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dieselerator

Re:The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1987) [pdf] on Wednesday November 05, 2025 @11:42PM (#45831568)
The number of responses here lends statistical support to the first basic law.
Re:How to Make a Smith Chart on Saturday October 25, 2025 @01:14AM (#45701505)
No. Sorry, that is not a helpful comparison.
Re:Tapping into the World’s largest gold reserves on Sunday June 08, 2025 @04:53PM (#44219430)
>Ultra-high precision analyses of volcanic rocks show Earth’s core is leaking into rocks above

That summarizes the article. There is no mention of "tapping into" it.

Re:The race to find GPS alternatives on Sunday June 08, 2025 @04:46PM (#44219381)
> I don't think this is the right replacement for GPS. Perhaps someone here can correct me if I am wrong?

Though I do not agree with your reasons, I do think this Xona is not the right replacement for GPS.

Re:Coffee for people who don't like coffee on Tuesday May 13, 2025 @06:47PM (#43978623)
> The idea that coffee can have any taste other burnt rubber was interesting.

That summarizes the article.

This is not a recommendation, but you can buy caffeine pills.

Re:Computational Complexity of Air Travel Planning [pdf] on Sunday April 20, 2025 @12:53AM (#43741605)
> Are there any public, open, comprehensive datasets on flights?

Airlines and commercial aviation operators schedule their own flights. That is a dynamic schedulle. So, perhaps there is no "comprehensive data set".

However, FlightAware makes publicly available scheduled and completed flight data over many routes in the USA. You can search by route and get a list of flights.

Flight information includes filed departure time, route of flight, and speed. For completed flights actual time, altitude, and route is shown. For example, a search on the route Dallas/Fort Worth to Austin lists 45 flights.

I hope that helps.

Re:BPS is a GPS alternative that nobody's heard of on Sunday April 13, 2025 @02:55AM (#43670658)
If planning/designing a timing system like this using existing antenna, why wouldn't you choose to use cellular base stations? The cellular network reaches most places with overlapping coverage and carries network time. The lowest cellular frequencies are adjacent the upper broadcast TV channels. Aren't modern cellular receivers what we call software defined radios? They can choose which channels to receive.
Re:Thinner Films Conduct Better Than Copper on Thursday March 27, 2025 @04:43PM (#43497946)
The research looks detailed and interesting. However, I don't follow this summary article.

Digital circuits dissipate most of the energy charging and discharging capacitance. It must necessarily dissipate that as heat (except for a minor amount of electro-magnetic radiation). The interconnect resistance hardly matters. Of course RC relay can be a factor for some circuits. We can hope this reasearch leads to improvement there.

Power supply bus resistance can lead to voltage drops, but this research apparently studies layers much too thin for that application.

Did I missing something?

Re:Tom Stevenson on the deciphering of Linear Elamite on Thursday February 27, 2025 @12:00AM (#43191503)
Thank you.
Re:Tom Stevenson on the deciphering of Linear Elamite on Wednesday February 26, 2025 @11:04PM (#43191235)
The article was interesting.

Can someone explain:

Why is it called "linear" Elamite?

Is there unicode for linear Elamite yet?

We don't see this replacing the memory-processor bus. That gives some indication of how ideal it is. I should add in my opinion memory interfaces are not ideal. Everything is a trade off.
Re:A New Treatment for Arthritis: Vagus-Nerve Stimulation on Friday December 30, 2022 @02:11AM (#34182681)
> I bought the equipment to try this myself

Cue the obligatory scene (42 seconds) from "Strange Brew" [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/embed/EojzfxXGxtE?start=4064&end=410...

Re:Bob Dylan takes us on a wide-ranging tour of songs he admires on Thursday November 03, 2022 @08:35PM (#33460110)
While I prefer to make a positive comment, I think I should share this opinion for the possible benefit of other readers.

In my opinion that review is a complete waste of time.

My statement is not intended in any way as a judgement of Bob Dylan or his work.

Re:News Music Search Archive on Sunday October 23, 2022 @02:47AM (#33305074)
Maybe not exactly nostalgia, but there is a term that serves: déjà vu

"The meaning of DÉJÀ VU is the illusion of remembering scenes and events when experienced for the first time." [1]

[1]<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/d%C3%A9j%C3%A0%20...>

Re:Why are plants green? To reduce the noise in photosynthesis on Saturday October 01, 2022 @09:33PM (#33051876)
That is a fair question. This is what I find. [1]

Ultraviolet B UV‑B 280–315

Ultraviolet C UV‑C 100–280

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet

My read is "UVB" is the popular medicine way of saying UV is needed for the body to synthesize vitamin D. It was not considered necessary to point out part of the useful spectrum is in "UVC" territory.

Re:Why are plants green? To reduce the noise in photosynthesis on Saturday October 01, 2022 @08:06PM (#33051361)
I think this might be a good place to add this reminder:

"Vitamin D is made when UV (more precisely, UVB rays) react with a compound (7-dehydrocholesterol) in the skin. The best rays for UV synthesis have wavelengths between 270–300 nm." [1]

[1] https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1313-vitamin-d-and...

Re:Musico: AI Generated Music on Thursday September 29, 2022 @10:21PM (#33030121)
You have to start somewhere, and this probably has a place.

Still, having become accustomed to live acoustic music, I find this generated stuff not engaging. Maybe after a few more generations it will get there.

Re:How the National Airspace System Works on Thursday September 29, 2022 @02:10AM (#33017062)
Looking at more of the presentations, we see that this not "How the National Airspace System Works". Rather it is the plan for a next generation system that the FAA hopes to implement.

If you have an interest in this you can see how things are intended to change. A lot of it looks like intended automation of work presently done by controllers. It appears there could be some challenges. For example, weather affects the flow, and what happens when you miss your pushback time?

Re:How the National Airspace System Works on Thursday September 29, 2022 @01:07AM (#33016635)
A series of voice descriptions with animations.

There are many terms and acronyms. I am familiar with the user side of the system. Without this background I would have a hard time following the narrative. Even so I find the descriptions unclear. I don't know of a good overview of the airspace system that does not also explain the rules of operation. I think those become too detailed for casual knowledge.

From the description:

"As you visually dissect the components’ insides, you’ll learn about how they work and how they were made."

We did that in school. Here are the layout photos. Draw the schematics. It was interesting.

Re:The Two Generals Problem on Monday May 09, 2022 @11:11PM (#31323000)
I previously heard this called "The Byzantine General's problem". I think there is a lot of discussion under that name.

for example

Back-To-Basic Reading: Byzantine Generals <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13866732>

The Byzantine Generals Problem (1982) [pdf] <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8697029>

Re:It took me 10 years to understand entropy on Thursday April 28, 2022 @03:06AM (#31189563)
That's the problem with randomness.

The required Dilbert reference: https://dilbert.com/strip/2001-10-25

Re:Wordle and grep on Saturday April 16, 2022 @01:51PM (#31054400)
This is an illustration that grep is a great tool, quick and easy to use.
> Reactive Oxygen Species is also reportedly quite harmful but I guess everything has its place.

Yes, I think it does. Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are generated as part of the metabolic pathway. That is in processes essential for life. Though the details of the biochemistry are beyond me, I recall Cytochrome c oxidase [1] produces H+ used to power ATP generation. Along the way it produces ROS. Of course there are other mechanisms for neutralizing the ROS. The point is ROS probably not something to get too agitated about.

[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytochrome_c_oxidase>

I guessed this might be buckthorn, but no

cellulose nanocrystals (CNC)

from the article:

"At the nanoscale, CNCs are stronger and stiffer than Kevlar. If the crystals could be worked into materials in significant fractions, CNCs could be a route to stronger, more sustainable, naturally derived plastics."

the original paper:

Printable, castable, nanocrystalline cellulose-epoxy composites exhibiting hierarchical nacre-like toughening

<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10570-021-04384-7> (paywall)

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