Recent submissions

Comment · 1 month ago
There is not. And any ecommerce site providing usps labels on their own usps account is constantly dealing with a flow of fraudulently printed labels which "borrowed" their account indicator, leading to usps invoicing the account holder for labels they didn't issue.
Comment · 1 year ago
There are loads of systems where every button and encoder has many functions, with modal or paged interfaces. But I'm trying to stick to a model of no hidden or ephemeral state with my modular, just for fun, I guess. Mostly analogue, so no non-volatile memory to store settings, the positions of the patches and knobs set everything, and the test is that if I power it down and back up it must come back doing what it was doing when the power went out (very long cycle lfos notwithstanding!)

When a laptop can simulate anything, the physicality of the interface is most of the attraction, so might as well go all the way...

Comment · 1 year ago
I remember in the very early days as a hobbyist working with cgi perl scripts for forums or guest books where the script just edited the "static" content in place.

The script would write new html files for new posts and do "fun" (I mean, terrifying) string manipulation on the main index to insert links to posts etc. Sometimes they used comments with metadata to help "parse" pages which would see edits.

These both were, and definitely were not, "the days" :D

Comment · 1 year ago
It is a life goal, for sure! Not necessarily one I'll be able to reach, but we have to have stretch goals :D
Comment · 1 year ago
Catches me every time too. And it's so quick. You can go in to a shop to pick up a packet of crisps thinking it's daytime, but actually is quarter past 6, so you come back out and it's full dark!

I'm in the southern UK, and I'd take our late-May/early-August "it's light while I'm awake and dark while I (should be) asleep" all year round if I could get it.

Comment · 2 years ago
If you were a fashionable person, that's exactly what you'd be doing! ;)

The cycle is roughly 30 years, and teenagers are revisiting the 90s trends right now.

Comment · 2 years ago
Comment · 2 years ago
Unfortunately there are lots of materials run through a table saw which can trigger a sawstop. A false positive destroys the blade. Decent blades cost several hundred dollars, and are intended to be resharpened and last for many years.

I belong to a community hobbyist workshop. There are a lot of rules, lockouts and a key in place around the table saw usage, but they won't install a sawstop because they can't afford to keep up with the wasted blades.

Personally, I think I'd rather have one, but I can absolutely see why people would disable them if they were mandatory.

Comment · 2 years ago
Have you read Infinite Jest? Barely any of the book is really about it (the actual theme being a study of addiction is many forms), but the ostensive premise is that a video clip has been created that's so compelling that it's impossible to stop watching it.

Some of the asides are also hilariously/terrifyingly prescient. The passages on the evolution of video calling are some of my favourites.

Comment · 2 years ago
I've been to enough boutique hotels in the Netherlands with clear glass doors from bedroom to bathroom to say that probably wasn't a "future" thing, just a Dutch thing...
Comment · 2 years ago
Because then it would need more registers for the other purpose?

But actually the decision about which general purpose registers to use for what is made at compile time (hence we're discussion a compiler flag here, the frame pointer is not a hardware dictated feature), so the question is actually kind of moot. If the compiler is out of registers to allocate and instead uses the stack, the CPU isn't reasonably going to be able to undo that.

Comment · 3 years ago
It's an ML story. The article specifies that the current (now previous?) state of the art models are numerical, crunching vast equations representing atmospheric physics.
Comment · 3 years ago
You can safely return that oyster card and get your deposit back now :D

I live in London and recently passed a convenience store whose signage advertised the usual stuff: "Fresh veg. Off licence. European specialty foods. Oyster". I was genuinely confused for a second that such a place would carry such short shelf life seafood...

Pre-pay card are gone here. The only people I know now who have an Oyster branded card are those who get discount or free travel.

Comment · 3 years ago
Huh, last time I thought about it was the kickstarter in 2015,and I remember it being closer to £120.

£40 is very reasonable :D

Comment · 3 years ago
Here you go (2015): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ridebeeline/beeline-sma...

I thought it looked fun, but no way to justify the price.

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