Fabulous factoids, nuggets of knowledge, and tidbits of trivia are flying thick and fast at the moment. The only way I can hope to stay on top of things is by bunching them together, which explains why we now find ourselves pondering the relationships (or lack thereof) between drone killers, LEGO typewriters, and SOUP.

Let’s start with a story I read on the Popular Mechanics website describing how America’s New Drone Killer Blasts Targets with Stringy Pink Stuff. This is actually pretty cool. As we see in this video, a low-cost reusable drone interceptor approaches a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) in the form of another drone and then “splats” it with some sort of pink stringy sticky stuff that causes the naughty drone to become “flight challenged,” as it were.

Next, I received an email from my chum Jay Dowling pointing me at the soon-to-be-launched 2079-piece LEGO Typewriter, the creation of which is discussed in this video.

I’m looking forward to hearing what my LEGO-loving friend John in the UK thinks about this little scamp (see also LEGO A-Wing Starfighter Build: Day 30).

Last (for today), but certainly not least, I received an email out of the blue from the folks at Micro Digital — the guys and gals who develop SMX RTOS — guiding me to column titled What’s in Your SOUP? This turned out to be a lot more interesting than I expected.

It turns out that SOUP stands for “Software of Unknown Pedigree,” which is code that originated with a third-party whose scruples may or may not deserve scrutiny. Happily, this paper explains how the SOUP can be corralled in an isolated partition from whence it can continue to be used but cannot attack the rest of your system.

Phew! So much to peruse and ponder, but so little time to peruse and ponder it all in. I’m too young for all this excitement. As always, I welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions.