jws (u/jws) - Readit News

jws commented on Buttered Crumpet, a custom typeface for Wallace and Gromit jamieclarketype.com/case-... · Posted by u/tobr

jws · a month ago

Just a note, if you want a special whimsical typeface, there are any number of talented folk on fiverr and similar that will make you one. Well worth it. For the cost of a lunch I got this turned into a font that I really like…

"Imagine an advanced alien race of octopus-like creatures who don't use writing. They encounter humans, enslave some and take them on their spaceships, but find they have to label things for the humans to read. Make me a font that is how these creatures would approximate our writing systems by miming the letters with their tentacles."

It's a glorious sinuous typeface which I use for labeling drawers and bins in my semi-industrial space.

You deserve your own personal typeface.

jws commented on Starlink satellites being lowered from 550 km to 480 km twitter.com/michaelnicoll... · Posted by u/wmf

jagaerglad · 2 months ago

So instead of having to launch new satellites to replace the deorbited ones ever couple of years, do they have to send new ones every couple of months? Or can the functioning ones maintain their orbits somehow and this is only for the malfunctioning ones?

jws · 2 months ago

It sounds like this corresponds to an atmospheric contraction. They are lowering to avoid extending the lifetime of possible debris, but that also probably means the regular lifetime is not shortened. They are just staying in the designed density to match their designed service lives. The field of view of the satellites will be reduced, but presumably they have enough units up there to maintain full coverage.

This is distinct from the FCC application they have made for another Starlink shell in VLEO (~330km) for another 15000 satellites to better serve cellular phones.

jws commented on Vertical Solar Panels Are Out Standing hackaday.com/2025/09/25/v... · Posted by u/lxm

jws · 5 months ago

At 45°N latitude, I keep mine nearly vertical year round. I used to adjust them 4 times a year for more optimal production. There are issues beyond angle of incidence. Being nearly vertical keeps the snow off in the winter. In the summer it reduces the cleaning required (it's a sea bird rookery, so that's kind of a lot). Beyond that, the telemetry needs are constant year round so if the panels can cover the needs in the winter, then summer is no problem.

My current strategy for small installations when you have an equator facing wall or fence is slap the panels on it and be done with it.

jws commented on Air-dried vs. Kiln-dried Wood christopherschwarz.substa... · Posted by u/crescit_eundo

cmrdporcupine · 9 months ago

Had some poplar milled from some large trees we had to take down here. Air dried in my shop for 4 years before having it made into a table. All it took was 1 winter and it split and bent severely inside the house. I will only kiln dry from now on.

jws · 9 months ago

I dried three red oak trees using a dehumidifier kiln. ( 4'x4'x16' 1" pink insulation foam box assembled with packing tape with a household dehumidifier and fan inside. Very low tech. Knock it down when not using it.)

The process is mostly: measure moisture content of wood, pick a humidity to maintain, check wood periodically to see if it is drying too fast or too slow. Weigh water coming out to monitor process.

Very low effort if you have space to allocate while in use. The wood came out well, no complaints.

One downside is you won't kill insects with heat, so you could have trouble if it is buggy wood.

jws commented on A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen theverge.com/electric-car... · Posted by u/kwindla

taylodl · a year ago

I LOVE it! THIS is the kind of truck I'd be looking at to replace my 1998 Ford Ranger.

Here is what could be potential deal-breakers:

- Lack of a mobile app. Minimalist design is great, but I still want an app to manage charging and be alerted to any vehicle issues.

- Lack of good charge management and battery conditioning. Either that, or a cheap and easy to replace battery pack. I'd really like both!

- Comparable hauling and towing capacity to the 1998 Ford Ranger. Those numbers aren't exactly impressive, but I do use the truck as a truck, and I occasionally need the hauling capacity (weight).

- Bucket seats. I need a bench seat so I can take my wife and dog. Think weekend glamping trips. Picture 8 shows a bucket seat. It doesn't look like that would work.

If anyone from Slate is reading this, this is how I'm looking at this truck. FYI, I'll be comparing this to the Ford Maverick.

jws · a year ago

Bucket seats. I need a bench seat so I can take my wife and dog.

Ah, there's the problem. You have violated Pauli's "spouse/dog size exclusion principle". You need to either have a dog that can sleep curled up on the spouse's lap during the trip, or a dog big enough that the spouse can sleep curled up on the dog.

Bench seats also aren't a panacea, I still feel the burn of my dog's stink eye when then girlfriend was prompted to center of bench seat and dog on the side.

jws commented on Can humans say the largest prime number before we find the next one? saytheprime.com/... · Posted by u/robinhouston

jws · a year ago

Don't be boring. A quick triage with an AI and a spot check suggest that the guitar solo at the end of Hotel California has just about the right number of notes (depending on how many '7' you get).

Sweet Child of Mine probably works.

Comfortably Numb(ber) allegedly works, but I doubt any of the singers I have access to can enunciate fast enough. For the most relaxed of the options, it has amazing little clouds of fast notes.

MUST RESIST: this is worse than waking up to a Saturday morning "Nerd Sniping", I could lose the whole weekend to this… I'll bet Nate isn't busy… With him and the girls from (redacted) Bohemian Rhapsody could work…

UPDATE: There goes the weekend. So far I've been in a fight with ChatGPT about counting syllables in copyrighted lyrics where I ended up suggesting it get help for its obvious emotional trauma at the hands of an IP lawyer and lined up 5 singers. "enjoy the ride" has beaten "they are just intrusive thoughts".

jws commented on EPA cancels pesticide shown to be harmful to unborn babies thenewlede.org/2024/10/ep... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

TeaBrain · a year ago

Why bring this IARC list up out of the blue? The parent comment mentioned an EPA classification and you brought up a list of IARC classifications. The EPA and IARC frequently disagree on their classifications.

jws · a year ago

Probably because you don't find a list from the EPA.

The two categories are very similar, they are sort of aimed at the same result but have slightly different criteria. e.g. the EPA considers exposure levels, IARC requires at least some human evidence. So you wouldn't say one is stricter than the other, just different ways of skinning a cat.

jws commented on EPA cancels pesticide shown to be harmful to unborn babies thenewlede.org/2024/10/ep... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

Jimmc414 · a year ago

Great! But the EPA classified DCPA as a "likely carcinogen" 29 years ago. Why does it take 30 years to stop spraying the stuff?

jws · a year ago

For the EPA, "likely carcinogen" means:

• There is evidence of carcinogenicity in animals. (Multiple, consistent studies)

• The substance is shown to directly or indirectly cause chromosomal damage or mutations in a way that is relevant to humans.

• There are no or limited human studies, they are inconclusive, or otherwise inadequate. ((Note: This is sort of a "Why isn't this classified higher?" factor.)). ((If a substance isn't in widespread use, it is kind of hard to design an ethical human study. I mean, you aren't going to have some of your test subjects drink a bunch of likely carcinogen each morning.))

So this is a a classification for "Let's maybe not go nuts with this stuff, and someone really ought to check this out. And if you plan to ship tons of this stuff you might want to talk to your lawyers and lawsuit judgement mitigation team."

I didn't manage to find an exhaustive list of things the EPA has listed with this, but I found one that included higher risks as well, and in my little warehouse/workshop I identified 8 things at a casual glance that I have in inventory or generate. Proper use of these have minimal exposure to my squishy bits for most of them, and the others a well informed user should know to take adequate precautions. (e.g. "wood dust": wear a respirator)

The US does not currently fund the EPA to commission studies to further investigate likely carcinogens, so they stay on the list for ages.

jws commented on Study shows most doctors endorsing drugs on X are paid to do so medicalxpress.com/news/20... · Posted by u/peutetre

davidgay · 2 years ago

This is the bad kind of statistic, because it doesn't actually tell us anything interesting about the impact on individual doctors (but does sound scary / impressive!).

A Google search says the US has 1 million doctors, so $12B over 10 years is $12k/doctor/year on average - nice, but not wow...

The linked article did actually have something useful to say on a per-doctor basis:"The analysis showed that more than half of physicians received at least one payment, and roughly 94% of payments were associated with one or more marketed medical products. A small percentage of physicians received the largest amounts, often exceeding $1 million".

So: nice but small for most doctors, rather (too?) large for a small percentage.

jws · 2 years ago

Does one not suppose that a fair bit of this is the trial and starter doses that they give to doctors? Surely the drug company values them at list price for purposes of a business expense.

jws commented on Don't be terrified of Pale Fire unherd.com/2024/05/dont-b... · Posted by u/lermontov

Tycho · 2 years ago

The 'hook' of Pale Fire is this: ostensibly you're reading a long-form poem with a foreword and footnotes and editing by a friend of the poet (a poet of some eminence), but it soon becomes apparent that the editor is trying to jam his own life story into those footnotes.

If you like that idea, I think you'd like the book.

jws · 2 years ago

Another interesting variant of "annotations are the star" is "But What of Earth?" by Piers Anthony. It's an old school sort of sci fi story, but the publisher rewrote it in the publishing process. Eventually Anthony got the rights back and published the first draft with the editor's changes and his commentary on it. I think it was intended to be commentary on the publishing business, but as a way of knowing an author, you come away feeling like you know the guy in a way you don't get from carefully crafted stories.

It's one of those old paperbacks I know I wouldn't have tossed, but darned if I can find my copy to reread. Maybe I loaned it and it found a new home. Maybe you have it.

(Do remember, he is a 55 year old man writing this in the '80s. Some of his world view is… archaic?… in the greater society today.)

You want the Tor version from 1989, not the Laser version from 1976.