sqew's recent activity

  1. Comment on Starship Flight 11 successful in ~space

    sqew
    Link
    Linked to SpaceX site since they have a direct link to the video. Super cool, once again. No burn through on the fins this time, it looked like.

    Linked to SpaceX site since they have a direct link to the video. Super cool, once again. No burn through on the fins this time, it looked like.

    6 votes

  3. Comment on US President Donald Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 labels common beliefs as terrorism “indicators” in ~society

    sqew
    Link
    Tongue in cheek, because this bothers me so much that this is all I can think of, but... Thoughtcrime, brought to you by the Democ... wait, you're telling me it wasn't them? It was the folks...

    Tongue in cheek, because this bothers me so much that this is all I can think of, but...

    Thoughtcrime, brought to you by the Democ... wait, you're telling me it wasn't them? It was the folks who've been saying for a decade that the left wanted to police your thoughts???

    18 votes

  4. Comment on US President Donald Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 labels common beliefs as terrorism “indicators” in ~society

    sqew
    Link Parent
    I'm so tired of having to sit through people I know complaining about "the violent left" and how "no one's calling for an end to violence". Nothing I say will get through without being dismissed, so.

    I'm so tired of having to sit through people I know complaining about "the violent left" and how "no one's calling for an end to violence". Nothing I say will get through without being dismissed, so.

    31 votes

  5. Comment on Starship was doomed from the beginning in ~space

    sqew
    Link Parent
    I fully agree that Musk has gone completely off the rails, as have many (all?) of our other billionaires. My personal theory is that they've all gotten way too full of their own Kool-Aid and...

    who has never actually done engineering

    I fully agree that Musk has gone completely off the rails, as have many (all?) of our other billionaires. My personal theory is that they've all gotten way too full of their own Kool-Aid and believe that they're good at one thing so must be good at everything.

    However, having watched him talk to people like Tim Dodd in those early multi-hour walk-and-talk interviews at the Starship build site in Texas, I do think he genuinely understands the engineering trade-offs going into SpaceX's rockets. I'd say I subscribe most to the theory that (again, before his level of extreme crazy in the last half-decade) he put together a good engineering team at SpaceX and that Gwynne Shotwell ran an exceptional business.

    12 votes

  6. Comment on Starship was doomed from the beginning in ~space

    sqew
    Link Parent
    Yeah, with the demonstration of the "Pez dispenser" working on the last test flight and Raptor vacuum relight, they could start (high-risk) delivery of payloads to orbit if they really wanted to....

    Yeah, with the demonstration of the "Pez dispenser" working on the last test flight and Raptor vacuum relight, they could start (high-risk) delivery of payloads to orbit if they really wanted to.

    They'll need to work out some form of clamshell payload bay to do much more than Starlink, which is probably harder than it sounds given that the Pez dispenser kept not working, but it can deliver payload to orbit as of now.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on Starship was doomed from the beginning in ~space

    sqew
    Link Parent
    I read this yesterday and wanted to write up a rebuttal like this, so thanks for being less lazy than me and doing it! I'm happy to read things from space industry skeptics, but I vastly prefer...

    I read this yesterday and wanted to write up a rebuttal like this, so thanks for being less lazy than me and doing it! I'm happy to read things from space industry skeptics, but I vastly prefer folks who do the research to lay out a case that "hey, life support for these things is going to be really, really hard", etc.

    I found the "retro rockets" segment particularly ill-informed. I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone refer to the engines on the Falcon 9 first stage, Super Heavy, Starship, or anyone else attempting propulsive landing with their main engines as "retro rockets". Feels like a line from a Tom Swift book to me.

    12 votes

  8. Comment on Thoughts on making one's own dry mixes? in ~food

    sqew
    Link Parent
    Thanks for the input! Pre-mixing the dry stuff should knock the steps down quite a bit. I already aim for just a 1/3c scoop of oats, 2/3c of milk, couple extra add-ins process, so this should...

    Thanks for the input! Pre-mixing the dry stuff should knock the steps down quite a bit. I already aim for just a 1/3c scoop of oats, 2/3c of milk, couple extra add-ins process, so this should simplify even more.

    3 votes

  9. Comment on EA is reportedly about to be sold in a record-setting $50 billion buyout to an investor group that includes private equity and Saudi Arabia in ~games

    sqew
    Link Parent
    Disappointed but not surprised to see a PE firm involved. They probably get scapegoated for too much and will just continue the anti-consumer practices EA has been up to for years, but that...

    Disappointed but not surprised to see a PE firm involved. They probably get scapegoated for too much and will just continue the anti-consumer practices EA has been up to for years, but that certainly won't help.

    19 votes

  10. Comment on US House Democrats release latest Jeffrey Epstein documents with Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Steve Bannon and Prince Andrew mentions in ~society

    sqew
    Link Parent
    I'm curious what the reactions of the MAGA folks in my life to that would be. Most of them see everything Trump does through a mental lens of "our fearless leader, rooting out corruption and doing...

    I'm curious what the reactions of the MAGA folks in my life to that would be.

    Most of them see everything Trump does through a mental lens of "our fearless leader, rooting out corruption and doing what's best for patriotic Americans", but I also know that they hold very strongly to principles that are completely at odds with what Trump, Epstein, and so many others have done.

    Clearly nothing so far has been enough to shatter their picture of him, but I do wonder if that would be enough that they couldn't shrug it off in the same way that they can with "attacks from people who want to take him down".

    They've all wanted to see stuff like those files for a long time, so it would certainly be hard for them to ignore what might be in them.

    9 votes

  11. Comment on What are some “sore thumb” lyrics for you? in ~music

    sqew
    Link
    Kind of surprised no one mentioned this one yet, but for me the line “Doc told me to travel, but there's Covid on the planes” from Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” is jarring every time I hear it....

    Kind of surprised no one mentioned this one yet, but for me the line “Doc told me to travel, but there's Covid on the planes” from Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” is jarring every time I hear it.

    Something about “Covid” feeling like a current event and expecting songs to either be entirely about an event or be more nebulous? Not totally sure, to be honest.

    2 votes

  12. Thoughts on making one's own dry mixes?

    ~food Ask (advice)
    A general thought that came from a more specific one I had the other day: I've been trying to make sure I eat breakfast by making overnight oats, but it can be a pain on tired nights to get it set...

    A general thought that came from a more specific one I had the other day: I've been trying to make sure I eat breakfast by making overnight oats, but it can be a pain on tired nights to get it set up.

    Are there any gotchas with making your own mixes of dry goods? I feel like I know enough to scare myself with things like "oh well that might not be shelf-stable when mixed since xyz pathogen from it grows well when provided with abc".

    At the moment, I'm just imagining prepping like a weeks worth of oats, chia seeds, raisins, etc. so that I can dump milk in each night, which seems like it would be totally fine.

    13 votes

  14. Comment on Anyone have baking pan recommendations? in ~food

    sqew
    Link Parent
    Yeah, my current ones are cheapies for sure, bottom of the barrel at Target, and getting rusty around the edges. Don't mind having those as beater pans, but I can afford to get something slightly...

    Yeah, my current ones are cheapies for sure, bottom of the barrel at Target, and getting rusty around the edges. Don't mind having those as beater pans, but I can afford to get something slightly nicer that'll work better and last longer.

    @aphoenix, thanks for the recommendation on Nordic Ware, I'd heard of them and had a general perception that they were quite good. Will definitely check them out.

    1 vote

  15. Anyone have baking pan recommendations?

    ~food Ask (recommendations)
    Long story short, I’ve gotten very tired of buying junky pans that start getting rusty, etc. really quickly. At the moment, I’m trying to find some good metal pans for baking things like brownies...

    Long story short, I’ve gotten very tired of buying junky pans that start getting rusty, etc. really quickly.

    At the moment, I’m trying to find some good metal pans for baking things like brownies and focaccia, so probably 8x8 and/or 9x13.

    Anyone have any good brand recommendations?

    7 votes

  17. Comment on There was a flawless space mission on Thursday — it wasn’t SpaceX in ~space

    sqew
    Link
    Another article from ArsTechnica with a little more information on the launch, if anyone would like to read it. Congrats to the folks at Arianespace on a good launch!

    Another article from ArsTechnica with a little more information on the launch, if anyone would like to read it.

    Congrats to the folks at Arianespace on a good launch!

    13 votes

  18. Comment on AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT reviews and launch in ~games

    sqew
    Link Parent
    You can get pretty great monitors for not too much these days, too. I picked up a 27” 1440p IPS 144hz monitor from Acer a few years ago for ~$200, and its current version seems to be around that...

    You can get pretty great monitors for not too much these days, too. I picked up a 27” 1440p IPS 144hz monitor from Acer a few years ago for ~$200, and its current version seems to be around that price still.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT reviews and launch in ~games

    sqew
    Link Parent
    I’m also still running a GTX 970! Thinking about getting one of these or something last gen from AMD, but these prices sting compared to the MSRPs in the 970’s era…

    I’m also still running a GTX 970! Thinking about getting one of these or something last gen from AMD, but these prices sting compared to the MSRPs in the 970’s era…

    1 vote

  20. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    sqew
    Link
    I've been slowly getting more and more interested in radio stuff and SDRs, so after putting together a dual FlightAware/FlightRadar24 ADS-B collection station in December, I've been playing with...

    I've been slowly getting more and more interested in radio stuff and SDRs, so after putting together a dual FlightAware/FlightRadar24 ADS-B collection station in December, I've been playing with making my own custom antennas. It's surprisingly simple to get something that performs reasonably well.

    I don't have a very good view of the sky from where I live, so it's been really interesting playing with some cheap Amazon/Aliexpress antennas and the ones that I've built for myself. Currently have a nanoVNA-H4 on order from Aliexpress to start being able to look at the performance of what I'm building in real numbers rather than just "how many aircraft/messages can I receive?". If anyone else is interested, I'd be happy to write up a little more about what I've been doing and why it's been fun for me!

    3 votes