stephengillie

8,873 karma · joined January 10, 2012

My day job is to download random programs suggested by people I haven't met before, and post "hot takes" about them on the Internet.

Opinions are those of Gilgamech Technologies.

stephengillieon FDA approves new drug to treat influenza

> The most common adverse reactions in patients taking Xofluza included diarrhea and bronchitis.

I wish the article listed the frequency or likelihood of getting these reactions. Given the choice between flu and bronchitis, I'll take the flu.

stephengillieon At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks

A problem with that old saying is it ignores the vast amount of sugar needed to make lemonade.

stephengillieon At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks

> The CEO ... believed that regularly letting people go was a way of eliminating bad apples and forcing people to work harder and smarter.

Microsoft called it Stack Ranking.

stephengillieon As a female engineer, I am not diversity

"Ambiverts" are never called this. Extroverts complain about the ambivert's introversion, and introverts praise the ambivert's extroversion. Thus, at least some of the confusion is understandable.

stephengillieon The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air

Similar - wind traps in Persia and Arabia. Those in Dune were probably inspired by their real world counterparts.

stephengillieon List of 600 free online courses launched by 190 universities

My Dad often talks about "challenging" a course, where you take the final test, and if you pass you get full course credit. I've never heard of a school offering this in any kind of usable capacity. At what point did this stop being offered?

stephengillieon List of 600 free online courses launched by 190 universities

There is no such thing as a free lunch. How much of tuition, endowment, tax, and other funds paid for these?

stephengillieon The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air

The problem has been solved for so long that it's used by multiple authors in our culture's fiction.

stephengillieon Ban organophosphate pesticides to protect children's health, experts say

Let's "kill 2 birds with one stone" and also fight the obesity crisis by having children pick weeds. Call it a "Synergy class between botany science and physical education".

Edit: The suggestion that children learn a basic trade, while getting exercise, and providing economic benefit, seems very unpopular. Please suggest a better solution for these problems - maybe you think adults would benefit more from this?

stephengillieon First analysis of ‘pre-registered’ studies shows sharp rise in null findings

Most of them, especially those developed before the 2000s.

stephengillieon Tiny doses of magic mushrooms can boost your problem-solving skills

Why not both?

stephengillieon The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air

This sounds like Persian Wind Catchers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcatcher

There's a similar type of building which uses temperature difference to generate condensation within a building, creating a pool of water. The name escapes me at the moment.

stephengillieon The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air

This reminds me of desert water collectors. There are so many that it's hard to find any specific one. Here are a few examples.

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Architecture/wind.htm

https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-technology/sophistic...

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-tower-pulls-d...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_well_(condenser)

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Moisture_vaporator

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=92

stephengillieon Build a 100% Serverless Website with AWS in 7 Easy Steps

Old-school serverless is a flat HTML page served by a simple host over HTTP. These days, S3 is robust enough to be the simple host.

stephengillieon Build a 100% Serverless Website with AWS in 7 Easy Steps

CORS can be set on the S3 bucket - wide open is the default setting when you open the CORS properties in the S3 console.

stephengillieon Tiny doses of magic mushrooms can boost your problem-solving skills

The high I felt from taking shrooms was the same high I felt from cannabis. Quite a disappointment, after all the build up and great expectations.

stephengillieon My phone is spying on me, so I decided to spy on it

Default settings prevent posting to Imgur through their app. What other normal functionality does this break, and why?

stephengillieon An AWS Region is coming to South Africa

Hopefully they can compete on price. It's like having Google develop a product that competes with you, in that it adds legitimacy to your market. And AWS is known as a feature leader, not a value leader.

stephengillieon First analysis of ‘pre-registered’ studies shows sharp rise in null findings

One of the most painful parts of Economics is how many mathematicians there are in the field. They treat discovery science as hypothesis science, and try to force reality fit their model - instead of gathering data about the real world first. Thus, we get models of Marginal Demand that don't include "not having enough money to buy something".

Edit: if this comment is unhelpful, please suggest an update.

stephengillieon Electrical properties of dendrites help explain our brain’s computing power

The brain is analogous to an analog analogue of digital computing?

stephengillieon Tesla Third Quarter 2018 Update [pdf]

General Motors owns a patent on leaded gasoline.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gm-engineers-dis...

stephengillieon Eugene Shoemaker Is Still the Only Man Buried on the Moon

  When the Moon
  Hits your eye
  With an Ore-
  'gon Shoe guy...

stephengillieon What Comes After the Roomba?

This is why you need a general purpose robot - to fill the gap where the specialized robots can't quite make it.

stephengillieon Deterministic quantum teleportation through fiber channels

https://www.xkcd.com/547/

stephengillieon Deterministic quantum teleportation through fiber channels

To those saying the paper isn't for the "layperson", or average reader - papers like this exist to fluff the ego of the author more than they exist to convey information. It's very possible to write in a way that is both accessible to everyone and still informative to experts.

stephengillieon Carbon Removal Technologies

> Keter level

For the curious: http://www.scp-wiki.net/object-classes

What Would Dr Bright Do?

stephengillieon DRM for chargers? Google Pixel 3 locks fast Qi charging to its own stand

This adds to the list of reasons why I won't be getting a Pixel 3. Other reasons include the notch on the screen, the glass on the back, and the reduced efficacy of autocorrect.

I'm using a Pixel 2 currently, and the back is heavily cracked because I am clumsy and drop it often. Who puts glass on the back of the phone and why?

stephengillieon Why Are Japan’s Cherry Blossom Trees Blooming in Fall?

The storms are from the jet stream moving from north of Seattle, to south of the region. When the jet stream is directly above us, we get storms.

Summer is when the jet stream is to the north, and we get included in the band of warm air that California always enjoys. Winter is when it moves to the south, putting the Seattle area in the cold band that Alaska always endures.

The jet stream is late this year.

stephengillieon How Hillsong Church conquered the music industry

Isn't that a Ferengi Rule of Acquisition?

stephengillieon Mars likely to have enough oxygen to support life: study

The Anthroposcene is terraforming Earth...into a planet less-suited to support life. Maybe "retro-terraforming" would be more accurate.