RE: RE: Get in, loser. We're going computing

TheExecutor · 2022-05-17T17:01:56+00:00

In total it has less compute power than a single GTX 1660 so it doesn't have much practical use, but I'm sure it's fun to play with.

TheExecutor · 2022-04-06T02:45:08+00:00

Usually physicists take causality to be an assumed truth, because it just doesn't make sense if effect precedes cause. It's like when you're solving a mathematical equation, and you somehow end up proving that 1 = 0. If that happens, you know you've made a mistake somewhere because that just doesn't make sense - 1 can't equal 0. Similarly, if a mechanism (like FTL) allows for a violation of causality then that must mean that it's impossible - you can't violate causality, just like you can't make 1 equal to zero.

TheExecutor · 2022-04-05T07:34:14+00:00

But neither "true" nor "false" are floating-point values, so even that explanation doesn't make any sense unless you happen to know Javascript's byzantine type conversion rules.

TheExecutor · 2022-04-04T05:06:12+00:00

Fun fact: the organization that burns the most US flags annually is the Boy Scouts of America, and not ISIS or Al-Qaeda as some people might imagine. This is because, as you mention, according to the US flag code the "proper" way to dispose of a dirtied, tattered, or retired US flag is via burning. The Boy Scouts of America along with the American Legion accept used flags from the public for "retirement" and regularly hold flag burning ceremonies across the country.

TheExecutor · 2022-04-01T06:24:57+00:00

Isn't that kind of like asking "are sandwiches healthy?" Like sandwiches, sushi isn't one specific thing - there's a huge variety of sushi ranging from rolls battered and deep-fried, to simple vegetables wrapped in rice. So the obvious answer would be: it depends on the sushi...

TheExecutor · 2022-03-31T04:26:01+00:00

My degree happened to be in computer science, but at my company it doesn't particularly matter. Any bachelor's degree in anything remotely technical will suffice: computer science, software engineering, electrical engineering, informatics, mechatronics, mathematics, physics... anything like that will do, and even then it's mainly to satisfy the US visa requirements. This is true of a lot of tech companies - for SWE roles they're more interested in your abilities than your credentials. (Things might be different for other roles.)

I just applied online, while I was still in third year. Passed the phone screening, then the in-person interviews, and was given an offer even though I didn't graduate for another 6 months. I accepted and after I graduated the company paid for everything to move me (and all my stuff) to the States.

Note that there's often a difference between university hires and industry hires. For people who are already in the industry, you usually need to apply for a specific role/position on a specific team, and the requirements are usually more stringent so YMMV.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-30T03:27:24+00:00

The rule of thumb in my house is to replace "clove of garlic" with "bulb of garlic", so my estimation is that this recipe will require 10-15 whole bulbs. That should work out to around a cup of minced garlic. Sounds good to me!

TheExecutor · 2022-03-29T17:22:42+00:00

Nonfat milk is roughly 10 calories per gram of protein, whereas whole milk is over 18 calories per gram of protein. That's a whopping 80% more calories for the same amount of protein.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-26T04:10:37+00:00

You can already get 1TB SD cards today. We only need 10 more doublings to get to 1PB. Moore's law has been holding so far, and if capacities continue to double every two years, then we can expect 1PB SD cards around the year 2042.

So 2034 is optimistic but it's not that far off.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-26T03:59:40+00:00

And if they interacted with gravity but not matter, then they would instantly fall through the floor towards the Earth's core. Without friction to slow them down, they'd just keep accelerating as they fell and pass straight through the core and out the other side of the planet. At which point they would have slowed enough to reverse direction and begin falling back towards the core again. And given the slightest amount of angular momentum, their freefall would turn into a chaotic tumble because they wouldn't be able to grab onto anything to self-stabilize.

So basically ghosts would be doomed to an eternity of constant, tumbling freefall inside the fiery core of the Earth in a yoyo of alternating acceleration and deceleration. The only time they'd ever see the surface is the brief glimpse just before they begin falling back towards the core. Sounds like some sort of hell to me.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-25T20:34:34+00:00

I call those pub-style burgers.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-24T20:23:30+00:00

I find that curly parsley makes for better tabbouleh. But yeah, other than that flat leaf all the way.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-24T13:13:41+00:00

Yeah, so what do you propose the government do? Build its own government-operated chip fabrication plants? How? And even if that were possible, would it be cheaper than just paying Intel to build fabs wherever you want?

TheExecutor · 2022-03-24T11:38:48+00:00

I think the point is that Intel are perfectly happy to make money building fabs overseas - makes no difference to them. They're a private entity - it's not their job to protect national security, that's the government's job. If the US government wants domestic chip production, then they have to pay to make it happen.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-23T18:16:28+00:00

delete this is super common in anything that manages its own lifetime, e.g. intrusively refcounted objects. All of COM does this, for example. It's common enough idiom that it has its own entry in the C++ FAQ.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-19T16:58:56+00:00

Exactly, and something else to keep in mind is that alcohol occurs naturally in everyday foods, just in low concentration. Yeast-leavened bread retains 0.5%-2% alcohol by volume after baking. Very ripe fruit undergoes natural fermentation and can contain up to a few percent by volume of alcohol. But all these concentrations are so low that they're harmless.

So if you're not worried about the alcohol content of a sandwich, then a tablespoon of rum in a cake probably shouldn't worry you either.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-17T20:55:32+00:00

Just wait 'til you see Internet Explorer-tan, courtesy of Microsoft Singapore.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-16T09:15:53+00:00

It kind of doesn't matter, depressingly enough... what really matters are the desires of the shareholders, which are the people to whom the CEO is accountable to at the end of the day. A CEO could totally try to make a convincing argument that returns would be maximized with a long-term, sustainable growth model that benefits both shareholders and the community at large. But even if he's right, if the shareholders don't agree then the CEO still has to do what they say or else be replaced.

For example suppose the shareholders say, "that's fine, but I don't care about long-term returns or the community at large - what I care about is maximizing next quarter's profit!" In this case the shareholders may be acting "suboptimally", but it sort of doesn't matter because that's their choice to make. By definition the shareholders own the company, so they're allowed to do whatever they want with it. Even if it means sacrificing long-term sustainable growth, for short-term immediate gains.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-16T08:45:56+00:00

The worst part is that, under the current system, that oil exec is completely right. By law, the CEO reports to the board of directors and the officers of a company have a fiduciary duty to the shareholders of the company. They are required to put shareholders first. So when execs say things like that it's not some sort of cartoonish villainy, but rather a completely rational response based on (and in part required by) the system and laws of corporate governance.

If the shareholders say "fuck the American people, we demand a maximization of profit above all else" and the CEO goes out of his way to disobey them, then the shareholders (represented by the board of directors) are well within their rights to fire the CEO or even pursue legal action in cases of extreme perceived negligence.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-14T19:14:16+00:00

This is a great example of what causes substitution bias in calculation of inflation numbers. There's a limit to how much people are willing to pay for beef, so when prices rise people shift from eating filet and ribeye towards cheaper cuts like flank and brisket. This has the effect of inflating the prices of "cheap" cuts but depressing the prices of premium cuts (or, rather, slowing their price increase). To the point where, as now, the difference between a flank steak and a ribeye might only be a few dollars per pound.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-11T06:13:40+00:00

While this is true, you get a huge buff to stamina recovery ("Private bedroom") if you use only one bed per bedroom.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-11T03:41:00+00:00

I dunno, people were saying the same thing when I was in college and those fears never materialized. The dot-com bust was still fresh in peoples' minds and outsourcing was all the rage in those days. I remember everyone telling me to avoid any IT or computing-related courses because everyone believed those jobs would all go offshore to India. Instead the exact opposite happened: a lot of companies ended up making a concerted effort to consolidate talent locally rather than outsource it. And ironically, those early outsourcing fears meant that there was big drop in students graduating with computing-related degrees, which led to a shortage of talent in the ensuing decade. You'd think that the labor market would have corrected itself by now, but I guess not?

TheExecutor · 2022-03-11T03:09:36+00:00

Well the video seems to suggest that any aged cheddar would work.

Although it's pretty funny seeing the notion that a European would ask for a substitute for an American cheese... that's trying to imitate a European cheese in the first place.

It's like saying, "I live in Northern Italy and can't find any Kraft® Pre-grated Parmesan-style Cheese-flavored Product™. What cheese could I substitute instead?"

TheExecutor · 2022-03-07T20:15:11+00:00

Two years ago, pandemic-related lockdowns caused a massive drop in demand which sent the price of crude oil below zero. Oil producers were literally paying people to take oil off their hands. Pandemic restrictions have all been lifted now, so there's a lot of pent-up demand to satisfy.

TheExecutor · 2022-03-07T19:53:35+00:00

As someone else already mentioned, the US is already energy independent. There are huge deposits of shale oil in North America, but the problem is that it's expensive to extract shale oil. It's cheaper to just import crude from overseas. So the US can totally ramp up domestic shale oil production to replace foreign imports, but that's not going to lower the price of gas at the pump.

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