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dboshardy commented on Hacking F-117A   github.com/debugcom/Hacki... · Posted by u/elvis70
throw__away7391 · 3 years ago
I learned not too long ago that the reason the F-117 looks so much like a low-poly model is because the computers available at the time that they used to design it could only handle radar profile calculations for low-poly models.
dboshardy · 3 years ago
Not quite. From the incredible Skunk Works:

"Ufimtsev has shown us how to create computer software to accurately calculate the radar cross section of a given configuration, as long as it's in two dimensions," Denys told me. "We can break down an airplane into thousands of flat triangular shapes, add up their individual radar signatures, and get a precise total of the radar cross section."

Why only two dimensions and why only flat plates? Simply because, as Denys later noted, it was 1975 and computers weren't yet sufficiently powerful in storage and memory capacity to allow for three-dimensional designs, or rounded shapes, which demanded enormous numbers of additional calculations. The new gneeration of supercomputers, which can compute a billion bits of information in a second is the reason why the B-2 bomber, with it's rounded surfaces, was designed entirely by computer computations.

Denys's idea was to compute the radar cross section of an airplane by dividiing it into a series of flat triangles. Each triangle had three separate points and required individual calculations for each point by utilizing Ufimtsev's calculations. The result was called "faceting"--creating a three-dimensional airplane design out of a collection of flat sheets or panels, similar to cutting a diamond into sharp-edged slices.

dboshardy commented on We need someone who has done “it” before   cutlefish.substack.com/p/... · Posted by u/jger15
dboshardy · 3 years ago
Tangential to this point, but I've seen firsthand in a limited capacity but also heard of this from other devs, but there seem to be a decent number of devs who go from job to job doing the same thing over and over again. An example I've seen: a junior dev learns Springboot at a job, then goes from job to job converting their microservices to Springboot. When that project is complete (can take 1 to 2 years in some cases), they get bored or change jobs for a bump in pay and do the same thing again. As they do this a few times, they become a specialist in that field and they start self-selecting to only doing that one thing over and over and over again.

Is this widespread? Anyone else noticed this phenomenon?

dboshardy commented on How Much Garden You Would Need to 100% Survive On   lifehacker.com/how-much-g... · Posted by u/mooreds
sytelus · 3 years ago
Article says that gurus think you need 4000 sq ft per person but then article changes tunes and, without citation, it says you need only 200 sq ft per person.

Let’s calculate ourselves. Currently 50M km^2 of land is used for agriculture. Divide that by world population and we get 76000 sq ft per person.

dboshardy · 3 years ago
You don't cite your source for how much land is used for agriculture (and what definition of agriculture you're using). Are you sure this doesn't include land used for growing specifically feed crops and crops to make food oils, wheat, etc.?
dboshardy commented on I love you, Hacker News, but you’re toxic   kg.dev/thoughts/i-love-yo... · Posted by u/kashnote
givemeethekeys · 4 years ago
I disagree.

For a community as diverse as Hacker News, I've found it to be anything but toxic. The quality of posts is generally high and the people who comment tend to keep things on topic and impersonal. Personal attacks and jabs are not common and people don't just say things for the sake of winning arguments.

Of course, I don't click on every single story - I stick to the things that interest me, which admittedly are narrowing as of late, unlike in my early 20s.

dboshardy · 4 years ago
Did HN do any kind of survey to demonstrate their user demographics?

And it is absolutely toxic on certain topics, particularly anything economics related or that challenges capitalism and the "line go up" mentality of the VC culture. If you offer anything that criticizes that at all, you're in for an earful.

dboshardy commented on James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away   npr.org/2022/01/24/107543... · Posted by u/pseudolus
Tenemo · 4 years ago
Destin's channel is one of the older, best-known channels in the YT's educational sphere. Recently, the US Navy even let him on a multi-day tour of a nuclear submarine and tape classified information (later redacted). He himself worked in the military. I don't think that it's fair calling him a random youtuber, to me he seems like the perfect youtuber to interview such people (as Destin himself has a background in rocketry).
dboshardy · 4 years ago
> the US Navy even let him on a multi-day tour of a nuclear submarine and tape classified information (later redacted)

They _paid_ him to tour it. It was a marketing event for the US Navy to drive recruitment.

dboshardy commented on UberEats took unauthorized amount (and not willing to pay it back)   twitter.com/TamasNo1/stat... · Posted by u/boros2me
dmurray · 4 years ago
> Every so often, an order total changed between the time that the user saw the total on the confirmation screen and when they actually hit the button to place the order (which seems to be what happened here).

I don't see any reason from the post to believe this kind of race condition is what happened here.

Uber's CS says the promotional code used was not valid for this restaurant, but presumably the app accepted it anyway. That's also likely a validation error, but of a different class.

dboshardy · 4 years ago
> I'm kind of surprised that UberEats doesn't seem to have a similar validation step.

That's what OP was saying.

dboshardy commented on Making the dislike count private across YouTube   support.google.com/youtub... · Posted by u/minimaxir
dboshardy · 4 years ago
I find the negative sentiment for this on a forum that also lacks a downvote/dislike option perplexing.
dboshardy commented on Interview with Charlie Munger on Controversial UCSB Dorm   architecturalrecord.com/a... · Posted by u/wjSgoWPm5bWAhXB
MichaelZuo · 4 years ago
The rules of HN say you should give the most charitable interpretation to another’s comments, not the least.

In this case it would be instead of having premium student dorms on the top floor for wealthier students, or rooms for the student dorm administrators, instead every student gets access to that penthouse common space.

dboshardy · 4 years ago
> In this case it would be instead of having premium student dorms on the top floor for wealthier students, or rooms for the student dorm administrators, instead every student gets access to that penthouse common space.

I've never seen any dorms with "premium" student housing, let alone mixed in the building. There are certainly (especially older) dorms with more desirable rooms, but they were never "premium" or unavailable to any student.

dboshardy commented on Interview with Charlie Munger on Controversial UCSB Dorm   architecturalrecord.com/a... · Posted by u/wjSgoWPm5bWAhXB
Judbudhud · 4 years ago
Office buildings have the same layouts with windows at the ends and cubicles in the middle. I doubt the patrons feel stuck in a temperature storage facility. I prefer Munger's layout after looking more into it.

https://www.architecturalrecord.com/ext/resources/news/2021/...

dboshardy · 4 years ago
> I doubt the patrons feel stuck in a temperature storage facility.

They also aren't living in a windowless box. They still likely get natural light in their cubicles.

dboshardy commented on $1.5B lithium deposit discovered in Maine; excavating it poses a legal challenge   themainemonitor.org/stagg... · Posted by u/maxwell
mdasen · 4 years ago
I think that logically, it doesn't make sense for Maine to change its laws to allow this to move forward. It's worth $1.5B and there are about 1.5M people in Maine. That's $1,000 per resident. Given that there are costs to extract the metal from the ground, let's say that 20% of that $1.5B could be profit (which I'm guessing is a very high estimate). That means $200 per Maine resident. Given that Maine doesn't own the land/mineral rights, let's say they can put a 30% tax on those profits. $60 per resident.

Realistically, $1.5B worth of lithium is a tiny amount of value for a US state. If I were Maine, I'd say no at $1.5B. You're probably going to get less than $60 per Maine resident - and that's a one-off $60, not even an annual $60.

The article keeps talking about how we need lithium. Ultimately, we don't seem to need it that much given how cheap it is. If I were Maine, I'd say "not now". If Lithium prices go up 100-1,000x in the future, then reevaluate. $6,000-$60,000 per Maine resident might be a useful amount of money. $60 isn't.

At current prices, any environmental damage is likely to cost more than the taxes on the profits would cover. $90M in taxes (30% of a 20% profit margin) won't clean up a lot.

I'm not saying that it's a global optimum for Maine to leave this lithium in the earth. I'm just noting that there isn't a lot of incentive for Maine to extract it. The article talks about other countries with less strict labor and environmental rules. That is true, but why should Maine risk its environment for such little money?

Why should Maine risk environmental damage for $60 per person? $90M in tax revenue is nothing compared to the cost to clean up environmental disasters. It's costing over $6M to clean up a single park in my town, never mind the type of environmental damage that might be caused by mining 11M tons of lithium. It seems like it would be foolish for Maine to alter the laws to allow the mining to take place at current prices.

dboshardy · 4 years ago
You're assuming they're not thinking about it as a potential lobbying payday for the policy-makers themselves.

u/dboshardy

KarmaCake day129May 11, 2015View Original