PuddleOfKittens's recent activity

  1. Comment on China's tech giant claims 1,800-mile range for new solid-state EV battery in ~transport

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    I know you're being metaphorical, but now I want to see that canyon. It sounds like a pretty cool canyon.

    When it comes to batteries, there is a canyon between the lab and mass manufacture.

    I know you're being metaphorical, but now I want to see that canyon. It sounds like a pretty cool canyon.

    3 votes

  2. Comment on How did you ruin a game for yourself? in ~games

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    Also Tunic here, because I'd lost my notebook and refused to make notes at the time. Wasn't really "ruined", but the deeper stuff basically requires using notes.

    Also Tunic here, because I'd lost my notebook and refused to make notes at the time. Wasn't really "ruined", but the deeper stuff basically requires using notes.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on The future of forums is lies, I guess in ~tech

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    This is basically the cheating problem in videogames, writ large - preventing cheating requires making the client trustable on the customer's PC that they have admin control on), which is not...

    This is basically the cheating problem in videogames, writ large - preventing cheating requires making the client trustable on the customer's PC that they have admin control on), which is not possible in a conventional security paradigm. F2P games make it impossible to permanently.ban cheaters, since a new account is free, but even paid games are limited to basically $50 for caught cheaters to get a new account.

    Currently, EA etc are trying to push kernel-level anticheat, which gives the game company complete control over your computer (and doesn't really work on Linux, so they tend to just not support Linux) and is a huge security vector obviously. All to mitigate a problem that is impossible due to the assumptions in the problem as defined.

    Meanwhile, South Korea has solved the problem quite nicely: you need a govt ID to sign up for online videogames (for reasons of videogame addiction laws), and anyone caught cheating will be fined by the govt. I think the fine is ~$1000 IIRC. Now the problem is reduced down to identity theft and keeping an eye on past offenders (if you didn't permaban them).

    33 votes

  4. Comment on Apparently impatient US President Donald Trump slaps 25% tariffs on Japan, South Korea in ~society

    PuddleOfKittens
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    Growing frustration? More like growing entitlement. What a spoiled little brat.

    Growing frustration? More like growing entitlement. What a spoiled little brat.

    15 votes

  5. Comment on The America Party in ~society

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    The short answer is that you make the easy-to-make stuff (amorphous silicon panels), because the high-tier stuff degrades rapidly in space anyway (UV) and is only useful if you're mass-constrained...

    The short answer is that you make the easy-to-make stuff (amorphous silicon panels), because the high-tier stuff degrades rapidly in space anyway (UV) and is only useful if you're mass-constrained in the first place.

    A lunar foundry would obviously use mirrors - no atmosphere means everything is amazingly well insulated, so you can just have a field of mirrors focused on your crucible, limited only by the number of mirrors and radiative cooling (and sunlight/time of day).

    There's no carbon on the moon, and definitely no coal. Oxygen is the second most abundant element of lunar soil (#1 is silicon), but extracting it from the oxides will take energy. Once you do, though, you could make thermite. Realistically, if you imported carbon, the main reason would be turning your iron into steel (and also carbon is a necessary part of the human diet).

    1 vote

  6. Comment on The America Party in ~society

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    Ditto what ButteredToast said, but you're now talking about profit viability. My point was that the moon is both technologically viable and financially affordable to set up operations on....

    Ditto what ButteredToast said, but you're now talking about profit viability. My point was that the moon is both technologically viable and financially affordable to set up operations on. Realistically, the #1 benefit will be a basically infinite scope of scientific experiments possible on the moon - if you have a moonbase, you have area, energy, labor (somewhat), and materials available to perform experiments with (the labor shortage can be somewhat compensated by judicious use of remote-control from earth). Every other economic activity will mainly be useful as a means for making the space-base financially viable.

    Also, shipping products off the moon is incredibly cheap once you've built a (solar powered) mass driver, which is made more practical by the moon's atmosphere being near-vacuum. And lunar regolith is something like 10% titanium IIRC. And given that there are already things only viable to manufacture in space (a type of fibre optic), there might be things only viable to manufacture on moon-gravity too.

    2 votes

  7. Comment on The America Party in ~society

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    Lunar stuff is perfectly realistic - check out the YouTube channel Anthrofuturism, it covers(/speculates) on that sort of stuff, and it's mostly just 1800s-level machines made locally out of lunar...

    Lunar stuff is perfectly realistic - check out the YouTube channel Anthrofuturism, it covers(/speculates) on that sort of stuff, and it's mostly just 1800s-level machines made locally out of lunar regolith (I.e. moon dust) and iron (the moon doesn't have any carbon for steel, although carbon could be surprisingly cost-effectively imported), driven by electric motors controlled by computers. The electric motors could be made locally from aluminium wire, the computers would obviously need to be imported but they're so tiny that a single rocketful of computers would cover everything, and the solar panels and (sodium) batteries could be made locally too.

    Obviously the initial machines/solar panels/batteries would need to be imported, but it doesn't take much machinery to build enough production to bootstrap more. Some stuff couldn't be done remotely and would need to be done by astronauts on-site, but we've done that decades ago, we "just" need to tackle long-term habitation. That will be hard, but in an "oh no what could go wrong" sort of way, and not Mars's "everyone will definitely all die and changing that would require decades of research" absurdity.

    8 votes

  8. Comment on China's tech giant claims 1,800-mile range for new solid-state EV battery in ~transport

    PuddleOfKittens
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    I really wish there were a site that records hype-fuelled probably a bullshit claims and then revisits them 5,10 years later to see if they went anywhere and why not.

    uawei has filed a patent detailing a sulfide-based solid-state battery design with energy densities between 180 and 225 Wh/lb, roughly two to three times higher than today’s typical electric vehicle batteries.

    I really wish there were a site that records hype-fuelled probably a bullshit claims and then revisits them 5,10 years later to see if they went anywhere and why not.

    6 votes

  9. Comment on That dropped call with customer service? It was on purpose. (gifted link) in ~life

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    It's the Shawshank Redemption protagonist. In the movie, he writes twice a week to congress (IIRC) for years in order to get $500.

    It's the Shawshank Redemption protagonist. In the movie, he writes twice a week to congress (IIRC) for years in order to get $500.

    12 votes

  10. Comment on Calgary brings fluoride back to its drinking water in ~health

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    That would go to something like mandating surgeons wash their hands between surgeries. Or building your sewage outflow pipes downstream of your drinking water intake pipe.

    This has to be the cheapest public health measure per capita in human history.

    That would go to something like mandating surgeons wash their hands between surgeries. Or building your sewage outflow pipes downstream of your drinking water intake pipe.

    20 votes

  11. Comment on What is your opinion whenever you see news/opinion that tech companies are relying more on chatbots rather than junior developers/interns? in ~tech

    PuddleOfKittens
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    Over the last few decades, as jobs have become increasingly insecure and thus mercenary and short-term, corporations have abdicated their role in training workers. In other words, how is this new?

    Over the last few decades, as jobs have become increasingly insecure and thus mercenary and short-term, corporations have abdicated their role in training workers.

    In other words, how is this new?

    15 votes

  12. Comment on China cracks down on women who write gay erotica in ~books

  13. Comment on California rolls back its landmark environmental law (gifted link) in ~society

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    I'm so glad CEQA is gone, now maybe California will be able to build their HSR. Unless Trump fucked the funding.

    I'm so glad CEQA is gone, now maybe California will be able to build their HSR. Unless Trump fucked the funding.

    4 votes

  14. Comment on One million and counting: Russian casualties hit milestone in Ukraine war in ~society

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    The same thing is happening in Ukraine, so it ultimately doesn't really affect the war AFAICT.

    The same thing is happening in Ukraine, so it ultimately doesn't really affect the war AFAICT.

  15. Comment on One million and counting: Russian casualties hit milestone in Ukraine war in ~society

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    Pushing the offensive against a well-fortified position comes with a brutal attrition rate; right now Russia is suffering that attrition, but if Ukraine were to push then they would suffer that...

    Pushing the offensive against a well-fortified position comes with a brutal attrition rate; right now Russia is suffering that attrition, but if Ukraine were to push then they would suffer that attrition.

    In other words, not in the current military context. However, if something were to happen that seriously degraded Russia's military capacity (like their economy falling out from under them and a subsequent inability to keep munition factories running) *then *presumably Ukraine could make some major gains.

    6 votes

  16. Comment on Two killed, one wounded in sniper ambush as Idaho firefighters come under siege from rifle fire in ~news

    PuddleOfKittens
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    Well, this makes me think I should have set up an It Could Happen Here bingo sheet. I'm going to take a risk and guess the shooter is a right-wing lunatic, let's find out if I'm right. (It Could...

    Well, this makes me think I should have set up an It Could Happen Here bingo sheet. I'm going to take a risk and guess the shooter is a right-wing lunatic, let's find out if I'm right.

    (It Could Happen Here is a podcast series predicting what a hypothetical US civil war would look like, based on contemporary civil wars abroad e.g. the Syrian civil war.)

    10 votes

  17. Comment on US Democrats draft a bill forbidding masked arrests in ~society

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    I'm not an expert, and my source is "I heard it on the internet somewhere". Soooo maybe I'm overconfident about it. But honestly if it isn't the law then that's just plain stupid. And to...

    I'm not an expert, and my source is "I heard it on the internet somewhere". Soooo maybe I'm overconfident about it. But honestly if it isn't the law then that's just plain stupid. And to repeat/clarify, I'm talking about cops making arrests (or doing other only-legal-as-a-cop actions) being required to identify themselves.

    If anyone can claim they're a cop and then legally have to be treated as a cop without proof they're a cop, then 1) people will start impersonating cops to do crimes (e.g. kidnapping) without resistance, and 2) people will be charged with a crime for obvious self-defence situations of the above.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on US Democrats draft a bill forbidding masked arrests in ~society

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link
    Refusing to provide ID as a cop while making arrests is already illegal in the US, this draft is just putting lipstick on a pig - and only if Republicans permit it to pass through congress. The...

    Refusing to provide ID as a cop while making arrests is already illegal in the US, this draft is just putting lipstick on a pig - and only if Republicans permit it to pass through congress.

    The problem is the Trump administration's support of ICE's systemic lawless behaviour. Passing more laws won't solve your problem when your problem is outlaws.

    12 votes

  19. Comment on NATO commits to spending hike sought by US President Donald Trump, and to mutual defence in ~society

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    This is true, and I'd like to add some context to it: You might need 100x more e.g. artillery shells during a war than during peacetime. So if you need 1 full shell factory to handle peacetime...

    Military spending is probably the hardest thing in the world to properly manage.

    This is true, and I'd like to add some context to it:

    You might need 100x more e.g. artillery shells during a war than during peacetime. So if you need 1 full shell factory to handle peacetime needs, then you set up 10 factories producing at 10% capacity each and during peacetime you're paying maybe 10x what you need in factory costs, but come wartime you'll still only have 1/10th of the production you'll actually need. You simply cannot expand an entire industry 10x in a month.

    There is absolutely no way to square this circle without either 1) accepting you'll lose the war or 2) spending a ton of money during peacetime on factories you'll never use, pay a bunch of idle employees just so you'll retain their tribal technical knowledge (imagine how long a factory takes to duplicate if you don't know how it works!), and still be fairly short on equipment on the day War Were Declared. Or 3) be Stalin/North Korea and don't bother with a civilian economy (which means you won't have much of a tax base to divert in the first place).

    5 votes

  20. Comment on NATO commits to spending hike sought by US President Donald Trump, and to mutual defence in ~society

    PuddleOfKittens
    Link Parent
    That's stupid - America did fix their shit after Trump, under Biden. Then Trump got back in and re-broke everything. Europe simply can't rely on the US anymore, because if it happened twice then...

    Then wait for America to fix their shit.

    That's stupid - America did fix their shit after Trump, under Biden. Then Trump got back in and re-broke everything. Europe simply can't rely on the US anymore, because if it happened twice then it can happen thrice.

    16 votes