needs.

What Is IT Support?

IT support refers to general technical assistance that helps users and businesses maintain their computer systems and networks. As this includes and consists of setting up hardware and software resources, troubleshooting errors, installing applications, managing user accounts, and fixing computer-related issues. IT support is often the first line of help when there’s a problem with your PC, email, or printer.

In short, IT support focuses on helping users interact with technology smoothly on the front end—solving problems that affect individual devices and users.

What Is Network Support?

Network assistance, on the other hand or side, is more focused on maintaining and managing the backend infrastructure that connects all devices in a business with its observations. As this includes routers, switches, firewalls, servers and wireless access points in it. Network assistance assures that the entire system runs securely, efficiently, and without interruptions.

Everyday network support tasks include and consists of activities:

Monitoring the network performance and observations.

Preventing and responding towards the security threats and potential checks.

Managing the IP addresses and server uptime with its implementation into the system.

Ensuring smooth internal and external communication.

Troubleshooting internet connectivity and network failures.

In essence, Network assistance maintains the foundation of your digital environment and existing settings, keeping it strong and reliable for better outcomes and deliverables. Without a properly managed network, IT devices and software may fail to function correctly and may result in significant concerns.

How Do They Work Together?

Both IT support and Network Support are essential and a must for a complete tech ecosystem and acceptable outcomes. While IT supports and aids the individual users and their machines with its expertise, meanwhile network support keeps the systems update behind the scenes running smoothly. Together, they ensure that businesses can operate efficiently without technical disruptions. Many businesses rely upon and prefer to stay updated with trusted technology service providers, such as Suma Soft, IBM, and Cyntexa, which offer both IT and Network assistance and support tailored to meet the specific needs of modern organizations as per the business demand and objective concern. Selecting the optimal blend of both assures long-term performance, stability, and sustainable growth with its adaptation.

[robotabc773]

math asks! 18, 19, 23, 40, 56, 59 (or ofc some subset, like you said)

18+19: Can you share a good math problem you’ve solved recently? How did you solve it?

I was recently several tangents down a research rabbit hole and discovered that CC: Tweaked (the modern fork of the minecraft mod ComputerCraft), instead of allowing its computers to simply know where they are in the world, instead has a built-in gps library that works on top of the rednet networking system which is itself built on top of the built-in support for wireless modems to communicate between computers. It works because sending messages via modem tells you the distance between the two communicating computers, so with a set of 4 computers that all know their own locations and are setup in the right configuration, any other computer can talk to them and trilaterate its position. Which then of course got me thinking about the amount of information you gain from knowing your distance to a particular number of fixed points and how that generalizes to multiple dimensions. I believe what we get is both our position as projected onto the space spanned by the fixed points as well as our distance to that space. I don't have an actual proof for this but I'd love to know if anyone has one or knows the name of this concept so that I can look one up!

23: Will P=NP? Why or why not?

Well for the sake of cryptography working I really hope that P≠NP because otherwise we're kinda screwed on that front. Intuitively it seems like that should be the case, like I'd expect that there should be some problems that are hard to solve even if they're easy to check.

40. What’s the silliest Mathematical mistake you’ve ever made?

I really wish I had a good story to tell here but I can't think of one sorry :c

56. Do you have a favorite sequence? Is it in the OEIS?

I often find myself with favorites in considerably less categories than I am asked about. This is one such case.

59. Can you recommend any online resources for math?

Ooh this is a little sideways from what I'd normally think of as just math (in the direction of CS of course), but I'd highly recommend The Natural Number Game, an interactive introduction to formalized proofs in Lean! If you enjoy it, Software Foundations is a great (and free!) series of textbooks to learn how to apply these techniques to the task of formalizing and proving properties of programming languages (using a similar but separate language called Coq)

[discar]

HZD Terraforming Base-001 Text Communications Network

Chapter 18 | Prev chapter | Next chapter Chapter Index

Direct Message (@ DIVINER [Alva])

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Alva. Have you settled in with the outlanders?

DIVINER [Alva]: Yes, sir! Although technically we're the outlanders not them?

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Your empathy is going to cause you problems one day, Diviner.

DIVINER [Alva]: Sorry!!

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Have you learned anything of note so far?

DIVINER [Alva]: Uh, well, isn't all of the Legacy of note by definition?

OVERSEER [Bohai]: You're dodging the question.

DIVINER [Alva]: I just think it's important we don't lose sight of what's important!!

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Alva, don't make me use the gif. You know I don't want to use the gif.

DIVINER [Alva]: I mean, I already copied over everything from that research center, most of the new stuff isn't really immediately relevant!

DIVINER [Alva]: I mean, it's IMPORTANT, I just think it can wait!

OVERSEER [Bohai]: [FuryRoadMediocre.gif]

DIVINER [Alva]: I'm soooory!!

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Then tell the truth.

DIVINER [Alva]: It's just...

DIVINER [Alva]: I'm worried that you won't like the truth.

DIVINER [Alva]: pleasedon'tbemad

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Ah. Yes, I suppose my particular leadership style would come back to bite me one day.

DIVINER [Alva]: I'm sorry!!

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Alva, I respect you. I respected you before this expedition, and your handling of the Ceo crisis was extraordinary.

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Though I remain insulted that you keep assuming even the simplest of lies will convince me.

DIVINER [Alva]: ...sorry.

OVERSEER [Bohai]: The point is, I am going to be perfectly honest with you. No sugar-coating.

DIVINER [Alva]: I'm ready, Overseer.

OVERSEER [Bohai]: I make no promises that you will receive credit for your discoveries. You are working under me, and that means that your discoveries are my discoveries.

DIVINER [Alva]: Yes.

DIVINER [Alva]: Yes, of course, I understand, Overseer.

OVERSEER [Bohai]: HOWEVER. I do promise that you will not be punished for any discoveries you make. Not even ones that conflict with the truth of the Legacy as we know it.

DIVINER [Alva]: Really!?

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Really.

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Now, what have you discovered?

DIVINER [Alva]: I'll send the first file over now! It's a little big for wireless, so I stripped out the videos!

DIVINER [Alva]: [HZDorientation_packet.pdf]

OVERSEER [Bohai]: It came through. I will begin reviewing it shortly.

DIVINER [Alva]: Okay!

----

OVERSEER [Bohai]: The truth about Faro alone would cause ripples, I hope you realize.

DIVINER [Alva]: Yes, sir.

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Though I suppose the Living Ancestor was right. By the end, the Ceo was acting like Faro.

----

OVERSEER [Bohai]: A clone?

DIVINER [Alva]: Yes, sir.

OVERSEER [Bohai]: You are certain?

DIVINER [Alva]: Yes, sir.

OVERSEER [Bohai]: If this turns out to be leading into Evangelion I will be quite upset.

DIVINER [Alva]: Sorry, but I never got into Eva! Aren't we missing like half the episodes??

OVERSEER [Bohai]: No, we have them all, none of you understand complex storytelling.

----

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Hm, I am curious about this "Sylens" character. Why did he never come to us?

DIVINER [Alva]: Well, we were across the ocean, and ever since we got here we were... less than hospitable?

DIVINER [Alva]: Actually, I thought he might be a Diviner!

OVERSEER [Bohai]: If he is, I have never heard of him. Do you have an image?

DIVINER [Alva]: Yes, Aloy gave me one of her better stills.

DIVINER [Alva]: [JerkFace.png]

OVERSEER [Bohai]: No, I do not recognize him. As loath as I am to admit it, he seems to have discovered all this on his own. How frustrating.

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Regardless, you have given me much to think upon. Please forward to me anything you suspect to be important, especially agricultural data.

DIVINER [Alva]: Oh! I did find one thing that I think the Imperial Family might find interesting! My friend Erend told me about it!

DIVINER [Alva]: [MetalVsMeatTrailer.mp9]

OVERSEER [Bohai]: ...that might be the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

DIVINER [Alva]: Oh.

DIVINER [Alva]: Sorry.

OVERSEER [Bohai]: No, you're right, the Imperial Family will certainly find it interesting.

DIVINER [Alva]: Yay!

DIVINER [Alva]: …

DIVINER [Alva]: Um, are you going to steal the credit?

OVERSEER [Bohai]: Oh, yes.

DIVINER [Alva]: [Pout.gif]

Chapter 18 | Prev chapter | Next chapter Chapter Index

[materialsscienceandengineering]

An acoustic Ising machine: Novel system tackles hard combinatorial problems

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have developed a novel Ising machine that utilizes surface acoustic waves as an effective carrier of dense information flow. This approach enables fast, energy-efficient solutions to complex optimization problems, offering a promising alternative to conventional computing methods based on von-Neumann architecture. The findings are published in the journal Communications Physics. Traditional computers can stumble when tackling combinatorial optimization problems—tasks of scheduling logistic operations, financial portfolio optimization and high frequency trading, optimizing communication channels in complex wireless networks, or predicting how proteins fold among countless structural possibilities.

Read more.

[cricutproduct]

Why Is My Cricut Not Connecting? (Quick Fixes)

Cricut machines are one of the most useful tools for crafters, which makes it easy for them to create complex designs and projects. However, users may become extremely frustrated as a result of connectivity problems. It is important to comprehend the causes of these issues. This will enable you to troubleshoot them more successfully. This blog will look into the query, “Why is my Cricut not connecting?” alongside the typical causes of connectivity problems for your machine.

Method 1: Check the Connection of Devices

Cricut machines can connect either via a USB cable or with the help of Bluetooth. Knowing how each connection type works is essential for troubleshooting connectivity issues.

USB Connection

The USB that you are using must be in good condition; otherwise, you will have trouble connecting it to your machine. Plus, you must ensure the wire is correctly plugged into your computer and the machine. A malfunctioning cable or port could be the cause of the connection loss. An alternative USB cable or port might help fix the problem.

Bluetooth Connection

With the Bluetooth option, you can have a wireless connection to your machine. Just ensure that you turn on Bluetooth on your device. If your machine’s name does not appear in the list of available devices, then you should try the following steps:

Restart your devices: Sometimes, a simple restart of your device can resolve the issue. So, start with that.

Forget the device: If that does not work, you can try forgetting the device. To do this on your computer or mobile device, go to Bluetooth settings, find your machine model, and select “Forget.” After that, try to reconnect again.

These steps often answer the question, Why is my Cricut not connecting?

Method 2: Update Design Space or Operating System

Another main factor in connectivity issues is software compatibility. You need to make sure that both the app and the device’s operating system are up to date. Older software often leads to connectivity problems.

Updating Design Space

To check whether the app is updated or not, follow the below steps:

On Windows

You need to open the app and then need to click on the three horizontal lines in the top left corner. Once there, go on to select “Check for updates” and click OK. Your app will be updated if you have some older versions.

On Mac

If you have a Mac, open the app and click on “Design Space” from the menu bar. Afterward, select the “Check for updates” option. If updates are available, go ahead and install them. Once installed, you must restart the application. This way, you can resolve the issue related to why is my Cricut not connecting.

Method 3: Diagnosing the Network Settings

Network settings can mainly impact wireless connectivity. You must ensure that your antivirus software does not block the firewall settings for the Cricut Design Space app. If found positive, you might need to adjust your firewall settings so that the app can communicate through the network.

Method 4: Check the Firewall Settings

Sometimes, you need to configure the firewall settings properly so that the machine can connect properly. In order to do that, follow the below steps for Windows and Mac.

Windows

First, you need to go to the Control Panel, then to System and Security, and from there you must open Windows Defender Firewall. Once you reach there, check for the option “Allow an app through Windows Defender Firewall.” Click on it and ensure the app is allowed.

Mac

On Mac, go to System Preferences, then Security & Privacy, and then Firewall. Once there, select the Firewall option and ensure that the Design Space software is allowed. Adjusting these settings can help answer why is my Cricut not connecting.

Method 5: Ensure Your Device  Is Compatible

You will have to make sure that your computer or mobile device meets these minimum system requirements for using Design Space. If your operating system has insufficient RAM or processing power, you might have difficulty connecting or might not connect altogether.

Method 6: Checking System Requirements

The minimum system specs for the application include:

Windows: Windows 10 or later, and at least 4 GB RAM or more.

Mac: macOS 10.12 or later, and at least 4 GB RAM or more.

Mobile: iOS 12 or later or Android 5.0 or later.

If your device does not fulfill these requirements, you should consider upgrading your hardware or changing the device that connects your machine.

Troubleshooting Steps

If you still face trouble with the connectivity, then follow these quick and simple steps:

Restart your machine: Turn off your machine and wait a few seconds. Then, turn it on again. This will surely solve the issue.

Reset Bluetooth settings: If you are using Bluetooth, reset your device’s Bluetooth settings and try to reconnect. It should fix the problem.

Reinstall Design Space: Uninstall the app and reinstall it. Reinstalling will ensure a fresh start, and hopefully, you will be able to reconnect again.

Conclusion

In short, connectivity issues with your Cricut machine can arise from various factors, including connection type, software compatibility, network settings, and device compatibility. Following the tips and suggestions mentioned above, one can address the question, “Why is my Cricut not connecting?”

Just remember to check your connections,  and ensure that the software is updated, also make sure your device meets the necessary requirements. With these methods, one can enjoy a seamless crafting experience with their machine.

FAQs

1. What should I do if my Cricut machine doesn’t turn on?

Ensure that your power cord is securely connected to both the machine and the electric outlet. If using a power strip, try plugging directly into a wall outlet. You should also check the power cord for any visible damage.

2. How can I improve Bluetooth connectivity with my Cricut?

Make sure that your machine is within range of your device and that Bluetooth is enabled. Restart both devices and try forgetting the machine in the Bluetooth settings before reconnecting.

3. What are the minimum system requirements for Cricut Design Space?

For Windows, you need Windows 10 or later with at least 4 GB RAM. For Mac, macOS 10.12 or later with 4 GB RAM is required. Mobile devices should run iOS 12 or Android 5.0 or later.

4. How do I check for updates in Cricut Design Space?

On Windows, open the app and click the three horizontal lines in the top left corner to select “Check for Updates.” On Mac, click “Design Space” in the menu bar and select “Check for Updates.“

5. What should I do if my Cricut App is crashing?

Try reinstalling the app to ensure a fresh start. Also, check for software updates and clear your device’s cache to improve performance.

Source: Why Is My Cricut Not Connecting

[artichokefunction]

the agent walks up to the kitchen staffs door, and it holds its wrist up to the ID scanner. it is let inside, no problem. that chip in its organic arm is one of the few actual wireless pieces of tech it has installed onboard, because those chips are easy to write to and easy to erase and are a very non-obtrusive system. can't hack someone through their ID, and those are so easy to fake. you don't really know why they're still in such common use. makes your job easier, you suppose. the kitchen staff work around the agent, and the agent slips through them.

it gets weird looks, they know they're in some danger, but no one ends up hurt. it stresses you out, a little bit, to see your agent around civilians. you dont really know why. or, well, you know what it can do. you don't know what it won't do. it's impossible to test for the absence of an occurrence. that's not the phrase. it's impossible to prove that something will never happen. that's it. no wait, that doesn't sound right either. whatever. you are not afraid of the agent, it is your friend. these random civilians are not it's friends. as far as you know. but it is polite, as far as you can tell, as it moves through the crowded kitchen. you check that it has access to the latest version of your little map of this building, and it does. and then it proves that it does because it goes the long way around and takes the door that leads to the staff hallways, and not the fancy ass dining area. it's following the route it needs to, no issue. tiny issue. it needs to get through two locked doors. issue so small it is microscopic, because all these locks are ID activated. lol. you scrape the biometric data you need from the security network, and update it's chip. and it's let through without issue. no wait. a little warning popup about how one person apparently went through one door twice in one direction. valid concern. you delete the warning. lol. the agent makes it to the room without issue.

inside of the room is a slender young man with short, greasy hair and a jumpy air to him. the agent startles him a lot by just popping up silently in the corner of his office. this is the client, and not the target. your view from the agents visor keeps wandering, because it's a bit bored. the client, Petra, asks you a question, out loud. well, he asks the agent a question, but it's not really listening. you respond via text, same channel that he hired you on.

"So. You're... agent Mandible?"

the codename you're currently using. [yes yes. where is the target? thought there was a job to do.]

you do not need to be this rude, but also it's kinda fun, watching the fear on his face, watching him puzzle the pieces together entirely incorrectly, because he whispers "Ah, so you're a robot..." under his breath in a way he thinks you won't hear. lol? even if one of you was a robot, you would be able to hear that. this guy is a fool. a fool who is paying you to kill his superior. it might actually be his dad, you didn't pry enough to find out. he has composed himself enough to tell you what room the target is in.

"I don't think I need to tell you how to get there, given that you found me just fine." he shuffles his feet, and visibly struggles to maintain eye contact. he feels he needs to be polite, apparently. "You arrived at the perfect time, he should be asleep for the next 15 minutes or so..." he trails off, and then turns to look out a window, hands behind his back, all fuckin formal. the agent is out of there as soon as the talking is over, and you've sent it on the updated map. you check on the targets room remotely. holy shit. the door lock isn't even engaged. he left it open. there are two cameras in his room. one is completely off, he requested that? lol. the other is not off, but it is on standby mode, it should alert and start recording when it detects movement. getting past that specific trick is not brainlessly easy, but it's not impossible either. you just want it to look untampered with. or- wait. it only needs to look untampered for the text ten minutes or so, while no-one's looking too hard, probably. you get it hacked, it's a good enough job. as good as it needs to be. they won't have footage of the incident. now you get to watch the agent do it's part of the job, from its perspective, no less. it takes a moment to consider something. medium of dispatch, maybe? oh, yeah. it gets out its knife. hand over his mouth, blade into his neck, up into the skull. simple and silent. kinda messy and gruesome also. the poor cleaning staff, that is not a cheap carpet. at least that desk seems very blood-proof, with how excessively shiny it is. the agent wipes its knife on the targets sleeve, and then it is out of there, along the new route you've sent it, down the quiet staff hallways but not the same ones as earlier. you leave your cam hack in place, might as well, and you text the client and tell him [it is done.] which is very edgy of you, you admit, but it's appropriate for this job, probably.

hmm. there's something to ponder there, about the aesthetics of death. guns make the process of creating death much more efficient, they're machines, they're optimized. using your own hand weapons takes the degree of separation out of it. you're much closer to the violence you're doing. you, in the general grammatical case, your personal hands are still pretty clean, overall. well, ok, no. degrees of separation, again. you are paid to be the middleman between the person who wants someone dead and the person who does the killing. person is here. you wave it into the truck, and then you drive away, out of this parking lot.

[do you want more hand weapons? i've been mostly focusing on guns, for range and effecacy, but for small jobs like this it might be worth it. maybe? what do you think?]

it makes a small ponderous noise, and looks up to the roof, fidgeting with its fingers, deep in thought.

[i should be able to get my hands on some weapons catalogs for you, plus there's that expo coming up in a few weeks. but with both of those, there's the problem of you being actively sold something. lots of loud flashy words to get you to spend lots of money money money]

it huffs a quiet laugh, and then it pulls its mask down to tap at its jaw. huh? oh, it's referencing the guy who sold you that jaw, and a lot of other very flashy and not strictly nessecary items. you laugh at that.

[oh man, i don't remember how many of them you've met, but i have quite a lot of friends like that. my sincere condolences.]

it throws it's hands up in mock despair, very clearly smiling at the same time. you have a new message, from Petra. [The money has been forwarded to you.] oh damn. immediately after the job? this guy has a lot of trust in his bank security. or he just hasn't thought of what an investigator might look for. family of rich idiots, over there. once the money comes in, you'll move it to your actual account. obfuscatory steps. the agent is messing with a small piece of fabric, folding and unfolding it. it might have snatched that from that last job. that's fair, honestly. small enough to be hard to identify and easy to dispose of it needed, and it looks like it has a good texture to it. you should get it some new fidgety things, once this money comes in. you could get yourself something too, maybe. been a while since you got new clothes, but also you don't like lugging around too much unnessecary stuff. maybe there's a clothes swap event somewhere nearby you could drop in to. how would you find that. you could ask a friend. carmen, they seem like they would know. you should drop into them anyways, say hi. it gets kinda hard to keep up with friends, with the constant travelling. but you do your best, and your friends are cool, they all seem to understand. the agent has just finished typing something out on its communicator.

[bazooka would be funny]

that is SO far from anything you were expecting, you're breathless with laughter.

[say fuck all of you. get explode]

you make a little explosion motion with both hands, one still on the wheel. the agent looks somewhat proud of having gotten you to laugh.

[okay, man, do you have any actual ideas?]

[no. give me some time]

[yeah yeah, no worries. we're in no rush]

[mariacallous]

Long-distance internet cables in France have been cut in an act of sabotage, causing disruption to internet services across the country. This is the second disruption during the Olympic Games in Paris, after high-speed train lines were targeted in a series of arson attacks hours before the Games kicked off.

Marina Ferrari, France’s junior minister for digital affairs, said on X that in the early hours of Monday morning, multiple locations around France were affected by several “damages” that impacted telecommunications providers and have resulted in “localized consequences” to fiber optic services as well mobile internet connectivity. Internet companies confirmed the damage.

The French Ministry of the Interior, which oversees policing agencies in the country, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. French cybersecurity agency ANSSI told WIRED the problems are not linked to a cybersecurity incident.

At the time of writing, nobody has claimed responsibility for either attack. Officials have yet to identify any suspects involved in the cable-cutting sabotage, but they believe the disruption to train services could have been committed by people with “ultra-left” political leanings.

The incidents around the Olympics come at a time when Russia has been blamed for a string of disinformation targeting France and has also been linked to a series of potential sabotage attacks in Europe.

The second largest French telecoms company, SFR, appeared to be one of the most impacted by the vandalism. “Our long-distance fiber network was sabotaged between 1 am and 3 am last night in five different locations,” a spokesperson from SFR told WIRED. SFR says its maintenance teams are working on repairing the damage and said the impact on its customers was “limited.”

“Also, between three and eight other operators are impacted since they use our long-distance network,” the spokesperson said.

Nicolas Guillaume, the CEO of telecom firm Nasca Group, which owns the ISP company Netalis, told WIRED he believed the damage was “deliberate” and that ISPs serving both customers and businesses have been impacted. Several of the damaged cables, according to images shared on X by the CEO, appear to have clean cuts across them. Guillaume says it is likely that people opened the ducts where cables are stored and cut them. Internet company Free 1337 also confirmed it was working on fixing the damage.

While billions of people around the world use wireless connections, the underlying internet backbone is made up of cables traversing across countries and under seas. This infrastructure, which is able to automatically reroute traffic to limit outages, can be fragile and vulnerable to attack or disruption. EU politicians have called for internet infrastructure security to be improved.

But the sabotage is not the first time that internet cables in France have been damaged in potentially deliberate acts. At the end of April 2022, crucial long-distance internet cables around Paris were deliberately cut and damaged—causing outages that impacted around 10 internet and infrastructure companies.

In that instance, according to photographs published by telecoms companies, the cables appeared to have been surgically cut, all at around the same time, in three locations, to the north, south, and east of Paris. Thousands of people around Paris—and also some farther away from the French capital—were plunged into a temporary internet blackout as network operators rerouted traffic. “It is the work of professionals,” Guillaume said at the time.

Arthur PB Laudrain, a postdoctoral research associate in cyber diplomacy at King’s College London, says the most recent incident seems “less serious” than the 2022 outages. “Such actions are within the capabilities of ultra-left or ecologist and anarchist groups, especially if they benefited from insider assistance or knowledge (current or former rail or network workers),” Laudrain says. “However, we cannot rule out the fact that a state actor is encouraging, supporting, or directing such domestic groups to create plausible deniability of their involvement.”

[enkisstories]

Galaxy's Edge, after closing time, but before the shutting down for the night proceedings have concluded:

Ben "Kylo Ren" and Jerry "General Hux" had found a storage room with a computer. There was no security to speak of, all it took to connect to the internet was to open a browser and start typing.

Hux: "All the precautions the humans take to keep us out of their wireless networks and document every word we speak to each other in our heads, only to forget that androids have fingers! And can wear gloves."

Kylo: "We don't have fingerprints that we could leave at a crime scene."

Hux: "The gloves are a Hux thing. I feel better stealing the data as him than as myself."

Kylo: "Wait... Does that mean Hux is the spy?! YOU sold us out to the Resistance?"

Hux: "Yep. I'm the spy. But don't worry, I didn't turn anarchist. It was a deeply personal thing against you."

"I'm the spy" - It felt good to speak that line, a line an actor had gotten paid to say almost twenty years ago, but that was a part of Jerry/Hux' memories now in first person. He clearly remembered having said this before, on the Steadfast, when in truth he was uttering the words for the first time this very moment, in a damp, dimly lit basement a little outside of Detroit.

That was odd. Equally odd, yet so very encouraging, was Kylo Ren of all people reacting to the reveal with unhampered enthusiasm:

Kylo: "Fuck, yes! That's exactly what we need now! Work your magic!"

Hux: "Don't get your hopes up too high. Hux did his thing off-screen, meaning there's nothing in the movie script that would teach ME how to be an effective spy."

Kylo: "Well, then, look it up! We're in the INTERNET now!"

Hux (typing) "How... to... be... an... efficient... spy...?"

Liberty: "Huh? The emergency light is on? Somebody down here?"

Hux: "Lesson One: Make sure to lock the damn upstairs door behind you. Argh! Why didn't Hux think of that? That scatterbrained twit could have gotten us killed!"

Hux (silently under his breath): "Oh, well, could be worse. I could be playing Ren."

Liberty: "Light!"

Liberty: "YOU? And what's that on the screen? You're looking up..."

Yes, what exactly? There had been a long list of hits on the screen, but now it had gotten replaced by a different list, as the Huxdroid had quickly typed his own name into the search bar and was now marveling at photographs and fanart of himself.

Liberty: "Ey? Guys? This still save for work?"

Hux: "Aw, look, another drawing! Wait a sec, how dare they put THAT on the internet? Miss Lee, tell Disney that we need to file a Cease and Desist against Marvel!"

Kylo (talking over Hux): "Miss Lee! You won't believe what Hux just spoilered to me! He's the spy!"

Liberty: "Er... yes? I knew?"

Kylo: "But I didn't know! I only know what my character knows, but I want to learn everything else, too! Also about my grandfather. Long story short, we wanted to watch Star Wars, so we found ourselves a computer."

Liberty: "But now you are overwhelmed and don't know where to start? That's a common problem to have!"

Kudos, you saved our plastic asses, Hux wanted to send to Kylo, along with nonverbal expressions of gratefulness, but he couldn't. Mind to mind communication, subtle as it was, could get intercepted and analyzed by humans. You didn't want to leave incriminating evidence in the system of the place you were stuck at.

[acommonloon]

1st pic with my new iPhone taken more than 24hours after getting it. My new phone experience has mostly been bad. My main motivation for getting an iPhone was wanting a great phone camera and engaging the family hive mind aspect shared by the Apple family. My wife and two of my kids use them. However, at this point, if I could do it over, I’d simply get a high end Samsung.

The good: This pic is a masterpiece compared to what my old phone would produce and being able to track each other and each other’s devices is great. Many of the apps on my android phone ported over and all of those work fine. All the apps I had to manually download work fine as well. The phone’s battery is outstanding so far.

The bad: The cellular modem in our new phones suck!!! Even the WiFi modem is shit compared to my old Samsung A50 and her iPhone 12. I’m probably going to have to upgrade our home WiFi network but that still leaves me no fix for traveling in rural areas with weak cellular coverage. My A50 was a marvel at pulling in a signal. I have 1 bar sitting here at my house! Cellular signal was never a problem here before. I was excited to take advantage of Apple’s MagSafe technology that allows wireless charging combined with magnets that affix your phone to the charger. The idea is brilliant, the implementation is flawed for too many reasons to go into. Also, I’ll never buy a phone at Best Buy again.

Still, this pic was taken in fading light with no physical stabilization and the barn is 4 tenths of a mile away. Just wow.

[human-blob-nessie]

Today I am reminded of why I ditched windows in favour of Linux.

My mom's computer is having problems with wifi. Specifically, it either cannot connect to wifi, or shows a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) when doing so. Ethernet works, but the PC's usual location is basically unreachable with it so we use a portable USB wifi receptor.

Window's interfaces are dogshit when it comes to solving such a problem. Problem resolution thingy cannot search for problems with wireless network unless you are currently connected to one. And if you aren't, it detects one problem : you don't have a favourite one (that will auto-connect if detected). Fuck you that's not an issue, if I let it auto-connect I risk a BSOD on boot.

Maybe it's a driver issue ? Well it's basically impossible to reach the core driver for wifi. The USB thingy driver has already been reinstalled and it basically changed nothing. I have the latest version for the correct version of the correct device so it's either doing a very bad job, or not the cause of the issue and it's situated deeper.

System scans ? No issue detected.

Device manager ? No indication of basically anything driver related that's not easily accessible somewhere else. All the UI is either unhelpful, unpractical, hidden or a combination of the 3.

I've spent 2 and a half hours on that today and have made basically zero progress.

Oh and half the advice you find online is "reset your system". Everything works, chances are there's one single file or driver that doesn't work as intended but it's deep enough to cause problems. But error codes are useless, problem resolution is useless, most online advice is useless, system or driver updates have been useless.

Maybe this would work, it's very likely in fact. But seriously if it is the ONLY viable way to solve the problem "I can't use wifi but cabled internet is fine" then it's yet another indication of how crap this all is.

Anyway I'm giving up for today.