Kenneth Ronkowitz - Serendipity35

A Good Space Hack for the Voyagers

ronkowitz@gmail.com (Kenneth Ronkowitz) — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 18:35:00 +0000

Concept art of NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft in interstellar space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

"Hack" sometimes has a bad reputation. But there are some good hacks.In technology and computing, it has two meanings:
1. Unauthorized Access (verb): To gain illegal or unauthorized access to data, a computer system, or a network (e.g., "My account got hacked").
2. Clever Code Solution (noun/verb): An elegant, clever, or quick fix in programming that solves a tricky problem.

We turn to space. NASA's Voyager 1 is still moving through interstellar space at over 35,000 miles per hour (56,000 kilometers per hour). It is 15 billion miles (about 24 billion km) away from Earth.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab wants it to keep going for just a bit longer.

There are two Voyagers, both launched in the late summer of 1977. They are wonderful relics. These older electronics give off waste heat - which is usually a bad thing - but it keeps practically every instrument onboard warm.

It will run out of power. That was expected to happen quite a while ago, but it keeps on going. So now, JPL is doing a critical power-saving hack on sister probe, Voyager 2. They’re toggling on and off Voyager 2’s key components across a coordinated sequence. It conserves energy but still keeps things from freezing.

Why Voyager 2? It was closer to Earth and had more power to test this hack. It worked and now they want to the hack on the farther-out Voyager 1.

What is their power supply? They both have modest nuclear power plants. These thermoelectric generators convert heat produced by the natural radioactive decay of plutonium-238 into electricity. That plutonium isotope is decaying toward its 88-year half-life, so less heat is being emitted.

The probes launched with 10 instruments apiece. Some have been powered down because they served their purpose when they were moving through the planets in our solar system.

I hope Voyager 1 makes it to November and hits a historic milestone. It passes one light-day’s distance from Earth. That is a fraction of one light-year, but it is also 173 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.

If it passes that point and stays online, it will take messages over 24 hours to reach it. Its 50th anniversary will be on September 5, 2027.

Killed by Google

ronkowitz@gmail.com (Kenneth Ronkowitz) — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 10:49:00 +0000

Killed by Google is a website that compiles lists of all the apps, services, and hardware Google has abandoned over the years. There are a lot.

For example, in apps Google Earth Pro was a desktop app that gave users access to Google Earth with more advanced features. It will be about 26 years old when it ends its life.

The Tenor API service was killed about 1 month ago. It was used to search for and share GIFs from Tenor's database on other websites (notably Discord). It was about 11 years old.

In the hardware category, I have a Chromecast in a drawer even though it was killed almost 2 years ago. Chromecast was a line of digital media players that allowed users to play online content on a television. It was about 11 years old.

AI Overviews and Data Center Power

ronkowitz@gmail.com (Kenneth Ronkowitz) — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 09:55:00 +0000

A U.S. Amazon data center
Image: Tedder - CC BY-SA 4.0

David Pogue on Substack writes that "When you do a Google search these days, you generally see an AI Overview panel above the search results. It’s intended to summarize the answers to your query, so you don’t have to click any links. The first problem: By Google’s own calculations, the AI Overviews are incorrect 28% of the time. The bigger problem: AI is an environmental disaster. It’s already a monstrous energy hog, and its appetite is doubling every six months."

He gives some data about this data center power situation:

4,200 data centers that AI companies have built and 1,500 more are going up as you read this
By 2030, AI will consume 945 terawatt-hours of electricity. That is enough to power every household in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania combined. Almost incomprehensible.
60% of that power will come from polluting power sources.
Don’t care about the environment? How about your power bill? AI’s power needs have driven up electricity costs as much as 15% in the last year, with another 8.5% hike coming by the end of 2026.
Add in more rolling blackouts during heat waves this summer.

But it’s not just Google, because almost every big company is eager to add AI to their products.

Pogue's note of hope is that a few people, like Sheila Morovati, are trying to make AI optional. Morovati is the founder and president of a nonprofit called HabitsofWaste.org. Her movement is called Opt-In AI with a goal of no AI at all unless someone asks for it. The default setting should be the most sustainable and least annoying option.

More at Rise Up, People! Make AI Optional! - David Pogue

Are You in a Deepfake Image or Video?

ronkowitz@gmail.com (Kenneth Ronkowitz) — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 04:36:00 +0000

YouTube is giving all creators 18 and over access to a tool that can detect whether their likeness has been copied and used in AI videos uploaded to the website. Known as deepfakes, these are AI-generated videos, images, or audio that make it look like someone said or did something they never actually said or did.

Team YouTube made an announcement, explaining that their "goal is to provide [users] with more peace of mind by giving [them] easy access to request the removal of unauthorized content." While their likeness detection tool is technically available only to creators, spokesperson Jack Malon said that anyone can use it.

The tool allows you to:
Identify where your likeness shows up.
Understand if others are using your face in videos made with AI.
Safeguard your identity by requesting removal of unauthorized content that uses your likeness directly in YouTube Studio.
Keep your viewers from being misled about you.

An AI model is trained on lots of real photos, videos, or audio of a person — the more data, the better the fake. Then, using techniques like generative adversarial networks (GANs) or diffusion models, the AI swaps faces, clones voices, or creates entirely new footage that mimics the person’s appearance, expressions, and voice. Modern tools can match lighting, lip movements, blinking, and even subtle mannerisms to make the result really convincing.

In a face swap, it replaces one person’s face with another face. A lip sync can change what someone appears to be saying
Voice cloning can copy someone’s voice from audio samples. What is known as full-body puppetry can control gestures and expressions and make a still photo “talk” and move.

Most articles about this technology are negative and point out risks, such as misinformation, non-consensual fake content, scams, identity fraud, and reputation damage.

If you do see positive uses, they will often not be called "deepfakes." The positive uses are still controversial but include the use of the technology in filmmaking, dubbing movies into other languages without reshoots, some accessibility tools, satire, education, and bringing historical figures “back to life.”

Some platforms like Meta's Facebook, Instagram, and Threads now label or remove certain deepfakes.

A well-known example of a deepfake is the 2018 fabricated video of former U.S. President Barack Obama created by comedian and director Jordan Peele. Using artificial intelligence, Peele superimposed his own voice and facial movements onto a digitally replicated face of Obama, successfully demonstrating how AI can be used to put words into anyone's mouth.

YouTube announcement at https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/434105667

Mythos and Fables Indeed

ronkowitz@gmail.com (Kenneth Ronkowitz) — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 10:20:00 +0000

In April, the makers of Claude shared that the company's new AI model (Mythos 5) was too dangerous to release to the public. Weeks later, thanks to some tweaks, the new model (called Fable 5) was released to the public. Now, it has been announced that "Anthropic has suspended its powerful new AI model after US authorities raised security concerns just days following its public release."

I find some irony in these AI names. Mythos and Fables indeed.

MORE Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI suspended over security fears

Labeling AI-generated Videos on YouTube

ronkowitz@gmail.com (Kenneth Ronkowitz) — Fri, 29 May 2026 09:30:00 +0000

The headline reads "YouTube will now automatically label AI videos." But the question is HOW will they do that?

Via YouTube's blog, we find that since 2024, they have been labeling content when creators disclose they've used AI tools.

"Starting in May 2026, we’re rolling out new internal signals to help identify AI-generated content. If a creator doesn’t specify whether or not they used AI, but our systems detect significant photorealistic AI use, we will now automatically apply a label. As this technology continues to improve, creators remain in control. If a creator thinks their content was incorrectly identified as AI-generated, they can update the disclosure status in YouTube Studio.
However, disclosures will remain permanent in a handful of cases, including:
Content created using YouTube’s own AI tools, like Veo or Dream Screen.
Content containing C2PA metadata indicating they were fully generative AI.
These changes are designed to balance transparency with creator control. It’s important to note that a disclosure label alone does not change how a video is recommended or whether it’s eligible to earn money."

In addition to its policing of AI content, the company has been investing in AI for things like its interactive search feature, Ask YouTube, a playlist generator for YouTube Music, AI video summaries, and other generative AI creation tools.

Of course, there is a YouTube video about this.

Why Space-Based Solar Power Sounds Like Science Fiction

ronkowitz@gmail.com (Kenneth Ronkowitz) — Mon, 25 May 2026 09:55:00 +0000

I wrote last week about plans to harvest solar power from space for places like data centers. If it sounds like science fiction, that might be because it was first imagined in a 1941 short story, "Reason," by Isaac Asimov. (see below)

It was formally proposed by engineer Peter Glasser in 1968, a space pioneer who introduced the idea of using satellites to beam solar energy from space down to Earth. Over the decades, what Glaser envisioned has been known by many names — space-based solar power (SBSP), solar-power satellites or satellite power system (SPS), as well as satellite solar-power system (SSPS). Glaser's contributions to space science and technology were not limited to the solar-power satellite concept. He also worked on NASA's Apollo moon missions and headed an experiment that flew aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1986.

But solar power from space beamed to Earth has remained mostly theoretical due to cost and complexity.

Solar Power From Space

ronkowitz@gmail.com (Kenneth Ronkowitz) — Fri, 22 May 2026 21:04:00 +0000

NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Data centers need power. A lot of power. People don't want data centers in their neighborhoods. Where will it come from? From space?

Meta announced a deal with startup Overview Energy to purchase solar power collected by satellite and beamed back to Earth.

It is an experimental approach that could power data centers at night. Unlike traditional solar power, which relies on storing daylight, space-based solar power aims to deliver continuous energy.

Overview Energy plans to deploy satellites over 22,000 miles from Earth's equator, where they would collect and transmit infrared energy to solar panels. A test is scheduled for 2028, with a commercial rollout in 2030. Meta is seeking up to 1 gigawatt of power from the project, underscoring its energy needs for AI.

It sounds a bit wishful thinking if you look at the numbers. In 2024, Meta's data centers consumed 18,000 times the electricity that this deal would deliver in a single hour.

Space-based solar power (SBSP) involves harvesting solar energy in orbit and beaming it to Earth, providing 24/7 clean energy unaffected by weather, nighttime, or atmospheric filtering. There are challanges: high launch costs, complex orbital assembly of massive structures, and wireless energy transfer.