Tootfinder

#SoundSpace: What and where through sound https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3772363.3798944 CHI EA '26

Sources: US Social Security's inspector general is investigating claims an ex-DOGE engineer took sensitive data on a thumb drive to his new private employer (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/10/social-security-data-brea…

I made some progress towards handling downloads in SWB. It took quite a bit of reading the docs to figure out where and how to trigger downloads when simply clicking on a linked file that WebKit can't display. Not much of it was obvious.
Exploring names. I kind of like Sunstone, but theres a library that uses the name to implement a REST api. If anyone has any suggestions for what to call a new web browser, fire away please.

This is likely the least of what DOGE took.
The Social Security inspector general’s office is investigating allegations that the former DOGE engineer took sensitive data on a thumb drive in a major potential security breach.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/20

@… Niestety jest to coraz częstszy widok w europie... Praktycznie poniżej 40e za noc zostają kemperstopy i to jak dobrze pójdzie... W Bydgoszczy też tyle nas wyszło jak musieliśmy raz awaryjnie stanąć -.-

Już nawet spanie we własnym samochodzie/namiocie nie jest tanią opcją na zwiedzanie :/

The uncertain brightness and tail(s) development of #Kreutz #comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) is one thing - see the curves in https://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/2026A1 and https://aerith.net/comet/catalog/2026A1/2026A1.html for guesses and https://cobs.si/obs_list?id=2688 for the current value which is ~8.5 mag. - but the viewing geometry is the other: here it is for 51.5° North (my place Bochum) and 22.5° South (Windhoek) as the view is much better from the southern hemisphere.
The table first gives the elongation (angle between comet and Sun in the sky) and the phase angle (the angle Sun - comet - Earth) which nearing 180° can lead to significant boost of brightness by forward scattering on dust.
And this is followed by the altitude of the comet at the solar depressions given in the top line, for Bochum and Windhoek: sunset and end of civilian twilight and for the latter also the end of nautical and astronomical twilight, i.e. the onset of night. Also of importance is the angle of a hypothetical dust tail (simulated in https://hdr-astrophotography.com) after perihelion, also much better in the South: https://britastro.org/section_news_item/c-2026-a1-maps-a-kreutz-group-sungrazer - but first MAPS has to survive the latter *and* release a lot of dust at the right time ...

> According to the complaint, [the former DOGE software engineer] allegedly told the whistleblower that he needed help transferring data from a thumb drive “to his personal computer [...]"
Copying data from a thumb drive being something a software engineer would need help with?
https://www.

One of my favorite features in my primary Mastodon client (Mona) - that it has a counter showing me how many posts are left until I get caught up (also, ofc that it remembers where I was)

A hack of the L.A. city attorney’s office compromised 7.7 terabytes of sensitive LAPD records.
Leaked materials contain discovery documents typically kept private, such as witness names, medical information and unredacted criminal complaints now available online.
https://www.latimes.co…

Before you leave for a likely well-deserved weekend break, don't miss today's Metacurity for the most important infosec developments you should know, including
--Claude Opus 4.6 found 500 severe flaws in open source repos without much prompting,
--Asian cyberespionage group broke into sensitive systems in 37 countries,
--ICE's Mobile Fortify does not reliably ID people,
--CISA tells agencies to stop using edge devices past EOS,
--764 member busted a…