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Andrew Cowie

@istathar.space
175 followers 117 following 414 posts

Dedicated to space exploration, platform engineering, Linux, Rust, and observability. Author of the Technique procedures language. Fmr 🇨🇦 army, 🇺🇲 and 🇬🇧 tech, 🇦🇺 banking. Supporting cause of peace and freedom at NAFO and trying to get better at Warhammer 40k

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Reposted by Andrew Cowie
Ryan North @ryannorth.ca · 23/09/2026
Pompeii is a UNESCO world heritage site not because it was remarkable in its prime, but because it survived to our era untouched: one moment, preserved for all time. But future generations won't know what OUR world was like unless we do the same. This is why we MUST bury Toronto with a volcano
Picture of the streets of Pompeii, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pompei_-_panoramio_(26).jpg. Taken by Tanya Dedyukhina, used under CC
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 23/09/2026
This is awesome: a terminal font in the style used by computers in WarGames (1983). mw.rat.bz/wgterm/ Mainframes deserve mainframe fonts!
The clipboard lady walking around the War Operation Plan Response mainframe computer in the movie WarGames (1983).Screenshot from font home page.
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 23/09/2026
Today I learned that YouTube has an internal category for useless content called `brainrot`. They also noted that most AI generated slop ends up being tagged this way. They still serve it to people, but aren't you reassured that they know they're doing it?
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 19/09/2026
This is a candidate for best sign of the year. In an era of demagogues, false profits, and mafia dons running countries, clear messaging and simple truths are priceless.
A prominent sign on the side of a Transport for NSW bus in Sydney, written in a clear, large font saying "I am a new bus"
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 19/09/2026
PM 🇨🇦 Mark Carney's speeches in Strasbourg and Toronto have gained considerable attention, but the real juice are his "Forward Guidance" videos. youtu.be/eYAwioM3RQI Worth watching. Reminds me that the quip "Canadian identity is merely the assertion that you're not American" goes back a long time.
youtu.be
Forward Guidance: A Stronger Canada
YouTube video by Mark Carney
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 14/09/2026
How are the Space Marines "dropping in from orbit" if there are no Drop Pods and the Thunderhawk crashed? #warhammer40k
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 07/09/2026
"They're called Imperial units because Metric Star Destroyer doesn't sound as intimidating"
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 22/07/2026
The ability of a cutting-edge model to move laterally is getting extraordinary.
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 15/07/2026
You know there's something special about the Universe because yesterday it let you make a release! only to find mere hours later that your release has a bug in it.
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Reposted by Andrew Cowie
Darth Putin @darthputinkgb.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Russian admiral talking to Gerasimov. "So, you get them all to line up, in full view of the enemy, and have them march to a certain death by drone?" "Da. Exactly" "Get my ship captains on the phone. We have a new strategy!"
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Jonathan McDowell @planet4589.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I think this is pretty serious: for several months the UNOOSA (UN Office of Outer Space Affairs) has not been making public new sat registrations apparently because of an IT policy issue. A month or two I could accept, but at this point it's a failure of the international space governance regime
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 03/07/2026
We know the Devil exists because He created Continuous Integration and fixing CI is Hell. GitHub Actions are like the Fifth Circle of Hell, "wrath". Or maybe Seventh, because oh yeah baby, "violence". The sinner is doomed to re-run the same Workflow again, and again. And again.
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Reposted by Andrew Cowie
mr. TIM @timkellogg.me · 25/06/2026
Ornith 1.0: full spectrum of open weights coding models from 9B to 397B The largest appears to rival Opus 4.7-4.8 All fine tuned from Gemma 4 and Qwen 3.5 but no, the cool part is how they made it… 👇 deep-reinforce.com/ornith_1_0.h...
This bar chart, titled **"LLM Performance Evaluation,"** compares the performance of various large language models across eight benchmarks, with a primary focus on **Ornith-1.0-397B** (represented by the prominent orange bar) against other well-known models like Claude Opus, DeepSeek, and Qwen.
 * **Terminal Bench 2.1 (Terminus-2):** Ornith-1.0-397B leads this benchmark with a score of **77.5**, outperforming Qwen3.7-Max (**73.5**) and Claude Opus 4.7 (**70.3**).
 * **SWE-bench Verified:** Ornith scores **82.4**, placing it ahead of DeepSeek-V4-Pro-1.6T (**80.6**) and Claude Opus 4.7 (**80.8**), though it trails behind Claude Opus 4.8, which leads at **87.6**.
 * **SWE-bench Pro:** Ornith achieves the top position with a score of **62.2**, narrowly edging out GLM-5.2-744B (**62.1**) and Qwen3.7-Max (**60.6**), while significantly outperforming DeepSeek-V4-Pro-1.6T (**55.4**).
 * **SWE-bench Multilingual:** Ornith secures the highest mark at **78.9**, closely followed by Qwen3.7-Max at **78.3** and DeepSeek-V4-Pro-1.6T at **76.2**.
 * **NL2Repo:** Ornith scores **48.2**, slightly behind GLM-5.2-744B (**48.9**) and well below the benchmark leader, Claude Opus 4.7, which scores **69.7**. However, it remains ahead of Qwen3.7-Max (**47.2**).
 * **Claw-eval Avg:** Ornith posts a strong **77.1**, outperforming DeepSeek-V4-Pro-1.6T (**75.8**) and Qwen3.5-397B (**70.7**), while falling just short of Claude Opus 4.7 (**78.2**).
 * **SWE Atlas - QnA:** Ornith reaches **41.2**, beating out Claude Opus 4.7 (**40.3**) and DeepSeek-V4-Pro-1.6T (**27.2**), but falling behind Claude Opus 4.8 (**48.8**).
 * **SWE Atlas - TW:** Ornith claims the top spot with a score of **39.1**, maintaining a narrow lead over Claude Opus 4.7, which scores **38.5**.
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Reposted by Andrew Cowie
🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 @specialkhersoncat.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
A Russian air defense missile blows up a fuel tank at the Moscow Oil Refinery following a failed attempt to shoot down a Ukrainian drone.
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David Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Analysis of the Russian Burevestnik nuclear cruise missile. The crazy bastards appear to have done it. Air exhausted straight and spicy out of the core. 🥳
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 09/06/2026
@shashj.bsky.social my compliments for the choice to re-air, if that's the term, your interview with Sir Alex Younger. Watching again I was struck by his clarity of language and commitment over a lifetime of service. People such as he spend their lives in the shadows and are rarely recognised.
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 29/05/2026
Good preliminary analysis from Scott Manley about the Blue Origin test failure and loss of launch site youtu.be/aaR6yEE-Myo
youtu.be
Blue Origin's Rocket Explosion - How Bad Is It?
YouTube video by Scott Manley
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Reposted by Andrew Cowie
Senator David Shoebridge @davidshoebridge.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Asking the Attorney General's office this morning about this outrageous information - they intentionally delayed publishing FOI documents until 1 minute before our Estimates hearing in February commenced so we couldn't ask them about the documents released.
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 25/05/2026
Is there a way to stop @tailscale.com from listening on anything other than a specific single nominated interface?
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 18/05/2026
In today's episode of cool-things-I-have-hallucinated-that-should-exist-but don't, we have "cryptobiological" links used to secure transfer of information. I'm trying to figure out what the biology part is. DNA coding? Pheromone sampling? Or maybe it's just "human enters passphrase". #cryptography
Gemini hallucinating how to enable one AWS account to read an encrypted AMI created in another account. Not only was the AI completely wrong, but it invented the term "cryptobiological" to explain the transfer of secret key material between the two sides.
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Reposted by Andrew Cowie
Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 12/05/2026
arstechnica.com
SpaceX completes fueling test, setting stage for first launch of Starship V3
SpaceX cleared an important milestone Monday on the road to launching a new version of Starship.
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Weedle @weedle.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Three months from now the average voter is lined up at a gas station waiting for their ration and still getting headline alerts on their phone about YUGE FREE MONEY CHECK HITTING BANK ACCOUNTS SOON where if you actually click the link it's an AI summary about a town in Iceland enacting a UBI program
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 07/05/2026
Well they did say this was going to keep happening. #linux security embargo broken so meet Ditry Frag github.com/V4bel/dirtyf... You had an entire week since the last one, don't complain.
github.com
GitHub - V4bel/dirtyfrag
Contribute to V4bel/dirtyfrag development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Reposted by Andrew Cowie
Shipwreck @shipwreck75.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Trump surprised Gulf allies by announcing “Project Freedom”, the officials said, angering leadership in Saudi Arabia. In response, the Kingdom informed the U.S. it would not allow the U.S. military to fly aircraft from Prince Sultan Airbase or fly through Saudi airspace to support the effort.
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 06/05/2026
GCU Whoopsie Doodles @cultureshipnames.bsky.social
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 06/05/2026
ROU A Lightly Militarized Misunderstanding Involving Explosives. @cultureshipnames.bsky.social
Screenshot from source article with text "Until then, it’s just a lightly militarized misunderstanding involving explosives."
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 06/05/2026
I always get worried when there are widespread delays in logging.
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 04/05/2026
I have been converging on the idea that the only thing that matters is your ability (in the sense of opportunity and being enabled) to be clear in your requirements. Your prompt is almost irrelevant. Whatever the tests or examples specify is exactly what you're going to get.
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Reposted by Andrew Cowie
tmoney2007.bsky.social @tmoney2007.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Little farther... Little farther... *BOOM* ... TOO FAR.
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Anya Taylor-Melancholy @interdiction.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
*yelling from the mouth of the Strait* You got this! Little to the left! That's it!
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Shipwreck @shipwreck75.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
The officials said the U.S. navy is going to provide commercial ships with information on the best maritime lanes in the strait especially when it comes to using lanes that were not mined by the Iranian military.-Axios
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 02/05/2026
My new politically-correct way to describe a service that fails to work after the #linux system its running on got upgraded is "went ventral-side up"
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 30/04/2026
It is absurd that Canonical has not patched the #linux kernel in Ubuntu 24.04 yet. They've had a MONTH.
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 30/04/2026
Speaking of scrap code, copy.fail Good thing nobody had anything else to do today. #linux
copy.fail
Copy Fail — 732 Bytes to Root
CVE-2026-31431. 100% Reliable Linux LPE — no race, no per-distro offsets, page-cache write that bypasses on-disk file-integrity tools and crosses containers. Found by Xint Code.
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Reposted by Andrew Cowie
DrRuler @drruler.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
No wonder Adam is so excited.
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Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 21/04/2026
for some comparison, in the quarter before, alaska spent $796m on fuel. they're expecting it to go to ~$1400m
screencap from the 10k showing in the 3 monhts ended 31 march 2026, alaska spent 796m on fuel
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Jeff Foust @jfoust.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Evidently that future lunar base will even have a Ferris wheel, but you’ll have to pay in crypto to ride it.
An ad on the DC Metro for a crypto company showing a Ferris wheel in the Moon with the tagline “Go Where Dollars Won’t.”
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Reposted by Andrew Cowie
Revan @revan.eurosky.social · 20/04/2026
APRIL 2026 KHAMENEI IS MASTER OF THE STRAIT ONLY EUROPEAN CRUISE LINES STAND BEFORE HIM ROYAL CARIBBEAN ARE NOW BLOCKADE RUNNERS
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Swapna Krishna @swapnakrishna.com · 19/04/2026
Voyager 1 has had another instrument shutdown. On Friday, the team at JPL sent the command to shut off of the low energy charged particle instrument. That means that there are now only two operational science instruments on the spacecraft. science.nasa.gov/blogs/voyage...
science.nasa.gov
NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating - NASA Science
On April 17, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California sent commands to shut down an instrument aboard Voyager 1 called the
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 18/04/2026
Use of assembly by the Terminator: "Modern programming is often like asking politely through several layers of management and hoping that a committee eventually approves your intention. 6502 programming was more like being handed a soldering iron and a deadline." www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nebv...
youtube.com
Terminator: The Story of the 6502 Code You See Onscreen
YouTube video by Dave's Garage
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austin @aparker.io · 16/04/2026
otel spans are just journal entries your services write about their feelings
pds.ls
PDSls
Browse the public data on atproto
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 14/04/2026
Wouldn't it be hilarious if the Orks teleported the planet of Armageddon back to where Ullanor belongs. The Ad Mech would be so pissed off. Not to mention everyone still living there. #warhammer40k
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Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 12/04/2026
PRC Oilship captain: are you really gonna shoot at us? really really? you really wanna do that US Navy Captain: .... well, this is a sticky wicket
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 13/04/2026
Thankfully, though, we are currently clean on OPSEC.
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Kampf mit Kette @kampfmitkette.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
War is the continuation of sports betting by other means
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Jasmine 🌌🔭 @astrojaz.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
CHRISTINA KOCH GREETING HER DOG AFTER RETURNING FROM THE MOON IM GONNA CRYYY 😭😭😭
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Jonathan McDowell @planet4589.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Here is the reentry path of Starlink36340 as it burnt up over @heardislandgov.bsky.social on Apr 10 about 0908 UTC
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James Vincent @jjvincent.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
i don't think that'll make the result any more precise, but sure
a screenshot of a google search for "nearest star" with a pop-up asking if you'd like to "see results closer to you?"
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Andrew Cowie @istathar.space · 10/04/2026
Feedback from an Authentic Mac User™ who used to be happy with Tailscale. My suggestion that he fix the problem by installing Linux was of course warmly appreciated.
"I really liked Tailscale being lowkey in menu and not showing up as an application but they had to go and ruin it."
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