bloak

29 ms·

421.
by bloak 4y ago
I like the idea of wider use of TAI but there seem to be plenty of obstacles. For example: * Is it possible to set up a standards-compliant network time server that serves the time in TAI? (The older protocols, at least, seem to specify UTC
422.
by bloak 4y ago
I support that proposal ... but I can't immediately think of anything. Vaguely related: www.marchmarchmarch.org.uk
423.
by bloak 4y ago
I heard about a company web site that had a tick box like that on their download page. Unfortunately they got it the wrong way round so you had to claim to be a terrorist (or intending to build a nuclear weapon: I forget exactly what it was
424.
by bloak 4y ago
Yes, but not any old noble gas. Helium and neon, for example, have higher thermal conductivities than nitrogen. So it seems like argon is better for the job as well as being cheaper. (While every noble gas has roughly the same heat capacity
425.
by bloak 4y ago
Thanks for that explanation. So the "thermal conductivities" I quoted above, if they don't take account of convection, are perhaps not even particularly relevant. The advantage of argon over nitrogen might be greater than tho
426.
by bloak 4y ago
That's a good point. Perhaps the result of that argon/nitrogen comparison was a coincidence, or perhaps heat capacity doesn't much affect thermal conductivity. Here's an argument that heat capacity shouldn't affect
427.
by bloak 4y ago
I'd expect the insulating properties of a gas at normal temperatures and pressures to depend only on the molecular mass. That's 40 for argon, and 28 for nitrogen. This web page ( https://www.pressglass.com/noble-gas
428.
by bloak 4y ago
That's exactly right. Asking for pronouns only really makes sense in a single-language situation, but most of the world's population uses more than one language. On the one hand, you can't reasonably force people to select ei
429.
by bloak 4y ago
In South Africa, apparently, a 3.5-inch floppy disc was called a "stiffy". That's a much more sensible word, right, and you're totally not smiling now?
430.
by bloak 4y ago
Are there any proposed orthographies for Hawaiian that represent the glottal stop in a different way? Seeing as the Hawaiian language has only 5 vowels and 8 consonants it seems a shame that they couldn't find a way of writing it with
431.
by bloak 4y ago
"It may come as a surprise that the C language reserves identifiers like strong, island, and together, but it does." Yes, I would guess that a large proportion of C programmers are not familiar with those rules. Is there a way of
432.
by bloak 4y ago
The diagram only shows mammals.
433.
by bloak 4y ago
Yes. Try running Kubernetes under strace. Or grep the source for arbitrary times, which mostly correspond to daft polling loops.
434.
by bloak 4y ago
> I had read recently that ASL sign language can be thought of as a different language Yes, it is a different language. I've heard that ASL is rather similar to French Sign Language and quite different from BSL (British Sign Languag
435.
by bloak 4y ago
> If the latter, then I struggle as it should be within the rights of any property owner to exclude their antagonizers (or really anyone on any basis not covered by anti-discrimination laws) from their property. If the business has premi
436.
by bloak 4y ago
It's a Spanish word (a neologism, of course, used by a small minority of speakers at present), so pronounce it like any other Spanish word: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/latine#Pronunciation_3 Admittedly the ques
437.
by bloak 4y ago
I mostly agree with that: if someone is a participant or a potential participant in the conversation then we should refer to them in a way they find acceptable, provided their demands are reasonable and in good faith. On the other hand, if
438.
by bloak 4y ago
I would guess it's not just latinisation, in particular, but any major change of orthography even while keeping the same alphabet. Think about alternative orthographies for English, for example: maybe you could invent a better (simpler
439.
by bloak 4y ago
Where does "75%" come from? If I were trying to estimate what proportion of the population can read, or what proportion of the population is too busy to answer a questionnaire, then I wouldn't assume that the 75% who responde
440.
by bloak 4y ago
Genetic modification in a laboratory is not exactly the same as selective breeding as it can easily bring in a gene from a different species causing unexpected allergic reactions to the corresponding protein. This has caused at least one de
441.
by bloak 4y ago
Yes, but what is in that treaty, and is there any reason he should be extradited to the USA rather than tried in the Bahamas, or extradited to some other country, for that matter? It's an honest question: I don't know the details
442.
by bloak 4y ago
I don't disagree with your main point but your example is perhaps not so good. There are people who describe themselves as "Eskimo" and "Eskimo" is a reasonable name for the category that includes Inuit and Yupik. O
443.
by bloak 4y ago
Very good! Someone should add it to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Home_Abroad and link to that page from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell,_My_Lovely
444.
by bloak 4y ago
At first I thought the title was a reference to Raymond Chandler's novel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell,_My_Lovely ), but then I checked the date: the novel came out in 1940. So what is the title of this a
445.
by bloak 4y ago
That's right, I think. If you replace the "fflush()" (which should have an argument by the way) with "f()" and declare "void f(void);" then the test and the call appear in the binary. But if you declare &q
446.
by bloak 4y ago
Which are slightly further from the equator than London!
447.
by bloak 4y ago
I agree. What someone needs to invent is a good way of powering a tractor (or combine harvester) through an electric cable.
448.
by bloak 4y ago
It's often a good idea to check for weird characters in a text file. Something like this: cat file.txt | perl -C63 -pe '$_ = join("\n", split(//, $_));' | sort | uniq -c I've found lots of errors that
449.
by bloak 4y ago
There's also something similar in "The human factor" by Graham Greene, a good spy story.
450.
by bloak 4y ago
Did you reply to the wrong message? Or did I reply to the wrong message? Your reaction is confusing. Anyway, latest headlines are saying things like "Poland missile ‘unlikely’ to have been fired from Russia" so the media did, in f

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