analog31

7 ms·

121.
by analog31 2mo ago
Or having to plead the fifth when asked about your work.
122.
by analog31 2mo ago
That could happen today, but the chief scientist presumably comes up with the hypothesis. I still think the US has a comparative advantage in science, but it's under attack. Beyond that, I don't know. Admittedly, I work in a small
123.
by analog31 2mo ago
Are you a scientist? People have idealized views of science. >>> Yes but science is well-structures and practically designed about repeatability so its a lot easier to automate than "softer" disciplines. What AI is up aga
124.
by analog31 2mo ago
I'm a scientist. On the one hand I take some comfort in thinking that I will always have an advantage in the lab. On the other hand I'm not taking anything for granted. And my advantage in the lab has to translate into an employer
125.
by analog31 2mo ago
>>> For example, if I want a highly toxic chemical, how difficult it would be to procure that in the US vs China? With trustworthy composition and purity? I work with researchers in both the US and China. Definitely easier to procu
126.
by analog31 2mo ago
The people who told us to push all of our data to the data lake are the ones who are now telling us to feed all of our knowledge to AI. In both cases, the dream was to replace us with computation, either ML or LLM's. We survived the fi
127.
by analog31 2mo ago
One factor is that we struggled for a long time under proprietary tooling, and don't want to go back there.
128.
by analog31 2mo ago
In the past we had to use multicultural crayons. https://econocrafts.com/products/crayola-colors-of-the-world...
129.
by analog31 2mo ago
Contracts are shorter now. ;-)
130.
by analog31 2mo ago
An odd little factoid: A metalworking lathe will usually have a mechanism for cutting screw threads, with a multi-ratio gearbox for linking the rotation of the spindle to the motion of the carriage. For cutting metric threads, you have to c
131.
by analog31 2mo ago
I think that both the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales are now defined in terms of Kelvin and a formula. Most if not all of the units of measure are no longer related to their history except for an agreement to make the new units match the old
132.
by analog31 2mo ago
I'm not in love with the system, but it does seem like a last resort for imposing discipline on corporations. The dilemma is whether the tort system is preferable to an approach involving more regulation and enforcement.
133.
by analog31 2mo ago
From what I've read, a problem with the Copernican model was that it assumed circular orbits. Galileo insisted on this as well. It doesn't matter what orbits what, if you've got the shape of the orbits wrong. Oddly enough the
134.
by analog31 3mo ago
Depends on the instrument. Temperament is mostly applicable to keyboard and some electronic instruments.
135.
by analog31 3mo ago
Indeed, and why a lot of hi-fi gear was in 17 inch width, which was 19 inches minus the two one-inch rack ears.
136.
by analog31 3mo ago
Among cyanoacrylates, Permabond 105 does a pretty good job bonding teflon, if you use their primer.
137.
by analog31 3mo ago
Chords can be rolled. Here's an all time favorite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngjEVKxQCWs&list=RDngjEVKxQC...
138.
by analog31 3mo ago
Frets make chords possible. You only have to put your finger somewhere in between two frets to get a particular note, so you can play more than the tiny handful of chords that can be played on something like a violin. There are non-frette
139.
by analog31 3mo ago
>>> And the best part - at that time it didn't looked cheap. This is one of the things that I think we've lost. Or at least that we come close to losing. I go back even further, to the text screens of mainframe computers,
140.
by analog31 3mo ago
Indeed, I work in one of those businesses that seems to barely innovate. Many of our "new" products are mainly necessitated by obsolescence of components and changing applications. As I explain to people: The laws of physics don&#
141.
by analog31 3mo ago
It's not for lack of trying. People are definitely trying to find better ways of finding stronger candidates earlier. People are trying to gain a more precise understanding of disease mechanisms. There are breakthroughs that I could ha
142.
by analog31 3mo ago
The "organic" designation does not preclude using artificial fertilizer. Just no pesticides.
143.
by analog31 3mo ago
I suspect very few people in the tech industry understand or have experienced what office and civil service workers do. It might not be all that different than most engineering work: Organizing and arranging things, fitting things together,
144.
by analog31 3mo ago
They should stop calling themselves republicans, since they don't represent a republic.
145.
by analog31 3mo ago
How did you go about finding a Chinese test lab? Asking for a friend. ;-)
146.
by analog31 3mo ago
I make a physical product, akin to a guitar pedal. Possibly the most scary threshold would be if I'm successful enough that I need to quit my day job, but not successful enough for the business to support my family. That's kind of
147.
by analog31 3mo ago
Yes exactly this. The parking lot of a typical American urban workplace will be filled with a disproportionate number of pickup trucks. Our culture ties our cars to our identities.
148.
by analog31 3mo ago
Suburban Americans are temporarily embarrassed farmers and outdoorsmen.
149.
by analog31 3mo ago
Not this exact thing, but I make a hardware product akin to a guitar pedal. I designed around a component type that the semiconductor industry was phasing out. One day I noticed that the list of alternative parts at my distributor included
150.
by analog31 3mo ago
How people use the vehicles that they buy is pretty well understood from the market research done by the car industry. In the US, the widespread use of pickup trucks a passenger vehicles is a known fact. An odd thing is that my family visit

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