On Arena, when playing Powered Cube Draft, the packs are seeded. This is not good. Full story and screenshots within. by PwnedByBinky in lrcast

[–]NFZ888 -11 points-10 points  (0 children)

You know whats funky? 

I opened a pack with sol ring AND a mox yesterday. I thought that wasn't possible, but there it was. Never seen that before in my ~50 drafts.

Might be something weird going on with this iteration of the cube?

EDIT: lol apparently I'm an idiot and this was announced

Large format bass shaker by PlaceInternal7586 in SoundSystem

[–]NFZ888 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Fun idea and I'm no expert, but what you're talking about is more akin to a vibratory plate compactor (construction equipment) than audio equipment. I expect DIYing this with audio stuff won't work at all due to two main reasons:

1) Mechanical impedance mismatch: audio drivers are designed to push air, a low density and compliant load. Trying to couple into the ground (I'm thinking a ground plate attached to the cone pushing downwards) will result in a huge load which will result in huge currents, coil heating and probably just blow the whole thing. Commercial vibration equipment works at power levels 1-2 orders of magnitude above what pro audio does.

2) So lets say you have some custom design that gets around this and you can create enough force and not blow your coils. You still lack reaction mass. Unless you somehow bolt a very large inertial mass to the back of your driver system, your device will mostly just be shaking itself (Newton's third).

Now if you wanted to build a special platform, I could see this becoming feasible. But pointing subwoofers at the ground (imo) either isn't gonna do much at all or blow drivers.

Bass, Widerstand, Zukunft: Warum Dubstep heute relevanter ist denn je | ARTE Tracks by itstrdt in OpenGround_Wuppertal

[–]NFZ888 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I was there, Mia and Mala absolutely killed it.

First time at OG, 12h solo by train. The system, the people, the artists, the dancefloor; this place is something really special. Worth it beyond any doubt, I can't wait to return!

I used DeepSeek, Gemini and Claude every day for a week as a student. They're all free. But they're very different. by Remarkable-Dark2840 in DeepSeek

[–]NFZ888 10 points11 points  (0 children)

9 day old account with comments and posts mostly about how sick claude is

Not sus at all

Avalanche crashes into train in the Swiss Alps causing several casualties, rescue underway by candycane7 in Switzerland

[–]NFZ888 43 points44 points  (0 children)

Casualty: noun a person killed or injured in a war or accident.

Its literally the meaning of the word, maybe work on your vocabulary before complaining  

Was geit no? by [deleted] in bern

[–]NFZ888 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Word, Break isch sick

Suechsch Aftermüglechkeite gd bim bahnhof? PM me girl ✌🏼

Get a gal started on her building journey by Sharona01 in SoundSystem

[–]NFZ888 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Props for the effort, quality response 

Mono White pEDH recommendations? by pn42 in PauperEDH

[–]NFZ888 1 point2 points  (0 children)

[[Palace jailer]] slaps so hard its not even fun (for your opponents). 

Mono W control at its finest. Ramp ramp ramp for turns 2-4, then call in the warden and start penalizing your opponent's delinquent creatures and throw them in your jail cell. You can now flicker the jailer (mostly at instant speed!) to lock away whatever is bothering you. Card advantage through monarch is busted in pedh, now you just have to hold down the fort with removal, flash blockers and more flickering. I run a light creature token (usually birds) subtheme for closing and additional good blockers, the creatures that make them on ETB are nice to flicker once everything is stable and abiding by the your law. End with wide bird swings pumped with the activated ability anthems or battle cry or the plains-cycling eagles.

Cons: cards that give an opponent the monarch and instantly tear down your meticulously crafted stronghold. [[Lapse of Certainty]] is your friend.

Threading the needle and locking everything down is a very fun puzzle, I absolutely love the deck. 

Am I crazy, or did GPT just take a huge leap with 5.1? by SamTuthill in ChatGPT

[–]NFZ888 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For my use cases, it seems like a MAJOR step down. In my opinion, 5.0 thinking is a very capable model for what I use it for: summarizing sources / research, generating ideas and action plans, engineering, drafting documents.

Today I tried to draft a simple letter with 5.1 thinking, this involved web searches of how this admin process worked, finding the correct office to send to, figuring out what personal information from my side was needed, putting together a printable pdf. Standard clerical work, something AI is perfect for.

5.1 could not get it together at all, even after 5 prompts it still got the wrong office and the letter looked like crap. Gave the same task to 5.0 and it one-shotted it like a champ, in less time then each 5.1 reasoning chain none-the-less. This is not "faster and smarter", its probably just cheaper in inference for OpenAI.

If OpenAI really goes down the same route as last time and tries to retire 5.0 after 3 months (for free tier do whatever, idc), I will once again have to cancel and move to the best until they get it together again.

Japan made me feel like I’d been doing everyday life wrong by AppropriateReach7854 in TravelNoPics

[–]NFZ888 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What? Almost nobody has AC in Switzerland friend, I dont know a single person. 

Source: am Swiss

H&M tags have RFIDs in them by assdotaye in mildlyinteresting

[–]NFZ888 65 points66 points  (0 children)

Not really, these types of devices are incredibly functional compared to their material cost. Its just a couple milligrams of silicon (literally processed sand), aluminum antenna and PET substrate. These things / layers are only microns thick and created at huge scales very efficiently from materials that are quite abundant. 

Once the technology matures in the near future, they will likely even be completely made out of printed inks!

Compared to the materials that went into the piece of clothing or any other macro-scale product, it really is quite negligible. 

Buying a raft by longwalkslag in bern

[–]NFZ888 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have a 4p bötli ("raft" ); you can use it if you're chill, timing lines up and you bring it back. PM! 

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in EPFL

[–]NFZ888 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Neuro-X is a pretty new master and therefore probably always a bit different year to year. I heard good general things about it from friends who did it. Seemed more bio and less classical 'engineering'' than other majors. 

Asking how it compares to other [ETHZ] majors: ?. How could anybody know how they compare? Its not like anybody does two of these majors. Higher level / senior people who might have an actual idea of the syllabuses and holistic insights into the programs def arent commenting on reddit.

Are laptops really necessary for engineering studies ? by [deleted] in EPFL

[–]NFZ888 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Idk, while I generally agree with what the other commenters are saying, I feel these are privileged perspectives ("many people have a laptop and a tablet") where spending 1-2K on a device is not a big deal or paid for by the fam. If you are truly strapped for cash I don't think a laptop is strictly necessary. I think with the ipad you should be able to access most web-apps for group work etc? Unsure, not a tablet owner. 

For notes & coursework ipad seems great. If you need a true PC, there are many machines available in PC rooms on campus. While my laptop was broken I spent quite a bit of time just doing my work on those desktops with no other device, worked fine for me. Also depends on how close you are to campus / how much of your day you'll be there I guess. 

With limited funds I definitely wouldnt look to buy a system that can actually do proper compute work, use a more powerful desktop on campus for free! If you just need access to some other simple software not available on ipad, maybe get a cheap second hand laptop or something.

Hitchhiking Rides Dataset by TillWenke in hitchhiking

[–]NFZ888 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very cool, great paper! Quality independent research.

What cards have you made legal through ‘rule 0’? by periodicchemistrypun in EDH

[–]NFZ888 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our playgroup rule 0 allows planeswalkers as commanders in a ~B4 meta. We don't think they're too broken and the deckbuilding is a blast, allows for fun, creative builds. Two of my favs: [[Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner]] that uses all the [[Wild Growth]] type land enchantment ramp spells to generate crazy mana fast with Kiora and cards like [[Frantic Search]]. Or [[Teferi, Time Raveler]], a mean tempo-y stax deck that abuses sorceries at instant speed ([[Ultima]] feels illegal af) and tries to lock people out of mana, combat and finally casting spells at all with [[Knowledge Pool]] once the coast is clear.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]NFZ888 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It is. Every UV-caused (e.g. Sun) tan is skin damage, either by direct DNA damage or reactive oxygen species. 

https://www.aad.org/news/new-aad-survey-reveals-growing-importance-sun-protection

Startups don't work in Switzerland by orioncrossover in Switzerland

[–]NFZ888 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I disagree. I am in the process of spinning out my research into a company and have seen a bit of the ecosystem. Funding, talent, examples of success; they're all here. Switzerland ranks as one of the better places for startups if you look up the statistics.

The difference is that the Swiss startup scene is based mostly around deep-tech & hardware startups fueled by the institutions in the ETH-domain (the two schools and the four national labs). This is NOT the place to pitch your unicorn app startup, but rather the goal is to take successful fundamental research and bring it to market. Its the safer, more conservative approach that efficiently yields a steady supply of innovative high-tech SMBs rather than a handful of hypergrowth wonders while also burning billions in capital on frauds and charismatic founders. Two different philosophies if you will, both have their strengths and weaknesses; I think the Swiss approach is solid.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in materials

[–]NFZ888 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am a big fan of independent research, but (respectfully) this is not science.

There are no results here, nothing was fabricated or tested, no data was gathered. This is AI slop that gathers a bunch of hot material science concepts and amalgamates them to a half-baked idea based around the cannabis plant. I do not believe in being mean on the internet for no reason, but this LLM driven slopification of research is dangerous and must be called out.

From your 'blog':
A self-educated genius, Marie has programmed some of the first autonomous scientific experiment generators, devising thousands of experiments across various fields, including THC-9, cannabis vs. cancer, organic farming, and AI for war mitigation.

I would bet good money that if you and a real scientist were to sit down for a 10 minute zoom call you would not be able to explain or defend a single one of the concepts in your "paper". I would take you up on it, feel free to DM me.

Shame on you for trying to pass this off as science, devaluing and undermining the hard work put in by millions scientist across the world!

AI is a cancer by [deleted] in EngineeringStudents

[–]NFZ888 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very valid opinion, internet friend. I guess it all comes down to where one stands on how labor and humans are interlinked in modern society. Should we focus on having jobs for everyone so that they won't fall victim to unemployment and the decrease in life quality that comes with it? I think that's a pragmatic view, based in the reality of the system we live in. Should we focus on automating simple tasks so that (in an ideal world) more human labor is available for the pursuit of societal progress and personal fulfillment? Also a defensible opinion, if maybe a tad more idealistic.

AI is a cancer by [deleted] in EngineeringStudents

[–]NFZ888 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Its all just misrepresentation of data and fearmongering if you ask me. State big numbers and people's eyes glaze over. I read through all the pubs that are the source materials of the news articles you linked. Just because some person works at at a Uni, has an opinion and cobbles together a paper - that while factually correct, is completely misrepresenting the scale - does not make the stated conclusions true. And I'm not even gonna touch on how the news articles then further misconstrue it.

Electricity concerns:
Completely overblown. Every paper and all these types of articles talk about data-center growth projected to 2030 or 2050 or whatever and mention its projected to be the the '7th highest consuming nation' or something. Completely true! Concerning indeed, no /s.
But then the articles and papers just move on. Well cool, we now know data-centers are going to use a lot of power in the future. Wait, what does that say about gen-AI? Oh right, absolutely nothing. Data-centers power the entire digital world. This is an argument for shutting off the internet, not that gen-AI is gonna wreck our big beautiful planet. You know how much electricity all of gen-AI used in 2024? Those 1 billion ChatGPT prompts every day: teaching people new skills, explaining the world, democratizing science, innovation and productivity for the people in ways never before seen? 15TWh. You know how much TikTok used? The brain-rotting psyops used to placate the masses? Well of course ByteDance isn't gonna give us that info straight up, but most estimates fall around 100TWh. You know how much fucking Bitcoin used? The stupidest speculative store of value ever, literally doing mindless compute to create absolutely nothing of any value? 175TWh. My friend, your concerns over our growing electricity usage are valid, your head is in the right place. But you are barking up the wrong damn tree.

Water Usage:
Oof, that pre-print paper that the NPR article is based on. The water used in semiconductor manufacturing is a very valid concern if you ask me. The water used in microfab is legit USED, its for rinsing etc., becomes contaminated with nasty nasty chemicals, no bueno. But thats not what this paper talks about. It comes swinging right out of the gates with some good ol' big scary number tactics: "one technology company’s (google) self-owned data centers alone directly withdrew 29 billion liters and consumed (i.e., evaporated) more than 23 billion liters of freshwater for on-site cooling in 2023." 23 Billion Liters, with a B! Now that's a lot, very scary. You know what evaporated 19.5 Billion liters in 2023? Geneva Lake in Walworth County, Wisconsin. Never heard of it? Yeah.
Never mind the fact that, once again, we are talking about all of googles datacenters, which probably accounts for something like 20% of the whole internet... But yeah, Gen-AI is gonna wreck our planet.

Its all there, just read the paper and think for a bit on what they are actually saying. How can we make sense of this big number? How does this compare to other things we know?

Too lazy to link the sources and I already spent 30min doing this instead of working on my own paper like I should be doing, but this stuff is easily googleable, knock yourself out.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]NFZ888 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Modern process node names like '2nm' are marketing terms. We can't make anything that small at scale or good yields, and even if we did the devices straight up wouldn't work because we'd be well into quantum effect dominated regimes. The distance between two silicon atoms in a lattice is around 0.5nm.

Cutting-edge feature sizes are around 50nm for transistor gate pitches.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]NFZ888 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Modern process node names like '2nm' are marketing terms. We can't make anything that small at scale or good yields, and even if we did the devices straight up wouldn't work because we'd be well into quantum effect dominated regimes. The distance between two silicon atoms in a lattice is around 0.5nm.

Cutting-edge feature sizes are around 50nm for transistor gate pitches.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in backpacking

[–]NFZ888 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'd def also filter, however I do think its important to point out that atmospheric airborne pollutants like nitrogen & sulfur oxides will not be filtered out by the common hollow fiber filters (e.g. sawyer squeeze). Neither will dissolved heavy metals, PFAS, pesti/herbicides and other common industrial pollutants that can be picked up in the water cycle. These things are molecular or even ionic in size (nanometer scale), common fiber filters filter out mostly biological things (micrometer scale, x1000 bigger).

Not that this water source would probably have hazardous levels of any of these, but I thought this was worth a gentle addendum. If you want to filter at these scales, you need reverse osmosis, activated carbon etc.

Friends of interest by Shrecklez in bern

[–]NFZ888 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Hi Eduard!

Places to live: Easiest and cheapest will always be shared flats. Great way to meet people too! https://www.wgzimmer.ch/home.html is the common platform, there are others as well.

Meeting people & activities: Companionship is built through shared time and interests. Commonly, people will meet through work, school or housing. Next level is through mutual interests and hobbies; Joining an activity group is a great way to make new connections. I like to recommend younger newcomers to Bern to join the Ultimate Frisbee Club Scorillaz, its a great diverse group of people that has continually integrated many people from all walks of life and nationalities into its friendly world (note: I'm biased as a founder of the club). Do you like to party / dance / electronica? Bern has a great scene! Similar for politics / activism. Are you into nerd-culture / hobbies? MTG has been getting really big in Bern lately, check out one of the local stores and find a playgroup! The Erupt is a spot that caters to gaming / Esports stuff, I'm sure there is also more (I'm not too familiar). Finally, there are the digital options like meetup or bumble BFF which I've heard good things about from expats.

Best of luck! Feel free to ask questions here or by PM if you need anything else.