[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 53 points 2 weeks ago

Ithink you could be more charitable in your reply. Transistors were developed to replace tubes in telephone systems... Okay but the tubes had been developed to where they were because of their usefulness in radio.

And while computers don't inherently rely on radio, it's radio communication that's taken computers from one in every office to one in everyone's pocket. Right? The main thrust of the previous commenter is true.

18
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by m0darn@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

Canadian homeless encampments have become increasingly visible in recent years, and those residing within them have faced a fair bit of variation in how local governments react to their presence. Today, let's look at a remarkable legal case that may change the game regarding how homeless encampments are considered under Canadian law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

355
submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by m0darn@lemmy.ca to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

I'm not saying that it's likely or that it would have any effects.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 51 points 8 months ago

Don't worry this could be the last one

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 59 points 8 months ago

At least there are no centrists in here claiming it's 3.5

20
submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by m0darn@lemmy.ca to c/askscience@lemmy.world

I live in Vancouver Canada, my house was built in the 1950's and the basement has the floor joists of the kitchen [above it] exposed.

At that time forestry here was felling massive ancient trees. I'm curious how precisely I can establish a maximum age of the trees felled.

Obviously I could count the rings visible on the joists and subtract that number from 1950, but not having the tree's full diameter limits measurement. I understand it's possible to compare relative ring sizes with existing [cross referenced] data sets to date timber.

Does anyone have any experience doing this or able to point me in the right direction? Any resources I'm unlikely to find on Google?

16
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by m0darn@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

...and a fact check of the statements made in the interview.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 58 points 9 months ago

I don't think jewelry wearing is compatible with the Amish conception of propriety and modesty but I'm not going to say it wouldn't happen.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 61 points 9 months ago

It's not, but it seems Argentina doesn't think people should be allowed to own their phones.

1

I'm trying to achieve variable speed control on two brushed DC motors powered by a 3s or 4s LiPo battery (~12V or 15V). This is for a nerf blaster I'm modifying, which is why I'm not using a pre-made speed control ie I want control over the shape/layout. I'd like to vary projectile speed with a thumb knob.

I just finished watching ElectricMonkeyBrain's YouTube video on the TL494 PWM chip.

I was initially planning to vary the duty cycle with a potentiometer on the chip's control pin, to get a PWM signal and feed that into a MOSFET. But in the video he mentions that the chip has an integrated over current protection function. Ie the chip will

monitor the voltage across a sense resistor in series with the load 

and will

kill the output if the sensed voltage/current goes above a reference voltage

It occured to me that I could actually adjust the reference voltage as a way to control the motor speed.

Would this be a better way to achieve speed control and protect my motors/battery? Or is it a terrible idea altogether.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 50 points 11 months ago

I live near a school playground in Vancouver. In the summer the kids don't use it because it's too hot and sunny. In the winter kids don't use it because it's wet.

I feel like a solar panel canopy would be 3 birds with one stone.

18
submitted 1 year ago by m0darn@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

I met a Ukrainian today. He is my age. I met him at school drop off, our sons are in the same kindergarten class.

They recently arrived here from overseas. I welcome them, but I wish we had done more to help Ukraine.

There are numerous places in the world where people are being displaced by state violence, but I don't think there's anywhere that it's being done by a global power so directly. It's similar to Gaza/Palestine & Israel, but Russia can end the war by simply going home.

If we had been meeting our NATO obligations for the last 30 years, would this family have been driven out of their home? I don't know. (I actually know almost nothing about their personal circumstances)

I just feel like we should have done more, and that it's not too late.

18
submitted 1 year ago by m0darn@lemmy.ca to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

I know this isn't build a pc, but everything over there is so gaming oriented I thought I might get better advice here.

I'm a noob that wants a home media server for sharing photos of my kids with my family (across the country), video library sharing to some family members, and streaming my music collection to my phone (and maybe my dad's).

But I'm considering ripping my father in laws extensive bluray collection (well seeing it up so he can rip them into my library) so I reckon a full tower is required for HDDs.

I'm imagining unraid, with a big pile of used drives. What I like about that approach is that I can economically add storage as the video library grows as I/we rip. Or are used HDDs a false economy.

I think the only processing intensive thing in the use case list is ripping and video library sharing. I have no concept of what sort of processing is required. Should I get a graphics card?

There's a Lenovo TS-140 (E3-1226 V3) available available used for $80 Canadian. Is that a good place to start?

I

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 218 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Shifts team to generative AI.

If your car development team can be transferred to AI developement you weren't building much of a car.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 108 points 1 year ago

I'm not a law talking guy, this isn't the law, and it isn't ethical best practice but it might help people understand the reasonableness of the poster.

I believe it's true that drunk people can't consent. I think that what juries are likely to actually care about is the question:

Did the accused have the reasonable belief that the plaintiff would consent to sex while sober?

If you're in a police interview or a trial and are asked:

What made you think the plaintiff consented to your actions?

And all you can say without perjuring yourself is:

I vaguely recall that they seemed kinda into it, and they didn't say no, oh! and they didn't fight back.

You're going to have a bad time. ESPECIALLY if you've been drinking, because it will be easier to question the reasonableness of your belief in their consent.

This poster is clearly meant for a place similar to a university dormitory.

This poster is bad because: it makes the law seem lopsided, and perpetuates sexist ideas about gender and sex.

The poster is good because: unfortunately, too many men think that if a girl is drunk at a place where he thinks the girls are looking for drunk hookups, that she consents to whatever she doesn't fight (and maybe more). Too many men misunderstand consent and have dangerous ideas about what women really want. It's much better they be scared into over thinking whether they're risking arrest than that they rape somebody.

Obviously more nuance is good, but if you're trying to stop drunk 18 year olds from raping/being raped, taping up a poster like this in the stairwell is more effective than taping up an essay.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 61 points 1 year ago

Hey I love this meme everytime I see it, but I want to point out that that point about growing up in "similar circumstances that nurture their skill' is contingent upon working musicians being able to afford to raise children. Children that will also need to work.

Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think there is a comparable proportion of the population that are working musicians, that earn enough money to support children, but not so much that the children don't have to learn a trade, as there were in "Enlightenment" Europe where if a person wanted to hear music they had to make it themselves, or pay someone to make it, and every rich asshole had a chamber orchestra following him around.

Also parents don't teach children their trades the way they used to, and they aren't expected to support their parent's businesses the way they used to. (I'm not lamenting this). There used to be a lot of pressure on children to contribute economically. Mozart, and his siblings probably faced what we'd consider child abuse if he didn't practice. He was certainly exploited.

Michael Jackson is a Mozart of the 20th century. He was put to work at a young age to support his parents and siblings, that were also working musicians.

As much as I love Weird Al (and I do) I don't think he was groomed and exploited the same way MJ/WM were. Kudos to his parents for that I guess.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 54 points 1 year ago

I think it's more likely a way to get a portion of your employees to resign without having to deal with the socio-econo-political headache of layoffs or give severance packages.

It doesn't boost productivity, but it may cut payroll.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 73 points 1 year ago

Another way of thinking about it is betting your entire bankroll for 99.9....% certainty that you will win $1.

Say you go into the casino with $1000.

Bet:

$1 lose.
$3 lose.
$9 lose.
$27 lose.
$81 lose.
$243 lose.
$729 oh wait you can't bet that much, you only have $457 left. Dang, do you bet $457 or find another $272? 

Bet $457 and you win $914! Congrats you're now only down $86!
Or maybe you lost and are down $1000.

Or maybe you scrounged up $272 so you could keep playing
Bet 729 and lose. Now you're down $1272.
Or
Bet 729 and you win 1458. Pay back the $272 you borrowed from your buddy, you're still up $186. 
You just bet $729 dollars for a %50 chance of winning $186.

But what are the chances of getting 6 or 7 losses in a row? 1 in 64, or 128 respectively, actually worse because roulette wheels aren't 50/50, they're 18/19 (18 wins and 19 losses in 37 plays on average) or worse. So losing 6 times in a row will happen 1 in 54 plays, 7 losses is 1 in 106.

Google says roulette wheels spin 55 times per hour so with your strategy you will lose your bank roll in about one hour assuming your starting bet is 0.1% of your bank roll.

1
submitted 2 years ago by m0darn@lemmy.ca to c/dadjokes@lemmy.world

I glove you.

88
submitted 2 years ago by m0darn@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

My neighbour (40/m) ("N") confided that his recently retired father (70/m) ("G") has started going to the casino twice a day (all day but he comes home for dinner).

G's losses affect the food they eat (multi generational household).

N doesn't really know what to do. I'm not so concerned for N, moreso his mother/G's wife.

It's not my business but, when I was a kid my boyscout leader committed suicide after gambling away his house so I'm pretty sensitive to this sort of thing. I'd like to help if I can.

Any advice?

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 106 points 2 years ago

I seem to recall Diogenes replied:

Likewise: if I were not Diogenes I too would wish I were Diogenes

I mean it's all probably made up but what a guy.

0
submitted 2 years ago by m0darn@lemmy.ca to c/askscience@lemmy.world

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the scale of the problem of nuclear waste. If we took all the nuclear waste produced in a year and evenly blended it into all gasoline burned in a year would the radiation be deadly? Dangerous? Detectable?

It's easiest to get numbers for the US.

2 000 000 kg of waste per year

510 000 000 000 Liters of gasoline

Obviously this isn't a real proposal, although I think it would reduce carbon emissions...

52
submitted 2 years ago by m0darn@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

Wikipedia says

A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses superpowers, abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their powers to help the world become a better place, or dedicating themselves to protecting the public and fighting crime.

So yes, he is definitely dedicated to protecting the public, but it feels wrong to call him a super hero. What do you think?

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m0darn

joined 2 years ago