skorgu

Since you don't seem to have commented on the article without reading it, my comment was not addressed to you. I'm not the article police; if you find something too long to read, decide not to read it, and move on with your life, we have no quarrel.

Honestly, I don't even mind the folks who do comment without reading. Comments are free, do what you like. I just find it mildly hilarious that 100% of the comments are about (the first) 3% of the article.

This comment section is the most absolute proof I've ever seen that absolutely nobody reads the article before commenting.

Hint: it's not about integer types at all

I'm curious how this can both avoid the average-of-averages problem (presumably by using the original full-rate data to compute multiple aggregates) and also supports backfilling. Is there a danger of the full-rate data expiring and having a different behavior for backfills past that horizon? Or am I wholly misunderstading both these features?

The flipside: you can also be lucky enough to have borrowed a ton of money just in time for the crash to drive everyone else out of business: https://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/4/5/15190650/

I'm ... shockingly interested in this bank letter ghostwriting thing. Could you say more?

Congrats on the launch!

Yep and yep. Not basic at all, this stuff is only simple once you already know how it works.

AIUI, RSUs are treated as normal W-2 income when they vest.

About 18 years assuming I'm using the right formula:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=acceleration+formula&ra...

What about ion engines? I'm extremely not sure I have this math right but NEXT claims 4190 second ISP [0]. Plugging that into the rocket equation I get:

  iss_mass = 419600
  sep_isp = 4190
  delta_v = 5748
  htv_payload = 3310
  falcon_launch_cost = 62000000
  total_mass = iss_mass * math.exp(delta_v / (9.8 * sep_isp))
  fuel_load = total_mass - iss_mass
  dragon_launches = math.floor(fuel_load / htv_payload)
  total_cost = dragon_launches * falcon_launch_cost

I get:

  Total vehicle mass: 482,646.89 kg
  Fuel to add: 63,046.89 kg
  Dragon 2 launches: 19
  Total cost: $1,178,000,000.00

Not what you'd call cheap but at least in the realm of the possible. I'm assuming the ISS' solar panels (~120 kW [1]) is sufficient to power the thruster, that a dragon launch costs no more than a falcon launch (certainly false), and that the ion engine is already on board the station.

  [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEXT_(ion_thruster)
  [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_system_of_the_International_Space_Station

It's not a direct oil subsidy but roads are ~50% subsidized: http://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/01/23/drivers-cover-just-51-...

I don't know why they sell the 3mgs either because nothing less than three of them has any effect on me. Thank god for 10mg tablets.

Hey, that's a really useful reference, thanks. I actually learned something about OCaml from it!

I compile some random links and send them out every week: https://www.skorgu.net/weird/

At least for the comet pusher, the tech needed to put a non-trivial number of humans on Mars has a ton of overlap with the tech needed to divert potential impacts.

I was on a sf kick this year apparently.

Full list (why can't amazon show me the read dates of my kindle books?!):

- Ancillary Sword

- The Magician's Land

- The Three Body Problem (incomplete)

- Libriomancer, Codex Born, Unbound

- Thank You, Jeeves

- Omon Ra (incomplete)

- Stations of the Tide

- 1Q84 (staggeringly incomplete)

- The Desert Spear (incomplete)

- The Lost Fleet: {Dauntless,Fearless,Courageous} (third one incomplete)

- Superintelligence

- Nexus, Crux (incomplete)

- Another Fine Myth

- The Annihilation Score

- The Man with the Golden Torc, Daemons are Forever

- The Fractal Prince (incomplete)

- Crooked

- Ancillary Mercy

- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

- The Traitor Baru Cormarant

- Excession

- Hive Mind

- Seveneves

Well, yes but I don't think either of those things are really addressed by "care about data IFF backups exist". I guess I either don't get what point you're making or we're just getting distracted by phrasing.

"They seem to care about their data somewhat, which of course means they have off-site backups."

I don't think a reply of "there are classes of data that one can care about and still not have backups of" is unreasonable.

"...I can surmise is that they're confused"

Again, I think showing a few cases in which users can have perfectly non-confused reasons for using these filesystems is pretty straightforward as conversational gambits go.

There are lots of areas in which the data is reproducible but local continuity (and checksumming!) are still extremely valuable. Think things like large iso files, dvd rips or even intermediate stages of data analysis. Since I can reproduce them having a backup might not make sense but I still don't really /want/ to have to go to all that effort.

Especially things like scratch space for analysis you really don't want bit flips since you've maybe silently invalidated later stages.

If only the nginx-provided rpm build was built --with-threads.

What would you use?

Yeah, people do weird things in unexpected high-stress situations. Not everyone is an action hero it turns out.

It would be interesting to occasionally train the generated C against a compiler.

Cool, thanks!

Are there any guidelines/docs on running Nix in an existing distro? I'd love to play around with it without having to switch the whole world.

See also the similarly-configured LEAPTech model: http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/aviation/nasas-...

That one doesn't do VTOL but there are apparently nontrivial efficiency gains from that configuration even without tilting the wings. If you could get enough efficiency gains from the reduced wing loading to offset the weight of the wing tilting apparatus you could effectively get VTOL 'for free' (maybe, I don't know jack about aerodynamics).

I take a fair amount of pleasure in banning the domains of anyone who tries to recruit me at my company email

Personally I think smartphones will never be good at known-goal interaction. They're general-purpose devices with a hilariously low-throughput interface that need to accommodate low-tech users. You're always going to have to navigate a bunch of screens to get to any given function because the real estate is so small.

Could apps be better? Sure. Can any app get as good as a button that's already right there when you realize you need a replacement? I don't see how.

I'd bet you'd just get a whole new button in the mail when the battery is close to dying.

I'm at the grocery store approximately zero times a year. For me a "summon cat litter" button would be a marked improvement in my life.