lutusp

16 ms·

181.
by lutusp 1y ago
> Plants hear their pollinators, and produce sweet nectar in response This is called "anthropomorphizing," the assignment of human traits to non-human entities without evidence. Assigning human traits to non-human processes ten
182.
by lutusp 1y ago
> Research suggests Big Bang may have taken place inside a black hole The title's use of the word "research," and the paper's content, suggest the idea resembles science more than speculation. But in fact, the paper h
183.
by lutusp 1y ago
>> Our universe is expanding. It's density is not fixed. > None of that precludes uniform density at large scales. According to observation, the universe is expanding. An argument that it's really static at a large scale
184.
by lutusp 1y ago
>> As the size of the black hole goes up, its overall density must decrease. > The center of a black hole is infinitely dense. That's why it even exists. The event horizon is not the black hole. >> and the fixed density
185.
by lutusp 1y ago
> The old standard for Linux used to be the a.out format; this has since been superceded [sic] by ELF (Executable and Linkable Format), but the end result is the same: You're not actually running machine language. This is not correc
186.
by lutusp 1y ago
This fully reflects my own Android experience ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Paul+Lutus ) -- writing Android apps is by no means a write-and-forget experience. As time goes by more of my apps are
187.
by lutusp 1y ago
My time with Atkinson came before the Macintosh, before Hypercard. As a company Apple was struggling and we were preparing for what, in retrospect, was the really terrible Apple III. It was a less optimistic time -- after the Apple II and b
188.
by lutusp 1y ago
"Good writing" nearly always collides with something else, for example a writer paid by the word. Or a writer granted too little time to compose prose, as opposed to merely creating it. A shorter exposition is nearly always (a
189.
by lutusp 1y ago
> I’m really struggling with promotion. How do you get people to notice your product? Start by spelling all the words correctly. If this were a video it wouldn't matter, but text-based appeals ... wait for it ... require competently
190.
by lutusp 1y ago
This strikes me as a "safe" psychology study, one virtually certain to produce a publishable outcome. Surprisingly, the linked technical article, which was paid for with tax dollars, is paywalled -- isn't that practice suppos
191.
by lutusp 1y ago
Apparently still there, but mostly hidden under a tree (as seen by Google Maps). In a spectacular irony, Google has no street view of their own parking lot. I suppose one could periodically check for the presence of this artifact, and if it
192.
by lutusp 1y ago
> Doesn't that suggest that the field of theoretical computer science (or theoretical AI, if you will) is suspect? Consider the story of Charles Darwin, who knew evolution existed, but who was so afraid of public criticism that he d
193.
by lutusp 1y ago
My interactions with Steve Jobs came earlier, when he wasn't quasi-mythical, but was already a PITA. A typical interaction with Steve Jobs in 1976: "Hi! Are you Steve Wozniak?" "No, I'm Steve Jobs." "Okay
194.
by lutusp 1y ago
> Could this be upstreamed into the language's API? If a language is in use, and if people have written code that generates pseudorandom sequences based on an initial seed, then no -- bad idea. Some programs rely on the same pseudor
195.
by lutusp 1y ago
"Perfect Random [sic] Floating-Point Numbers" ??? I had hoped that, somewhere in the article, the author would say, "In this article, the term 'random' is shorthand for 'pseudorandom'." But no. Progra
196.
by lutusp 1y ago
IMHO a better model would take into account both ends of the temperature spectrum. There are days in the southwest so hot that one wouldn't think of going outside -- just as though it were rainy and/or cold. In fact, because of cl
197.
by lutusp 1y ago
> Seattle is probably my favorite city in the USA, but the dreary weather kills it for me. I beg to differ -- a pioneering 1949 Seattle solar energy project offers a different view, and as soon as the sun comes out, they're going to
198.
by lutusp 1y ago
A voice in the wilderness, but weren't PDFs originally meant to be read-only? Yes, nearly everyone now has a PDF editor, but this seems to undermine the original intent behind the format. As things stand, we may need to invent a portab
199.
by lutusp 1y ago
The article's thesis relies on the idea that a genuinely primitive traversal action exists, in the way that a for-loop is primitive and widely applicable, or adding two floats is common enough to justify building it into the language (
200.
by lutusp 1y ago
The article's title, in particular use of the word "first," isn't supported by the content. The title suggests a change or improvement in the technical status quo ante , but the article itself only describes a quantitat
201.
by lutusp 1y ago
> In short, if the scientist has no reason to doubt the null hypothesis then there is no reason to test. On the contrary, that's the point at which positive evidence may contradict the null hypothesis, assuming it exists. But the nu
202.
by lutusp 1y ago
> I don't think a scientist assumes a theory is false until it is proven true. It's called the "null hypothesis." It's the gold standard of scientific experimental design. From https://en.wikipedia.org
203.
by lutusp 1y ago
Most of these points are true for computer media as well if separated from some degree of computer power, especially "not necessarily cheap". > ... need physical copy to back up Certainly true for computer storage, which, if le
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by lutusp 1y ago
> What do you mean by “clear answer”? How would you definitively prove this is fake or real? Most UFO/UAP lore relies on the impossibility of proving a negative, which BTW is a recognized logical fallacy. I normally say it this way:
205.
by lutusp 1y ago
> I'm not sure why these would be just getting release by National Archives now, perhaps as a distraction? Maybe, or maybe they wanted to avoid giving the content unearned credibility through concealment. The easiest way to turn a m
206.
by lutusp 1y ago
Legitimate content aside, this article is a perfect example of modern public relations writing, of flash over substance. Each paragraph is larded with PR buzzwords like "breakthrough," "cutting-edge," "groundbreakin
207.
by lutusp 1y ago
> ... Now you too can put the internet in a box and customize it with the very best free content for your school, clinic or family! Yes ! And at very low cost! It doesn't require a network, a power connection or high technology! It
208.
by lutusp 1y ago
> So is there something like a purely current protector that doesn't change the voltage much? First, in a regulated power supply, you control the current by (a) monitoring current, and (b) adjusting voltage. Second, a switching powe
209.
by lutusp 1y ago
> Question for you as a sailor in a lighter boat. If alerted, would you be able to change direction fast enough? That would depend. While under sail (i.e. 99% of the time during ocean crossings), no, not really -- not enough speed and li
210.
by lutusp 1y ago
Having sailed solo around the world, I know this well-intentioned idea won't work. Modern large ships can't change course quickly enough to avoid collisions with objects close enough to be detectable. Any number of times, a large-

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