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throw0101d

8,337 karma · joined January 1, 2023

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throw0101d··on Civilian plane crash in New Mexico tied to military GPS blocking
See specifically the "MON" concept:

> The VOR MON program is designed to enable aircraft, having lost GPS service, to revert to conventional navigation procedures. This will allow users to continue through the outage area using VOR station-to-station navigation or to proceed to a MON airport where an Instrument Landing System (ILS), Localizer (LOC) or VOR approach procedure can be flown without the necessity of GPS, Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), Automatic Direction Finder (ADF), or surveillance. Any airport with a suitable instrument approach may be used for landing, but the VOR MON assures that at least one airport will be within 100 Nautical Miles (NM).

* https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/at...

2011:

* https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2011/12/15/2011-31...

throw0101d··on Civilian plane crash in New Mexico tied to military GPS blocking
> Saying that this situation is what pilots train for and they should have just used VORs and ILS reveals an overly macho, unsophisticated understanding of aviation safety. We've added GPS, ADS-B, TCAS, GPWS, TAWS, etc. because they make flight safer.

We've also added blind spot warnings, but you're still responsible for doing a shoulder check before changing lanes. We have automatic emergency braking, but you need to stay back as well (if it does not work, or if conditions are slippery).

GNSS also tends to be used with glass cockpits, going back to the late 1990s (e.g., Garmin GNS 400/500), which not only did GPS but also VOR/DME. How transparent is getting a fix between the two and still getting good RNAV?

throw0101d··on Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
From a 2024 interview:

> In this episode, we sit down with Jessie Frazelle, CEO and co-founder of Zoo, a company working on innovative software and hardware technology. Jessie shares her fascinating journey, from getting her start at digital agencies to working at tech giants like Google and Microsoft and ultimately co-founding her own successful startup, Zoo.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MkDJMiB_8U

> Zoo makes CAD truly AI-native with a modern geometry engine, readable code, and an editable feature tree at its core, enabling AI to make precise geometric changes without trapping users in a chat-only workflow. https://zoo.dev View our current openings: https://zoo.dev/careers Check out our blog: https://zoo.dev/blog

* https://www.linkedin.com/company/zoodotdev/

* https://zoo.dev

throw0101d··on Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
> Is there anything they're doing that can't be replicated by hypervisor/management software on commodity x86 servers?

It was technically possible with (e.g.) OpenStack for years (decades?) before Oxide ever existing, and yet even with such a solution being around, some folks still went with Oxide. (Or, depending on the scale you want to talk about: Proxmox, XCP-ng.)

throw0101d··on Apple says more ex-employees may have taken confidential data to OpenAI
> Interesting point. I think there might be something special about sag given the way Hollywood does business. Everyone switches employers constantly as projects spin up and wind down. Having a mostly permanent role in an organization is super unusual […]

And yet all the major US sports have player associations/unions with minimum salaries. The players are hardly constantly switching, and when they do switch it's often not their own choice but rather their employer/team trading them.

throw0101d··on Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
The CEO of Shopify tweeted about it at one point:

* https://twitter.com/tobi/status/1793798092212367669

throw0101d··on U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war
> That quite a bit less of an issue than the headline implies.

Here's a point that I ran across: these long range missiles are there to take out air defences and such (along with stealth sorties), which allows you go go in with 'regular' ordinance and non-stealth aircraft—of which there is much higher quantities and availability—in later phases.

In the early phases of the conflict you use stand-off munitions to reduce the chances of people being captured or killed.

Because Trump doesn't really have approval for this escapade (from either Congress or public opinion) these 'fancy' munitions are the ones primary being used to reduce the risk of casualties.

Now, trying to reduce casualties is not a bad thing per se, but the trade-off is that the fancy stuff is more expensive and takes longer to (re-)build-up. And what if there are other conflicts that flare up where these munitions would be useful? If they're not available do you start using piloted aircraft?

throw0101d··on Dates That Don't Exist (2015)
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_non-standard_dates#Feb...

Meta: one can also link to this article, which redirects:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_30

throw0101d··on Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time
> Well first, coal went down, too, if we are still discussing Germany.

Yes, but when it comes to coal more down is more better. And if nuclear was still around I would hazard to guess that's what would have happened.

The graph I'm looking at is labelled "Installed net electricity generation capacity in Germany". Lower down there's a pie graph with shares, and coal makes up ~20% in gross electrical production.

throw0101d··on Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time
Doing a quick search for Emblemsvåg, this seems fairly relevant:

> […] He has researched and published significantly in Life-Cycle Analyses, Life-Cycle Costing, energy, risk, Lean and other areas. […]

* https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/jan.emblemsvag

> Everyone jokes about the 20/20 hindsight of cost management. In Life-Cycle Costing, Jan Emblemsvag proposes to do something about it. Here's a new approach to life cycle costing that brings activity-based costing, risk, and uncertainty into the forefront. You'll focus on future costs and learn how you can perform any type of cost management activity better than before by introducing uncertainty into models and exploiting them to the max.

* https://www.wiley.com/en-us/shop/general-introductory-accoun...

throw0101d··on Nobel Disease
> If you did attempt to classify people into races based on something scientific like genetics, you would end up with hundreds of thousands of “races”. With even more fine tooth classification, you could subdivide those people into further sub groups that becomes indistinguishable from just classifying extended families.

'Biologically speaking', wouldn't that 'just' be something like breeds?

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dog_breeds

throw0101d··on Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time
> Politically that would have been done how? I think in restropect removing nuclear powerplants that make awful targets in a conflict doesn't strike me as a bad choice either.

The only people causing conflict is Russia, and Germany had to be dragged kicking and screaming in shutting down Russian supply pipelines, so don't go talking about "security" when the actions from Berlin showed there was zero consideration for it:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord_Stream

When the architect of the retirement ends up on the board of Gazprom:

* https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jun/15/johnhooper

* https://www.dw.com/en/former-chancellor-schröder-sworn-in-at...

throw0101d··on Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time
> The Greens were not in Office when the nuclear exit was decided 2011.

Schröder was talking about it in 2000:

* https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jun/15/johnhooper

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schröder#Domestic_poli...

Oh, and he was appointed to Gazprom (and other Russian energy companies) after leaving politics:

* https://www.dw.com/en/former-chancellor-schröder-sworn-in-at...

(He did encourage renewables as well.)

> No insurer wanted to insure nuclear, and no energy company wanted to keep losing money on nuclear.

The German government(s) helped kickstart the global solar price drop by their subsidy programs in the early 2000s that allowed for economies of scale, so I'm surprised that—if they're really worried about climate change—they would not subsidize the alleged expenses of running the low-carbon generation of nuclear.

> Since nuclear is the most expensive form of energy generation, it makes sense to switch it off first.

It's so expensive that prices in France, which generates >60% of power with nuclear, are at the same levels (or lower) as Germany, while producing less carbon per kWh than Germany (a quarter from some articles I've found).

See perhaps:

> […] Alternatively, Germany could have kept the existing nuclear power in 2002 and possibly invest in new nuclear capacity. The analysis of these two alternatives shows that Germany could have reached its climate gas emission target by achieving a 73% cut in emissions on top of the achievements in 2022 and simultaneously cut the spending in half compared to Energiewende. Thus, Germany should have adopted an energy policy based on keeping and expanding nuclear power.

* https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14786451.2024.2...

throw0101d··on Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time
> France powers down several nuclear reactors due to extreme heat - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48899232 - July 2026 (19 comments)

There's no technical reason why the reactors in question could not have kept running:

> "Due to the weather conditions and to comply with regulations on [cooling water] discharges, and thus to protect the environment," reactors at the Golfech, Bugey and Chooz plants, located on the banks of the Garonne, Rhône and Meuse rivers respectively, have been shut down, the EDF energy group told Agence France-Presse.

> The measure is an environmental protection requirement to avoid discharging too much hot water into rivers already warming from the heatwave. Power plants critical to the country's electricity production use river water to cool their reactors, which heats the water that is then released back into the river.

> The Economy Ministry on Saturday issued an exemption to the temperature limits for the heating of the Rhône around the Bugey plant "to ensure the security of the power grid," valid until July 20.

throw0101d··on Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time
(Meta: I understand some folks aren't a fan of nuclear. I disagree, but recognize people have different values and weighing of priorities. But I just find it fucking stupid that coal was left to keep running by people who claim that climate change is a priority. Certainly a discussion can be had about pros/cons of new nuclear, but why the fuck would you prioritize closing current nuclear over coal?)
throw0101d··on Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time
> Imagine how much better carbon emissions would be in Germany if they hadn't dismantled nuclear!

Germany has 15.4 GW of hard coal generation, and 14.7 GW of lignite, for a total of 30.1 GW:

* https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-c...

In 2010, before the shutdowns started, it had 21.5 GW of nuclear.

So if all the other rollouts (renewables, etc) had stayed the same, but the shutdown of nuclear and coal was swapped, Germany could have reduced its emission generation capacity by an extra 66%. (Focusing mainly on coal, since that is (AIUI) the worst of the carbon emitters.)

throw0101d··on Cookware Got Worse on Purpose: Who Owns Pyrex and All-Clad Now
While a lot of folks have a negative feelings towards the word "capitalism" in recent years, someone remarked that perhaps we should bring back the word "free enterprise".

As it seems there's to be lots of consolidation, which is kind of antithetical to the free market and competition. If governments (?) better resisted consolidation and conglomerates I think a lot of this enshittification would be slowed down because of actual competition.

throw0101d··on Cookware Got Worse on Purpose: Who Owns Pyrex and All-Clad Now
> The joy of working with seasoned cast iron cannot be overstated.

If you don't mind waiting half an hour for it to heat up. (semi-/s)

There are plenty of times where you do not need or want the heat capacity of cast iron, and it's actually a 'con' for the dish. Never mind that you don't really want to cook anything that's acidic (e.g., tomatoes) in it.

Certainly having cast iron in your tool box isn't a bad idea, but stainless steal has all sorts of other advantages. And if you want something less sticky but still responsive, there's also carbon steal.

throw0101d··on Getting 25 Gbps Thunderbolt Ethernet on My Mac Studio
For the record this is officially called "SMB Direct":

* https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/fil...

* https://docs.kernel.org/filesystems/smb/smbdirect.html

throw0101d··on Europe's fires are just the start
> As Macron said in 2023: "Who could have predicted the climate crisis?"

The oil companies in the 1970s for one:

* https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0063

throw0101d··on Europe's fires are just the start
> This gets repeated again and again, but wouldn't the money required to build/maintain nuclear plants be much better invested in building out renewables and battery storage?

Recent report on restarting German nuclear:

> The easiest group of reactors to restart could produce electricity at an average of €37 per megawatt-hour before the end of 2031.The most difficult restarts could produce electricity at roughly €58 per megawatt-hour by the mid 2030s.

* https://www.radiantenergygroup.com/reports/restarting-german...

* PDF: https://www.radiantenergygroup.com/_files/ugd/ae75b7_bc5db59...

throw0101d··on The coolest use for the Vision Pro
> Old reddit still works, images and videos are usually forced to go to new reddit.

By default it sends you to new ("www"), but I've found (at least on non-mobile) I can edit the URL to use "old" and works (at least for now).

throw0101d··on Baseload Is a Myth (2024)
What was the European grid mix in 1990? What were German energy imports/exports in that time frame? I would hazard to guess that the larger context of energy has changed quite a bit in the EU in the last few decades.

Germany coal is not estimated to be eliminated for another 5-6 years:

* https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/germanys-coal-exit-quie...

How many gigawatts of coal generation could have been shutdown already if nuclear was still generating its gigawatts?

throw0101d··on Baseload Is a Myth (2024)
> This happened about 20 years ago when natgas became cheaper than coal.

With or without externalities like climate change costed in?

throw0101d··on Baseload Is a Myth (2024)
> Thinking that therefore defines your generation strategy (e.g. I will have plants that constantly generate that minimum amount and the rest I'll handle with separate peak plants) is a myth.

The strategy would be to have economical, non-intermittent generation. It would be non-intermittent supply because that part of demand is non-intermittent.

throw0101d··on Baseload Is a Myth (2024)
> But plants today are vastly safer than Chernobyl due to better design and processes, which I think anti-nuclear people haven't realized.

Even other plants built in the same timeframe as Chernobyl are safer (not even getting to newer designs/builds), because in the West they were built with containment.

The founder of the Chernobyl Tissue Bank isn't anti-nuclear:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Thomas

* https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/26/obesity-...

throw0101d··on Baseload Is a Myth (2024)
> Which dropped from 55% of electricity from coal in 1990 to 23% today. From 400 million tons to 130 tons.

And how much lower would have it been if they had chosen to keep their existing nuclear and reduce/retire their coal and/or gas? Certainly if they did not want to build new nuclear that's one thing, but they chose to keep the emitting stuff, which was really stupid IMHO.

Even now it'd be viable to re-start some of Germany's nuclear if they really wanted to reduce emissions:

* https://www.radiantenergygroup.com/reports/restarting-german...

* PDF: https://www.radiantenergygroup.com/_files/ugd/ae75b7_bc5db59...

throw0101d··on A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands
> The data center build out will always be very boom and bust, which would really suck to work in.

HVAC and electrical (e.g. UPSes) need somewhat regular maintenance, so once build-out is done, if you're with one of the OEMs, you'll probably have regular work babysitting the gear.

throw0101d··on Darktable
> Lightroom is 15.29 €/month and Capture One can be had for a one-time payment of 391 €.

Also worth considering how often you change camera bodies: if you get a new one you may have to upgrade CO to get support for the new RAW format. (AIUI, they don't backport things like that.)

throw0101d··on Substack writers, you need a website
If you're in the US, average life expectancy is 79, so it will probably be fine for the next ~5 years.

If you're in Canada, or a G7/EU nation, it's in the 80s, so you may have 10+ years to go, so the chances of Substack being around in the same form for that time period is lower.

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