pacificmint

5 ms·

1.
by pacificmint 6mo ago
> you can fire a THAAD at a Starlink satellite as well. You can fire a THAAD at one Starlink satellite, but probably not at 8000 of them. For comparison we’re currently producing THAAD interceptors at a rate of 96 a year (though Lockheed
2.
by pacificmint 7mo ago
I mean, it’s not quite that simple, is it? Did they do everything they could to make drivers and passengers safe? Or did they put profits over people’s safety? From the article: > internal company documents […] showing that Uber had flag
3.
by pacificmint 10mo ago
I agree. I wish it would tell me the password, there is a good chance I could identify the service that it came from based on the password. This way it doesn’t feel that useful.
4.
by pacificmint 11mo ago
> but a leading member of the parliament I think ‘a leading member’ is underselling it a little. He is the “Fraktionsvorsitzender”, which is comparable to the majority leader in the US Senate.
5.
by pacificmint 1y ago
> it's sold in pill sheets (is that the name?) They are often referred to as Blister Packs.
6.
by pacificmint 1y ago
> Made of polystyrene and with an internal steel skeleton, They weight 1.2 tons total. If they are made of polystyrene and steel, it stands to reason that a significant part of the 1.2 tons is contributed by the steel.
7.
by pacificmint 1y ago
The Air Force never had a space shuttle, though NASA flew missions for the Air Force and the NRO. But at this point none of the remaining shuttles are in an operational state. Maybe you are thinking of the X-37 which is operated by the spac
8.
by pacificmint 1y ago
They’re called Coffman engine starters [1]. Random fact: Those starters are a plot point in the 1965 film The Flight of the Phoenix, where the protagonists are trying to start a plane that’s stranded in the Sahara, but only have a small sup
9.
by pacificmint 1y ago
There was also that 4k block of memory at $C000. It was in between the ROM blocks, and by default it was totally unused. Basic couldn't utilize it, but in assembly it was a great area of extra memory, and you could use it without even
10.
by pacificmint 1y ago
It stands for "Cover Your Ass". Wikipedia explains it as "an activity done by individuals to protect themselves from possible subsequent criticism, legal penalties, or other repercussions, usually in a work-related or bureauc
11.
by pacificmint 1y ago
When people say “Lithium batteries” in this context, they mean lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. AirTags contain lithium primary batteries, which are a totally different thing (other than both containing the element lithium). Lithium prim
12.
by pacificmint 2y ago
Case in point: When Daimler and Chrysler merged, they had a law firm (with no other ties to either company) register the DaimlerChrysler domains weeks before the merger was made public. I don’t recall if anybody noticed before they went pub
13.
by pacificmint 2y ago
I think it might be a typo that was supposed to say VIP Movement . I've heard ATC use that term when Air Force One was in the area. They won't say who specifically is there, or even that it is AF 1, but instead just say that air
14.
by pacificmint 2y ago
You know how there is the cliche that old people are always ranting how everything was better in their day? Personally, I'm not quite there yet, but the older I get, the more I see their point...
15.
by pacificmint 2y ago
Of course milk doesn't mean milk anymore either, now that we got oat, almond and soy milk. Along with less common alternatives like coconut, hemp, rice, cashew and macadamia milk. The dairy industry is actually pretty annoyed with that
16.
by pacificmint 2y ago
If you ask the model what the color of grass is, and it answers blue, then that would indeed be false (or maybe a lie). I think most people wouldn’t call that a hallucination. But if you ask it for a court case, and it makes up a whole fals
17.
by pacificmint 2y ago
> cost 3x the amount to develop With cost plus contracts that’s unfortunately a feature and not a bug. I think Boeing has just been unable to pivot to behaving differently for fixed price contracts, which is not surprising given corporat
18.
by pacificmint 2y ago
I realized at some point that when people at work draw on whiteboards it usually ends up as boxes and lines between boxes. But after thinking about it, it feels natural, because usually we talk about "Things" and the "Connect
19.
by pacificmint 2y ago
> Germany, one of the most progressive nations on the earth, went and shut down all of its nuclear plants as a knee jerk reaction. Anti nuclear sentiment had been building in Germany since at least the 70s. Then Chernobyl happened in 198
20.
by pacificmint 2y ago
That’s right. You can use a number as a unique identifier for each person that everybody stores. You can also use a number as a secret code to authenticate yourself. But you can’t use the same number for both purposes.
21.
by pacificmint 2y ago
The idea is to cast much larger pieces than before. Traditionally it might have been dozens of pieces. Tesla is currently doing the underbody in only three pieces, and they were trying to cast it as a single piece. Does that warrant a new w
22.
by pacificmint 3y ago
It would be common to say 7000 pounds. It’s less common in everyday usage to say 7k pounds.
23.
by pacificmint 3y ago
An imperial mile is 1,609 meters. A nautical mile is 1,852 meters.
24.
by pacificmint 3y ago
Isn’t that how all locks work? Or at least most? I’ve always assumed the energy cost to pump the water would make it cost prohibitive, but I wonder how it compares to rerouting ships or moving containers over land.
25.
by pacificmint 3y ago
The government didn't call it Star Wars, they called it SDI. Some lobbyists used that term and they were the ones that Lucasfilm tried to sue. The lawsuit was dismissed, btw. > On November 26, 1985, the suit was dismissed by Judge G
26.
by pacificmint 3y ago
Case in Point: I really like Costco, but if I ever cancel my membership then it is because of how they seem to reshuffle significant parts of the store every few weeks. I don't know if they think I will buy more if I run around for fif
27.
by pacificmint 3y ago
Plus you’d take a great step towards solving our energy problems.
28.
by pacificmint 3y ago
> you can tell the growth rate of the company. You can even do this when you don’t know the exact interval by using probabilities. The Allies used this method to estimate German tank production in World War II by analyzing the serial num
29.
by pacificmint 3y ago
If I ask it what color an orange it and it says blue, that would be wrong. If you ask it a question and it makes up a completely fabricated story, like for example the case files in that recent legal case [1], then saying it was “wrong” doe
30.
by pacificmint 3y ago
Employment in California is ‘at will’, which means they can fire him without a reason. Wrongful termination only applies when someone is fired for illegal reasons, like racial discrimination, or retaliation, for example. I mean I’m sure the

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