April 2026 – Spinor Info

New apps

Cybernetics, Personal, Programming No Responses »

Apr 252026

Although I tried it, I am not using Claude Code or any of the other “agentic” coding tools provided by AI companies. However, I do use their models as coding assistants. What I don’t need is an “agent” that compiles code, manages git repos, or, well, messes up my system. What I do need is an efficient, extremely knowledgeable coding assistant who can complete in minutes what would take hours, days, perhaps even weeks for me to write.

Take a look at this selection of Web apps I recently created, for my own use, really.

In the upper left, a note-taker app that I have now been using for over a month as my “on premises” replacement of Microsoft OneNote. Works like a charm, better than OneNote in a variety of ways.

Going clockwise, the next app is my custom music player. It’s integrated with my private library of my ripped CDs. Next is an app that controls my IC-PCR1000 radio. This radio is just a little black box, connected to a PC via a serial cable. (Yes, it’s that old.) It’s an “almost professional grade” communications receiver that basically covers the continuous radio spectrum from 10 kHz to 1.3 GHz. I am not doing anything fancy with it these days, just listening (mostly) to CBC Radio 2 or Radio Canada’s Ici Musique.

Then there is is a group video chat app that I specifically developed to overcome issues with video not properly transmitted behind firewalls or over VPNs. It’s TCP-only, which of course has its disadvantages, but it works reasonably well. Shown here is the mobile version of its user interface: a plush tiger happily volunteered to be my chat partner in a test.

Finally, a bus tracker app, using real-time data from Ottawa’s public transportation company, OC Transpo. As the data format they use is a Google standard that is now used by many other municipalities, I am thinking of adapting my app to work, e.g., using data from Budapest. For now, it just does what it was supposed to do in the first place, covering Ottawa, with real-time refresh and updates.

For me, this represents the true power of LLMs in software development. None of that agentic nonsense. I don’t need the AI to do typing for me. I need the AI to spit out 1000 lines of mostly correct code in a matter of seconds, saving me countless hours of development time. What it enables is for me to create bespoke software that does exactly what I need it to do. But in the end, I “own” the code, I understand what it does, how it works, I can debug and refine it without AI help if necessary. The agency remains mine.

Back from Phoenix

Aviation, Personal, Physics No Responses »

Apr 172026

I got back last night from Phoenix, where I spent a day, invited to give a seminar at the cosmology group of Arizona State University.

When I arranged my journey, I was delighted to learn that Porter Airlines had a direct connection, YOW to PHX. Yay! But wait… I knew it was a long trip, but 5.5 hours? Holy macaroni. And I never flew Porter. So I worried… a budget airline? Crappy service?

I should not have been concerned. At the risk of sounding like a cheap commercial, I have to say, my experience with Porter has been super positive. They were genuinely nice. I mean it. The aircraft was relatively new and clean, the legroom (I bought an exit row ticket) was plenty adequate but it seemed decent in other rows as well, the service on board was friendly, the free snacks and drinks were good (I don’t drink alcohol when flying, but wine and beer were also served for free)… I’d go so far as to suggest that the experience reminded me a bit of what flying used to be like half a century ago, when I first sat on an airplane and when even economy class passengers were treated like minor royalty.

And Phoenix, well, at least the parts of Phoenix that I saw, was very pleasant. I’ve been to Phoenix before but only driving through, not spending any significant time there. Now I spent two nights, and throughout my stay, I cannot recall a single grumpy person. Everyone was smiling, and they went out of their way to be helpful. I was asking some students for directions on the ASU campus when another student, who overheard my question, immediately offered to guide me to the building I was looking for. Later, a member of the hotel staff went out of her way to make sure that I’d find the store I was looking for in the neighborhood.

Politics of the day aside, my dislike of travel these days aside, I am glad I accepted the invitation. It was an honor, my hosts treated me with exceptional hospitality, and my talk — which proved to be shorter than intended, mainly because not a single soul interrupted me, something I honestly expected to happen — was well-received. And I was also able to collaborate a bit with my host, to his apparent delight.

About those plushies at Mission Control

Space No Responses »

Apr 132026

I have since learned that the white toy cat at Mission Control, keeping a watchful eye over the CAPCOM station, was not just some random toy: Its name is Artemis, from the anime series Sailor Moon.

In the meantime, however, I also noticed another plush animal, one wearing a little mask. I was wondering about its backstory.

Today, I found out, courtesy of Reddit. The plushie’s name is Eugene, and it was there, in part, in memoriam of the late NASA engineer and flight controller, Jennifer Grassman.

May you rest in peace, Jennifer Grassman.

Cautious optimism?

Hungary, Politics 1 Response »

Apr 122026

Hungarians have spoken. They voted against Orban’s “illiberal democracy”.

It would be a lie if I said that I am not delighted by this result. I am. My optimism remains tempered, however. Does this result mean true change? A return to liberal democratic principles? Or did the country just replace one set of illiberal oligarchs with another?

We shall see. I remain hopeful but… guarded. The fundamental reasons that allowed Orban to rule as he did for the past 16 years have not changed. Nationalism, a misguided sense of history, the traction of grievance politics remain. How Peter Magyar will govern is still a mystery. The next several months will be telling.

But for now, this is good news. Fingers firmly crossed.

Meanwhile, the fact that all major news organizations treat this result as top-tier breaking news is telling. After all, none other than J. D. Vance, the vice president of the United States, visited Hungary just a few days ago, effectively campaigning for Orban. Trump also expressed his support. I already saw breaking news e-mails from the Associated Press and The Globe and Mail. The result is also top-page breaking news on CNN’s Web site.

Back home…

History, Space 1 Response »

Apr 102026

Aaaand… they’re back.

No wait, wrong image. That picture was from 160 years ago, a Jules Verne illustration that is uncannily accurate.

What I meant this screenshot from NASA TV:

What a day. What a mission. I hope it’s the first of many, and deep space is again open to human exploration.

Civilizational threat

History, Politics No Responses »

Apr 072026

This one deserves to be quoted in full: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”

No, these words were not uttered by Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Nero, Caligula or any of the other mad rulers from history.

They were posted on Truth Social by the sitting president of the United States of America.

And yes, this is a civilizational threat. No, not to Persian civilization — one of the oldest, grandest civilizations on the planet, which will survive this, just as it survived past calamities, just as it will ultimately survive the ayatollahs’ rule as well — but our Western civilization. A threat like this is in fundamental contradiction with our Western values, the values of Enlightenment, liberal democracy, human rights that Western civilization, however imperfectly, represents.

History in the making

History, Personal, Space No Responses »

Apr 072026

Earlier tonight, at 6:44 PM Eastern time to be precise, we saw this on NASA TV:

It was followed, 42 minutes later, by this image:

Yes, that tiny thing in the depth of space is Earth. Every human being currently alive, and the remains of every human being who ever lived, are there, except for the four people on board Artemis 4, the spacecraft that took these images as part of its live video feed as it circumnavigated the Moon. (And no, don’t worry, the Moon is still there in the second picture, it’s just that from their perspective it’s mostly dark. Soon thereafter, they actually experienced a solar eclipse in space, as the Sun vanished behind the Moon for about an hour or so.)

Meanwhile, a friend of mine sent me a picture of something that hangs on his wall:

Yes, it means exactly what it implies: he was a member of the recovery force that recovered the last human expedition to the Moon, after their successful return and oceanic splashdown, back in 1972.

I was not yet 10 back then. Now? I already celebrated my 63rd birthday.

Past and present, both now part of one of those rare arcs of history that are worth remembering for all the right reasons.

As the Artemis II crewmembers remarked after breaking the distance record from the Earth: they hope their new record will not remain unbroken for long.

I hope so, too. Very, very much.

Space cat

Cats, Space No Responses »

Apr 022026

And we heard the magic phrase earlier tonight: trans-lunar injection.

It happened. Whatever the outcome (and I hope it’ll be a good outcome) four humans are now committed to travel to the Moon, for the very first time in since December, 1972.

And the have a cat to watch over them. Not a real cat, but still: a cat at the Mission Control Center.

What can possibly go wrong when you have a cat supervising the flight? Nothing, I sincerely hope.

Another first in 53 years…

Space No Responses »

Apr 012026

For the first time in 53 years, NASA’s Deep Space Network is communicating not with a robotic spacecraft but with a human spaceflight in deep space.

Presently just over 32,000 km from the center of the Earth, in, as I understand it, a highly elliptical orbit, not quite yet heading to the Moon: that will involve yet another phrase we have not heard uttered “live” in 53 years: trans-lunar injection.

I never thought…

History, Space 2 Responses »

Apr 012026

I never thought (at least not in the past 25 years, give or take) that I’ll live long enough to see this.

Note the indicator I highlighted in the lower right.

Distance to the Moon.

For the first time since December, 1972.

I was not yet 10 in December, 1972. The world was troubled back then, just as it is troubled right now.

This launch? I was worried sick. A space launch system the design of which was very heavily influenced by politics. Political pressure to ensure launch. Frustrating issues with the rocket in the preceding months, with multiple delays.

And yet… so far so good. The launch proceeded without a glitch. The spacecraft is orbiting the Earth, soon to continue its journey to the Moon.

To the Moon.

I am astonished by my own reaction to these words. Thinking of Jules Verne, thinking of Apollo 8, of Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Apollo 17… and then 53 years — more than half a century! — with no human traveling beyond Low Earth Orbit.

You know what. Let me insert something here that these days isn’t very popular, for a whole host of (valid) reasons.

Yes. An American flag. On the Moon. Because…

Because they are on their way to the Moon again.