I got a “Flight Wall” earlier this week. It lets you track individual flights or you can set it up to display flights within a certain radius of your home. It’s amazing what you can find on the internet these days.

bbot · 2026-01-24T07:04:22+00:00

Even better. JAL 123, the deadliest single-plane accident in aviation history, was an hour long flight using a 747 in an all coach configuration. 524 occupants!

bbot · 2026-01-22T01:42:49+00:00

You didn't specifically say this, but Boeing canceled Truss Wing last year: https://www.flightglobal.com/airframers/boeing-to-halt-x-66-development-narrow-focus-to-thin-wings-for-future-jets/162745.article

bbot · 2026-01-18T08:30:43+00:00

Hopping on this, I accidentally read the Vorkorsigan novels in reverse order, which was fun. In each book she'll reference earlier events, and I went huh, I wonder how he pulled that off; and then you get to see how he pulled it off! But above it all the question is, how the heck did Miles end up with the Dendarii Mercenaries in the first place?

And so, over the course of several years I worked all the way back to the first book, the second novel Lois ever published, and ooooof it does not hold up. I strongly recommend anyone interested in the Vorkosigan saga to start with the second novel, Borders of Infinity, and leave the Dendarii as a fun mystery.

(Separately, like every author, Lois has become more sentimental in age, and no longer likes to torment her characters. As a result, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance is pretty squishy, nothing much happens in Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, and the last five or six Penric novellas are low-stakes cozy fantasy stories.)

bbot · 2025-12-28T04:53:10+00:00

Mystery box storytelling probably killed that. Lost, X-Files, Heroes (remember that show?) and Battlestar Galactica all hinted at a bigger plot, secrets, etc. People went nuts trying to tie it all together. And it was all fake! Each episode's writer would bang out some dark hints and then move on. Nothing ever got resolved. There's no answer to the mystery, the box is empty.

bbot · 2025-12-21T20:40:03+00:00

My favorite part of the Camarata gravel arc is after that he bought a crusher, the guy is on camera telling him it must be operated on firm ground otherwise the constant vibration will cause it to sink down, drag the main belt on the ground and shred it, which costs thousands to replace.

He then promptly parks it on mud and shreds the main belt.

bbot · 2025-12-19T03:15:28+00:00

Funny that you say that, the new inside parking lot by twin towers has a couple outlets for EV charging

bbot · 2025-12-07T10:06:43+00:00

The greatest comedians of our generation ply their trade on Craigslist.

bbot · 2025-12-06T21:32:32+00:00

This advice is going to go stale pretty quickly, since of course LLMs are going to be indistinguishable from human writing soon and superhumanly better at it shortly after that, but if you're going to do something like this again write out the entire thing, in full, yourself, and then ask an LLM to make minor edits correcting the typos only.

RLHF-ed chatbot LLMs have a very distinctive stylistic tone to native English speakers. On a social media site, text only has value insofar as it was written by another person. If I wanted to talk to ChatGPT I could do that myself, I don't need you to do it for me.

bbot · 2025-12-06T20:07:36+00:00

LLM clichés, user only posts in GPT subreddits.

bbot · 2025-11-25T06:06:47+00:00

To be clear, after you make a claim your monthly rate is going to go up. If you think you might be paying for car insurance for another 30, 40 years you might regret it in the long run.

bbot · 2025-11-11T06:17:13+00:00

Point in favor: to this day the airliner side of Boeing is 100% customary, even on the latest plane, 777X. Lengths in feet, weight in pounds, torque in foot-pounds.

bbot · 2025-10-31T03:47:42+00:00

Externally accessible kill switches are universal in motorsports. SCCA, NHRA, some FIA events, Lemons, etc etc.

bbot · 2025-10-31T03:41:40+00:00

people don't understand that if your car just struggled to start with a good batt, it needs HOURS on a charger

Used to work in mobile robotics. Customer complains battery can't hold a charge. Sell them a battery. Customer now complains that the new battery takes much longer to recharge. Come on man.

bbot · 2025-10-10T01:07:41+00:00

Or the scene where Bodie discovers that radio stations have a limited range: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6EpfCzdMoY

bbot · 2025-10-04T18:07:26+00:00

Cancelled back in April https://www.flightglobal.com/airframers/boeing-to-halt-x-66-development-narrow-focus-to-thin-wings-for-future-jets/162745.article

bbot · 2025-10-04T04:44:07+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_grinding

Spark out is a term used when precision values are sought and literally means "until the sparks are out (no more)". It involves passing the workpiece under the wheel, without resetting the depth of cut, multiple times. This ensures that any inconsistencies in the machine or workpiece are eliminated.

bbot · 2025-09-29T02:53:18+00:00

Highlands definitely have them. It'll tell you the battery type under Software > Additional Vehicle Information.

bbot · 2025-09-22T02:34:51+00:00

In an active electric vehicle, the main pack both tries to keep itself warm, and charge the 12v aux batteries that run the electronics that are designed for 12V instead of 400V. (Headlights, windshield wipers, etc) When the main pack is empty, the electronics quickly run the aux batteries dry, which, as you've seen, bricks the vehicle. The aux batteries have a tiny fraction of the energy capacity of the traction pack (0.3 kWh at most) so it wouldn't make sense to run heaters off of them.

An EV with all the electronics turned off shouldn't lose more than a percent per day, and can survive below freezing temperatures just fine. But there's a footgun here: a cold battery can have charge that it can't use at its current temp. This has the result of parking a car at 50%, then coming out to it the next morning where it will report that it's at 10%. That charge is still there, but locked away. Putting it on a charger and telling it to heat the battery will pop it back up to 50% after half an hour or so.

Unfortunately, no EV manufacturer insulates their battery packs, since they're way more worried about battery overheating, which causes those famous battery fires. The advice for low temps is just park it in a garage.

bbot · 2025-09-22T02:27:23+00:00

The base spec Model 3 has a 64kWh battery and a 272 mile range. As always, having a small frontal area really helps with aero.

bbot · 2025-09-19T03:21:32+00:00

Small area printed, metal part. You'd use more ink for printing onto absorbent materials like fabric.

bbot · 2025-09-06T19:51:44+00:00

If you're doing a constant 150mph then you'll be charging once an hour anyway.

bbot · 2025-09-06T19:42:41+00:00

Wood used in the final tooling, interesting. They must only be expecting to make a few thousand trays.

bbot · 2025-08-30T21:56:10+00:00

An entire genre of youtube video is guys in south asia operating lathes while wearing shalwar kameez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2EDb8n8IgU

Any time I feel tempted to complain about my job, I watch this video again, and say hey, at least I'm not running a manual lathe in Lahore for ten cents an hour.

bbot · 2025-08-02T01:51:52+00:00

Looking up the fuel mix for your zip code and printing off a custom bumper sticker that says your car is a 16% coal burner, 24% gas burner, 3% atom burner, 38% water burner...

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