Viewing profile — ptha

That's a slightly extreme route planning optimisation, but reminded me of UPS removing left turns (in Right Hand Side driving countries like US) from their route planning to save f…

Apparently the Perseverance Mars Rover has some self-driving capability: With the help of special 3D glasses, rover drivers on Earth plan routes with specific stops, but increasing…

I'm sure you already know: Kim Kardashian will pay a fine of $1.26 million for not disclosing to her Instagram followers that she was financially compensated for promoting Ethereum…

Desalination is not without problems, producing 1 to 1.5 times the amount of brine (compared to fresh water) being one of them. How to dispose/use this brine. There are some option…

You're probably already aware, there is evidence that Beethoven was not completely deaf. According to a leading Beethoven expert, the composer still had hearing in his left ear unt…

I remember playing a version of this on the (386?) PC. Bashing the various keys did not go down well with my dad. https://www.freegameempire.com/games/Summer-Games

Just an example, I had the non-deterministic case using JAXB to generate java classes from XSD Schema files. Running an ANT jaxb task to generate the classes from the same schema f…

From the article: In 2005, Andrew tried to reverse-engineer the BitKeeper networking protocols in order to create a free software alternative. If it hadn't been him, it would've be…

Yes it would be nice to get a some comparison of fidelity, range etc. It mentions high-quality sound. But it does seem more efficient than traditional speaker designs. From the art…

I remember reading him many moons ago in the Improper Bostonian. Here's a bit about how he got his start writing about cars. https://www.motortrend.com/features/ezra-dyer/

Unfortunately, there are all sorts of ways to phish links. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing#Link_manipulation The link may look similar or even appear identical, and still be…

Yes, I believe he did multiple RH podcast episodes on this. He has also released a book: "The Bomber Mafia: A Story Set in War". [1] I think the first I heard of the Tokyo firebomb…

From the article: That makes Starship, which conducted a successful flight to the edge of space last year, especially threatening to the contractors and their allies in Congress. S…

The Irish elk, now extinct, was quite an impressive sight, with antlers wider that it was tall. The Irish elk stood about 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) tall at the shoulders and carried the l…

I'm reminded of Louis Slotin experimenting with the "Demon" core. The core was surrounded by 2 half spheres of beryllium. The core would go critical if the 2 spheres were not separ…

I wasn't aware of the name of this. But often during code review have asked why some code is being removed, and asked the developer why that code was there in the first place. Some…

Apparently Tesla was: founded (as Tesla Motors) on July 1, 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in San Carlos, California. It gets a bit more complicated however: Ian Wright…

You mention JIT, and lead times greater than a year. Are these 2 things not at odds with each other? Are you saying the vulnerable JIT supply chain when interrupted led to hoarding…

Great articles, it seems that most (not just French) wines are produced by grafting wines onto a phylloxera (insects that feed on the vines) resistant rootstock. From the gizmodo a…

Apparently the CIA also got in on the action, producing a fake sex tape of Sukarno, in order to kick off a revolution (to oust Sukarno). More details here (along with the KBG story…

Agreed, not being snarky, but isn't that what the "R" is in the (R)emote (C)ode (E)xecution is - The ability to trigger arbitrary code execution over a network (especially via a wi…

It seems that putting the test near the nest was done deliberately: Cognition is challenging to assess in wild animals because testing paradigms often require individuals living un…

A little perspective from the other side, why screws aren't aligned in watchmaking: Is it possible to machine a screw, tap the threads, and control the depth of the countersink so …

It's powered batteries, from the article: At the back of the robot are two titanium spheres—each somewhere between the size of a yoga ball and a beach ball—filled with batteries th…