GreyEyedGhost
@GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca
- Comment on Why Cops Frequently Got Caught Planting Drugs in 2017 | Look. All technology comes with a learning curve. 14 hours ago:
This is one of the reasons I refused to watch “24”. I wasn’t going to support a show whose entire premise was “we ignore due process because we’re too incompetent to stop the criminals sooner.”
- Comment on Why Cops Frequently Got Caught Planting Drugs in 2017 | Look. All technology comes with a learning curve. 14 hours ago:
If a cop walks into the bathroom now, how do you know the body cam isn’t on?
- Comment on YSK facts about renewable vs fossil, and more 3 days ago:
I’m not an American, but as a Canadian this is still far more important to me than I’d like it to be. Hopefully this helps make a difference.
- Comment on Why do horses allow humans to ride on their backs? 4 days ago:
Best. Parasite. Ever.
- Comment on We could build a solar lazer with a ton of mirrors 5 days ago:
Ah, that could be. Probably due to responses to their first one where they had a bunch of college students holding little mirrors and trying to aim them, and I’ve never watched Mythbusters regularly.
- Comment on PC gamers win the first battle against Valve Corporation as £656m competition claim receives judicial approval 5 days ago:
Probably closer to 20 pounds if they are awarded the full amount, and the general rule seems to be that the lawyers get about 30%, but the overall sentiment of your statement is correct.
- Comment on We could build a solar lazer with a ton of mirrors 5 days ago:
They did everything wrong in that video. On of their assertions was that soldiers wouldn’t be able to keep their mirrors properly polished. I don’t know about now, but even 40 years ago, polishing brass was a common punishment detail. I imagine it was moreso in Archimedes’ day, when brass and bronze were the thing to use. Also, there are techniques for using a signaling mirror to hit a specific location which aren’t that complicated, would certainly be something that Archimedes could figure out, and would work better for aligning the mirrors than “try really hard to aim at that spot.” The ridiculous assumptions they make besides those also detract from the goal of a best effort to test the heat ray, and seem to stem from the idea that people back then were stupider than we are rather than just not having accumulated as much knowledge as we had.
It was entertaining, but not as informative as I would have liked.
- Comment on Tesla profit tanked 46% in 2025 | TechCrunch 1 week ago:
I had this exact opinion when Amazon lost less money than expected in 1999. I’m sure people had similar opinions before 1929. This isn’t something new.
- Comment on If a Space Elevator became a reality, wouldn't the cable act as a kind of wick for all of the unfiltered radiation from outside our atmosphere? 2 weeks ago:
It requires more material and financial resources, but isn’t necessarily harder. Transmitting energy effectively to reduce heat, or managing the excess heat starts running into some pretty tough limits of physics. Most of the issues with spinning habitats are engineering problems within the capabilities of our current technology level and materials science. It’s just super expensive and has terrible ROI for now.
- Comment on If a Space Elevator became a reality, wouldn't the cable act as a kind of wick for all of the unfiltered radiation from outside our atmosphere? 2 weeks ago:
How is it a bad analogy? You seem to be treating it like a scale model, which i don’t think was the intention. Moreover, most of the effects map over fine.
- Comment on If a Space Elevator became a reality, wouldn't the cable act as a kind of wick for all of the unfiltered radiation from outside our atmosphere? 2 weeks ago:
There isn’t a requirement for a Dyson shell to transmit energy. You could just envelope the sun in habitats that use the energy they collect locally and that would meet the criteria of a Dyson shell (and a K2 civilization).
- Comment on If a Space Elevator became a reality, wouldn't the cable act as a kind of wick for all of the unfiltered radiation from outside our atmosphere? 2 weeks ago:
It needs to weigh enough that it counters the momentum/drag of the cable plus the net of whatever mass is going up. Keep in mind that cars going down add to that overall value while cars going up subtract. Also, the general opinion is for the station/anchor to be slightly above geosync so the net effect of the orbit on the station is to be pulling away from the earth (there is some wiggle room depending on how robust your earth anchor to be and the mechanics of your tether with respect to tension vs. compression, but most models plan for a little net lift). In other words, you also attach to an anchor on the earth (which could just be a chunk of bedrock) to counteract that net force. Since the net force of the tether (not counting the earth tether) would be away from earth, any net loss of momentum would be regained from the earth’s spin (which happens whenever we launch a rocket right now). You could also have a spool at either end to maintain the desired tension on the tether while accounting for slight elevation changes due to net momentum loss or gain. On top of all that, the space anchor mass isn’t really dependent on the mass of the earth so much as it is on the net amount of mass being lifted or lowered to the earth and the amount of time you want to wait to return to it’s desired orbital altitude. And finally, if the tether was severed only the part whose center of gravity was below geostationary orbit would actually fall to earth - the rest would leave orbit.
- Comment on Sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that! PCs refuse to shut down after Microsoft patch 2 weeks ago:
Typical Microsoft. “Let the user decide when their computer wakes up? Nah, they let us decide what’s important or it stays asleep.”
- Comment on who's gonna tell him? 3 weeks ago:
Your inhibitions are also, to a degree, part of what make you who you want to be. Not excusing him, certainly not defending him, but sometimes a little inhibition is a good thing.
- Comment on Age, death, and inheritance. 3 weeks ago:
This is what kills me about people complaining about inheritance tax. Oh, you’re worried you’ll only be able to give each child $15M? Plus $19k/year before you die? I wish my kids had to struggle with only $15M when I die.
- Comment on Autofocusing Smart Glasses With Eye Tracking Tech Could Make Bifocals Obsolete 3 weeks ago:
Ive thought of it. Probably going to do sunglasses first, t’hough. Or rather second, after my single vision safety glasses.
- Comment on Autofocusing Smart Glasses With Eye Tracking Tech Could Make Bifocals Obsolete 3 weeks ago:
Yeah, but that isn’t a one-time cost, either. That’s a recurring cost, typically on a biannual basis, and usually much higher than the monthly subscription. That said, being able to walk out with something that is going to reliably work for the next couple years definitely has its benefits. Ive just never considered something with a definite lifespan and a requirement to replace as a one-time cost. Kind of like the difference between paying property taxes monthly or yearly - I’m still paying and it isn’t going to stop.
- Comment on Autofocusing Smart Glasses With Eye Tracking Tech Could Make Bifocals Obsolete 3 weeks ago:
21 years with the same frames?
- Comment on Autofocusing Smart Glasses With Eye Tracking Tech Could Make Bifocals Obsolete 3 weeks ago:
I have a pair on right now. They’re better than not seeing correctly, but only being able to focus on a computer screen with less than a third of your vertical field of view sucks. There are options, but one of the best is having more sets of glasses, which isn’t convenient or cheap. These could solve that. I’m sure Amazon will make it not worth it at some point, though.
- Comment on Autofocusing Smart Glasses With Eye Tracking Tech Could Make Bifocals Obsolete 3 weeks ago:
If you think glasses are a one-time cost, I feel like you’ve never worn glasses. I had 10 years in my life where my vision didn’t change, and now I need bifocals/progressives. Given the nature of the condition, I expect to have to get new prescriptions every 2 to 4 years until I die or go blind.
That said, the rest of your comment is quite likely painfully true, especially if Amazon has their fingers in it.
- Comment on Woops 4 weeks ago:
English has at least 5 (French, Germanic, Greek, Latin, Arabic, doubtless more) and it’s up to the user to know which is used in any given context. Or not. It’s really kind of stupid.
- Comment on I expect to hear nothing from the right when the US goes all out celebrating Trumps inevitable departure from the realm of the living. 4 weeks ago:
Not even jeans, or discussing not pooping. Then again, that last one seems to be off base for this sub, too…
- Comment on What an unprocessed photo looks like 5 weeks ago:
This was sold by Foveon, which had some interesting differences. The sensors were layered which, among other things, meant that the optical effect of moire patterns didn’t occur on them.
- Comment on We all have those dreams 5 weeks ago:
Did your dream self say, “At least it isn’t InstaCart”?
- Comment on We all have those dreams 5 weeks ago:
Part of how scissors are design is for there to be a natural tendency to pull the blades together when you press with your thumb.
On a reladed note, if you’re left-handed, get a pair of left-handed scissors. There are two reasons for this. First, you will be amazed at how much easier it is to cut with the correct scissors. Second, you can have your friends who don’t think having the correct scissors is a big deal try them and see how wrong they are.
- Comment on I need to vent about plastic milk jugs 5 weeks ago:
Well, I’m in Canada, so the standards are already higher as far as quality goes, and our regulatory agency is still in place for oversight.
- Comment on I need to vent about plastic milk jugs 5 weeks ago:
Option number 4. The sanitary standards for packaging milk are very high in North America. This drastically reduces the risk of contamination after pasteurization, which allows our milk to last quite a while. It isn’t as sterile as UHT milk, but it tastes more natural.
- Comment on I need to vent about plastic milk jugs 5 weeks ago:
They had milk in 1.3 L bags (sold in packs of 3 for 4 L) in Manitoba about 35 or 40 years ago.
- Comment on Raspberry Pi Gets Desktop Form Factor 5 weeks ago:
This doesn’t appear to be made by the people from either the Raspberry Pi Foundation or Raspberry Pi Holdings.
- Comment on How much earth would compress and expand if all of it was 50°C 5 weeks ago:
Given the quaint physics of circles, the expansion of a ring of silicate around the earth would be quite noticeable. C = 2×pi×r, which can be converted to r = C/(2×pi). Plugging in those two values gives us
40000/(2×pi) = 6366.1977 km
40008/(2×pi) = 6367.4710 km
So, taking this ring from 0° to 50° would cause it to rise 1.2 km into the air, assuming it kept its integrity.
A simpler way to write this is
(40008 - 40000)/(2×pi) or 4×pi.
A tiny difference, relatively speaking, but a quite notable difference given the context.