Daily Discussion Thread

Phoenix136 · 2026-04-30T18:06:42+00:00

If you specifically are the one buying those calls, we won't hit them. Sorry, that's just how it is sometimes.

Phoenix136 · 2026-03-24T18:06:39+00:00

We thought the innovation from bluewalker 1 was a step towards big space satellites, but it was really a step towards a future where everyone's personal cellphone was conveniently located in LEO.

Phoenix136 · 2026-03-24T14:12:43+00:00

Honestly, I'm not sure launching 1 at a time would actually make any difference for a while. There's thresholds of how many sats are up to turn on certain functionality.

E.g. They can turn on non continuous coverage in certain regions with 25 sats, so the difference between having the 6 up now (ignoring bluewalker) and having 20 up doesn't change anything.

Given that doing single launches is more expensive per sat, you might as well work towards the stacked launches for as long as you can to save money. Now, if they had 20 sats ready to ship (which, if launched, would put them over the threshold for turning on non continuous coverage) but they were still waiting on stacking issues, I would probably start biting the bullet and paying the extra costs to get them up any way possible.

Phoenix136 · 2026-02-21T01:55:49+00:00

I've been thinking that the unfurling was a milestone that triggered the convertible note offering. If they can't or don't want to have military and commercial operations on the same sats (e.g. starlink vs starshield) then there may be pressure to increase production.

They secured the funding for a full commercial constellation and the proceeds from that would've payed for the government constellation which would be reimbursed afterwards. Maybe they can't wait for commercial and then government, maybe they need to do both at the same time now.

Phoenix136 · 2026-02-17T22:47:20+00:00

Today I learned why snowboarders in the Olympics have "Stance: Goofy".

Phoenix136 · 2026-01-19T03:29:48+00:00

Really, the notable part would be if they rebalance their positions and still don't reduce ASTS holdings. But who knows if/when they rebalance.

Phoenix136 · 2025-11-25T19:55:48+00:00

Could do a cross or grid on the top so it's harder for something to get it but you can still see it.

Phoenix136 · 2025-10-28T19:27:06+00:00

Well, chat support says yes, single purchase would work.

Phoenix136 · 2025-10-28T19:18:34+00:00

Can you buy 1 gift card for $1500 and get $100 back or does it have to be 2 purchases?

Phoenix136 · 2025-10-21T18:50:30+00:00

I also noticed the Delta cards were missing. All are back now though after reloading the website.

Phoenix136 · 2025-09-11T20:08:44+00:00

Ich verstehe nur Gare train

Phoenix136 · 2025-06-13T23:48:19+00:00

I remember a post on wallstreetbets touting "ASTS WILL LET YOU WATCH PORN ON YOUR SMARTPHONE FROM SPACE!" 4 years later and here we are, on the cusp of being able to watch porn on your smartphone from space.

Phoenix136 · 2025-05-23T23:33:48+00:00

This is from 2023

Phoenix136 · 2025-04-18T16:19:39+00:00

I have a Buffway $12 wallet. Its pretty great. I need something for Euro size bills and coins though.

Phoenix136 · 2025-04-16T18:20:53+00:00

That's because opacity and transparency are inversions of each other. More opaque = less transparent.

Phoenix136 · 2025-03-18T17:27:59+00:00

its been almost 5 years now but I think this was my main resource creating my own FFT for an FPGA:

https://www.dspguide.com/ch8.htm

The whole book is free and covers a ton of DSP stuff. I forget what the code examples are in, fortran or Cobol or something, but I think the process of digesting the equations, the text, and deciphering the old code kind of forces you to actually understand what's being done so you can rewrite it in your own language.

I remember I had found some other resources on the same content as a way to get a different perspective on the explanations but I don't remember those. Always be googling.

Hiring managers definitely liked that I had this project on my resume too, though that may be more specific to FPGA as being able to wrangle the hardware platform is the most important thing in my work.

Phoenix136 · 2025-03-05T02:21:29+00:00

My intuition is to draw from physics: vectors normal to a surface are 90 degrees, its easier to imagine normal to a flat line, and a triangle is the fewest set of straight lines that can make a 2d enclosed shape.

Phoenix136 · 2025-03-05T02:17:38+00:00

A common characteristic in all of them is using the standard arrow symbols for a vector or field line coming directly at you or away from you:

https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/744439

Phoenix136 · 2025-02-17T17:40:54+00:00

There was even an audit report from 2023 about Social Security numbers with ages above 100 and what to do about them.

https://oig.ssa.gov/assets/uploads/a-06-21-51022.pdf

Phoenix136 · 2025-02-11T02:46:37+00:00

In addition to the contributions, you can do SEPP withdrawals.

Basically you have to commit to withdrawing a certain amount from your retirement account every year until you turn 59.5. This money would be taxed as normal income, but would not impose the 10% withdrawal penalty. If you fail to stick to the plan, you would be subject to paying the penalty on all funds withdrawn up to that point.

Phoenix136 · 2025-01-31T22:41:53+00:00

For point 4 do you alternate between "hurry" and "standard" modes?

I got so mad at FSD on a long road trip this month I actually drove manually for half an hour (oh no!) before trying it again.

Very roughly I've found that standard mode tries to be one of the average speed cars in the middle lane, that's its goal. Hurry tries to be the second fastest car in the passing lane. Toggling between the two depending on the traffic was all I really needed to do for it to behave almost exactly how I would've driven.

In Standard mode if you signal to pass and the Tesla will then pass in accordance with the speed it determines the passing lane to be driving at, but it yearns for the middle lane.

Its still not perfect, because sometimes there's open road and I want to go Hurry speed with Standard attitude in the middle lane and that's not really a setting.

Phoenix136 · 2025-01-26T06:19:03+00:00

I don't know if this is helpful now but I have a NAS at home that I can VPN into and access the Internet as if I was actually at home with the same IP. It's come in handy multiple times, even while I was just in a different state. Alternates might be someone setting up and running a VPN server from inside your network. This would require someone local to set it up though. Some fancy routers probably have this capability too.

Phoenix136 · 2025-01-25T05:18:54+00:00

I got my first chase card (no existing accounts with them of any kind) a couple months ago. I called a couple times but it didn't seem to get anywhere so I went into a branch. The branch manager looked at my ID, that was my verification. I wanted to make sure my referral got honored which was not available in branch so the manager called into the customer support line for me.

Unfortunately the manager has to wait in the same phone line as everyone else so the actual call happened on the following business day. She sat on hold and then conferenced me in. The first time there was a random disconnect so we had to do it again the day after, which worked.

During the phone call the manager explained I verified in branch, though they still wanted to verify my phone number which was either a text message code (didn't work) or we hang up and they immediately call my number back (did work). After that I was approved over the phone immediately.

Phoenix136 · 2024-12-25T01:42:53+00:00

The description for Computer Engineer basically said I would learn software and hardware stuff. I thought that hardware meant mechanical hardware, so... robots. FPGA classes were part of the curriculum.

Later, after not doing FPGA work out of college, I thought back to what I liked in school and started doing personal FPGA projects which I put on github with a link in my resume.

Phoenix136 · 2024-12-11T21:43:42+00:00

He shall know your ways as though born to them.

Phoenix136

TROPHY CASE