Search found 2610 matches
- Mon Sep 04, 2017 9:58 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Science-based what-if questions
- Replies: 590
- Views: 60745
Re: Science-based what-if questions
Why wouldn't it be a problem there? The star's own gravity has no net effect at its center so it's not going to make a difference. I was thinking more about the star's pressure than it's gravity. The pressure at the center of the Sun is 27 PPa. Surely that's a significant contribution. Though the s...
- Mon Sep 04, 2017 4:59 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Science-based what-if questions
- Replies: 590
- Views: 60745
Re: Science-based what-if questions
That said, if you build it in the star's core, that won't be a problem, right?
- Mon Sep 04, 2017 4:48 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1884: "Ringer Volume/Media Volume"
- Replies: 38
- Views: 5429
Re: 1884: "Ringer Volume/Media Volume"
I don't think it has an Android port. There are apps that claim they can do what I want, like this one , but just read the following and see the problem: Once you get into the utility settings you can set the volume level for each of your installed apps: media, ring, alarm, notification and system v...
- Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:35 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: 538 hats riddle
- Replies: 20
- Views: 3157
Re: 538 hats riddle
It is not stated clearly in the question, but I assume that each hat's colour is chosen independently, 50:50 either colour. What you say is true if you make a fixed choice beforehand about who is going make a guess. However, you don't have to do that. For example, consider the smaller version of th...
- Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:02 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1884: "Ringer Volume/Media Volume"
- Replies: 38
- Views: 5429
Re: 1884: "Ringer Volume/Media Volume"
Jailbreaking your phone is not illegal and cannot be illegal. This forces companies that want to lock down your phone to implement software solutions that act as tamper-proof security against the owner , such as a digital fuse that renders a phone unusable if you try to jailbreak it. The purpose, ev...
- Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:13 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Science-based what-if questions
- Replies: 590
- Views: 60745
Re: Science-based what-if questions
The black hole will definitely eat the star, or at least the parts of it that don't get ejected as a result of pressure from fusion or neutron degeneracy or whatever happens as the star starts to collapse. A billion tons isn't much, but it should grow exponentially. I don't know how long it would ta...
- Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:54 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: 538 hats riddle
- Replies: 20
- Views: 3157
538 hats riddle
This week's Riddler Classic on 538 confuses me. To be clear, I have no intention of submitting an answer to the site, I just want to know what I am missing. The question is copied below: You and six friends are on a hit game show that works as follows: Each of you is randomly given a hat to wear tha...
- Mon Sep 04, 2017 8:33 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Science-based what-if questions
- Replies: 590
- Views: 60745
Re: Science-based what-if questions
Well, I said inside, but I think it would be better anyway to just create it as the border of the sun (Maybe inside it abit for faster process). The opacity of the Sun is a problem though, but let said I used extreme Gamma ray's array as it. Also, black hole last for waaaay longer than you think, e...
- Sun Sep 03, 2017 7:56 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Science-based what-if questions
- Replies: 590
- Views: 60745
Re: Science-based what-if questions
Well, I said inside, but I think it would be better anyway to just create it as the border of the sun (Maybe inside it abit for faster process). The opacity of the Sun is a problem though, but let said I used extreme Gamma ray's array as it. Also, black hole last for waaaay longer than you think, e...
- Sun Sep 03, 2017 2:01 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Science-based what-if questions
- Replies: 590
- Views: 60745
Re: Science-based what-if questions
My understanding is that if the black hole is small enough, it will evaporate almost instantly, like setting off a small nuke in the core of the Sun. In other words, it would have no discernible effect. But maybe the intense pressure and gravity at the center of the Sun changes things.
- Fri Sep 01, 2017 10:36 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1884: "Ringer Volume/Media Volume"
- Replies: 38
- Views: 5429
Re: 1884: "Ringer Volume/Media Volume"
Volume controls are unbelievably awful and famously so, so it is impossible that Google is unaware of the issue. But as is typical of their products, they just ultimately think that people will get used to it and it doesn't really matter. Because no, it would not be difficult for them to set up a se...
- Fri Sep 01, 2017 10:23 pm UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: "ain't" in Merriam-Webster's and mention of "Black English".
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1926
Re: "ain't" in Merriam-Webster's and mention of "Black English".
Those comments make me angry in all kinds of ways. Why would you assume that calling something "Black English" is insulting?
- Fri Sep 01, 2017 3:37 am UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: "ain't" in Merriam-Webster's and mention of "Black English".
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1926
Re: "ain't" in Merriam-Webster's and mention of "Black English".
It does sound like they misconstrued the "Black English" assignment as applying to the entire word rather than just to that particular sense. If M-W had indeed assigned it that way, it would clearly have been a huge and uncharacteristic blunder, but it sounds like they didn't. That said, i...
- Fri Sep 01, 2017 3:27 am UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Miscellaneous language questions
- Replies: 549
- Views: 64760
Re: Miscellaneous language questions
The letter "Q" has been in the English language as long as the language has existed and was in Middle English and even Old English before that. Its glyph cannot be produced by the combination of any other letters, and its pronunciation is no less distinctive than "k". It is feat...
- Thu Aug 31, 2017 6:58 pm UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Miscellaneous language questions
- Replies: 549
- Views: 64760
Re: Miscellaneous language questions
It would be foolish to claim there was no difference between the 26 recognized letters of the English alphabet and the glyphs you listed. There is not one of the 26 letters that could be excluded by any reasonable, educated person, yet all of the ones you mentioned are tenuous and exceptional in mu...
- Thu Aug 31, 2017 6:48 pm UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: "ain't" in Merriam-Webster's and mention of "Black English".
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1926
Re: "ain't" in Merriam-Webster's and mention of "Black English".
I haven't got a nickel, I ain't got a lousy dime. If she don't come back, I think I'm gonna lose my mind. If she ever come back to stay, it's gonna be another brand new day, walkin' with my baby down by San Francisco Bay. I think the broad definition of "ain't" to include "has not,&qu...
- Thu Aug 31, 2017 2:10 pm UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Miscellaneous language questions
- Replies: 549
- Views: 64760
Re: Miscellaneous language questions
Plenty of languages treat characters with diacritics as separate letters: Spanish has ñ, Danish & Norwegian have å & æ, and Swedish & Finnish both have ä ö & å, etc. Claiming diacritics aren't separate letters is pretty Anglocentric. To be clear, I was responding to Third Party, who...
- Thu Aug 31, 2017 10:22 am UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Miscellaneous language questions
- Replies: 549
- Views: 64760
Re: Miscellaneous language questions
Diacritical marks, punctuation marks, and ligatures can be necessary but still not be letters of the alphabet. Periods may be necessary in some initialisms, but they are not letters. Apostrophes are necessary in most contractions, but they are not letters. Numerals are frequently necessary, but they...
- Thu Aug 31, 2017 8:20 am UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Regional Dialect and Idiolect Oddities (pronunciation)
- Replies: 938
- Views: 212099
Re: Regional Dialect and Idiolect Oddities (pronunciation)
Two. /skɛdʒ.wʊl/
I'm also confused about the "raft" inclusion.
I'm also confused about the "raft" inclusion.
- Thu Aug 31, 2017 3:45 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 0936: "Password Strength"
- Replies: 893
- Views: 273170
Re: 0936: "Password Strength"
Uniqueness is not a "multi-axis affair". You have acknowledged what we have told you many times now, but you don't seem to have understood it. All that matters is how the password is generated. I could use any set of 4096 distinct tokens and have exactly the same password entropy as any ot...
- Wed Aug 30, 2017 8:47 pm UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Regional Dialect and Idiolect Oddities (pronunciation)
- Replies: 938
- Views: 212099
Re: Regional Dialect and Idiolect Oddities (pronunciation)
Arts classes can create some pretty inflexible opinions about language. My father once told me that when speaking carefully, one should never pronounce the word "the" as "thee" or "a" as "ae." It took me a while before I realized that the former at least was p...
- Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:27 am UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Regional Dialect and Idiolect Oddities (pronunciation)
- Replies: 938
- Views: 212099
Re: Regional Dialect and Idiolect Oddities (pronunciation)
Angua wrote:I always pronounce the t in often. I don't really pronounce the t in soften though, it's more of a glottal stop.
There is a stop between the f and the e? I find that sort of hard to think about. Soff In?
I would rhyme "soften" with "coffin."
- Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:20 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Climate Science Special Report
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1378
Re: Climate Science Special Report
Liri wrote:Eebster the Great wrote:Liri wrote:It might not be published, that's new-ish.
It's just the final draft, and the executive summary is fairly new. Some errors are to be expected.
No, like, the administration might not officially release it.
Have they said anything to that effect?
- Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:45 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Climate Science Special Report
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1378
Re: Climate Science Special Report
Liri wrote:It might not be published, that's new-ish.
It's just the final draft, and the executive summary is fairly new. Some errors are to be expected.
- Tue Aug 29, 2017 7:24 am UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Miscellaneous language questions
- Replies: 549
- Views: 64760
Re: Miscellaneous language questions
I have been told that haggis is the great chieftain o the puddin'-race. This does violence to my notion of pudding.
- Tue Aug 29, 2017 7:21 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Climate Science Special Report
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1378
Climate Science Special Report
The Climate Science Special Report , a special science component of the quadrennial National Climate Assessment, has been making the rounds for a while now following a report by the New York Times. I decided to skim it and found the results unsurprising but disturbing. What was especially disturbing...
- Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:05 am UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Miscellaneous language questions
- Replies: 549
- Views: 64760
Re: Miscellaneous language questions
Angua wrote:Eebster the Great wrote:
*Pudding as defined by Americans. I can never figure out what Brits mean by the word.
Mostly, they just mean dessert.
"Dessert" as in the sort of pudding I imagine, or just dessert in general?
- Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:04 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 0936: "Password Strength"
- Replies: 893
- Views: 273170
Re: 0936: "Password Strength"
But it only takes (on the order of) sqrt(365) or ~23 people to (probably 50%) find somebody who has the same birthday as somebody. (sqrt is a very crude estimation) Technically, it is O(√n), and a good approximation for the exact value of the number of guesses is 1.25√n. That actually works quite w...
- Mon Aug 28, 2017 11:25 pm UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Miscellaneous language questions
- Replies: 549
- Views: 64760
Re: Miscellaneous language questions
Vanilla flavoring rarely conflicts with other desert items, which is why you see vanilla ice cream so commonly served with pie, cake, etc. Vanillin also shows up in all kinds of mass-produced desert items due to its wide appeal and simple flavor. It may be that people taking "vanilla" to m...
- Mon Aug 28, 2017 11:14 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 0936: "Password Strength"
- Replies: 893
- Views: 273170
Re: 0936: "Password Strength"
Knight, that is emphatically not a birthday attack. That is a brute force attack. You simply guess random passwords until one of them yields the correct hash. There is no slower possible method. A birthday attack works by checking each hash against all previously generated hashes (or sometimes a sub...
- Mon Aug 28, 2017 7:25 pm UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Regional Dialect and Idiolect Oddities (pronunciation)
- Replies: 938
- Views: 212099
Re: Regional Dialect and Idiolect Oddities (pronunciation)
flicky1991 wrote:But is that ee-ther or aye-ther?New User wrote:I sometimes say either
Either one
Liri wrote:I hear Q pon in the American Southeast relatively often (offen?) but pretty much only by people with robust accents.
The t is silent, as in "soften."
- Mon Aug 28, 2017 7:16 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 0936: "Password Strength"
- Replies: 893
- Views: 273170
Re: 0936: "Password Strength"
KnightExemplar, you are wrong about how birthday attacks work. A birthday attack as you describe searches for a hash collision. It does not search for a collision with any hash actually stored in a database. In other words, there may be nobody on Earth who has ever had a password that would generate...
- Sun Aug 27, 2017 10:15 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Heat loss in a spaceship
- Replies: 36
- Views: 5639
Re: Heat loss in a spaceship
Although the medium near the Sun is very hot, that is almost irrelevant, since its specific heat is so low. In the shade, you can get close to the microwave background. Permanently shaded craters on the Moon have temperatures around 35 K in spite of being in contact with the rest of the Moon at a mu...
- Sat Aug 26, 2017 8:33 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Heat loss in a spaceship
- Replies: 36
- Views: 5639
Re: Heat loss in a spaceship
I don't remember quite how cold it gets About 2.7K in the shade. But you also are a vacuum thermos bottle in 2.7K. In practice, this means only radiated losses. There is no conduction to 2.7K (making that number pretty meaningless). It's not meaningless. If your ship generates no heat (and nor does...
- Sat Aug 26, 2017 8:29 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 0936: "Password Strength"
- Replies: 893
- Views: 273170
Re: 0936: "Password Strength"
But a birthday attack just finds hash collisions, right? It doesn't actually crack any particular password. The idea of a birthday attack is that I keep hashing passwords at random (or with whatever method) until two produce the same hash. That is not useful for cracking a password with a salted has...
- Sat Aug 26, 2017 8:13 pm UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Regional Dialect and Idiolect Oddities (pronunciation)
- Replies: 938
- Views: 212099
Re: Regional Dialect and Idiolect Oddities (pronunciation)
Definitely Coo. Maybe it's because I learned French when I was little, but I hate hearing "kyoo-pon". My Dad pronounces the word that way and for years insisted it was the only correct pronunciation "because it's a French u."
- Sat Aug 26, 2017 8:11 pm UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Miscellaneous language questions
- Replies: 549
- Views: 64760
Re: Miscellaneous language questions
"Yea" has additional meanings, like "so," as in "my brother is yea tall" (while gesturing with hands). Wikipedia also lists an archaic usage essentially equivalent to the conjunction "nay," as in, "If the sun produces fusion, should not lightning produce ...
- Sat Aug 26, 2017 6:29 am UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Miscellaneous language questions
- Replies: 549
- Views: 64760
Re: Miscellaneous language questions
Do you dislike it when people write "yeah" as "yea"? I know someone who always writes "yea" in texts when they mean "yeah". "yea" is a different word with the same meaning, but a different pronunciation. The meanings of "yeah" and "ye...
- Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:08 pm UTC
- Forum: Gaming
- Topic: Does "Elo inflation" reflect a real improvement in skill of grandmasters?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1640
Re: Does "Elo inflation" reflect a real improvement in skill of grandmasters?
That seems to give two conflicting opinions about how closely related the Elo inflation is to actual improvement.
- Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:07 pm UTC
- Forum: Gaming
- Topic: Hearthstone
- Replies: 590
- Views: 107582
Re: Hearthstone
Getting 2 scarabs is already good value. Every extra one is like an extra 2.5 mana worth of creatures. It's definitely one of the stronger cards in the set AND it's great for token druid since it does let you come back after you've emptied your hand and things will probably stick around so top deck...