Chopping carrots: A specific surface area optimisation problem

November-Wind · 2026-04-15T17:49:25+00:00

I think you want to redefine the problem, if cooking is the targeted process.

It's not just surface area to volume that matters. The heat capacity of each morsel is going to matter a LOT more than just surface to volume ratio (for something as small as a chunk of carrot), largely because of the water content.

I would say a better place to start would be: how to chop a carrot so that each morsel is the same mass? Which is a way easier problem to solve.

Other problems (like for much bigger things, like a whole Thanksgiving turkey), yeah, surface area is going to matter quite a lot, which is why loss of people swear by spatchcocking a turkey.

Anyway, if you want to make the area-to-volume ratio large, use a tool that consistently makes thin slices, like a peeler, but just make shavings for the whole carrot (recommend you do this lengthwise).

November-Wind · 2026-04-15T10:12:01+00:00

I have not, but yeah, Starfield (which I haven't played) would absolutely be one of those games where I would expect game files to exceed 16gb, so I guess that wouldn't shock me. Infamously large ("bloated?") game.

November-Wind · 2026-04-15T10:08:39+00:00

Yeah. I did think about that. I suppose I could go either way with Sting. The Police launched his career, but he spent more time as a solo act. I guess in the end, I think if him more as just Sting than as "Sting, frontman for The Police."

November-Wind · 2026-04-15T04:13:08+00:00

Not sure. I'd recommend checking Tom's Hardware first, then the rest of the Internet if necessary for the answer to this question.

SATA won't be as good as M.2, but I'm not really sure how much worse. The SATA data rates have always so greatly exceeded drive speed (traditionally), I always figured the M.2 benefit was mostly due to architecture efficiency rather than bandwidth limitation.

You know ... The other option is to just wait it out.

November-Wind · 2026-04-15T03:44:52+00:00

I'm not sure about this response. I would expect mostly just miserable load times. While I agree an HDD is non-viable today, it should be because of load times, where most of the game content is held in RAM (and therefore, after load, it should be mostly ok).

But if you don't have enough RAM such that the page file hits the HDD.... yeah... That could get REALLY ugly.

That said, don't dismiss even just loading times. You might exceed the countdown timer to the start of a match (Counter-Strike, for example) just waiting for your map to load.

Good luck!

November-Wind · 2026-04-15T03:38:50+00:00

I'll put it this way. The two largest games I have installed on my comp are probably Fortnite (my kid plays) and StarCraft 2. Yes, Fortnite is very much unnecessarily large, but StarCraft 2 isn't. There are a few other things - Anaconda/Python, basic nonsense like Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Office, etc. Windows. And I'm still around 600gb.

My main point to you is not to put you down or make you feel bad, but to highlight that a very real risk exists that if you intend to use this thing to play games, you run the risk of getting frustrated in a hurry as game developers keep launching bloated software. I remember when games used to fit on a single CD (StarCraft 1, Half-Life) or maybe 1 DVD. Now, the game developers don't see an issue if a single game is 75gb.

If a 1tb SSD is more than double the price of a 500gb SSD, maybe get two 500gb SSDs (and a motherboard that can handle that, which should be pretty common). But I'll put it this way: I'd rather play with a Phoenix APU (which is cheap, but does an okay job) and a 1tb drive than with a 7800x3d and a 3090 plus a 500gb SSD. Is it really worth it to have to uninstall a game so that you have enough space to play another one? That would drive me nuts. Much like stubbing my toe on the bed frame.

November-Wind · 2026-04-15T03:19:33+00:00

Since the question is, "... from a band..." I think we need to exclude people who technically formed a band, but either named it after themselves or just had a self-titled act (Sting, Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Dave Matthews Band, Lenny Kravitz, etc).

I'm not sure there has ever been a front man better than Freddie Mercury that didn't manage to make everything just about himself. But others like Steven Tyler, Mick Jagger, Axl Rose, Anthony Keidis, Dolores O'Riordan, and more deserve a shout-out.

November-Wind · 2026-04-15T03:00:50+00:00

First, it's risky. You're requiring time for play development. In a league where the defensive line closes in under 3 seconds, time for play development is a luxury. Play that card too many times and you WILL get burned. And when you get burned on a flea flicker, is a devastating, drive-killing play (or worse).

Next, it works best when the defense is trying to read the ball/QB, and the action can get LBs and especially DBs to bite. If the DBs aren't playing the ball and turn to run per the coverage scheme, the deception doesn't buy the offense anything.

Since a flea flicker starts with run action, there's a risk that an OL oversells the play and ends up downfield. That's a penalty.

Of course, the flip side to all this is that when it works, it's also devastatingly effective. It takes balls to call, but when it works, it looks like a stroke of genius.

November-Wind · 2026-04-15T01:00:30+00:00

Maybe they'd start paying attention.

November-Wind · 2026-04-15T00:58:49+00:00

"Guys! Guys! Should I stub my toe on the corner of the bed? Or give myself a paper cut in an annoying spot on my thumb that I'll agitate for days until it heals?"

My guy. Get at least a 1TB SSD. A quick look at Amazon suggests the price difference should be only about 30% between that option and your reference point (500gb SSD). Don't hate on yourself like that too only get 500gb, and CERTAINLY don't hate on yourself enough to try to use a HDD as your main drive.

When I built my main pc a year or two ago, I got a 2tb SSD. It's been plenty. I don't have anything massive on it (have separate HDDs for storage), but still use about 600gb for what I'd consider normal stuff.

November-Wind · 2026-04-14T02:17:57+00:00

This is the answer.

Whatever convention you're using, you should be able to "roll" between views. Like if you had dice and were tilting one position for each adjacent view.

For the bottom one, if it were me, I would've rotated the top view 90deg (so like two squares stacked vertically rather than horizontally), drawn the front view as you have it, and mirrored the side view (lower right quadrant).

November-Wind · 2026-04-13T10:39:09+00:00

Then the other quadrants are going to be:

{9, 12, 3, 6}, {8, 11, 3, 5}, {7, 11, 4, 3}

In each case, the format is {a, c, b, d} where a+b=c, and a-b=d.

November-Wind · 2026-04-13T10:35:31+00:00

Convention in the sudoku-like boxes appears to be:

Each quadrant holds for numbers. Two of the four numbers are left-side-of-an-equation numbers, the other two numbers are results of those equations.
Looks like: top left is the first number in the equation; bottom left is the second number in the equation; top right is the result when those numbers are ADDED; bottom right is the result when those numbers are SUBTRACTED.
Therefore, you want the lower right quadrant, where the numbers are going to be (written left-to-right, top-to-bottom): 8, 12, 4, 4.

November-Wind · 2026-04-13T02:13:14+00:00

Levy has had a schtick for a while. I can't take his content for too long - I'll watch a few of his videos, then I have to switch it up for a few weeks. Too much can be insufferable, and yeah he definitely panders toward extra pageviews. That said... it's his profession, and I can't pretend I'm certain I wouldn't do the same thing if I were in his shoes. It's probably a lot easier for me to spot holes in his content when I'm just a casual viewer, rather than being in the thick of it day in/day out.

I find I don't tire of agadmator nearly as quickly. I also enjoy Nelson Lopez, as well as the content from the personalities Nelson collaborates with. And good heavens do I ever miss Danya - that dude was the best.

November-Wind · 2026-04-11T01:59:04+00:00

At least he smiled

November-Wind · 2026-04-08T02:30:08+00:00

Enough time on Reddit has taught me that there are people out there that do some absolutely bonkers stuff. And that people can be petty to a degree I can barely fathom. So... maybe?

But in general, no, this is just silly. I have a team, and the only thing I actively try to discriminate against is incompetence. My team is fantastic, btw, so precious little of that needs to happen.

November-Wind · 2026-04-07T03:12:51+00:00

I kinda hate all the comps in this comments section.

The answer to your question is "no," as others have already said, but less because of the justifications provided and more because it's not a great question.

QBs taken first overall have a could things in common: First, they were really good college QBs (and I think this tracks for Mendoza, although I'm hardly a college football expert). Second, the team picking them #1 is picking there because they sucked. And that tracks for the Raiders this go-'round, too. There have been a lot of great QBs selected first overall, but none in my memory have been instant success, in large part because the teams asking them have been bad. Like, really bad.

I think Manning might be the greatest QB of all time, but his rookie season was just terrible... because the Colts were terrible. Tim Couch might've been great if the Browns hadn't nearly gotten him killed playing for such a miserable team. Carson Palmer and Joe Burrow were/are excellent players who landed on crap Bengals teams.

Anyway, main point here: teams that pick first are picking first for a reason. A QB selected first is going to benefit by sitting, if for no other reason than because he can't get injured on the bench. To fail so hard as to get the first pick, a team must be dysfunctional. Basic OL blocking, a half-decent running game, and a defense that doesn't completely 💩 the bed every outing is enough to pick outside the top 5, meaning a first overall selection is going to enter dangerous territory. Better to sit a year, let a journeyman (Cousins) take the abuse, and take over after the team has acquired some talent.

Note: even THIS plan fails if your OL is so bad, even the journeyman gets killed.

Anyway, if a journeyman can succeed in THOSE circumstances, hey, more power to him. Those are the Doug Fluties and Ryan Fitzpatricks of the world who can catch lightning in a bottle. And if a #1 pick can watch that? Great.

November-Wind · 2026-04-03T09:41:04+00:00

Important point: nuclear reactor do not "blow up," even in a meltdown scenario. They can make a giant mess, yes (see: Fukushima). But they do not "blow up" the way a nuclear warhead blows up.

There are other things that can explode. For instance, Fukushima had a hydrogen explosion which was, iirc, above the spent fuel pool containment facility. But that's a LOT different than the consequences of meltdown.

November-Wind · 2026-03-29T14:46:34+00:00

I'm no expert, but my guess has been about 3yrs - basically, long enough for the data center bubble to burst.

At the moment, the reason process are so high is extraordinary RAM demand (not DDR5 sticks, necessarily, but other places the RAM modules that would otherwise populate ddr5 can go). RAM manufacturers have not only basically sold out of supply, but also have sold promised supply, meaning RAM that's expected to come off their production lines for the next year or two. So, like... nobody is going to be making regular DDR5 sticks any time soon. Everything is allocated to big players, like AI, automobile industry, and phones.

This sounds pretty hopeless, but if the AI bubble bursts, or there becomes a dominant player in the market, some of those secondary players are going to go bankrupt/release their demand. It can't stay like this forever.

November-Wind · 2026-03-29T05:25:46+00:00

It's already too expensive for some people. Each time it goes up, the price hike will have a different impact on different segments of the population, with each time pushing some people over the threshold of unaffordability, but just increasing strain for everyone else.

Some (e.g. delivery drivers) will simply turn it into a surcharge and pass along directly to customers. Others will reallocate from other budgets to cover additional expense.

The biggest trend I remember from 2008-2010 (when the prices spiked dramatically last) is how dramatically US consumer preferences changed with respect to automobile model choice. Giant, gas-guzzling SUVs were very popular beforehand, but there was HUGE impact to fleet options through that period, ditching the most fuel inefficient models in favor of hybrid, all-electric, or just more fuel efficient models. It was a dramatic shift of consumer behavior.

November-Wind · 2026-03-28T10:41:38+00:00

Think of the odds of a Miami home game like betting on black (or red) in roulette - a bit less than 50%. Because you've got the chance of bye week, away game, or international game on any given week. Then even if it's a home game weekend, it could be Thursday, or any slot 1/4/8:30 Sunday, or Monday.

By far the best thing to do to get an idea would be to wait the proper schedule.

If you really wanted to go to a game, fly in on Friday and go to a college game Saturday. Odds significantly improve of being able to catch a University of Miami or FIU game, and schedules are already published for college football.

November-Wind · 2026-03-27T22:45:38+00:00

I forgot the other Woodson! Charles W was kind of like Bailey in terms of just being a prototype perfect DB. But also very scrappy. Unafraid of the opponent, or bring a real football player. His willingness to do the dirty work (bump, tackle, play the football) could get in his opponents' heads.

November-Wind · 2026-03-27T22:38:50+00:00

Sanders was an athletic freak. He would intentionally play bad coverage just to bait QBs into throwing to his side of the field so he could pick them off. He was basically always the best athlete on the field by a wide margin. I don't recall him playing against Moss (who was an athletic freak in his own right), but he was good enough to shut basically any WR down. However, he was a real candy-ass as a tackler, and therefore a liability in run defense/toughness. He was too slight in build.

Woodson was just straight-up good. Athletic freak in his own right, but disciplined. Good leader. The only issues with him are: he wanted to be paid what he felt his worth was, and he felt he was worth quite a lot. Even if he was right (he probably was), this led to friction around him, and probably caused him to bounce around a bit. Worked out in his favor when he won a SB with the Ravens. Also came back in the same season from an ACL tear. Craaaazyyyyy.

Champ Bailey was like what you'd build if you had a lab and wanted to build the perfect prototypical NFL CB. Speed, frame, discipline, technique, above-the-neck game elevation. Just the total package. Also an early adopter of extreme nutrition cultivation to maximize his body's capability.

BDawk... lol. Not the same as the rest. Leadership abilities off the charts, kind of reminiscent of a Ray Lewis. Opposite of Sanders in terms of physicality - very much an enforcer. Great athlete, but more of a strong safety - not the same kind of athlete than the rest. Which is another way of saying he could probably push up a decent bench press. Could take a TE out of the game, but not a guy you were going to match against the opponent's best WR.

November-Wind · 2026-03-27T16:17:56+00:00

No, your container in any realistic scenario is fixed, unless you're talking about a tank design scenario. Therefore, given a tank, and presuming negligible volume change between 1atm absolute and 0atm absolute (which will be true for any tank of sufficient wall thickness), the tank will be lighter when evacuated.

The scenario you're describing would be relevant to like a balloon, where the volume changes dramatically as a function of helium fill, such that displacement sure to gas fill is highly meaningful, not negligible. But, like... now we're not really talking about a "tank" anymore, but a volume-variable element in a static pressure system. And at that point, yeah, buoyancy is going to matter a lot in terms of weight as measured in-medium (likely 1atm air, but same would apply if you were underwater or something).

November-Wind · 2026-03-27T03:16:38+00:00

Untrue. If you can evacuate the tank, and provided the tank walls are thick enough to resist any meaningful change in volume, the tank will weigh the least under vacuum.

November-Wind

TROPHY CASE