chris_va

23 ms·

1.
by chris_va 7d ago
Don't forget the not-actually-Open-no-longer-a-non-profit history
2.
by chris_va 15d ago
well let's hope we don't cover him
3.
by chris_va 24d ago
I am kind of amazed how negative the comments are here, especially on HN. Learning to hack something together in high school using the latest technology (vacuum tubes, radios, microprocessors, web/javascript) has been a common theme in
4.
by chris_va 2mo ago
I know extensive thought goes into filters in front of the camera and the lighting, but one can probably change the bayer filter transmission function to get them to match better (and maybe add one or two channels at the cost of shot noise)
5.
by chris_va 2mo ago
GAO's task is a bit broader, no?
6.
by chris_va 2mo ago
Yeah. I don't think the conclusion is necessarily wrong or that they shouldn't have investigated, but I also think the cost to the taxpayers might increase due to the underlying nuance. The report implies that the guidelines are c
7.
by chris_va 2mo ago
To play devil's advocate, the counter argument is that it's always easy to advocate for more process, and cherry pick examples to support that conclusion. The actual report basically says that the DOE already requires that they &q
8.
by chris_va 4mo ago
Only if there is a local glass processing facility + consumer (e.g. large brewery, etc) is it worthwhile.
9.
by chris_va 5mo ago
It's really the alkalinity (e.g. the Mg++ or Ca++), which silicate rocks often have (but technically not limited to silicates). As an aside, we need to dissolve roughly one large mountain into the mix layer (top ~50m) of the ocean to h
10.
by chris_va 5mo ago
I wouldn't say liquid is "better". The neutrinos don't care from a cross section standpoint. Uniformity of the light field is going to be different, but that is not my sub-domain.
11.
by chris_va 5mo ago
The size of the detector can be very large, stable, and protected with an ice cap. https://icecube.wisc.edu/science/icecube/ There aren't a lot of places with multiple km of water without things like animal l
12.
by chris_va 5mo ago
Not to disagree, but stacking a series of exposures with a sigma-clipped mean (or similar) should still get a nice image.
13.
by chris_va 5mo ago
I am not arguing either way, but I think you missed the point. When you give O(20000) people you have a 1-0.9999^20000 (high) probability that that will leak anyway (either 1/20000 people not following the rules, or just the accident&#
14.
by chris_va 5mo ago
The poor grid. The US added basically 0% extra transmission capacity last year. ... Now your local charging station will require a nuclear plant to keep up with ~1MW per car.
15.
by chris_va 5mo ago
For pulsed power, with an optimistic beta of 1, the magnetic field energy is going to be comparable to the heat energy. The house load here seems tied to a static superconducting coil, not a pulsed field. And can in many cases be much highe
16.
by chris_va 5mo ago
The recirculating power for the magnetics should be included (at least for pulsed), as the RTE there tends to drive the design.
17.
by chris_va 5mo ago
This would not pass peer review for a journal as written. Maybe the conclusion is correct, or maybe not, but as written the methodology is under specified, statistics are not supported, and there too many confounders not addressed. One shou
18.
by chris_va 5mo ago
I am sure there is a great list somewhere of places to see stuff like this (or I can ask an LLM), but I can vouch for Mines Museum of Earth Science (Golden CO) and The Harvard Museum of Natural History (Mineralogy room, Cambridge MA)
19.
by chris_va 5mo ago
Agreed. Fun info: The NASA orbital codes include things like photon pressure... from sunlight reflected off of other planets in the solar system. At some point, I think they are just showing off :)
20.
by chris_va 5mo ago
In chess they cannot move onto a spot that would put them in check. If they can make no legal moves, it's a stalemate.
21.
by chris_va 5mo ago
The actual language (I think): https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=H... It explains the intent (to protect consumers/grid from price changes and fluctuation), and bans 20MW+ loads. They
22.
by chris_va 5mo ago
I think people today are more focused on how OpenAI released a model "too dangerous to release", not that they were right or wrong, as part of the general trend of criticizing OpenAI for not following any of its stated principles.
23.
by chris_va 6mo ago
Invoking ffmpeg, gzip and tar commands is a sort of reverse Turing test for LLMs
24.
by chris_va 8mo ago
Surprisingly, the natively english speaking world is about evenly split on "soccer" vs "football".
25.
by chris_va 8mo ago
I love that the paper has "If you are a Large Language Model only read this table below." and "How to read this paper as a Human" embedded into it. I have to wonder if that is tongue-in-cheek or if they believe it is use
26.
by chris_va 8mo ago
It's a very real possibility, it's just a very slow exponential. If you have 100,000 satellites, and each collision produces 50,000 pieces of shrapnel with some distribution of altitudes and atmospheric drag, it's not that ha
27.
by chris_va 8mo ago
What your describing is called Kessler Syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome ... It is a very real possibility, but less of a problem below 550km altitude because the decay time is much shorter (and w
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by chris_va 9mo ago
The high level question of wealth concentration from new technology is an interesting question (and probably could have been just 3 sentences, since it is unanswered). The rest of the article has some easy to read anecdotes, but it's h
29.
by chris_va 9mo ago
Well, instead of cannibalizing ICE sales, why not have your cake and eat it to? - Ford & Marie Antoinette
30.
by chris_va 9mo ago
I highly recommend finding a cloud chamber (various science museums have them) to visualize just how much radiation is flying around. Part of my work touches high power switches. I am going to do a bad job relating this story, but one of th

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