> Talking about “thousands of tonnes” of nuclear waste is comically misleading when you realise how tiny the volume is.
Yeah, it’s really easy to forget how dense these materials are. A jug of milk (4L/1gal) weighs 4kg/8.8lb. Milk has about the same density as water, 1g/cm^3. Uranium has a density around 19g/cm^3, making that same gallon jug weigh 76kg/167lb. A metric ton of uranium (1000kg) is about 13 gallons.
This is exactly what happens when you invest billions and hire the best industry specialists for decades. M-series processors did not magically appear out of nowhere. Apple perfected them for years in iPhones, but people didn't have the ability to compare since Apple doesn't share their processors with anyone.
I had heard about this but didn’t fully appreciate it until a few years ago in a context completely unrelated to computer monitors. We had a system made up of a few circuit board that had a handful of high-power motor drivers and motors, some somewhat sensitive analog sensors, and a microcontroller orchestrating the whole circus. Having a mixture of high-power motors and sensitive analog electronics is always a recipe for exciting bugs. We had mostly tamed the noise, though, and were debugging a firmware crash.
Everything would be working, sometimes for hours, but once in a while the MCU would HardFault. The exact instruction where it would fault was pretty consistent but not perfectly. We started adding more and more instrumentation. We had logic analyzers and at least two oscilloscopes hooked up to the system at one point. Sometimes it would crash a bunch in rapid succession. When it did, the team that was primarily responsible for it would call me over hoping that it would happen again.
Eventually, late at night, we were sitting around scratching our heads trying to figure it out. I was frustrated. “OK I’m going to go have a smoke. Back in a few.” I stand up and the scope connected to the power rail, right then, shows a spike up to about 10V (on a 3V3 rail). I sit back down and try to figure out what caused it. Can’t figure out what could have possibly triggered it. “Fuck, ok, I’m going to go try to have that smoke again…” stand up. Blip. Crash. Sure enough, it was that specific wheeled chair that caused it. The two other chairs there didn’t, only that one. Ultimately it was a ground loop between two of the boards, but we would have never found it without that chair giving us a way to reproduce the problem.
Fifteen years ago I started to develop mild neurological symptoms. Mostly headaches, some minor muscle twitches, and some weird vision issues. I started working with first my GP and then with a neurologist to try to get to the bottom of it. The investigation was leading towards some form of optic neuropathy. In parallel I moved to a new job. All of my symptoms went away and in retrospect at the time all of the symptoms had started when I'd started that job. The fluorescent lighting near my desk there was terrible and as far as my doctors and I could figure out that was likely the cause of it.
> If the game studios were actually not being assholes, they could each say, "You know what, we're not making any money from whatever rights we might or might not have, so, lawyers: scram and go do something else. Here's a signed paper saying we give up all rights to the IP. Go have a ball."
Someone else in the thread mentioned “creating liability where we previously had none”. Let’s say all of the game studios in your scenario do what you’re proposing, but as it turns out none of them actually had the right to re-release the soundtrack because of a separate contract that some subset of them had with a music producer. That music producer didn’t even know the game had been re-released until it had been out for two years and it turns out he’s really pissed that he hasn’t been getting royalties…
Maybe this is a rash way to live my life, but I have always believed that in 99% of cases, “liability” is a boogeyman, a spook story, that lawyers scare their kids with. “Don’t misbehave, or Liability’s gonna get ya!” I walk around all day “creating liability” everywhere I go, by simply existing. Never been sued yet.
I know corporations with Serious General Counsel don’t think this way but it’s kind of a shame we have evolved such an intense risk-aversion.
One of the really nifty things about having a stratum-1 time server on-site (because... reasons) is those graphs. You can very readily see the subtle temperature-dependence of timing crystals. At the facility I was at there was a large cycle every day during the week and then smaller cycle on each weekend day. Our HVAC system didn't heat/cool the building as much on the weekend when no one was there so the temperature swing -> frequency swing was smaller.
Really drives home one of my favourite half-jokes: every sensor is a temperature sensor; some of them measure other things too.
Honestly… was having a conversation with my aunt about this last week. Knitting, crocheting, and quilting are all high-skill activities and no one charges enough for it.
I used to joke that I made some of the most expensive socks in the world: 20 hours per pair, and I’m a run-of-the-mill IT ops person in western Europe - do the math.
I have decided to up the cost by taking up fleece processing and hand spinning. Even on the wheel, it takes another twenty hours to clean, comb, and spin enough wool for a pair of socks.
If I were doing this for income, I’d definitely get faster at all the steps.
As I pick up more of the steps in making clothes, it’s mind-boggling how cheap even “luxury” clothes like the 500 EUR pants discussed above, much less my sturdy midrange jeans (Tom Tailor, 60 EUR, pockets that hold an iPhone 13 mini, even in a ladies’ cut), are.
Yep, lots of people doing knowledge work vastly underestimate the material cost, effort and skill associated with artisan goods. On one hand I blame modern manufacturing which justifies this ignorance somewhat but on the other hand I die a little inside when I hear about people willing to fork over large sums to something better advertised.
Though it's worth mentioning that some people are jumping into hand crafted stuff as a business first, cranking out subpar cookie cutter designs and while not terribly expensive and still a minority it's worth making sure you support people who care about the craft first. A category to watch out for is minimal leather wallets, while quality leather and correct thread selection practically guarantee the wallet will last, the care put into making it determines how enjoyable it will be to use.
The vast majority of people making handcrafted do not charge enough for their items. If they did, nobody could afford them. Most items are priced based on the cost of the material with little consideration to the time to make them. I have a friend that is a very skilled knitter, but for large items like blankets and sweaters, there are weeks of effort involved. When broken down, "kids in Chinese factories" make more per hour.
The great thing is that this type of person will tell you they are not in it for the money. As long as they can "buy more string" with the proceeds (or whatever their materials are), they are quite happy.
I don't think this is the answer you think it is. Every person that I know that knits or crochets is not doing it to make money, or even when selling items are not charging because they think that's all someone will pay. They do it because they like doing it. If they were doing it to make money, then the fun and relaxing nature of it is lost. If you've ever been to or around a stich-n-bitch, you'd understand. It's cheaper than a therapist. Plus, there's usually wine and baked goods. I'm in Texas, so it's not like the items knitted are used for more than 2 weeks out of the year. That doesn't stop them. To blame it on the "what people will pay" is grossly not understanding.
My friend made a rule that no new yarn could be bought until the same amount of yarn from existing inventory is used first. An entire closet was dedicated to said inventory. Receiving yarn as a gift does not count.
With no significant background in ML-based TTS, I’m assuming that a larger context window would help with tone as well. “We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of…” really provides context into how the whole thing might sound, even if most of it is singing the praises of the deceased.
Yeah, it’s really easy to forget how dense these materials are. A jug of milk (4L/1gal) weighs 4kg/8.8lb. Milk has about the same density as water, 1g/cm^3. Uranium has a density around 19g/cm^3, making that same gallon jug weigh 76kg/167lb. A metric ton of uranium (1000kg) is about 13 gallons.
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