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throwaway8451

91 karma · joined January 24, 2019

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throwaway8451··on SARS-CoV-2 Infection Affects Energy Stores in the Body, Causing Organ Failure
Biology has the tendency to repurpose existing mechanisms for other things. If an illness affects one of these processes, it might affect others as well.
throwaway8451··on How to store a permutation compactly (2022)
"Proof of" is a euphemism for "waste of resources" in general.
throwaway8451··on Ask HN: What's the name of this concept related to surveillance
Has anyone asked ChatGPT already? Using ChatGPT to find the correct search terms for vaguely described concepts seems very powerful. Knowing the correct terms makes or breaks web searches in my experience.
throwaway8451··on Low-cost open source device can measure air pollution anywhere
I can vouch for that. A friend built one of these and since it worked really well, so I and some others built five more last year. Make sure to put a piece of window screen over the openings of the tube to keep insects and spiders out. If you have enough dexterity, you can even hide the screen inside the opening of the tube to make it less unsightly.
throwaway8451··on Low-cost open source device can measure air pollution anywhere
These measurement devices have a limited lifetime and I think it is really the intake of dust and dirt that limits how long they can be used. That's why they're not running continously but for some seconds every few minutes (because flowing air will carry dust much more easily). If it's clogged up with dust or dirt, it really might be at end of life. I keep the electronics and sensor of mine in a closed box if I am not operating it.
throwaway8451··on P100 respirators are the only face coverings that protect you from Covid
I agree, a lot of people do not seem to understand that these measures were a "defense in depth" thing.
throwaway8451··on Ukraine has been “informed” that it will be “attacked” by Russia on Feb 16
No, they could not been said like this. No matter what opinion one has about USA, it is certainly not economically weak or dysfunctional.
throwaway8451··on Ukraine has been “informed” that it will be “attacked” by Russia on Feb 16
Russia biggest problem is that once they were a great nation. Now they are no longer but can't accept that. Since they have no way of keeping up with the others, all they can do is putting a spoke in the wheel of the others. If they hadn't been great or could accept that they are no longer, they could work their way up again for sure. Today they spend too much money on military and too little on development.
throwaway8451··on Wealth Is Knowledge: George Gilder on capitalism, the most charitable system
Here is an idea: you have to return books with interest, i.e. by adding thoughtful annotations.
throwaway8451··on Canon can’t get toner chips, so it’s telling customers how to defeat its DRM
You have one of these multi-function printers in your company’s office? Chances are that your company is using someone’s services for maintenance work and toner supply. Bad news: without these chips, the copier does not/cannot keep track of the number of pages printed (or at least it doesn’t show in Canon’s fleet management tool from what I heard). This means the service contractor doesn’t get to know in time anymore when your printer is low on toner and cannot ship new cartridges to you in advance. You will only notice when it has already run out. Maybe ask for a spare set of toner in advance.
throwaway8451··on Nobody Pronounces the 'B' in 'Debt'
Here is an example by the singer / band "Marina and the Diamonds". The song is called "Forget":

https://youtu.be/17UL5ks9amY?t=169

throwaway8451··on Conterintuitive facts in mathematics, CS, and physics
OK, let's assume you have 75% elemental resistance. You also take 15% reduced damage and 10% less damage. You have 5% chance to avoid elemental damage and 10% to dodge it and are under the effect of Elemental Equilibrium and Gluttony of Elements. How much better is it to just kill everything before it can kill you?
throwaway8451··on Ask HN: What have you done that mattered?
I pulled back a friend who had already stepped onto the street when a truck suddenly and unexpectedly turned right. To this day, I think that I saved his life.
throwaway8451··on Vaporwave was created then destroyed by the internet (2016)
Synthwave‘s cheery, Vaporwave‘s sad/depressed. I never liked the latter for that reason.
throwaway8451··on Protein found in robins’ eyes has all the hallmarks of a magnetoreceptor
I'm sorry, I should have thought of this :(
throwaway8451··on Protein found in robins’ eyes has all the hallmarks of a magnetoreceptor
Do you use dark background/dark mode? Dust shows a lot more on dark than on bright background while for Haidinger's brush it is the opposite.
throwaway8451··on Protein found in robins’ eyes has all the hallmarks of a magnetoreceptor
After some practice I can see Haidinger's brush (=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidinger%27s_brush ) with little to no effort. Turns out that this is inadvisable! Why? Because now I can see the effect each time I have to change between screens in landscape and portrait orientation when they are next to each other. It was so distracting that I had to change back to a landscape-only setup.
throwaway8451··on What's Inside the EU Green Pass QR Code?
I think that I once heard that in Switzerland the second cheapest bidder is the one to get the contract, exactly to discourage someone aggressively underbidding all others. I could not verify that now though.
throwaway8451··on The Waste of Daylight
The only bad thing about time changes is adapting to different sleeping hours.

Since the change between standard time and DST does not come as a surprise, I do that slowly over the course of a month. When the change actually happens, I drop the hour of extra time I gained in the morning and be done with it.

This might not apply to people with kids or living in confined living conditions with others who would be disturbed by someone waking earlier. Beside that, it is just a matter of foresight and preparedness.

I felt like shite while I was still treating the time change like a flight between timezones (that is as happening suddenly). This is also why I take arguments about time changes from people who fly frequently not serious. It's not different from the jetlag that they subject themselves to willfully.

throwaway8451··on Internet Archive Scholar: Search Millions of Research Papers
Here is an appropriate soundtrack for browsing the results:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8gBfEDoEbY

throwaway8451··on A New Satellite Can Peer Inside Buildings, Day or Night
The dielectrics that you unavoidably will embed your wire mesh in will slightly change its reflective properties but yes, this should work.
throwaway8451··on How to buy gifts that people actually want
My method: I'm paying attention during the year what my relatives and friends are excited about, what they want and/or plan to buy and take a note. Once a birthday, Christmas or another opportunity comes, I only have to pick an idea from the list and actually buy it. Works perfectly. Telling them that you remember that they mentioned it is usually also great. I think it subtly communicates that you care enough about them to pay attention.
throwaway8451··on Ask HN: Are you depressed?
Thanks for the suggestion, I will check it out.
throwaway8451··on What were these Roman objects used for?
Parent comment is talking about this:

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Delve_Stackable_Socketable...

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/List_of_fossils

There is a number of items in Path of Exile that at least draws inspiration from real life objects.

"Taste of Hate":

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Taste_of_Hate

https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/6pldcz/taste_o...

https://imgur.com/a/UI4iM

"Dying Sun":

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Dying_Sun

https://www.johnniewalker.com/media/1633/01-john-walker-and-...

Related: "Kitava" - "The inhabitants of this island and their diet and lifestyle have been the subject of study [...], due to their reported excellent health and traditional diet.", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitava

throwaway8451··on Ask HN: Are you depressed?
I used to listen to lots of metal (In Flames, Iced Earth, Dimmu Borgir, also things like Hypocrisy, Pain (Peter Tägtgren) or Paradise Lost, plus good old stuff like Maiden) and sadly it felt like it had quite an effect on my mood. It matched my mood, sure but it wasn't helpful. For years.

Now - don't laugh! - I am listening to 80s synthwave compilations on Youtube all day long. 80s synthwave! - I can't think of any other music genre that sounds more lighthearted and unworried and it really helps to brighten my mood. The effect is enormous.

Other things I currently do to keep my sanity is lots of walking. The effect of physical excercise on me is pretty great but I really need to get the heart pumping and to sweat. This is as easy as putting on too many layers of cloths for the temperature/activity and a few inclines/hills also helps. Being out in the sun (if the schedule makes it possible) and at the fresh air also improves my mood. Walking through a forest also soothes my mind. Also: walking faster than I normally would helps because I need to concentrate to walk faster than I normally would - which means I can't think of anything else i.e. it is actually keeping my mind free of other (sometimes negative) thoughts.

Neither of this actually solves your problems of course but it might help to cope with some of their effects and put you mentally in a spot where you can better reason about solutions.

Let me know if there is anything you want to talk about and all the best!

throwaway8451··on Beyond Cyberpunk: Towards a Solarpunk Future
I would put Solarpunk rather in the accelerate/anti-auth corner of a chart with axes for (anti)authoritarian-iness and pro-/contra-progress as I saw it on Twitter once.

Slow-down/anti-auth is primitivism (think: subsistence farming, no computers, ... ).

Cyberpunk is definitely accelerate/auth (like it or not but we seem to be heading into this direction).

throwaway8451··on We Need a Nuclear New Deal, Not a Green New Deal
Intermittency of renewables is less of a problem if one rids oneself of the medieval seeming idea of energy self-sufficiency. Energy does not have to be produced where it is needed. We can transfer it already. The grid would need upgrades but we can definitely transfer large amounts of energy over long distances.

Example from China: 12GW over 3300km at 1100kV DC, for others look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-voltage_electricity... .

Europe is also building HVDC (high-voltage direct current) links connecting windparks and consumers with e.g. norwegian pumped hydro power plants for storing excess energy ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current )

throwaway8451··on Sensors of largest digital camera snap first 3,200-megapixel images at SLAC
Ha, that's how I tested a DSLR that I had repaired. There was no matching objective there, so I wrapped aluminium foil over the front and, using a needle, stabbed a tiny hole into it. The pinhole setup was good enough to test what I needed to test :D
throwaway8451··on Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest
I'm german and I often wait there too.

As long as I can remember thinking about this, I've seen it as habitual practice of self-control, i.e. practising self-control by not giving in to the urge to cross the street early - and automatically on top of that because it became a habit long ago.

throwaway8451··on The dual PhD problem of today’s startups
Two suggestions:

Menschlichkeitszweifel (Menschlichkeit = humaneness, Zweifel = doubt)

Turingzweifel (Zweifel = doubt)

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