The Quixotic Ideas Thread
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@scholrlea said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
This is the alternate universe in which Dr. Fermi won the bet. Too bad he couldn't collect on it.
Geeky jokes thread is
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@scholrlea said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
This is the alternate universe in which Dr. Fermi won the bet. Too bad he couldn't collect on it.
Fun fact: you can actually bet on the end of the world, and it's pretty easy. The person who believes the world will NOT end simply lends the other one money, and agrees to collect it (plus a bonus) after the date.
@scholrlea said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
I am impressed with the structural integrity of the sphere, though, holding together even after the tips of the matches had mostly burned away.
I am disappointed that he lit it in the side the wind was blowing towards, meaning it took forever for the flame to spread.
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@anonymous234 Still a pretty quixotic bet. But hey, it's on topic!
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@scholrlea I can see some disadvantages. If you really believe the world will end tomorrow, and you get $10,000 from someone, you're probably not going to spend it on 10 year treasury bonds.
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@accalia said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
@boomzilla said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
but we'll manufacture it from algae or something instead of refining it from petroleum.
you know..... there's an interesting idea..... because presumably the algae would require carbon dioxide to create the complex hyrocarbons.... if we could manage to make such an operation have significant efficiency, say 20% or less energy losses in the creation process, and be cheap enough we could replace oil drilling with this sort of technology and stabilize CO2 levels.... because we keep recycling our carbon instead of digging it up.
it's an interesting enough idea that i'd be interested to help fund some research in that direction....
we already make ethanol from sugar cane
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@sockpuppet7 said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
@accalia said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
@boomzilla said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
but we'll manufacture it from algae or something instead of refining it from petroleum.
you know..... there's an interesting idea..... because presumably the algae would require carbon dioxide to create the complex hyrocarbons.... if we could manage to make such an operation have significant efficiency, say 20% or less energy losses in the creation process, and be cheap enough we could replace oil drilling with this sort of technology and stabilize CO2 levels.... because we keep recycling our carbon instead of digging it up.
it's an interesting enough idea that i'd be interested to help fund some research in that direction....
we already make ethanol from sugar cane
At what efficiency?
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@tsaukpaetra said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
At what efficiency?
Most varieties of yeast start to die off at alcohol levels more than wine would have (12% by volume). Of course, that level doesn't support combustion, so you have to distill the results, which takes a lot of energy.
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@antiquarian said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
@tsaukpaetra said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
At what efficiency?
Most varieties of yeast start to die off at alcohol levels more than wine would have (12% by volume). Of course, that level doesn't support combustion, so you have to distill the results, which takes a lot of energy.
A simple "Not very" would have satisfied, I think. :D
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Probably been suggested before, but: an online RPG that requires legal ID to sign up. You can only have one character ever, and there's no respawning, when it dies it's over for you.
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@anonymous234 If your character dies you can never give them money again?
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@anonymous234 said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
You can only have one character ever, and there's no respawning, when it dies it's over for you.
That sounds like a very un-fun game. No thanks.
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@anonymous234 If you die in the game, then the government comes and kills you.
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@pie_flavor said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
@anonymous234 If you die in the game, then the government comes and kills you.
No, they just update all records to indicate you're dead. By the time you get that fixed, you will be dead.
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@anonymous234 said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
Fun fact: you can actually bet on the end of the world, and it's pretty easy. The person who believes the world will NOT end simply lends the other one money, and agrees to collect it (plus a bonus) after the date.
A, that's not how betting works (you only pay up if and when you lose), and B, you wouldn't be able to collect on it or even get your money back because they'll have obviously spent it all.
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So far, this tweet was liked by:
- 4 women I've replied to with a silly comment in a thread about politics or whatever and never seen in any Twitter thread before or after then
- , a man with an old photo of a woman as his avatar
- , a man with a woman's name as his surname
Why is this tweet so popular with the ladies?
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@ben_lubar
They're happy to see a man acknowledging that he is not, in fact, huge
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@bb36e Terrible game idea: Canada Simulator.
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Spoiler alert: in the final boss battle you must defeat a moose-riding mounty using only a hockey stick.
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@zecc said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
Spoiler alert: in the final boss battle you must defeat a moose-riding mounty using only a hockey stick.
You forgot the moose is on ice skates and you're not.
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@dcon
and there are nohealth kitsmaple syrup bottles available
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Press "Eh" to pay respects.
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commit 5f7d9027335c35898988440bda43219b91fe7c5f Author: Zecc <zecc@127.0.0.1> Date: Mon Apr 23 09:33:30 2018 +0100 Implemented frist five levels diff --git a/main.c b/main.c index 4402526..9c35ce7 100644 --- a/main.c +++ b/main.c @@ -6,5 +6,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) void onDraw(float dt) { + glClearColor(0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF); + glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); }
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@asdf said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
From least government to biggest government
That scale is stupid. You can't measure government.
Yes you can. You can get an excellent estimate of the size and power of government by the percentage of total taxation. In a small government, for example, the total taxation (federal + state + county + municipal) might be 10%. (Just an example, might not still exist this millennium.) An absolute dictatorship has 100% taxation, that is, all purchases are made from the government and all income comes from the government.
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@tar said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
When people just start using a word without any concern about what it actually means, I think that's a load of aubergines.
'When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.' - H. Dumpty
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@tharpa said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
An absolute dictatorship has 100% taxation, that is, all purchases are made from the government and all income comes from the government.
Government is not just taxing, it's any form of power.
An absolute dictatorship could have very low taxation, but if you paint your house a color that was not in the approved list or you sell a banana that's not curved enough your entire family gets sent to gulag.
Meanwhile another country could tax and redistribute 80% of all income on average, but have very few regulations and complete freedom of speech.
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@anonymous234 said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
Quixotic idea of the day: rather than complicated taxes to slowly take everyone's money, the government should simply take all property every 50 years.
My mother used to say that if you took all of everyone's money, and divided it equally, in ten years the same people would have the money.
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@anonymous234 said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
@tharpa said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
An absolute dictatorship has 100% taxation, that is, all purchases are made from the government and all income comes from the government.
Government is not just taxing, it's any form of power.
An absolute dictatorship could have very low taxation, but if you paint your house a color that was not in the approved list or you sell a banana that's not curved enough your entire family gets sent to gulag.
Meanwhile another country could tax and redistribute 80% of all income on average, but have very few regulations and complete freedom of speech.
It might seem like it could work that way, but it never has. Once they take your money, they set rules on how you can get it back.
It costs money to enforce the house-paint color rules and the fruit curvature laws.
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@topspin said in The iPhone XS (will) Max (out your credit card):
Speaking of which, I've read their claims that iOS 12 is supposed to be faster and even recommended to install on older devices.
What if Android offered stripped-down versions of major updates for older phones that had basic stuff like long-tap menus in apps and notification collapsing without any of the features that cause major slowdowns on underpowered tech?
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@pie_flavor said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
@topspin said in The iPhone XS (will) Max (out your credit card):
Speaking of which, I've read their claims that iOS 12 is supposed to be faster and even recommended to install on older devices.
What if Android offered stripped-down versions of major updates for older phones that had basic stuff like long-tap menus in apps and notification collapsing without any of the features that cause major slowdowns on underpowered tech?
I'd guess the same reason for Apple not doing that (development cost and enticing people to not use their older phones too long) apply to the Android platform.
That, and 90% of Android systems not getting updates anyway.
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@topspin said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
That, and 90% of Android systems not getting updates anyway.
Oh, I'd love to not be getting updates anymore. But good old Samsung absolutely requiring them.
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@pie_flavor said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
Startup Tidelift hopes payments will let coders keep projects patched and up to date.
What a novel idea.
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@anonymous234 said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
@pie_flavor said in The Quixotic Ideas Thread:
Startup Tidelift hopes payments will let coders keep projects patched and up to date.
What a novel idea.
Hey @blakeyrat, I think we've found a solution to your "fuck you pay me" attitude towards actually developing this hypothetical VCS you keep harping on about the hypothetical features of.
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@Tsaukpaetra Video game characters can jump at least their own height, if not twice it, but irl you can at best get to knee height.
I mean you're launching >70kg of mass into the air. That takes strength.
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@anonymous234 I personally think some sort of climbing mechanic works better. More versatile, more realistic. Still need jumping for crossing gaps, but that's reasonable.
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@kazitor and then there's Warframe, where stutter-sliding (tapping the slide key) and bullet jumping (doing a corkscrew jump) are the quickest ways to get around. But then again you're playing robotic space ninjas....
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@Lorne-Kates said:
Each table has a big red circle sticker with the table number printed on it.
To be helpful, there's also the number in braille printed on the sticker.
Printed on the sticker.
Printed. Braille. Flat.
Them's some good thinkings, McDonalds.
A smartphone app to identify and read braille that's printed instead of raised.
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@anotherusername You'd never know it was there, though.
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@pie_flavor That's what the app is for.
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@cheong said in The Official Don't-Interpret-My-Dreams Thread:
I dreamt that a giant jellyfish that is large enough to cover the Hong Kong Island is floating on the sky.
It's body has changing color like aurora, and I started analyzing it pixel by pixel in attempt to find out the pattern of the color changing.
When I woke up this morning I'm so mentally tired that I fall asleep again.
Using aurorae as a cryptographically-secure source of randomness.
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@kazitor Aurorae contribute to radio "static." Random.org uses radio "static" as the source of its randomness.
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@HardwareGeek I suppose I meant the visible emissions, but that works too.