joshlegs's comments

Found the wiki page for the project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot

so it looks like they'd want to launch by 2036. In the 'technical challenges' section, it does mention that some technologies would have to be miniaturized sufficiently, but it doesnt really mention much about whether that technology has reached viable stages or not, or whether it's a realm they'd have to specifically research further.

So I guess maybe the technology doesn't exist today? Sounds like probably not, but maybe the near future -- or at least they expect it to exist by 2036.

It's worth noting this project has backing by some pretty influential folks, including Stephen Hawking when he was still alive.

there is an effort to put super mini spaceships on missions to other solar systems, and they would travel at something like 20% the speed of light. I think it works by having the probes be like the size of a cellphone or something, and being attached to a solar sail, then using an incredibly high powered laser to pump the solar sail full of energy to get it going so fast. I think if that architecture works they could reach ... proxima centauri? ... in something like 20 years.

just pointing that out to say that i think we have technology that would take less time than 450k years :)

additionally, isnt glass a semi natural occurring substance? Im pretty sure ive heard of lightning strikes in deserts/sand that created glass.

oh wow. that's pretty meta.

how do we report comments like this ? or just downvote them?

`DiableInstallNow` i liked this json key in the api

Indeed, Musk has encouraged competitors from the start. I believe they open sourced a lot of their patents in an effort to encourage competition in the electric vehicle space.

oh interesting. definitely not the video i remember seeing, but that demonstrates the same thing very well, and makes me more confident that the previous video I saw was legit. thanks for sharing!! The cutting action happens around 32:07 for anyone wanting to watch

the new solid state lithium batteries being developed are pretty astounding. i think i saw a video of a phone being powered by one, then the demonstrator cuts the battery in half while the phone is being powered by it and nothing happens -- the phone stays on.

could have been video trickery but I think the demo was legit. Once that technology goes mainstream it's gonna be as revolutionary as the increases in lithium ion energy density. We're on the cusp of some incredible battery breakthroughs in the very near future! The fact that the new tesla roadster (admittedly expensive at $250k) has a 600 mile charge capacity is aboslutely astonishing.

blender can create 3d printable STL files, so if we're "thinking Blender," then that implies we can 3d model for printing, if i understand what you're saying

you know, it's pretty damn incredible that we've sent little tiny space probes out of our solar system and they can still talk to us. sometimes i like imagining this tiny ball of circuits floating in space talking to its home planet and it just boggles my mind.

I'm sure they'll release video of it sooner or later. They not long ago release that montage of all their rocket failures.

I'm a little disappointed too, but it was probably the right call by them to cut the feed.

honestly i think that was the biggest reason for its success. Blackberry was already a thing, but that big honking, clunky keyboard was just silly on a phone, and meant you had an exceptionally little amount of screen real estate. The developments in capacitive touch made a lot of room for other improvements to handheld devices.

You can sign up now and be able to use a form of cloud quantum computing. I think to get actual access to the quantum computer, though, you have to explain what you want to use it for. So i'd imagine they are focusing on research projects or other interesting uses.

I went to a presentation by Gwen at SciPy2018 and got to talk to her a little later. They're doing some really cool things with this stuff. I think they're also trying to just get people more used to quantum programming in general. If you haven't looked up their PyQuil language yet, it's definitely worth checking out. https://pyquil.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

sounds like this is a process issue! EG, why data scientists and software engineers are both needed, and how they can work together to produce quality code which will produce quality data analysis

someone linked me this article the other day about how netflix is using notebooks as a development platform https://medium.com/netflix-techblog/notebook-innovation-591e...

i mean i get that theyre nice for doing data stuff and presenting it, but it just seems a bit crazy to use it as some sort of development platform.

so much for "Don't Be Evil" huh

I mean, convenience has a cost/value. Moseying to your local retailer and walking out with a thing has value. Now, whether that's ~$194 of value, IDK.

But like the original commenter, the thing I love about Best Buy (and other mortar and brick retailers) is the "I dont have to wait on shipping and lost orders" thing.

Ok, so former reporter here.

There are several 'criteria for newsworthiness'. One of them is novelty. Another is general public interest. And there is substantial general public interest in Tesla as a whole, since it is doing new things. Additionally, many of the things Tesla is trying is also novel. So that is two things right off the bat that make basically anything that happens there newsworthy to some degree.

I get that people like to say "oh the media is just reporting on this failure because it's Tesla and they want them to fail," but to hold that view is to misunderstand the nature of news in general. Pieces like this aren't inherently "anti-Tesla", (which is what I am admittedly inferring you're getting at with your comment). But the fact that this is a new thing that humankind is experimenting with makes it newsworthy, and that includes its failures and successes.

I also admittedly didn't read the article yet :)

I don't disagree that nuclear non-proliferation is important. But I think the arguments you're using are kind of a bit of false logic. Essentially your argument boils down to "this thing X is hard to do safely. Therefore only people who have done X should do it [because they've failed a lot of times before]." And I don't think that is a legitimate argument for any topic, really.