proportions Archives

The US has invested 16 years and 8 billion dollars in renewing the software of its GPS network. Result: a failure of epic proportions

March 31, 2026 by usatoday24

The Next-Generation Operational Control System project (OCX) was going to modernize the constellation of the United States’ more than 30 GPS satellites. The company RTX Corporation (previously known as Raytheon) managed to win the project in 2010 with a budget of 3.7 billion dollars. The project was supposed to be completed in 2016, but in reality the US has spent $8 billion and 16 years later has an absolute disaster on its hands. 16 years of broken promises. In 2010 the iPad had just appeared on the scene and cloud computing was a somewhat diffuse concept. The project of the US Government was reasonable, and proposed that the OCX system be operational by the time Lockheed Martin’s new GPS III satellites debuted. The development became a chaos of bugs and requirements changes, and to this day it is unclear when, if ever, it will be completed. In Xataka 90% of Iran’s oil industry depends on a tiny island. One that is already on the radar of the US and Israel A fortune invested. The financial management of the project is the first big disaster. The initial budget was estimated at 1.5 billion dollars, but since the award until today that figure has risen to reach almost 7.7 billion of current dollars, to which another 400 million are added to support an improved version of the satellites, the GPS IIIF. This increase is not due in large part to the project suddenly being much more ambitious or more capable, but rather to the costs of having been fixing everything that has gone wrong since they started working on it. Software costs more than satellites. Every time software fails an integration test, the bill runs into tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. That has made the OCX system one of the most expensive and least efficient software projects in recent US military history. In fact, it far exceeds the cost of the satellites themselves that it had to control: the 22 GPS III satellites of the contract signed in 2018 have a budget of 7.2 billion dollars. Satellites of the future controlled by a fairground shotgun. Currently the United States has a fleet of GPS III satellites in orbit capable of emitting much more powerful “M-code” signals and interference resistantsomething that among other things allocates them especially for military applications. The problem is that since the OCX software not workingthey are managing them with control systems inherited from the 90s. It is as if we had a VHS video connected to watch movies on an 8K Smart TV: the potential is there, but one of the components is an absolute bottleneck. {“videoId”:”x8wlh9q”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”United States vs. China: The CHIPS WAR”, “tag”:”webedia-prod”, “duration”:”1611″} The cybersecurity nightmare. One of the big problems of this project has been the cybersecurity requirements. OCX was designed to resist cyberattacks from powers such as Russia or China, but that requirement has become a spectacular technical burden. Pentagon standards have evolved so quickly that they have not been able to be adapted to an architecture that begins to become obsoleteand covering successive patches is locking the system in a complex vicious circle: the software is never finished because more and more vulnerabilities appear. Failed tests. The latest report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been the final straw. During the tests the system again showed once again instabilitywhich has forced the final delivery to be delayed to the end of 2026 or even 2027. Frank Calvelli, of the Air Force, has expressed his dissatisfaction with that unacceptable management of private industry: the strategic advantage that this project should offer at a time like this is inaccessible due to the disastrous progress of the project. It’s not that difficult. for a long time the excuse for justify the delays was that OCX was “the most complex software ever created for space,” but other players in the sector have shown that achieving these types of technical milestones is possible. SpaceX has demonstrated this with technical “miracles” like its reusable Falcon 9 or with the development of Starship, for example, so those arguments are falling on deaf ears now. Waiting for a better GPS. These problems also affect us end users, who will not be able to enjoy the L5 signals for now. This much more robust frequency will significantly improve accuracy in urban centers with many tall buildings. The irony is tragic: we cannot use extraordinary space infrastructure because the base stations cannot cope with it. While waiting for the problems to be resolved, the learning is clear: the software cannot be a monster that takes 16 years to build In Xataka The GPS in the Baltic has been experiencing interference for months and the culprit is becoming increasingly clear: Russia And while as always, China. While the US crashes against its project to renew the GPS constellation, China has once again managed to “become independent” from Western technology. Your satellite navigation system Beidouit does not replace GPS, true, but It already complements it in 140 countries. Once again China’s long-term view has its obvious result: it has taken 20 years in deploying its constellation, but they already surpass the GPS system in metrics such as signal availability or integrated messaging services. Europe, by the way, also has its own alternative. In Xataka |GPS “dead zones” are spreading around the world: jammers are to blame for confusing drones (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news The US has invested 16 years and 8 billion dollars in renewing the software of its GPS network. Result: a failure of epic proportions was originally published in Xataka by Javier Pastor .

How to force Gemini to create images of proportions and sizes you want instead of always making them square

October 10, 2025 by usatoday24

We are going to explain how to get it Gemini make images with the sizes and proportions that you want. With other alternatives such as ChatGPT This is as easy as telling the horizontalxvertical pixels or telling you an image aspect ratio, but with Geminithe artificial intelligence from Google this seems to fail, and often just makes them all square no matter how much you ask otherwise This is a bug that will surely be corrected over time, but if you need to have control over the proportion of the image you are going to create, we will tell you a little trick with which to force it in an original way. Create images in the proportion you want The first thing you have to do is edit a blank image with the proportion you want using any image editor. You can simply make a blank image and crop it to use a specific size. It could also be a random photo, because in the end it’s just one size template which you will then use in Gemini. Now you have to go to Gemini. When writing the prompt you have to add blank image with size that you have chosen. It will be like putting the canvas on which to later create the image. Then, next to the image add a prompt with this formula: “Replace this image with one that shows (…)”. Here, in the prompt it is important to specify that you want replace that image with a new oneand then describe what you want to appear in the new drawing. By doing this, Gemini will not create the image entirely from scratchbut instead will take as reference the size from which you have uploaded. And then, since you have asked to replace the image, nothing from the previous one will appear, but to avoid problems it is best to have the image blank. This way, you can master one of Gemini’s biggest flaws when creating images, which is that it ignores your size instructions. And remember that you can have several templates of specific sizes. In Xataka Basics | Gemini Image Editor: 16 Ways and Tricks to Squeeze Nano-banana with Google’s AI

The return has become the world showcase of the proportions. Madrid has a plan to avoid it: shielding

September 11, 2025 by usatoday24

What happened? That The return to Spain 2025 promises to occupy an outstanding place in the Patria sports chronicle, even in the international, but for a reason that bit It has nothing to do with bikes. The competition par excellence of Spanish cycling has been marked by protests against Gaza’s genocide, which have found an unpayable showcase for their message in the tournament. Why’s that? Simple. Three elements that have caused an explosive mixture coincide. The first is Gaza’s genocide and the deep rejection that is generating in the societies of several countries, including Spain. The second element is the very nature of cycling competitions, which have been used for years Slave shop windows difficult to control. After all, the return is divided into 21 stages that cover More than 3,000 kilometers. The third element is the participation of Israel-Premier Techa Uciproteam team that has become an involuntary protagonist of the appointment. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Why is it controversial? Being linked to Israel and being in the hands of Sylvan Adams, a Canadian-Israeli magnate linked to the real estate sector, who has reached define as “self -proclaimed ambassador to the state of Israel” and It does not hide His tuning with Benjamin Netanyahu. His participation in the Vuelta has marked the edition almost From the beginning and has placed his cyclists in the eye of the hurricane. The best test was left a few days ago by the technical director of La Vuelta, Kiko García, who slid that I only saw “a solution” to the problems with which the return is being found: “that the team assumes that being does not facilitate the safety of all others.” Those responsible for Israel-Primer Tech always They have made clear that this possibility is not on the table because “a dangerous precedent would sit”, but They accepted eliminating The mention of ‘Israel’ of his jersey. The measure, loaded with symbolism, does not seem to have been enough. How serious is the problem? Yes. A week ago the organization of the Vuelta was found with such deployment of protesters as it passed through Bilbao that he chose to end the stage Three kilometers before of the planned end point. And it has not been the only occasion when he has been forced to make a similar decision. In Galicia the organization also decided to advance Eight kilometers The goal. Cyclists have encountered banners, screams, protesters throwing themselves on the road, Blacks or even A tree In the middle of the road. A cyclist from Movistar, Javier Romo, He ended up retiring of the tournament for the injuries he suffered after a fall. The reason? A protester broke into the road and caused him to be protruding and lost his balance. Cyclists have decided to continue competing, but also They warn that will be planted if they consider that they are in danger. “In the previous stage, they launched bottles and even clicks and nails in the neutralized. Before those things, the squad is afraid,” I recognized Recently a team director The country. From the Staff They also regret that the 2025 Vuelta has left shocking images like “chinches on the face of a cyclist.” What will happen in Madrid? The big question. The last two days will be held this weekend with the Community of Madrid as Main scenario: On Saturday there will be a mountain stage between World ball and Robledo de Chavela And on Sunday it will be culminated between ALALPARD and the center of the capital. The authorities want to avoid at all costs that the protests cloud the most symbolic (and media) day of the return and have decided shield Madrid to achieve it. The Government Delegation Recognize That citizens have a “legitimate right” to demonstrate, but also insist that “peaceful” must be exercised. In any case, the administrations have preferred to work in health and deploy hundreds of police and civil guards, with an operation that reminds of draft appointments, such as The NATO Summit in Madrid. From the City Council they have also reinforced security and They call “To responsibility.” The right of the people to demonstrate is not questioned, but they want to avoid scenarios such as those who lived in the Basque Country or Galicia. “It works to compatible the development of the sports test, with the legitimate right of demonstration of those citizens who decide,” Underline Francisco Martín Aguirre, the Government delegate in the Community of Madrid. How many agents will there be? Many. The Government Delegation in Madrid speaks of 1,100 National Police agents and 400 of the Civil Guard, effective who “will join the usual ones of the return device.” The City Council has also announced a reinforced deployment, with a thousand troopssum of local police (800), mobility agents (100) and Samur (100). The objective: shield The gold brooch for a cycling return that, beyond sports achievements, will be marked for subsequentness by protests. Images | Madrid Emergency Vehicle (Flickr) In Xataka | Cycling has always been used as a huge vindictive showcase. And that is now going back to the return

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