www.diybookscanner.org
www.vicechief.com
- I've been running GrapheneOS for a few months now, keeping my old Samsung on WiFi as a backup.
It is such a breath of fresh air. It is so quiet and functional. It feels like it prioritizes me, the user. I am so grateful to have this OS.
Of course it has flaws, but they're lesser flaws. Like the crop tool is sometimes unusable in the gallery app. I can live with that. I couldn't live with the AI onslaught and spyware infiltration.
- Respectfully, at this point, do we need Googlers to explain?
Structurally: launch-dependent levels/career advancement. Design wise: massive over reliance on A/B testing. Philosophically: a company hell bent on observing, categorizing, and exploiting us in extremis in exchange for only a tiny "relevant" slice of their potential deliverable.
Because of their focus on "scale", they have never cared about any individual user. The indifference of their technical systems is absolute.
- In a VR headset the virtual screen distance is set by the distance of the microdisplay from the lens in the headset.
It's not crazy to think you could move the microdisplay position and get a virtual display at 6". There might be other optical consequences (aberrations, change in viewable area) but in principle it can work.
- Here's some context for people who are curious about CA DMV data sales:
https://www.thedrive.com/news/35457/why-is-the-california-dm...
- I spoke to a McMaster web team member at a bar. They told me that the real reason there's usually no brand information is that they buy the same bolt (for example) from many different suppliers to guarantee availability.
They will only put a brand on a product (example: 3M DP420) when it truly comes from a single source and has special meaning/implications.
That said, I order tens of thousands of dollars of McMaster Carr items each year. They almost always come in packages from the OEM with OEM part numbers. So if I want more bolts like that, I just look at the box they were delivered in. The info is just not on the web interface.
- I've purchased equipment from scrapped solar factories in the Bay Area. Tons of people lost jobs and not just technologists.
- Meta made the decision to take control of what users see via the feed, and to show them mostly content which is NOT from friends. Content that "performs well".
The testimony is disingenuous, but true. People see less of their friends because they are show less of their friends. Friends post less becuase no one sees it.
- This matches my experience. In addition I was advised/strongly encouraged to "go dark" on social media and refrain from ever discussing work at lunch, even with teammates.
My badge only worked where I had explicitly been given access, and desks were to be kept clear and all prototypes or hardware had to be locked in drawers and/or covered with black cloths. Almost every door was a blind door with a second door inside, so that if the outer one opened, it was not possible to see into the inner space.
- Strange take. Pixelated camouflage is and was an attempt to make a scale invariant camouflage (works at near and far distances) by encoding patterns at multiple spatial frequencies. It's far from "computers are cool" or pixel art.
- The similarities to Google Books are interesting. Google created Books based on their own scans of books, which publishers considered piracy.
The legal battle initiated by the Authors Guild was vicious and it damaged and hampered Books and other entities and scanning projects like the Internet Archive.
Now Facebook pirates all the world's books, uses them without paying authors or publishers, and seemingly faces no consequences.
I would strongly prefer to live in a world where we could easily search and access all books, than one where the richest guys get to exploit them without consequences.
- McMaster Carr now sells ethanol in large quantities.
- My domain is mechanical engineering. In my discipline, the Parker O-Ring catalog or the Omega Sensors catalog are basically textbooks which teach you how to specify and select seals and sensors. They create experts, and in the process, create sales and users.
The really outstanding trick of these catalogs is they also work as shortcuts. You can go to a table and pick an O-ring with very little expertise, and it will tell you the groove size, corner radius, etc.
In short, when you're documenting tools or engineering components, and your audience is tool users, teaching is a highly effective approach.
- It's also been tried in the mechanical world ("Generative Design" in Autodesk's language) and it's still mostly in the "cool demo, bro" phase. The parts end up being expensive and difficult to manufacture due to the unusual geometry. You're penalized for exploring the design space because it runs on cloud credits (more exploration == more cost). Just not very compelling yet.
- Since they already reference Technology Connections in the article, and since this is a great essay but not new ideas, let's also call out other important voices - in particular Shoshana Zuboff's "Surveillance Capitalism", Cory Doctorow, and the many others who have put their backs into helping us understand how these sick systems work.
- Have you tried searching with Explorer? Or opening the start menu or a folder? I'm currently 100% a Windows shop, and it's embarrassingly slow on my silly fast computer.
- Even Apple doesn't do CAD on OSX. They run Siemens NX on Windows.
But your statement isn't quite right. Fusion 360 runs fine in mac. I'm ex-Apple btw.
- There's a piece of commercial software called Celemony Capstan. Might not be right for your application but it was designed explicitly for tape restoration.
- Agree. Firefox is the only browser I "trust". It does the best job of respecting the user out of any available option. I am the user and I deserve respect. You are also users, and you deserve respect, too.
- Fusion is my daily driver and this is a huge thing for me. Missed it. Thanks.
- Some universities have a press or media outlet which generates press releases and handles media relations.
- E2E doesn't fix the government mandated backdoors, which were implicated in this attack. Check out the last line of this article:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/04/politics/us-telecom-providers...
- Something useful I learned recently. It's a lot more satisfying to share your favorite things while you're alive. You're alive to experience the rewards.
Someone close to me wants me to pick out my favorite things from their collection, so they can have the pleasure of giving them to me. Took me a while to understand.
Not everyone is worried about a legacy or where there stuff goes after they're gone. It's the least of my worries, personally.
- Losing Weird Stuff Warehouse was one of the bellwether signals for me to leave the Bay.
As I remember,Excess picked up a big chunk of Halted stock, but I heard the Excess location in San Jose closed (eBay store still open). Anyone know current status?
- It's a little deeper than this, software for each module is typically provided by a tier 1 or tier 2 supplier according to a spec provided by the OEM. Sometimes the tier 1 or tier 2 supplier is also subbing out the software or stuck with some system on chip that sucks.
So for a made-up example, GM wants to build a smart dash in the latest SUV, maybe Bosch or Continental has one with a SoC inside and their own software hell. OEM works with supplier to integrate, bugfix, skin, and customize. But they don't write it from scratch.
- The article points out that the FPGA was not actually removed. However it is true in some circumstances having access to data earlier in the pipeline is useful. Microbolometer cameras like these have their own quirks.
- I worked at RS in '99/00- at the time "Realistic" branded stuff was RCA produced.
Sometimes we would have identical items from both companies, with the Realistic model on sale or special with free batteries or an extended warranty.
- The dopamine hypothesis is being heavily debated and revisited these days. Might be worth checking any assumptions against current research.
- Agree, but colleges aren't the only vehicle to produce a technical workforce. If the US wants to be competitive going forward, we are going to need alternate tracks for technically minded folks - think apprenticeships and certification programs in addition to our universities.
- Choreographers have almost no means to copyright their creative work and the Choreographer's Guild presently seeks to protect said work and get choreographers credited and paid.
It may be that notation has a renewed utility by virtue of creating a copyrightable artifact.
This story is touching.