rgmerk

39 ms·

631.
by rgmerk 4y ago
One minor but interesting exception - farmers have historically often put domestic water tanks on top of towers to ensure even water pressure. Direct pumping leads to cycles where the pressure in the system rises and falls as the pump cycl
632.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Bull. At best, you'll reduce the time spent writing code at the cost of greatly increasing the time spent writing tests to give you sufficient confidence that your autogenerated code actually does what it is supposed to. And if it does
633.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Wake me when they have a working prototype. There are approximately a squillion conceptual designs floating around for next-generation nuclear reactors and a distinct shortage of actually existing examples of next-generation nuclear reacto
634.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Further to this point, there is plenty of collected evidence of the harms this kind of image-based abuse, of both real (sometimes coerced or often surreptitiously taken) and faked images: See, for instance, this study of "sextortion&qu
635.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Yep, agreed - though I suspect it's a rather larger group than those who currently charter helicopters for transport.
636.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Be serious for a moment. If I circulated a convincing-looking video of Rick fucking goats to his parents, partner and his boss at the school where he works, that could easily do considerable harm to Rick.
637.
by rgmerk 4y ago
In any decent sized metro area inconvenience is a big deal. My family had a weekend at a popular vacation spot about 80 miles from where we live (about 2 miles from the downtown area of Melbourne, Australia). The drive takes roughly two hou
638.
by rgmerk 4y ago
For what purpose? Enthusiasts and race car drivers like lots of feedback through the control surfaces of their cars. Most people don’t care, lack the skill to interpret that feedback anyway, and rely on driving well within the car’s limits
639.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Wisk claims not: https://twitter.com/wiskaero/status/1572677287455358976?s=46...
640.
by rgmerk 4y ago
I agree that “think of the children” has been misused by power-hungry cops. I’m emphatically not saying that safety should be the only consideration when thinking about technology. But what I am saying is that preventing clear harms to peo
641.
by rgmerk 4y ago
I'm sure a philosophy PhD would probably identify this being a regurgitation/reinvention of previous work, but it's still a nicely put argument . I know there is an allergy to considerations of safety in parts of the tech com
642.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Helen Keller turned out to be flat-out wrong on this one, as a cursory examination of life expectancy statistics and especially infant mortality statistics over the last century shows.
643.
by rgmerk 4y ago
If you’re living in an outer burb, maybe. In wealthier neighbourhoods and closer to city centres Teslas and to a lesser extent other EVs are everywhere.
644.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Portuguese can't afford to live in Lisbon for two reasons: 1) it's a nice city with nicer weather than most of the places within convenient travel range 2) the economy is remarkably unproductive, leaving Portguese people poorer th
645.
by rgmerk 4y ago
I hate to have to make this argument, but here goes... ...where do you draw the line? An M240 machine gun? A Stinger missile? A PFOS factory? A Special Atomic Demolition Munition? We regulate private possession of dangerous items all th
646.
by rgmerk 4y ago
And guess what? In some jurisdictions, including some US states, possession and sale of some types of knives is banned or controlled, because they are used by criminals and thugs for larceny and assault. You're also not permitted to u
647.
by rgmerk 4y ago
I'm a strong believer in the right of people to use their devices as they see fit...but there's a real-world problem here. You know who else loves unlocked bootloaders? Cyberstalkers and domestic violence perpetrators, who use the
648.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Silca sells the odd bit of branded merch but the vast majority of their business isn't in clothing. They sell a variety of high-end bicycle accessories including pumps, bottle cages, fancy lubricants (including chains pre-treated with
649.
by rgmerk 4y ago
I’m reminded of the subservient chicken.
650.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Very G-rated. It was always 10 PRINT "BOOBS" 20 GOTO 10 in all the department stores where I grew up...
651.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Fair enough, and that's a reasonable question for the broader topic of "livability" (which as I'm sure you know there are global rankings for), but I personally wasn't considering "crime rates" as part of
652.
by rgmerk 4y ago
Fair enough. And it's a great discussion starter. Consider my original comment a slightly impolite suggestion how this might be done better, if somebody wants to have a crack.
653.
by rgmerk 4y ago
If your methodology for identifying "cities with nice weather" returns Reykjavik in its top ten, either your sample only includes places with terrible weather, or your methodology is completely whacked. Reykjavik is a wonderful li
654.
by rgmerk 5y ago
It depends. Most famous people in tech aren't going to answer easily Googleable questions from a 20-year-old (or a 40 year old) But if you've got a genuine reason to be asking them, they respond more frequently than you'd t
655.
by rgmerk 5y ago
Two further points: NIMBYism would kill nuclear power in Australia stone dead, including NIMBYism in conservative-held rural seats. New-build coal, nuclear, and gas, is simply economically competitive with new-build renewables in Australia
656.
by rgmerk 5y ago
This is just plain wrong. Absent environmentalism or non-economic considerations (hello Jervis Bay) no nuclear power would ever be built in Australia. We have way too much cheap, conveniently located coal.
657.
by rgmerk 5y ago
Kalra and Paddock's analysis is correct as far as it goes, but it's easy to misuse to claim that we couldn't feasibly demonstrate an autonomous vehicle is acceptably safe. It never got accepted for publication because the rev
658.
by rgmerk 5y ago
It's not hard to find, check the director's linkedin profile.
659.
by rgmerk 5y ago
Heh. Not the first workplace the current management of Data61 has done some strategic realignment within in a fairly swift and brutal manner. Whether they’re the right calls or not…let’s just say they didn’t hang around long enough to all
660.
by rgmerk 5y ago
Arthur C Clarke proposed the idea in 1950 in a paper, and wrote a rather excellent short story about the concept (and a wild escape from a launch failure) called "Maelstrom II". In Clarke's story, the launch system is located

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