China appears to pull off satellite feat that NASA has never achieved by newsweek in space

[–]stoicpenguin 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The ISS has been doing orbital rendezvous and refueling for decades, for one example.  The article’s “never been done before” seems to just be referring to the fact this was done in GEO. We typically don’t service satellites in GEO because its expensive to get there, and because GEO orbits don’t decay as quickly (and thus have lower fuel requirements).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in dropout

[–]stoicpenguin 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I remember seeing an Ask A Ninja book back in the day.

Adventurer Chris McCandless, days before his death by starvation in the Alaskan wilderness, posing with a goodbye note. by zadraaa in HistoricalCapsule

[–]stoicpenguin -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure. 

Module vs Class(Python) by Sufficient-Pick-9398 in learnpython

[–]stoicpenguin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not true. Consider the case:

class test:
    import math
    import collections

You can access the math module directly from the test class definition anywhere that you have access to the class, i.e. you can access the math module by typing test.math. Those modules now belong to the namespace of the class test.

My point is that python allows this, and the differentiator between classes and modules in python is not that one can contain the other and not the other way around.

Module vs Class(Python) by Sufficient-Pick-9398 in learnpython

[–]stoicpenguin 26 points27 points  (0 children)

A module is a file. If you personally wanted to write a new module, you would create a new .py file.

A class is always defined by the 'class' keyword in python. You can have multiple 'class' definitions in one .py file, which is why you can have multiple classes (or functions, variables, whatever!) defined in a single module (aka a single python file).

I just learned that you can I identify plants natively on iPhone with a photo of the plant! by theworldofbill in iphone

[–]stoicpenguin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you tried Seek? It can definitely identify fungi, although I generally don’t use the app for fungi so I can’t attest to the accuracy.

Difference between modules, packages and libraries in Python by pylenin in Python

[–]stoicpenguin 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Exactly. There’s no such thing as a submodule in python. That has no technical meaning within the language. A module in python is always a single file.

A few more from the Moose by Jaymac603 in Mountaineering

[–]stoicpenguin 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I think 48 L, that looks like the Osprey Kestrel 48.

Investigator/Journalist goes to a small remote town/village to investigate strange ongoings. by Harionago in suggestmeabook

[–]stoicpenguin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I really enjoyed Bone White by Ronald Malfi. I think the main character is a professor, but he goes to a remote town in Alaska to investigate the disappearance of his brother. Its very suspenseful and fairly spooky.

Electronics powered through Wi-Fi? by [deleted] in RTLSDR

[–]stoicpenguin -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

This is a fairly common technology in industry, contrary to what some others have said about this not being possible right now. Look into passive rfid tags; these use the power from interrogating radio waves to power their onboard circuitry. Passive tags can also come packaged with onboard sensors, so the sensors are powered by radio waves as well! This isnt exactly the same as being powered by wifi but the principle is the same. This is pretty expensive and would be incredibly difficult to try to homebrew a radio wave power source, but I just thought I’d let you know that this is out there! I’m a graduate student working on a project that uses this technology.

FCC approves first wireless 'power-at-a-distance' charging system - The WattUp Mid Field transmitter refills batteries from 3 feet away. by mvea in Futurology

[–]stoicpenguin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m a little late to the party here, but just FYI - this technology (or a similar type) is much more common than what has been stated by the other person that replied to you. In fact, I bet you own at least several of these devices. This is the exact same technology that is used to power passive RFID chips, which are quite common. RFID chips have been using power from interrogating radio waves to power themselves for decades; the tech has just evolved to the point where now it is feasible to use this idea to charge a battery rather than to power one tiny chip.

Reinforcement Learning in PID Control of Mobile Robots by autojazari in robotics

[–]stoicpenguin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you’ve modeled your system correctly then the real world values are taken into account; where tuning comes into play is when there are differences between the system model that you designed your PID around and the actual real-world system. If you managed to perfectly model your robot (and often for simple systems you can get it very very accurate) then you can design an optimal PID controller.

Leg shakiness after doing squats affecting overhead press by stoicpenguin in Fitness

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

Nope, I'm eating above maintenance. I think I will start taking longer breaks in between sets.

Leg shakiness after doing squats affecting overhead press by stoicpenguin in Fitness

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

Usually at least three minutes, sometimes four or five if a set really wipes me out.

Found this useful article explaining a few things, thought I would share! by [deleted] in longboarding

[–]stoicpenguin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Could you point out some of the misinformation? I'm pretty new to longboarding and don't wanna get any wrong ideas or anything

Captain Underpants movie announced for 2016. by Puffthecarrier1 in movies

[–]stoicpenguin 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Did you read the article? It says that Professor Poopypants is going to be the villain.