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aimor

1,595 karma · joined May 11, 2020

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aimor··on Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
I've been reporting spam calls and texts to the FCC for a few years now. Does it do anything? I don't know, certainly not immediately, and the problem persists.

I tried the method spelled out here for my latest batch of "Your USPS package has arrived" texts, but the phone numbers (example: +63 936 631 6676) just give an "invalid number" response. Not unexpected.

Every official channel seems to be failing us on this one. Spam calls still exist, spam texts still exist, and even fake government websites still exist. I don't understand why a .com site like https ://usps.com-helpnk.com/ is still up.

aimor··on 15 years ago, I helped design Google Maps
At least it's a real store getting a pin. When I open up Google maps I get a screen full of "Bob's Custom Homes", "Linda's Chocolate Tasting", "Ted's Towing", "Local Auto Detail" all pointing to residential houses in a very residential neighborhood.
aimor··on Apostrophe Protection Society
I like this. But now it's tempting to use 'r for plural nouns.
aimor··on Show HN: Numbat – A programming language with physical dimensions as types

    >>> 1 month -> seconds
        = 2_629_746 s    [Time]
Just playing around with this and really enjoying it.
aimor··on Map: The states in favor of daylight saving time all year long
That's interesting, I didn't know about this.

Maybe it's time to implement Winter Hours, a 35 hour work week from December through February.

aimor··on Large Balloon Reflector: a potentially game-changing antenna design
A good idea. I wonder how robust it is to small debris, I assume it won't pop but will the thin material fold up on itself if there's a hole?
aimor··on iPods now considered vintage tech– so of course sold out at Urban Outfitters
Ah I had this, used it for years, and share your feelings. I really love interesting form factors, especially when they maintain practicality. There was a lot of interesting things back then, before the smartphone convergence, when electronics were still toys. I accidentally smashed the screen of my fancy phone (at the time) and on a whim I bought the cheap Nokia Twist as a replacement. Nearly two decades of touchscreens later and I still miss how tiny it was and how good it felt to slide open.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Nokia+twist&kp=1&t=ffab&iar=images...

aimor··on The negative impact of mobile-first web design on desktop
Well, I tried setting `resize = "both"` on everything, but it was a bit of a letdown. It would be a neat experiment to have every element of every webpage be interactable (let's say resizable by dragging edges, and modify colors from the right-click menu) with edits persisting between visits.

    Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('*')).forEach(el => {el.style.resize='both'})
aimor··on Wealth shown to a pixel scale (2021)
For what it's worth, the author addresses your questions here: https://github.com/MKorostoff/1-pixel-wealth/blob/master/THE...
aimor··on 13 States join the IRS direct-file test after tax prep firms dropped the ball
This is the standard tax form from 2022: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf

You're expected to enter all of your income, sort out what portion of your income is taxable, determine the amount you can deduct from your taxable income, figure out what tax credits you're entitled to, calculate how much tax you already paid and what you still owe or should be refunded, and decide how you want to pay or be reimbursed.

In the simplest case it's straightforward.

But for anything other than the simplest case it quickly becomes a mess of additional forms (called schedules). Currently there's 3 main schedules (1, 2, 3) for Income Adjustment, Additional Taxes, and Additional Credits. And each of those references addition schedules and forms. Here's schedules 1, 2, 3: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1040 Here's a list of the other schedules: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/schedules-for-form-1040 and a search for all the forms and instructions: https://www.irs.gov/forms-instructions-and-publications

The good news is, after all that, if you make a mistake the IRS will tell you what you actually owe and send you either a bill or a check for the difference.

aimor··on Synsepalum Dulcificum (Miracle Berry)
I think the taste is really that good. I especially like them with fruit and drinks, and if the cost was say $0.10 I wouldn't think twice about using them daily for lunch or snacks.
aimor··on Synsepalum Dulcificum (Miracle Berry)
I'm always a bit amazed products from this aren't more widespread. If the cost was lower (costs about $1-$2 a tablet now) I think I'd use them every day.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7367548.stm

aimor··on Is giving people cash working? Six months of Denver's Basic Income Project
Yes, it's not enough. But read the interviews to see how it helped: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iX4U46CdPIjjQtq0-P5jlHNfloc...

”We were already looking for a spot because I got into a housing program. [...] For the month, I need $3,000 to get through and live paycheck to paycheck. But then getting approved and accepted for it [DBIP], it was definitely a relief. I wasn’t going to have to come up with all the money for the apartment."

"I was actually able to pay off my debts literally just in time for me to get into a place, and I got the receipt just in time saying that I paid off my debt so that I was able to be accepted into housing."

"It's going to rent, to my car, to be able to afford living. To be able to go to this little program I’m going to for 22 weeks [of job training], to be able to make 50-60k a year. For me, that’s living life. That’s where I need to be. [...] Right now, the way I’m striving, I just feel proud."

aimor··on Is giving people cash working? Six months of Denver's Basic Income Project
This is still a study about UBI, it's looking at differences based on how the income is delivered. A part of UBI, different from other types of aid, is that the recipient can spend the money however they see fit. There are question about how well this will work. Will the recipients benefit or suffer by not being restricted in how they spend? Will they benefit or suffer by being given the money all at once at the beginning of the year vs receiving monthly sums? These are good questions without obvious answers.

If you want to understand more about their study, their methods are available. It answers a lot of the comments below. They do make a distinction and call this "Guaranteed Basic Income" since it targets a subset population: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/64f507a995b636019ef88...

https://www.denverbasicincomeproject.org/research

aimor··on Blackmagic Camera for iPhone
It's a cheaper safer option to get something that looks "right". It's not so trivial to have 120 fps video look like a smoother 24 fps. Even capturing at 1/120 shutter speed it does look different. There's an experiment I want to do that involves taking 120 1/120 video and stacking windows of 3 frames to emulate shooting at 120 fps with 1/40 shutter speed.
aimor··on How Games Used to Look: Why Retro Gaming on a CRT Looks Different [video]
"The video makes it seems that there's no temporal bleeding on CRTs. This sounds unlikely to me..."

There is, but I don't remember it being noticeable even on cheap TVs, except in high contrast situation where the screen is dim with bright things moving around. I still miss the lack of motion blur that CRTs gave by default.

I found a forum post where someone lists these values:

"Phosphors in current use for CRT-applications:

Red: phosphor = Y2O2S:Eu3+. Lifetime (1/e time) = 150 us, single exponential.

Green: phosphor = Zn2SiO4:Mn2+. Lifetime (1/e time) = 10-15 ms. Clearly, this is quite long and is the limiting factor in increasing frame-frequency.

Note: the emission decay has a highly non-single-exponential decay --> at long times (~1 s) still some emission can be observed by the eye. This can be seen clearly by looking into the green CRT directly after the image was switched off. However, the intensity is too low to cause problems in an active image when the image-frequency is below ~100 Hz.

Blue: phosphor = ZnS:Ag,Cl. Lifetime (1/e time) = ~100-200 us. Note: not single-exponential decay, but no emission at long times.

(Source: Shionoya & Yen, "Phosphor Handbook", 1998.)"

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/what-is-the-rise-and-fall-t...

And in this high framerate video of a CRT you can see the different colors decay at different rates. Here the blue seems to decay the fastest. But they're all imperceptibly dark by the time the scan line comes around again. I have no idea if there's any cumulative effect that's perceptible.

https://youtu.be/3BJU2drrtCM?t=153

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhoZzDF3lWU

aimor··on Ask HN: Does your microwave interfere with Bluetooth? Mine does
You can build a "lectenna" and see where your microwave is leaking energy out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5SMF9p-4Q0

aimor··on Tech doesn’t make our lives easier. It makes them faster
I agree with you but I think you've ignored the economic part of the argument. These aren't choices between equal options, we're strongly pushed to the technological option because last-year's default is now significantly more expensive. The technological option is required to tread water because the world is no longer designed for having children young, or living with your parents, or isolationism.

We are, according to the argument, not seeing a just portion of the gains technology brings.

aimor··on How Washington DC Got Its Metro
"The Architect of the Capitol, George Stewart, wouldn’t allow a station to be built under the Capitol, requiring it to be moved a few blocks away. The University of Maryland rejected a proposed station on campus, forcing “a complicated redesign that later caused commotion in College Park.”

The most difficult government agency proved to be the National Park Service. WMATA had originally planned many station entrances in the city’s downtown parks, like Farragut Square, McPherson Square, and the National Mall.

A planned station at Farragut Square that would have required moving the statue of David Farragut was rejected, resulting in two separate stations – Farragut North and Farragut West – just a few hundred feet apart."

This part is great, answers some questions I've had for a long time. Though there's at least one mystery unanswered: why is the Woodley Park station nearly half a mile from the Zoo?

aimor··on My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards
I really liked my K750 too, but when I switched to LED lights it stopped charging. I got by for awhile setting it in front of a window a few times a week. Once at night, without a charge and in desperation, I stupidly I set it on top of a lamp with an incandescent bulb, promptly forgot about it, and melted one of the keys.
aimor··on How to store a chess position in 26 bytes using bit-level magic (2022)
Trying to strike a balance between raw enumerations of all valid states and practicality:

Rooks and Knights are identical, so their positions fall into [64 choose 2] states + 1 state for when both are captured (only one can occupy the King's location) + 3 states for when both are in the starting position and castling is available for one or the other or both

  2020 states = 11 bits * 2 colors * 2 piece types = 44 bits
Bishops only occupy half the board (32 states) + 1 state to track captures

  33 states ^ (4 unique pieces) = 21 bits
Queens and Kings just store their location

  64 states = 6 bits * 4 pieces = 24 bits
Pawn promotions uses the same method as the article

  9 bits x 2 colors = 18 bits
En passant can be stored by the column + 1 state for none

  9 states = 4 bits
Pawns can be in, uh, [64 choose 8] position states. (It's only 4 billionish)

  [64 choose 8] states = 32 bits * 2 colors = 64 bits
And captured pawns can be 'unpromoted' and placed on an empty spot in the top row since unpromoted pawns will never be there.

And 1 bit for whose turn it is

  1 bit
Total = 176 bits or 22 bytes

Started out thinking about ways to use more of the duplicate pieces, rediscovered the idea of ranking and unranking, started to understand what the person with a limit of 19.2 bytes was doing, tried out just treating position state as [64 choose 32] and only got to 194 bits, then finally worked through this approach.

aimor··on Akiyoshi’s Illusion Pages
I notice it has to be large to get the speckles (can't see them on my phone), and only with both eyes open.
aimor··on How to store a chess position in 26 bytes using bit-level magic (2022)
What about bishops?

The bishops are limited to half the board so only need 5 bits for position. This frees up 4 bits, but you lose the capture state (can't use King's position for capture state). Well, you CAN use the king's position for capture state for two of the bishops at any given time. Then for the other two bishops use a bit to store their capture state. This saves 2 bits overall, bringing the total down to exactly 26 bytes.

Gonna have to think that through for awhile, not sure if it works out.

Update: I see a comment below that does this but uses 21 bits (instead of 22) by storing bishop position and capture state as a base-33 number.

aimor··on Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands
With Milk so expensive I expect the smaller "gallon" will come out soon. It's already happening to half-gallons, some are at 59 oz now but that's not widespread yet. Alternatives (oat, almond, etc) I think simply started at 54 oz. and never offered full half gallons.

Here's the ice cream comparison if anyone's interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr-oq79iur4

aimor··on Akiyoshi’s Illusion Pages
This one almost hurts, forget the approaching black hole I get dazzling speckles of white light. : http://www.psy.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/Plaid-tunnel02-040-b...
aimor··on How far back in time can I take my website's design?
Is there a collection of Linux virtual machine images I could use to run old browsers (say from 1994)? There's https://infinitemac.org/ for MacOS and Windows 3/95/98 VMs, but I've had a hard time getting Linux binaries from the early 90s working.
aimor··on 111,111.1 meters is reliably 1 degree of latitude
Don't worry, we've come full circle and defined the Data Mile to be exactly 6,000 ft.
aimor··on Milk bag
My elementary school was one of those that switched to the bagged milk in the 90s. It was a pretty radical change, warranting a puppet show to ease us into this eco-friendly future. I doubt I'll ever forget they (the puppets) only gave it one thumb up, since the other thumb had to cover the straw hole when you plunge it into the milk bag. We were, uh, more enthusiastic and regularly gave two thumbs up.
aimor··on Odd and unsafe baby car seats from the past
Wow this reminds me how much I miss all the legroom we used to have without a floor/center console. In modern cars I feel like I'm penned in a tiny personal pod.

I'm hopeful electric cars lead to a return of leg room.

aimor··on Learn AutoHotKey by stealing my scripts
Wow, I feel like it's time to bring back the "Welcome to Windows" tips at login.

..is there a way to bring that back?

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