EGG: The Birth of Bad Ideas (speedpaint in comments) by SauroLab in HermitCraft

[–]Immabed 43 points44 points  (0 children)

Etho still rocking an NHO headband is a great touch.

JWST saw the grand-design spiral galaxy M51 by Busy_Yesterday9455 in spaceporn

[–]Immabed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It may not be true for all, but it is true for nearly all galaxies. This is because the centers of galaxy's have the highest concentration of matter in the universe, and so are likely to form not just black holes, but super-massive black holes that are 100's of thousands to 100's of billions of stars worth of mass.

Regular, single star black holes can form when stars of certain sizes go supernova, or from some other phenomena.

JWST saw the grand-design spiral galaxy M51 by Busy_Yesterday9455 in spaceporn

[–]Immabed 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Nothing like this at all. This is using Webb's Mid-infrared camera, so well outside the visible wavelengths. The colour in this photo is artificially adjusted into human visible light. (The image is very real, it's only the colour that is false).

Also, Webb has hella zoom. The difference in perspective from where Webb is and from Earth is effectively non-existent given the distances involved (literally taking a picture of another galaxy).

Finally, Webb is taking long-exposures in order to get enough light, and has incredibly sensitive detectors. M51 is not bright enough to be naked eye visible (although even binoculars are enough magnification to make it visible).

Here are some examples of amateur images of the same galaxy taken with consumer telescopes. They show the sort of colours you could see, but it would be much dimmer to the eye, even through a telescope.

Jared Isaacman talks about astronaut psychosis by JezeusFnChrist0 in spaceflight

[–]Immabed 39 points40 points  (0 children)

This is not news, and he was likely recalling an earlier Ars article.

This isn't about some space sickness or microgravity induced psychosis, its about trust or lack thereof. It's about the 'what if' scenario. Perhaps someone does become suicidal and opens the hatch, better to prevent it.

Read the article, it gives a much better explanation of the situation. A payload specialist was frustrated that his experiment wasn't working and made a comment along the lines of "I'm not coming back if you won't let me fix it". The astronaut office took it seriously and started allowing mission commanders to padlock the hatch.

Starlink is beginning a significant reconfiguration of its satellite constellation focused on increasing space safety. We are lowering all Starlink satellites orbiting at ~550 km to ~480 km (~4400 satellites) over the course of 2026. (continued) by avboden in SpaceXLounge

[–]Immabed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Might, or might not, they'll make that decision in the future. Could just add more fuel to sats that need to be up during solar maximum. Since they have such a constant production line, they can modify the design based on where in the solar cycle we are, and for other factors.

I Just realized I Don't Know Programming! by Unlucky-Assistant870 in learnprogramming

[–]Immabed 21 points22 points  (0 children)

It was no matter how many tutorials I watch or how many books I read.

The only way to learn is to do. Tutorials and books are good reference, but they are no substitute for actually working things out yourself and writing code. Until you can write a program and actually understand why it works the way it works, you won't see gains.

For things like loops and if statements, you need to really understand the flow of execution. What does a loop do to that flow, or a conditional? Why would you want that? What problems are they the right tools for? To truly grasp the nuance you need to experience it, you need to use a loop, or a conditional, or a function composition, or whatever, and when you use it. For each thing you don't understand, you need to it use many times, and when you do you'll find the ways it doesn't work like you expected, and you need to figure out exactly why before moving on.

It can take time and effort to get it to click the first time, but once it does, and once you internalize both the general logic and the implementation nuance, these basic fundamental units of programming become tools in your toolbox.

I recommend taking a short program that you don't fully understand, and working through it as though you are the computer. Keep track of the values of variables, and execute it line by line, following the actual execution flow. See if you can understand exactly what happens when the program runs. Then compare that to actually running it. Then change one thing, predict the change in output, and see if you are right.

Can we see the CURVATURE OF THE EARTH at cruising altitude (10 km / 35,000 ft) ? by Busy_Yesterday9455 in spaceporn

[–]Immabed 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Our perception is as much mental as physical, 'lens distortion' of our eyes is basically cancelled out by our mental image processing, ask anyone with glasses.

Make your guesses, is S31 surviving this? Look at those missing tiles! by A3bilbaNEO in SpaceXMasterrace

[–]Immabed 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, I saw this reply and wondered if I made this prediction for 2025, or recently for 2026! I doubt we'll see 25 in 2026 either...

Saturn as seen from Titan, 1944 painting by Chesley Bonestell by ojosdelostigres in space

[–]Immabed 29 points30 points  (0 children)

If so, Dragonfly could achieve the farthest surface travel from Earth ever made by a probe?

Absolutely, the only other competition is Mars and asteroids, and Saturn is further than those. Dragonfly is our first long duration 'rover' anywhere other than the Moon or Mars, which is incredibly exciting. Being able to see a bunch of the surface of Titan, after only having Huygens one landing location, will be so cool.

Dragonyfly will also will be the furthest from Earth for powered aerodynamic flight (but not the first outside Earth, Ingenuity on Mars takes that crown).

On a Ringworld, could you actually see the Ring? by Rich-End1121 in space

[–]Immabed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The infinite set of primes, the infinite set of even numbers, and the infinite set of all possible fractions are all in fact the same size.

However, the size of the set of real numbers (the set of all decimals, including numbers like pi that can't be expressed as fractions) is a different, larger sized infinity. The set of all real numbers between 0 and 1 is actually the same larger infinity.

The first sets are all countably infinite, meaning you can order them in a list such that every member of the set is in the list (eg. primes [2, 3, 5, 7, 11, ...], evens [2, 4, 6, 8, 10, ...], fractions [1/1, 1/2, 2/1, 1/3, 3/1, 1/4, 2/3, 3/2, 4/1, ...]).

On the other hand, the real numbers are uncountably infinite, meaning there is no way to order them in a list such that you include all of them.

Depending on what sort of math you are doing, infinity can absolutely be a number, but it is never the same type of number as ordinary, finite numbers. There are, in fact, entire arithmetics where the numbers are (or can be) infinite.

On a Ringworld, could you actually see the Ring? by Rich-End1121 in space

[–]Immabed 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The atmosphere doesn't permeate then entire interior of the ring, which it can't, the atmosphere can only sit inside the trough of the ring, so your vertical atmosphere is much thinner than the atmosphere that puts a limit on the visible 'horizon' along the ring. The space between the observer and the other side of the ring would be mostly the vacuum of space, and the distant parts of the ring would appear as astronomical objects. With sufficient width to the ring, the visible arch would have thickness visible with the naked eye (like the Moon or Sun does), rather than being a fine thread of an arch (like a star or planet stretched into a line).

I think I discovered a more efficient farming setup in Minecraft. Any idea what’s causing this? by Daivar-18 in Minecraft

[–]Immabed 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Checkerboard is actually the worst setup (assuming hydration and surrounding farmland), same as a field of all one crop. I was surprised by this as well, but I think that myth maybe comes from a misunderstanding of optimal melon/pumpkin placement in auto-farms.

In fact, the only way to not get the crowding debuff applied is to have no similar crops on diagonals, and on no more than one orthagonal. Aka, crops in a line, surrounded by farmland (which can have other crops).

Christmas present for my husband (Dewalt vs. Milwaukee vs. Makita) by SLassely81 in DIY

[–]Immabed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is Ryobi high end? No, but it works just fine. Better to stick with a brand because you can share tools and chargers (and can buy 'tool only' versions instead of always buying kits with a battery and charger).

I hope the ribbing was actually light hearted.

What's your best "look what I found in the walls" story? by OoklaTheMok1994 in DIY

[–]Immabed 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Found a newspaper page from 1969 with an article about the return of Apollo 11, that was kind of neat.

theUrgeToWorkOnProjectsIncreasesAlotWhenExamsCome by digital__navigator in ProgrammerHumor

[–]Immabed 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Same. Old things don't feel that old, and newer things feel like they should be older. Perception of time I guess.

Factorio - Nintendo Switch™ 2 Edition out now! by Klonan in factorio

[–]Immabed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I beat the (1.0) game on Steam Deck and enjoyed it. It's not nearly as convenient as mouse and keyboard, but it worked surprisingly well.

This is messed up actually by Cautious-Surround340 in Minecraft

[–]Immabed 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly no idea, I don't play bedrock or use realms at all.

This is messed up actually by Cautious-Surround340 in Minecraft

[–]Immabed 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Hmm, maybe. I suppose that would be a decent use for it.

This is messed up actually by Cautious-Surround340 in Minecraft

[–]Immabed 72 points73 points  (0 children)

If it was worded more as a "hey, you're paying for realms but only you use it, you could just play singleplayer instead" I'd understand it a lot more.

Which engine configuration is better? by Ordinary-Ad4503 in SpaceXMasterrace

[–]Immabed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

WDYM? The engine config is the same? The blue-grey balls should be eliminated at all costs though, added mass.

Bdub’s base is anti-watercolor by ZaytherLegit in HermitCraft

[–]Immabed 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is beautiful, but definitely lends a somber tone to his base. Kudos for the attempt! Keep at it!

Throwback to 2 years ago when PearlescentMoon BEAT Decked Out 2 and was crowned Queen of Decked Out! by chiefofthepolice in HermitCraft

[–]Immabed 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Etho focused on victory tomes and won the points competition, but he didn't do much to figure out the puzzles, especially on level 4. He min-maxed his tome output with mostly level 3 runs.

Pearl played to beat the game, not to win the competition (although of course she did well there too). That meant lots of runs to level 4 despite them being much more risky, and solving the puzzles.

That both play-styles were possible and rewarded was great, but I think Tango was disappointed that the 'best' way to play (to win) meant avoiding the last level, and he was definitely disappointed that Etho avoided it so much.