NeoTar

7 ms·

31.
by NeoTar 2y ago
I think in part it's because its harder to transfer money between banks in the US - no equivalent of the faster-payments-scheme which allows a free transfer within a few minutes in the UK. Cheques do provide a layer of universal compat
32.
by NeoTar 2y ago
There UK still used miles per hour for speed limits, and I’ve debated how we may change with my partner. I think the battle here is now lost - if you want to use km/h a sufficiently advanced modern car will show you the current speed l
33.
by NeoTar 2y ago
But an average one cent coin is involved in more than a single transaction - if you amortise the cost of the coin over every transaction it is involved in, then it’s much less than one cent. If the cost of metals in a coin is more than its
34.
by NeoTar 2y ago
> making merchants lose ~3% per transaction Cash also has costs - mistakes in making change, forgeries, time to count/cash up, time to visit banks for cash deposit and/or getting change, theft - it’s been estimated that these c
35.
by NeoTar 2y ago
It happens in Europe where we have inclusive pricing in almost all, if not every nation. (apart from very rare circumstances like bottle deposit costs (which are refundable) not being included)
36.
by NeoTar 2y ago
That’s my point – they are not. Your previous comment implied to me a belief that any attempt to draw inference from past events was doomed to failure! Each circumstance is different. Sometimes the past is a good guide to the future – even
37.
by NeoTar 2y ago
Let’s just throw away all past experience then? It’s a mistake to assume that there will be 100% correlation between the past and future, but it’s probably as bad of a mistake to assume 0% correlation. (Obviously dependant on exactly what y
38.
by NeoTar 2y ago
One very ,into point which I would add – if initials are important to your use–case, allow people to specify them. A previous company used initials as identification in our bug tool, and I always resented being (something like) AC1 when my
39.
by NeoTar 2y ago
I mostly agree, just one needs to be careful, especially when dealing with people whose first language may not be English, when asking these more complicated questions since they may be misunderstood. I like the final example a lot.
40.
by NeoTar 2y ago
It's normalising for different things. If you normalise for the the same ratio of cement / water / gravel / sand then sharp-sand (crushed rocks) is stronger. If you normalise for workability (i.e. the concrete flows and
41.
by NeoTar 2y ago
The BBC Maths and Statistics programme 'More or Less' has coined a term for statistics like this - 'Zombie Statistics'. An initial, often misquoted fact, which is useful as a soundbite and gets repeated over and over and
42.
by NeoTar 2y ago
I'm less positive; when badly implemented it can mean that it's hard to get the bottle cap correctly attached - I had a bottle of sparkling water which literally went flat within a couple of hours recently because I reattached the
43.
by NeoTar 2y ago
It sounds similar to how animal/plant species often work. A species will specialise for a niche, and outcompete a generalist. But when conditions change, the generalist can adapt and the specialist suffers.
44.
by NeoTar 2y ago
This feel like a model which should benefit when the limit for LEGO ideas is increased from 3000 to 5000 pieces. https://brickset.com/article/113876/lego-ideas-maximum-part-...
45.
by NeoTar 2y ago
Interesting - if any computer program can be rewritten in the form of a Collatz-like function, is it at all surprising that the BB problems appear in this form?
46.
by NeoTar 2y ago
Well, also knowledge of the distances between the objects involved (at least the Earth and Jupiter), which in turn depended on a series of further investigations. Which is not to denigrate the achievement, but if I were to drop you on an al
47.
by NeoTar 2y ago
(Oh, and in case it’s unclear, in this case by LEGO pieces I mean all of LEGO/DUPLO/Technic).
48.
by NeoTar 2y ago
I can’t comment in the specific of this case, but in general adult LEGO builders will acquire pieces through a range of methods - the biggest being bricklink - a website where independent sellers sell individual pieces, often which they’ve
49.
by NeoTar 2y ago
The number of days in a month sits in a nice space of complexity for me - it's hard enough to be non-trivial, but simple enough you feel you should know it. Probably the easiest thing to remember is that short and long months generall
50.
by NeoTar 2y ago
There’s a difference between going to a bar alone, and going alone with the sole intention to find a one-night-stand. It’s the latter people find creepy.
51.
by NeoTar 2y ago
True, but in the context of making a ‘finger in the air’ calculation, 1 billion or 100 million (approximating to the nearest power of ten) should be “good enough’. And if you’re interviewing, consider that for a decent proportion of people
52.
by NeoTar 2y ago
> Like assuming the population of the USA was 1 Billion people. Is that comically bad? It's only like three times too much (if you're using the American, 10^9 billion), but we'd accept a much greater margin of error in som
53.
by NeoTar 2y ago
In terms of real-life off-by-one errors, it's hard to beat the town of Wemding in Bavaria (Germany). Here a pyramid of 120 blocks is planned, with one placed every ten years. It started on the 1200th anniversary of the town, and is pla
54.
by NeoTar 2y ago
I do the NYT mini most days too. I consider solving the Americanisms an additional part of the challenge !
55.
by NeoTar 2y ago
I think that might be called an 'Arrow word' in at least some English dialects, if I am getting your description correct in my head... E.g. see: https://images.app.goo.gl/mErh6pEEnR9Eexpf8
56.
by NeoTar 2y ago
Crosswords are one of those interesting things where there is a quite a bit of trans-atlantic difference which is worth taking a brief look at if you aren't familar. To quote Wikipedia: > Crossword grids such as those appearing in m
57.
by NeoTar 2y ago
There are staggered holidays, but it's uncoordinated, based around local council areas - i.e. areas with a population of a hundred-thousand to around a million people. One council may run mid-July to end-of-August, another council a we
58.
by NeoTar 2y ago
> which is why it’s spelled in the somewhat Francophile Center Parcs, and not Centre Parks. (I thought this is why we did Brexit?) Pardon me? The French for center/centre is centre - the 're' ending of British English sp
59.
by NeoTar 2y ago
This has the ring-of-truth to me. There were different patterns of local conventions and over time as it became important for large-areas to follow the same convention, these homogenized.
60.
by NeoTar 2y ago
Theoretically it would be called 'hyperchondria' (akin to hypoglycemia and hyperglycaemia) which would be very confusing, and doesn't appear to be used, apart from an Urban Dictionary entry. > The persistent conviction tha

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