Random Thoughts 7

[Borg]

I saw this picture for an ad for jigsaw puzzles online today. I really hope those hands were AI-generated.

 

[WWGD]

Wow, I helped my friend with what turned out to be a scarily, unusually-accurate model with her exercising. For one, the rate of .698 meters to a step ( her app uses meters), is accurate daily within less than 5-6 meters, for walks of several kilometers, according to her tracker app. So, say, 5500 steps will correspond to 3843 metters, only slightly above the 3839 metters expected. I thought the total would vary more than that.

 

[WWGD]

The author of a paper titled "What leads moral people to act immorally ?" , has been accused of plagiarism.
Should have been posted in the journal " Irony".

 

[collinsmark]

Wow, I helped my friend with what turned out to be a scarily, unusually-accurate model with her exercising. For one, the rate of .698 meters to a step ( her app uses meters), is accurate daily within less than 5-6 meters, for walks of several kilometers, according to her tracker app. So, say, 5500 steps will correspond to 3843 metters, only slightly above the 3839 metters expected. I thought the total would vary more than that.

Does the app use GPS to track her route? If so, I would expect it would be pretty accurate (i.e., the 0.698 m/step would have been calculated based on the GPS measured length of the route*, and not the other way around).

* Edit: and the number of steps, which can be recorded and counted based on the device's accelerometer.

 

[WWGD]

Does the app use GPS to track her route? If so, I would expect it would be pretty accurate (i.e., the 0.698 m/step would have been calculated based on the GPS measured length of the route*, and not the other way around).

* Edit: and the number of steps, which can be recorded and counted based on the device's accelerometer.

Good point. Not sure on the GPS issue. Will look it up.

 

[WWGD]

Annoying misunderstanding about the song "Under Pressure". No, I meant the one by ZZ Top, not the one by Queen.

Whatever they may say about Yes, 90125 is the only music I've been able to read in a focused way for more than 10 minutes.

 

[jack action]

 

[Borg]

That's just the help desk that was awarded to the lowest bidder.

 

[WWGD]

Ok, if you want to test my Sql skills, either don't ask me to compute a " moving average" or define it for me when you do. I computed the average correctly on the spot, but I had no idea what a moving average was.

 

[Borg]

Just trying to calmly drive to a party yesterday. I hate driving in traffic.


It took him about six seconds to get 7 or 8 lane markers ahead. Assuming about 30 feet for each section, it works out to about a 35-40 MPH speed differential. I was going with the flow of traffic at about 60-65 MPH so he was somewhere around 100+MPH.

I knew that I had enough space to merge in front of the car that I was passing but I was carefully checking my mirrors. I only saw him when he was about two car lengths back. You can see that I slightly swerve to the right just before he passed me. I see a lot of drivers who just swerve into a lane when they're changing lanes. If I had done that, it would have been a completely different story.

 

[WWGD]

Driving above 55 in 66?

 

[Borg]

Interstate 66.

 

[WWGD]

Interstate 66.

Isn't it the same as Route 66?

 

[Borg]

Isn't it the same as Route 66?

No. I-66 is just 76 miles long (mostly in Virginia from DC to I-81). Route 66 ran from Chicago to Los Angeles.

 

[Ibix]

Route 66 ran from Chicago to Los Angeles.

More than two thousand miles all the way.

 

[Bystander]

More than two thousand miles all the way.

"..., get your kicks...."

 

[WWGD]

It was somehow " removed" from the US highway system. Couldn't get much on what that meant.

 

[phinds]

"..., get your kicks...."

You are dating yourself

 

[phinds]

It was somehow " removed" from the US highway system. Couldn't get much on what that meant.

I believe that was because it was no longer a major thoroughfare across the country. Sections of it were closed when the Interstate Highway system went in.

 

[Bystander]

You are dating yourself

..., and you aren't?

 

[gmax137]

I remember when I-66 ran from the beltway west, ending in Gainesville, near the Atlas steel works. Unrecognizable now.

 

[Astronuc]

A 101-year-old woman keeps getting mistaken for a baby on flights, and says it's because American Airlines' booking system can't handle her age​

https://news.yahoo.com/101-old-woman-keeps-getting-102214114.html

The computer can't process that Patricia was born in 1922, not 2022.

 

[Astronuc]

Intel issues statement about CPU crashes, blames motherboard makers — BIOSes disable thermal and power protection, causing issues​

https://news.yahoo.com/tech/intel-issues-statement-cpu-crashes-193504163.html

Igor's Lab seems to have obtained a message originally destined for motherboard manufacturers concerning a prolonged stability issue on the company's 13th Generation Raptor Lake and 14th Generation Raptor Lake Refresh chips, which rank among the best CPUs. It made sense for the company to clarify the issue where many blamed the motherboard manufacturers in a race to become 'the fastest' performer by having over-aggressive voltages for allowing higher clock speeds.

The company specifically points out the issue with 600/ 700 series motherboard manufacturers that disable thermal and power protection to achieve the highest possible overclocks, even at the cost of instability. The chipmaker said in the message:

That would be annoying for someone whose livelihood depends on a functioning computer. That's probably most of us.

 

[WWGD]

A 101-year-old woman keeps getting mistaken for a baby on flights, and says it's because American Airlines' booking system can't handle her age​

https://news.yahoo.com/101-old-woman-keeps-getting-102214114.html

She had her personal Y(0.1)K problem.

 

[Klystron]

Wow, Duckduckgo may not track you, but there's a price to pay. Search results are 3rd tier at best. At least non-trivial ones.

How so, Dubya-dubya? Also, which secure first or second tier search engine do you prefer?

(Apologies for responding to an older post. Still recovering from major surgery late in 2023.)

 

[collinsmark]

Intel issues statement about CPU crashes, blames motherboard makers — BIOSes disable thermal and power protection, causing issues​

https://news.yahoo.com/tech/intel-issues-statement-cpu-crashes-193504163.html



That would be annoying for someone whose livelihood depends on a functioning computer. That's probably most of us.

Yep. There's truth to this. I've known about this for about a month now, being as I try to keep up on such things since I build my own computers.

It's worse than causing "crashes," though: it places the CPU (and indirectly the associated cooling systems) at a too aggressive operating point that could, over time, reduce the longevity of the systems. Not to mention waste power and muck up performance from inevitable CPU frequency throttling, and maybe eventually cause some crashing in the long run.

Here's a JayzTwoCents video demonstrating the problem and how to fix it, using an ASUS motherboard as an example. It's an easy to fix solution in the BIOS, although going into the BIOS is asking a lot (probably too much) for the average computer owner/user.

But yeah, it's bad and shouldn't* happen.

*(I mean that as a normative claim, as in "it aught not be something that should happen, even if it is actually happening.)

 

[WWGD]

How so, Dubya-dubya? Also, which secure first or second tier search engine do you prefer?

(Apologies for responding to an older post. Still recovering from major surgery late in 2023.)

Well, when I ask for, e.g., movie times for, say, movie x on October 2023, I get results for cities y,z,w on June of 2017.

Have a fast recovery. And Hava Nagila/Tequila.

 

[Borg]

An animated ad that I saw on msnbc web site this morning. Soooo many questions about this dog and its owner.

 

[WWGD]

An animated ad that I saw on msnbc web site this morning. Soooo many questions about this dog and its owner.

View attachment 344442

Ive seen arguments, claims, to the effect that only some types/breeds of dogs help prevent or fight break ins. Their general friendliness doesn't help in this respect.

 

[WWGD]

People are amazed at my being able to figure out if a number is divisible by 7 even after I show them an easy trick. Just partition a number, so that each part is divisible by 7. Then, e.g., 2849, 2863 , are both divisible by 7, since each of 28, 49 , and 63 are. Similarly, 1751 is,divisible by 17. But then again, the person expressing amazement is someone who says " wow, so close!" when dividing a number by 2 and seeing a reminder of 1.