#modern data architecture

[goodoldbandit]

Data Unbound: Embracing NoSQL & NewSQL for the Real-Time Era.

Sanjay Kumar Mohindroo Sanjay Kumar Mohindroo. skm.stayingalive.in Explore how NoSQL and NewSQL databases revolutionize data management by handling unstructured data, supporting distributed architectures, and enabling real-time analytics. In today’s digital-first landscape, businesses and institutions are under mounting pressure to process massive volumes of data with greater speed,…

[rajaniesh]

Implementing Data Mesh on Databricks: Harmonized and Hub & Spoke Approaches

Explore the Harmonized and Hub & Spoke Data Mesh models on Databricks. Enhance data management with autonomous yet integrated domains and central governance. Perfect for diverse organizational needs and scalable solutions. #DataMesh #Databricks

[helioooss]

i was never there

synopsis: yu jumin joins novis corp as it’s head corporate lawyer, but her boss, y/n, remembers her eyes from somewhere else.

w/c: 3k+

warnings: 18+ minors dni!!! stripper by night, lawyer by day karina, swearing

a/n: a short one for the books, this is more a prompt

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

the sun had barely crept over the horizon when your sleek aston martin pulled up to the curb of novis corp’s headquarters; the tech conglomerate you had built from scratch. the building, a masterpiece of modern architecture with its reflective glass and sharp geometric lines, it stood as a monument to your success.

as you stepped out of the car, the valet offered a polite bow before retreating and you adjusted your tom ford suit — a deep charcoal grey that sat perfectly on your shoulders, tailored to a level of precision; its silk lining was monogrammed with your initials, a subtle mark of exclusivity.

in your world, every single detail mattered.

as soon as the glass doors opened into the lobby, the atmosphere shifted immediately. the soft murmur of voices hushed to a whisper and employees straightened their postures instinctively as they caught sight of you.

your presence demanded attention, not because you sought it, but because you simply carried an aura of authority. heads bowed as you passed, a wave of respectful acknowledgment rippling through the space.

“good morning, y/n,” someone greeted softly, their voice tinged with awe.

you simply offered a slight nod, your expression unreadable as you stepped into the private lift. the moment the polished steel doors slid shut, the world outside felt momentarily silenced. you allowed yourself a brief glance at your reflection in the mirrored walls, backing a strand of misplaced hair and smoothing down the lapel of your jacket before the lift opened to the top floor.

here, the energy was palpable. this was where the very lifeblood of novis corp flowed, where your senior executives and teams orchestrated the daily operations of the tech giant. the open floor was a hive of activity: assistants juggling tablets and documents, executives murmuring into headsets and a faint hum of urgency in the air.

the moment you stepped out, it was chaos aimed at you.

“miss l/n, the european market data is ready for your review.”

“legal flagged the merger contracts; they need your approval before noon.”

“the board wants confirmation on next quarter’s strategic pivot —”

amidst the shitshow that you specifically called ‘the everyday’, your personal assistant, claire, darted towards you, her heels clicking against the polished wood floor as she clutched a stack of files to her chest whilst her usually composed demeanour was slightly frazzled as she struggled to keep pace with you.

“y/n,” claire began, her voice soft but persistent, “i apologise for the interruption, but felix has been trying to reach you all morning. he said it’s urgent, and i tried to hold him off, but he’s really insistent.”

you glanced at her, stride unbroken whilst offering a faint smile that was more a gesture of reassurance than warmth. “i’ll take care of it, claire. thank you.”

she gave a slight nod, relief evident in her expression, stepping back as you pushed open the heavy oak doors to your private office. the room was a reflection of your meticulous standards: minimalist yet luxurious, with floor-to-ceiling windows offering an unparalleled view of new york city. a sleek, dark wood desk sat in the centre, flanked by leather chairs and a low cabinet housing bottles of vintage scotch.

oh, and the air carried the faintest scent of bergamot, a signature detail you had to have.

as soon as you set your briefcase down, you loosened your tie slightly and sank into your chair. the intercom blinked with pending calls, but you ignored it for now, reaching instead for your personal phone. scrolling through the missed calls, you found felix’s name and with a small sigh, you hit dial.

he answered right after the first ring. “finally!” his voice was a mix of relief and mischief, as it always was when he called you.

“what’s so urgent, felix?” you asked, leaning back in your chair.

“okay, hear me out,” he began, a tell-tale sign that whatever followed would likely test your patience. “there’s this club. super exclusive. like, billionaires-only exclusive. i’m talking black cards, champagne fountains, and the kind of entertainment that makes even the rich blush —“

pinching the bridge of your nose impatiently, you groaned. “just get to the point.”

“well, if you must insist,” he continued, “i need someone to vouch for me. someone who ticks the billionaire box. someone, you know, like you.”

“felix, why on earth would you want to go to a place like that?” you sighed, shaking your head. “everyone will just be as obnoxious as mum.”

“research,” he said, a little too quickly. “and before you ask, yes, it’s legit. i just…need to see it for myself. one night, y/n.“

“research,” you repeated, unimpressed.

“please, my dearest sister,” he pressed. “i promise it’s harmless. just one night, and then i’ll owe you. big time.”

he had always been the rebel — tattoos peeking out from beneath his sleeves, a penchant for bending rules and a charm that got him out of most trouble. he was your stepbrother, younger by five years and despite his antics, you couldn’t help but feel a soft spot for him.

he’d been your constant companion through a tumultuous childhood and for all his recklessness, his loyalty to you was unwavering.

you exhaled deeply. “if this turns into a mess, i swear, felix —”

“it won’t, i swear,” he interrupted eagerly. “you’ll barely even have to do anything. just show up, look rich — which is easy for you and let me in.”

there was a long pause. you weren’t one for foolishness, specially not something as absurd as this, but he had a way of getting under your skin and despite your better judgment, you relented.

“fine,” you mumbled; annoyance evident in your tone. “but this better not blow back on me — the press are already on my ass for not being present enough.”

“you’re the best!” he exclaimed, his relief palpable. “i’ll text you the details.”

shaking your head, you hung up and pressed the intercom button on your desk. “claire,” you began. “i need you to do something for me.”

“that’s my job, y/n,” her voice came through immediately.

“clear my schedule for tonight,” you carefully instructed. “reschedule all appointments and let the rest of the world know i’ll be unavailable after six.”

there was a brief pause from her end. “understood.”

staring out at the sprawling skyline, you heaved out a sigh. this wasn’t your usual scene, but something about it intrigued you nonetheless. tonight promised to be unlike anything you’d done before.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

the hum of the limousine was almost soothing as it glided through the city streets, the blacked-out windows shielding you and felix from the world outside. the interior was nothing short of opulent: plush leather seats in a deep oxblood red, a bar stocked with rare whiskies and chilled champagne and soft ambient lighting that cast a warm glow over the polished surfaces.

felix was seated across from you, his legs stretched out casually as he swirled a glass of whiskey he’d poured himself. his usual rebellious flair was subdued tonight, though the faint smirk on his lips betrayed his excitement.

he was dressed sharply, his dark green blazer and crisp black shirt a rare effort on his part. the tattoos that normally peeked from his sleeves were hidden, though you knew they were still there, a reminder of his defiant streak.

you, on the other hand, wore a simple white shirt and blue jeans.

“so,” felix began, his tone light but probing, “how’s the empire going?”

you gave him a sideways glance, your fingers lightly drumming against the armrest. “the empire is fine, felix. novis is on track to secure the venatrix deal by next quarter and the sirocco expansion is finally moving forward.”

“of course it is,” he said with a grin, taking a sip of his drink. “you’ve got the golden touch. everything you touch turns to money.”

“it’s not magic,” you replied, your voice steady. “it’s work. a lot of it.”

he shook his head, leaning forward slightly. “and that’s the problem, y/n. you work too much. when was the last time you actually did something for yourself? and don’t say this counts,” he added, gesturing around the limousine.

you gave him a small, wry smile. “this is for you, not me.”

“exactly my point,” he said, leaning back. “you need to live a little. have some fun. maybe get a girlfriend for once in your life.”

you raised an eyebrow at him. “a girlfriend?”

“yes, a girlfriend,” he said with a chuckle. “you know, someone to share your life with? someone to remind you that there’s more to life than spreadsheets and board meetings?”

you exhaled softly, turning your gaze to the city lights flickering outside the window. “it’s not that simple. i’ve got responsibilities. people rely on me. there’s no room for anything else right now.”

“that’s the excuse you always use,” he said, his tone softer now. “but you’re going to wake up one day and realise you’ve built an empire but never lived your life. is that really what you want?”

his words lingered in the air and for a moment, you simply let them. as the limousine turned down a quieter street, the glow of the city fading into the background, you thought about what he’d said.

was he right? was there something missing in your meticulously crafted life?

before you could dwell on it further, the car slowed to a stop in front of an unassuming black door, illuminated only by a discreet gold plaque that read elysium.

the driver opened your door and the moment you stepped out, you felt the shift in atmosphere. the door was opened from the inside by a tall, sharply dressed man who exuded an air of authority.

“miss l/n, mr. l/n,” he greeted warmly, his deep voice carrying just enough deference to make you feel like royalty. “welcome to elysium. my name is pierre and i’ll personally ensure your evening is nothing short of exceptional.”

“thank you,” you replied, your tone polite but guarded as pierre stepped aside, gesturing for you both to enter.

the interior of the club was breathtaking — sleek and sophisticated, with an undeniable air of exclusivity. red lighting bathed the room, casting a sultry glow over the rich leather furniture and dark wood accents. the faint hum of low music filled the space and the scent of expensive cigars and perfume lingered in the air.

pierre led the way, his posture immaculate. “we’ve limited the floor capacity tonight to ensure you have a comfortable experience. it’s not often we host guests of your calibre.”

your gaze flicked to your brother, whose smirk grew with every step deeper into the club.

“they’re really rolling out the red carpet,” he whispered to you, amusement lacing his tone.

there were silhouettes moving across the far end of the room. they were fluid, deliberate, their movements drawing attention like a magnetic pull.

it wasn’t until you caught the glint of polished metal — a pole, that the realisation struck.

this wasn’t just a private club. it was a strip club.

“i thought you said this was a fucking nightclub,” you muttered in that scolding tone of yours. “or whatever you said it was.”

he laughed at your comment and had deliberately chosen to ignore you, clearly revelling in the attention. as you passed, heads turned subtly, and even the staff seemed to regard you with a mixture of curiosity and respect.

“our girls,” pierre continued as he walked, “are among the finest in the world. each performance is curated to perfection. should you require anything — anything at all, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“a dance costs a million for each hour,” felix raised his eyebrows playfully. “i can afford it, you have nothing to worry about.”

i’m going to kill him, you thought.

the corridor opened into a sprawling room bathed in deep red light, the glow casting shadows that danced across the rich leather furniture and polished dark wood accents. chandeliers hung from the ceiling, their crystal facets scattering faint prisms of light though the overall effect was moody and intimate rather than pretentious.

pierre, ever the professional, either didn’t notice or chose to ignore the exchange. “elysium prides itself on discretion and sophistication,” he explained, leading you toward the bar. “our performers are not only the best in the industry but also highly selective about where they work. we cater to an exclusive clientele and tonight, they are all eager to perform for you.”

the words hung in the air and while his tone remained formal, there was no mistaking the double meaning.

this wasn’t just about entertainment — it was about status, yours specifically.

“you’ve truly outdone yourselves,” you said evenly, though your tone betrayed nothing of the thoughts swirling in your mind.

“only the best for our esteemed guests,” he replied, stopping at the bar. “would you care for a drink before you settle in? our bartenders specialise in rare and exclusive cocktails.”

“i’ll take a manhattan,” felix answered, leaning against the bar as if he owned the place.

pierre turned his attention to you. “and for you, miss l/n?”

“call me y/n, please,” you requested, keeping your composure. “i’ll have a glass of champagne for now.”

felix shook his head, whilst pierre only nodded. “don’t worry, pierre, this is a good sign — champagne is telltale of the kind of night she plans to have.”

you gave him a look, one that could silence an entire boardroom, but it only made his grin widen.

as the bartender prepared your drinks, your eyes scanned the room. the performers were elegant, their movements slow and deliberate as they worked the poles or engaged in subtle conversations with other guests. the lighting accentuated every curve, every flick of hair, every step in towering heels.

it was seductive, but there was a sophistication to it.

felix clinked his glass against yours when your drinks arrived, his grin mischievous. “welcome to the real world, y/n. you might even have fun tonight.”

before you could respond, he disappeared into the crowd, leaving you alone with pierre, who gestured towards a hallway deeper into the establishment. “y/n, may i guide you to our private bar? we’ve reserved a section just for you.”

you nodded, offering a faint smile. “lead the way.”

he guided you through a discreet side door, the noise from the main hall fading into a low hum as you stepped into a quieter corridor. the lighting here was softer, the air perfumed with hints of amber and bergamot.

the sound of your shoes against the polished marble floor echoed faintly as you trailed behind him.

then, he stopped at a heavy door, its deep mahogany finish gleaming under the warm light. with a subtle bow, he pushed it open, revealing a private space that was both opulent and refined.

the room was bathed in a soft golden glow, with leather seating in a deep burgundy hue arranged around a bar made out of white marble. a crystal chandelier hung above, its light refracting into subtle rainbows across the room. the air was cooler here, yet tinged with the faintest trace of something warm and intoxicating.

“we’ve taken great care to ensure your comfort,” he gestured for you to step inside. “a selection of our finest performers has been prepared exclusively for this space tonight. as per tradition, all our vvip performers wear masks to preserve their mystique.”

your gaze shifted to the centre of the room, where a single pole stood illuminated by a spotlight. at its base, a woman danced, her movements fluid and hypnotic.

she was dressed in black, the fabric clinging to her graceful frame in ways that accentuated her every curve. a delicate mask adorned her face, its intricate lace design concealing her identity while leaving her eyes and lips visible.

and those eyes…

almond-shaped and lined with the faintest hint of shimmer, their depth was startling. they locked onto yours the moment you entered and for a second, it felt as though the world narrowed to just the two of you.

her lips were no less striking, painted a deep crimson that contrasted beautifully against her glowing skin. they moved subtly as she shifted her expression, curving into a faint smile that was neither coy nor brazen but perfectly balanced between the two.

you moved to one of the leather chairs directly in front of the pole, lowering yourself gracefully into the seat. a glass of something pale and sparkling had already been placed on the table before you — krug, if you had to guess.

she danced as though gravity held no dominion over her, movements slow and deliberate; her body bending and turning with an elegance that seemed almost otherworldly.

her eyes never left yours.

there was no touch, no exchange of words. only the silent conversation carried through her gaze.

you sipped your champagne, the crisp bubbles fizzing faintly on your tongue as you watched her.

“her name is karina,” pierre’s voice broke the silence, soft and almost reverent as he stood to the side. “one of our most gifted performers. she never agrees to private dances, but tonight, she insisted.”

you raised an eyebrow at his comment but said nothing, your eyes still locked with hers.

her lips curved slightly, a small but unmistakable reaction to his words. whether it was amusement or approval, you couldn’t tell.

there was a certain kind of power in her performance, an effortless command of the room that rivalled your own presence in the boardroom. it wasn’t just her beauty — it was the way she carried herself, the silent confidence in her every movement.

for the first time in a long while, you felt captivated.

as the music swelled, she climbed higher up the pole, her body arching and twisting with a grace that seemed to defy logic. the light caught her skin as she spun, casting shadows across her toned figure.

her gaze found yours again as if she had never looked away.

the song ended, the final note hanging in the air as karina stilled, her body poised and elegant as she held your gaze one last time. then, without a word, she stepped back into the shadows, disappearing as swiftly as she had appeared.

you leaned back in your seat, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of your lips.

“she’s…impressive,” you murmured, your voice soft.

“indeed,” he replied, his tone pleased. “shall i have her return for a performance, miss l/n? or would you like to see the next girl?”

you glanced at the glass in your hand, then back at the empty spotlight.

“perhaps,” you said, your tone deliberately nonchalant, though the way your thoughts lingered on those eyes and that smile betrayed you entirely. “i’d like to see karina again.”

he gave a slight bow, his hands clasped neatly in front of him. “i’ll leave you to enjoy the performance, y/n. if you need anything, don’t hesitate to call for me.”

you sent him a faint nod, watching as he quietly slipped out of the room — the air seemed heavier now, charged with something you couldn’t quite name.

the soft spotlight followed her, casting her in a halo of warm light as she emerged out of the shadows. her movements were deliberate, the sway of her hips measured, her body arching with the kind of elegance that felt effortless. the music swelled, a sultry melody that filled the private bar, wrapping itself around you.

the pole became an extension of her, her fingertips grazing it lightly as she spun effortlessly, hair cascading over one shoulder like silk.

pushing yourself up in the leather seat, you cradled the crystal glass in your hand, the crisp bubbles fizzing against your tongue were forgotten.

your attention was fixed solely on her.

her gaze was dark and unrelenting, as though she could see through every wall you’d ever built. it made you feel vulnerable in a way you weren’t used to, yet you couldn’t look away.

for years, your life had been a steady climb to the top. every decision and sacrifice you made — it had all led you to become one of the youngest billionaires in the world; a life of luxury and power, yet moments like this felt foreign to you.

you had never allowed yourself distractions. relationships had always been a distant thought, something you dismissed as incompatible with the weight of your responsibilities. and yet here you were, sitting in the middle of a dark room, utterly captivated by a woman you didn’t know.

as the music deepened, so did her movements. she slid down the pole with precision, her legs extending gracefully before she landed softly on the floor. then, she began to close the distance between you.

you stiffened slightly as she approached, her bare feet making no sound against the polished floor. her every step was a calculated mix of power and allure, head tilting slightly as her eyes burned into yours.

when she reached the edge of your seat, she leaned down, her hands bracing against the armrests on either side of you. the faintest scent of her perfume: something floral with a hint of musk wafted over you.

your breath hitched.

karina’s face was mere inches from yours, her lips curved into a subtle, knowing smile.

she tilted her head, her dark hair spilling over her shoulder and as she leaned closer, her lips brushed against yours — not quite a kiss, but enough to send a jolt through your body.

the touch was light, but it lingered. your hand tightened slightly around the glass, though you made no effort to pull away.

her eyes locked onto yours again, the corner of her lips quirking up ever so slightly. she didn’t move, staying close enough that you could feel the faint warmth of her breath against your skin.

“you’re full of surprises,” she murmured, her voice low and laced with amusement.

“you’re not what i expected,” you replied, your tone steady despite the way your pulse raced.

her smile widened just a fraction, her lips still hovering dangerously close to yours. “and what did you expect, miss l/n?”

you let the question hang in the air, unwilling — or perhaps unable to answer it.

she pulled back slightly, her eyes flickering over your face as if she were committing every detail to memory.

then, with a graceful turn, she returned to the pole, leaving you frozen in your seat, every nerve in your body alive.

but your focus wasn’t on the dance anymore.

it was on her.

the song reached its end, her final spin slow and graceful, her legs extended as she descended to the floor.

when the music ended, she stayed still for a moment, catching her breath, before calling out softly, “cut the music.”

the silence was deafening.

she stood up, reaching for a glass of water placed on the table near the pole. she sipped it slowly, her back turned to you, before setting it down and facing you again.

“you’re y/n l/n,” she said, her voice carrying an easy confidence, as though she were stating an undeniable fact.

you straightened in your seat, your composure returning. “i am indeed, and you’re karina.”

her lips curved into a small smile as she stepped closer, her mask framing her captivating eyes. “so, you’ve heard of me?”

“pierre mentioned your name,” you replied. “and according to him, you never agree to private performances.”

“ah, pierre,” karina chuckled softly, a low and melodic sound that sent another ripple through you. “that’s true, but you’re not exactly a regular guest.”

“why did you agree?” you asked, your voice steadier than you felt.

she tilted her head, her smile deepening. “curiosity.”

“about what?”

her gaze didn’t waver. “about you.”

you raised an eyebrow. “me?”

“it’s not every day the most eligible bachelorette in the world walks into a place like this,” she said, her tone light but pointed. “how could i not be curious?”

her honesty was disarming, and for a moment, you didn’t know how to respond.

“you don’t seem like the type to come here,” she continued, her voice softer now. “i wanted to see what kind of woman you are.”

“and?” you asked, meeting her gaze.

karina smiled again, enigmatic as ever. “i think you’re a woman who knows exactly what she wants, but you haven’t decided if you’re ready to take it.”

her words hung in the air, sharp yet tantalising. you swallowed hard, the weight of her observation pressing against you.

before you could respond, she glanced at the clock on the wall, her expression softening. “unfortunately, my time’s up — but i will see you again, hopefully.”

you watched as she stepped back, her movements as graceful as ever. “thank you.”

she turned back to you, her dark eyes glimmering. “the pleasure was mine, miss l/n.”

“please call me y/n.”

she nodded and then, just like that, she disappeared through the door, leaving you alone with the lingering scent of her perfume and the memory of her lips brushing against yours.

moments later, pierre entered the room, followed by an awestruck felix.

“holy shit,” felix yelled, his wide eyes taking in the space. “this room is insane. do you know how much this costs?”

you raised an eyebrow at him, still feeling the warmth of karina’s presence. “do i want to know?”

“five million dollars. per dance,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

you smiled faintly, your thoughts far from the number. “well, tonight was the most expensive night i’ve ever had then.”

he put an arm around you, ruffling your hair. “told you you’d enjoy it!”

-

the limousine hummed softly as it glided through the quiet streets. deeply in your thoughts, you sat stiffly in your seat, legs crossed, arms folded, the leather cool beneath you.

the night had been…complicated, to say the least.

felix, sitting across from you, looked far too pleased with himself, scrolling through his phone with a self-satisfied smirk that only irritated you further.

“never again,” you said sharply, breaking the silence.

he glanced up, the smirk widening as if he’d been waiting for this. “never again, what?”

“you know exactly what i mean,” you snapped, glaring at him. “you are never taking control of a night out again.”

he raised an eyebrow, feigning innocence. “elysium? come on, it wasn’t that bad.”

“felix,” you said through gritted teeth, “it was a strip club. a strip club. do you have any idea how bad that looks for me? if anyone had taken a photo of me, it could’ve been a PR disaster.”

he laughed, leaning back lazily against the plush seat. “oh please, that place is so exclusive. and anyway, it’s not like you were doing anything scandalous. you sat there, drank champagne and watched a performance. you didn’t even touch anyone. honestly, it was boring.”

you stared at him. “boring? you dragged me to a place where the floor alone costs millions to reserve and you think it’s fine because you had fun?”

“well yeah,” he said casually, shrugging. “and don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy yourself. i saw your face during that dance.”

heat rose to your cheeks and you looked away sharply, your fingers tightening around your arm. “that’s not the point, felix.”

“oh, it absolutely is,” he countered, leaning forward. “look, you’ve spent your entire life building this empire. you’re brilliant at what you do but you don’t live, y/n. you don’t even let yourself breathe. all i did was give you one night to do something out of the ordinary and now you’re acting like the world’s going to end.”

“because it could,” you shot back. “my name, my reputation — it’s all tied to novis. if anything jeopardises that, the fallout would be catastrophic. you don’t understand what’s at stake.”

he tilted his head, his expression softening slightly. “no, i don’t understand,” he said, his voice quieter but still firm. “because unlike you, i actually let myself live every now and then. when was the last time you did something just for yourself, y/n? when was the last time you let yourself feel something that wasn’t tied to work?”

his words hit harder than you wanted to admit. you glanced out the window, the city lights blurring as the limousine sped through the streets. “this isn’t about me,” you muttered, though the defensiveness in your tone betrayed you.

“oh, it’s absolutely about you,” he said with a knowing grin. “come on, admit it. you didn’t hate last night as much as you’re pretending to. i mean, you could’ve walked out anytime, but you didn’t. you stayed.”

you sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose. “felix, i can’t afford to have nights like that. my life isn’t like yours.”

“and that’s exactly the problem,” he said, his voice more serious now. “you’re so afraid of messing up, you don’t even let yourself enjoy anything. y/n, you’re one of the most powerful people in the world and you’re scared of living? what’s the point of all this success if you never let yourself have anything?”

you didn’t answer, his words settling uncomfortably in your chest. instead, you stared out the window, your reflection blurred against the city lights. he leaned back, clearly feeling like he’d won the argument, though he said nothing more.

as the limousine approached your building, you sighed deeply, finally breaking the silence. “this doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. no more clubs, felix. ever.”

he laughed softly, shaking his head. “we’ll see.”

as it rolled to a stop, you stepped out without another word, the weight of the conversation lingering as you made your way inside.

you couldn’t stop thinking about the way karina had looked at you — as if she saw right through the walls you had spent years building.

her eyes haunted you, dark and full of secrets you suddenly found yourself wanting to uncover. and for the first time in years, you wondered if there was something, or someone, outside your carefully constructed world worth stepping into the unknown for.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

the morning was as chaotic as ever, the hum of novis corp’s top floor vibrating with urgency the moment you stepped out of the private elevator. polished shoes clicked against a mix of wooden and marble floors, assistants and executives alike moved from desk to desk, each with something that required your attention.

“y/n,” the updates for the venatrix deal are ready.”

“legal has flagged the elara contract for revisions.”

“the team needs your approval on the new AI interface by noon!”

normally, you thrived in the controlled storm of your office. today, however, your mind was elsewhere. your focus wasn’t on contracts or product launches — it was on her.

the memory of last night lingered in sharp detail: the intoxicating crimson glow of the club, her sharp gaze, the brush of her lips against yours.

karina had left an imprint you couldn’t shake, no matter how much you tried.

the design meeting was supposed to centre you. the team presented mock-ups for novis’s latest AI interface, a sleek design meant to revolutionise smart tech, but as the lead designer droned on about user functionality, your attention slipped.

their words barely registered. your eyes were on the screen, but your mind was still in elysium. the feel of her perfume in the air, the way her eyes had locked onto yours: daring you to react.

“y/n?” samuel, the lead designer’s voice, broke through your thoughts, ultimately bringing you back to the present.

you blinked, shifting slightly in your seat. “yes?”

“we were asking for your feedback on the gradient colour scheme versus the flat monochrome,” he said, his tone careful.

you glanced at the screen, the options displayed clearly, but for once, the answer didn’t come easily. “the gradient,” you pointed after what seemed like at eternity. “it’s fine.”

a few of the designers exchanged surprised glances. it wasn’t like you to give such a vague response.

when the meeting ended, you stepped into the hallway, only to find giselle waiting for you, leaning casually against the wall with a look of exaggerated curiosity.

“well, that was weird,” she said, falling into step beside you.

“what are you talking about?” you asked, your tone clipped as you navigated through the bustling corridor.

“you,” she replied, waving a hand dramatically. “you’ve been off all morning. normally, you’re snapping necks and giving ted talks in these meetings. today, you were practically sleepwalking. so, spill. what’s going on?”

“nothing,” you said curtly.

she narrowed her eyes, clearly not buying it. “is this a felix thing? what did he do now? start a crypto farm in the middle of montana? buy a haunted house because ‘it looked cool’? or, wait — did he drag you to one of those ridiculous underground poker rings again?”

you gave her a sharp look. “felix has nothing to do with this.”

“so there is something,” she said, her smirk growing. “come on, boss, you can’t keep secrets from me. i’m like the human recourses version of sherlock holmes.”

“giselle,” you warned, stopping in your tracks and fixing her with a pointed glare, “drop it.”

she raised her hands in mock surrender, but her grin didn’t waver. “fine, fine, i’ll drop it; but if you spontaneously combust during the next board meeting, don’t say i didn’t warn you.”

as you started walking again, she called after you, “oh, by the way, your new head corporate lawyer is waiting in your office. yu jimin. punctual, sharp as a blade, and word on the street: dangerously hot. good luck!”

the name sent a jolt through you, stomach twisting as you reached your office doors, the memory of last night rushing back with startling clarity.

when you stepped inside, the first thing you noticed was the figure standing near the window.

she was dressed sharply in a black suit that fit her perfectly, the crisp white shirt beneath it undone just enough to convey confidence without stepping into arrogance. her posture was relaxed, one hand resting lightly on her hip, the other at her side.

her dark hair was pulled back neatly, accentuating the sharp lines of her face. when she turned at the sound of the door, your breath caught.

her eyes met yours, and for a split second, the world tilted.

it was her.

the woman who had unraveled you the night before, the one who had danced with the kind of precision and allure that left you spellbound.

karina.

no, yu jimin.

“miss l/n,” she greeted, her voice smooth, calm, and so painfully familiar. “it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

you forced yourself to nod, gesturing toward the chair across from your desk. “miss yu, please, have a seat. and call me y/n.”

you walked quickly to your desk, avoiding her gaze as you settled into your chair. when you finally looked up, the intensity in her eyes was undeniable.

she sat with perfect posture, her hands resting lightly on her lap, her expression polite but unreadable.

“so,” you began, clearing your throat, “tell me about your experience. what drew you to novis corp?”

her lips curved into a faint smile, one that sent a chill through you.

“my career has largely focused on high-stakes corporate law,” she said smoothly. “mergers, acquisitions, billion-dollar lawsuits — you name it. novis corp stood out to me because of its reputation for innovation and precision. it’s a company that demands excellence; i happen to provide that.”

her tone was professional, poised. but then her eyes glinted, and her smile widened just slightly.

“but if i’m being honest,” she added, “it wasn’t just the company that intrigued me. after last night, the person behind it all captured me.”

your chest tightened, but you forced yourself to maintain a neutral expression.

“i’m not sure what you’re referring to,” you said evenly, though your voice wavered just slightly.

“of course not,” she said, her smile deepening, though she didn’t press further.

the rest of the meeting passed in a blur of questions and answers, though the tension in the room never dissipated. every time her gaze lingered on you, you felt your resolve crack, memories of her dance, her eyes and her lips flashing vividly in your mind.

when it concluded, jimin stood gracefully, smoothing her blazer as she moved toward the door.

just as she reached for the knob, you hesitantly called out, “and miss yu?”

she paused, turning back to face you. “yes?”

you met her gaze, forcing your voice to remain steady. “i was never there.”

her smile returned, slow and knowing, her eyes glinting with something that sent a shiver down your spine. “don’t worry — the only person in that room was karina.”

for the second time in two days, yu jimin had left you completely undone.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

the end.

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 4: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - The DEC PDP-11! 🎄💾🗓️

Released by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1970, the PDP-11 was a 16-bit minicomputer known for its orthogonal instruction set, allowing flexible and efficient programming. It introduced a Unibus architecture, which streamlined data communication and helped revolutionize computer design, making hardware design more modular and scalable. The PDP-11 was important in developing operating systems, including the early versions of UNIX. The PDP-11 was the hardware foundation for developing the C programming language and early UNIX systems. It supported multiple operating systems like RT-11, RSX-11, and UNIX, which directly shaped modern OS design principles. With over 600,000 units sold, the PDP-11 is celebrated as one of its era's most versatile and influential "minicomputers".

Check out the wikipedia page for some great history, photos (pictured here), and more -

And here's a story from Adafruit team member, Bill!

The DEC PDP-11 was the one of the first computers I ever programmed. That program was 'written' with a soldering iron.

I was an art student at the time, but spending most of my time in the engineering labs. There was a PDP-11-34 in the automation lab connected to an X-ray spectroscopy machine. Starting up the machine required toggling in a bootstrap loader via the front panel. This was a tedious process. So we ordered a diode-array boot ROM which had enough space to program 32 sixteen bit instructions.

Each instruction in the boot sequence needed to be broken down into binary (very straightforward with the PDP-11 instruction set). For each binary '1', a diode needed to be soldered into the array. The space was left empty for each '0'. 32 sixteen bit instructions was more than sufficient to load a secondary bootstrap from the floppy disk to launch the RT-11 operating system. So now it was possible to boot the system with just the push of a button.

I worked with a number DEC PDP-11/LSI-11 systems over the years. I still keep an LSI-11-23 system around for sentimental reasons.

Have first computer memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing – See you back here tomorrow!

[mariacallous]

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.

Under any circumstances, a migration of this size and scale would be a massive undertaking, experts tell WIRED, but the expedited deadline runs the risk of obstructing payments to the more than 65 million people in the US currently receiving Social Security benefits.

“Of course, one of the big risks is not underpayment or overpayment per se; [it’s also] not paying someone at all and not knowing about it. The invisible errors and omissions,” an SSA technologist tells WIRED.

The Social Security Administration did not immediately reply to WIRED’s request for comment.

SSA has been under increasing scrutiny from president Donald Trump’s administration. In February, Musk took aim at SSA, falsely claiming that the agency was rife with fraud. Specifically, Musk pointed to data he allegedly pulled from the system that showed 150-year-olds in the US were receiving benefits, something that isn’t actually happening. Over the last few weeks, following significant cuts to the agency by DOGE, SSA has suffered frequent website crashes and long wait times over the phone, The Washington Post reported this week.

This proposed migration isn’t the first time SSA has tried to move away from COBOL: In 2017, SSA announced a plan to receive hundreds of millions in funding to replace its core systems. The agency predicted that it would take around five years to modernize these systems. Because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the agency pivoted away from this work to focus on more public-facing projects.

Like many legacy government IT systems, SSA systems contain code written in COBOL, a programming language created in part in the 1950s by computing pioneer Grace Hopper. The Defense Department essentially pressured private industry to use COBOL soon after its creation, spurring widespread adoption and making it one of the most widely used languages for mainframes, or computer systems that process and store large amounts of data quickly, by the 1970s. (At least one DOD-related website praising Hopper's accomplishments is no longer active, likely following the Trump administration’s DEI purge of military acknowledgements.)

As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found. In fact, SSA’s core programmatic systems and architecture haven’t been “substantially” updated since the 1980s when the agency developed its own database system called MADAM, or the Master Data Access Method, which was written in COBOL and Assembler, according to SSA’s 2017 modernization plan.

SSA’s core “logic” is also written largely in COBOL. This is the code that issues social security numbers, manages payments, and even calculates the total amount beneficiaries should receive for different services, a former senior SSA technologist who worked in the office of the chief information officer says. Even minor changes could result in cascading failures across programs.

“If you weren't worried about a whole bunch of people not getting benefits or getting the wrong benefits, or getting the wrong entitlements, or having to wait ages, then sure go ahead,” says Dan Hon, principal of Very Little Gravitas, a technology strategy consultancy that helps government modernize services, about completing such a migration in a short timeframe.

It’s unclear when exactly the code migration would start. A recent document circulated amongst SSA staff laying out the agency’s priorities through May does not mention it, instead naming other priorities like terminating “non-essential contracts” and adopting artificial intelligence to “augment” administrative and technical writing.

Earlier this month, WIRED reported that at least 10 DOGE operatives were currently working within SSA, including a number of young and inexperienced engineers like Luke Farritor and Ethan Shaotran. At the time, sources told WIRED that the DOGE operatives would focus on how people identify themselves to access their benefits online.

Sources within SSA expect the project to begin in earnest once DOGE identifies and marks remaining beneficiaries as deceased and connecting disparate agency databases. In a Thursday morning court filing, an affidavit from SSA acting administrator Leland Dudek said that at least two DOGE operatives are currently working on a project formally called the “Are You Alive Project,” targeting what these operatives believe to be improper payments and fraud within the agency’s system by calling individual beneficiaries. The agency is currently battling for sweeping access to SSA’s systems in court to finish this work. (Again, 150-year-olds are not collecting social security benefits. That specific age was likely a quirk of COBOL. It doesn’t include a date type, so dates are often coded to a specific reference point—May 20, 1875, the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the Convention du Mètre.)

In order to migrate all COBOL code into a more modern language within a few months, DOGE would likely need to employ some form of generative artificial intelligence to help translate the millions of lines of code, sources tell WIRED. “DOGE thinks if they can say they got rid of all the COBOL in months, then their way is the right way, and we all just suck for not breaking shit,” says the SSA technologist.

DOGE would also need to develop tests to ensure the new system’s outputs match the previous one. It would be difficult to resolve all of the possible edge cases over the course of several years, let alone months, adds the SSA technologist.

“This is an environment that is held together with bail wire and duct tape,” the former senior SSA technologist working in the office of the chief information officer tells WIRED. “The leaders need to understand that they’re dealing with a house of cards or Jenga. If they start pulling pieces out, which they’ve already stated they’re doing, things can break.”

[the-most-humble-blog]

<!-- BEGIN TRANSMISSION // BLACKSITE LITERATURE PROTOCOL ACTIVE -->

&lt;div style="white-space:pre-wrap"&gt;

&lt;meta data-saturation="emotional_burnout"&gt;

&lt;script&gt;ARCHIVE_TAG="EXIT_SIGNAL::EMPLOYMENT_WARFARE"

EFFECT: existential clarity, parasympathetic collapse, shame-flip activation

&lt;/script&gt;

🧠 BLACKSITE SCROLLTRAP — “WONDER IF YOU SHOULD QUIT YOUR JOB? HERE’S HOW YOU KNOW.”

===

When you hug a loved one,

and instead of presence,

you feel **corporate residue** bleeding behind your eyelids—

the voice of your boss

the passive-aggressive tone of your coworker

the **evaluative stink of modern slavery**

creeping into the quiet moment

like mildew—

That’s how you know.

When someone you love says:

> “Sigh. You’re not even paying attention… never mind.”

And they’re right—

because your mind is in a **task loop**

designed by someone who’d replace you in a week.

That’s how you know.

When your stomach starts bubbling *more often than not*—

not from food

but from a **backed-up shitstorm of disrespect,**

swallowed pride,

and workplace submission diarrhea—

That’s how you know.

📊 **STAT: Chronic job stress increases your risk of irritable bowel syndrome by 94%.**

📊 **STAT: 76% of workers say job stress negatively affects their physical health.**

📊 **STAT: Heart attack risk spikes 20% on Mondays for working-age adults.**

📊 **STAT: 120,000 deaths per year are linked to workplace stress.**

Let that number cook in your chest cavity for a second.

—

You ever look in the mirror

and think:

> “I was supposed to be brave.

> The younger me would've told that manager to f*ck off for half the sh*t I let slide today.”

But you didn’t.

Because that version of you is *dead.*

Dead… and buried beneath HR-safe language and calendar invites.

—

You ever sit in traffic

and feel your throat tighten

because you’re driving toward something

that feels more like a **cell** than a paycheck?

You ever lie awake at 2:42 AM

replaying a meeting

you weren’t even **paid enough** to remember?

You ever stare at the ceiling

wondering how much longer your soul can keep bleeding

without anybody noticing?

That’s how you know.

—

If the **soul of your family** isn’t directly attached to that job…

if you don’t **own stock** in that building…

if your children aren’t LITERALLY fed by that badge swipe…

Then leave.

Start looking.

Like your life depends on it.

Because it does.

Not metaphorically.

**Biologically.**

📊 **STAT: Job burnout correlates with a 250% increase in clinical depression.**

📊 **STAT: The WHO officially classifies burnout as a workplace “occupational phenomenon” causing chronic fatigue, reduced efficacy, and *identity erosion.***

—

So what’s your family gonna do

when they’re attending your funeral

because you let your job kill you?

What will they remember?

That you were always tired?

Always quiet?

Always angry?

Or that you stood the f*ck up

when you finally had enough?

—

🧾 SELF-REFLECTION CHECKLIST 🧾

☐ Do you fantasize about getting sick just to rest without punishment?

☐ Do you get tension headaches every Sunday?

☐ Have your loved ones said “you’re not really here” even when you’re physically present?

☐ Do you hate how your voice sounds at work?

☐ Do you go mute in meetings even when you're full of thoughts?

☐ Do you see the signs of decay… and stay anyway?

That’s how you know.

Leave.

Before it leaves you **permanently.**

---

Reblog this to someone you love

🧠 Read more respect-coded doctrine and emotional architecture at:

👉 https://www.patreon.com/TheMostHumble

🛡️ Masculine polarity. Scrolltrap psychology. Unforgiven words.

🚪 Warning: This post has changed lives, ended jobs, and resurrected spines.

&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;<br>

&lt;!-- END TRANSMISSION [WORKPLACE KILLED THE BRAVE YOU. GET OUT BEFORE IT KILLS THE REST.] --&gt;

[witchofthesouls]

About the Other/Cybertronian!TFP crew in Jack, Raf and Miko…

What would their alt modes be like, do you think? Would they be more Autobot, Decepticon, or Predacon in nature? Also, what kind of shenanigans would each of them get into?

Personally, I do enjoy the thought that cyberized!humans would have a slant towards 'military' upgrades and beastial traits. Like a tribute to humanity's ties to the animal kingdom and their capacity for arms (tool usage lol). Think of it how a lot of civilian equipment, vehicles, fashion, and architecture, as well as groundbreaking discoveries, had a lot of roots from warfare or military applications.

Shoot, I'm thinking that Aligned verse cyber!humans could be considered throwbacks since the initial generations of early Cybertronians didn't have T-cogs!

I think it would be really fascinating to build on the Cybertronians' form of ableism (as seen with Bumblebee and Starscream with their stolen T-cogs) compared to a cyber!Agent Fowler -who was an Army Ranger-or a cyber!random human that lacks a weapon system and/or conventional armature. Plus, the massive culture clash between American views on social mobility versus Golden Age Functionist-held caste system.

(So much shenanigans there.)

Generally, my thoughts for their Cybertronian forms are consistent across the various Other aus with some tweaking on the plot and the world-building:

Jack has deep ties to blackbirds and corvids, so he's capable of flight. May have multi-forms as an ode to a fae heritage or something strange as a direct descendant to a Prime of Chaos upon a planet caging the Unmaker. Dark frame with a pale face. His (and his mother's) optics would be a grey-blue hue.

Miko is a War-Forged Seeker femme. A lot of is due my headcanons on Seekers (and their kin) and her yōkai roots. War-Forged is what I'm specifically calling Elita One's frame-kith. Cybertronians used to bleed pink, so the bright pink armor is callback their Primal Age and their ancient roots. War-Forged are mecha with extreme combat-related programs that modern science as yet to come close to surpassing them.

As for Raf, he's a dragon. Not quite a Predacon, but it's definitely aligned. Or, weirdly enough, a satellite. I think it would be funny if he's similar to Soundwave in some ways there. The Autobots would need to deal with his data-cables. A dragon shape as it's a call his family's roots to being adventurers to Elsewhere, his dad being a dragon himself, and the old warning: "Here be dragons."

[neurospring]

History and Basics of Language Models: How Transformers Changed AI Forever - and Led to Neuro-sama

I have seen a lot of misunderstandings and myths about Neuro-sama's language model. I have decided to write a short post, going into the history of and current state of large language models and providing some explanation about how they work, and how Neuro-sama works! To begin, let's start with some history.

Before the beginning

Before the language models we are used to today, models like RNNs (Recurrent Neural Networks) and LSTMs (Long Short-Term Memory networks) were used for natural language processing, but they had a lot of limitations. Both of these architectures process words sequentially, meaning they read text one word at a time in order. This made them struggle with long sentences, they could almost forget the beginning by the time they reach the end.

Another major limitation was computational efficiency. Since RNNs and LSTMs process text one step at a time, they can't take full advantage of modern parallel computing harware like GPUs. All these fundamental limitations mean that these models could never be nearly as smart as today's models.

The beginning of modern language models

In 2017, a paper titled "Attention is All You Need" introduced the transformer architecture. It was received positively for its innovation, but no one truly knew just how important it is going to be. This paper is what made modern language models possible.

The transformer's key innovation was the attention mechanism, which allows the model to focus on the most relevant parts of a text. Instead of processing words sequentially, transformers process all words at once, capturing relationships between words no matter how far apart they are in the text. This change made models faster, and better at understanding context.

The full potential of transformers became clearer over the next few years as researchers scaled them up.

The Scale of Modern Language Models

A major factor in an LLM's performance is the number of parameters - which are like the model's "neurons" that store learned information. The more parameters, the more powerful the model can be. The first GPT (generative pre-trained transformer) model, GPT-1, was released in 2018 and had 117 million parameters. It was small and not very capable - but a good proof of concept. GPT-2 (2019) had 1.5 billion parameters - which was a huge leap in quality, but it was still really dumb compared to the models we are used to today. GPT-3 (2020) had 175 billion parameters, and it was really the first model that felt actually kinda smart. This model required 4.6 million dollars for training, in compute expenses alone.

Recently, models have become more efficient: smaller models can achieve similar performance to bigger models from the past. This efficiency means that smarter and smarter models can run on consumer hardware. However, training costs still remain high.

How Are Language Models Trained?

Pre-training: The model is trained on a massive dataset to predict the next token. A token is a piece of text a language model can process, it can be a word, word fragment, or character. Even training relatively small models with a few billion parameters requires trillions of tokens, and a lot of computational resources which cost millions of dollars.

Post-training, including fine-tuning: After pre-training, the model can be customized for specific tasks, like answering questions, writing code, casual conversation, etc. Certain post-training methods can help improve the model's alignment with certain values or update its knowledge of specific domains. This requires far less data and computational power compared to pre-training.

The Cost of Training Large Language Models

Pre-training models over a certain size requires vast amounts of computational power and high-quality data. While advancements in efficiency have made it possible to get better performance with smaller models, models can still require millions of dollars to train, even if they have far fewer parameters than GPT-3.

The Rise of Open-Source Language Models

Many language models are closed-source, you can't download or run them locally. For example ChatGPT models from OpenAI and Claude models from Anthropic are all closed-source.

However, some companies release a number of their models as open-source, allowing anyone to download, run, and modify them.

While the larger models can not be run on consumer hardware, smaller open-source models can be used on high-end consumer PCs.

An advantage of smaller models is that they have lower latency, meaning they can generate responses much faster. They are not as powerful as the largest closed-source models, but their accessibility and speed make them highly useful for some applications.

So What is Neuro-sama?

Basically no details are shared about the model by Vedal, and I will only share what can be confidently concluded and only information that wouldn't reveal any sort of "trade secret". What can be known is that Neuro-sama would not exist without open-source large language models. Vedal can't train a model from scratch, but what Vedal can do - and can be confidently assumed he did do - is post-training an open-source model. Post-training a model on additional data can change the way the model acts and can add some new knowledge - however, the core intelligence of Neuro-sama comes from the base model she was built on. Since huge models can't be run on consumer hardware and would be prohibitively expensive to run through API, we can also say that Neuro-sama is a smaller model - which has the disadvantage of being less powerful, having more limitations, but has the advantage of low latency. Latency and cost are always going to pose some pretty strict limitations, but because LLMs just keep getting more efficient and better hardware is becoming more available, Neuro can be expected to become smarter and smarter in the future. To end, I have to at least mention that Neuro-sama is more than just her language model, though we have only talked about the language model in this post. She can be looked at as a system of different parts. Her TTS, her VTuber avatar, her vision model, her long-term memory, even her Minecraft AI, and so on, all come together to make Neuro-sama.

Wrapping up - Thanks for Reading!

This post was meant to provide a brief introduction to language models, covering some history and explaining how Neuro-sama can work. Of course, this post is just scratching the surface, but hopefully it gave you a clearer understanding about how language models function and their history!

[darkmaga-returns]

The digital revolution and artificial intelligence are not only the greatest possible threat to our privacy and financial security, but also to our values, because the digital revolution makes possible Communism, our likely future.  Humans, like the Borg  in Star Trek, will no longer be individuals capable of thought.  They will be part of a collective with a collective mind imposed by official narratives, with all unofficial narratives censored as misinformation. 

Already in American universities and public schools students are being taught that compliance with official narratives is rewarded and that intelligence is the ability to remember and repeat. Even this is being bypassed, because students no longer know a subject or how to use language to write a theme.  AI does it for them, so of what does modern education consist?  It consists of knowing how to use AI to solve math and physics problems and write your history and English papers.  You don’t need to know math, physics, history, or how to use the language. Never learning these skills, education produces uneducated citizens. 

These are precisely the people who will be made useless by AI. AI has a massive advantage over researchers and memory and repeat. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects will be needed only in small numbers to type into the computers the medical symptoms, legal precedents, architectural parameters for the building, and the parameters of the engineering problem.  AI’s ability to recognize patterns and to rapidly search data bases eliminates most purposes of the upper professional classes.

The process of technology separating students from learning skills perhaps began with handheld calculators, which resulted in children ceasing to learn the multiplication tables.  With the advent of computer keyboards, students ceased to learn to write cursive.

[technicallylovingcomputer]

How to Balance PvE and PvP in MMORPGs

 Creating a successful MMORPG requires careful attention to one of the most challenging aspects of MMORPG game development: balancing Player versus Environment (PvE) and Player versus Player (PvP) content. When these two gameplay pillars are properly balanced, they create a rich, dynamic world that keeps players engaged for years. When they're not, your game can quickly lose its player base.

Why Balance Matters in MMORPG Game Development

MMORPGs thrive on diverse player preferences. Some players love raiding dungeons and defeating epic bosses, while others crave the thrill of outmaneuvering human opponents. The most successful MMORPGs don't force players to choose—they create ecosystems where both playstyles can coexist and complement each other.

As experienced developers know, imbalance can lead to serious problems:

Player exodus when one type of content receives preferential treatment

"Dead" game areas when certain content lacks meaningful rewards

Community division between PvE and PvP players

Power imbalances that make content trivial or frustratingly difficult

Core Principles for Balancing PvE and PvP

1. Separate Skill Systems When Necessary

One fundamental approach in MMORPG game development is implementing different rules for skills in PvE versus PvP contexts. Many abilities that work well against predictable AI enemies can become overwhelming when used against other players.

Consider World of Warcraft's approach: many crowd control abilities have different durations when used against players compared to monsters. This simple adjustment prevents PvP matches from becoming frustrating stun-lock festivals while still allowing those abilities to remain useful in dungeons.

2. Create Meaningful Progression Paths for Both

Players need to feel their preferred gameplay style offers legitimate advancement. A common pitfall in MMORPG game development is making the best gear exclusive to one content type.

Guild Wars 2 solves this elegantly by offering multiple paths to equivalent gear. Whether you're exploring story content, raiding, or competing in structured PvP, you're making meaningful progress toward your character's growth.

3. Design Complementary Reward Structures

Smart reward structures encourage players to engage with both content types without forcing them into gameplay they don't enjoy.

Final Fantasy XIV implements this brilliantly:

PvP offers unique cosmetic rewards and titles that don't affect PvE power

PvE progression rewards that remain relevant to casual PvPers

Seasonal PvP rewards that maintain engagement without creating power imbalances

4. Consider Scaling Systems

Scaling systems are increasingly common in modern MMORPG game development, allowing characters of different power levels to compete on more even terms.

Elder Scrolls Online's battle scaling system normalizes stats in PvP areas, ensuring that gear differences matter but don't make fights impossible. This approach lets newer players participate while still rewarding veterans' progression.

Technical Implementation Challenges

Skill Effect Modifiers

Implementing separate modifiers for skills across different content types creates additional complexity. Your system architecture needs to support contextual rule changes that can dynamically adjust how abilities function based on whether they're being used in PvE or PvP scenarios.

For example, a stun ability might last 5 seconds against a dungeon boss but only 2 seconds against another player. These contextual adjustments help maintain balance without creating separate ability sets.

Data-Driven Balance

Successful MMORPG game development requires continual refinement based on player behavior data. Implement robust telemetry systems to track:

Win rates in different PvP brackets

Completion times for PvE content

Class/build representation across content types

Economic impacts of different activities

This data forms the foundation for informed balance decisions rather than relying solely on player feedback, which often skews toward the most vocal community members.

Case Studies: Learning From Success and Failure

Guild Wars 2: Structured PvP Success

ArenaNet's approach to structured PvP in Guild Wars 2 represents one of the most elegant solutions in MMORPG game development. By completely separating PvP builds and gear from PvE progression, they created a truly skill-based PvP environment while allowing their PvE systems to scale naturally.

World of Warcraft: The PvP Power Experiment

Blizzard's introduction of PvP Power and PvP Resilience stats was an attempt to solve balance issues by creating separate gear progressions. While theoretically sound, this approach created problems:

Players needed separate gear sets for different content

PvE players felt forced into PvP to remain competitive

The system added complexity without solving core balance issues

The eventual removal of these stats and return to unified gear with contextual modifiers proves that simpler solutions are often better in MMORPG game development.

Integration Strategies That Work

Territorial Control With Benefits

Territorial PvP becomes more compelling when it offers benefits that extend to PvE gameplay. Black Desert Online uses this approach effectively, with guild warfare providing economic advantages that benefit both PvP-focused players and their more PvE-oriented guildmates.

Optional Flag Systems

Many successful MMORPGs implement flag systems allowing players to opt in or out of open-world PvP. This creates natural tension and excitement without forcing unwilling participants into combat situations they don't enjoy.

New World's territory control system exemplifies this approach, making PvP meaningful while keeping it optional for those who prefer PvE content.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

In MMORPG game development, certain design decisions consistently lead to balance problems:

Making the best PvE gear require PvP participation (or vice versa)

Balancing classes primarily around one content type

Allowing gear advantages to completely overshadow skill in PvP

Creating "mandatory" grinds across content types

Neglecting one content type in major updates

Finding the Sweet Spot: Blending Content Types

The most successful MMORPGs find creative ways to blend PvE and PvP content:

ESO's Cyrodiil combines large-scale PvP with PvE objectives

FFXIV's Frontlines mixes competitive objectives with NPC enemies

Guild Wars 2's World vs. World incorporates PvE elements into massive realm warfare

These hybrid approaches satisfy both player types while encouraging interaction between different playstyles.

Conclusion

Successful MMORPG game development requires treating PvE and PvP balance as equally important, interconnected systems. By implementing contextual modifiers, separate progression paths, and data-driven balancing, you can create a game world where diverse player preferences are respected and rewarded.

Remember that perfect balance is never achieved—it's an ongoing process that requires constant attention and adjustment based on player behavior and feedback. The most successful MMORPGs view balance as a journey rather than a destination, with each update bringing the game closer to that elusive equilibrium that keeps all types of players engaged and satisfied.

By focusing on systems that allow both playstyles to thrive without undermining each other, you'll create an MMORPG that stands the test of time and builds a loyal, diverse community.

[veyren-city]

Streets and Districts of Veyren City.

As the title implies here is a list of streets: residential streets, main roads, connector roads and districts! (Animated purple and white divider made by @/cafekitsune)

Ashwick Avenue - A historic ave with old buildings, dimmed streetlights, and a lingering mist.

Cinder Row - A narrow street with a mix of small businesses' and fading neon signs knowns for it's quiet timeless feel.

Vale Street - A long winding road that always seems slick with rain, lined with cafe's record shops and a teahouse that refuses to die out.

Halloway Road - A street that curves through the heart of the city, known for its mix of modern and decayed architecture

Lockewood Drive - A semi-industrial road where tech startups and small shops co-exist.

Whitmoor Street - An area known for its old-world charm, bookstores and flower shops still hold against time.

Novastra Boulevard -

Main Artery of the pulse district. Holographic billboards and glass skyscrapers tower the streets

Notable places:

Veyren Grand Station - The Cities central train hub, packed at all times.

Astrocorp HQ - A cooperate tower belonging to a mega-conglomerate that controls most of Veyren's digital infrastructure

Synthwave Café - a 24 hour coffee shop with neon lit walls and robotic baristas

Project Dome - A massive curved screen, displaying ads, weather, news, and the latest fashion trends in real time.

Orion Street -

A shopping and entertainment hub where the latest tech and fashion is sold.

Notable places:

Oblivion Club - One of the biggest night clubs in Veyren with floors that light up as people dance. The drinks are never ending as well as the friendly company.

Neon Arcade - A retro futuristic arcade where old school gaming collides with VR and newer stylistic games.

Hyper Mart 24 - A fully automated department store with robotic assistance. You think it? They got it!

Starlight Records - A hidden vinyl record shop that still exists despite the digital age

Helix Road -

A tech and business center, home to high end offices, and digital marketing firms.

Notable Places:

Zephyr Towers - A sleek black skyscraper that's a hub for cyber security firm.

Neurolink Labs - A company experimenting with brain-interface technology.

Flux Lounge - High end, invite only social club where executives discuss business over cocktails.

Astra Bar - A bar with digital bartenders and waiters and drinks that glow under blacklight

Stratos Avenue -

Known for media, fashion, and high energy night life.

Notable places:

Veyren Broadcast Center - the city's largest media headquarters, airing new and digital influencers.

Runway 99 - An avant-garde fashion district where models walk beside holograms of the fashions creators.

Pulse plaza - A futuristic square where massive events take place and ads are projected into the skies.

The Grid - A rooftop lounge balcony with a stunning view of the cities skyline.

Synapse Alley -

A gritty underground area filled with hidden bars, black market tech, and cybernetic enhancement shops.

Notable Places:

Echo Bar - A secret jazz bar that Tristan visits from time to time. The only semi-safe place in the alley.

Bytes & Bites - A hacker café where people don't just sell coffee, they sell digital secrets.

The Raven Room - A speakeasy accessible only through a glitched billboard. Where people drank and talked shop over the latest illegal tech.

PawnXchange - A pawn shop for illegal tech, and stolen data drives.

Rainmere Street - A quiet hidden street, nothing to spectacular there home to three story walk ups.

Halloway Lane - A lesser known street where only locals wander, known for its "old world feel"

Wrenford Alley - old abandoned shops with swinging wooden signs and cobblestone road. A relic from the older days.

Bellrose Street - Home to Tristan and his bookshop~!

Dunhaven Street - Home to a small park with a pond and a playground, really only the "natural green" around these days without leaving the city.

Draycott Lane - A small street lined with homes and a few antique and second hand shops.

Easton Bridge - Pedestrian/vehicle bridge leading from the Pulse District to the residential district.

Lennox Street - A bustling road lined with chain food restaurants.

Verity Square - A plaza full of street vendors leads to Synapse alley.

Halloway Underpass - A tunnel beneath the train station where rain water pools beneath flickering lights. Leads to Holloway Road.

[creamsicle-art]

Game Development in Raylib - Week 1

Recently I've been getting into retro game development. I don't mean pixel art and PSX style game development, those are nice but they don't quite scratch the itch. I'm talking about developing games with retro tools. Because of this, I decided to give Raylib a try.

For those of you who don't know, Raylib is a C framework targeted at game developers. Unlike Godot, which I used for my previous project Ravager, Raylib is not a game engine, it doesn't offer physics, scene management, or any kind of graphics more complicated than drawing textures to the screen. Almost everything that makes a game a game, is something you have to do yourself. This makes it ideal to scratch that "retro" itch I've been feeling, where everything has to be made on my own, and a finalized game is a fine tuned engine entirely of my own creation. Raylib offers bindings for almost any language you can think of, but I decided to use it's native C.

Setting the Scene

Since Raylib is so barebones, there's no concept of how the game should be built, so the first thing I had to do was define my engine architecture. For this initial outing, I decided to build a simple Scene+Actor system, wherein at any given time the game has one Scene loaded, which contains multiple Actors. I settled on this mainly because it was simple, and my experience with the C language was very limited.

Since Raylib didn't have any concept of a Scene, naturally it had no way to build them. While I could just hardcode all the entities and graphics in a scene, that would be unmanageable for even a basic game. Because of this I was forced to invent my own way to load scenes from asset files. This gave me the opportunity to do one of my favorite things in programming, defining my very own binary file type. I won't get into it too much right here and right now, but in this format, I can define a scene as a collection of entities, each of which can be passed their very own long string of bytes to decode into some initial data.

The main drawback of using binary files instead of a plaintext format is that I can't write the level files by hand. This meant that I had to write my own level editor to go along with my custom engine. Funnily enough, this brought me right back to Godot. The Godot engine offers some pretty powerful tools for writing binary files, and it's editor interface automatically offers everything I need in the way of building levels. It's sort of ironic that my quest to get away from modern engines lead me to building yet another tool in Godot, but it sure as hell beats building a level editor in C, so I don't really mind all that much.

Getting Physical

After getting scene management out of the way, I moved on to the physics system. My end goal here is making a simple platforming game, so I wanted a simple yet robust system that allows me to have dynamic-static physics that allows for smooth sliding along surfaces, and dynamic-dynamic collisions for things like hitboxes. For the sake of simplicity (which seems like it's going to become my catchphrase here) I decided to limit physics to axis aligned rectangles. Ultimately I settled on a system where entities can register a collision box with the physics system and assign it to some given layers (represented by bit flags). Then entities can use their collision box to query the physics system about either a static overlap, or the result of sweeping a box through space.

Raylib offers built in methods for testing rectangle overlap, so I didn't have to worry much about overlap queries, but the rectangle sweeping method is something a little more special. The full algorithm honestly deserves it's own post, but I'll give the basics here. The core of the algorithm is a function that determines where along a movement a given rectangle touches another rectangle, and that edges of the rectangles touched. It makes use of the separating axis theorem to determine when the shapes will start and stop intersecting along each collision axis. If the last intersection happens before any have ended, then the shapes do collide, the axis they collide on is that final axis, and the time of collision is the time of the final intersection. Looking back I could easily extend this algorithm to any arbitrary shape, but that's for next time I do this.

Going Forwards

My plan for this game is to build a minimal metroidvania style game. The target playtime is probably going to only be around 30-45 minutes. In the following week I plan on building out my Godot level editor, and working out a system for scene transitions and managing sound effects. I hope to by done by the end of November.

[rajaniesh]

Unlocking Full Potential: The Compelling Reasons to Migrate to Databricks Unity Catalog

In a world overwhelmed by data complexities and AI advancements, Databricks Unity Catalog emerges as a game-changer. This blog delves into how Unity Catalog revolutionizes data and AI governance, offering a unified, agile solution .

[usafphantom2]

U.S. Air Force Awards RTX $1 Billion Contract to Upgrade F-22 Sensors

The contract follows the recent news about the tests of new advanced sensors on the F-22 Raptor, which the U.S. Air Force is planning to field quickly as part of the ongoing upgrade program.

Parth Satam

F-22 new sensors contract

An F-22 Raptor takes off from Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, June 30, 2022. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Zachary Rufus)

Amid the acute need for 5th generation fighters in modern combat scenarios against peer adversaries, the U.S. Air Force is looking to upgrade its F-22 Raptor with a series of sensors to make it more survivable and relevant. The service announced on Aug. 29, 2024, the award of a $1 billion contract to RTX‘s Raytheon for new sensors that are categorized as “Group B hardware”, together with spares and support equipment.

“Work will be performed in McKinney, Texas, and is expected to be completed by May 8, 2029,” said the DoD contracts statement. The Aviationist had recently reported that the Air Force was testing new sensors on the F-22 to extend its service life, which would also be applied to the NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance) family of systems.

That report also quoted Brig. Gen. Jason D. Voorheis, the Program Executive Officer for Fighter and Advanced Aircraft, who said they were hoping to field these sensors faster. The Raptor team had conducted six flight tests to demonstrate the advanced sensors.

“The F-22 team is working really hard on executing a modernization roadmap to field advanced sensors, connectivity, weapons, and other capabilities. We’re executing that successfully, and that will lead to […] a rapid fielding in the near future.” This would be done through a Middle Tier Acquisition (MTA) program.

Some of the sensors included in the contract could be the stealthy pods seen on the F-22. Air and Space Forces earlier quoted officials who confirmed that the pods host IRST (Infrared Search and Track) sensors. The development of a new IRST sensor for the Raptor was also confirmed by the service’s 2025 budget request, which however did not mention the sensor being podded.

This work is part of an F-22 improvement campaign that calls for $7.8 billion in investments before 2030, which includes $3.1 billion for research and development and $4.7 billion in procurement.

An F-22 Raptor with the Air Combat Command F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team performs a flyover and air demonstration at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., Aug 13, 2024. (U.S Air Force Photo by Trevor Cokley)

F-22’s future in the U.S. Air Force

The development is also in contrast with previously reported USAF plans to retire the older F-22 airframes, for which it had sought approval from the Congress. These F-22s are 32 Block 20 units from a total fleet of 186. At the same time, the service aims to upgrade the remaining 154 with new cryptography, an expanded open architecture, new weapons and an advanced threat warning receiver, beside the IRST.

However, the service now appears to be reconsidering that plan, after Voorheis was quoted in the ASF report: “From an F-22 sunsetting perspective, I don’t have a date for you.” “What I can tell you is that we are hyper-focused on modernization to sustain that air superiority combat capability for a highly contested environment for as long as necessary,” he added.

IMAGE 3: A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor assigned to the 3rd Wing takes off above Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Jun. 17, 2024. (Image credit: USAF/Senior Airman Julia Lebens)

The U.S. Air Force describes the Raptor as a combination of stealth, supercruise, maneuverability, and integrated avionics, designed to project air dominance, rapidly and at great distance. Initially introduced as an air-superiority-only asset, the F-22 later started performing both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.

The F-35 is largely a strike fighter and an airborne sensor-fusion and data-processing capable command post in its tactical orientation. But the Raptor is a pure air dominance interceptor. Although costly to upgrade and maintain, it nevertheless can play an important role in degrading adversary air power through either long-range BVR (Beyond Visual Range) and dogfights.

Moreover, having F-22s also increases the number of LO (Low Observable) aircraft in the inventory, at least until more F-35s are available, especially the TR-3 (Technology Refresh-3) Block 4 upgraded variants.

In 2021 too, then Air Force chief General Charles Q. Brown Jr. revealed his “4+1” fighter plan, suggesting the F-22 to be replaced by the NGAD while retaining the F-35, F-15E and EX, and the F-16. The “plus 1” was the A-10, but in March 2023, Brown said the A-10s were being retired faster than expected and the entire fleet would possibly be divested by 2030.

Meanwhile the NGAD’s future itself is uncertain after U.S.A.F have noted its technical complexity and financial implications. The F-22 thus seems to be back in the running.

On Jul. 10, 2024, Air Combat Command chief Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said during a Mitchell Institute event that the service has no official plan to retire its F-22 Raptors. “Right now, there’s…frankly isn’t an F-22 replacement and the F-22 is a fantastic aircraft,” said Wilsbach. “I’m in favor of keeping the Block 20s. They give us a lot of training value, and even if we had to in an emergency use the Block 20s in a combat situation, they’re very capable.”

F-22 Indonesia

U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors assigned to the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, conduct Dynamic Force Employment operations at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Air Force Base, Indonesia, on Aug. 6, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Mitchell Corley)

Other known F-22 upgrades

Other upgrades mentioned in the 2025 budget request are a Mode 5 Identification Friend or Foe (IFF), Link 16, a Multifunction Information Distribution System Joint Tactical Radio System (MIDS JTRS), a new Operational Fight Program, advanced radar Electronic Protection and an Embedded GPS/Inertial Navigation System (INS) Modernization (EGI-M).

Voorheis also mentioned the GRACE (Government Reference Architecture Compute Environment) software that would allow “non-traditional F-22 software” to be installed on the aircraft and provide “additional processing and pilot interfaces.”

A new helmet is also being tested, as part of the Next Generation Fixed Wing Helmet program to replace the current 40-year-old HGU-55P headgear. The new helmet would also allow the introduction of helmet-mounted devices which provide essential flight and weapon aiming information through line of sight imagery, easing the workload of the pilots.

About Parth Satam

Parth Satam's career spans a decade and a half between two dailies and two defense publications. He believes war, as a human activity, has causes and results that go far beyond which missile and jet flies the fastest. He therefore loves analyzing military affairs at their intersection with foreign policy, economics, technology, society and history. The body of his work spans the entire breadth from defense aerospace, tactics, military doctrine and theory, personnel issues, West Asian, Eurasian affairs, the energy sector and Space.

@Theaviationist.com

[samueldays]

Plagiarist's Cant, and Plagiarists Can't.

"This was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society."

-Claudine Gay, NYT, 2024.

That's four metaphors combined in one sentence: military, fabric, religion, architecture.

"The Ogre does what ogres can, Deeds quite impossible for Man, But one prize is beyond his reach, The Ogre cannot master Speech. About a subjugated plain, Among its desperate and slain, The Ogre stalks with hands on hips While drivel gushes from his lips."

-W.H. Auden, 1968, originally about Soviet cant.

The Gay affair (thank you English phraseology) has gotten headlines with Claudine Gay, plagiarism and antisemitism, but my interest in it is more about the entire class of people eagerly telling lies and talking cant. Lying is wrong. Cant is ogrish.

Gay lied, and the Harvard board lied to back her up, and an entire class of allegedly truth-seeking, fact-checking journalists lied some more. Several "professional" people who are well paid to be well informed were revealed as aggressively ignorant and less informed than I was after an hour with Sci-Hub and Google Scholar. I already felt cynical and jaded beforehand, and I nonetheless kept being disappointed by the sheer torrent of lies in the Gay affair.

I say "lies" because the alternative is that they are delusional imbeciles who genuinely believe that this canting midwit is a groundbreaking scholar. Look at her. Look at her and laugh.

Given a NYT column and a last word of sorts, she delivers neither competent workmanlike prose, nor literary excellence, but instead a grab bag of cant and overused metaphor and pompous self-importance.

My hope is that by stepping down I will deny demagogues the opportunity to further weaponize my presidency in their campaign to undermine the ideals animating Harvard since its founding: excellence, openness, independence, truth.

She did not bring excellence, nor openness, nor truth, and I'm skeptical about the independence. She is at best spouting cant, at worst lying again. She communicates in emotive connotations, unfitting of a Harvard scholar.

It is not lost on me that I make an ideal canvas for projecting every anxiety about the generational and demographic changes unfolding on American campuses: a Black woman selected to lead a storied institution. Someone who views diversity as a source of institutional strength and dynamism. Someone who has advocated a modern curriculum that spans from the frontier of quantum science to the long-neglected history of Asian Americans. Someone who believes that a daughter of Haitian immigrants has something to offer to the nation’s oldest university.

What a lot of blather. "Diversity" in particular is a bait-and-switch word that changes between meaning "More black people" and "Variety of opinions" depending on whether the speaker is engaged in rhetorical attack or defense. The four sentences of this paragraph could be reduced with little loss to the four words "Black. Race. Asian. Black." and in the process constitute evidence that the anxiety about changes on American campus is justified - the campus is becoming race-obsessed to the detriment of everything else. It's race-cant, similar in spirit to plagiarism, and to Orwell's complaint: "his brain is not involved as it would be if he were choosing his words for himself."

The plagiarism is not the only problem. Even the broader issue that she writes and talks sloppily is not the only problem. Her papers were bad as scientific papers. Her p-values were absurd, her statistical analysis was confounded, she dropped an inconvenient data point, she failed to distinguish correlation with causation, she asserted overly strong conclusions from tiny sample sizes processed through interpolative models, et cetera. I've got Tumblr mutuals who write better and more factful analysis.

There is nothing inherently wrong with plagiarism as such: for example engineering approaches to the same problem, studies of the same object, or entertainment in the same genre ought to be similar to one another with good reason.

Much like Van Halen's famous "remove the brown M&Ms from the bowl" contract, though, a ban on close plagiarism can serve as a simple and visible test of someone's ability to follow correct procedure. Hence the pun: plagiarists can't. Claudine Gay is a serial plagiarist who sucks at expressing herself, so she copies, and she cants.

[mariacallous]

Around 12,500 miles above our heads, the satellites that make up the Global Positioning System (GPS) quietly keep the world running. A blackout would result in almost instantaneous chaos.

“You would see traffic jams, a lot more traffic accidents, because transportation is going to see the first most immediate impact,” says Dana Goward, the founder of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, a charity which works to strengthen GPS.

Thousands of planes in the air, which use GPS among other systems for navigation and precision landing, would face a wave of uncertainty. Then other critical parts of society—from financial transactions to energy production systems—which have come to rely upon the precision positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) provided by the US-owned constellation of 31 GPS satellites may start to stutter. The ripples would be felt around the world.

“If it was a catastrophic moment that happened at a blink of an eye and we lost GPS entirely, you would see this global seizure of everything that moves, every piece of data that moves, every human that moves. All of that would shut down,” says Erik Daehler, the vice president of defense, satellites, and spacecraft systems at Sierra Space. The timing signals included in GPS would be one of the most impactful losses. Cell phone connections would likely collapse. Billions would quickly be wiped from stock markets amid the disruption.

A GPS outage could be particularly ruinous to the United States, which has a heavy reliance on its sovereign space system and has dragged its feet in building backups that can provide the required resilience needed to keep the country running. The US has fallen behind, the National Space-based PNT Advisory Board warned last year. In contrast, China has reinforced its own more modern satellite navigation system—BeiDou—with a sprawling network of fiber-optic cables and terrestrial radio signals.

The conditions needed to cause the entire GPS network to be entirely knocked out would be extraordinary and likely would come with wider societal ramifications. Such an outage, for instance, could be caused by China or Russia firing anti-satellite weapons against the GPS satellites (the US also has anti-satellite weapons), a powerful geomagnetic storm, or an escalation in the capabilities of electronic warfare.

Despite the improbability of a total outage, GPS isn’t infallible. It has its demons. “What really happens is, regionally, GPS gets messed with and jammed and interfered with on a regular basis,” Daehler says. Thousands of planes and ships are having their GPS interfered with each week, and signals are regularly disrupted around war zones.

“America is not well prepared at all,” Goward says. More should be done to build out PNT systems that can act as a backstop to the space-based GPS signals, he says. “There’s not a general overall awareness. We certainly don’t have a resilient PNT architecture or a PNT architecture of any kind other than GPS.”

The GPS constellation of 31 satellites, which has received several hardware updates over the years, has been in operation for the past 40 years. The system typically broadcasts at 100 percent availability and provides accurate location data to within 7 meters.

The GPS satellites are just one of the four so-called global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) in operation. As well as China’s BeiDou, there is Russia’s GLONASS and Europe’s Galileo constellation. Over the past half decade, though, GNSS signals have increasingly been attacked as the technology to disrupt them has become cheaper and more sophisticated. Most commonly, disruption happens around Russia, Israel, Myanmar, the South China sea, areas of the Middle East, and the Baltic countries in Europe.

Broadly, there are two main forms of attack against GNSS signals: jamming and spoofing. Jamming involves blocking signals so that positioning isn’t available, while spoofing involves creating mock signals that make something appear somewhere else on the map. Ships have been made to appear inland at airports, while planes are made to look like they are flying in tight circles. In one video shared by the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation that appears to show GPS interference, a plane’s systems blast out a warning message to “pull up” when its pilots reported they were flying higher than Mount Everest.

“I’m most concerned about aviation,” says Todd Humphreys, the director of the University of Texas at Austin’s radio navigation laboratory. “At least one fatal aviation accident in Europe can be traced to GNSS interference as a primary cause. A deliberate attack against US aviation, as opposed to the collateral attacks in Europe, would cause astounding economic harm.” The number of spoofing incidents last year was 500 percent higher than in 2023, according to aviation officials.

The US Space Force, which is responsible for the GPS satellites, did not respond to a request for comment for this article from WIRED.

Across the US, PNT data is crucial to almost all critical infrastructure—from communications and health care monitoring systems to food production and wastewater management—but GPS is often the “sole” source of this information, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, making the systems more vulnerable. (The military uses a more robust GPS setup than commercial applications).

“There is no one sector that doesn’t use GPS, and some are more reliant than others. Users in these sectors are not all acutely aware of the risks associated with their dependency on it and the ways that the system can be disrupted or degraded,” says Caitlin Durkovich, a former national security official and critical infrastructure expert.

Building a “layered” approach could help to make GPS less vulnerable to attack, experts say. Both Europe’s Galileo and China’s BeiDou are newer than GPS and, in some ways, more resilient. Last year, the National Space–based PNT Advisory Board produced a comparison of GPS and BeiDou that flagged a broader series of backups to Beijing’s system.

While GPS satellites are located only in middle Earth orbit, BeiDou has satellites in multiple orbits and is further along in deploying them into low Earth orbit. China also has a terrestrial radio broadcast network, called eLoran, and has laid 20,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cables that link up with 295 timing centers to broadcast alternatives.

“In the case of BeiDou, the system’s enhanced resiliency and capability should be considered an element of ‘soft power’ and an element of great power competition,” the advisory board wrote last year. The board, led by Admiral Thad Allen, a former leader of the US Coast Guard, called for a more joined-up approach to managing PNT across the US government and for GPS to be specifically designated as “critical infrastructure.”

On April 26, 2024, the first of two Finnair flights were forced to turn around due to GPS interference likely carried out by Russia. After a second aircraft was diverted the following day, Finnair suspended its daily flights between Helsinki and Tartu, Estonia. Source: AirNav

“I think there has to be a federal role in this, both because the system and signals are operated and provisioned by the federal government. But because of the complexity of the system and the fact that you need a common standard,” Durkovich says.

“We’d like to see a core national PNT architecture,” Goward says. “Then we would suggest some form of fiber network and a terrestrial broadcast. We think it would be a substantial deterrent and it would actually make space-based systems safer because folks would be less likely to interfere with it.”

Across the country, there are various levels of backup systems in place that have been sporadically introduced and multiple ongoing efforts to improve the GPS setup. Financial institutions, for instance, have been deploying atomic clocks to ensure they have backups for the timing element provided by GPS and telecoms networks have some capacity in place.

“It’s not to say that the US doesn’t have a robust timing infrastructure, actually it’s quite robust,” says Jeremy Bennington, the vice president of PNT Assurance at Spirent Communications, adding that much of it is spread across commercial entities, a stark difference to China’s national approach. “I do think that a backup is going to be required so that you end up with that layered approach.”

The calls to modernize PNT have increasingly become more urgent. In 2020, a first-term Trump executive order called for making PNT systems more resilient. At the end of March this year, the Federal Communications Commission opened an inquiry to identify GPS alternatives that can provide backups. “Relying on GPS alone as the primary source of PNT data leaves America exposed to a single point of failure and leaves our PNT system open to disruption or manipulation by adversaries,” the FCC said at the time.

There are multiple ways to add more resilience and upgrade the existing GPS system. The military has long been working on upgrades to be used in defense situations. Bennington says that GPS satellites could be added to other orbits and the further rollout of more capable signals. Daehler and colleagues at Sierra Space are working on creating ways to reduce the impact of jamming and spoofing.

Lisa Dyer, the executive director of the GPS Innovation Alliance, says the GPS system could build in authentication to confirm its signals are genuine, like Galileo and BeiDou. Dyer says that rolling out the newer L5 signal can also build in more protection for planes and aviation. “To me that's an important national objective of the United States: that GPS remains the de facto international navigation standard,” Dyer says.

There are also hardware updates happening, though some of them are slow and have dragged on for years. The US Space Force has recently been funding multiple companies to develop low Earth orbit satellite GPS constellations and quickly launching systems into space. Elsewhere, quantum technologies are being used to create new navigation systems. SandboxAQ, a Google spinout, is working on magnetic navigation.

Ultimately, as well as better government management around GPS, organizations need to spend money to upgrade their systems and protections, Bennington says. That means spending money. “If GPS jamming or spoofing were to happen at any major airport, whether it's Heathrow, Frankfurt, Munich, New York, the amount of cancellation and delays in the cost incurred by the airlines just in several hours would be more than the cost to upgrade their fleets,” he says.