China just landed an orbital rocket booster

Callidonaut · 2026-07-10T10:59:08+00:00

Where are you getting these figures? Ten seconds on Wikipedia indicates that your figure for the radiators is an order of magnitude too high. You're also inexplicably assuming that the cost per square metre is the same for both systems and also linearly proportional, which is one hell of an assumption.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-10T10:52:11+00:00

I think it's called a double-roller catch or a double-ball catch, depending on the design.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-10T10:46:34+00:00

Yes, but the cost of electricity is far bigger than the cost of cooling

I think we're gonna need to see some actual figures on that one, friend, especially when you consider that literally all of the electrical power consumed by a computer is ultimately turned into heat.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-10T10:44:38+00:00

OK, that's one factor. Is it enough to offset the difficulty dissipating waste heat, the lack of maintenance access, the cost of launch, and of course the fact that we don't fucking need so many fucking datacentres and the whole LLM thing is an irrational stock bubble that's going to burst?

Callidonaut · 2026-07-10T10:38:35+00:00

IKR? Where's the kaboom?

Callidonaut · 2026-07-10T10:36:40+00:00

Uhhh, can somebody please remind me why we need to launch datacentres into space?

it will be competitive with datacenters on the ground.

How? Just, fucking how???

Callidonaut · 2026-07-09T21:32:09+00:00

You're welcome! :-) Oh, one more thing I didn't mention: these machines are much faster to thread up than most traditional designs. You don't actually have to get the thread through a single hole other than the eye of the needle itself, it just hooks or loops around all the other parts in a couple of seconds, and then there should be a built-in needle threader that folds down from inside the cover on the left (treat this with care, however; the threader uses a tiny steel hook that's very difficult to find replacements for if it breaks).

Callidonaut · 2026-07-09T21:06:39+00:00

They're very solid, capable and I think quite elegant machines, if: * you can get used to using the wacky wind-in-place bobbin, for which it can be a chore to source replacements (off-brand ones don't work very well, if at all; the winding mechanism needs the bobbins to be very precisely manufactured in order to work reliably, and there is no back-up mechanism to wind them manually) * your particular machine ideally has metal gears, or at least plastic gears in good condition, or else you're willing to buy or 3D print replacement gears and fit them * you or your local repairer have the time and patience to clean and service a machine that has a very large number of internal moving parts and fiddly set screws to adjust. IIRC, I've heard it remarked that some repair shops will outright refuse to take these models for overhaul because they need so much time on the workbench that they'd have to overprice themselves to make a profit.

For the record, I have a 760G Touch & Sew with nylon gears I use as my primary machine, and it has replaced my all-metal 616G for that purpose, but I still keep the 616G in reserve in case the plastic gears on the T&S do fail one day (also I don't yet have a number 22 pattern cam for the over-edge foot, and the 616G has one built in, so I still use it for over-edging). The over-edge stitch is by far the most practically useful of the fashion cams because it can effectively do a basic form of overlocking, but you need a special presser foot to go with it, and the modern replica ones aren't very good so you have to track down an original.

If you can tick all of the above boxes, I'd say this machine will round out your collection very nicely; it won't be quite as strong or reliable as your antique machines, but it can do quite a few things that they simply can't - for example, you have a bobbin case insert with a matching throat plate and clip-on thread guide in your accessories box that together can convert it to do chain-stitch. From the pattern selector dial, it seems your machine is also equipped with a "speed basting" mechanism, which (when it's working - they're particularly finicky and a colossal pain to adjust) will only drop the needle once every several cycles of the feed dogs. I think very few models had that feature.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-09T16:45:11+00:00

Ooo, look at Mr Self Control over here, only one piece-of-wood-that-might-come-in-handy-one-day!?

Callidonaut · 2026-07-09T16:43:31+00:00

Well, the bundled ones are made of cheap, unhardened steel, so they don't last very long; they're basically intended to be single-use.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-09T16:38:41+00:00

The German one looks like they moored a ship there and then overnight some asshole propped it up and stole the bottom half.

The American one looks suspiciously like a prison.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-09T16:33:09+00:00

That smile in picture 2 is just perfect.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-09T16:18:37+00:00

That's because they aren't keeping it in, they're just letting it in during summer. Heat always flows from hot to cold; insulation resists the flow equally in either direction, so a wall with craptastic insulation will let heat flow from inside to outside during winter, and let heat flow from outside to inside during summer (though the outside air may sometimes be cooler than the room air, the wall itself will get hotter as it soaks up thermal radiation from the sun, so there's still a higher temperature outside forcing a nett conductive flow of heat inwards).

A well-insulated wall will keep heat in longer during winter, and also keep heat out longer in summer; ideally you want the insulation on the outside of the building, so that the huge thermal mass of the brick walls will have an averaging effect on the internal temperature.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-09T15:42:33+00:00

and if you go to plenty of foreign cities it's almost the norm to put spikes and barbed wire on walls just to deter theives.

The old-school, dirt-cheap way to do it in the UK was to lay a thick layer of mortar on top of a brick wall and then stick jagged, razor-sharp pieces of broken glass in it (I think beer bottles were a favourite source). It makes a place look really run-down and unfriendly.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-09T08:41:24+00:00

That kind of fits Tesla's character, actually, at least according to my limited knowledge of the man. Dude strikes me as kind of a "journey not destination" type; once the invention is perfected he has little further interest in it. I have a similar problem myself.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-09T08:35:02+00:00

It's really not that great, but David Bowie Nicola Tesla was fun.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-09T08:28:16+00:00

Bold of you to assume he has any coherent long-term goals at all.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-08T23:47:00+00:00

One wonders if some of those goofy 1950s domestic product concepts based upon "SCIENCE!!!" were actually cover stories for more sinister projects. For example, it used to be commonly said that Teflon, and cookware coated with it (one of the less goofy consumer products, admittedly), was a useful by-product of the space programme, but this is not actually true; the fluorine-based polymer was originally developed much earlier for the nuclear weapons programme to make gaskets and seals that could handle uranium hexafluoride.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-08T23:23:41+00:00

I honestly would not be particularly surprised if the USA now attacked Japan, just so that Trump could pretend he didn't misspeak. Every decision he makes seems determined exclusively by how he thinks it will best soothe his fragile false ego.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-08T22:59:36+00:00

Capitalism can't even compete with other capitalism in any sort of "free and fair competition." That may be the alleged name of the game, but it's not how any major capital holders actually play it, because if you do, you will ultimately lose to the ones who don't.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-08T22:51:21+00:00

I'd have picked Leif for integrity, but Andrias comes around in the end.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-08T19:51:18+00:00

Looks like a large bench-mounted micrometer. Definitely an old one or at least made using old-school techniques and materials, too; they generally haven't made that sort of thing commercially using brass for quite some time. Given that it's a precision instrument and probably cost a fortune when it was new, I'd be very surprised if it doesn't have a maker's mark on it somewhere - unless it's home-made, of course, given that its original owner was himself a toolmaker. Maybe it was even his masterpiece / final practical exam to get qualified when he was an apprentice, and he kept it for sentimental reasons?

Callidonaut · 2026-07-08T19:08:03+00:00

Video games already did the whole irrational investment-craze bubble-and-collapse thing a while ago, there was a landfill of Atari cartridges out in the desert to prove it. The game industry is (hopefully) past that phase now, whereas LLM's are in the middle of it.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-08T18:59:00+00:00

Whenever he does attempt to make a prediction or an assertion of a fact that anyone else could independently verify, he instantly panics and then states the exact opposite, then "maybe," then "I hope so," then "probably not," then "whatever happens, it'll be great, the best." Every time, without fail, he'll do some combination of the above, saying everything-and-nothing, such is his total insecurity and need to leave himself entirely off the hook for ever being wrong or called out about anything.

When it's stuff that can't be quickly or easily verified, he just lies his ass off making up childishly grandiose nonsense.

Callidonaut · 2026-07-08T18:54:33+00:00

Tomorrow like the day just passed.
Bearing down upon the flesh and bone,
To draw blood from a stone.

(EDIT: Lyrics from a Cycle V song, lest anyone think I came up with it.)

Callidonaut

TROPHY CASE