Geek Life: Fun stories, memes, humor and other random items at the intersection of tech, science, business and culture. We were waiting for Seahawks owner Jody Allen to pay homage to her brother, the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, when accepting the Lombardi Trophy on behalf of the team he saved and she preserved for their hometown. Jody Allen is getting well-deserved recognition for her role as the franchise leader. “Jody's been fantastic,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said after the win last night, pointing in particular to her role in guiding the team through last season. What a remarkable family legacy, all the way around. Adding a championship may not immediately increase the team's value, but as Sportico noted, “it certainly doesn't hurt.” We'll be watching any tech execs that might step up for the 12s as part of new ownership. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was among those celebrating the victory and congratulating our hometown champs, which made us remember the time he once told a Seattle crowd, “Every time I go to the Valley, I'm thankful that I'm here.” Here are details on the victory parade, set for this Wednesday. OK, so maybe only in Chris Hemsworth's imagination, but the premise of Amazon's Alexa Super Bowl ad — that its next-gen AI assistant is “scary good” — seemed to emphasize the “scary” part a bit much. Maybe Ring is the real threat: In its own ad, the Amazon-owned security camera company said it just wants to help find lost pets via its “Search Party” feature that relies on AI to scan whatever's passing by your house, and tap into neighboring doorbell cams. Some viewers on social media shared that they were “creeped out” by the tech, and at least one privacy expert said tugging at our heart strings over a lost dog is a great way to make us willingly trade our personal data. That's what some are calling Super Bowl LX after nearly a quarter of the commercials featured artificial intelligence. See our earlier roundup of Super Bowl tech ads, on the off chance you're not sick of all the AI commercials by now. The actual front-page headline this morning is “REDEMPTION!” — not exactly inspired — but the Sports section came through with an appropriate pun: ‘D'omination! GeekWire's Kurt Schlosser and Grants Pass (Ore.) Daily Courier editor Scott Stoddard — both former Page One editors at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer — settled on “D-HAWKS” in a post-game text exchange about their dream headline. It's such a good feeling to know that the spirit of Mr. Rogers is still alive in the midst of everything going on in our world. Lady Gaga's rendition of “Won't You Be My Neighbor?” for Seattle-based Redfin/Rocket was one example. Both stood out as moments of calm in the commercial chaos. Have a scoop that you'd like GeekWire to cover? Want to own a piece of the Seahawks? Seattle startup presents its private equity idea to fans Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's estate plans to sell NBA franchise

As millions of users — including large numbers of young people — increasingly turn to AI chatbots as their first-line “counselors” and confidants, Seattle-based startup mpathic is stepping in to ensure those digital agents don't provide dangerous advice when it matters most. The goal is to bring mpathic's software to a broader set of AI developers and enterprise partners as AI becomes more of an interface for mental health and medical support. “We are essentially producing eval sets or training data sets to make models more safe for vulnerable users, like kids or people with mental health problems, people in crisis,” said mpathic co-founder and CEO Grin Lord, a board-certified psychologist and NLP researcher. The startup is drawing on its years of work in clinical trials and hospital settings, helping AI teams stress-test model behavior before deployment, evaluate responses, and monitor live interactions with safeguards that can flag, redirect, or intervene when needed. “It's kind of similar to people that create synthetic data for visual AI,” Lord said. That's basically what we're doing, but from a psychological angle with language.” In one early engagement, mpathic said its clinician-led program helped a model builder slash undesired or dangerous responses by more than 70%. To fuel its expansion, mpathic raised an additional $15 million in 2025, led by Foundry VC. While Mpathic got its start building software to analyze conversations happening in corporate texts, emails, audio calls, and more, it has been developing models for high-risk clinical situations since 2021. “I think the potential for this technology to have really positive impact is super high. The startup also has clinical partners including Panasonic WELL, Seattle Children's Hospital, Transcend and others. Mpathic, which employs roughly 34 people and is “hiring like wildfire,” according to Lord, has also grown its leadership team with the addition of chief marketing officer Rebekah Bastian (Zillow, OwnTrail, Glowforge); and chief science officer Alison Cerezo (American Psychological Association AI advisory member). Heads up, startup founders: These red flags spook early stage tech investors Meet your AI interviewer: Seattle startup Humanly unveils video bot that grills job applicants Longtime Seattle engineering leaders raise $4.3M for new business automation AI startup Logic Startup Radar: Seattle founders build AI tools for leadership training, spatial reasoning, vibe coding

A hacktivist has scraped more than half-a-million payment records from a provider of consumer-grade “stalkerware” phone surveillance apps, exposing the email addresses and partial payment information of customers who paid to spy on others. The transactions contain records of payments for phone-tracking services like Geofinder and uMobix, as well as services like Peekviewer (formerly Glassagram), which purport to allow access to private Instagram accounts, among several other monitoring and tracking apps provided by the same vendor, a Ukrainian company called Struktura. The customer data also includes transaction records from Xnspy, a known phone surveillance app, which in 2022 spilled the private data from tens of thousands of unsuspecting people's Android devices and iPhones. Over the past few years, dozens of stalkerware apps have been hacked, or have managed to lose, spill, or expose people's private data — often the victims themselves — thanks to shoddy cybersecurity by the stalkerware operators. Stalkerware apps like uMobix and Xnspy, once planted on someone's phone, upload the victim's private data, including their call records, text messages, photos, browsing history, and precise location data, which is then shared with the person who planted the app. Apps like uMobix and Xnspy have explicitly marketed their services for people to spy on their spouses and domestic partners, which is illegal. The customer records did not include dates of payments. TechCrunch verified the data was authentic by taking several transaction records containing disposable email addresses with public inboxes, such as Mailinator, and running them through the various password reset portals provided by the various surveillance apps. The hacktivist said they “have fun targeting apps that are used to spy on people,” and subsequently published the scraped data on a known hacking forum. TechCrunch found several email addresses in the dataset used for testing and customer support instead reference Struktura, a Ukrainian company that has an identical website to Ersten Group. Struktura's Zosim did not return a request for comment. He also authors the weekly cybersecurity newsletter, this week in security. He can be reached via encrypted message at zackwhittaker.1337 on Signal. You can also contact him by email, or to verify outreach, at zack.whittaker@techcrunch.com. Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai is a Senior Writer at TechCrunch, where he covers hacking, cybersecurity, surveillance, and privacy. Hear from 250+ tech leaders, dive into 200+ sessions, and explore 300+ startups building what's next. Senator, who has repeatedly warned about secret US government surveillance, sounds new alarm over ‘CIA activities' The backlash over OpenAI's decision to retire GPT-4o shows how dangerous AI companions can be OpenAI launches new agentic coding model only minutes after Anthropic drops its own Sam Altman got exceptionally testy over Claude Super Bowl ads

YouTube on Monday introduced lower-priced YouTube TV plans that will allow subscribers to better tailor their plans to their own interests in areas like sports, news, and entertainment. The company said that it will offer more than 10 different plans to choose from, all priced below the $82.99 per month main YouTube TV plan that has access to more than 100 networks. While that main plan will not go away, the new plans will allow customers to pick what matters most and what they could do without in return for cost savings. The Sports plans include all major broadcasters, plus networks like FS1, NBC Sports Network, all of the ESPN networks, and ESPN Unlimited. The entertainment-only plan is $28 cheaper per month than the main plan, and includes major broadcasters as well as FX, Hallmark, Comedy Central, Bravo, Paramount, Food Network, and HGTV. Other add-ons like NFL Sunday Ticket + RedZone, HBO Max, and 4K Plus can also be purchased to customize plans further. Customized packages are now not a new idea in streaming — à la carte options were a key part of the early streaming pioneer Sling TV's initial offering, for instance. This element of personalization was also one of the factors that was meant to make streaming a better alternative to traditional pay TV, where consumers often ended up paying for channels they didn't want. But as streamers added more content, networks, and, in particular, sports programming, the cost of streaming inched back up to compete with cable and linear television. Live TV streamers like YouTube TV may have offered convenience and some savings over still more expensive cable, but it wasn't exactly affordable anymore. These new packages hit the market at a time when consumer confidence is at its lowest in more than 11 years, due to fears about the labor market and higher prices, which have made consumers more cautious about their spending. Hear from 250+ tech leaders, dive into 200+ sessions, and explore 300+ startups building what's next. Senator, who has repeatedly warned about secret US government surveillance, sounds new alarm over ‘CIA activities' The backlash over OpenAI's decision to retire GPT-4o shows how dangerous AI companions can be OpenAI launches new agentic coding model only minutes after Anthropic drops its own Sam Altman got exceptionally testy over Claude Super Bowl ads

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. AI.com bought its way onto the biggest advertising stage in the world on Sunday night, running a fourth-quarter Super Bowl ad spot that told tens of millions of sports fans worldwide to head to the site and create a handle. Hyped-up viewers arrived in droves, and then the site crashed. Within minutes of the ad airing, users across social platforms reported that AI.com was either unreachable or stuck in failed sign-up loops, turning what was meant to be the site's big launch moment into an unexpected stress test that failed right before the eyes of millions. The company soon restored its service, but first impressions count. Marszalek later wrote that the website was “hitting Google rate limits (which are at their absolute global maximum).” domain: $70M1 minute superbowl ad: $15Mforgetting to turn on autoscaling right before launch: priceless pic.twitter.com/pn8Xv6A43tFebruary 9, 2026 At launch, the site funnels new users through a single “continue with Google” authentication option. Once millions of users suddenly arrived and began attempting to create their AI agents, Google may have begun throttling requests, effectively making the site unusable. AI.com is selling itself as a way to create personal AI agents that can execute tasks across apps and operate with verifying levels of access depending on subscription tier. According to Adweek, AI accounted for 23% of ads shown during this year's Super Bowl — a grim statistic for those of us who are fed up with the force-feeding. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

The US Air Force reacts to emerging consumer technologies that can compromise operation security. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. According to its dress and personal appearance policy announcement, “It is unauthorized to wear mirrored lenses or smart glasses with photo, video, or artificial intelligence capabilities while in uniform.” Furthermore, the use of earbuds — specifically earpieces, headphones, or any Bluetooth wireless technology — is now limited to personnel who have been authorized for official duties. The announcement did not give the reason why these gadgets were banned from use while in uniform, except saying that it was “designed to uphold military professionalism” and to support “a more effective and mission-ready force.” However, while not specifically mentioned, there's also the fact that smart glasses often record photos and videos automatically, which are then uploaded to the cloud. This is a nightmare situation for operational security, as it could unintentionally reveal sensitive information, especially for those working at or near top secret bases. Aside from that, it also prohibited uniformed personnel from using earbuds, both wired and wireless, unless authorized to do so for official duties. The ban even extended to using personal electronic media devices, including earpieces, speaker phones, or text messaging, while walking, unless in an emergency or as part of necessary official notifications. Nevertheless, the regulation introduced a couple of exemptions — uniformed personnel can use them while traveling on public transport or while wearing physical training gear during individual or personnel fitness training. Public tracking technology has long been a problem for military forces. Smart glasses are seemingly becoming a significant threat, too, especially as they have become more subtle and sophisticated. And while the Ray-Bans have a white LED light on the frame to indicate that they are recording, some users were able to deactivate it. This meant that they can be used for secretly recording. This threat also extends beyond bad actors within the U.S. Air Force. The service currently has over 300,000 active-duty personnel — so, even if just 1% of them use smart glasses, that's 3,000 smart devices that need to be monitored and hardened against cyberattacks. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

Are you ready to put your startup to the test on the ultimate global stage? Step onto the main stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and go head-to-head in front of world-class VC judges and the entire TechCrunch audience. This is where breakout companies are forged. Compete for $100,000 in equity-free funding, earn global exposure, and get real, unfiltered feedback from the investors who shape the future of tech. Startup Battlefield alumni include Dropbox, Discord, Fitbit, Trello and CloudFlare — over 1,700 startups that once stood exactly where you are now. The next breakout doesn't happen by accident. Thousands of startups apply each year, and this year's field will be even more competitive. TechCrunch reviews every nomination, but founders who enter early give themselves a strategic edge. If you're serious about winning, don't wait to join the fight. We're looking for bold, early-stage founders with an MVP and a vision that challenges the status quo. Series A startups in capital-intensive industries may also qualify. Nominations close mid-June, but champions don't wait for the last call. Enter Startup Battlefield 200 and fight for your place on tech's biggest stage.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Taiwan's government has rejected calls from U.S. officials to shift a large portion of semiconductor manufacturing to America, stating that relocating 40% of the island's chip production is not feasible, reports Reuters. The authorities expect companies like TSMC and UMC to keep expanding their production capacity on the island, even though TSMC is now actively expanding overseas and other countries are looking for the onshoring of chipmaking. Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun said in an interview with Taiwanese television station CTS that she had clearly told the U.S. government that Taiwan's semiconductor ecosystem cannot simply be transferred elsewhere. The semiconductor sector will continue expanding domestically, while overseas investments — including those that TSMC makes in its U.S. production capacity — will proceed only alongside continued growth at home. According to Cheng, Taiwan's overall semiconductor capacity — including existing fabs as well as future projects — is expected to exceed investments made in the United States or any other country. How that can be possible, given the fact that it takes three years to build a fab in the U.S. and then about a year to ramp it, is something Lutnick did not disclose. In earlier remarks, Lutnick also described a scenario in which leading-edge semiconductor production could be split roughly evenly between Taiwan and the United States, which indicates that the U.S. government has a fairly flexible position when it comes to actual market share numbers. By contrast, Taiwanese officials reiterated that there are no plans to relocate the island's science parks, which form the core of its semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem, and are indispensable parts of the country's so-called silicon shield. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom's Hardware. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

While the exterior is still under wraps, Ferrari has unveiled the interior of its upcoming electric vehicle designed by LoveFrom, the creative firm of Apple's former chief designer, Jony Ive. It may not turn out quite like the Project Titan car Apple worked on for a decade then killed in 2024, but it sure does look like it has similar DNA. “We are entering a new era in Ferrari,” the company's CEO Benedetto Vigna said at the unveiling, which took place last week at San Francisco's pyramid-shaped Transamerica building. Vigna also revealed that Ferrari has changed the EV's name. It is now officially called the Ferrari Luce—the Italian word for “light,” pronounced loo-chay. “Elettrica would have been a wrong name for our car.” Ferrari shared details about its EV powertrain in October. Ferrari says a full disclosure of the exterior will come in May, but this latest showing was the first look at what Ive and his team at LoveFrom have created for those who sit inside the Luce. “But I hope that it will be obvious and clear the amount of care that has gone into every little piece.” The team is certainly not ready to show us everything. We saw a front seat (which we weren't allowed to sit in) but not a back seat. We did get assurances from a Ferrari rep that the Luce would indeed have cup holders. Oddly, none of these pieces were arranged inside an actual vehicle interior but were instead disembodied, separated, and spread out across one big room so people could wander through. A disassembled vent system by the far wall. It was the luxury car equivalent of a Marcel Duchamp exhibition, but instead of a urinal or galvanized-iron snow shovel (which, incidentally, went for $3 million last year), there was a steering wheel. “Part of my grumpy belligerence now is I'm done working with assholes,” Ive said in his introduction. “I'm so happy that we can just place creative excellence right at the center of what we're doing.” Ive may wax self-deprecatingly about his salty nature, but when he started explaining the details of all the machined aluminum buttons he had ordered and approved over the course of five years, he was positively chipper. As we wandered through the exhibit, Ive happily responded to WIRED's questions on how things were working with Ferrari. “I like the fact that they weren't lazy, like some other companies I know who just roll around in their success printing money.” If you're hip to Ive's style, the Luce's aesthetics will look familiar. Everything is presented in glass and brushed aluminum. The central control panel looks very much like an iPad. “You don't touch anything but aluminum, glass, or leather,” multiple Ferrari employees said multiple times over the event. (The only bits of plastic they owned up to were a couple of gears in the control panel.) The aluminum buttons have, unsurprisingly, an incredible feel. We were particularly taken with the air vents, which have aluminum shields that flip around when you twist them open and closed. We fiddled with these over and over until the Ferrari people had to come tell us it was time to leave the room. Hopefully not, as Corning says its technicians have done countless crash tests to make sure this version of Gorilla Glass is safe enough. The wheel has a leather grip all the way around, of course, but clicky aluminum buttons right by your fingers let you signal or change music tracks and volume. Taken by itself, the screen looks like a large iPhone in landscape mode with three Apple Watches positioned in the center. Convex lenses with a parallax effect magnify the circular OLED screens supplied by Samsung, which Ferrari has partnered with for the display tech. Additional icons appear in the top-right corner to indicate things like road conditions. Though the binnacle is dominated by screens, very select bits are entirely analog. The dials have digital screens behind analog needles. To the right of the wheel sits a control panel display, a rectangular screen with smooth curved edges and almost no bezel. However, the screen is mounted on a ball-and-socket joint and so can be moved around in a manner that brings to mind another relic of Ive's tenure in Cupertino, the iMac G4. The panel tells you lots of information unique to EVs, such as battery life and which wheels are using the most power. The background of this clock is digital, so it can be changed to become a stopwatch or compass. The analog hands then move depending on which setting you choose. Yes, the Luce's key fob looks like a miniature iPhone. That digital ink comes into play when you turn the car on. To demonstrate, Ive fitted the fob into a slot on the center console, where it snapped in magnetically. It was as if that signature yellow pigment was a serum being injected into the car's body, awakening it from slumber. “You have this sense that it is really bringing life to the rest of the system,” Ive said. (There is also a back seat, which we didn't see.) After the main event, our scrum of journalists walked a couple of blocks from the Transamerica building to LoveFrom's headquarters. LoveFrom cofounder Marc Newson and some Ferrari reps were there, but most of the questions over the half hour that followed were directed at Ive. He rumbled out classic Ive-isms in his gentle baritone, such as, “If you can't use something, it's ugly” and “I love learning more than I love being right.” However, this focus on Ive—plus the multiple echoes to Apple products past and present within the Luce—led to a nagging realization that perhaps this first EV from Ferrari is the closest we will ever get to seeing what the Cupertino company might have produced had its Project Titan ever made it out into the wild. Ferrari knew exactly what it was buying by bringing in Ive and his team, and he has delivered. Yet this also feels strangely incongruous coming from the man who helped build an empire off the back of beautiful slabs of glass on which everyone now spends all day doomscrolling. (The man is also, of course, designing OpenAI's upcoming physical hardware project that will provide an interface for its chatbot.) To his credit, Ive seemed to recognize this incongruity and even gestured at some sort of want for atonement for the societal impact of the (very good) designs of his past. “There is a growing desire to not be isolated, disconnected, whether it's from each other or the real physical world.” “Every bone in my body tells me some of the things that we've learned, some of the things that I think we've discovered, I'm hoping will have a much broader relevance and implication of value to a broader set of products,” Ive said. Maybe, someday, connecting with reality will be more easily attainable for everyone and not just those lucky enough to sit inside a Ferrari EV. In your inbox: Sign up for our new Tracker: ICE newsletter Big Story: He leaked a scam compound's secrets—and had to get out alive Palantir defended its work with ICE to staff 50% off DoorDash Promo Code For New & Existing Users WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.

And if we find that ice in sufficient quantities, we'll break it down into hydrogen and oxygen, and yada yada, we'll use that fuel to fly deeper into the solar system, maybe even to Mars. It's an idea that's been around since the Apollo era and has been touted in recent years by the likes of former NASA administrator Bill Nelson and SpaceX's Elon Musk. But here's the thing: No one has ever successfully turned water into rocket fuel, not for a spaceship of any significant size. If it works, it not only could start to solve the yada yada problem, it could make US satellites more maneuverable at a time when there's a growing possibility of a conflict in space. How does it actually work?” asks Halen Mattison, CEO of General Galactic. “Our vision is to go build a gas station on Mars,” he adds, “but also eventually build out the refueling network” in between. Scheduled liftoff is October or later in the fall. There are, to broadly oversimplify, two main kinds of engines that you can use in your spacecraft. That's called chemical propulsion, and every big rocket you've ever seen take off uses some variation of that method, because it provides a lot of thrust, even if it's not terribly efficient. Or you can take a gas like xenon, zap it with electricity, and shoot it out of the spacecraft, either as an ionized gas or a plasma. People jokingly like to call it a burp in space,” Mattison says. The efficiency is crazy.” Enough burps over time can actually be quite effective. Water isn't ideal for either electrical or chemical propulsion. But it might be just good enough for both. Unlike, say, liquid methane, you don't need to worry about water accidentally blowing up your spacecraft or keeping it cooled at -260 degrees Fahrenheit or having it boil off when your satellite faces the sun. General Galactic plans to demonstrate the two methods during its Trinity mission. From there, you use a magnetic field to shape the plasma and shoot it out. The idea is to show “we can provide both the long-efficiency maneuver but also sometimes folks need to get somewhere fast or respond really quickly to a dramatic event in the orbital environment,” says Neise, General Galactic's CTO. “Sometimes you need more than a burp in space.” For example, Chinese and Russian satellites increasingly have been flying in close proximity to American ones. Finding a method for maneuvering away from those rivals in a hurry is something the US Space Force and others are extremely interested in. We did a lot of Python scripts just looking at different mission cases,” Mattison says. Eventually, they got to a place “where we're like, ‘This is pretty different. So far, Mattison and Neise have raised $10 million in venture capital, a relative pittance in the aerospace sector but more than enough for this mission. Of course, there are reasons this has never been done before. Ionized oxygen interacts with everything, potentially corroding the electrical propulsion system. “It's not an easy element to work with,” says Ryan Conversano, a former Jet Propulsion Laboratory technologist who is serving as a consultant to General Galactic. “It could be a pretty, pretty clever way to provide thrust to a small satellite,” says Mark Lewis, CEO of the Purdue Applied Research Institute and the former chief scientist of the US Air Force. Lewis believes it's very much worth trying, though. If General Galactic can meet or top its expectations for this introductory effort, it could begin to be an answer to that yada yada at the core of tomorrow's missions to the moon and beyond. In your inbox: Sign up for our new Tracker: ICE newsletter TikTok now collects even more of your data Watch: We raced in exoskeletons to see if they actually help WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.

We go into all the details at https://alltheviews.worldAnd there's an interactive map with over 1 billion longest lines, covering the whole world at https://map.alltheviews.world Just click on any point and it'll load its longest line of sight.Some of you may remember Tom's post[1] from a few months ago about how to efficiently pack visibility tiles for computing the entire planet. The compute run itself took 100s of AMD Turin cores, 100s of GBs of RAM, a few TBs of disk and 2 days of constant runtime on multiple machines.If you are interested in the technical details, Ryan and I have written extensively about the algorithm and pipeline that got us here:* Tom's blog post: https://tombh.co.uk/longest-line-of-sight* Ryan's technical breakdown: https://ryan.berge.rs/posts/total-viewshed-algorithmThis was a labor of love and we hope it inspires you both technically and naturally, to get you out seeing some of these vast views for yourselves!1. And there's an interactive map with over 1 billion longest lines, covering the whole world at https://map.alltheviews.world Just click on any point and it'll load its longest line of sight.Some of you may remember Tom's post[1] from a few months ago about how to efficiently pack visibility tiles for computing the entire planet. The compute run itself took 100s of AMD Turin cores, 100s of GBs of RAM, a few TBs of disk and 2 days of constant runtime on multiple machines.If you are interested in the technical details, Ryan and I have written extensively about the algorithm and pipeline that got us here:* Tom's blog post: https://tombh.co.uk/longest-line-of-sight* Ryan's technical breakdown: https://ryan.berge.rs/posts/total-viewshed-algorithmThis was a labor of love and we hope it inspires you both technically and naturally, to get you out seeing some of these vast views for yourselves!1. Some of you may remember Tom's post[1] from a few months ago about how to efficiently pack visibility tiles for computing the entire planet. If you are interested in the technical details, Ryan and I have written extensively about the algorithm and pipeline that got us here:* Tom's blog post: https://tombh.co.uk/longest-line-of-sight* Ryan's technical breakdown: https://ryan.berge.rs/posts/total-viewshed-algorithmThis was a labor of love and we hope it inspires you both technically and naturally, to get you out seeing some of these vast views for yourselves!1. * Tom's blog post: https://tombh.co.uk/longest-line-of-sight* Ryan's technical breakdown: https://ryan.berge.rs/posts/total-viewshed-algorithmThis was a labor of love and we hope it inspires you both technically and naturally, to get you out seeing some of these vast views for yourselves!1. * Ryan's technical breakdown: https://ryan.berge.rs/posts/total-viewshed-algorithmThis was a labor of love and we hope it inspires you both technically and naturally, to get you out seeing some of these vast views for yourselves!1. This was a labor of love and we hope it inspires you both technically and naturally, to get you out seeing some of these vast views for yourselves!1. Or at least what it looks like in Google Earth, with a red arrow marking the furthest point.It feels like the site is setting you up for the big suspense of the longest line of sight... and then it's just a line on a 2D map.I think it would also really help if the maps themselves were at an angle in 3D with an exaggerated relief, with the line drawn in 3D, so you can get a sense of how it travels between two peaks.It seems like you've put a ton of effort into this project. I think with just a tiny bit more work on the page, you could really put the "cherry on top".And with those visualizations, get it picked up by a lot of major news outlets. This is a really fun story, the kind of stuff newspapers and magazines love to run. (And from slightly above, if necessary, to take account for refraction. )EDIT: Here, I used Google Earth to show the two points. It feels like the site is setting you up for the big suspense of the longest line of sight... and then it's just a line on a 2D map.I think it would also really help if the maps themselves were at an angle in 3D with an exaggerated relief, with the line drawn in 3D, so you can get a sense of how it travels between two peaks.It seems like you've put a ton of effort into this project. I think with just a tiny bit more work on the page, you could really put the "cherry on top".And with those visualizations, get it picked up by a lot of major news outlets. This is a really fun story, the kind of stuff newspapers and magazines love to run. (And from slightly above, if necessary, to take account for refraction. )EDIT: Here, I used Google Earth to show the two points. I think it would also really help if the maps themselves were at an angle in 3D with an exaggerated relief, with the line drawn in 3D, so you can get a sense of how it travels between two peaks.It seems like you've put a ton of effort into this project. I think with just a tiny bit more work on the page, you could really put the "cherry on top".And with those visualizations, get it picked up by a lot of major news outlets. This is a really fun story, the kind of stuff newspapers and magazines love to run. (And from slightly above, if necessary, to take account for refraction. )EDIT: Here, I used Google Earth to show the two points. It seems like you've put a ton of effort into this project. I think with just a tiny bit more work on the page, you could really put the "cherry on top".And with those visualizations, get it picked up by a lot of major news outlets. This is a really fun story, the kind of stuff newspapers and magazines love to run. (And from slightly above, if necessary, to take account for refraction. )EDIT: Here, I used Google Earth to show the two points. And with those visualizations, get it picked up by a lot of major news outlets. This is a really fun story, the kind of stuff newspapers and magazines love to run. (And from slightly above, if necessary, to take account for refraction. )EDIT: Here, I used Google Earth to show the two points. EDIT: Here, I used Google Earth to show the two points. That imgur link is great, I totally see what you mean. I don't know about embedding them cos Google will want money. We're very open to suggestions, and PRs of course! So you're saying a better title for the Colombian line of sight could be "Pico Lagos del Congo to Pico Cristóbal Colón"? We can definitely change that.Thought I'm not sure what you mean about the coordinates being wrong? Thought I'm not sure what you mean about the coordinates being wrong? And I think that even takes advantage of some favourable refraction. So not only might it be possible to see the longest view. But there may even be longer lines if we were to take into account extreme cases of refraction. After a lot of travelling he arrived at Aksu village. After 10 hours of climbing, he stood on the summit with moonlight providing enough light to set up his equipment. You need really good weather to see them clearly... You need really good weather to see them clearly... You need really good weather to see them clearly... You won't usually see them from the ground of course but from a couple floors up with a clear line of sight you do see them quite often. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%B6hn#Optischer_Vergr%C3%B...Sure, you can see the mountains only as "slightly darker shapes" as the parent put it but you could identify individual summits I think. Sure, you can see the mountains only as "slightly darker shapes" as the parent put it but you could identify individual summits I think. Dedication way you need.Hopefully that means something to Brits of a certain age ;-) Hopefully that means something to Brits of a certain age ;-) One advantage in NZ is that on a nice day you actually have a good chance of seeing it.Oh ... clicking on Mt Owen doesn't return the favour ... or the other nearest peaks. But Culliford Hill does show a return back to Ruapehu, 355.4 km. Clicking on Tapuae-o-Uenuku also, as expected, gives a line to Ruapehu: 342.3km.Mt Cook is high, but has too many other high peaks near it.Mt Taranaki is isolated, but doesn't turn up any very long distances.I don't expect any other candidates in NZ.Update: actual and accidental photo of Tapuae-o-Uenuku from Ruapehu (342 km), seven months ago.https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/1m9p0bh/tapuaeo...And, as pointed out in a comment, also Mount Alarm 2.5 km further.What is the longest in North America? Or Europe proper -- not Elbrus (which I've not been to but have been close enough to see, from several places e.g. from a house in Lermontov (~94 km only), summit of Beshtau (93 km), Dombai ski field (~63 km), somewhere on A157 (~50km). But Culliford Hill does show a return back to Ruapehu, 355.4 km. Clicking on Tapuae-o-Uenuku also, as expected, gives a line to Ruapehu: 342.3km.Mt Cook is high, but has too many other high peaks near it.Mt Taranaki is isolated, but doesn't turn up any very long distances.I don't expect any other candidates in NZ.Update: actual and accidental photo of Tapuae-o-Uenuku from Ruapehu (342 km), seven months ago.https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/1m9p0bh/tapuaeo...And, as pointed out in a comment, also Mount Alarm 2.5 km further.What is the longest in North America? Or Europe proper -- not Elbrus (which I've not been to but have been close enough to see, from several places e.g. from a house in Lermontov (~94 km only), summit of Beshtau (93 km), Dombai ski field (~63 km), somewhere on A157 (~50km). Mt Cook is high, but has too many other high peaks near it.Mt Taranaki is isolated, but doesn't turn up any very long distances.I don't expect any other candidates in NZ.Update: actual and accidental photo of Tapuae-o-Uenuku from Ruapehu (342 km), seven months ago.https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/1m9p0bh/tapuaeo...And, as pointed out in a comment, also Mount Alarm 2.5 km further.What is the longest in North America? Or Europe proper -- not Elbrus (which I've not been to but have been close enough to see, from several places e.g. from a house in Lermontov (~94 km only), summit of Beshtau (93 km), Dombai ski field (~63 km), somewhere on A157 (~50km). Mt Taranaki is isolated, but doesn't turn up any very long distances.I don't expect any other candidates in NZ.Update: actual and accidental photo of Tapuae-o-Uenuku from Ruapehu (342 km), seven months ago.https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/1m9p0bh/tapuaeo...And, as pointed out in a comment, also Mount Alarm 2.5 km further.What is the longest in North America? Or Europe proper -- not Elbrus (which I've not been to but have been close enough to see, from several places e.g. from a house in Lermontov (~94 km only), summit of Beshtau (93 km), Dombai ski field (~63 km), somewhere on A157 (~50km). I don't expect any other candidates in NZ.Update: actual and accidental photo of Tapuae-o-Uenuku from Ruapehu (342 km), seven months ago.https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/1m9p0bh/tapuaeo...And, as pointed out in a comment, also Mount Alarm 2.5 km further.What is the longest in North America? Or Europe proper -- not Elbrus (which I've not been to but have been close enough to see, from several places e.g. from a house in Lermontov (~94 km only), summit of Beshtau (93 km), Dombai ski field (~63 km), somewhere on A157 (~50km). Update: actual and accidental photo of Tapuae-o-Uenuku from Ruapehu (342 km), seven months ago.https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/1m9p0bh/tapuaeo...And, as pointed out in a comment, also Mount Alarm 2.5 km further.What is the longest in North America? Or Europe proper -- not Elbrus (which I've not been to but have been close enough to see, from several places e.g. from a house in Lermontov (~94 km only), summit of Beshtau (93 km), Dombai ski field (~63 km), somewhere on A157 (~50km). Or Europe proper -- not Elbrus (which I've not been to but have been close enough to see, from several places e.g. from a house in Lermontov (~94 km only), summit of Beshtau (93 km), Dombai ski field (~63 km), somewhere on A157 (~50km). Or Europe proper -- not Elbrus (which I've not been to but have been close enough to see, from several places e.g. from a house in Lermontov (~94 km only), summit of Beshtau (93 km), Dombai ski field (~63 km), somewhere on A157 (~50km). Or Europe proper -- not Elbrus (which I've not been to but have been close enough to see, from several places e.g. from a house in Lermontov (~94 km only), summit of Beshtau (93 km), Dombai ski field (~63 km), somewhere on A157 (~50km). So using that, I would say that the longest line of sight in North America is from Mount Rainier, at 390km, looking North West into Canada: https://map.alltheviews.world/longest/-121.76853942871094_46... That gives a longest in NZ of 365.3 km from Ruapehu, skirting past close by Tapuae-o-Uenuku (in the Inland Kaikoura Range) to a point on the Seaward Kaikoura Range near the peak of Manakau. Everything I try gets stuck in the Olympic Peninsular. (I was there once ... 1998 or so ... a place called Hurricane Ridge IIRC) Everything I try gets stuck in the Olympic Peninsular. (I was there once ... 1998 or so ... a place called Hurricane Ridge IIRC) One thing to note about finding reverse lines, is that they're not truly mathematically identical because the observer always has a height of 1.65m and the destination is always some point at the surface, therefore 0.0m. Mountains can rise higher near equator because you have the least gravity there. So that large lines of sight are near the equator on a north south axis (or symmetrically south north) is crazy because the high rates of curvature in that direction at those latitudes should give the shortest distance to the horizon on earth, making those lines of sight even that much more impressive! It is not about highest point from centre of Earth. Edit: to be clear the difference stems from our coordinates. I should have checked this first, but the coordinates you give for the "To" point (41.0181,77.6708) land in a valley with the south view completely blocked so it's impossible to view 500+ km south as you claim. Look at where the marker lands on this Google Maps Terrain: https://maps.app.goo.gl/PgBWxi31WZC6vk3V9 I should have checked this first, but the coordinates you give for the "To" point (41.0181,77.6708) land in a valley with the south view completely blocked so it's impossible to view 500+ km south as you claim. Look at where the marker lands on this Google Maps Terrain: https://maps.app.goo.gl/PgBWxi31WZC6vk3V9 I should have checked this first, but the coordinates you give for the "To" point (41.0181,77.6708) land in a valley with the south view completely blocked so it's impossible to view 500+ km south as you claim. Look at where the marker lands on this Google Maps Terrain: https://maps.app.goo.gl/PgBWxi31WZC6vk3V9 I should have checked this first, but the coordinates you give for the "To" point (41.0181,77.6708) land in a valley with the south view completely blocked so it's impossible to view 500+ km south as you claim. Look at where the marker lands on this Google Maps Terrain: https://maps.app.goo.gl/PgBWxi31WZC6vk3V9 I should have checked this first, but the coordinates you give for the "To" point (41.0181,77.6708) land in a valley with the south view completely blocked so it's impossible to view 500+ km south as you claim. Look at where the marker lands on this Google Maps Terrain: https://maps.app.goo.gl/PgBWxi31WZC6vk3V9 I should have checked this first, but the coordinates you give for the "To" point (41.0181,77.6708) land in a valley with the south view completely blocked so it's impossible to view 500+ km south as you claim. Look at where the marker lands on this Google Maps Terrain: https://maps.app.goo.gl/PgBWxi31WZC6vk3V9 I should have checked this first, but the coordinates you give for the "To" point (41.0181,77.6708) land in a valley with the south view completely blocked so it's impossible to view 500+ km south as you claim. Look at where the marker lands on this Google Maps Terrain: https://maps.app.goo.gl/PgBWxi31WZC6vk3V9 I should have checked this first, but the coordinates you give for the "To" point (41.0181,77.6708) land in a valley with the south view completely blocked so it's impossible to view 500+ km south as you claim. Look at where the marker lands on this Google Maps Terrain: https://maps.app.goo.gl/PgBWxi31WZC6vk3V9 I should have checked this first, but the coordinates you give for the "To" point (41.0181,77.6708) land in a valley with the south view completely blocked so it's impossible to view 500+ km south as you claim. Look at where the marker lands on this Google Maps Terrain: https://maps.app.goo.gl/PgBWxi31WZC6vk3V9 I should have checked this first, but the coordinates you give for the "To" point (41.0181,77.6708) land in a valley with the south view completely blocked so it's impossible to view 500+ km south as you claim. Look at where the marker lands on this Google Maps Terrain: https://maps.app.goo.gl/PgBWxi31WZC6vk3V9 There's two forms of interpolation going on here that I'm not sure you or Dr Dueschle are using. We interpolate a "band of sight" of single a degree for our azithmual projection, but uniquely we also rotate the DEM elevations around all the observers rather than the observer around to see all the elevations.The effects of the first can be lessened by lowering the band of sight such that we only process half a degree at a time so that we make sure we get more coverage further away. We plan on running some more experiments by rotating to cover more points.The algorithm is already fairly expensive to run against the whole world so we weren't particularly interested in that level of coverage for the full earth.For total viewshed area, our algorithm comes in at roughly a percent or so difference which was what we used as our benchmark for correctness.All this to say, no, we don't think you both are wrong, we've been looking at making ours more accurate. The effects of the first can be lessened by lowering the band of sight such that we only process half a degree at a time so that we make sure we get more coverage further away. We plan on running some more experiments by rotating to cover more points.The algorithm is already fairly expensive to run against the whole world so we weren't particularly interested in that level of coverage for the full earth.For total viewshed area, our algorithm comes in at roughly a percent or so difference which was what we used as our benchmark for correctness.All this to say, no, we don't think you both are wrong, we've been looking at making ours more accurate. The algorithm is already fairly expensive to run against the whole world so we weren't particularly interested in that level of coverage for the full earth.For total viewshed area, our algorithm comes in at roughly a percent or so difference which was what we used as our benchmark for correctness.All this to say, no, we don't think you both are wrong, we've been looking at making ours more accurate. For total viewshed area, our algorithm comes in at roughly a percent or so difference which was what we used as our benchmark for correctness.All this to say, no, we don't think you both are wrong, we've been looking at making ours more accurate. All this to say, no, we don't think you both are wrong, we've been looking at making ours more accurate. I thought of you when we saw Colombia appear so high up in the list, I remembered that's something you'd found too. Since it (a) strongly affects the line of sight, and (b) depends on temperature and weather, how is a static "world record" possible, or even defined? We actually have a plan to aggregate world runs together, so that one run as low refraction and a short observer, then another run with high refraction and tall observer. Why allow the user to select any arbitrary location on a map and give an answer when you know the answer is most likely nonsense? That it's not taking into account human construction or distances of tens of meters?Presumably you can walk a little bit and climb on someone's roof to see the claimed 24.7 km. Presumably you can walk a little bit and climb on someone's roof to see the claimed 24.7 km. So in mine you can click on a spot and it draws black lines over any land that is occluded by terrain, within 100km. (But all with AI-generated JavaScript, not cool Rust and SIMD stuff)https://incoherency.co.uk/line-of-sight-map/ (But all with AI-generated JavaScript, not cool Rust and SIMD stuff)https://incoherency.co.uk/line-of-sight-map/ Heh, I almost hit back at the "in Rust" mention.Would the end result have been different if it were done in python calling C libraries for performance? Would the end result have been different if it were done in python calling C libraries for performance? This is an independent observation from the Fabra Observatory: https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2015/03/03/inenglish/14253... I did some longshots back in the early days of wifi. You could probably talk between ends using cheap crappy 446MHz 250mW walkie-talkies though. https://www.heywhatsthat.com/ is another bookmark that I had lost to time. Actually, I was thinking of https://caltopo.com/map.html but your site led me to it. And it could even be tweaked slightly with some favourable refraction. What about to an ocean point from a mountain? These dimensions assure that the towers have a distinct angle with respect to each other. It's a small difference, but it's not zero.I thought about these things (and many others) during my four-year solo around-the-world sail (https://arachnoid.com/sailbook/). These dimensions assure that the towers have a distinct angle with respect to each other. It's a small difference, but it's not zero.I thought about these things (and many others) during my four-year solo around-the-world sail (https://arachnoid.com/sailbook/). I thought about these things (and many others) during my four-year solo around-the-world sail (https://arachnoid.com/sailbook/). Well there is a photo near our #3 longest line of sight https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/66661-lon...

“If I can generate a book in a day, and you need six months to write a book, who's going to win the race?”That strange quote is from an extraordinary New York Times article about “Coral Hart,” the pseudonym of a Cape Town, South Africa-based writer granted anonymity by the Times to talk about her use of AI to mass produce “more than 200 romance novels,” which she then sells on Amazon without disclosing that they're the products of AI models like Claude and Grok, and in so doing she has pulled in six-figures, she says, off of about 50,000 sales. The person known as Hart allowed what seems to be a real photograph of her, smiling face and all, to be used by the Times, apparently in service of a side hustle teaching people how to use AI to manufacture their own novels, courses she markets under the “Hart” name. Hart, the story says, “requested anonymity” for what only sound like reasons related to professional expediency. With her face now out there, how anonymous can she possibly be? The Times' Alexandra Alter writes that during a Zoom conversation with Hart some unnamed A.I. program churned instructions into a full novel over the course of 45 minutes. The article also claims that through Hart's teaching business, Plot Prose, she's working on a proprietary piece of software that can “generate a book based on an outline in less than an hour, and costs between $80 and $250 a month.” It sounds a great deal like the same piece of software Hart demoed directly to the Times. The PlotProse website advertises something called “The PlotProse Skip-the-Draft Package,” claiming to produce novels that are 90% complete and “fully packaged for publication.” The section on the “February Launchpad” from PlotProse costs $300, and it's described as a mentorship program “designed to take you from a single idea to a fully published author with a three-book catalogue.” Participants who AI-generate their three books, can expect, “instant momentum in the market,” and “a complete, repeatable production and launch blueprint that allows you to keep scaling up your business in the following months.” Late last year she appeared on the video podcast “Brave New Bookshelf” to talk about what she was at the time calling an experiment to write under 20 different pseudonyms (“Coral Hart” is apparently a discontinued pseudonym when it comes to book bylines). “When I say ‘we' it's just me and those personalities of pen names, right? My AI pen names are run just by me. See if I could substitute volume of publishing as opposed to throwing ad money into something. Even if you have zero qualms whatsoever about secretly selling people AI-generated text, generating millions of words to any sort of specifications at all—even loose ones—and then marketing them on Amazon still involves a whole lot of mouse clicks or iPad finger taps or whatever the case may be. And at the same time, you can almost certainly scam people out of crypto with much less effort and a whole lot more monetary reward. Whoever Coral Hart is, she doesn't exactly seem greedy in terms of wanting money. She seems like she truly just wants a decent income in exchange for turning the crank on a giant text meat grinder all day long. What happens if a Waymo runs into an elephant? They're hoping companies will pay for AI agent management. Welcome to the future, where you can do TaskRabbit for robots.