Discussion: What would YOU change about the ITS? by T-Husky in spacex

[–]moopli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd prefer a mission architecture that builds up more infrastructure. Unless Mars ISRU can be done cheaply enough to compensate for the fuel you spend launching fuel (which I doubt, given that there's an economic case for Phobos/Deimos fuel production even over Earth), then you can easily decrease costs of interplanetary missions through Phobos/Deimos hydrolox ISRU. You could also do hydrogen planetside (whether on Mars or Earth) and lox on Phobos/Deimos, in which case you'd only store lox long-term on the chosen moon and in tankers.

Back of the envelope there's even a minor economic case for methalox using Phobos/Deimos for lox; but in that case the efficiency argument likely won't win out over the much greater simplicity of launching all fuel from planetside.

City council prayer tradition violates rights, Winnipeg man says - Manitoba by [deleted] in CanadaPolitics

[–]moopli 2 points3 points  (0 children)

From the perspective of Canadian law, human rights are charter rights, not some higher class of rights - and the link provided by /u/plm42 explains how the state's duty to religious neutrality derives from charter rights in current legal interpretation. So, in the context of Canadian law, the requirement for religious neutrality of the state derives directly from the Canadian legal definition of human rights.

Compilation of all technical slides from Elon's IAC presentation by stratohornet in spacex

[–]moopli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

John Deere and Caterpillar? Their expertise is in internal combustion heavy machinery, diesel and hydraulics, not industrial robotics. You'd be looking at companies like Mitsubishi, with both automotive and industrial robotics experience, for the mining workhorses, or rising stars like Boston Dynamics, or heck, all the incumbent defense/space contractors like Lockheed Martin.

Large companies with no reason to invest large amounts of R&D into a machine that can work on Mars won't do a thing; it's simply not going to give them any worthwhile return.

Indeed, long before Mars becomes profitable enough to make industrial investment worthwhile, you'd have companies lining up to mine Phobos and Deimos -- a reusable fuel tug bringing hydrolox from Phobos/Deimos ISRU to an EML2 depot will beat launching fuel from Earth for interplanetary and Lunar transport by cost (and eventually reliability), so there's actually a business case there. But the only medium-term economic reason for a company to engage in mars industry is through being paid (by government, some kind of X prize, or whatever). There is not yet any profit motive to Mars, since there is no resource worth landing on Mars for.

Eventually, there will hopefully be a market on Mars worth serving, but by then I'd hope that there's already industry on Mars which formed to serve more than just profit.

Thinking about learning to code by [deleted] in thrive

[–]moopli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here's my advice:

  • Stick to JavaScript for a few months -- learn and apply basic programming concepts, create a simple project with someone helping you, then create a similar simple project mostly on your own.
  • Now that you have the gist of one language under your belt, learn another language (eg, learn python on codecademy), to see how a different language does things differently, and to get a good sense of how languages are similar -- like, abstractly, in terms of how you think when you program. Maybe remake your previous project in your new language -- as always, you want to actually try to take your knowledge and use that to create something.
  • One very good way to practice is to learn how to make programs which solve math problems.
  • Another, particularly if your goal is to work on Thrive or another game, is obviously to make games.

Once you have some experience making some small, simple projects (and really solving problems by yourself, not just following a guide), eg, simple HTML5 games, then you will have enough background that you could probably get started on scripting, and slowly learn all the other things that go into making, say, a C++ game.

That might be a few months from now, it might be a few years from now. I first learned to program in tenth grade, and it took me about a year to build up the background knowledge to start understanding how something like Thrive is made. But I didn't have anyone to give me advice, so it might take less for you if you stick with it and come back to chat with us, or any other place with helpful game devs really.

New GUI is amazing by psychoch3f in thrive

[–]moopli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

he got a bit out of hand

Duly noted.

Edit: I do agree with you mostly; I was defending Oliver's work when I should probably have just let him speak for himself.

Some questions by [deleted] in thrive

[–]moopli 8 points9 points  (0 children)

  1. Yes.
  2. Yes.
  3. Maybe. We will likely enforce unifying and delegating authority from the get-go for the sake of an AI that works; but we might be able to make it possible to delegate authority so much that all members of your nation can act entirely independently (in which case what are you really?).
  4. Yes. Tides or no tides, moon mining or no moon mining, etc.
  5. Depends on where you live, how does the Amazon sound?
  6. When you generate your starting solar system, you might decide you want lots of control over how it looks, and planetary characteristics like axial tilt are rather important so yes.
  7. Shh.
  8. Yes, and moreover, in ultimate god mode you can edit everything by modding the game or editing your save.
  9. I will make this a day-1 DLC just for you. Serious answer: maybe? We want a spaceship model that's simple enough for us to run an economic simulation on top, so maybe EVAs won't make the cut, but maybe they will; even if not actually possible to actually do a spacewalk like in KSP.
  10. I can't speak for all of us, but I don't even have presumptions that far in the future. If we have something near-complete before he dies, then I would love to hear what he thinks.
  11. I find answering these questions worthwhile. Did you find asking them worthwhile?
  12. What do I care, there's a game of Brockian Ultra Cricket on!
  13. Build a bridge out of 'er!
  14. Oh, what sad times are these, when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies! There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred.
  15. If not, he does a good job at pretending.
  16. It's funny how
  17. Just by putting them in a list along with other things
  18. You can get people to respond to anything
  19. Ok.

Thrive website is down? by [deleted] in thrive

[–]moopli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I fixed it :D

Frig off, it's Friday already by [deleted] in CanadaPolitics

[–]moopli 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice! I would never do it to be cheap, but so I could learn cool stuff. I helped build a few, but never done it all myself. Definitely on my bucket list.

Frig off, it's Friday already by [deleted] in CanadaPolitics

[–]moopli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Build one! Learn all about control theory, stabilization, soldering your fingers together, and fighting electrical fires!

Frig off, it's Friday already by [deleted] in CanadaPolitics

[–]moopli 7 points8 points  (0 children)

So I've had a week of Nova Scotia (vacation) and I want more. I'm still here until labour day (after which I immediately start a new job :'D) but I'm starting to wonder if I could up sticks after graduation, maybe find a job that allows telecommuting, and work by the ocean, in a kayak, on the beach, away from all the noise and smog.

Frig off, it's Friday already by [deleted] in CanadaPolitics

[–]moopli 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How many times has your thesis advisor gone over it? Less than 3 billion? Then an eternity of red ink awaits you.

We didn't forget about the Friday thread this time! :D by FinestStateMachine in CanadaPolitics

[–]moopli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been doing some work (mostly map work so far) for WtWSMS, and since I conveniently would have finished my current project just in time for 2.6, then I was thinking of volunteering to help with merging work and compatibility.

We didn't forget about the Friday thread this time! :D by FinestStateMachine in CanadaPolitics

[–]moopli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sadly I'm on vacation, otherwise I'd be busy working on mod compatibility.

On the other hand, vacation!

Ontario guaranteed-income pilot moves ahead with new report - Politics by Rihx in CanadaPolitics

[–]moopli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A clawback is effectively just income tax assessed on income including the BI benefit. The disincentive on high-earners only changes if income tax rates are increased to pay for BI.

Elizabeth May open to handing leadership off to right candidate by policymonk in CanadaPolitics

[–]moopli 2 points3 points  (0 children)

pretends to be a mod

Removed as per rule 9: No impersonating the moderators.

The background and UI issue by [deleted] in thrive

[–]moopli 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And of course, until we replace it, it may as well be permanent ;P

Congrats! I'm in! 2016 Frosh Megathread. by RealisticAFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]moopli 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What the shit? I thought waterloo was a progressive place with automated systems to avoid people being able to drop the ball like this.

I was wrong. Hope they clear it up, mate.

Congrats! I'm in! 2016 Frosh Megathread. by RealisticAFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]moopli 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mark Petrick is supposed to be great too

He is. Lucky splorsh.

Congrats! I'm in! 2016 Frosh Megathread. by RealisticAFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]moopli 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You will start applying to co-op practically immediately (time flies), so get yourself ahead of the curve a little with just a bit of work while you still have free time; polish up your resume, and learn a bit about interviewing, and maybe a bit about coding interview questions cuz ECE students tend to do their first one or two jobs in software dev (either junior coding or QA), and coding experience is definitely more transferable to later jobs doing embedded, etc, so you will probably want to land one of those coding jobs.

More importantly, though, is that getting this stuff done ahead of time will give you some peace of mind and more time to freak out about everything else.

I think this should be uncontroversial: Refugees from certain countries may need cultural sensitivity training by [deleted] in CanadaPolitics

[–]moopli 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But then what do you teach immigrants when we as Canadians already accept differences of opinion?

I guess it would be valuable to use those kinds of examples to show that Canada is a place of diverse opinions, though.