Reichinstein also wrote a biography of Einstein, "Albert Einstein sein Lebensbild und seine Weltanschauung" (which roughly translates as Albert Einstein: His Life and Worldview) that came out prior to 1936. Apparently it was written and possibly self-published in 1932, which led to Einstein writing to Reichinstein that

Wenn Sie dieses Manuskript irgendwo und irgendwie veröffentlichen, dann ist es zwischen uns für immer aus.

Google Translate renders this as:

If you publish this manuscript anywhere, in any way, then it's over between us forever.

i.e. strongly asking him not to publish the manuscript. Reichinstein then proceeded to publish the book in Prague in 1934. The relevant letter from Einstein to Reichinstein is dates May 26, 1932 and has been made available by the ETH Zurich Library's "Einstein Online" collection, specifically in the section on The Time in Berlin (1914-1933) along with several other letters to Reichinstein, Hermann Weyl, and others.

The pizza chain recently tapped NBCUniversal, Instacart and the dentsu-owned media agency Carat for help reaching consumers when they’re low on groceries—and thus more likely to be swayed by a mouth-watering ad. The idea is to reach hungry consumers by “knowing what is in their fridge without being too creepy,” said Carrie Drinkwater, chief investment officer at Carat. //

Rontea • July 1, 2026 9:22 AM

In a world where even the emptiness of your refrigerator becomes a pretext for surveillance, the absurdity is complete. Papa Johns peers into your void, not to offer solace, but to monetize your hunger. The fridge, once a private cathedral of decay and disappointment, now signals the market when your despair has ripened.

We have reached a point where the faint growl of a stomach is data, where the absence of milk is a summons to the algorithm. They do not wait for you to feel desire; they conjure it, weaponize it, and then serve it back to you with garlic sauce. The empty fridge is no longer your own—it belongs to the ad.

To be hungry is to be known. To be known is to be hunted. And still, we will scan the QR code, because our revolt extends only as far as our apathy will allow.

If you’re looking for the best flatbed photo scanner, the Epson v600 is our top pick. It’s a versatile scanner that can handle both individual photos and photo albums, and it produces high-quality scans. The v600 is also great for scanning delicate photos, as you can place them directly on the flatbed without having to use a sheet feeder. And if you need to scan multiple photos at once, the v600 can do that too.

I continue to be interested in learning Rust, the programming language that’s gaining ascendancy in the systems programming world. I reviewed The Rust Programming Language which is not a bad book but I didn’t care for it, for reasons I outlined in a previous post.

Since then, I’ve moved on to Rust Exercises, which a very cool course you can take for free. Through 100 exercises, you learn Rust step by step.

https://rust-exercises.com/100-exercises/

Struggling to tell the difference between WD’s NAS HDDs? This will help.

The Financial Times has a good article on how AI is changing the capabilities of video surveillance, with information from both Israel/Iran and Russia.

I wrote about this sort of thing a few years ago, how AI enables mass spying in the way that computers and networks enabled mass surveillance. The interesting development in the article is that AI allows people to ask natural language questions about video footage to AIs—and AIs can answer them. //

That lets intelligence officers hunt through massive streams of videos using simple search terms, such as two men handing a bag to each other; a person who has changed their appearance, or has changed clothes multiple times in a day; or a vehicle that has recently been painted over, or has driven past the same spot several times in a short period.

The Plustek OpticFilm 8200i SE is the best dedicated film scanner on the market. It features a dedicated infrared scanning channel that allows for the removal of dust and scratches from your scans. The 8200i SE also has a high-resolution sensor that produces superb image quality. And if you need to scan slides or negatives, the 8200i SE comes with an integrated slide holder.

Note: Plustek has recently released a new model with the same model name (Plustek OpticFilm 8200i) that is currently incompatible with VueScan so it’s hard to know whether you have the Plustek 8200i that is compatible with VueScan or the one that isn’t.

When it comes to scanning film and slides, the Nikon CoolScan 5000 is the gold standard. Unfortunately, Nikon no longer makes them, which means your only option is to buy a used scanner.

I ran into a polyglot the other day who asked me how many languages I knew. I flashed back to a moment circa 1977 when I was a young kid in a summer program to learn about computers. We were sitting at terminals and someone asked a hacker (in the good sense of that word) how many languages he knew.

The hacker was about 19, with long hair in a pony tail, wearing jeans, hiking boots, round-rimmed John Lennon glasses, and a T-shirt with some kind of rock band logo on it. He was the epitome of the cool nerdy hacker, leaning over our shoulders as we typed out BASIC programs and giving us tips, excited to share his craft.

“Well, if you mean human languages, only one fluently,” he said. “But if you mean computer languages, well, let’s see…” He started counting them off on his fingers. The only ones I remember now are BASIC (because I was learning it) and SNOBOL because the name was funny.

So I answered my polyglot acquaintance “Well, if you mean human languages, only one fluently. But if you mean computer languages…”

Then later when I got home, I made a list, and it was surprisingly long.

NASA officials said Tuesday that they are seriously considering sending the full-scale engineering model of the Perseverance rover, which is currently housed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, to the Moon to expedite their efforts to explore the south pole region.

The car-sized rover nicknamed “Promise,” which serves as a testbed for Perseverance and was not otherwise planned for a launch, would land equipped with a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) to power it across difficult terrain and through the lunar night. //

NASA has an MMRTG available, with a supply of Plutonium-238 that is just decaying away. It is likely the rover, with a mass of about 1 ton, would need to be delivered by Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander or SpaceX’s Starship due to its size. //

Over the years, Promise has served as a test bed for problems that Perseverance might encounter on Mars. Commands are often tested on this vehicle in the “Mars yard” at the California laboratory before similar commands are sent to the rover on the surface of Mars. It has also helped ensure Perseverance can safely traverse various areas on Mars.

Perseverance launched to Mars in July 2020, and its predecessor, the similarly sized Curiosity rover, launched to the red planet in November 2011. //

Curiosus Novitius Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
2y
105
semyorka said:
To be clear, there is no pre-existing "Promise" rover. "PROMISE" stands for "Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration"
At least it wasn't Prototype Repurposed from Old Mars Inventory for Secondhand Expeditions. //

brokescientist Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
7y
135
I was just at JPL last week and they have also recently dusted off ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer). After over a decade in storage they were surprised everything seemed to be operational. Having the test bed is likely important, but actually using hardware and working to deploy long shelved ideas is really cool, and likely much more exciting for the engineers.