segfault99 (u/segfault99)

segfault99 commented on China reaches energy milestone by "breeding" uranium from thorium scmp.com/news/china/scien... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

inglor_cz · 4 months ago

"extreme competence of the CCP in governance"

I don't think it makes sense to extrapolate from one particular technical field to governance in general.

The US managed to defeat both Nazi Germany and Japan plus develop nuclear weapons, all in 1941-5. Was it a proof of extreme competence of the US government in general? The some government tolerated abuse of blacks and forced segregation in the South, I would call it a serious governance failure.

segfault99 · 4 months ago

Very good. Thought-termination achieved. Branch pruned. Back-tracking...

Now where's my pony?

segfault99 commented on What Is the Fourier Transform? quantamagazine.org/what-i... · Posted by u/rbanffy

zozbot234 · 6 months ago

Analytic combinatorics (the rubric where mathematicians would want to place all the region-of-convergence, zeros-poles, etc. analysis of generating functions–formal power/Laurent series–Z transforms that engineering often focuses on) is not exactly easy-going either. Other common methods (relating convolution to multiplication, inverting transforms etc.) would traditionally be comprised under the Operational Calculus of Mikusiński.

segfault99 · 6 months ago

I forgot to mention the converse also applies. Mathematicians talking about stuff we engineers learned the paint by numbers way makes our heads hurt!

segfault99 commented on A Navajo weaving of an integrated circuit: the 555 timer righto.com/2025/09/marilo... · Posted by u/defrost

cellarmation · 6 months ago

Yes, and early core memory was also woven by hand. I am not sure if this was just for core rope memory, or if it was more widespread than that.

segfault99 · 6 months ago

December/January 1987 I was doing a vacation EE internship in a power station in Australia. Some of the Hitachi mini computers still used core RAM. This was in an all Hitachi Heavy Industries turnkey coal-fired power station commissioned ca. 1985. Pretty sure they had a reference design from boilers and turbines right down to the hardware and software level and kind of cookie cutter stamped out power stations from it. The Hitachi engineering attitude was obviously "If it works, keep doing it the same way for as long as possible". I was told that for some software (firmware?) updates, they'd simply ship out a new core RAM module -- It's non-volatile after all.

segfault99 commented on A Navajo weaving of an integrated circuit: the 555 timer righto.com/2025/09/marilo... · Posted by u/defrost

moron4hire · 6 months ago

Because it's fun and there are many readily available DIY designs that use it.

segfault99 · 6 months ago

Back in the day you'd go into an electronics store and there'd be books containing just 555 circuit recipes. Not to mention the magazine articles.

And every EE student back when we tied onions to our belts must have had a lab assignment to spec out a PLL using 555 and bits and bobs and then measure transient responses, temperature stability, etc.

segfault99 commented on A Navajo weaving of an integrated circuit: the 555 timer righto.com/2025/09/marilo... · Posted by u/defrost

charcircuit · 6 months ago

The continued popularity of this chip confuses me. I don't understand why it didn't get forgotten decades ago as microcontrollers became common place. Though compared to the Pentium talking on older designs is likely faster to make, so I wonder if he markets himself to an older audience who is nostalgic for these ancient chips.

segfault99 · 6 months ago

The world would be a much sadder, drearier place without the 555. That's the nostalgia part out of the way.

Really it's such a useful almost universal lego block of a component that it's hard to imagine it going away anytime soon. Sure microcontrollers are as cheap as chips these days, but you get a lot more with them. Do I need to say that sometimes more is less? Can think of scenarios where you absolutely don't want to see a chip containing firmware/code which needs auditing and locking down.

segfault99 commented on A Navajo weaving of an integrated circuit: the 555 timer righto.com/2025/09/marilo... · Posted by u/defrost

segfault99 · 6 months ago

Back in the 1980s2H there was a brief fashion trend of woollen knit sweaters with IC mask type patterns. Guessing related to designers playing around with design software and knitting tech made possible by microprocessor revolution.

segfault99 commented on What Is the Fourier Transform? quantamagazine.org/what-i... · Posted by u/rbanffy

hnuser123456 · 6 months ago

So you're a programmer but you've never assigned a number to a variable or written any math operations? Do you just do string translations or something?

segfault99 · 6 months ago

Plot twist: He's a Haskell guru juggling hylomorphisms blindfolded.

segfault99 commented on What Is the Fourier Transform? quantamagazine.org/what-i... · Posted by u/rbanffy

mkipper · 6 months ago

Was this professionally or in school? I still did this in an EE program 15 years ago and I can't imagine things have changed since then. I think kids still have to do lots of ugly math in EE classes.

segfault99 · 6 months ago

Undergrad. Mid-late 1980s.

I wasn't making point about mathematics qua mathematics. Was thinking that if I were doing EE undergrad today, I'd use SageMath or Mathematica to crunch the mechanical algebraic manipulations involved in doing a z-transform.

segfault99 commented on What Is the Fourier Transform? quantamagazine.org/what-i... · Posted by u/rbanffy

zozbot234 · 6 months ago

The so-called "Z transform" for discrete sequences is really just a misnomer for the actual method of generating functions (and formal power-series/Laurent-series). You just write a discrete sequence as a power series in z^(-1).

segfault99 · 6 months ago

True dat. But you see there's this thing called 'Engineering Maths'. Apparently it's really bad for real mathematicians' blood pressure.

segfault99 commented on What Is the Fourier Transform? quantamagazine.org/what-i... · Posted by u/rbanffy

taneq · 6 months ago

Did you make sproingies from the tear-off side strips of the printer paper, though? That was the best bit. :P

segfault99 · 6 months ago

Of course!

u/segfault99

KarmaCake day59May 7, 2025View Original