laen

Devil's Lake didn't populate, not sure why, maybe too difficult to disambiguate? It's a city in North Dakota, but state parks in Oregon and Wisconsin.

Can you elaborate on how you parse the PDF? Are you simply converting it to text using a python library or something more robust like GROBID[1]?

1: https://github.com/kermitt2/grobid

I can remember a decade ago having to clean my car’s windshield each time I filled up at the gas station. Now-a-days in both the US and Germany I find it a rarity - my wipers can generally get the one or two splats. You’ll notice a bit more on the country roads vs interstate/autobahn but such an alarming difference overall.

I've been trying to get my organization to use ODM, but finding it difficult. The problem is analogous to the issues that Gimp has to Photoshop or Linux to Windows -- ease of use. Additionally, even if you properly configure the software the quality still is not comparable to the big proprietary players in the photogrammetry field: Bentley Systems; Pix4D; Drone Deploy.

A major reason for the quality issues is that the major drone manufacturers work directly with the proprietary photogrammetry software providers in the field to optimize the algorithms to their drones. These drone manufacturers then promote these proprietary solutions. This puts ODM at a disadvantage as there is no short-term financial incentive for manufacturers to promote ODM.

Like other fields, the proprietary photogrammetry industry is increasing moving to implementing their solutions exclusively in the cloud. This is forcing folks to give up their data and building a data moat - a problem for my organization.

I hope ODM keeps developing and becomes as ubiquitous as linux. Its quality is getting close for my organization to consider its implementation. Keep up the great work!

There are moments a pilot has seconds to react and disengage autopilot.

Example: Traffic Resolution advisories require a 5 second reaction time and 2.5 seconds for any follow-on reactions. This reaction time includes the time to disengage autopilot and also put the aircraft into a climb-or-dive. Studies show that a situationally aware pilot takes at least 2 seconds to start the reaction, and another second to achieve the proper climb/descent. There are other times on e.g. approach, or ground collision warnings with even narrower margins for disengaging autopilot.

Pilots generally know when they need to be hyper-aware with autopilot and so do competent Tesla drivers. If there are issues with the name "autopilot" for Tesla, the same argument needs to be made for aircraft manufacturers.

Here is Harold Abelson discussing the topic in ~1986. His introduction to “Computer Science” has stuck with me for years. Interesting to see the lineage of the statement, it must have stuck with him as it has for me, when he first heard it.

https://youtu.be/-J_xL4IGhJA?list=PLE18841CABEA24090

You are correct in your common sense test, the article is not correct.

Check out the Concorde wiki[1] It states ~4.4K lbs for taxi which passes the common sense test. Taxi time is generaly planned as 15 minutes, so ~10K lbs/hr which is more than what a Boeing 767 burns at cruise - quite a lot! For comparison Concorde super sonic cruise fuel burn was 40K-55K lbs/hr.

For another reference Boeing 767s typically plan to burn 2K lbs of fuel for start-up/taxi/takeoff run.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde

Boeing rudder issues in the 1990s? How about the 2010s? A KC-135R(Boeing 707 variant) in 2013 crashed of the same issues as the article.[1] The KC-135R is essentially a modified 707 retooled with 737 engines and a beefed up vertical stabilizer to account for the increased power of the engines. This modification of the KC-135R occurred in the 90s and has been plagued with rudder problems ever since. The accident in 2013 was attributed to pilot error, because there are procedures to turn off the PCU if the rudder goes haywire... but why not just fix the problem outright?

[1]https://www.amc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/786708/w...

Apple has started to implement service workers in the latest Safari, but it still lacks behind the other browsers - I suspect they are worried it will provide a disincentive for applications to be hosted on the app store.

My biggest draw to PWAs was the ease of which I could deploy an intranet app on portable devices with spotty connectivity. This works fine with the appcache, which is what I currently use, but service workers require SSL and self-signed certificates are a no-go. This adds to the complexity of using service workers in a simple intranet hosted PWA. Also, back to Safari's poor implementation of service workers, the amount of time a PWA will reside in the browser is unspecified. I can only imagine the the headaches it will cause if the PWA drops randomly. So I'm avoiding service workers in my PWAs for now.

When appcache deprecates (it's slated to), maybe it will be time for me to go native if I am going to have to add complexity regardless.

the result will be having to live with regulation and oversight like every other industry.

The only other industry I think could be comparable to this, from a privacy standpoint, would be the banking industry. They are largely flying under the radar during all of this, any hypothesis why? Is it because their regulation and oversight is working like you are alluding to? Or is it because the banking industry has not been caught...yet?

I was blown away by the accuracy of Microsoft's https://how-old.net/ This just kicked it up a notch.

A consideration not listed on the OP is that Air Force pilots are required to conduct partial-flap landings on a continuing basis to maintain qualification. This could explain why the flaps do not appear to be in landing configuration. Normally, this training is conducted in the simulator, but if the president is not onboard and and the aircraft is inbound for maintenance at Boeing Field this would be plausible.

Partial flap landing distance is dependent on the aircraft, but 4,000+ feet as the position suggests would be very reasonable. The pilot could have also intentionally landed long to expedite taxi to parking.

All that said I still have no idea if the aircraft is arriving or departing.

The "hygiene hypothesis" as you described would then prescribe that by getting "dirty" we'd improve our immune health. An interesting article was posted on HN a few months ago, a good read on "if being too clean makes us sick, why isn't getting dirty the solution."

HN Link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10944486

Article: http://theconversation.com/if-being-too-clean-makes-us-sick-...

More on application: Historically, KFs are used extensively for sensor fusion in the aviation industry. Aircraft (and missiles) use internal gyroscopes(INUs) for navigation in association with GPS. The INUs are prone to drifting and corrected with Kalman Filter estimated real time drift errors. These error rates are computed while GPS information is available and continue to be corrected in the case of GPS loss.

Exactly. I'm failing to see why this story is generating so much interest.

Here's one of the 50 websites where you can see every American citizen registered to vote... includes their DOB, Address, Voter ID etc...

http://www.oklavoters.com/

and while you're there check out the removal request policy page - it's quite humorous.

EDIT: If you are wondering how the website obtained data specifically for Oklahoma please see https://www.ok.gov/elections/Candidate_Info/Voter_List/index...

The linked chart dated 2012 lists cetrizine and loratadine as "possible" anticholinergics. It appears they will equally put you at risk. So what are allergy sufferers alternatives? I'm dependent on loratadine and a little dismayed to just now learn of this even if the correlation is not clear.

Guess I'll just have to start eating a bunch of honey...

[1] http://www.agingbraincare.org/uploads/products/ACB_scale_-_l...?

There's really no driving force or threat for the military to innovate in these small counterinsurgency wars. The military has established a status quo and is very comfortable with its current operations. When you start utilizing F-22s to conduct ISIS strikes just to demo the efficacy(inefficiency) of the platform it shows "winning" the war perhaps isn't the top priority.

Once war becomes safe and clean for Americans, there will probably be less objections against war.

Definitely already there in terms of counterinsurgency wars. The biggest objection to war in America is the cost-benefit, not necessarily the safety of our troops. I say this because historically casualty rates have never been lower for war, ever.

Interesting to think how this attitude will play out in large scale conflicts. What will be the red line for WMD? You'd hope some international law would spell out those red lines, removing any ambiguity before introduction of this technology.

Author is responsible for a majority of the Air Force software programs, but this experience is his first trial-by-fire. That said, not surprised that his first approach to the problem was to develop his own hardware and software standard. It would have been better to identify AOCs with the best practices and standardize a proven setup.

I admire his advocacy for use of open source software, but his primary pitch is a reduction of costs. Any organization that switches to open source for the purpose of promised dramatically reduced operating costs is fooling themselves. The true benefit of open source is much more than savings.

Supposedly the PLA started scaling back cyber ops after the indictments of May 2014.

“From what we see, the majority of the intrusions today are coming from sets that we believe are MSS or MSS contractors versus the PLA,"...“That’s a shift that’s been happening roughly in the last year and a half.”

Last year and a half eh, so the shift was coincidental with the indictments. I hope these U.S. officials aren't enamored with the potency of the indictments. It appears the PLA's scaling back is a political play to get more at the bargaining table.

Let's not start patting ourselves on the back too quickly.

What is your definition of destroying long term company value? Every action has an element of risk - companies can be riskier than others and in effect artificially inflate value, but destroy long term value with a bad bet.

Good example: Fed Reserve & quantitative easing

I'm glad the co-op is able to bring the community together, however, I am disturbed by the fact that like the title implies, residents were "stuck." Grocery stores were 2.5 miles away, but that was too far to get reasonably priced food and instead residents were gouged for $5 gallons of milk at the corner store.

I fear that the $2 million being invested into the co-op could have been better used for infrastructure, not only enabling folks to journey to nearby grocery stores, but also opening up more employment opportunities.

Mulling on this a bit more - the profitability is further impacted from the inability to mine customer data on a secure app. Anecdotally, when presented with a free unsecure app vice a paid secure app, average Joe will go with the free app. Maybe there isn't a true demand like eps mentions

Why isn't there a tool with iMessage-quality UI? I find it hard to understand why the demand is not being met. Could it be that a core tenet of a secure app is being open source and open source is less profitable, thus removing incentive. The article suggests it is because efforts are fragmented, which ostensibly is true. Maybe a combination of the two? What am I missing?

Celestial Navigation was a part of USAF navigator training, but was retired about the same time as the USN - and it should remain that way. The USN's reinstatement of CN is a signal that the Navy does not understand it's own technology and threats(cyber attacks). And just common sense says a ship operating off CN will not be able to bring kinetic effects to the fight. The article mentions CN oriented a disabled Apollo 12? Gimme a break, what saved the mission was the quick wit of the engineering staff... and a crew that understood its own technology.