Alexandru Csete

Space systems engineer with special love for satcom and software defined radios. OZ9AEC on the air.

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

While so many run around with their hair on fire and suggest we should abandon PHP... Microsoft's October 2026 Patch Tuesday fixed 1413 vulnerabilities of which 70+ are ranked critical with CVSS above 9.0 - and this shit happens EVERY MONTH.

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

Looks like someone carved a Smith chart out in stone 😃

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

@ibelings Awesome!

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

@lambdaprog Awesome!

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

I'd like to think that humanity is much more intelligent than he thinks.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

It is humbling to consider that if we harness just 1 millionth of the Sun’s power for AI, that will be much more than a million times the intelligence of all of humanity

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

@pe0sat @vk5qi The update schedule does not make it any better...

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

@vk5qi Thanks for the heads-up. Ironically, the "G" in the name stands for the Gtk+ - the GUI toolkit - and not even that has survived in the rewrite 😂

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

@ea4gpz Indeed 😁

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

Fuel is now so expensive that counter in pumping station firmware overflows 🤦

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

Two more items I can cross off my bucket list:
✔️ Finish development project (almost) on schedule
✔️ Have the project featured on the @esa website
https://t.co/gNKEkKNmZ7

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

@ibelings @IanJohnBuckley @FossaSys @danielestevez On the right. The one on the left is growing into the HF range

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

@ibelings @IanJohnBuckley @FossaSys @danielestevez Since then, I have used satellite IoT to make plant growth follow radio waves and antenna radiation patterns 📡🛰️😃

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

@IanJohnBuckley @ibelings @FossaSys @danielestevez Oh, so you are the one who was sitting there next to me. I couldn't remember 😅

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

@ibelings @FossaSys @danielestevez Indeed! I miss those events and years so much!

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

@ElbaSatGuy Well spotted!

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

I took this photo at 1:30 AM last night. Almost full moon, no clouds, -12 °C, and phone camera set to "Night mode" with 2 sec exposure. Almost looks like daylight 😃

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.

$30 per seat per month.

$1.4 million annually.

I called it "digital transformation."

The board loved that phrase.

They approved it in eleven minutes.

No one asked what it would actually do.

Including me.

I told everyone it would "10x productivity."

That's not a real number.

But it sounds like one.

HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.

I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."

They stopped asking.

Three months later I checked the usage reports.

47 people had opened it.

12 had used it more than once.

One of them was me.

I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.

It took 45 seconds.

Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.

But I called it a "pilot success."

Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.

The CFO asked about ROI.

I showed him a graph.

The graph went up and to the right.

It measured "AI enablement."

I made that metric up.

He nodded approvingly.

We're "AI-enabled" now.

I don't know what that means.

But it's in our investor deck.

A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.

I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."

He asked what that meant.

I said "compliance."

He asked which compliance.

I said "all of them."

He looked skeptical.

I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."

He stopped asking questions.

Microsoft sent a case study team.

They wanted to feature us as a success story.

I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."

I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.

They didn't verify it.

They never do.

Now we're on Microsoft's website.

"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."

The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.

He got 3,000 likes.

He's never used Copilot.

None of the executives have.

We have an exemption.

"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."

I wrote that policy.

The licenses renew next month.

I'm requesting an expansion.

5,000 more seats.

We haven't used the first 4,000.

But this time we'll "drive adoption."

Adoption means mandatory training.

Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.

But completion will be tracked.

Completion is a metric.

Metrics go in dashboards.

Dashboards go in board presentations.

Board presentations get me promoted.

I'll be SVP by Q3.

I still don't know what Copilot does.

But I know what it's for.

It's for showing we're "investing in AI."

Investment means spending.

Spending means commitment.

Commitment means we're serious about the future.

The future is whatever I say it is.

As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

[Alexandru Csete @csete]

The irony if this...
The good news is that the MS365 spam filter appears to be working quite well