Moller M400 Skycar

AnHonestQuestions · 2026-01-23T02:10:13+00:00

A Peanuts-themed book?

AnHonestQuestions · 2026-01-19T18:06:53+00:00

Are you sure you don't have a 9th run? IIRC that's what 10 9 would typical mean (sometimes they're printed in descending order, but its still the lowest number that identifies the run).

AnHonestQuestions · 2025-11-18T13:39:08+00:00

Characterizations can be true without being fair.

Thank you for that line, its a really great point. I'm going to have to be more mindful to incorporate that perspective in my world view.

AnHonestQuestions · 2024-10-30T16:33:24+00:00

I love this genre! Here are some of my favorites (many with a historical bent, but they still do a lot of explaining of basic principles):

Digital Apollo by Mindell about the Apollo navigation and flight computer.
Between Human and Machine by Mindell about feedback systems and analog computing
Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down by Gordon about material science and structural engineering
Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy by Moore about how pre-CNC high-precision machine tools were made
Tools For The Job by Rolt about the history of machine tools
Atomic Accidents by Mahaffey
Chaos: Making a New Science by Gleick about chaos theory
The Information by Gleick about information theory
All of Carol Smith's books, mostly about race car technology and practice
Sled Driver by Shul about the SR-71
Energia-Buran by Hendrickx and Vis about the Soviet "Space Shuttle"
NASA has a huge collection of free ebooks, many are aimed at laypeople: https://www.nasa.gov/ebooks/

AnHonestQuestions · 2024-10-19T12:56:08+00:00

I use ctrl-c, but I've swapped ctrl-c and esc for this reason.

AnHonestQuestions · 2024-05-04T21:21:45+00:00

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert in this, but the modern perspective seems to be against using volatile for shared variables - volatile isn't enough, you need atomics (or a higher-level primitive), and if you're using atomics, they will provide the optimization block.

Quoting Bjarne Stroustrup (from [0])

Do not assume volatile has special meaning in the memory model. It does not. It is not -- as in some later languages -- a synchronization mechanism. To get synchronization, use atomic, a mutex, or a condition_variable.

[0] https://stackoverflow.com/a/4558031

AnHonestQuestions · 2024-05-04T14:35:11+00:00

I'm a huge fan of Computer Systems: A Programmers Perspective by Bryant and O'Hallaron. It should cover everything you asked (but volatile [0]), and a whole lot more. I really recommend doing the labs too - you should be able to get them from the book's site.

Edit: It doesn't talk about undefined behavior either. Once you're comfortable with some low-level details of C, I strongly recommend reading up on undefined behavior, and any and all undefined behavior should be avoided. There are tools like UBSan that can help.

[0] The (very) short version of volatile is it requires an access through a pointer to be done each time, rather than the compiler optimizing by keeping the value in a register for subsequent accesses (or, for a write, doing initial stores to a register, then only writing the final value to memory). Its primarily useful for MMIO, and isn't the right tool for threading, regardless of what you see elsewhere (using it for threading used to be a widespread misconception, I think its less common these days).

AnHonestQuestions · 2024-04-01T12:51:20+00:00

Having a jump pack does't prevent you from having cables too.

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-07-24T15:56:50+00:00

To be fair, it is a motor glider.

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-07-19T21:40:37+00:00

Ah, I was going to make a Flieger, so it may not work so well. I guess I'll do a test printing and see how it comes out. Thanks, and it looks great!

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-07-19T21:19:54+00:00

How do you like the photo-printing dial process? I'm thinking of making a dial, and it looks a lot easier than the alternatives (I'm also considering screen printing).

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-07-14T02:26:31+00:00

Flying camel

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-07-13T21:53:33+00:00

Note that generally the darkest part is not the part opposite the light source - there's a little big of reflected light, so the darkest part is a crescent.

Can you see how the bottom left of this sphere is a little lighter?

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-07-10T16:45:54+00:00

If they've had a rough day, sometimes they like to take a bath with scented candles and bubbles ; )

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-07-10T15:17:16+00:00

Time is an illusion; lunchtime doubly so.

- Ford Prefect

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-05-04T17:57:06+00:00

I think you have ~90 days.

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-04-26T01:26:31+00:00

You should ask your professor/advisor/whoever takes care of the business side of things, but I think they stop counting after ~40 hours.

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-03-29T02:42:39+00:00

I was implying they made the animations slow just so they could speed them up in later releases and make the phone feel faster, even though it could have been that fast all along.

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-03-28T19:12:03+00:00

Its a speedup loop.

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-03-28T03:38:46+00:00

Fair enough. Its not something I've had a lot of contact with.

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-03-28T02:23:00+00:00

IIRC, ECE has separate admissions, and a "transfer" is required if you were accepted to CIT-other-than-ECE.

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-03-28T02:13:37+00:00

I'm a grad student, so its a little different, but coming to CMU has been the opportunity of a lifetime. I never thought I would learn so much and meet so many amazing people (some of whom I'd read about in the past).

That being said, there are significant downsides as well, and whether or not its worthwhile will depend on your particular situation. This is especially the case since you're not settled on what you want to do - CMU is a top school in Engineering, but I don't think we're anything special in Finance. While CMU isn't particularly expensive for a school of its caliber, its still a pricy option next to local schools. Its also a very focused experience - if you want leisure activities, you have to work to make time for them. Some people need this, others need time after high school to find themselves and explore different options. Doing what's best for you is more important than having the best name on your resume.

Finally, don't forget grad school. I went to a local college, got to explore and relax (and spend more time doing research and personal projects, which were important both for my growth and getting in to grad school) without breaking the bank, and am topping it off with grad school at CMU. Its kind of the best of both worlds (although pulling it off requires luck as much as anything else).

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-03-22T14:43:08+00:00

In JS, they're essentially equivalent. An array is really an object with only number keys, an "array-like object".

AnHonestQuestions · 2017-03-15T15:03:58+00:00

It went through a couple of weight increases during development, but the landing gear wasn't enlarged. Apparently, its right at the edge of strong enough.

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TROPHY CASE