needSomeCoffee

Clicked the link. Selected "Literary". First sample was quite good. Vaguely caught the name of the author. Closed page. Then decided to go back. Could not find the first sample which I decided I might want to read. Got just enough of the author name to get Google to find "Colson Whitehead" when I entered "Colston". The book was "Cool Machine". Went to borrow it from Sno-Isle.org. Placed a hold on the physical book. Number 51 in the hold line (all time record for my holds -- got plenty to read until its likely availability). Glad I found this site, but on my second visit did not find any "Literary" first pages that resonated. Blind luck. Good site idea though. HTH, NSC

Very interesting and well written article. This sentence in particular:

"Linn Products is the Glasgow company Ivor Tiefenbrun founded in 1972, and if you know it at all you know it for the Sondek LP12, still widely regarded by its partisans as the finest record deck ever made."

I was a big audiophile right at that time. Auditioned both Sondek and Sota Star Saphire. Went with the latter which I still proudly own (Alphason Tonearm). Note how carefully the author phrased "...by its partisans..." when describing the Sondek as the best. Nothing, not even programing code style zealots today can compare to audiophiles and their "take" on what made for the best playback. Pretty sure the author did not want to open that can of worms by simply declaring the Sondek the best.

Turntables back then were pretty damn detailed re: technology. Not surprised Linn could make a great computer (in the day).

HTH, NSC

Buy. Rip. Own forever. Compensate artists fairly. My prefered method.

My pet peeve = authors who start using an acronym without ever "introducing" it. Suddenly there is an acronym used throughout an article, and one has to carefully go back and find the phrase to which it refers. Necessitated because the author was too lazy to introduce the acronym in parens after first using the phrase. Not sure how AI does this, but this problem predates AI by quite a bit.

Thanks to the author. That was a great read imho. Loved the early parts about the guys who -- despite the ridicule and lack of resources -- achieved eradication. Again, great read.

I also did many miles commuting and riding in the city. A key, absolute rule after too many close calls was to never cross in front of a car about to enter or cross-over the road I was on unless I could see the driver looking at me. No matter how clear my right-of-way was or how obvious I thought I was. One close call about every 10K miles or so was enough for me to realize only purely defensive riding in the city would keep me uninjured (or worse). Sure a lot of riders rail at bad drivers, but that doesn't help in the end if you get t-boned. Hope this helmet helps with that.

I read in another thread on another site that the Snapchat SPECs were targeted at developers. If not are they going to market with what Evan is attempting to wear at over $2K ?? Insights appreciated, NSC.

JAWBONE == Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression. Max Kudos. Ron and Ted owe a staffer (or staffers) a few drinks.

Jennifer Doudna again. What an amazing scientist. Wow.

Wow. Beautiful engineering. Please, please Apple use this ethos for all future major laptop re-designs e.g. MBA & MBP.

"...handily...". Apple set the power limit for the A19 at 4 watts. The M1 does not have this limit. So in all tests using processes that tax the CPU, the M1 wins. Apple ignored the greater thermal cooling available with the new case. The A19 would beat the M1 if Apple did not do this. But no one really cares cause... it is Apple. The other points re: Walmart are valid. However, it goes to the point that Apple could sell the M1 at this price point, but chose not to. Seems likely the Walmart M1 at $599 had lower margins (My Guess), so the Neo was born.

I do not really understand why the Walmart $599 M1 MBA comparison is so lost in the MSM. The Neo is the same price (without edu discount). The Neo CPU benchmarks slightly better until the 4W performance limit factors in more real-world cases (then the M1 wins handily). So much is given up with the Neo: Worse screen, Worse keyboard, No TouchId, Worse Trackpad, etc. Yet Apple is praised for the Neo. No longer matters of course as it appears that the Walmart M1 is history, and we now have the Neo -- worse in almost every way vs. M1 MBA. The only real beneficiary is undoubtedly Apple's margin. I guess the MSM and Apple fanbois hatred of Walmart and the "losers who shop there" influences this, but even so. Neo only benefits Apple vs. Walmarts M1 MBA deal.

Edit / Link: https://www.macworld.com/article/2986234/walmart-m1-macbook-...

Just a comment to the author. Very much appreciate how you go about explaining this, and your writing style. Thanks for taking the time. NSC...

...an ex-Arpeture user.

Agree completely. Writing was brilliant. Kudos to the author.

Puget Sound Electric here in Western WA has a very nice feature showing usage by hour by day (using their smart meters). We live in a relatively small home, and do not use electric heat. Yesterday our "vampire draw" was about 0.5 kwh per hour (12am to 5am -- nothing really active). Once we got up, fired up the coffee pot, and lights, etc. we used 1.3 kwh from 6am to 7am. Pia looks like a good UPS for standard appliances, but as a whole house solution... Folks really need to understand how their home would work using a combinations of Pias. For us, we spent about $1k for a Westinghouse 9,000 kwh generator which runs on propane, and I put in the fairly inexpensive breaker and lock-out in our service panel. Costs were well below $2K. When our power goes out (which it does A LOT), simply fire up the gen, shut down all the high amp circuits in the house panel, and switch service panel input to the gen. Takes less than 5 minutes, and everything works apart from some high amp devices which we can easily live without short term. Having a good backup is important -- moreso with the power system strained and more "once a century" events.

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Probably the best expose about the vileness of politicians and command ladder climbers within the service as they related to Vietnam.

I wrote an app for my daughters years ago using Adobe Air and it was quite successful in the early days of the app store when it was easy to load such apps. Was really useful for my daughters as they have always excelled at math. May not be suitable for a 5 year old, but depends on the kid and parent. The idea is to provide a simple interface for learning single digit arithmetic "patterns".

The objective was to create a UI that let kids relax re: feeling the need to always find the right answer. They just need to "imagine" (right mind) the right answer and click on the answer presented. Over time associative memory response leads them to recognize the patterns for single digit arithmetic, and the "arithmetic" part of math becomes instantaneous. That makes things like factoring fractions (an early hurdle) quite a lot easier because no real thought is involved in seeing the common denominator, etc. (See the chart of one of my daughter's progress in the video below to see how she learned associatively.)

After mastering single digit arithmetic, the app allows kids to move on to seeing how the "algorithmic" approach for multi digit problems is easy. (Note: the reliance on the algo approach is very much WRONG in the current "common core" approach to math in the USA. I acknowledge the "additional understanding" provided by the common core, but I do not see the algo/memory approach as the evil many common core folks see it as.)

I knew some older kids who really hated math (middle school), and found they really struggled when asked "What is 6 x 9 ??" or any other simple arithmetic problem. Finger counting and taking 10-20 seconds for just one step in the process of doing multi-digit multiplication or division is a real hindrance which definitely keeps them from progressing/appreciating math.

Some of the older kids did work though my App, and it had a very, very positive effect. Some sampling issues re: who I knew so YMMV.

I ported the app to a pure HTML/JS app, and hope to soon release it as an Github open source app that can be run locally as a PWA. Unfortunately I am way behind getting this done. Happy to share the code via my private Github account if anyone wants to help with this relatively trivial task.

Right now it runs fine, of course, in a browser with the exception of Safari because Apple is pretty aggressive about not supporting Indexeddb for local storage. Just be sure to be aware of how all the browsers will automatically delete local storage is an app is not used within N days. Any Chrome-based browser should be fine. (The fix for Webkit is not hard as it involves a very longterm bug Apple has never address, so well understood. Again, just have not had time to get to it.)

From the early Air app (current app is very similar although there are some differences e.g. graphs). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK3wzeGVRQ4

MathFlashApp (will be active for a few more months until Google shuts down its free Workspace users): www.mathflashapp.com

HTH, nsc

Makita Brushless 5amp drill combo set. I have used a wide variety of battery powered drills and drivers for decades. If you do a lot of home projects building things, you will use these tools often. Never was dissatisfied with other brands (Ryobi, Bosch), but decided to treat myself one year as I believe Makita Brushless is top of the line today and I wanted more powerful batteries. Best decision ever. So much power, the 5 amp batteries last so long. I have driven 1/2 x 6 inch lag bolts into fence posts with the driver and it did not complain. Just an amazing upgrade (notably because of the 5 amp batteries). If you are starting out building a tool set, splurge and get these. Just remember to store them in your house not the garage as heat/cold cycles can really reduce the batteries cycle count. Only negative is that the driver is so powerful one must be careful when driving smaller screws. Also, spend the extra money to get a good set of bits. I went with Makita for this as well, and the bits are very, very good relative to the many, many others I have used (Dewalt, Milwaukie, etc.) Links (I bought the drill/driver set at a good price thru Amazon with the smaller/lighter drill which proved a very good decision for me): https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XT269T https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/E-01644

Actually there is. When my daughters were on the Airgun 10 meter team (recent national champs), I spent some time investigating how to create a low-cost SCATT system using a relatively inexpensive laser with 3D-printed mount, USB connected cameras, and OpenCV. Something kids could use in a hallway at home vs. the range. The solution was very feasible as I got to the point of mocking it up and testing it. Daughters decided to drop shooting, and other side-dev projects took over. But you sound like you might love doing this. Cheers.

I have a proven, novel means to gain insight about System1 response. Issued a patent for it (which I think is reasonably well written). Worked great applying it improve response to P&G's branded ads (then was part of McD's SG&A cuts). Would love to use it to improve romantic outcomes (better than survey response measures; e.g. "love at first [System1] sight" would make Kahneman/Tversky proud). Etc. Same coin, opposite side. If I was you, I would hang around some grabybeards who are 50+ and have been working in logistical positions for corporations, expand your network, and hire a great salesman. The GB's will have ideas, but not the where-with-all to act -- notably if they have a family HC plan. The network (also a good GB win), and your sales team are more important than a great idea. You really just need a "good enough" idea, execution, plus sales to get started, then adjust. HTH.

I have a proven, novel means to gain insight about System1 response. Issued a patent for it (which I think is reasonably well written). Applied it working with P&G to improve response to their branded ads. Would love to use it to improve romantic outcomes (better than survey response measures). Etc. Almost too old and tired now after a decade+ of having proven I am a terrible salesman. Same coin, opposite side. If I was you, I would hang around some grabybeards who are 50+ and have been working in logistical positions for corporations. They will have lots and lots of idea, but no where-with-all to act. HTH.