tgflynn

58 ms·

571.
by tgflynn 6y ago
It sounds like the technology hasn't evolved much in the last 20-30 years then. Around 1995 I was involved with a project where an engineer designed and built a multi-kW CW (I don't recall the exact value) pre-amp out of transisto
572.
by tgflynn 6y ago
> I don't know if you can rectify RF energy like you can with voltage. You can in essence, because charged particles have inertia, they don't instantly follow the EM field. That's how RF particle accelerators work. But t
573.
by tgflynn 6y ago
Yeah, it seems like it might make more sense if they could figure out a way to use the RF fields to actually accelerate some of the ions in the plasma. Then you might be able to reach much higher exhaust velocities than with a conventional
574.
by tgflynn 6y ago
Yes, I think so. If the frequency is high enough so that it's not the limiting factor the size would mainly depend on how much power you can dissipate in a given volume. The highest power RF amplifiers I've ever seen were the kly
575.
by tgflynn 6y ago
It's conceivable. I've seen solid state RF amplifier modules successfully combined into some quite high power units and that was over 20 years ago. I haven't followed the technology since so I'm not up to date on that
576.
by tgflynn 6y ago
If the article is right about the scaling required then I'm very skeptical that this will ever be practical. A 1 kW magnetron is a part found in just about every microwave oven. Scaling that up by 4 orders of magnitude would need a 1
577.
by tgflynn 6y ago
I'm surprised I haven't heard of rr before, it sounds like it could be a game changer for debugging many types of problems. How long has this project existed/been usable ? Am I correct in understanding that rr can be used wi
578.
by tgflynn 6y ago
Why don't you look for a software role that would put your ME training and experience to some use ? There are tons of web developers but we live in a physical world and there's certainly a need for better software in virtually al
579.
by tgflynn 7y ago
I'm a bit surprised at the display choices. I thought most hand-held calculators in the 70's used LED displays, which I assume would use less power than VFD's. Also I don't recall LCD's coming into widespread use
580.
by tgflynn 7y ago
> Formal verification does not remove the element of human error from a system; it removes it from the code and adds it to the system of proofs which verify that code... Proofs can be written with incorrect assumptions (human error) in t
581.
by tgflynn 7y ago
Yes, that analogy occurred to me as well. But I don't think a blanket policy of distrust is optimal for either of those "technologies". Both are useful in the right circumstances and trustworthy alternatives are often not a
582.
by tgflynn 7y ago
Thanks, I suspected it was some sort of artifact.
583.
by tgflynn 7y ago
I don't think rationality per se is overvalued but our capacity to achieve it consciously may be overestimated while the capacity of our brains to unconsciously generate reasonably accurate approximations to rational decisions may be
584.
by tgflynn 7y ago
I was only looking at the graphs for all ages. EDIT: Ah OK, I see what you're saying. Yes, my statement that the cumulative graph is defined to be monotonically non-decreasing was indeed incorrect because it assumes that excess mortal
585.
by tgflynn 7y ago
I think it's important to note that while the cumulative excess mortality is indeed increasing (it could hardly do otherwise since it's defined as a monotonically non-decreasing function) the weekly excess mortality count sharply
586.
by tgflynn 7y ago
So I take it this article: https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/21/analysis-is-sweden-right... is either incorrect or the policy was changed very recently ? This is not a country divided. And we should also be c
587.
by tgflynn 7y ago
There have been recent news reports in the English language media that Sweden has adopted a very different and less restrictive covid-19 strategy than most other countries. So while the parent comment may be wrong and even disinformation I
588.
by tgflynn 7y ago
Possibly, though I would think that many who serve do more than 1 enlistment. It's just that from my own personal experiences I've encountered few veterans in my life (except for older generation family members who served in WWII
589.
by tgflynn 7y ago
That must mean that well over 10% of adult male (from the other statistic that 90% of veterans are male) Americans have served in the military. I never would have thought the number was that high, especially with the military being all vol
590.
by tgflynn 7y ago
I disagree. Accurate reasoning under uncertainty is highly non-trivial (as current events with covid-19 are making clear) and is I suspect one of the most important skills a clinician could have for making rational diagnoses and treatment
591.
by tgflynn 7y ago
One thing I noticed in the US is that there seems to be many wasted years in mathematics education. Between learning long division (maybe 4th grade ?) and algebra which I didn't get until the first year in high school (9th grade) I do
592.
by tgflynn 7y ago
It doesn't sound like any of that amounts to a still living architecture like the Z series with its own silicon still under active development. I wouldn't consider mere software emulation or an IBM compatible offshoot to represen
593.
by tgflynn 7y ago
Yes, because that's what the word "mainframe" means today, simply because all other machine architectures that were considered mainframes are now extinct. I'm not saying it's not IBM PR, though.
594.
by tgflynn 7y ago
I never heard of that model. I suspect it probably wasn't very successful because DEC started to move to the Alpha architecture not many years later. I worked with a lot of VAXen back in the day but I never heard anyone refer to them
595.
by tgflynn 7y ago
VAX's were minicomputers, not mainframes.
596.
by tgflynn 7y ago
I don't know about that. I suspect that most of the truly essential work (health care, driving trucks/trains, keeping power plants running, producing food and toilet paper, etc.) still can't be done from home. I also think t
597.
by tgflynn 7y ago
> The message long was "Operations Research is dead." Could you elaborate on why that was perceived to be the case ? It seems like the number of applications is very large and I suspect the technology is under-exploited outside
598.
by tgflynn 7y ago
Employee scheduling seems to be a problem common to a large number of businesses. Are the needs of most small/medium businesses currently being met in this area or is there an opportunity for providing tools in this space ?
599.
by tgflynn 7y ago
In what way ?
600.
by tgflynn 7y ago
So what sort of geometry would they have, toroidal, cylindrical ? I was initially thinking you meant they would be spheres but I'm not sure how you would generate gravity on a sphere, unless only the equatorial region was inhabited.

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