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jasonwatkinspdx commented on Oxide raises $200M Series C   oxide.computer/blog/our-2... · Posted by u/igrunert
ndesaulniers · 13 hours ago
For those of us who are unaware of "the value proposition" of an "IBM AS/400," could someone spell it out for us?
jasonwatkinspdx · 11 hours ago
When the AS/400 came out circa 1989 or whatever, you could replace an entire mainframe with a box not much bigger than a mini fridge. The hardware is built for high reliability, and the OS and application software stack have a lot of integration. If Unix is "everything is a file" then AS/400 is "everything is a persistent object in a flat 64 bit address space."

The result is a system that can handle years of operation with no downtime. The platform got very popular with huge retailers for this reason.

Then in later years the platform got the ability to run Linux or Windows VMs, so that they could benefit from the reliability features.

jasonwatkinspdx commented on Is particle physics dead, dying, or just hard?   quantamagazine.org/is-par... · Posted by u/mellosouls
sliken · a day ago
Along similar lines, the double-slit experiment, seems simple. Two slits let light though and you get bands where they constructively or destructively interfere, just like waves.

However I still find it crazy that when you slow down the laser and one photon at a time goes through either slit you still get the bands. Which begs the question, what exactly is it constructively or destructively interfering with?

Still seems like there's much to be learned about the quantum world, gravity, and things like dark energy vs MOND.

jasonwatkinspdx · a day ago
The most simple answer here is the "fields are real, particles are excitation patterns of fields." And that's generally the practical way most physicists think of it today as I understand it.

If I make the equivalent of a double slit experiment in a swimming pool, then generate a vortex that propagates towards my plywood slits or whatever, it's not really surprising that the extended volume of the vortex interacts with both slots even though it looks like a singular "particle."

jasonwatkinspdx commented on Flock CEO calls Deflock a “terrorist organization” (2025) [video]   youtube.com/watch?v=l-kZG... · Posted by u/cdrnsf
cortesoft · 5 days ago
> ironically fascist organization

There is no antifa "organization". It is not centralized, there is no "leadership" or anyone in charge. It's more of a philosophy.

jasonwatkinspdx · 5 days ago
I live in Portland. I've met many people that label themselves antifa. They're just protestors that are willing to be a little more aggro. That's literally it.

So when people talk about antifa as if it was the left wing equivalent of Osama Bin Laden's terror network, it's a self report they're forming their views based on strawman style propaganda, not engaging with the reality of it.

jasonwatkinspdx commented on Data centers in space makes no sense   civai.org/blog/space-data... · Posted by u/ajyoon
avmich · 7 days ago
What kind of the problem you're talking about compared to existing satellites? That is, all existing satellites generate power, and need to dissipate that power, and most of it goes to waste heat, and the satellites somehow do that successfully - what is the specific problem you're talking about, which can't be solved by the same means?
jasonwatkinspdx · 7 days ago
Even the buses for giant communications satellites are still at the single digit kilowatt scale. The current state of the art in AI datacenters is 500+ kw per rack.

So you're talking about an entirely different scale of power and needed cooling.

jasonwatkinspdx commented on xAI joins SpaceX   spacex.com/updates#xai-jo... · Posted by u/g-mork
fluoridation · 8 days ago
>And while previous experiments like the DC-X existed, SpaceX absolutely gets credit for the first operational reusable rocket stage.

Not true. What about STS?

jasonwatkinspdx · 8 days ago
Eh that's a spaceplane and solid rocket booster shells which I see as categorically different, and an absurd failure on a cost per kg basis.
jasonwatkinspdx commented on xAI joins SpaceX   spacex.com/updates#xai-jo... · Posted by u/g-mork
fluoridation · 8 days ago
What do you mean? SpaceX didn't invent the reusable rocket, and my understanding is that Falcon 9 is still not significantly more economical than disposable rockets, and that the main reason it's attractive is that it's not Soyuz-2.
jasonwatkinspdx · 8 days ago
Space is basically half the cost of it's competitors on a per kg basis. And while previous experiments like the DC-X existed, SpaceX absolutely gets credit for the first operational reusable rocket stage.

And I say that as someone that despises Elon and the way he casts his companies as due to his personal technical genius.

jasonwatkinspdx commented on CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider   physicsworld.com/a/cern-a... · Posted by u/zeristor
chrystalkey · 10 days ago
Dont be too harsh on the first comment, I'm Sure he's a good guy. Interesting to see that hossenfelder thing, I was'nt aware of it. Her videos got recommended to me but title+thumb always felt like an over the top commentary with more drama than actual problem to be aware of.

So I never clicked and at some point youtube stopped.

jasonwatkinspdx · 10 days ago
Yeah, it's sad she went that direction, because her educational videos that aren't agitpop are very good.

It's just another example of how the incentives on modern social media pull people towards ragebait and other forms of grift.

jasonwatkinspdx commented on CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider   physicsworld.com/a/cern-a... · Posted by u/zeristor
chrystalkey · 11 days ago
Said the grumpy grandpa, shaking his hand at the cloudy sky. I dont know what value that comment contributed, funding research is always a long shot. And often times it fails, but that is kinda its purpose, we dont know what we dont know.
jasonwatkinspdx · 10 days ago
It's largely fans of Sabine Hossenfelder youtube channel, where some years ago sadly she shifted into just being a grifter selling conspiracy theories about the funding of particle physics.

The audience here tends to vastly overweight contrarian near conspiracy theory style stuff, so this sort of comment shows up on literally every damn post about physics research.

jasonwatkinspdx commented on NASA's WB-57 crash lands at Houston   arstechnica.com/space/202... · Posted by u/verzali
pants2 · 11 days ago
Beautifully controlled landing, well done to the pilot.

This is certainly a dumb question, but could a plane like this land on a softer material to try to save the airframe? Like a dry lake bed, marsh, or golf course?

jasonwatkinspdx · 10 days ago
Not softer, because that'll make it lawn dart, but dry lake beds yes.

Edward's AFB is located at the edge of a dry lake bed exactly because it acts as a huge extended runway in case an aircraft under testing has problems landing and coming to a stop.

jasonwatkinspdx commented on The Concatative Language XY   nsl.com/k/xy/xy.txt... · Posted by u/ofalkaed
ofalkaed · 17 days ago
I did not know any of that, did not even consider if it was a vanity domain but did briefly wonder if nsl was the domain for some small country. I think the homepage does a good job of covering everything we need to know and in someways does a better job, but this posting provides a better overview for a HN submission. I included the homepage since some would probably skim the post or only read as much as they need to get the idea and miss the note at the bottom, someone would have probably posted asking where the code was.

Thanks for the background info.

jasonwatkinspdx · 16 days ago
Yeah, I stumbled onto J et all after seeing an interesting entry into the ICFP programming contest. So I was on the concatenative languages email list for a bit and knew nsl.com from there.

I've always found this snippet interesting: https://nsl.com/papers/kisntlisp.htm

Comparing the lisp to the non linenoise k syntax you can see there really is something compelling to this sort of lifting of iterator at a time fiddling to a higher level of abstraction where you just think about the shape of what you want.

u/jasonwatkinspdx

KarmaCake day13071June 6, 2008View Original