lokl

Do applied math next.

Has there been any progress on undeciphered languages?

I understand your concern and agree about Kyoto, but tourists can behave well or poorly and tourism can be managed well or poorly. At Jingu, I saw foreign tourists, but no problems, and locals were welcoming. Elsewhere in Mie, I saw no foreign tourists and locals were also welcoming. I would like to believe that HN readers would be beneficial tourists and might themselves benefit from experiences that cannot as easily be found in the top destinations.

Incidentally, Mie Prefecture ranked 37 out of 47 Japanese prefectures for overnight stays by foreign tourists in 2024, but it has a lot to offer in addition to Ise Jingu. For those seeking the "real Japan" beyond Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. If you want to explore, consider Kintetsu's 5-day plus pass and fit this into your itinerary between Nagoya and Osaka, Kyoto, or Nara.

If you are interested in seeing original cave paintings, not reproductions, I recommend Pech Merle near Cahors, France.

What about SPARK? Not enough training data?

Please compare with FineReader.

I've been using Sphinx for 20 years for full-text search with a custom stemmer. I considered switching to Manticore, but didn't see a huge need to do so, because Sphinx still works well for me and requires zero maintenance. Any big new features that might entice me to switch? (I only have a few GB of indexes, covering a few million documents.)

If you have the opportunity to visit, I recommend Nagasaki over Hiroshima and especially these two places in Nagasaki:

Shiroyama Elementary School

Nagai Takashi Memorial Museum Nagasaki

These felt much more personal than anything I saw in Hiroshima and there were zero (other) tourists to interrupt the experience (very much unlike the museum in Hiroshima).

Used cameras and lenses can offer tremendous value.

Tried with a few historical handwritten German documents, accuracy was abysmal.

MUDs were the most enjoyable social networks I ever experienced, and the least harmful to society.

Lower latency than PS/2?

Audio-Technica ATR2100x, bought it for Zoom during the pandemic, very pleased. If you're in the market for an inexpensive upgrade, read the reviews for this. You will probably want to add a pop filter, even a very basic one makes a big difference. I use mine with a boom arm clamped to my desk.