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Stephen Cass

@stephencass.bsky.social
2.8K followers 2.2K following 1.1K posts

Special Projects Director at @spectrum.ieee.org. Co-author of Hollyweird Science Vol. 1 and 2. Occasional science fiction editor. Maker and Retrocomputician. Feral cat servitor. 5e DM. ADHD. KB1WNR. 65xx. Originally from Dublin.

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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 6h
We can make things better: "A remarkable effort by the government and the city’s distribution utilities has turned Delhi’s grid into a reliable, modern system. Power losses have shrunk from over 50 percent in 2002 to 5 to 6 percent in 2026—on par with France and Belgium."
spectrum.ieee.org
From Candlelit Kitchens to Electrified Everything: Delhi's Grid Comeback
It slashed electricity losses from 50 to 5 percent
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I'll be honest: when Dave Schneider started pitching the idea of measuring the starlight shadow of an asteroid as it passed across the face of the Earth for an @spectrum.ieee.org Hands On, I thought it sounded impossible. But I was wrong! #diy #astronomy #CitizenScience
spectrum.ieee.org
Measure An Asteroid’s Shadow With a Small Telescope and Some DIY Gear
Watching space rocks obscure stars is easier than you think
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I have just discovered, from some of the comments on my last Packrat Monday's video about a sample of Trinitite, that there is an active conspiracy theory that nuclear weapons don't really exist. What's next? Nitrogen is a hoax? Blood circulation is fake? Kangaroos are real?
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Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 17/09/2026
Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Latest Packrat Mondays, in which I delve into the radioactive portion of my stash... #radiacode #gammaray #trinitite www.youtube.com/shorts/-QDeU...
youtube.com
Packrat Mondays: Embers of an A-Bomb
YouTube video by IEEE Spectrum
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404 Media @404media.co · 14/09/2026
And by the way, from our scoop, we also discovered that Anthropic is also using human reviewers to read conversations.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 14/09/2026
Elsewhere on Bluesky folks are noting that The Kids These Days aren't much into Douglas Adams. As someone who is much into Douglas Adams (and in fact wrote an intro to new edition of his works) allow me to remind folks that it's not actually surprising when The Kids aren't into decades-old stuff.
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Ken Shirriff @righto.com · 12/09/2026
In 1980, Intel introduced the 8087 floating-point coprocessor chip. Plugging this chip into your IBM PC made math 100 times faster, good for CAD and spreadsheets. I opened up the chip to reverse-engineer exactly how it does complicated calculations. Let's take a look inside...
The integrated circuit is a black ceramic rectangle with 40 metal pins sticking out, in two rows. (This is known as a DIP, a Dual Inline Package.) It has three rows of text: "D8087-1", a cryptic version label, and then the copyright line with a big lower-case I, INTEL m c 1980 1984. The m and c are in circles for the mask-work symbol and the copyright symbol. The chip has a small semicircular notch on the left side, indicating its orientation. The package consists of two thin ceramic layers, bonded together with a gray substance; the metal pins stick out from this gray substance. The ceramic package is important to me because tapping the gray layer with a chisel will cause the two layers to separate, revealing the silicon die inside. In contrast, most chips are in epoxy packages, which are very difficult to open, usually requiring strong acids.
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Dan Farrimond @illarterate.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Our #teletext art exhibition with Finland's Yle Teksti-TV has begun! "Yle 100" celebrates a full century of the broadcaster, and is the first of a 2-part celebration that continues with "Yle Text 45" next month. View here: yle.fi/aihe/tekstit... teletextart.co.uk/yle-100-on-y...
teletextart.co.uk
Yle 100 on Yle Text: A Super Teletexthibition (9 September – October 2026)
On 9 September 2026, Yleisradio Oy (AKA the Finnish Broadcasting Company) will celebrate its 100th anniversary with the scintillating sixels and astounding alphanumerics of – you guessed it, teletext ...
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
My latest Packrat Monday for @spectrum.ieee.org features the Cat-O-Tron, which uses a 60 GHz radar to avoid surprising feral cats… #CommunityCats #DIY
youtube.com
Packrat Mondays: The Cat-O-Tron Tells You if There is a Cat in the Box
YouTube video by IEEE Spectrum
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
This was an interesting one to edit: come for the future crewed spaceships to Mars, stay for the time they deliberately blew up a prototype nuclear rocket engine back in the day: spectrum.ieee.org/bimodal-nucl...
spectrum.ieee.org
Dual Loop Nuclear Spacecraft Promise Years Of Power and High Thrust
The synchronal bimodal nuclear rocket could slash travel time to Mars
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Mark Dingemanse @markdingemanse.net · 27/08/2026
As we conclude, > [LLM] users encounter a fundamental asymmetry: they must singlehandedly supply much of the sequential structure that is ordinarily co-constructed by multiple participants ... This hidden labour challenges accounts of LLM use that focus on performance and optimization
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Luis Villa @lu.is · 27/08/2026
There are very few specific objects (especially 1-of-1 devices) I can think of that have a specific tie-in to open culture and open knowledge in the way this one does. Amazing find.
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
When "concerning" replaced "worrying" within the space of a few years like a linguistic find-and-replace, that was odd enough, but now "lessons" is being replaced wholesale by "learnings" the same way. Or is this just my own personal Mandala effect?
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Robert McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Dolly Parton's scientific, public health, and educational philanthropy was so significant that @nature.com is running a piece on the impact she had.
nature.com
Dolly Parton dies aged 80 – researchers celebrate her contributions to science
The country singer was an advocate for vaccines, public health, literacy and marginalized communities.
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 25/08/2026
This girl I used to waitress with in Austin, we moved to New York together in 2003 on a literal Greyhound bus. Shared a fifth floor walk-up studio that, when it rained, had more leaks in the ceiling than we had pots and pans. We used to get drunk and smoke off the fire escape and do “sad-offs.”
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Jes Steele ✌️ @piratito.com · 25/08/2026
Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris performing “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow” on The Dolly Parton Show (1976)
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Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
A massive update: At least ~15 companies~ are selling scientists antibodies using faked validation data. We've documented 18,000+ manipulated images on 17,000+ products sold by leading laboratory suppliers including Thermo Fisher, Abcam, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Millipore Sigma and Bio-Techne. 1/🧵
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Andy Greenberg @agreenberg.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
A hacking device the size of a quarter can be plugged into a port accessible from the exterior of a Boeing 737 to change its autopilot navigation or tamper with values used to calculate its takeoff speed, a group of security researchers has shown. 🧵👇 www.wired.com/story/this-c...
wired.com
This Coin-Sized Device Can Hack a Boeing 737
Security researchers found that in less than 60 seconds, they could open a hatch on a plane’s exterior, plug in a tiny device, and redirect the aircraft’s autopilot or sabotage its flight plan.
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Chris Chinchilla @chrischinchilla.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I pitched this idea to a business magazine, and it never went anywhere. I then pitched it to IEEE Spectrum as a more technical piece, and over a year later, it's finally published online and in print. With amazing photos and layout, it looks great! spectrum.ieee.org/nokia-phones...
spectrum.ieee.org
How Nokia’s Feature Phones Lost to the Smartphone Era - IEEE Spectrum
How the iPhone and then Android killed the feature phone
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
What were the odds that *this* was the part of "Rainbows End" that would actually come to pass?
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Another great HOPE conference this weekend by the @2600.com folks, with a lot of grist for the mill. But mainly I'm happy to get these Toilets on the Air ham radio certificates, (even if there were few actual toilets) :) Next year my goal is to have a proper rig for SSTV transmissions! #AmateurRadio
Three "Tota @ Hope 26" certificates for "Straight Flush (worked 5 sequential references)", "Inside the Bowl (T2T QSO)", and "Activated All Toilets"
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Finally we have the evidence. Let's see Big Trebuchet get out of those warning labels now!
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
It's a new Packrat Monday! (The reason behind the facial hair continuity error will be revealed soon :) ) Our amazing citizen scientist David Schneider came in to talk about making a balloon & payload that can report from circling the globe! #DIY #Pico #HamRadio youtube.com/shorts/xiALW...
youtube.com
Packrat Monday: Orbit the Earth with a Balloon
YouTube video by IEEE Spectrum
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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 05/08/2026
One of the great joys of my adult life has been realizing that I can just pick up a new skill every so often, take a fun little class in it weekly for a year or two, and simply enjoy meeting people and getting medium proficient and not attempting to become professional in it at all!
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Ken once again doing the work of angels...
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Python's "for" loop syntax.
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
static.klipy.com
Aliens
Alt: A GIF showing tough space marines and Sigourney Weaver saying "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure"
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David Kuszmar @davidkuszmar.com · 29/07/2026
Oh yeah, did you read the thing I wrote? Its also in the August print issue of @spectrum.ieee.org. spectrum.ieee.org/jailbreaking... All about the exploits and jailbreaking I did when I first got started in AI/LLM research.
spectrum.ieee.org
How Darth Vader Taught Me Card Counting and AI Security Got Weird
It only took a little prompting to hijack the biggest AI models
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Get in nerds, we're going to play electronic battleship! (My latest Packrat Monday for @spectrum.ieee.org ) #VintageToys #DIY, #Repair youtube.com/shorts/BZkJa...
youtube.com
Packrat Monday: Vintage Toy Repair
YouTube video by IEEE Spectrum
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Finally got my own copy of the TI logic datasheet book: so much fun to leaf through, and when the apocalypse comes I won’t have to stop making projects! Ah, time enough at last…
The front cover of the 1998 edition of the TTL logic data book from TIA two-page spread from a data sheet book showing logic gates and a timing diagram for an integrated circuit.
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
You do not need to save your "nice" protoboards for a special occasion. You do not need to save your "nice" protoboards for a special occasion. You do not need to save your "nice" protoboards for a special occasion. You do not need to save your "nice" protoboards for a special occasion....
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Jenn @geekgalgroks.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
I've worked with lasers tied to OS/2 Warp machines and WIndows 3.1. I have had to reverse engineer an application that worked with COBOL and RPG. I don't list all the computer languages I know how to read because engineers don't believe me.
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
ICYMI from us at @spectrum.ieee.org: the fundamental challenge to orbital data centers is good old fashioned heat: "Ultimately, the physics tax is universal... the constraint is never the silicon. It’s the thermodynamics." spectrum.ieee.org/orbital-data...
spectrum.ieee.org
The Real Cost Of Cooling GPUs In Space Might Shock You
Shedding heat will require ingenious new designs
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Richard M. Nixon @dicknixon.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Larry laid his mouse in front of the press to be photographed. Lest you ask, this is a real photograph via the Press Association.
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
FYI, my tech journalism peeps!
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
My latest Packrat Monday for @spectrum.ieee.org , in which I get paid to write Commodore 64/6502 assembly code! #C64, #retrocomputing, #DIY youtube.com/shorts/V1QaS...
youtube.com
Packrat Monday: The Chip Hall of Fame
YouTube video by IEEE Spectrum
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Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Old web forums were poorly coded and rough around the edges, but maybe we gave up on them too quickly in the social media era.
tedium.co
What We Lost When We Quit Using Crappy Old Web Forums
Old web forums were poorly coded and rough around the edges, but maybe we gave up on them too quickly in the social media era.
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Pretty much all of Edwards Hopper...
Morning Sun by Edward Hopper. A woman sits alone with her legs partially drawn up towards her chest on a plain bed, looking toward a window. Sunlight streams through the window and outside the tops of a row of brownstone buildings can be seen under a blue sky.
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Dan @thatdamnqa.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Fell into a teletext hole thanks to @nmsni.co.uk 's most recent YouTube video () and I suddenly remembered a long forgotten memory when I noticed that a text service's clock once looked different. I remember emailing the editor who was all "erm, the computer broke". And now I know why
youtu.be
A Look Inside: BBC Ceefax Generator
Looking at a genuine ex-BBC Ceefax generator from 1997
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Just another Packrat Monday, ooooh ahhhwooo.... 🎵🎶 In which I find a wonderful Psion 5 to play with #retrocomputing #VCF youtube.com/shorts/GREZO...
youtube.com
Packrat Monday: The Vintage Computer Festival East
YouTube video by IEEE Spectrum
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Meghan Bartels @meghanbartels.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I’m so sad to share that yesterday was my last day at Scientific American. It was an honor to work alongside my incredible colleagues and to speak with researchers across the sciences. If you’re looking to hire staff or freelance, please consider me and my other laid off coworkers (🧵)
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ProjectDiscovery @projectdiscovery.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
"Hash matching is pointless. Defenders must go fully behavioral and use AI themselves to catch such malware." Our research lead @princechaddha in @IEEESpectrum on why vibecoded malware breaks traditional detection... and what actually works now. spectrum.ieee.org/vibecoding-m...
spectrum.ieee.org
How Did Two Prompts Turn Into Potent Vibe Hacking Malware
“Vibeware” is forcing new anti-malware strategies
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Now consumer digital photography has been around for a generation, lets note the the psychological impact of being able to rapidly scroll through years of images versus paging through photo albums, resulting in seeing yourself age decades in seconds, like some macabre flick book... #MementoMori
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Utterly fascinating and very human.
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OSHWA @oshwassociation.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
BrailleRAP is an open source DIY Braille embosser. Derived from a 3d printer controller and a bunch of 3d printed parts, BrailleRAP can emboss Braille text in a lot of languages and even emboss vector graphics to build tangible documents like maps, board games, and art representation. #OHWC2026
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M.R. Robinson @mruthrobinson.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
If you have ever emailed a writer to let them know you enjoyed something they wrote, you are among the noblest and best and most saintly in this entire world, and I hope you sleep really well tonight.
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Adam Kucharski @adamjkucharski.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
If you're involved in training/teaching, or a student, this is worth a read – "The Anatomy of a Learning Stall": tagide.com/blog/llm/the...
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Stephen Cass @stephencass.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Divine madness.
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