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Elora

176 karma · joined April 1, 2021

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Elora··on My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar
I don't think it's strictly the experience in a memory facsimile, "let me quiz the kids" format that matters. There are a mind boggling number of new and unique data points and methods of delivery kids are exposed to during travel which is really healthy for a developing human mind to have as part of its growth regimen. Travel is one of the last things I will cut if times get tough for our family, before essentials such as food and shelter.
Elora··on Metric Time
> Time .. less straightforward than most imagine.

I think it's more trying to make things which vary fit in a "you shall not vary" square box that is the problem. Technically, this metric/decimal method makes more sense for what we're trying to do, but it's less of a "time" thing than it is a "let's have the same numbers every day so we can agree on when synchronous events need to happen." To _measure_ elapsed time, using a fixed unit such as a second is perfectly fine.

Elora··on The damaging results of mandated return to office
> There will be countries like Bulgaria, and there will be countries which will welcome it with open arms

Bulgaria (and Romania, per linked article) were on the receiving end of said dirty tricks. The problem is Western EU trucking companies did not want the much cheaper to operate Eastern EU truckers eating their lunch. The "dirty tricks" did not come from Bulgaria/Romania in this case.

Elora··on EV batteries alone could satisfy short-term grid storage demand as early as 2030
> People are afraid of actually using their batteries, and engaging in FUD about their aging. It's weird.

And some of the same people change cars a year later (talking about EVs, of course — because it doesn't have HW4, 4680s, etc.). Some of it is human nature, though.

Elora··on The huge number of small breweries
What exactly are we calling ales here, isn't ale just beer said another way (or, rather, the other way around)?

Speaking of lagers, good ones are hard to come by these days. I like all things beer, and I enjoy all the IPAs, fruited sours and all that, BUT I also much, much enjoy quality lagers. As it is, in the US, it's rather hard to find good ones, all the mass market ones are horrible (I guess a Stella will work if that's absolutely the best you can do, but everything else is even lower in terms of quality).

I'm in the ironic position that I actually whole-heartedly enjoy IPAs, but hate the IPA fad because it's (mostly, just due to the sheer size of the IPA market) keeping brewers from making good lagers. Can I have both please?

Elora··on The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant (2005)
> One of my favorite book quotes:

> > “Science is not enough, religion is not enough, art is not enough, politics and economics is not enough, nor is love, nor is duty, nor is action however disinterested, nor, however sublime, is contemplation. Nothing short of everything will really do.” - Aldous Huxley

This is what AGI will go. It will know everything, and at an above best-human level at that.

Elora··on The West's historic drought is threatening hydropower at Hoover Dam
> It's supply & demand.

It's also: not my problem, let someone else deal with it, while I make money NOW and they don't even really know the extent of the problem. It's also how we got here, and we continue to let speculators externalize costs to society at large.

Elora··on American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft
The luxury is saving time.
Elora··on How far behind a plane is its noise?
> It's that light from the aircraft travels faster than sound.

For all practical purposes we can say the light reaches the observer instantly, whereas the sound takes some (significant by comparison) amount of time. Over such short distances, and when comparing it to something that is so much slower (299,792,458 m/s vs 343 m/s, 874 thousand times faster), there is no point in measuring the infinitesimal time it takes light to travel the distance from the plane to the observer.

For the general case presented in the article, at the average cruising altitude and speed mentioned within it, the conclusion is that it takes sound from the plane so much longer to reach the observer than the instantaneous light from the plane, that the actual plane itself has traveled another 2.1km in that time. You are (instantly) seeing the current position of the plane but hearing the sound it emitted 2.1km ago.

Elora··on Shortsightedness has become an epidemic
> I also migrated from CRT to LCD to LED screens, and more recently to e-ink devices when possible.

I too use eInk whenever possible but that's just for reading (a passion of mine). All current computer monitors are LED AFAIK, is there any research tho that it's better for sight, or are you simply stating that you migrated as the technology changed?

I'm thinking that OLEDs are the best looking but one of their weaknesses often mentioned is that they aren't as bright; if you have lots of light (ideally natural sunlight) they may prove to be counterproductive if you have to strain to see due to appearing dim.

Elora··on Over 10% of Tesla Model S EVs Fail Germany’s Strict Inspection After 3 Years
> "Tesla ranks almost dead-last on Consumer Reports reliability list"

I find this laughable. We're on our 3rd Tesla and we've never had anything even hinting of a reliability issue/getting stranded. There is absolutely no maintenance outside of consumables, which is really just tires, as the brake pads last the life of the car if you drive it as it's meant to be driven (regen); maybe windshield washer fluid? There've been a small number of minor things, like a seat belt tensioner on one of the three started rattling. They came and fixed it in my garage. 12V battery was on its way out on our oldest Tesla, car gave a message ahead of it dying (so, proactively avoided leaving us stranded by using software to interpret collected measurements), Tesla came and replaced it in my garage in 10 min for free. New cars are supposed to get Li-Ion 12V batteries soon standard, so the company is purposefully improving reliability. (Note: yes, Teslas have a 12V battery for auxiliary/emergency power, i.e. in case you run the EV battery all the way down you can still operate door locks etc).

Just doesn't add up calling cars that are known to intrinsically be super low maintenance and have much lower part count/complexity unreliable. Everyone I know who drives a Tesla has the same experience: zero maintenance, replace tires every 30-40k miles or when you get a flat and that's pretty much it. One of the main reasons I highly prefer EVs is because of reliability and lack of maintenance. Something seems fishy here.

Elora··on The horizon problem for faster than light travel
I suggest you also add The Wandering Earth by the same author to your list, which is a collection eleven of his short fiction stories. I'd even go as far as say it's better to read it first before the trilogy.
Elora··on Senate panel approves antitrust bill restricting big tech platforms
> If Facebook removes their app from the App Store (or cripples it), and says you have to side load this app, most Americans will do so. Even if that app violates a number of user-friendly policies. The OS, of course, could enforce that at a technical level, which weakens the argument significantly.

The OS, in iOS' case at least, does already do this. So the case is weak right now.

The #1 reason for the app store is to take that sweet cut. The #1 reason to sideload is so those apps can bypass the store's cut. Follow the money.

Elora··on 5G is for sensing, not communication [pdf]
Is this unmetered or you stay w/in the cap?
Elora··on What are Attackers after on IoT Devices?
Thanks for this! What came out of that major breach they had earlier this year? Since I wasn't part of their ecosystem I never followed up.
Elora··on What are Attackers after on IoT Devices?
Are you running stock firmware on the ERX and are you happy with it? Looking into potentially setting one up as well, any resources you could recommend for making best use of one?
Elora··on Asahi Linux for M1 Macs Progress October-November 2021
Are you already using Asahi on it? Would love to hear/read (if you've written it somewhere else) some feedback about your experience as I'm considering this path as well. A dual-boot would be most excellent!

Is there a way to run Asahi as a VM as native ARM yet an M1 Macs?

Elora··on Used car market gets even more bizarre
Everybody's discussing the effects of what's happening, but where did this demand come from? Sure, a bunch of people sold cars during Covid last year (but those cars went to someone else, they weren't destroyed), but lots of people who WFHd last year are still WFH this year.

Why does everyone suddenly need a car? Cheap credit is definitely at least in part fueling it.

Elora··on Dystopian B2B Bullshit Generator

  Duke of Punishment (Action Movie)
LOL
Elora··on Tomu – An ARM microprocessor which fits in your USB port
Quickly looked into Fomu and ran into this sweet FPGA Tomu Workshop https://workshop.fomu.im/en/latest/. Looks like you can get considerably better hardware (better connected at the very least) for half the price of a Fomu tho in the form of the UPduino (https://tinyvision.ai/products/upduino-v3-0).
Elora··on Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
Some here are being honest, so I'll be brutally honest: Covid has upset the master-slave relationship, and they're realizing they're giving up too much control. Yes, even the supposedly forward-thinking, progressive tech world.

It's so much easier to ignore the BS of "company culture," "a new family" and other such nonsense when working remote. Plenty of people here have outright stated they work as a way to fund their lives and they couldn't care less about "the mission," "changing the world" and other similar lies. When WFH you only need to put on a show (and sometimes pants!) when on a video call, then you can relax and get your work done and shut out the BS.

Elora··on The 4:6 method for coffee-brewing (2017) [video]
Doesn't really, I feel like s/he's just paying extra attention to some details s/he feels are important for them. Anyone doing this could also consider Turkish coffee. I personally don't like the soot of either so I'll do a Chemex-style instead (yes, filters..).
Elora··on The 4:6 method for coffee-brewing (2017) [video]
What is this $100 Breville Espresso Machine? The Bambino is $299.
Elora··on Try This One Weird Trick Russian Hackers Hate
My point stands, they did not include Romania, the country -- you would not have the Romanian (Moldova) keyboard installed in Romania.
Elora··on Try This One Weird Trick Russian Hackers Hate
They didn't, they included Romania (Moldova), which must be what they use in Moldova.
Elora··on The Animal Is Tired
> my biggest complaint about Way of Kings is that the characters often make such frustrating decisions

I find the decisions are often not predictable, which I think for some can be a turnoff because things don't go the way you expect/want them to. I find this a strength.

Elora··on Apple's follow-up to M1 chip goes into mass production for Mac
> The opportunity for competition exists

This is so deep and powerful if you really think about it. This is what we were promised. While not perfect, I applaud Apple for at least trying.

Elora··on Calibre – E-Book Management
I'm afraid that attempts to change it will ruin it, like many other things. Calibre just works and once you've learned how to use it, it's great that it doesn't change on you for no particular reason. I personally wish it remain unchanged.
Elora··on Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4
1200 miles/year is an atypical use case for a vehicle in the US and your options can be anything, including many older cars, and also possibly human-powered transport and/or electric-powered scooters/bikes/skateboards. We have a '12 CR-V w/ 120k miles which right now is doing standby vehicle duty, our Tesla Model 3 takes all the miles (15-20k/year).
Elora··on Microsoft Coffee
We still use the foot pedals to this day..
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