Recent submissions

Comment · 2 months ago
Comment · 3 months ago
Did Windows Phone solve the problem that Windows Mobile had where libraries like the .net runtime were incomplete? I remember trying to build an app for Windows Mobile 6.0 and not being able to use third party libraries because some of the basic functions of Windows were missing on mobile. I'm not even talking about UI, more like networking and other backend features.
Comment · 7 months ago
I recommend Japan as a country with many niche museums, here are two I enjoyed:

https://www.tdk.com/museum/en/

https://www.khi.co.jp/kawasakiworld/english/

They are museums run by companies about their own histories and industries. The TDK one was quite unexpected: it's basically a museum about very thin plastic.

Comment · 8 months ago
Comment · 9 months ago
For talks which will obviously be popular, go to the talk before it even if it's not as interesting. It's not common to have two super-popular talks in a row in the same room.
Comment · 11 months ago
In Europe if an airline does that they have to pay you a penalty of a few hundred euro.

But KLM (Dutch flag carrier) found a way around that: if a flight is overloaded by weight they will keep all the passengers on board but leave their luggage behind. There is no direct penalty for late luggage, so many customers will get nothing except perhaps a little free shopping if they feel like filing forms to reimburse for having to buy clothes at their destination. But that's cheaper than the penalty for not taking the passenger on time, so KLM "optimized" it.

Comment · 1 year ago
Sound cards too. The Hercules website still proudly shows all their boxes from back when sound cards were popular for gaming and more: https://support.hercules.com/en/cat-soundcards-en/

Several models don't even have pictures of the card, but every one of them shows the crazy box.

They also still list all their old GPUs. Compare the wild boxes at the top with the TV tuner boxes at the bottom: https://support.hercules.com/en/cat-videocards-en/

Comment · 1 year ago
If that were true it would also apply to C and C++. I have used Valgrind with Python + Boost C++ hybrid programs and it worked fine after spending an hour making a suppressions file.
Comment · 1 year ago
https://m.dpreview.com/reviews/buying-guide-best-cameras-und...

Any of those is great. There is also a sub-$1000 category but the cameras in it are more compromised.

If you want to spend less, buy used Nikon Z or Canon R series.

Comment · 1 year ago
If you care about network bandwidth you can compress before sending, as virtually all web applications do. Then you don't need to worry much about the space efficiency of the application format.
Comment · 1 year ago
I find it somewhat unlikely, as this particular W hotel was not in a country known for personal injury lawsuits.

More likely it was sold to them by some interior design firm as a luxury feature. Unfortunately it's only helpful if you're alone--even if it worked correctly you wouldn't want the room lights turning on just because your spouse got up.

Comment · 1 year ago
Not about smoking but I recently stayed at a W hotel and was woken in the middle of the night by the room lights turning on. They used electronic push buttons and I turned them off. Seconds later they turned on again. This repeated several times until I was fully awake and called the front desk.

"We can come put tape on the sensors."

"What sensors?"

"There are sensors under the bed."

"Oh, so you already know about this problem but haven't fixed it. Thanks, please don't send anyone."

I then looked under the bed and sure enough there was a motion detector on each side. I removed these from their brackets and let them dangle facing the floor instead of outward. This blinded them and solved the problem. I guess they were malfunctioning or they were able to detect motion above the bed via reflections.

The next day I reported this to the front desk, who were unsympathetic and unhelpful. They told me it was for my own safety. Apparently at other hotels I have just been incredibly lucky not to have fallen down when getting out of bed.

I will not stay at a W hotel again unless I can confirm in advance that they do not have motion detectors under the bed which spuriously turn the lights on at night. Maybe I'll add Hyatt to the no-go list.

Comment · 1 year ago
I haven't seen the makers of Aeron (or anyone else) claim it's "orders of magnitude faster than plain UDP." Do you have a link to something about this? It doesn't pass the smell test for me unless you're talking specifically about using Aeron within a single machine (where it uses shared memory instead of the network)...but you said "Within a datacenter" not "Within a computer."
Comment · 1 year ago
I came here to write something very similar. Visa and their competitors all have the ability to transport data about the payment. Most receipts are a fairly small raster image which could be sent as an extension. Visa could also offer a structured text receipt data format but the image may actually be safer to avoid a billion questions about how to represent unusual situations around surcharges, optional extras, custom discounts, split checks etc.

It would be important for the receipt to include the original broken-out list of items purchased, and not just the "credit card receipt" with the total paid. People need detailed receipts for returns and business expenses.

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