The truth is, that living or dead, if but decently treated, whales as a species are by no means creatures of ill odor

What sent me down this rabbit hole was trying to verify some properties used in another code that were taken from the JANAF tables. For some reason I have an actual paper copy of the JANAF tables and while looking up some data, one of the entries noted that their info was generated from the same source that CEA uses (likely from two CEA utilities called CAP and PAC). I just pulled threads on the NRTS server until I found something interesting.

CEA may be my all-around favorite program. The code does a handful of things very well, well enough to support for longer than I've been alive. It's fast and dependable. The documentation is stellar (pardon the pun). The thermophysical property libraries that it ships with are well-tested, as close to a gold standard without buying a commercial database (NIST, DIPPR). It has always been free.

The input format is a bit wonky, at least before the most recent rewrite, but it works (and there's so much detailed documrntation). It's easy to benchmark against experiment. I had to qualify the code and it did a great job matching Bureau of Mines detonation and flammability data.

It's a good program. It does what is says it does and it does what you tell it to.

It might be interesting to write The "Ignition!" Companion where you simulate the fuels he mentions with a time-period accurate program. Even simulating them with the modern code would be interesting (for some value of 'interesting'...)

Literal rocket science: NASA TN D-1737 "A General IBM 704 or 7090 Computer Program for Computation of Chemical Equilibrium Compositions, Rocket Performance, and and Chapman-Jouguet Detonations" (1963) https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19630012282

I'm not sure if this is FORTRAN II or IV (aka F66) but it's legible enough to recover. Included are a pair of of I/O routines written in FAP (Fortran Assembly Program). If you ever wanted to torture the 7094 emulator in simh, here's some practice.

Side note: This code started as a manual computing plan in 1948 and has been under continuous development ever since, recently being rebuilt a few years ago in Fortran 2008. https://nasa.github.io/cea The authors explain the rationale for using Fortran 2008 instead of another language in a very interesting presentation.
Cc: @nyrath

Neuromancer, except the Turing cops were from the water and gas utility tracking down rogue AIs that owe them money to disconnect their service.

## Ring Launches Streaming  Service

https://theonion.com/ring-launches-streaming-service/

> With an ad-supported $7.99 monthly plan, subscribers can use the Ring+ TV app to stream the front porches, back gates, stairwells, city sidewalks, and apartment building hallways of their choice on up to four devices at once.

New video! I'm attempting to repair a C64 ASSY 250407 that displays random colors on startup.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/K8ZXU2zvcGc
PeerTube: https://makertube.net/w/ufJ7eNjdxfKBJ8HWQmQMuG

#Commodore #Commodore64 #C64 #Repair #Troubleshooting #BlankScreen #ColorfulScreen #PLA #CIA #VIC #RetroComputing #VintageComputing

Outdoor Bob is an utter potato. #CatsOfMastodon

MAHA is amazing, they've made it so no one eats taco bell or chipotle anymore and people are losing weight like crazy

Sick in bed, trying to get back into using Linux a my daily driver and to recover some of my old projects.

Converting from Mercurial to git was a pain in the ass because of -- drumroll -- Python dumbness! Not directly Python's doing, just that however hg-git and mercurial are packaged or distributed, the most recent version of one hates the most recent version of the other and neither will owe up to it. So it was 90 minutes dicking around making and deleting venvs, installing and deleting packages, adding and removing Mercurial options, and about 5 minutes to do the repo conversion once the fragile shitty mass of Python packages were aligned. The solution was to install a major or minor version number back for both under the assumption that sometime in the past these two packages worked together. Somehow that worked and I put that crap behind me now and get on with what I care about.

Python wrecks everything.

NeurIPS conference AI cheats outraged they got caught - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w-km_5gK5U

Blog post:
https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/07/10/neurips-conference-ai-cheats-outraged-they-got-caught/

by @davidgerard

#AI #GenAI #NeurIPS #PeerReview

In memory Adam Nathaniel Yauch aka MCA, American bass player, rapper and founding member of the hardcore punkrock / hip hop group Beastie Boys, born on this day in 1964, NYC

Photo by Gene Ambo

#punkrock #hardcorepunk #adamyauch #mca #beastieboys #history #punkrockhistory #otd

okay folks, its live!

https://dasm.martypc.net/

let me know if you manage to break it.

A fascinating article about how a group of journalists working for the Hungary state news agency quietly documented all the ways the news was manipulated under the Orbán regime. They have now released a detailed report.

Among many things, this is a terrific example of resistance during the rule of authoritarian regimes. Document, document, document the abuses because one day the sun will shine and the truth can be revealed.

#Hungary #resistance #PressFreedom #journalism

https://telex.hu/english/2026/08/04/nearly-500-page-document-compiled-by-hungary-s-state-news-service-staff-details-how-news-was-manipulated-during-orban-era

RE: https://techhub.social/@Techmeme/117038982315909154

I’ll be honest - the water hack story in the US is so dumb. Many of the organisations don’t even know if they were hacked.. claims spreading like wildfire when nobody even knows what they’re dealing with. They have two IT people. They have PLCs on 4G dongles with no passwords. It’s under resourced and crap.

Don’t be worried about Iran, be worried about lack of regulation and central support.

I can't wait for construction next door to be over.

Just seen the Oh Brother Where Art Thou remake and I'm so confused.

Do not cooperate in salvage schemes.

The Snowmobile: A Canadian Winter Essential

Quebec inventor Joseph-Armand Bombardier built the first snowmobile in 1935, revolutionizing winter travel in rural Canada. His company, Bombardier, later became a global leader in transportation. ❄️

🇨🇦 #Canada #Inventions #WinterTech

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/joseph-armand-bombardier