supercoffee

Hey Claude, how does the missile know where it is?

Great question — the missile knows where it is because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is, whichever is greater it obtains a difference or deviation...

Want to me to whip up a sample in a Rust?

A translucent billboard with some white text would drive home the point.

I recently needed to create some heavily customized pi images for a fleet of Iot devices. I came across this tool that did the job nicely. Only downside is that it only works on Linux.

https://github.com/gitbls/sdm

Some of the Drop branded keyboards like the Alt have a USB passthrough. I used to own one and I used it to plug in my headset dongle.

A lot of the attribution links on this site lead to shady domain squatting sites, or sites that appear to be hosting malware.

I do dev work on mostly node/web projects that use npm. Pretty much everything I do involves docker. I typically write a docker file that copies package.json/package-lock.json into the image, then run npm install. That way the rebuild cycle is fast if the package.json file doesn't change and the node_modules are inside the container. Then I bind-mount all the src files that I'm working on so that live reload will work.

I'm surprised that health insurance companies haven't started offering "good brusher" discounts the way car insurance companies offer a "good driver" discount when you use their car data logging device/app.

My new frequency illusion is the phrase "ride or die". I'm 32 and I had never heard that in my life until I watched that show Cruel Summer and now it seems like I hear it everywhere, mostly on tv/ads/podcasts and almost never when talking to people I know. I refuse to say it because I don't fully understand what it means and when I do hear it, it always sounds a little cringey.

I'm fascinated by the mechanical fire control computers of WW2 battleships.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/05/gears...

According to the cube rule, a hot dog is actually a kind of taco. The "hot dog is a taco" ruling is probably one of the least confounding rulings when classifying food by the cube rule.

https://cuberule.com/

Toaster was a pejorative term used to refer to the Cylons, the race of robots at war with humanity in Battlestar Galactica.

I know we're talking about LLMs deobfuscating stuff here, but it turns out that JSFuck is trivially decodable. https://enkhee-osiris.github.io/Decoder-JSFuck/

Not the first time that Nvidia has released completely different GPUs under the same name. Around 2006, they had 2 existing variants of the 8800GTS(320mb and 640Mb VRAM). A year later, they launched a new 8800GTS with a newer GPU and 512Mb. The newer card was much faster than the both older versions of the card. I can only imagine that this caused lots of confusion for uninformed consumers who might think 640 > 512 > 320.

My brother used to cast resin pen blanks in the garage. It's a pretty simple process that just needs a few silicone molds, a pressure vessel, and a vacuum pump. He sold them wholesale to a woodworking supply place for $5-10 each. He made enough over a couple years to pay for college.

When I first got a mac in 2012, the lack of window snapping annoyed me and I always felt like my windows were getting lost when I minimized them. The dock doesn't do a very good job of preview open windows, and it's hard to tell one window of Firefox apart from another at a glance. Throw spaces into the mix and who knows where any window is at any given time.

Over the years, I've developed my own workflow to avoid some annoyances with MacOS windowing and all it's different modes.

* Use a separate space for every app * Turn off space reordering based on last use -- all my apps are in predictable space positions * Never minimize anything * Never use full screen * Use rectangle or better snap tool to make windows full size or half size * Switch between workspaces/windows using mission control. I have the mission control key mapped to the thumb button on my MX master. * Hide the dock

This story reminds me of the central WA state where I grew up. They had a similar network of canals. It's the largest irrigation network in the US (according to the internet). Unlike the one in the article, most farmers in central WA aren't flooding their fields directly from the canals. Many of the farmers running at any sort of scale opt for a center-pivot (circle) to water their field. These machines end up being the most water (and labor) efficient way to water a field of 100+ acres.

I worked at for an irrigation supplier for a few years and got to see all the ins-and-outs of how these machines work. The supporting infrastructure is pretty impressive too. The pumps, pipes, valves, and electrical panels that drive these machines is an engineering marvel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Basin_Project

This concept sounded familiar, and it turns out that somebody else researched a similar technique a few years ago.

https://cris.bgu.ac.il/en/publications/xled-covert-data-exfi...

> https://www.costablancaworld.com/robots.txt

Somebody screwed up and made their robots.txt in a rich-text editor like wordpad.

Reply All also did an episode about this a few years back.

https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/v4he6k

tl;dr There's underground marketplaces where shady people buy and sell OG usernames for money, which creates an incentive for shady people to steal them from the original owners.

I wrote this several years ago as a joke, but it seems more relevant now. Here's a preview of the upcoming iCar FAQ page.

iCar2 FAQs

In what colors are the iCar available? Space gray, silver, and gold

What kind of performance can I expect from my iCar? The iCar version 2 performs up to 30% faster than the original iCar and uses 25% less fuel.

Where can I refuel my iCar? iCar can be refueled at any station that has Universal Pump Type C connectors.

How do I select station presets on my radio? There is no need. iCar's built in stereo system automatically selects radio stations based on your facial expressions when you enter the car.

Does iCar need an air filter for the engine? No. iCar does not have problems with dirty air like conventional cars do. The iCar's engine cannot get dirty.

How can I open the hood of the iCar to service the fluids or engine components? The iCar is unibody and therefore the engine compartment cannot be accessed by the user. Send it to an authorized Apple service center for maintenance.

How do I put luggage into the trunk? The trunk is a slot loading mechanism. Simply hold the luggage near the trunk and it will automatically be pulled in. Keep in mind that the slot loader only accepts standard size suitcases. Dufflebags or briefcases may jam the mechanism.

How can I change to wiper blades on the iCar? The iCar contains no user serviceable parts. Please send it to an Apple authorized service center for all maintenance.

What kind of third-party accessories are available for the iCar? Accessories also known as Accs are available at the iCar Acc store. Only Acc which have been approved by Apple to be suitable for all ages are available at the Acc Store.

I am accustomed to driving a conventional car. How do I execute a right turn with the iCar? Easy. To make a right turn with your iCar simply press the Cruise control button (CRS) on your steering wheel while turning the wheel to the left.

Wait a minute! There is only one pedal in the iCar? Is it the brake or the accelerator? And how do I get the functionality of the other? The single pedal in your iCar is a multipurpose pedal. Press on it with one foot for gas, and step on it with two feet for brakes.

I can totally understand people’s reluctance to government run internet. The biggest argument I see is that the government can compete unfairly against private companies because they don’t have to make a profit. Usually when this debate about government run internet comes up, there’s two discrete options: the private sector ISP and the government run ISP. However, there’s an option that rarely gets mentioned: the public infrastructure + private ISP model.

I used to live in middle-of-nowhere central WA, and they had fiber internet all the way back in mid 2000’s. This was a town of <20k people. Other smaller towns around the region also had access to fiber as well. Basically it worked like this: the county public utilities district was responsible for laying the fiber and connecting it to the building. Once the fiber is hooked up, you can call any one of a dozen or so ISPs to provide you with service.

As a side note, because of this relationship between the ISPs and the public utilities district, some ISPs also operated point-to-point wireless networks to reach customers outside of the fiber network. The ISPs would typically place a tower with several radios at an existing customer’s site, in exchange for free service. These tower sites were usually connected directly to fiber for minimal latency. I mention this because I don’t see how these wireless networks would have been viable without a public fiber network backing them.

Most cars have the ability to disable the beep/honk when locking. I was really stoked when I found this feature in my manual. Too bad it's not the default and most people probably won't know it's possible.