It takes some practice to beautify it. You’ll also spend more time doing that than the whole time taken to build the core.

Don’t bother with a usb key. Flash memory is technically volatile, it just takes a while to blank. Unless you plug the key in every 5 to 10 years, it will start losing data. By the time the time capsule is unearthed, it will likely be blank or corrupted.

At university, I had a housemate who was doing research into the chemical(s) in garlic that give it its smell. She was completely nose blind to it. You also went nose blind to garlic, just by being in the same house.

Just noticed a slight typo, fixed now. Also, at that point, most of the tests are useless and distinguishing the differences.

It’s also quite weird. To me, it’s completely normal. It actually took significant mental training to match up with how others think. I knew I was quick, but not that quick.

Unfortunately, it’s also a coping mechanism (adhd + autism + a few more quirks). My brain handles certain tasks abnormally. E.g. I can’t read emotions intuitively. I have to brute force it with general intelligence methods. I also have memory issues, again, compensated for with brute calculations.

It’s a bit like being terrified of riding vehicles. You learn to cope. You then get slightly surprised when people complain how hard marathons are. You jog the 15 miles to work and back everyday! It’s not that hard. You develop the skills because you need them.

Intelligence (particularly IQ) is also only a subset of being smart. I know people far smarter than me. Their IQ might not be at the same level, but they can leverage it massively more than I can. I’m a hot rod, amazing on a 1 mile track, crap on normal roads.

1. Yes, I even have the paperwork to back that up. (99.7 percentile)

2. No, I’m also a classic example of the difference between intelligent and smart. I’m a 1000hp engine in a reliant Robin van. Immense power, but limited in my ability to apply it to useful tasks.

3. I’m the main character in my story. I know, logically, that I’m just another speck of humanity to others, but my ego can’t function in that state, so it doesn’t.

Edit: apparent an extra 9 slipped in.

In short, yes, but it has to be carefully controlled, and on your terms.

I have adhd, I regularly take medication for it. It has a significant effect on my personality. I takes away the “excited labrador puppy” energy, which is replaced with a more calm and considerate version of me.

It’s worth noting that this change is something I wanted. The improvements for others is a nice side benefit. It’s also done with medical supervision.

It’s also worth noting that the change does become more permanent. Even when unmedicated, I can mode switch far more easily than before. My brain understands the new state better and so can recreate it, even without chemical support.

It was tried, quite extensively, early on in the reprap movement. No-one managed to get it working reliably. The issue is that the pellets don’t feed consistently enough. This means the flow is inconsistent. This massively messes with the quality of the print.

There are theoretical ways to compensate. Unfortunately, most result in a huge jump in complexity and weight on the head. Neither is a good thing.

Basically. The benefits aren’t generally with the costs, outside of a few, very niche areas. It’s also now easier to source filament most places, compared to pellets. So even that isn’t a game changer.

One of the old codex books. It’s going back decades however. The works have changed a lot from that era. It was the same codex as the buzzer squig catapult, if that helps narrow it down.

I periodically used mouthwash, on my arm pits, as a teenager. It cleared the funky smell quite impressively. I would definitely suspect head and shoulders anti fungal properties as the useful bit.

Compression of size is getting smaller, your claim/idea.

Ultimately, the ratio of intergalactic distances to atomic ones are changing in an unusual way. We have made the assumption that it is the single factor changing, and not a dozen, in lockstep, that don’t seem able to change that way.

You’re the one who made the suggestion, I’m just pointing out the problems you would need to overcome.

That wouldn’t work. You would need to change the orbital sizes, bonding forces (EM strong and weak, at least), and flow of time exactly in lockstep. Any deviation would show up in quantum mechanical experiments. None of these appear to have simple relationships to each other. It would be a huge new lump of physics to allow this to happen.

The more likely explanation is that space has a very slight tendency to expand. It would need intergalactic (not just interstellar) distances to be detectable. We also know that (very strongly suspect) that space expanded rapidly in the very early universe. Space then collapsed into a cooler, more stable state. It was initially thought the expansion tapered off to zero, but it might be slightly positive still.

Shrinking would require multiple physical constants to change. Even worse, they would have to change in perfect lockstep. Any deviation would radically affect chemistry.

I fully agree. It’s more the frustration that it now takes so much time and resources to make even a tiny bit of headway.

My favourite example of why pure research is useful, however, is the laser. When it was invented, they had no clue what it could be useful for. It was the classic “solution looking for a problem”. It was a fun quirk of quantum mechanics that allowed thek to function. Now, they are critical in multiple areas, but for business and research.

There’s a particular particle, the kaon, which can be created. This particle is highly unstable, and so, decays rapidly into other particles. Ever so often, it doesn’t decay down the normal route but instead decays into a pion. This is extremely rare (6 in a billion).

In physics, we have what’s called the “standard model”. It’s our best guess as to how physics works at the fundamental level. It’s incomplete, however, with multiple slight variations. This decay pathway is interesting because it is quite sensitive to differences between these models. By measuring the energy and ratio of the resulting mess, we can disguard some variants of the model (their predicted energy is too high or too low).

By using a large number of little measurements, like this, scientists can home in on the most accurate “standard model” variant. This, in turn, informs work on a deeper understanding of physics.

Basically, a decade’s work to put a single new point onto a graph. A point that only theoretical physicists care about, and might, or might not be useful down the line. Welcome to modern physics.

It depends on your exposure profile.

Installing malware and bloatware into an OS is relatively easy. Doing the same to a bios is doable, but a LOT harder.

If you’re after a mini PC for home use or even a small business, wiping the os is likely fine. The concern would mostly kick in with larger organisations or government level targets.

It’s a question of how many man hours of effort hacking you is worth. Even if they are compromised, they are unlikely to risk outing the breach for anything less than a high value target.

It became a big thing on android just before covid happened. Unfortunately, masks completely confused it.

I currently have both active on my phone, it’s about 50/50 which unlocks it first. I tend to unlock my phone as I bring it out of my pocket via fingerprint. If that fails, then face ID kicks in.

Of course not, that would be immoral. They’ll track trollies and baskets, then tag it to the till and your loyalty card. It would be a lot more consistent, and harder to dodge.

I can see multiple uses for the tech. Unfortunately, many are a but dystopian, but some are legitimately useful.

I don’t know if it’s real or just nostalgia, but reddit is massively worse than I remember. I’ve gone back to nose a few times, and it feels like a ghost town, compared to what it used to be.