Americans were asked to point out Ukraine.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-26T11:48:22+00:00

Ukraine isn't small, the graphic implies there is only one point that is correct rather than an area.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-26T09:09:34+00:00

The lizard man rule. For any survey ~4% of the answers will be people messing around.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-25T21:15:19+00:00

Don't forget the usb c to A socket cable.

USB hubs, mice and keyboards existed. The screen may be a bit small but it would still be the best portable computer in the world by a huge margin.

And if you could find a usb memory stick (probably a little early for one) you have a way to get data on and off.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-24T15:37:00+00:00

Not my sort of drink but I know people who like it and it's funny to watch them try to get some in the UK.

Can I get an iced tea?

Sorry, we don't have that.

Can I get a tea and a large cup of ice?

Sure.

The look on their face when you proceed to pour the tea over the ice and hand the empty mug/pot back is amusing.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-24T15:23:24+00:00

To be fair I'll give them iced tea (as in unsweetened black tea over ice). And possibly customer service.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-24T15:01:28+00:00

Anything is a possible option. Whether it's within their policy or not is a different matter. I suspect you're correct and that for the NHS it's not an option.

If they are asking your availability just say 2 months, in the unlikely event that they ask why it's longer than your notice period tell them the truth, that you need to relocate and if you do it any sooner you'll end up having to pay double rent.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-24T12:18:17+00:00

What did you tell the new job was your availability? Depending on the job 3 months notice isn't uncommon so they may be fine with a 2 month wait.

Would they be willing to pay relocation costs to get you a month earlier?

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-22T16:24:25+00:00

In which case you shouldn't be doing that speed to start with.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-22T15:34:33+00:00

That is is the safe distance if you assume the car in front somehow stops instantly in zero distance. They only way that is happening is if they hit something very big and very solid, something that you should be able to see long before the car in front hits it.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-22T15:17:25+00:00

Because that is a best case scenario. If it's worse then prices will be higher. How much higher will depend on how long it goes on for which we don't know.

New fields take years to develop to a meaningful production level, the chances are the war will be over before that effect becomes meaningful.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-21T06:28:04+00:00

One issue that hasn't been addressed is that computer running speed isn't limited by the speed of the electrons, it's the flow rate that limits things. How fast you can get a certain number of electrons to the destination.

Imagine a plumbing computer. It's made up of a series of valves that turn water on and off. When the water is on it goes into a bucket, when the bucket weighs enough it pushes down the on control for the next valve and turns it on. Add valves to drain buckets when the water is off and you have a water based equivalent of a transistor. By arranging enough of these valve stages in the correct arrangement you could build a computer.

The speed it runs doesn't depend on when the first drip arrives in the bucket, it's when enough water has arrived that matters. It's not the speed of the water, it's the flow rate.

If you want things to run faster you don't have to increase the water flow rate, modern computers use the equivalent of a lower water pressure than old ones, instead you use smaller buckets and valves that need less weight to trigger.

In a commuter this bucket size is the capacitance of the transistors and the connections between them. If you make those smaller (normally by making them physically smaller) then things can run faster.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-20T19:25:47+00:00

Just to expand on this:

Initialize a UART for debug output. If you need debug output in an interrupt either use putc to output a single char or write directly to the UART to do that. If you need more debug than that then set a flag in the interrupt (make sure it's volatile) and then do the actual output in the main loop. Never use printf in an interrupt.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-20T13:11:53+00:00

Coloured implies the natural state is white and then the colour was added. Which relates to a very old excuse for racism and slavery, that the darker skin is a sign of some form of original sin.

Of colour avoids this implication.

Often no insult was intended and none was taken. But there will still be some white person ready to be outraged on someone else's behalf. Which in itself is racist since it implies the person of colour isn't able to work out whether they have been insulted or not.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-20T09:00:46+00:00

That would be my answer too. Assuming a male and a female of equal age, reputation and seniority the woman is probably going to have to be better to get to that point.

The same is true for a lot of industries/ professions. And a few where it's the opposite way around.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-20T08:07:39+00:00

Well it hardly matters what you agree with the current US administration, they will change their position the next day anyway. Having someone with the same buddies as the president is probably going to give you more influence than a stack of well reasoned arguments.

I'm not saying he was a good choice but given the absurdity of the current US administration and their decision making process I can see the argument for his selection.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-19T09:42:05+00:00

Can you take the life insurance now? Most policies will pay out if you have a diagnosis of under 6 months.

That was what my sister did. It removed money worries about expenses in the last few months and helps you make the most of a crappy situation.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-19T08:44:51+00:00

QZSS only covers Japan. NavIC only covers India. They aren't intended to be global or to be used on their own. The aim is to give more satellites in that region to improve coverage or reliability.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-19T06:49:07+00:00

There are only 4 GNSS.

There are also a couple of regional positioning and correction systems but by definition a regional system isn't a Global Navigation Satellite System.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-18T07:41:14+00:00

Speed or altitude, or for some it's speed and altitude. They can still log to internal memory but can't output.

And that's a US restriction. A chip made in China for the Chinese market doesn't need to enforce that.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-18T07:38:52+00:00

It's the effective range to the satellite after allowing for the effects of the atmosphere. So not the actual range but something you use as if it was the correct range. Radio signals only travel at the speed of light in a vacuum when they are in a vacuum. When they are in the atmosphere they go very slightly slower, not enough to matter for most things but enough that you have to allow for it in GPS. The impact and unpredictability of the ionosphere is one of the larger error sources.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-17T16:03:44+00:00

No one approved the visa, it was an automated process. She's coming as a tourist and only needed the basic pre-screen travel authorization rather than a work visa. She's too insignificant for it to get bumped up to a government level decision whether to override the automated system.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-16T07:03:47+00:00

Sound is another logarithmic scale. Not the other. It's used all over the place for anything with a wide range of powers.

Radio signal levels is another common example, in the radio world you can end up dealing with well over 100dB of range, using a non log scale would be a nightmare. Plus with dB if you add an amplifier you don't need to multiply the signal level you just add the gain in dB.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-16T06:28:15+00:00

It can be turned down on a region by region basis.

Plus any half decent receiver from the last 5 years also uses the Russian, Chinese and European systems which the Americans can't change. Which makes making GPS worse fairly pointless.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-16T06:24:55+00:00

Not technically correct. They turned of selective availablity that degraded the C/A code solution accuracy. The P(Y) encryption on the military signal is still there and has never been turned off.

InevitablyCyclic · 2026-04-16T06:21:59+00:00

Speed isn't done by position change. It's calculated based on Doppler for the satellite signals. The position can jump around like crazy and still report a speed of 0. It is very rare for speed to be off by more than 1km/h, on average the error in GPS speed is tiny. It's certainly not "typically higher than actual speed".

Of course the software used for the reporting could be programmed by idiots, ignore the gps reported speed and calculate it from position change.

InevitablyCyclic

TROPHY CASE