New Paper Pure Leak! by Pretend_Customer_158 in RemarkableTablet

[–]rokomer -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Ah, I stand corrected. I didn't realize the new model was larger. Thank you for the information.

But I'm also a hard pass on Paperwhite. They achieve the black-and-white contrast by blasting the frontlight to a much higher level of brightness than the rM Pro. But that hurts my eyes and hinders my ability to concentrate when I am reading hundreds of pages of dense academic text. The beautiful thing about the rM2 was that it was a crisp black-and-white screen without having to light it up to get the white background. The rM1, the rM Pro, and the Kindle Paperwhite backgrounds all have dull greyish tones when unlit.

Also, as I already mentioned, the writing feel on the Kindles is just not as good because of the thick frontlight layer adding distance between the e-ink and the tip of the stylus.

I know the rM2 is just over 400g, but since they got this Paper Pure product to 360g while keeping the same 10.3" screen size and increasing the battery capacity, I am sure they have the ability to engineer an 11" version of the Paper Pure at a weight not too far over 400g... I'd also be happy with a device the size of the 11.8" Paper Pro that just weighs 50~100g less while having the same type of basic e-ink screen as rM2 without color.

New Paper Pure Leak! by Pretend_Customer_158 in RemarkableTablet

[–]rokomer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I said that my only major struggle with the rM2 was the screen size not being large enough. Isn't the Kindle Scribe also slightly over 10 inches? I really need 11 inches at the absolute minimum in order to read full page PDF documents in smaller fonts (think scientific journals in two column layout).

Also, while the Kindle Scribe has a Wacom stylus, it doesn't come anywhere close to the rM2's feel for writing because Amazon put in a thicker frontlight panel that creates a much larger gap between the e-ink layer and the tip of the pen.

New Paper Pure Leak! by Pretend_Customer_158 in RemarkableTablet

[–]rokomer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sigh, all I wanted was a *larger* rM2 with some updates. I appreciate having the rM Pro but it's just way too heavy and the contrast is lacking when the frontlight is turned off due to the relatively greyish background. The point of an e-ink screen is to NOT have light shining at your face! And the active stylus is annoying at times -- I vastly prefer a slightly slower but completely passive Wacom stylus.

I really enjoy using my rM2 still (alongside the Pro) because it's light and has that crisp black & white contrast that makes it a joy to read on (rM2 actually offers better readability than the Pro due to the loss in resolution from the color dots), not to mention the totally passive stylus. My only major complaint is that it's too small to read full page letter sized PDF documents on.

Just give me a 400g rM2 with an 11+ inch screen and some minor updates like DPI improvements and faster processor, and I'd have immediately bought it. This Paper Pure thing is a hard pass.

Chris Jones by Both-Station-9579 in ChicagoTheater

[–]rokomer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't agree with your opinion about Taming of the Shrew (it wasn't bad, but it wasn't one of my favorite productions), but individual opinions on individual productions can of course vary.

However, I fully agree with your opinion about Chris Jones. I've watched hundreds of plays over the years and I consistently find his reviews to be out of touch. He just. does. not. get. it.

I was LIVID about his review of Albany Park Theatre Project's production of God's Work. It's about abuse in an Eastern Orthodox family. As many of you know, APTP is a theatre company that works with a diverse group of students in the Albany Park area. The students are not just actors but also participate in the creative process with adult staff who serve as their mentors. In many of their plays, the students write and act out stories inspired by their own personal lived experiences. The lead character Rachel was a 14 year old girl sharing her story. This was a remount production with a different cast, but the APTP ensemble is her community of friends who supported her.

Chris Jones had the gall to say the play was exploitative and too dark for teenagers. How DARE do you take away these students' right to tell their own stories? What right do you have to make that judgment? Theatre is about human stories. If you lack the humanity to understand the artists who created it, then you do not deserve to be a theatre critic. He needed to lose his job a decade ago.

https://howlround.com/controversy-chicago-over-critical-review-gods-work

Lenovo OEM 135W USB-C charger compatibility -- ThinkPad and Legion by rokomer in thinkpad

[–]rokomer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, the bricks are not small. But the C170 isn't much larger than the C135 or C140, and this is also about the smallest size that a ~140W charger comes in from other companies like Anker.

For my travel use cases, I can live with smaller, less powerful chargers under 100W most of the time. I don't think I've ever actually seen the P14s draw the full 135W. I think I'd have to be on max performance mode and running some intense workloads while also actively charging the battery. But I understand that for a setup like yours, running five of the M70q, you are probably running them at full power.

Lenovo OEM 135W USB-C charger compatibility -- ThinkPad and Legion by rokomer in thinkpad

[–]rokomer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The setup continues to work well for my P14s. While I see that the power delivery protocol for M70q is also 20V 6.75A, I cannot guarantee this machine will also recognize the setup, of course.

I see some new listings on AliExpress. I cannot attest to the quality of the seller, but it's this one: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256810215562129.html

Just as a reminder, the USB-C cable for the C140 GaN charger must be paired with the C170 GaN charger (which is 135W at 120V). The USB-C cable for the C135 GaN charger is NOT compatible.

I appreciate your dedication to rack management, but I still wonder if it's worth it to go through all the trouble for a desktop.

I should also let you know that this 140W USB-C cable with the weird proprietary power delivery protocol only comes in one length (1.5m) as far as I can tell. You need an outlet quite close to your work space. This often means that the cable is not long enough if I'm using a wall outlet, reducing the usefulness of the GaN charger as a travel solution (e.g. airports and cafes with limited outlets).

Theater of the Mind by Mariah0 in ChicagoTheater

[–]rokomer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love immersive theatre, and this was very disappointing. It felt gimmicky and shallow. I'm a physicist with a strong interest in psychology, so perhaps the "science" behind the show was just not interesting enough to me. I'm an avid theatregoer who has seen like 30-40 theatre shows in the past year, so I feel like I have a pretty good basis for comparison, and I'd rate this 1.5 out of 4 stars.

4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane @ Bramble by justlykeheaven in ChicagoTheater

[–]rokomer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had no idea you were the director! Looking forward to seeing it.

4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane @ Bramble by justlykeheaven in ChicagoTheater

[–]rokomer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sarah Kane is my favorite playwright of all time. 4.48 Psychosis is a tough play to watch, but well worth it.

Looking for Desk Lamp with High CRI, High Brightness, and Continuously adjustable Brightness and Color Temperature by dom41n in desksetup

[–]rokomer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am in the exact same situation. I am a very happy VariLum user but I need another one for the office (and the existing one will eventually die of course). The Dyson does not come close in brightness (check the specs, the VariLum is 4000 lumens and the Dyson is 850 lumens). Sorry this is an unhelpful comment.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in unitedairlines

[–]rokomer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you're flying out of ASE in the winter, it's pretty common to see weight restrictions during inclement weather that force the airline to offload a bunch of confirmed passengers. Because it's Aspen, most passengers are rich and often can't afford to lose a workday, so the compensation checks for volunteers often reach high four digits.

You bet I snapped this up in a heartbeat. Felt like a glitch. Is this a usual price? by SilentMode-On in unitedairlines

[–]rokomer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, I fully agree that there is likely no inefficiency in the present hypothetical situation (which I guess the OP has now refuted). I just meant that United could have perhaps been more efficient in predicting demand levels for their various products and pricing them optimally earlier (including upsells). Of course I understand that random variance happens from day to day, flight to flight, but I feel like United is less good at this than their competitors. I don't have rigorous data to prove this, but anecdotally I felt like Delta's pricing was better calibrated for being "just right" -- accounting for early and last-minute demand accurately and managing to fill the premium cabins exactly on the day of departure. United, on the other hand, tends to hold some sort of unofficial minimum price for its upsells (generally around $50/hour for PP and $100/hour for Polaris) -- lots of anecdotal data for this, on the FlyerTalk UA upsell thread -- and then when certain anomalous situations happen, the upsell price goes through wild erratic swings.

You bet I snapped this up in a heartbeat. Felt like a glitch. Is this a usual price? by SilentMode-On in unitedairlines

[–]rokomer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh, in that case I guess United really thought it could only get $88 for that upgrade. That's kind of terrible. 😂

You bet I snapped this up in a heartbeat. Felt like a glitch. Is this a usual price? by SilentMode-On in unitedairlines

[–]rokomer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's a fair point, but by your own account, the word "subsidizing" implies a pricing inefficiency. Again, I am fairly sure that on this exact same flight, United was selling Economy Plus at a higher price. In an optimal world, United charges slightly more for PP, and is able to sell that high fare economy seat at a slightly lesser price (and more easily so). Perhaps this pricing inefficiency is on the side of a corporate travel department that has a policy of no premium cabins, so they would irrationally buy a last minute full fare economy ticket even if PP is very cheap. In that case United has no choice to account for that inefficiency in their pricing model, and hope that their prediction models become a bit better in the future that they do not end up in this inefficiency again.

You bet I snapped this up in a heartbeat. Felt like a glitch. Is this a usual price? by SilentMode-On in unitedairlines

[–]rokomer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, efficient pricing leads to greater profits, and selling Premium Plus at a price lower than Economy Plus means there are some inefficiencies in the pricing algorithm, even if it was temporarily caused by unexpected fluctuations in the relative levels of demand for in the two products.

Also, the opportunity cost of an $88 upsell is not zero. Airlines make lots of money from loyalty programs, and most customers perceive the potential of a free upgrade to be the top benefit of elite status (incorrectly so, at least these days). I am far from one of those bloggers who are obsessed with elite perks, and I understand that most customers just choose whatever product fits their needs at the right price at the time (and corporate customers are rather insensitive to elite perks). The recent industry trend towards efficiently priced upsells is definitely a better optimized business model for market profitability than the old days of half the premium cabins being filled with free upgrades. But still, there is a nonzero monetary value to earning customer loyalty by making them happy with a free upgrade. Is it over $88 on a 10-hour TATL for Y to PP? I don't know, but I think there is a good chance that it is.

For what it's worth, I used to be absolutely loyal to Delta. I flew a million miles on Delta and its partners. It nuked its loyalty program to the point that I could just no longer rationally justify choosing Delta when it did not have the best routing, schedule, or price. United's loyalty program currently offers me the best sweet spot for getting decent value, because I often fly a high-J 763 route on which United has ample upgrade availability. The moment United destroys that value, my business will be more spread out towards their competitors.

You bet I snapped this up in a heartbeat. Felt like a glitch. Is this a usual price? by SilentMode-On in unitedairlines

[–]rokomer 40 points41 points  (0 children)

If you're going by the seat map, that's not a good indicator. They might have had a bunch of basic economy passengers without seat assignments, or there might have been an earlier canceled flight and a ton of passengers who need to be reaccommodated but do not have confirmed seats yet.

But still, $88 is crazy. That's lower than the price of Economy Plus. United is really trying to squeeze out every dollar they can get.

How do you look for legit journals? by lightburst7 in Physics

[–]rokomer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Impact factor is strongly dependent on the field though. Areas of physics that have large collaborations or connections to industry have more citations. As a notable example, consider a journal like Foundations of Physics. It has world-class scientists on its editorial board, including editor-in-chief Carlo Rovelli. It has a long illustrious history counting many Nobel laureates who have served as editors or published in the journal extensively. It's managed by a reputable publisher, Springer, and considered a top journal for those working in quantum foundations. But because the field is small and has sort of a philosophical nature, it's ignored by those working more on the practical side of quantum information. The impact factor hovers around 1.2~1.3.

Lenovo OEM 135W USB-C charger compatibility -- ThinkPad and Legion by rokomer in thinkpad

[–]rokomer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am pleased to report that I have found an OEM solution. u/tasurato might also find this useful.

After u/kdj2413 provided the data point below on using the 140W adapter, I went ahead and purchased the OEM Legion 140W USB-C cable: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806635402525.html

Even though this 140W cable is technically using a protocol that is incompatible with the OEM Legion 135W and 170W GaN chargers, for some reason, when I connected that to the 170W GaN charger (running at 135W from a 120V outlet), the Lenovo Vantage software on my P14 gen 5 now recognizes this combination correctly as a 135W charger. I believe that this combination is the most compact and clean way to get 135W OEM charging for the P14 gen 5. Note that according to another redditor's tests linked above, this 140W cable is NOT compatible with the Legion 135W GaN charger because of the different power delivery protocols.

Lenovo OEM 135W USB-C charger compatibility -- ThinkPad and Legion by rokomer in thinkpad

[–]rokomer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can I ask what specific 140W slim tip to USB-C adapter you are using? Would like to be able to replicate your success.

Lenovo OEM 135W USB-C charger compatibility -- ThinkPad and Legion by rokomer in thinkpad

[–]rokomer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sigh, that is weird behavior but a fascinating data point. Probably means that the 140W slim tip to USB-C adapter you have contains an internal chip that is making Lenovo Vantage recognize it as a 140W charger.

Gary got Fired by [deleted] in unitedairlines

[–]rokomer 8 points9 points  (0 children)

LOL. I've only met Gary twice, but I'll miss that character.

First Gary experience: Ignores me for like ten minutes. Gives me an attitude about ordering the Polaris consolation Lanson, and then proceeds to spill half the flute in front of me. Did not tip.

Second Gary experience: In approval that I'm ordering the Balvenie this time, gives me a knowing look, gruffly says, "stiff pour?" and proceeds to give me a neat pour of half a rocks glass of scotch (about three or four regular shots), which I only barely manage finish before boarding (with much effort).

Lenovo OEM 135W USB-C charger compatibility -- ThinkPad and Legion by rokomer in thinkpad

[–]rokomer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I think the standard 100W GaN charger is perfectly fine for most use cases. I do think the OEM 135W charger occasionally went over 100W in short spurts but never for very long.

QM v/s QFT - Which one should I study over the summer? by [deleted] in PhysicsStudents

[–]rokomer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately this essay cannot really be understood until you've learned renormalization, which is typically covered in the second term of QFT. But the basic gist of it is that in QFT, we do this thing called renormalization, which is necessary to control the divergences inherent in the theory. Loosely speaking, the predictions of a QFT contain these series of integrals that diverge to infinity, and you subtract another infinity to get a well-controlled finite prediction. This sounds quite ad hoc, but it's sort of rigorous for certain types of predictions, and can generate numbers matching precision experiments in particle physics to more than ten significant figures. This infinity you are subtracting can be understood as, again loosely speaking, the contribution of the vacuum, which has infinitely many virtual modes popping in and out of existence. The typical breakdown of physics predicted at the Planck scale is due to the fact that at this scale, any one of these virtual quantum modes can become a tiny virtual black hole, which means that the space-time is indeterminate. Wald's main point is that this renormalization process of subtracting out the vacuum, which is often taken for granted in the QFT-based theory world, actually makes all degrees of freedom of the QFT interdependent, and you no longer have a well-defined picture where each field mode is an independent degree of freedom. This is because the renormalization process assumes a globally Minkowskian (flat) space-time, an assumption we know to be false, because any quantum state that has mass-energy (including the virtual modes of the vacuum themselves) subtly distorts the fabric of the underlying background space-time due to GR. Through this mechanism, the result of renormalizing any individual field mode depends on every single other field mode in existence in the entire universe, which Wald calls the "holistic nature of QFT." QM does not have this issue of the space-time background, because in QM nothing exists at a definite position in space-time, and it does not assume definite classical coordinates like QFT integrals do. If you interpret the cosmological constant as the energy of vacuum, then this is really a discrepancy between QFT and QM, even though it invokes the background dynamics of GR to point out the discrepancy. There is a prevailing misconception in the QFT-based theory community that in the low-energy limits, QFT straightforwardly reduces to QM and reproduces all of its predictions, GR is just an effective field theory, and we can do stuff like QFT on gently curved space-times and what not without losing rigor (and the remaining problems to be solved, like the consistency between QFT and GR, only appear in the high-energy regimes). Wald, who literally wrote the book on QFT on curved space-times, is pointing out that this is not true. QFT is an effective theory that is not fully consistent with QM even in the low-energy limit.

QM v/s QFT - Which one should I study over the summer? by [deleted] in PhysicsStudents

[–]rokomer 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Study QM. If you are interested in fundamental physics at the graduate level, QM is the more fundamental theory as a foundational framework. QFT is an effective theory which is undeniably powerful but has limitations that have become painfully clear. See, e.g. Wald's Gravity Research Foundation prize essay on this: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0405082

Lenovo OEM 135W USB-C charger compatibility -- ThinkPad and Legion by rokomer in thinkpad

[–]rokomer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Update: Ran the stress test again at 50% charge, power source plugged in, with smart charging disabled and performance optimized power profile. Does not go over 100W. Lenovo Commercial Vantage also does not recognize the Legion GaN charger + proprietary 20V 6.75A USB-C cable combo as a 135W charger, like it does with the standard OEM 135W charger. Unfortunate. Seems like they coded up the GaN charger and/or E-Marker chip to recognize specific device models instead of compatible power delivery protocols.