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metaphor

4,146 karma · joined September 7, 2015

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metaphor··on Pixhell Attack: Leaking Info from Air-Gap Computers via 'Singing Pixels'
For those unindoctrinated with the underlying phenomenon being exploited, this demo[1] was shared almost a decade ago.

Also, undiscussed mitigation techniques[2] relevant to this general class of nuisance that circuit designers may find of value.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8862689

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41505772

metaphor··on Japan gives $2.4B in incentives to Toyota and more for EV battery making
The American market was swallowing the same hubris back in the 70s when Japan exports started flooding domestic soil. Then the narrative flipped from "cheap quality" to "affordable" and "reliable", eventually forcing Detroit onto its knees and into bankruptcy.
metaphor··on Charging lithium-ion batteries at high currents first increases lifespan by 50%
> Extra 21% capacity. Current practice still burns 9%.

On a normalized basis, if current practice yields 91% finished capacity (i.e. 9% deactivation loss), and the new proposed process is expected to yield 70% finished capacity (i.e. 30% deactivation loss), then the question is how much initial material must the new proposed process start with to end with the equivalent finished capacity as the current practice?

  FinCap = InitCap * (1 - DeactivationRate)

                                        0.91
    0.91 = InitCap * 0.70 --> InitCap = ---- = 1.30
                                        0.70
metaphor··on Charging lithium-ion batteries at high currents first increases lifespan by 50%
> We could just add extra capacity to make up for it, though.

At naive face value, "just" adding an extra 30% capacity to offset expected lithium deactivation implies proportional increases in material COGS and package mass/volume, all other factors being equal.

Unless (a) a manufacturer is optimizing for throughput; (b) production is constrained at this initial charge stage; and (c) supply substantially lags demand; this strikes me as a non-starter in most of the consumer space.

metaphor··on Kids who use ChatGPT as a study assistant do worse on tests
> It says right there that the students who used chatgpt right, as a tutor, did much better than their peers.

No LLM processing required, just old fashioned critical reading and comprehension (my emphasis added):

>> The students who used it did spectacularly better on the practice problems, solving 127 percent more of them correctly compared with students who did their practice work without any high-tech aids. But on a test afterwards, these AI-tutored students did no better.

metaphor··on Boeing's largest union says it will strike if contract negotiations fail
https://archive.is/2iyhv
metaphor··on iPhone 16 could let you shoot in JPEG-XL
> FFT-based compression algorithm, like the one in jpegs

Nit: DCT-based

metaphor··on The Katsuification of Britain
> 'Katsu' is short for Katsudon

Don't you mean short for katsuretsu (カツレツ), katakana for cutlet as adopted from the French?

> If you haven't had a Japanese curry in Japan, and you didn't make it from scratch, whatever you get will be a poor imitation. Real Japanese curry tastes both fresh, simple, vegetal and clean, and artificial, at the same time.

Meh. There are tons of diasporas across the world that would beg to differ; at the end of the day, it's inexpensive comfort food to this demographic.

Personally, I'm more picky with the panko and quality of pork. It's easy to mask imperfection with curry, and almost as easy to make something distinctly tasty on the cheap.

metaphor··on When Serial Isn't RS-232, Geocaching with the Garmin GPS 95
> ...something we have IBM to thank for.

Egregious rent seeking grifters at TIA demanding $165 per half-assed scanned copy[1] of a near 3-decade-old document that they couldn't even be bothered to properly OCR, and somehow IBM gets to shoulder the blame for the interoperability clusterfuck that ensued as everyone and their mother was profiting off their innovation?

Oh, come off it.

[1] https://store.accuristech.com/tia/standards/tia-tia-232-f?pr...

metaphor··on Gitlab is reportedly up for sale
Sometimes life deals you a really bad hand[1].

[1] https://x.com/sytses/status/1797763994834600207

metaphor··on National Park Service Will Cite AWD Drivers for Driving on 4WD-Only Trails
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

> Definitions:

> High Clearance Four-Wheel-Drive (4WD) Vehicles

> A Jeep, sport utility vehicle (SUV), or truck type with at least 15-inch tire rims and at least eight inches of clearance from the lowest point of the frame, body, suspension, or differential to the ground. Four wheel drive vehicles have a driveshaft that can directly power each wheel at the same time and a transfer case that can shift between powering two wheel or four wheels in low or high gear. All wheel drive (AWD) vehicles do not meet this definition.

metaphor··on I don't know how CPUs work so I simulated one in code (2019)
In the case of synchronous design patterns that handle metastability, it was to point out that the clock clearly isn't there "to make sure all transistors in a given stage of a CPU reach a steady state". The clock is there to invoke state transition, whereas achieving steady state is a function of satisfying setup/hold times; the former is fundamentally constrained by the latter.

In the case of QDI circuits, it was to point out that there exists CPUs which do not contain clocks, again challenging the assertion that the reason computers have clocks is "to make sure all transistors in a given stage of a CPU reach a steady state".

metaphor··on I don't know how CPUs work so I simulated one in code (2019)
> That's the reason computers have a clock, to make sure all transistors in a given stage of a CPU reach a steady state before moving on to the next instruction.

Here I was thinking[1][2] the reason computers had clocks was merely a consequence of the synchronous architectures that characterize them.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastability_(electronics)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasi-delay-insensitive_circui...

metaphor··on Microsoft's internal memo: So Long, Intel (1992) [pdf]
> Their [DEC's] software story is amazingly weak (except for the system written here by the guy they spurned!), and they may not be quick enough at delivering Alpha in hardware systems.

The guy alluded to being Dave Cutler, and the system being Windows NT, presumably?

metaphor··on Making your own hot sauce
A few relevant points made by Govindarajan in this 1985 paper[1]:

> Chilli or Chili, a name now commonly used in Asia and Africa, is said to have come from the Nahautl dialect of Mexico and Central America.

> The U.S. Government Standard divided Capsicum into types corresponding to commercial types; paprika, red pepper, ground and crushed. The term "chilli" is not generally used in the U.S., but is used in Britain, India, Africa, and the countries in the East.

> The British Standard Specifications, however, differentiate between chillies and capsicum, obviously based on the degree of pungency. It gives no values but describes "chillies" as pungent small fruits of certain forms of the species C. frutescens L. and describes Capsicum as of varied sizes, generally big, of the species, C. annuum L.

[1] https://sci-hub.se/10.1080/10408398509527412

metaphor··on EWritable – e-ink tablet news and reviews
> Error establishing a database connection
metaphor··on U.S. Commercial Real Estate Is Headed Toward a Crisis
> They may have bought commercial MBSs, but if they did I don't remember reading about it.

Readily accessible, public data that the Fed updates weekly[1] clearly shows $9.943 billion at peak and currently sitting on $8.142 billion.

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1qE9d

metaphor··on U.S. Commercial Real Estate Is Headed Toward a Crisis
https://archive.is/GRDtK
metaphor··on All Golioth Hardware Is Now Open Source
The Amp Hour podcast episode #526 [1] circa Jan 18, 2021 seems contextually relevant.

[1] https://theamphour.com/526-why-iot-is-difficult-with-jonatha...

metaphor··on NOAA Is in Danger
https://archive.is/w2Ggx

https://web.archive.org/web/20240717131326/https://www.theat...

metaphor··on Goldman Sachs: AI Is overhyped, expensive, and unreliable
> The hype isn't coming from where AI is today, but where it will be in 2030 and 2040.

Scott McNealy circa 2002[1][2] had some relevant food for thought:

>> But two years ago we were selling at 10 times revenues when we were at $64. At 10 times revenues, to give you a 10-year payback, I have to pay you 100% of revenues for 10 straight years in dividends. That assumes I can get that by my shareholders. That assumes I have zero cost of goods sold, which is very hard for a computer company. That assumes zero expenses, which is really hard with 39,000 employees. That assumes I pay no taxes, which is very hard. And that assumes you pay no taxes on your dividends, which is kind of illegal. And that assumes with zero R&D for the next 10 years, I can maintain the current revenue run rate. Now, having done that, would any of you like to buy my stock at $64? Do you realize how ridiculous those basic assumptions are? You don't need any transparency. You don't need any footnotes. What were you thinking?

>> I was thinking it was at $64, what do I do? I'm here to represent the shareholders. Do I stand up and say, "Sell"? I'd get sued if I said that. Do I stand up and say, "Buy"? Then they say you're [Enron Chairman] Ken Lay. So you just sit there and go, "I'm going to be a bum for the next two years. I'm just going to keep my mouth shut, and I'm not going to predict anything." And that's what I did.

[1] https://archive.is/EZ6vD#selection-2985.79-2985.928

[2] https://archive.is/EZ6vD#selection-3009.1-3009.399

metaphor··on A Louisiana gas plant sea wall shows challenges of flooding, energy demand
https://archive.is/16ugr
metaphor··on The hunt for the most efficient heat pump in the world
https://archive.is/HcW8Z

http://web.archive.org/web/20240704113444/https://www.wired....

metaphor··on Researchers invent 100% biodegradable 'barley plastic'
Wonder how gluten-free Danes feel about this tech.
metaphor··on Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission
> ...you can straight up block OneDrive and other cloud functions with Group Policy.

The world has certifiably lost its mind if this or any of the workarounds mentioned by the parent are acceptable to the baseline UX of a major paid OS.

metaphor··on Carmakers File Challenge to Parts of New Automatic-Braking Rule
To be sure, Tesla doesn't appear to be part of the trade group[1] pushing this agenda.

[1] https://www.autosinnovate.org/about/our-members

metaphor··on Carmakers File Challenge to Parts of New Automatic-Braking Rule
> It's not car makers individually doing this it is an organization specifically associated with the importation of cars to the US.

It looks like[1] almost all the big players, major suppliers, and then some...except Tesla.

[1] https://www.autosinnovate.org/about/our-members

metaphor··on Donating clothes is contributing to Africa's 'mitumba' problem
To be clear, Working Visit != State Visit.
metaphor··on Donating clothes is contributing to Africa's 'mitumba' problem
> That’s definitely not true

President John Kufuor of Ghana circa Sep 2008[1].

Check! Your move...

[1] https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/visits/2008

metaphor··on SpaceX's Starlink may be keeping the ozone from healing, research finds
Press release circa Jan 2023...based on a 2022 report[1]...apparently leaning into datasets spanning 2000-2020...which, to be fair, buries the following lede (my emphasis):

>> The use of aerosols other than sulfate is expected to change the effects on ozone via changes in heterogeneous chemistry and dynamics and transport. Comprehensive climate model simulations to quantify these effects have yet to be performed. Other aerosol types that absorb less solar radiation would heat the tropical lower stratosphere much less than sulfate. They are also potentially more chemically inert and less impactful on stratospheric ozone. Materials that have been considered include calcium carbonate, titanium dioxide, aluminum oxide, and diamond. The effects on ozone are less certain for these alternate materials owing to the paucity of laboratory and modeling studies investigating them and the lack of natural analogs.

Gotta make you wonder how many Starlink satellites were in orbit back then, and did anyone anticipate the scale that SpaceX would be deploying/decommissioning them looking forward?

[1] https://ozone.unep.org/system/files/documents/Scientific-Ass...

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