Seizing the means of production!
Readit NewsIvyMike commented on U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel cnbc.com/2025/08/22/intel... · Posted by u/givemeethekeys
IvyMike commented on At 17, Hannah Cairo solved a major math mystery quantamagazine.org/at-17-... · Posted by u/baruchel
Wonder why Berkeley didn’t offer her PhD admission given that she was already working with the Prof there.
> When I was an undergraduate at MIT I loved it. I thought it was a great place, and I wanted to go to graduate school there too, of course. But when I went to Professor Slater and told him of my intentions, he said, "We won’t let you in here."
> I said, "What?"
> Slater said, "Why do you think you should go to graduate school at MIT?"
> "Because MIT is the best school for science in the country."
> "You think that?"
> "Yeah."
> "That's why you should go to some other school. You should find out how the rest of the world is."
-- Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman
IvyMike commented on Android Earthquake Alerts: A global system for early warning research.google/blog/andr... · Posted by u/michaefe
The most useless detection system because you are either fine or buried under rubble at that point. Every real detection system attempts to catch the p-waves to warn users in real time ahead of shaking.
Certainly it's not going to compete with real time systems, but much like computing the speed of light using your microwave and a chocolate bar, it's just kind of neat to see how accurate such a system can be.
IvyMike commented on Android Earthquake Alerts: A global system for early warning research.google/blog/andr... · Posted by u/michaefe
I'm still hoping someone makes an earthquake detection system where the data is just derived from people posting "Earthquake?" on Twitter/Threads/Facebook/Etc. Plot the geotagged tweets and it seems easy to get both the location and magnitude.
> while another, called Hyperion, will be able to scale up to 5 gigawatts over the coming years, Zuckerberg said.
Someone hasn't read the Dan Simmons novel, it seems. Well, one would hope, anyway.
From the classic tweet[0]:
> Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale
> Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus
[0]: https://x.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538?lang=e...
From the site:
> All researchers must apply and present a researcher card, which may be obtained in Room 1000. This ensures that proper identification is on file for all individuals accessing the building to establish a legitimate business purpose. Abuse of any researcher registration to circumvent access by the general public may result in a trespass situation and a permanent ban from access to all NARA facilities.
What the hell does "legitimate business purpose" mean? What "business" need is there for JFK Assassination records (which I think are at this site), for example? If I'm getting a PHD or writing a book, is that a "business" need? I suspect not.
Also, "Abuse of any researcher registration to circumvent access by the general public may result in a trespass situation and a permanent ban from access to all NARA facilities" seems like a very poorly constructed sentence.
IvyMike commented on The scientific “unit” we call the decibel lcamtuf.substack.com/p/de... · Posted by u/Ariarule
It's a bit like hating numbers, and saying "What do you mean by 'three'; what is it - three volts, three amps, three metres? Clearly 'three' is meaningless, and we should stop using it and all the other numbers besides."
decibels are simply a dimensionless ratio, used as a multiplier for some known value of some known quantity.
In every context where decibels are used, either the unit they qualify is explicitly specified, or the unit is implicity known from the context. For instance, in the case of loudness of noise to human ears in air, the unit can be taken to be dBA (in all but rare cases which will be specified) measured with an appropriate A-weighted sensor, relative to the standard reference power level.
And similar (but different) principles apply to every other thing measured in dB; either theres an implicit convention, or the 0 dB point and measurement basis are specified.
People who assume that everyone is an idiot but themselves are rarely correct.
I look forward to the author discovering about (for example) the measurement of light, or colorimetry, and the many and various subtleties involved. The apparent excessive complexity is necessary, not invented to create confusion.
> People who assume that everyone is an idiot but themselves are rarely correct.
This is an off-by-one error.
IvyMike commented on Stack Overflow is almost dead blog.pragmaticengineer.co... · Posted by u/Jerry2
How will ChatGPT learn the next computer language now?
IvyMike commented on Converting a Git repo from tabs to spaces (2016) eev.ee/blog/2016/06/04/co... · Posted by u/keybored
Tabs are a control character and have no business being in a text file. Do you use ascii record separator characters too?
Galaxy brain: indent using U+001F Unit Separator
IvyMike commented on The narrowest escalator in New York City doobybrain.com/blog/the-n... · Posted by u/bookofjoe
Temple Grandin says this keeps the riders calmer.