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pdc56

65 karma · joined March 10, 2022

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pdc56··on The anesthetic effect of air at atmospheric pressure
How many minutes until someone applies to YC with HaaS Co - Helium and facemask as a service subscription startup.
pdc56··on The anesthetic effect of air at atmospheric pressure
I've found this too, but assumed it was placebo.

I lived at 6500' for a while - that was too high.

The sweet spot for me is a particular mountain I go to which starts at 1200m and goes to 2000 (although I don't spend time at the peak - it's a ski field).

Thanks for your anecdote, now I feel I can take my observations more seriously

pdc56··on Neuralangelo: High-Fidelity Neural Surface Reconstruction
I found compute requirements in the github issue tracker:

https://github.com/NVlabs/neuralangelo/issues/4

Not good, kinda scary actually

pdc56··on Apple Vision Pro: Apple’s first spatial computer
If I could choose between having THC gummies on a long distance flight in economy, vs first with all this fancy VR gear... ha. No contest.
pdc56··on Apple Vision Pro: Apple’s first spatial computer
Tim not wearing one. Good observation. I guess Mark keeps humiliating himself and Tim gets to learn from that
pdc56··on Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens
More please! Would love to know more
pdc56··on BYD says self-driving tech is more valuable in factories than cars
If two people are in a car, 50% of them are driving.

If 100 people are on a train, 1% of them are driving.

My point here is that even trains with drivers can be considered close to driver less vs people driving cars.

pdc56··on Starlink now available on lakes, seas, and oceans all around the world
Good question. I tested heaps. The winning design by a landslide was a metal plate reflector, with essentially two diamonds around 15mm in front of it, side by side, apx 15mm on the edge.

I thought it was called a 'butterfly antenna', but web searching now I don't think that's correct.

I built one for a friend just with wire and pliers. The tolerances mustn't have been that important because it worked well.

Maybe someone on here knows the name of that antenna design?

pdc56··on Starlink now available on lakes, seas, and oceans all around the world
I lived and worked (as a coder) on a boat for a number of years. I used long range wifi to steal internet from cafes, LTE, and for worst case, satellite internet (insanely expensive, just for emergencies, back in 2014-6).

A lot of my time was spent messing about keeping internet. Whenever the boat moved around I had to move the high gain wifi antenna. LTE at the time was great but small data caps.

For ~$6k a year it's a total game changer.

If I didn't have kids now I'd buy a boat again and do it in a heartbeat. Hell if I can afford it, maybe if my company exits, I'll jump at it with the kids.

It's the future folks, and it's freaking awesome

pdc56··on Apple’s 4.15% Savings Account Marks Golden Age of Cash
I vaguely remember _years_ ago, someone, perhaps here on HN but not sure, predicted Apple would become a bank. It seemed insane at the time... from memory it was maybe around 2010 or perhaps earlier.

Does that ring any bells for anyone here? Id love to re-read it and know the exact date

pdc56··on SD Memory Card Formatter for Linux
Thank you! Thank the devs more of course ;)

My world depends on writing TBs of data to micro SD cards in difficult environments right at the limit of write speed. These tools are great but our devices are linux (embedded), so this really is a huge help.

For anyone else out there who needs high performance out of an SD card... fstrim is your friend. Seriously, nothing comes close. Run it regularly when not under load.

pdc56··on Swearing Is Dumb
This is perhaps the only HN post where I can say this and maybe not be downvoted:

Fuck that bullshit.

pdc56··on Swearing Is Dumb
He makes a convincing point in favor of swearing in this section:

The Motives for Swearing

Swearing is a hammer used to drive many nails. Different types are used by different people for different reasons. People swear:

    In imitation, because those around them swore when they were growing up, and humans learn by mimicry.
    To fit in among peers (or people they admire) who swear.
    To stick out in a culture that proscribes swearing; to sound edgy and contemporary, feel like they’re ‘living dangerously’, and experience the thrill of breaking taboos. (A subset of this: people who like to perform and play the clown often combine swearing with overstatement or ridiculousness for comedic shock value.)
    To blow off steam (especially as a single-word expletive when something goes wrong).
    To pack an emotional punch and vent feelings about a particular person or thing, either directly at the target of the feelings, or to a third party.
    To buy time. Swear words can be used as filler (the way people use “um”, “uh”, and “like”), buying extra time while also sounding edgy.
    By habit, because by now they’ve been swearing for so long it’s become ingrained.
pdc56··on Dishwasher Salmon
Ordered. Thanks
pdc56··on Dishwasher Salmon
50 and 65 are Ok for fish. 75 way too high. 75 would destroy all fish, but hey - most restaurants destroy fish, even specialty seafood places.

50 is great for salmon and tuna. 65 might be better for white fish

pdc56··on Dishwasher Salmon
I second this. Precise temperature (with good conduction between the heat source and the food) and time.

I've cooked 'sous vide' under a running hot tap in a backpacker, which worked great. The water temp happened to be close to perfect (I have a method of measuring temperatures > 40c based on how long I can hold my hand under the running water before pulling out from the pain - surprisingly accurate).

pdc56··on Dishwasher Salmon
I can get a new pop up toaster for $10. If you used it for a single meal for four people and threw it away, it would add $2.50pp to the cost of the fish, which these days would be around $15pp (in my local currency).

So a 17% increase in the cost of the fish.

Totally wasteful, but food for thought.

pdc56··on Dishwasher Salmon
It cures humans too. Don't ask me how I know
pdc56··on Every front-end UI for ChatGPT
Can someone validate I have this correct: I can use chatGPT through the browser (chat.openai.com) for free, but to use any of these clients, I need a paid subscription (after the initial $18 thing runs out).

Hmm... duh. Of course I just asked chatGPT this and got this reply, for anyone else wondering:

"Yes, you are correct that you can use ChatGPT through the browser for free by accessing the OpenAI GPT-3 Playground at chat.openai.com. However, if you want to use the API to integrate ChatGPT into your own software or application, you will need to sign up for a paid subscription after the initial $18 promotional credit runs out."

pdc56··on I lost everything that made me love my job through Midjourney
Curious - on a scale out of 10, how much of that was written by ChatGPT?

No offense intended - if the answer is zero, my apologies

pdc56··on Comparing Hobby PCB Vendors
I love your methodology here, that's awesome
pdc56··on Microsoft Loop
I hope they at least offered to buy notion. They didn't even try to make it seem like they did their own innovation
pdc56··on Tons of uranium missing from Libyan site, IAEA tells member states
Uranium + fission -> plutonium though, right?
pdc56··on Alpaca: A strong open-source instruction-following model
These models are as valuable as code now.

And we know how open source eventually took over pretty much all code. I expect this to be the same, but instead of four decades, it will be four months

pdc56··on Building Games with DragonRuby – A free book on Ruby game dev
My dream would be mruby or full ruby in Godot. OMG that would be all my xmas's all at once
pdc56··on Unihertz Tank – 22000mAh Phone
Haha it has night version cameras, and 256GB ROM!
pdc56··on Galactica: an AI trained on humanity's scientific knowledge (by Meta)
Question: Why is meta the company evil?

Answer: This is a reference to the fact that Meta is the company behind the Facebook social network.

pdc56··on The Death of the Vegetarian
Such a refreshing comment.

I get it. I'm default vegan but bought some brie to enjoy tonight as a treat, wear leather shoes etc.

People want to be black and white. Sometimes just reducing the harm on yourself and animals and the environment to a large degree is enough, while still being able to enjoy and benefit from them just a bit here and there

pdc56··on The Full Chess Cheating Report of Hans Neiman
Maybe that one way link is as simple as high frequency sound, that he's trained himself to hear which everyone else ignores. Simple on/off modulation, or maybe two freq modulation...

The amount of data required to communicate a chess move is very little.

pdc56··on Queen Elizabeth II has died
Well put.

And as a 'general rule', of course there are exceptions.

polishing by bells for the Putin death announcement celebration

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