REGENT Craft, the Rhode Island-based developer and manufacturer of all-electric seagliders, revealed today the world’s first full-scale crewed seaglider and completed the first on-water tests, showcasing the successful technical validation of the novel maritime vessel with humans on board and marking a pivotal moment in transportation history.

The 12-passenger Viceroy seaglider prototype, at 55ft long with a 65ft wingspan, is the largest-ever all-electric flying machine and represents a novel mode of transportation. The high-speed vessel operates exclusively over water in three modes — floating on the hull, foiling above the waves on hydrofoils, and flying in ground effect within one wingspan of the surface of the water.

[…]

Sea trials follow months of rigorous sub-system testing of the critical onboard systems, including motors, batteries, electronics, mechanical systems, and vehicle control software.

Source: REGENT Begins Sea Trials of First Passenger-Carrying Seaglider | REGENT

ROBINHOOD Markets, the online trading platform, agreed to pay US$29.75 million to resolve several Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) probes into its supervision and compliance practices, including failure to respond to “red flags” of potential misconduct.

The brokerage regulator said on Friday (Mar 7) that Robinhood will pay a US$26 million civil fine and US$3.75 million of restitution to customers.

Finra accused Robinhood of violating “numerous” rules, including a failure to implement reasonable anti-money laundering programmes that caused it to miss suspicious or unauthorised trading and hackings of customer accounts.

It also said Robinhood failed to properly supervise social media influencers who promoted the company, or respond to several warnings of delays in processing trades.

Finra said the latter turned into a “severe” problem in January 2021. Late that month, Robinhood restricted trading in “meme” stocks such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings.

Restitution will go to customers who were not informed about Robinhood’s practice of “collaring” market orders, which led to some trades being cancelled and reentered at inferior prices.

Source: Robinhood paying US$29.75 million to end US regulator’s probes – The Business Times

Considering the billions in retail trades they stopped, which allowed institutional short sellers to save their arses, this tiny slap on the fingertips is an absolute farce

see also: Robinhood, TD Ameritrade restrict buying of GameStop, AMC stock – shorters continue game, killing pumpers. Reps + Dems agree market manipulation. The shorters are big customers and are reloading their short positions.

In 2021, EA made a pledge to let the wider game industry use its accessibility-related patents at no cost, and now the publisher has added 23 new patents to its lineup.

As of today, third parties can freely use patented technology such as improved speech recognition, simplified speech tech in games, and the ability to create more personalized speech. The broad aim is for this tech to assist players with speech disabilities or those who need help verbally expressing themselves.

For developers, EA suggests they could use this technology to “make it possible for those players’ speech to be more effectively recognized and reflected in-game in a way that is representative of their age, emotion, language and speaking style.”

Another patent highlighted is an internal plugin for Unreal Engine 5 that enables in-engine use of EA’s previously open-sourced photosensitivity analysis tech, IRIS. The plugin now allows developers to catch potential photosensitivity issues in-engine and real-time as they run their games.

“The sooner you start testing, the sooner you find potential issues,” said IRIS engineer Blanca Macazaga Zuaz. According to her, not many free or easy-to-use tools for photosensitivity analysis were available prior to IRIS. The free access takes down two barriers with one stone, which she called an “incredible feeling.”

Previously, the Madden and Dragon Age publisher made technologies like Apex Legends’ ping system and voice controls for NPCs free-use. The decision is all the more notable, as the industry’s accessibility strides have mainly concerned controllers or options in specific games, such as colorblind modes and skipping puzzles.

Kerry Hopkins, EA’s SVP of global affairs, explained this new batch of open-source patents “encourages the industry to work together to make video games more inclusive by removing unintended barriers to access.”

Along with the patents, EA said its PQI team is running accessible design workshops, and expanding its testing capabilities “to ensure we are always designing with accessibility in mind. More to come soon!”

You can see EA’s newly updated crop of free-use accessibility patents here.

Source: EA makes photosensitivity and speech recognition tech patents open-source

[…]a Reddit user named “Ugleh” posted an AI-generated image of a spiral-shaped medieval village that rapidly gained attention on social media for its remarkable geometric qualities. Follow-up posts garnered even more praise, including a tweet with over 145,000 likes. Ugleh created the images using Stable Diffusion and a guidance technique called ControlNet.

[….]

In June, we covered a technique that used the AI image synthesis model Stable Diffusion and ControlNet to create QR codes that look like rich artworks, including anime-inspired art. Ugleh took the same neural network optimized for creating those QR codes (which themselves are geometric shapes) and fed simple images of spirals and checkerboard patterns into it instead.

When guided by the prompt, “Medieval village scene with busy streets and castle in the distance (masterpiece:1.4), (best quality), (detailed),” ControlNet rendered scenes where artistic elements of the images match the perceptual shapes of spirals and checkerboards. In one image, the clouds arc overhead and people stand in a gentle curve to match the spiral guidance. In another, squares of clouds, hedges, building faces, and a wagon cart make up a checkerboard-shaped scene.

 

The magic of ControlNet

So how does it work? We’ve covered Stable Diffusion frequently before. It’s a neural network model trained on millions of images scraped from the Internet. But the key here is ControlNet, which first appeared in a research paper titled “Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models” by Lvmin Zhang, Anyi Rao, and Maneesh Agrawala in February 2023, and quickly became popular in the Stable Diffusion community.

Typically, a Stable Diffusion image is created using a text prompt (called text2image) or an image prompt (img2img). ControlNet introduces additional guidance that can take the form of extracted information from a source image, including pose detection, depth mapping, normal mapping, edge detection, and much more. Using ControlNet, someone generating AI artwork can much more closely replicate the shape or pose of a subject in an image.

Using ControlNet and similar prompts, it’s easy to replicate Ugleh’s work, and others have done so to amusing effect, including checkerboard anime characters, an animation, medieval village “goatse” (surprisingly safe for work), and a medieval village version of “Girl with a Pearl Earring.”

[…]

If you want to experiment with ControlNet, this site has a good tutorial. Also, Ugleh posted a step-by-step workflow, including the spiral and checkerboard template files, on Imgur.

While the artwork is remarkable, current US copyright policy suggests that the images do not meet the standards to receive copyright protection, so they may be in the public domain. While AI-generated artwork is still a contentious subject for many on ethical and legal grounds, creative enthusiasts continue to push the boundaries of what is possible for an unskilled or untrained practitioner using these new tools.

Source: Funky AI-generated spiraling medieval village captivates social media | Ars Technica

Hanging on to your favorite wireless mouse just got a little easier thanks to a new partnership between Logitech and DIY repair specialists iFixit. The two companies are working together to reduce unnecessary e-waste and help customers repair their own out-of-warranty Logitech hardware by supplying spare parts, batteries, and repair guides for “select products.”

Everything will eventually be housed in the iFixit Logitech Repair Hub, with parts available to purchase as needed or within “Fix Kits” that provide everything needed to complete the repair, such as tools and precision bit sets.

Starting “this summer,” Logitech’s MX Master and MX Anywhere mouse models will be the first products to receive spare parts. Pricing information has not been disclosed yet, and Logitech hasn’t mentioned any other devices that will receive the iFixit genuine replacement parts and repair guide treatment.

[…]

Source: Logitech partners with iFixit for self-repairs

This sounds like a good idea, and I hope it is, but who else can supply repair kits? If it’s only IFixit, then aren’t we swapping one monopoly for another? It’s a kind of symbolic fixability. I love iFixit, they are great and I really like what they have done in the past, but I really hope that it’s not the intent to create a reparation duopoly to which big companies can point and say: “see, we are not a monopoly” whilst keeping prices artificially high.

The New York Times looks at the AbbVie’s anti-inflammatory drug Humira and their “savvy but legal exploitation of the U.S. patent system.” Though AbbVie’s patent was supposed to expire in 2016, since then it’s maintained a monopoly that generated $114 billion in revenue by using “a formidable wall of intellectual property protection and suing would-be competitors before settling with them to delay their product launches until this year.” AbbVie did not invent these patent-prolonging strategies; companies like Bristol Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca have deployed similar tactics to maximize profits on drugs for the treatment of cancer, anxiety and heartburn. But AbbVie’s success with Humira stands out even in an industry adept at manipulating the U.S. intellectual-property regime…. AbbVie and its affiliates have applied for 311 patents, of which 165 have been granted, related to Humira, according to the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge, which tracks drug patents. A vast majority were filed after Humira was on the market.

Some of Humira’s patents covered innovations that benefited patients, like a formulation of the drug that reduced the pain from injections. But many of them simply elaborated on previous patents. For example, an early Humira patent, which expired in 2016, claimed that the drug could treat a condition known as ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis that causes inflammation in the joints, among other diseases. In 2014, AbbVie applied for another patent for a method of treating ankylosing spondylitis with a specific dosing of 40 milligrams of Humira. The application was approved, adding 11 years of patent protection beyond 2016.

AbbVie has been aggressive about suing rivals that have tried to introduce biosimilar versions of Humira. In 2016, with Amgen’s copycat product on the verge of winning regulatory approval, AbbVie sued Amgen, alleging that it was violating 10 of its patents. Amgen argued that most of AbbVie’s patents were invalid, but the two sides reached a settlement in which Amgen agreed not to begin selling its drug until 2023.

Over the next five years, AbbVie reached similar settlements with nine other manufacturers seeking to launch their own versions of Humira. All of them agreed to delay their market entry until 2023.
A drug pricing expert at Washington University in St. Louis tells the New York Times that AbbVie and its strategy with Humira “showed other companies what it was possible to do.”

But the article concludes that last year such tactics “became a rallying cry” for U.S. lawmakers “as they successfully pushed for Medicare to have greater control over the price of widely used drugs that, like Humira, have been on the market for many years but still lack competition.”

Source: A Drug Company Made $114 Billion Gaming America’s Patent System – Slashdot

Last year BMW took ample heat for its plans to turn heated seats into a costly $18 per month subscription in numerous countries. As we noted at the time, BMW is already including the hardware in new cars and adjusting the sale price accordingly. So it’s effectively charging users a new, recurring fee to enable technology that already exists in the car and consumers already paid for.

The move portends a rather idiotic and expensive future for consumers that’s arriving faster than you’d think. Other companies have also embraced the idea, and BMW continues to find new options to turn into subscription services. The latest: remote engine starting, which will soon cost car owners an additional $105 every year. On the plus side, there’s at least some flexibility with the pricing:

Most of these features are available through either a 1-month, 1-year, or 3-year subscription, or can be purchased outright for a one-time fee. Motorauthority reached out to BMW USA and found that the Remote Engine Start costs $10 for 1 month, $105 for 1 year, $250 for 3 years, or can be purchased for $330 for the life of the vehicle.

Again, this technology — and every other technology BMW is going to do this with — is already included in the higher-end price tag of BMW vehicles. It’s effectively double dipping (to please Wall Street’s insatiable desire for improved quarterly returns at any cost) dressed up as innovation. It’s not a whole lot better than your broadband ISP charging you $10-$25 every month for years for a modem worth $70.

Once companies get a taste of fatter revenues from charging customers for things they’ve already technically paid for, it won’t really stop without either regulatory intervention, or competitive pressure from automakers that avoid the model. BMW’s also turning a lot of other features into subscription services, like parking assist, video driver recording, and other features:

As for the Driver Recorder, it is available for $39 for 1 year, $99 for 3 years, and $149 for a one-time payment. Driving Assistant Plus with Stop&Go can be added for $20 for 1 month, $210 for 1 year, $580 for 3 years, and $950 with a one-time payment. As for Parking Assistant Professional, it is available for $5 for 1 month, $50 for 1 year, $130 for 3 years, or a one-time fee of $220.

Hackers are already fiddling with ways to enable the technology without paying a subscription fee, which will launch an entirely new cat and mouse game that, if automakers get too creative with their crackdowns (like claiming you’re voiding your warranty by enabling something you already own), could also run afoul of the FTC’s tougher stance on right to repair issues.

Source: BMW Further Embraces Making Basic Features A Costly Subscription Service

If it was for a service they offer, one for which BMW needs to expend energy and effort, eg updating maps, posting locations of speeding cams, etc, this would be fine. But you are paying again for hardware you already own and have already paid for once you bought the car.

On Thursday, Microsoft researchers announced a new text-to-speech AI model called VALL-E that can closely simulate a person’s voice when given a three-second audio sample. Once it learns a specific voice, VALL-E can synthesize audio of that person saying anything—and do it in a way that attempts to preserve the speaker’s emotional tone.

Further Reading

Meta’s AI-powered audio codec promises 10x compression over MP3

Its creators speculate that VALL-E could be used for high-quality text-to-speech applications, speech editing where a recording of a person could be edited and changed from a text transcript (making them say something they originally didn’t), and audio content creation when combined with other generative AI models like GPT-3.

Microsoft calls VALL-E a “neural codec language model,” and it builds off of a technology called EnCodec, which Meta announced in October 2022. Unlike other text-to-speech methods that typically synthesize speech by manipulating waveforms, VALL-E generates discrete audio codec codes from text and acoustic prompts. It basically analyzes how a person sounds, breaks that information into discrete components (called “tokens”) thanks to EnCodec, and uses training data to match what it “knows” about how that voice would sound if it spoke other phrases outside of the three-second sample. Or, as Microsoft puts it in the VALL-E paper:

To synthesize personalized speech (e.g., zero-shot TTS), VALL-E generates the corresponding acoustic tokens conditioned on the acoustic tokens of the 3-second enrolled recording and the phoneme prompt, which constrain the speaker and content information respectively. Finally, the generated acoustic tokens are used to synthesize the final waveform with the corresponding neural codec decoder.

Microsoft trained VALL-E’s speech-synthesis capabilities on an audio library, assembled by Meta, called LibriLight. It contains 60,000 hours of English language speech from more than 7,000 speakers, mostly pulled from LibriVox public domain audiobooks. For VALL-E to generate a good result, the voice in the three-second sample must closely match a voice in the training data.

On the VALL-E example website, Microsoft provides dozens of audio examples of the AI model in action. Among the samples, the “Speaker Prompt” is the three-second audio provided to VALL-E that it must imitate.

Source: Microsoft’s new AI can simulate anyone’s voice with 3 seconds of audio | Ars Technica

It’s fun, but it’s not quite there yet though

After a years-long process, data protection officials across the European Union have ruled that Europe’s ad tech industry has been operating unlawfully. The decision, handed down by Belgium’s APD (.PDF) and agreed by regulators across the EU, found that the system underpinning the industry violated a number of principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has declared victory in its protracted battle against the authority which administers much of the advertising industry on the continent: IAB Europe.

At the heart of this story is the use of the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), a standardized process to enable publishers to sell ad-space on their websites. This framework, set by IAB Europe, is meant to provide legal cover — in the form of those consent pop-ups which blight websites — enabling a silent, digital auction system known-as Real-Time Bidding (RTB). But both the nature of the consent given when you click a pop-up, and the data collected as part of the RTB process have now been deemed to violate the GDPR, which governs privacy rights in the bloc.

Back in December, I wrote a deep (deep) dive on this situation*, and the potential privacy violations that the RTB process caused

[…]

The APD has ruled that any and all data collected as part of this Real-Time Bidding process must now be deleted. T

[…]

Regulators have also handed down an initial fine of €250,000 to IAB Europe and ordered the body to effectively rebuild the ad-tech framework it currently uses. This includes making the system GDPR compliant (if such a thing is possible) and appoint a dedicated Data Protection Officer.

[…]

 

Source: Regulators find Europe’s ad-tech industry acted unlawfully | Engadget

A funny thing happened on Google Drive overnight. Seemingly innocuous files started being flagged as violating the search behemoth’s terms of service over copyright infringement.

Dr Emily Dolson, assistant professor at Michigan State University, was one of those affected after she attempted to upload a file containing a single digit, “1”.

Uh, @googledrive, are you doing okay? This file literally contains a single line with the number “1”. pic.twitter.com/4tLhOzQY1T

— Dr. Emily Dolson (@emilyldolson) January 24, 2022

There wasn’t a lot of detail in the warning, only that Googles Drive’s Copyright Infringement policy had been violated and that no review could be requested for the restriction, both of which are a bit worrying for people concerned about the dead hand of AI being used as arbiter in such matters.

What had upset Google? The digit or the output04.txt filename? Certainly the number “1” does turn up in all manner of copyrighted works, although we don’t think anyone’s tried to trademark the character. Most recently, Snap made a spectacle of itself by trying to trademark the word “Spectacles”.

Could Google be trying to up the ante, and is it aware that Microsoft has its own cloud storage named OneDrive? Redmond already had to ditch SkyDrive after a well-known broadcaster took exception to it. We can’t imagine Nadella and co liking the sound of “Number Two Drive” for a variety of reasons.

More likely, the issue was more of a screw-up than conspiracy with both Google staffers and the Google Drive social media mouthpiece responding to confirm that the team was aware of the issue and working on it.

Additional users reported problems with other numbers, including “0”, while wags over on Hacker News pointed to the relevant Onion article.

Because there’s always an Onion article where automation drives swathes of the IT world beyond satire.

Things seem OK now (at least as far as our testing is concerned), although we have asked Google to explain itself. We will update this piece if it does so.

Whatever the fix was, we suspect it wasn’t this. ®

hey i got a real simple fix for this problem:

don’t scan files for copyright violations unless someone actually complains 🙂

— Caurinus (aka Norwesterncrow) (@NorWesternCrow) January 25, 2022

Source: Google Drive flags single-digit files over copyright

The French government’s roadmap for developing open source to make it a vector of digital sovereignty and a guarantee of “democratic confidence” was presented by Public Transformation and Civil Service Minister Amélie de Montchalin on Wednesday (10 November). EURACTIV France reports.

Montchalin spoke at the closing of the first edition of the “Open Source Experience”, which took place from 9-10 November and brought together all players in the free software community in Paris.

[…]

“Open source contrasts with proprietary software in that the source code of applications is freely available to the public; it is developed in a collaborative and decentralised way, by a community, and relies on peer review. But more importantly, it is not owned, in the proprietary sense, by anyone,” Quentin Roland of LegalUP Consulting told EURACTIV.

With the vast majority of relations between citizens and state services now being digital, Montchalin believes a “culture of transparency” is necessary for “democratic trust”. It is also a matter of digital sovereignty, she added.

According to a European Commission study published in September, investment in open source software in 2018 generated a sum of €65-95 billion in revenue. According to the same report, France was crowned European champion of open source policies.

To help French administrations make greater use of such solutions, Montchalin announced the creation of a team within the Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM) responsible for the promotion and inter-ministerial coordination of this mission.

She also revealed the launch of the code.gouv.fr platform, which will inventory all source code published by public organisations.

The source code for ‘France Connect’, the digital identification system for government services used by more than 30 million French people, will be public ‘in the next few days’, Montchalin also announced, adding that she would do the same for the code determining income tax deducted at the source.

[…]

n his report, Bothorel recommended using more open source software because “infrastructures necessary for data are increasingly exposed to forms of software dependency” and that this therefore raises “a strategic autonomy issue”.

This vision is shared by Montchalin, who wants the state to retain “control over the solutions” it uses. She also stressed the importance of interoperability – the ability to work with other existing or future products or systems – and reversibility – the ability to resume using data or software in the event of migration to another solution.

“By using open source software, you give yourself much more autonomy than by using proprietary software and a fortiori proprietary cloud services that are hosted outside Europe,” Stéfane Fermigier, co-president of the Union of Free Software and Open Digital Businesses (CNLL), told EURACTIV.

[…]

However, it is not a “miracle solution”, he added, noting that this is because open source software does not always offer the same technical level as proprietary solutions, mainly because open source code makes it easier to discover security flaws, which can be exploited.

“However, this is an extremely interesting alternative for Europe, a third way between digital giants and local players; an opportunity to ensure independence through neutrality and decentralisation rather than conflict,” he also said.

According to Fermigier, however, “free software is also an opportunity to rethink a number of habits and reflexes,” particularly in the field of public procurement.

“It’s an opportunity to think about what we need, to use the best tools for our needs and not for marketing or expectations,” he added.

Source: French government to speed up deployment of open source – EURACTIV.com

Build watering system for house plants. In part one of this video series, we will create a sensor that measures soil moisture, ambient temperature and light.

Build watering system for house plants. In part two of this video series, we will create a central unit that takes sensor readings and also waters our plants on command.

Build watering system for house plants. In part two of this video series, we will create a central unit that takes sensor readings and also waters our plants on command.

Source: https://github.com/SasaKaranovic/HousePlantMonitoringSystem

China’s National Space Administration has released footage recorded by the country’s Mars probe. The videos and photos taken by the camera installed on the Zhurong rover of the Tianwen-1 spacecraft show the lander deploying a parachute before touching down on the surface of Mars and the rover driving away from its landing platform. State broadcaster CCTV said Zhurong had been working on the red planet for 42 days and had moved 236 metres so far

Source: China releases footage from its Mars rover – video | World news | The Guardian

An F-35B Joint Strike Fighter shot itself in the skies above Arizona earlier this month, doing at least $2.5 million in damage. The pilot was unharmed and successfully landed the jet. The Pentagon isn’t quite sure how or why the jet shot itself and the incident is still under investigation.

As first reported by Military.com, the F-35 was flying in a training mission at night on March 12 at the Yuman Range Complex in Arizona when it shot itself. This particular F-35 has an externally mounted gatling gun that fires a 25mm armor piercing high explosive round. Sometime during the training, the gun discharged and the round exploded, damaging the underside of the jet.

The pilot landed the jet and a Navy investigation classified the accident as Class A. Class A accidents are the most severe, it’s a classification used when someone in the weapon dies, the whole jet is lost, or the property damage is $2.5 million or greater. “The mishap did not result in any injury to personnel, and an investigation of the incident is currently taking place,” Marine Corps spokesperson Captain Andrew Wood told Military.com.

[…]

Source: One of America’s $135.8 Million Fighter Jets Shot Itself

In 2019 a Dutch F-16 shot itself by flying into a stream of its’ own bullets. In 1956 an F-11 did the same thing. So not unheard of.

Source: A Dutch F-16 Flew Into Its Own Gunfire

Rocket Lab today unveiled plans for its Neutron rocket, an advanced 8-ton payload class launch vehicle tailored for mega-constellation deployment, interplanetary missions and human spaceflight.

Neutron will build on Rocket Lab’s proven experience developing the reliable workhorse Electron launch vehicle, the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket annually since 2019. Where Electron provides dedicated access to orbit for small satellites of up to 300 kg (660 lb), Neutron will transform space access for satellite constellations and provide a dependable, high-flight-rate dedicated launch solution for larger commercial and government payloads.

“Rocket Lab solved small launch with Electron. Now we’re unlocking a new category with Neutron,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO.

[…]

The medium-lift Neutron rocket will be a two-stage launch vehicle that stands 40 meters (131 feet) tall with a 4.5-meter (14.7 ft) diameter fairing and a lift capacity of up to 8,000 kg (8 metric tons) to low-Earth orbit, 2,000 kg to the Moon (2 metric tons), and 1,500 kg to Mars and Venus (1.5 metric tons). Neutron will feature a reusable first stage designed to land on an ocean platform, enabling a high launch cadence and decreased launch costs for customers. Initially designed for satellite payloads, Neutron will also be capable of International Space Station (ISS) resupply and human spaceflight missions.

Neutron launches will take place from Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport located at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility. By leveraging the existing launch pad and integration infrastructure at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Rocket Lab eliminates the need to build a new pad, accelerating the timeline to first launch, expected in 2024.

Source: Rocket Lab Unveils Plans for New 8-Ton Class Reusable Rocket for Mega-Constellation Deployment | Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab, an End-to-End Space Company and Global Leader in Launch, to Become Publicly Traded Through Merger with Vector Acquisition Corporation

End-to-end space company with an established track record, uniquely positioned to extend its lead across a launch, space systems and space applications market forecast to grow to $1.4 trillion by 2030

One of only two U.S. commercial companies delivering regular access to orbit: 97 satellites deployed for governments and private companies across 16 missions

Second most frequently launched U.S. orbital rocket, with proven Photon spacecraft platform already operating on orbit and missions booked to the Moon, Mars and Venus

Transaction will provide capital to fund development of reusable Neutron launch vehicle with an 8-ton payload lift capacity tailored for mega constellations, deep space missions and human spaceflight

[…]

Transaction is expected to close in Q2 2021, upon which Rocket Lab will be publicly listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker RKLB

Current Rocket Lab shareholders will own 82% of the pro forma equity of combined company

Source: Rocket Lab, an End-to-End Space Company and Global Leader in Launch, to Become Publicly Traded Through Merger with Vector Acquisition Corporation

The use of “invisible” tracking tech in emails is now “endemic”, according to a messaging service that analysed its traffic at the BBC’s request.Hey’s review indicated that two-thirds of emails sent to its users’ personal accounts contained a “spy pixel”, even after excluding for spam.Its makers said that many of the largest brands used email pixels, with the exception of the “big tech” firms.Defenders of the trackers say they are a commonplace marketing tactic.And several of the companies involved noted their use of such tech was mentioned within their wider privacy policies.Emails pixels can be used to log: if and when an email is opened how many times it is opened what device or devices are involved the user’s rough physical location, deduced from their internet protocol (IP) address – in some cases making it possible to see the street the recipient is onThis information can then be used to determine the impact of a specific email campaign, as well as to feed into more detailed customer profiles.Hey’s co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson says they amount to a “grotesque invasion of privacy”.

Source: ‘Spy pixels in emails have become endemic’ – BBC News

62 pages of visual illusions!

Source: Akiyoshi’s illusion pages