rootbear

47 ms·

511.
by rootbear 10y ago
I read the book version of this essay shortly before visiting Japan. It is strange to stand next to the one preserved ruined building at ground zero and think that there was once an atomic fire storm in that spot.
512.
by rootbear 10y ago
Argument over GHif vs Jif in 3, 2, 1...
513.
by rootbear 10y ago
Similar arguments apply to spacecraft. The processors and other IT tech are usually far behind consumer gear. This is party due to the radiation hardening required, but also the lack of a real requirement for the latest-and-greatest.
514.
by rootbear 10y ago
And I first saw it as Weasley and thought sorcery was involved...
515.
by rootbear 10y ago
What always strikes me is how uniform the appearance of screens is in SF films. When I look at my own screens, I see various applications that have all made different choices, within the bounds imposed by the GUI itself. An old app doesn&#x
516.
by rootbear 10y ago
I have a bunch of old electronics parts inherited from my father, who was a Ham and an EE. There are a few old quarter-inch phone plugs, from the 30s or 40s, in the collection, with classic Bakelite casings. They work just fine in modern eq
517.
by rootbear 10y ago
I've said it this way: I'm happy that I'm smart but being smart hasn't always made me happy.
518.
by rootbear 10y ago
Greek, Cyrillic, Elvish,...
519.
by rootbear 10y ago
Amen! I had to cover them up so I could read the damn article.
520.
by rootbear 10y ago
Yeah, they call the activation word a "wake word", but I couldn't help but think of it as a "safe word". It needs to be something that you're only likely to say when you mean it. Which, to me, implies it shou
521.
by rootbear 11y ago
The black hole they found has 17 billion solar masses, not 17! That's a very large black hole and it was found in an unexpected place.
522.
by rootbear 11y ago
I'm not sure if this works, but let's try: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207140470964842&se...
523.
by rootbear 11y ago
I don't think it's possible to do the science they want JWST to do unless you get out to L2 or beyond. They are basically measuring heat, and Earth puts out a lot of that. And they want to be in an orbit that doesn't pass int
524.
by rootbear 11y ago
I don't have an account on any photo sharing service. I'll have to set one up. Goddard has a visitor center, but I don't think there are public tours of the center itself. We do have open house events from time to time. The b
525.
by rootbear 11y ago
All of NASA will be on sedatives until this thing unfolds itself successfully. It's even more scary than the Curiosity sky crane landing system.
526.
by rootbear 11y ago
I work at NASA Goddard where JWST is being assembled and by coincidence I went over to look at it today and take a picture. Looking at it from the observation area, I am once again reminded how enormous this thing is! Getting a look at some
527.
by rootbear 11y ago
The CueCat is infamous. Joel Spolsky had a great take on it: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000037.html Best quote: "The number of dumb things going on here exceeds my limited ability to grok a
528.
by rootbear 11y ago
In the precursor Boston Computer Museum, they had the Newell teapot on a turntable, with a computer display next to it showing a rotating computer graphic version turning at the same speed. I thought it was a pretty clever display.
529.
by rootbear 11y ago
Part of me wishes this had been named the Model 3.14...
530.
by rootbear 11y ago
My father was working at NASA when Challenger was lost, and I work there now. I'm happy to sign this petition.
531.
by rootbear 11y ago
I live in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. Real estate in DC is very high and did not suffer as much in the Great Recession, due to the extremely limited supply of available housing. But I don't think our problem is foreign inve
532.
by rootbear 11y ago
I've seen this at the Franklin and it's a wonderful machine. I'd like to see it running some day.
533.
by rootbear 11y ago
I don't think so. The signal to noise ratio here is much higher than on typical social media. It's self policing and there are rewards (karma) for good behavior that are absent on most social media. HN to me feels more like early
534.
by rootbear 11y ago
In the US, the voice would say "At the tone, the time will be 12:23 and 40 seconds ... BEEP!" But in the UK it was "At the third stroke, the time will be 12:23 and 40 seconds ... beep! beep! beeeep!" I like the UK versio
535.
by rootbear 11y ago
Minsky used to give talks at the annual Boskone Science Fiction Convention. I heard several and enjoyed them greatly, he was an entertaining speaker.
536.
by rootbear 11y ago
I know the person who made this and will probably see him at Chattacon this weekend. He told me how he did it but I forget now. I'll try to remember to ask him. I think he used something like VLC to split the movie into frames, then
537.
by rootbear 11y ago
Interesting. I don't think I ever tried to use a macro in the conditional expression of a #if, except inside a defined() or undef(). From my time on the C committee, I recall that the preprocessor was a royal pain to get right. It has
538.
by rootbear 11y ago
I taught myself physics and learned to think scientifically by reading his collected monthly essays from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I owe Asimov a huge debt and I'm very glad I got to tell him that once. I miss seeing
539.
by rootbear 11y ago
As noted on the linked page, the Computer History Museum will demonstrate the Babbage Difference Engine for the last time at the end of this month. After that, it will be returned to it's owner (Nathan Myhrvold). It's been at the
540.
Babbage Difference Engine No.2 at CHM Going Off Line(computerhistory.org)
1 points by rootbear 11y ago|1 comments

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