GreyEyedGhost
@GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca
- Comment on The artificial gravity generators never seem to get destroyed in space battles. 2 weeks ago:
In David Weber’s Honorverse, artificial gravity is based on the drive system, and was routinely considered both in ship design and battle outcomes.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
Actual historical temperature data is recorded in tenths of a degree Celsius, because full degrees, Celsius or Fahrenheit, aren’t accurate enough. They still aren’t reported in the media, because they don’t matter in an everyday context.
Look, as far as imperial measurements go, Fahrenheit is pretty good. Any temperature scale is going to be arbitrary, and the reasons for Fahrenheit are valid enough. But, frankly, 180 divisions of temperature is nonsensical. The accuracy just isn’t necessary in daily life, and isn’t enough from a scientific context. And if I’m going to use an arbitrary scale, I may as well use the same one as just about all the other ones that don’t have some reason to be divided into multiple different segments, like degrees on a circle. So at that point, you can go decimal, like virtually everything else in the metric system, or you can go with a multiple of 60 for no damned reason besides history.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
Weather forecasts are only accurate to 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 1 degree Celsius. So the only example you’ve given where Fahrenheit is “superior” is one where the accuracy is so low that we just shrug and give a number in the middle of the range. This doesn’t make using Fahrenheit more accurate, this just makes the scale irrelevant and we use a whole number because having a convention where we skip some would be pointless.
As for being more precise without decimals, I live in a country with half-decent education standards, so decimals and fractions don’t scare me.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
…because we don’t need them.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
In metric, we aren’t scared of using a decimal if we have to. Our thermometers can be as precise as we need them.
- Comment on Has the scientific community ever reconciled with the fact global warming is going to happen and there is no stopping it? 2 weeks ago:
Well, the scientists are talking about 95%, which is 400 million people, and if people started dying out due to climate, you would see regions where people have a better time living. These would most likely be in the temperate bands, which are a narrow strip across South America and Africa, and a larger strip across North America and Eurasia. Those northern bands are thousands of kilometers long, and people have traveled those distances on foot before. Moreover, those 5000 people don’t have to be in one place, they need to join up in a few generations at worst. Also, climate collapse isn’t instant, as we are experiencing it right now, so those 5000 can start congregating before the collapse is complete. For reference, 0.1% of 8 billion is 1.6 million people. 5000 people is a third of a percent of that.
Killing every human is pretty hard.
- Comment on Has the scientific community ever reconciled with the fact global warming is going to happen and there is no stopping it? 2 weeks ago:
Civilization collapse in 200 years is pretty plausible, which would go along with 95% of the population dying. For humans to go extinct would take better than 99.9% dying. 5,000 individuals would be a comfortable minimum viable population for humans to survive.
- Comment on That's how the world works. 2 weeks ago:
What I’m saying is, either civilization is going to fail or it isn’t. If it is, urban centers are going to collapse and a lot of people are going to die and most gasoline cars will be useless in a couple years. If it isn’t, utilizing the frameworks of civilization to handle disasters will be as effective as anything else we can do, hence no need for extreme resilience (growing you own food, canning, making your own clothing) or rugged individualism.
- Comment on That's how the world works. 2 weeks ago:
I understand the mindset, but civilization hinges on working together. Being resilient enough to survive on your own is rarely going to involve growing some significant portion of your own calories for an urban population. Being handy will certainly help in general, and having a method to repel bad actors are useful in a complete collapse, but relying on gasoline powered vehicles doesn’t make sense if you think society is going to fail.
- Comment on I'm not a doctor, nor have I played one on TV. 2 weeks ago:
Maybe OP can tell us what kind of doctor he isn’t.
- Comment on The 10 Commandments apparently mentions absolutely nothing about protecting children from abuse. 2 weeks ago:
The true heathens are the people with their cap on backwards, shading their eyes from the sun with their hands.
- Comment on HP realizes that mandatory 15-minute support call wait times isn’t good support 2 weeks ago:
What he is saying is, while a lot of the phone calls you got were answered with the KB, this doesn’t reflect the people who didn’t call because they used the KB. For that, you would need to track total sales, new customer intake, volume over time, etc. It’s quite possible you could have customers who got a KB reply from your support staff in a timely manner and decided if it was that easy for you to get an answer to them, it would be worth it for them to try it before calling next time.
Of course, the reality is quite likely that the main users of the knowledge base you built was the support team, which still isn’t a loss.
- Comment on The 10 Commandments apparently mentions absolutely nothing about protecting children from abuse. 2 weeks ago:
One could say that’s what the New Testament is, and Jesus put a lot of focus on loving others. The two commandments, which the ten are built upon, is pretty comprehensive. But don’t worry, people will find a way to excuse bad behavior if they really want to do it. If it isn’t religion, it will be nationalism, race, culture, which direction the bill of your cap faces, or if the color of your socks match.
- Comment on there goes your ram btw 2 weeks ago:
There was an utterly surreal burger commercial someone prompted that I just loved. It wasn’t really good, but it was a lot.
- Comment on ShitpostID: 4185519047 2 weeks ago:
“I’d like a Coke.”
“Is Pepsi okay?”
“It will have to do.”
Or
“Do you have Dr. Pepper?”
- Comment on I'm not a doctor, nor have I played one on TV. 3 weeks ago:
Certainly possible. I haven’t bothered looking into what types of shifts are typical for doctors in hospitals, but $430k is certainly more attractive.
- Comment on I'm not a doctor, nor have I played one on TV. 3 weeks ago:
I absolutely agree, for me, but is it enough to attract a doctor who probably has $240k in student loans to pay off and can make more elsewhere? To someone in that position it may not be worth responding to.
- Comment on I'm not a doctor, nor have I played one on TV. 3 weeks ago:
Assuming you get 5 12-hour shifts per month, that’s only $216k per year. Sure, you have a lot of time off, but you can make much more as a doctor, depending on what kind of specialty, of course. Maybe OP can tell us what kind of doctor he isn’t.
- Comment on Tech hobbyist makes shoulder-mounted guided missile prototype with $96 in parts and a 3D printer — DIY MANPADS includes Wi-Fi guidance, ballistics calculations, optional camera for tracking 3 weeks ago:
Is that the sliding pipe gun? I think all you need is materials, a hack saw, and a drill. But with a machine shop, the materials list is just steel and some springs, and you can have a gun as good as any we had prior to the last century.
- Comment on Tech hobbyist makes shoulder-mounted guided missile prototype with $96 in parts and a 3D printer — DIY MANPADS includes Wi-Fi guidance, ballistics calculations, optional camera for tracking 3 weeks ago:
Reminds me of a time when I went to a maker space open house, and they were showing all kinds of cool stuff, including fairly advanced 3D printers for time. They mentioned there was programming to halt prints of things like gun parts, so it would be very hard to make guns using them. I commented, “Besides, you can make better ones in the metal shop in the other room.” He replied, “Yeah! <brief pause> No!”
- Comment on The Productivity Paradox: Why Technology Makes the Economy More Efficient But Most People No Richer 3 weeks ago:
Giving you an upvote for using three metaphors in a sentence that small. Impressive!
- Comment on HP's ink-blocking firmware may violate new global sustainability rules 3 weeks ago:
Brother has also started down the proprietary toner road. Source.
- Comment on Twitch: "Hey, come back! This commercial break can't play while you're away." 1 month ago:
It was referenced in every episode, but one episode was about the people who had one.
- Comment on Twitch: "Hey, come back! This commercial break can't play while you're away." 1 month ago:
It’s a greentext from 2013 apparently. It can be found on reddit, and I’ve seen it here, but I doubt I could find it.
- Comment on The Physics of Data Centers in Space 1 month ago:
The current solar panel system of the ISS weights about 8 tonnes, the Falcon Heavy can deliver 63 tonnes to LEO. That’s about 715 launches of the Falcon Heavy, assuming space solar panel W/kg hasn’t improved since then, that Starship never becomes commercially viable, and doesn’t include batteries, cooling, or the working components. This still isn’t in the range of feasible for a data center, but could be an option for microgravity industry. The value of a more successful or precise silicon crystal production method, for instance, may make it worthwhile.
- Comment on New sodium ion battery stores twice the energy and desalinates seawater 1 month ago:
Well, I know the difference between alkaline, NiCd, NiMH, and lithium batteries, and that they don’t grow on trees, so at least I have that.
- Comment on Ouch 1 month ago:
To be fair, all names are made up, and not just for places. But yes, Farmington is a little more simplistic than say Louisiana.
- Comment on New sodium ion battery stores twice the energy and desalinates seawater 1 month ago:
Well, the downside of this not being a 4x game is that sometimes research doesn’t pan out, and you don’t know which ones until after you’re done.
- Comment on New sodium ion battery stores twice the energy and desalinates seawater 1 month ago:
We’ve had 3 major changes in battery chemistry in the last 45 years. Energy density, lifespan, cost, and dangerous materials have all generally improved. We also have 2 new battery technologies in the process of becoming generally commercially available. Also, batteries went from 500 mAh batteries about the size of your smartphone to 3000 mAh as a minor component of that same smartphone, about an order of magnitude in energy density.
- Comment on New sodium ion battery stores twice the energy and desalinates seawater 1 month ago:
No, that’s why we use the same batteries Voltaire did on his frogs.