lb1lf

70 ms·

901.
by lb1lf 8y ago
Recycled anecdote from the last time this was discussed on HN: While a student, I looked after the apartment of a friend of mine, who was overseas. When he moved there, we were _just_ able to eke his sofa around the last corner from the sta
902.
by lb1lf 8y ago
Same goes for Norway; swiping is just a fallback measure if the chip is unreadable; you then have to sign at the register and your signature is supposed to be compared to the one on your card. Transaction (be it chip or swipe) is approved i
903.
by lb1lf 8y ago
My everyday driver is an old Land Cruiser; long ago, I fitted extended range fuel tanks; capacity is 180L (just shy of 50 US gallons.) On several occasions, I've had attendants come out to ask a question or two when filling up - my gue
904.
by lb1lf 8y ago
Oh, in Norway at least, I believe the norm is to wire the light switches so that when it tilts inwards (top part closest to the wall), the light is on. I haven’t looked up the electric code to see whether it is a requirement, but it definit
905.
by lb1lf 8y ago
-To stay within this narrow example - how is one supposed to build a better lock if one doesn’t know how current ones can be defeated? I see this as a brilliant move to foster the kind of curiosity which IMHO is essential to be a good engin
906.
by lb1lf 8y ago
-Brilliant 60’s satiricist Tom Lehrer famously declared political satire dead when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
907.
by lb1lf 8y ago
I'm a leftie and keep my mouse (or, if I've got any influence over the choice of pointing device, a trackball) on the right. The biggie is that it frees up my dominant hand for writing - additionally, I've noted that my fine-
908.
by lb1lf 8y ago
"Yes, we are individuals!" Oh, the irony. That being said, I can see how -if you identify as a non-conformist in some way or the other- it makes sense to move to a place with a higher-than-normal ratio of other non-confirmists. Af
909.
by lb1lf 8y ago
I've just spent a while looking for my old signal processing textbooks, but there was too much piled on top of them (I've moved house three times since I last worked with signal processing... :) I remember two introductory books w
910.
by lb1lf 8y ago
On the off chance you were looking for a book on antennas which gives you lots of ideas without getting too carried away with maths, Karl Rothammel's 'Antennenbuch' is probably the one to beat - he's basically nicked eve
911.
by lb1lf 8y ago
That, plus it would demand rather a lot from the power grid, to put it mildly.
912.
by lb1lf 8y ago
My apologies; a double typo -KRAUS. (Courtesy of my SwiftKey keyboard app), first name John. (Erwin Kraus is an acquaintance of mine; no idea how that short circuit occurred.) John D. Kraus - Antennas.
913.
by lb1lf 8y ago
Too late (patenting that gravity idea, that is) - John D. Kraus suggested precisely that in an appendix to his magnificent book on all things antennas, aptly named 'Antennas'. I do believe he concluded it was not the most practica
914.
by lb1lf 8y ago
I guess it has become part of the myth of the machine - better not dig too much, as it is a much better story if there's some mystery attached. For starters, assuming it is not powered off batteries/solar, someone provides power t
915.
by lb1lf 8y ago
I'd expect the first major stumbling block would be entering the Schengen area on a passport which, when scanned, tells immigration that it is revoked as the holder is deceased. From there on, it would likely go downhill pretty fast. W
916.
by lb1lf 8y ago
With only a very tenous grasp on the basics of fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, I'd suspect it is simply a lot more cost effective to drive a significantly larger volume of water through a significantly shallower (hence, lower tempe
917.
by lb1lf 8y ago
Just a bit of pedantry - the story linked (correctly) identifies the Kola superdeep borehole near Pechenga, Russia as the deepest hole humanity has ever drilled, at some 12,200m/40,000ft. However, 'dug' in my book is not the
918.
by lb1lf 8y ago
I have a hard time deciding whether I really think this scheme qualifies as fraud or not; after all, the machines are initially rigged to give the owner an edge (obviously, otherwise slot machines would be few and far between!) As long as t
919.
by lb1lf 8y ago
Surely there must be a law outlining how rounding of sums will be done, rather than leaving it to the store owner's discretion? (Here in Norway, we've gotten rid of the 5, 10, 25 and 50 øre (cents, if you like) coins since I was a
920.
by lb1lf 8y ago
There's also a tiny, semi-arid desert in Norway (!) of all places - Kvitsanden (The White Sands) by Røros. (62 degrees 34 minutes North, 11 degrees 22 minutes East). Semi-arid - annual precipitation at Røros (on a highland plain, far f
921.
by lb1lf 8y ago
That would be the ideal; the rules change somewhat when you've got strong autocratic tendencies. This is a good opportunity to quote Bert Brecht, who (after seeing which way the wind blew, doing a 180 degree flip on his original stance
922.
by lb1lf 8y ago
-Film definitely is only part of the equation, and I have to admit I have no idea how optics scale (that is - is it easier or harder to make a lens with a large image circle with excellent resolving power, as opposed to a smaller image circ
923.
by lb1lf 8y ago
I sympathize with you a lot (owning a number of vintage lenses for several systems myself, though I have to admit I rather heretically mostly prefer the new-ish stuff!) I guess, however, the collectors can just as validly suggest that they
924.
by lb1lf 8y ago
When what you’re after is very high resolution, film still scales better than digital; the largest (somewhat common) film format is 8x10». A sheet of slow (fine grain) film at this size can capture detail way beyond what any digital sensor
925.
by lb1lf 8y ago
...but surely it is reasonable to maintain there's a distinction between having people die from what we can call accidents or mishaps - falling into a pool, being run over by a truck, getting electrocuted or choking on a peanut &c
926.
by lb1lf 8y ago
Oooh, the FE is a very nice little camera (Never owned one, but have adopted one on occasion. Mounts just about everything, except them new-fangled G lenses. Well, it will MOUNT, but...) I have to admit I actually swapped the K3 for an -hm-
927.
by lb1lf 8y ago
-IMHO even a tiny minority of actual, true, false positives are enough to warrant getting rid of capital punishment (for that reason alone; there are other arguments, too!) To phrase my question differently - if we take your concerns about
928.
by lb1lf 8y ago
-I think your point is a valid (and good!) one, but I like - that is hardly an appropriate verb in this context - the concept. Perhaps any prosecutor seeking the death penalty in a case would have to join a pool of executioner's assist
929.
by lb1lf 8y ago
-As far as I can tell, most research indicates that dolphins and orcas are, as such things go, pretty bright, perhaps even sentient. Sentience would make me wary about hunting them, but as far as I can tell, no such claim has been made abou
930.
by lb1lf 8y ago
At the risk of opening a can of worms, what is it really about whaling which makes it so much worse than other forms of hunting? We do, after all, kill other mammals for food which -if one can use such a word- intellectually are at least on

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