semi-extrinsic

475 ms·

1. 3001.▲
   by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

   I'm sure details vary between countries and even universities. But for me, and I think essentially everyone, a fundamental part of being a PhD student is having to work long hours outside the applicable working time regulations. What i
2. 3002.▲
   by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

   I did my PhD in Norway, where PhD students are considered employees. However, the university is foot-deep in have-my-cake-and-eat-it-too land. We had department heads, even heads of faculty, tell us in front of a hundred students that yes,
3. 3003.▲
   by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

   That seems very backwards. Heat pumps for heating can have a COP of as much as 4.5 at an external temperature of 7C, i.e. deliver 4500 W of heating using only 1000 W of electricity. An electric heater has a COP of 1.
4. 3004.▲
   by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

   I'm not sure. Many of the countries with the largest emissions per capita are in regions where houses are heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. Given that indoor temperature is ~ 20C, the ∆T for heating can be much greater tha
5. 3005.▲
   by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

   I hate to be the negative guy, but isn't this the obvious, standard, well known way of building a greenhouse? You want to prevent hot air from escaping, you put up something that contains the air. An actual greenhouse doesn't real
6. 3006.▲
   by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

   I think you're only seeing a small part of the smaller scale HPC market, probably the deep learning or computational chemistry? If you go ask people working on car aerodynamics or geophysics or reservoir modelling for the oil industry,
7. 3007.▲
   by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

   Intel is in no way losing the HPC market. There are lots of algorithms (like all incompressible CFD, so all car/boat design, even sparse matrix multiply) that gets essentially zero benefit of GPU. At most, I'd say half the popular
8. 3008.▲
   by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

   Well, there are certainly buttons that do things that have little real-world impact on the car. Like on high-end German cars you get seven different levels of ride stiffness etc. that can be selected. Classic example: https://you
9. 3009.▲
   by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

   Also, toothpaste is much easier to pack than shampoo. Packing a regular shampoo bottle brings a real risk of it opening and leaking all over your luggage. Toothpaste, not so much.
10. 3010.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    The analytics issue aside, how can a package manager not transmit what packages you install across the internet? At some point it has to request the package(s) you're installing from somewhere on the internet.
11. 3011.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    Also true in Norway and Sweden. The funniest part is that IIRC, the "best before" date is based on storage at room temperature, due to EU regulations, but everyone in the Nordic countries keeps them refrigerated. But I thought Den
12. 3012.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    But what if you set your system up with plausibly deniable encryption? Say you encrypt two data sets, one with perfectly legal data, the other with the secret incriminating stuff. How will law enforcement be able to tell you gave them the k
13. 3013.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    > Plus, when you're 60 and out of shape you can't go out and play a game of football Sure you can. There is nothing stopping an out of shape (but otherwise healthy) 60 year old person from going out and playing touch football.
14. 3014.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    I agree. I was assuming the state actor would be what you call "nice", i.e. not blatantly commit any war crimes or large scale violations of human rights. Which I believe is true of most state actors today.
15. 3015.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    Actually, they first bump you down to Nature Communications, which is still relatively prestigious. If it's rejected also there, you get bumped down to Scientific Reports (where they've dropped "Nature" from the name). I
16. 3016.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    This was "veldig koselig". And I wholeheartedly recommend learning how to poach eggs. Not only is it yummy, but there is a distinct pleasure to having your three-year-old sleep over at her grandparents, and at breakfast time there
17. 3017.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    This. Asymmetric warfare can never be won. As long as there are imperialist (for lack of a better word) well-equipped armies that invade foreign countries or regions (even righteously), they will inevitably cause civilian casualties, and so
18. 3018.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    I've even seen this for what the companies must know is a once-a-decade purchase, like a big lifetime-warranty espresso grinder. It's not like I need a second one! Offer me some accessories instead, dammit.
19. 3019.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    The weirdest ones for me are ads for lumber. Like, I go to the local lumber yard website to check dimensions of what types of lumber is available when I'm planning a project. That lumber is typically costing $1-$2 per yard, so I freque
20. 3020.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    Actually, USB 2 is nice in one way, it makes it easier to explain half-spin particles in quantum mechanics. "Just like plugging in USB, you have to rotate more than 360° to get back to where you started."
21. 3021.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    What you really want to avoid is destroying non-rechargeable lithium manganese batteries, like a CR123. There are some true horror stories out there, like this one: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?1
22. 3022.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    That's an easy problem to solve. Either using fully automated pumps, or truck stops with employees. Truck presents billing info/company credit card to pump/employee, they verify card, fill up truck with N gallons, truck also
23. 3023.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    Wikipedia covers the legal aspects reasonably well, with a map of state laws. "In 2016, 7 states (Nevada, California, Florida, Michigan, Hawaii, Washington, and Tennessee), along with the District of Columbia, have enacted laws for aut
24. 3024.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    If you read more than two Dan Brown books, honestly it's hard to not see this structure. I read The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, which were OK, but then reading Deception Point I could guess all the plot twists several chapte
25. 3025.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    Why would a taxi replace brake pads 2-3 times a year? They're not that frequently replaced, about 100k miles is normal. And looking up "Tesla drive unit", you can see it's actually the electric motor + gearbox + inverter
26. 3026.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    My car ('02 Peugeot 307, 1.6 petrol) has done 155k miles. Fuel pump and filter is still original, fuel injection system is still original, etc. The ICE-specific expensive parts that have been replaced is the timing belt and water pump
27. 3027.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    I've also seen a fair share with a failing third brake light, about half of the LEDs not lighting up. Probably isn't noticed by the driver until regular service, government inspection, etc. It's not a surprise that many thing
28. 3028.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    Even assuming we could do a good brain prostethic, with our current computer hardware and software, what would it be able to do? What springs first to mind is remembering lots of data, or doing arithmetic fast. But would such a brain proste
29. 3029.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    FWIW, this is the government mandated standard paternity leave for everyone in Norway. The mother also has to take the same in maternity leave, and then there's 26 weeks that can be shared between both parents, but in 99% of the cases
30. 3030.▲
    by semi-extrinsic 10y ago

    I agree that the difference in maintenance cost will be minimal. Curious: this probably depends on the climate where you live, but how's the Leaf looking wrt. brake disc rust? I have had to replace rusted brake discs on a normal car du