mbank
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1 year ago
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on: Generate pip requirements.txt file based on imports of any project
I was looking for this and thought I was doing something wrong not finding anything...
Great job!
I do think though a "clean" development mode not needing this would be to work with a virgin virtual environment starting a new project and running pip freeze on that env.
mbank
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2 years ago
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on: Bill Gates demonstrates Visual Basic (1991) [video]
Wow what an honor! VB really got me of the ground (after a short endeavor with QBASIC) and I loved it! I have to say though that in terms of creating an UI it kind of messed me up: When later studying CS and was asked to create a UI based project in Java I really did not understand what was going on: All students in my team thought it was "normal" that you would hardcore not only the functionality of a button but also it's position, color etc. From VBA I was used to just drag and drop, press F5 and enjoy!
Same goes for debugging via terminal outputs...
Anyways, many thanks to you (and others) - VB really got me hooked
mbank
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2 years ago
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on: No limit to maximal lifespan in humans: how to beat a 122-year-old record (2022)
Increasing max/avg/median lifespan without major improvements in battling dementia it is a rather dystopian vision. And even if we are not talking full blown Alzheimers, declining mental capabilities is a big issue: My own grandmother turns 102 this year and even though we as a family feel really blessed, I would say the last 5 years have been a slow but constant decline in mental capabilities. It went hand in hand with decline in eyesight and hearing. So: not hearing much anymore, not able to read or really watch TV and all your friends and relatives have passed for years. I really don't know if I would whish her getting 120...
mbank
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2 years ago
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on: Is There an Illusion of Moral Decline?
Reading Hagakure (Japan, 1716) really helps putting things into perspective here: Even back then the author complained about moral decline. And in the author`s eyes the sad low point of this degeneracy is the trend that the young lords won't e
Perform their beheadings themselves anymore...
mbank
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3 years ago
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on: Dragon’s teeth – Stopping tanks in their tracks
What a lot of people don't know: the standard NATO barbedwire - correctly deployed - is highly effective against tanks: It messes up the chains and is a nightmare to remove (eg blowing them up is not an option).
mbank
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3 years ago
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on: The currency of the new economy won't be money, but attention (1997)
I prefer Andrew D. Huberman's idea: Dopamine is the real currency
mbank
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3 years ago
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on: Deepest infrared image of universe
This ain't new it's just the background image of beloved pc game "master of orion II" :)
mbank
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4 years ago
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on: Hire for the Ability to Get Shit Done (2011)
I think this is an even bigger issue: A cultural one. We live in a (western) society where NOT getting shit done has become the norm. Often things don't get finished at all and if they do they take forever. There seem to be only few companies/founders (have to mention Elon here!) that are able to break this habit.
mbank
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4 years ago
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on: Don’t starve, Diablo – Parallax 7 (2016)
I love You mentioning moon patrol. It was one of my first games back in the days on Atari 1024St. Spend hours in front of it, just a me a friend and a joystick...
mbank
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4 years ago
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on: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets
mbank
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4 years ago
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on: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets
The saddest thing about these VR companies (or any other hyped yet insubstantial new thing for that matter) to me is the fact that they got acquired too quickly that one cannot short them on the stock exchange...
mbank
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5 years ago
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on: What We Can Learn from Japanese Prefab Homes
We have recently finished planning a prefab home in Germany and hopefully soon the actual building process will start. Just a couple of insights:
* roughly a third of private homes are build like this
* prices are a little lower than custom build (although not as much as when you start the planning)
* very extensive customization is possible
* walls are high tech versions of a century old building technique (wooden frame with heat preserving insulation)
* energy efficiency (walls, heating system, solar) is brought to an extreme
* due to regulations and and extensive planning (Germany, right?) it takes 9-15 months
* The building itself only takes a couple of days
* Building brick by brick wasn't an option to us due to a current lack of qualified crafts men and women (you end up with 90%, waiting months for the rest to be finished)
My thoughts looking at the Japanese ones: Nice minimalistic architecture but some (already mentioned) things seem unhandy. Also doubt that they are as energy efficient as their german counterparts ;)
mbank
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5 years ago
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on: Traffic Simulator
Love these kind of micro simulations! They really help to discover non intuitive behaviour of complex systems just by playing around. Great job!
mbank
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5 years ago
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on: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best
Love it! I started out by manipulating simple games in qbasic. Then switched to Visual Basic and made my first serious yet small projects. In the meantime got into web design and always thought I was doing something wrong when creating a UI with HTML & co - so painful compared to the drag and drop UI creation in Visual Studio. Same when I've learned Java: UI creation was a nightmare.
Sorry for going off rails...QBasic was just awesome!
mbank
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5 years ago
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on: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
I think the story goes that there were less than 10 people in medieval Europe that could do a division on paper at the time the great gothic cathedrals were build. Gets you thinking...(no source provided)
mbank
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5 years ago
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on: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
Intro of the movie "Idiocracy" sums it up pretty good ;)
mbank
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5 years ago
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on: How can you make subjective time go slower?
Be somewhere you don't want to be and where it is not much (work) to be done.
Seriously: Few years back, we had the draft in Germany and these were the longest 9 months of my life. Especially the first 3 (bootcamp style) seemed never to end: Days felt like weeks! Even though later on the people around were kind of ok, the time kept dragging on...
You often hear the same kind of story from prisoners.
In all seriousness: My time there really got me thinking especially if I compare it with how fast a year passes by nowadays...
mbank
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6 years ago
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on: Hydroxychloroquine causes viral load reduction in Covid-19 patients
Study from Marseille seems well founded, although (of course) based on a small sample.
Why isn't this higher up?
mbank
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6 years ago
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on: Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s (2015)
Its important to think in multiple layers: For example carrots and salad on the ground, tomatoes on top and way above beans.
One thing I would always recommend: potatoes - one of the most robust crops, that almost always work out.
For a balcony, the fun and the created atmosphere should play a role alongside the yield. You won't match your need for calories anyway...
