Yes. CW can be used at LOS frequencies (including laser light) to detect return signal modulation from vibrations on lots of things. It's been a thing for over 50 years.
Readit Newsjschveibinz commented on Radar Can Be Used to Eavesdrop on Smartphone Conversations studyfinds.org/radar-eave... · Posted by u/geox
jschveibinz commented on Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s... · Posted by u/Sgt_Apone
Speak for yourself, old man
lol, thanks.
jschveibinz commented on Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s... · Posted by u/Sgt_Apone
> Over the years, nearly everything on the vehicle has been replaced or repaired, and Campbell says the only original part is likely the body, and even that has had work done on it.
It’s the Tercel of Theseus: if every part has been replaced, is it still the same car?
Fun fact: The average replacement rate of cells in our bodies (generally speaking) is around 7 to 10 years. So all of our parts have been replaced several times over...
jschveibinz commented on Why Is Gov. Gavin Newsom Blocking Rooftop Solar in California? motherjones.com/politics/... · Posted by u/miguelazo
It's complicated to find the balance. Big state, diverse state, big infrastructure, big demand surges, huge investments, etc. There are lawsuits over NME 3, so we can hope for a better result through compromise. Lots of sunshine + cheaper solar panels = future with lots of solar power. It's unavoidable.
jschveibinz commented on Europe is breaking its reliance on American science reuters.com/sustainabilit... · Posted by u/whynotmaybe
As an American citizen and firm capitalist, I welcome a technically strong and united European ally that contributes to a majority of its own defense and to the production of new and useful technology to the rest of the world at a fair price. The U.S. wants strong allies and trading partners.
WW2 was 80 years ago. It's time for Europe to reprioritize in favor of economic growth and development; deprioritize protectionism and bureaucracy; encourage investment in small businesses; unite politically instead of pretending to unite; and let go of the cultural past by looking to the future.
The U.S. is always changing, and will always be changing. That's the nature of the country and the source of its strength.
I'm ready for the downvotes--but I haven't said anything that is not true.
It's not all doom and gloom for the U.S. It's just a cultural thing. It's not a romantic story, but it is a typical American story based on economics and freedom of movement.
A lot of infrastructure was built in the first half of the 20th century: water, sewer, roads, dams, bridges, electricity, inner city houses, factories, etc. The New Deal programs helped with that. At one point, everything was shiny and new--100 years ago. But nothing stays that way, even if it still functions well. But how something looks is often not enough to warrant rebuilding unless there is an economic incentive to do it.
Some parts of the old infrastructure are functionally failing now and are ready for replacement or redevelopment. It has to happen; but most likely slowly, and when absolutely necessary--economically.
A big factor in infrastructure development or redevelopment is that the demographics of the country have changed. The once large and busy industrial cities of the east and midwest are no longer as populous as they once were. The factories are gone. And many people moved out of cities into suburbs. Some moved to a different part of the country where there were better work opportunities--and more sunshine. Places like Florida, Texas and the west coast have grown dramatically in population over the past 50 years. Greater LA had a population of 5 million in 1950. Now, it's 18 million. So development will likely happen where the people--and the economics--are.
Unfortunately the tax bases of the old cities are now insufficient to pay for their redevelopment. And the infrastructure in the "booming" areas is newer but mostly suburban, not urban. The ratio is something like 5:1 in spending (suburbs vs. cities).
So we aren't seeing a lot of shiny new urban skyscrapers, at least as much as before. NYC along with many other cities has a glut of commercial office space. Again, it's the suburbs along with work-from-home.
Infrastructure like trains, streetcars, etc. were once absolutely necessary to get people to/from work in industrial cities. People needed to live where the transportation was. The infrastructure served working class people--the economy depended on it. Now a large number of people either work from home or can use a car to drive to work. And they enjoy living in suburbs.
Anybody that travels in the U.S. does not want to spend 6-12 hours stuck on a train when they can fly faster or drive with flexibility. (The average distance between major metropolitan areas in the U.S. is twice that of Europe.) So domestic train travel largely vanished after the 50's once other options like jets and interstate highways became available. New train rights-of-way for high speed trains just aren't possible: the cost of land is too high for it to make sense--not to mention regulations for noise, animal habitat, etc.
The U.S. is doing better than fine economically even if there has been a major shift to service work (as opposed to factory work) as a result of technological changes and supply chain shifts to other countries. So even though we don't have trophies like bullet trains and shiny new skyscrapers, we do have a tremendous amount of economic activity--the state of Florida (23 million people) alone has the economic output of the entire country of Mexico (130 million people) or Spain (50 million people).
China and Japan, for example, have pretty skyscrapers--for now. In 50 years they won't be that shiny new anymore.
jschveibinz commented on Was the Renaissance Real? newyorker.com/magazine/20... · Posted by u/littlexsparkee
I'm reading Palmer's book right now, and I'm enjoying her informal style. A lot of what I thought I knew about the Renaissance has been brought into question by this book. Thumbs up!
jschveibinz commented on Planet Labs' Hyperspectral Imagery tech.marksblogg.com/plane... · Posted by u/zeristor
For those that are interested, hyperspectral analysis is an old research and development field with at least 30+ years of prior art to read through and apply. The biggest issues with getting useful results from hyperspectral--namely characterization and identification of broad spectrum signatures of complex organics--requires careful calibration and ground truth data for a variety of collection scenarios, e.g. weather, time of day, sun angle, look angle, etc. There are entire careers that have been spent optimizing algorithms and procedures to try to tackle these issues. Hyperspectral from space is hard if you want anything other than gas detection (narrow feature signatures) or anomaly detection based on my experience.
jschveibinz commented on Using Op-Amps as Analog Integrators digikey.com/en/articles/a... · Posted by u/mindcrime
Ah this brings back memories of the good old days of analog computer lab for Controls I. There were integrators, differentiators, mixers and amplifier/attenuators.
From what I remember, it was good for seeing how a transfer function (differential equations converted and simplified to s-parameter polynomials) with or without feedback would perform based on the input function. The output was viewed on an oscilloscope.
I think the Mercury, Gemini and early Apollo spacecraft used analog computers, as well?
Between January and October 2024, 1.2 million people ages 20 to 29 earned a bachelor's degree.
Of those recent bachelor's degree recipients, 868,000 (or 69.6%) were employed in October 2024.