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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • From the outside it’s not obvious how many variables influence scientific research that have absolutely nothing to do with science or the pursuit of knowledge and truth.

    Being scientifically literate is insufficient. We must also be highly sceptical and apply critical thinking to the work of other scientists, particularly when large sums of money are involved and the inevitable conflicts of interest that entails.

    People with money are able to fund research but they will never be scientists because they are only interested in what is true to the extent it will make money.




  • LED technology has progressed massively and is now at the state where you can carry a device with the lighting power of a car headlamp but it only consumes 10W, weighs 200g and fits in the palm of your hand. I can ride my bike through the woods at night, as if it were daytime. All we need now is some technology that makes the woods less creepy after sundown and we’ll be all set.

    Another big one for me is Wikipedia and the information sphere in general. I forgot what it’s like to have to physically go to a library to look something up or learn a new skill, amazing power at our fingertips. Showing my age a bit here.

    What else? Computer aided engineering tools, cordless power tools, phones and computers in general, lithium ion batteries, my automated coffee maker kills it, drug technology, I like it all.




  • Vehicle control systems are overwhelmingly programmed in C, mostly from graphical design tools such as MATLAB Simulink via an automatic process. These are real time control systems which are quite different to an interrupt based operating system such as Linux. The many individual controllers must work in concert according to a strict architecture definition and timing schedule that defines the functionality of the vehicle. It’s not at all like a PC or phone, whose OS become irrelevant over time, with respect to their environment of other systems. The vehicle environment is the same environment that we inhabit i.e. the one with gravity, friction, charge and the other SI units. This is slowly changing with advent of self driving but, yeah.











  • The silk road wasn’t taken down by an acronym. It was a bunch of hypocritical bigots called the American bureaucracy. They talk a lot about freedom but when they see something that promotes freedom like Wikileaks, south American socialism or the silk road, they seek to shut it down, often violently.

    The people who believe that war criminals such as George Bush and Dick Cheney should be walking free and people like Julian Assange and Ross Ulbricht should be locked up, these people are our enemy.