dhork
@dhork@lemmy.world
- Comment on Does the USA have gifted schools or was Spider-Man Homecoming lying? 1 day ago:
Schools in the US are generally funded and organized at the State level. US schools in different states (or even schools between US cities and rural areas in the same state) are a totally different experience.
A large district like NYC (one of the largest in the country, if not the largest) is big enough to offer several of these magnet High Schools, which you need to take a test to get into, and are highly competitive. Small rural and suburban districts don’t have the same resources, but often have advanced science and math tracks that can get those kids ready for STEM majors in college. Many US districts also have partnerships with the local Community College, where high school kids who take college-level classes while in high school can get College credit for them. A smart kid who takes advantage of these can knock a semester’s worth of credits out while in High School.
- Comment on How hopeless is getting a job with a CS degree? 3 days ago:
It’s a golden time for embedded stuff right now, because the hobby space is so rich. Arduinos and STM32’s alone have so much material out there, and they are super cheap. I think a kid who is in college for CS, but who can take what they are learning and apply it to some of these little projects will be a hot commodity when they graduate.
- Comment on How hopeless is getting a job with a CS degree? 3 days ago:
If you are interested in the internals of computers just as much as programming them, take a good hard look at Computer Engineering as a major instead. You still get to code, but you also get to understand the hardware underneath it all. Since it is rooted in the physical parts of computing, I think it is less likely for AI to eat those jobs. (Plus, everything from your car to your TV to your coffee maker has an embedded microprocessor in it now. I think embedded software is a safe bet.)
But, no matter what major you pick, it is no longer the case that simply graduating with a degree (and a good GPA) is a guarantee of a good job. You need to go beyond your classes, and find additional things to work on. Internships are great if you can get them, but even if you can’t, try to find an open source project (or even a hobby project) that you can spend time on. You want to have something more than your coursework on your resume for those first jobs. I would even value a resume with some good internships or side projects and a 3.6 GPA over someone with a 5.0 GPA who did nothing else.
Finally, whatever you do, don’t extend yourself to go into debt. Maybe there are a small handful of CS schools that are worth going into debt to attend – but let’s face it, if they want you and you’re good enough, they will find a way to get you to afford it there, and you will get hired somewhere. But, I know folks who went into 100+k worth of debt to go to a CS program at a small liberal arts college because they liked the campus. Don’t be that person. Unless you are MIT or CalTech material, your local State University is probably good enough. If you do get through 4 years of school and can’t find a job in your field and need to pivot, that will be so much easier to do if you have as little debt as possible.
- Comment on People who do not specify units of measurement in international contexts 4 days ago:
We don’t measure weights in cups, but we do measure some ingredients (like flour) by volume, so it’s not uncommon to see a recipe that calls for 1 cup of flour instead of 120g
However, we do use “ounce” to mean both 1/8 of a cup in volume and 1/16 of a pound in weight…
- Comment on Text spam aimed at my ex 6 days ago:
Do either of you have a common last name? I get spam calls (and even more emails) all the time really meant for people with a similar name somewhere else.
- Comment on The word Chav is still being used by British people, when it's derogatory shorthand for working class lads and it's not even subtle... 6 days ago:
Isn’t this the country that puts some random person’s pictures on all its money based solely on which vagina it came out of? You mean to tell me that country is classist? Who would have known?
- Comment on [deleted] 6 days ago:
No, President Dumbass definitely wants a census. The census explicitly needs to count all residents, but he wants to add questions about citizenship to it specifically so he (and Stephen Miller) can have a list of non-citizen residents to harass.
If they get their way, by the time the census after that one is taken, there won’t be any non-citizen residents to count anymore.
- Comment on Dev at id Software says Microsoft 'burned a lot of bridges' in the industry: 'They fundamentally don't understand art, they don't understand games' 1 week ago:
I don’t know about all that, didn’t they develop Windows just to have a platform to play FreeCell Solitaire?
- Comment on How no-techy/"common" people know if a Open Source code is secure? 2 weeks ago:
I keep forgetting there are people who live in places without all the FREEDOM^TM^ we have in America. Carry on, then…
- Comment on How no-techy/"common" people know if a Open Source code is secure? 2 weeks ago:
No you’re not free to sue. If you read that license agreement you will find that your right to sue has likely been waived into some corporate-friendly arbitration process. Yes, you can try to sue anyway, but you have to find a way past that clause first.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
Feeling that way occasionally as you get older might be a legit thing. (I felt that way in occasion, but it didn’t start until my 40sp. But all the time? That is excessive.
I would start keeping a health diary if I were you. Start writing down how you feel every day, nad note the time you are feeling poorly. You can just use a note taking app (or even a physical notebook), it doesn’t need to be a health app.
Also write down everything you eat or drink. You might find after a week or two that an obvious pattern emerges, and you can try changing your diet. But regardless, the next time you see the doctor you can discuss that history with them.
Don’t be afraid to get a second opinion on those lab results, also. Some doctors put an emphasis on different things. Another doctor might see a different pattern in the same results.
I hope you figure it out!
- Comment on What's the difference between Woke and Political Correctness? 2 weeks ago:
I would argue there is a difference. PC language (at least the stuff that started being pushed in the late 80s) was primarily aimed at avoiding anything that might be considered offensive or exclusionary to certain groups.
I always connected the term “woke” to “awake” or “aware”. It goes beyond language, and into an understanding of social systems and why they have historically been biased toward certain groups, in ways that people ,right not have even b3en aware of at the time.
It is “PC” to edit a job description to use gender-neutral pronouns. It is “woke” to rewrite the entire job description to be attractive to a broader range of candidates from diverse backgrounds.
- Comment on You shouldn't be able to just crash into the moon 2 weeks ago:
I found this: www.projectpluto.com/25010d.htm
On 2026 August 5, within a few minutes of 06:35 UTC, an upper stage (section) of a rocket used for a lunar mission will hit the moon. This may be of some (probably minor) scientific interest, and we may learn some things from it. It doesn’t present any danger to anyone, though it does highlight a certain carelessness about how leftover space hardware (space junk) is disposed of.
- Comment on This post telling tourists which areas to avoid in New York 2 weeks ago:
Except left turns
- Comment on Why don't politicians during a hearing let the person they are questioning actually answer questions and speak? 3 weeks ago:
It’s a power trip, pure and simple. They pull people into those hearings just so everyone knows how important Congresspeople are, and how the rest of the world has to bend to their will. And the questions aren’t asked so that they can generate meaningful responses, they are asked so the congressperson can look like they’re doing something.
- Comment on Is it possible for someone in America to not know who Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi is? 3 weeks ago:
Some people don’t pay attention to sports. I don’t pay attention to Opera, but I’m sure there are some Opera singers who are as big a deal in Opera as Ronaldo or Messi are in soccer.
- Comment on How do I survive the US immigration? 3 weeks ago:
I think the most important thing would be to work closely with your employer to make sure all paperwork is in order for your entire party. The border guards are mainly looking for people who look like they are a risk to overstay whatever permission they have. It will be better for you if you emphasize the “visiting” part, and you make sure they are aware that you all intend to go back on time. (You don’t mention your gender, but expect a lot more attention if you are a woman, with your male partner - the current administration is putting a priority on keeping people out they think might get pregnant and have kids with US citizenship while here)
Yes, they do retain the right to rifle through all of your electronics, but my understanding is that they don’t do that all the time. Still, it’s prudent to come with a temporary phone at the very least. You don’t want them to find some errant email thread and decide to deny you based on that. It’s sad that it has come to that here, but there you go. You may also want to look into the process of sanitizing the sensitive data from your laptop. See if your employer provides a secure cloud service to put it instead. There is no reason to risk patient data because we have gone crazy here.
But, sadly, you may be singled out regardless. I’m American, and work with a lot of Europeans. One from Spain in particular got pulled aside for enhanced screening every time he came to the US, which is unusual. Finally, on one trip one of the agents mentioned that he had the same name as some South American bad guy. What can you do at that point? He just plans for a few extra hours everytime he comes to the US now. He should probably just fund a job that doesn’t require travel to rhe US…
- Comment on Can an Swedish style draft work in the US? 4 weeks ago:
My link may have been a bit misleading. We have never had an entity named “civil defense force” but pre-9/11 the same function was filled by a hodgepodge of agencies, which that Wikipedia article discussed. After that they were all folded into the “DHS” trench coat.
- Comment on Can an Swedish style draft work in the US? 4 weeks ago:
A few things to talk about first in regards to the US:
-
We have the concept of the National Guard, which is a military reserve force under the control of the States but with the ability for the President to call it to active duty. While still a military force, state governors will mobilize them for things where the local police force needs help, like natural disasters.
-
We also do have a Civil Defense Force, but since the Bush administration those agencies have largely been sucked into the Department of Homeland Security, and even the concept of “civil defense” has been eaten by the idea of “Homeland Security” (which is a bit different, don’t you think?) The one exception is emergency preparedness/ FEMA, which is still a priority in most people’s minds despite our President treating everything he touches like his own personal piggy bank.
Now, in relation to your idea about a “draft” for civil defense purposes, we call the idea National Service and we have many such agencies, like Americorps. However, the idea of mandatory national service will never happen until Americans as a whole become less selfish. And even if it does, I am confident those who are well-off will find a way to buy out of it, which will defeat the whole purpose, won’t it?
-
- Comment on what's the deal with Data centers and why do we all of a sudden need massive ones built all over everywhere? 5 weeks ago:
We need datacenters to enable all the Internet stuff. If you buy stuff online, binge TV shows, or rot your brain on social media, your phone is communicating with some back-end server in “the cloud”. And the cloud is all in datacenters now, because they are all connected to the Internet, and each other. So if you want to host an Internet service where everyone can get to it, even if it’s just a virtual server on a cloud platform, that virtual server lives in a datacenter.
The reason it is all hitting thr news now is that AI hardware takes much more power than a standard Linux server. So new hyperscalar /AI datacenters require a lot more power than older ones. And in areas without sane regulations, datacenters can go up much more quickly than new power plants can go up. So, if local governments and regulators aren’t looking that closely, new datacenters can quickly drive demand that the local utility can’t service without buying more power on the open market. And unless the datacenter is required by local regulations to patty the higher price for that extra load, the cost is divided across all consumers.
Also, this increased power consumption inside each rack comes with additional cooling requirements. Old datacenters can make do with air cooling, but these new ones all use liquid cooling. And the cheapest way to do that is evaporative cooling, which “uses up” all the water we’ve been reading about. (There are closed-loop methods that don’t “use up” water, but they are more expensive so the datacenters don’t use it).
So, really, it’s all a scaling problem. One datacenter doesn’t cause that much of a problem. But they grow in clumps, like a fungus. Dozens of datacenters in a small area can cause environmental havoc.
- Comment on Hypothetically if I found a suitcase of money by the side of the road, is there a legal way to claim it on my taxes? 5 weeks ago:
As I understand it, the way the IRS is structured, if you take in money from any source (documented or not, legal or not), that counts as “income” unless there is an explicit rule saying it does not, and they want their cut.
But, like anything else they do, they only care about significant amounts. If you find a $1 bill (or even a $100 bill) on the ground, nobody is going to audit you over it. But, if $10k drops out of the back of a truck into your lap, and they find out about it, you might expect some uncomfortable questions.
How would they find out? Well, banks are required to report large cash deposits and withdrawals. So if you show up with an extra $40k one day and put it into the bank all at once, the teller may ask you why, and report whatever your answer is to the government. (And if you space it out over 40 deposits of $1k, that is also suspicious and may be illegal if the authorities determine you were doing it specifically to avoid reporting).
Historically, this has been a way to get at organized crime syndicates. Al Capone was a famous monster who ultimately went to jail bit because of his illegal activities, but because of evading taxes owed on them.
- Comment on What happens when you just refuse to pay and go ... ? 5 weeks ago:
They have no idea how to coordinate a blockade effectively. But they know how to sound all tough and convince their supporters that they are kicking ass, even if all the missiles are gone and we can’t do shit anymore.
- Comment on What happens when you just refuse to pay and go ... ? 5 weeks ago:
That is a very thorough analysis, which relies on international law, legal precedent, and common sense.
But, have you considered that Donald Trump doesn’t give a fuck, and does what he wants? If he wants to charge a 20% fee for going through a body of water he doesn’t own, who’s gonna stop him?
- Comment on How accurate can your position be calculated from a photo of the sun you post online? 5 weeks ago:
Latitude can theoretically determined by the data in your picture. Longitude is much harder, because you can’t really tell how far east and west you are based on the angle of the sun alone. This was a historic problem, especially when mankind started traveling across oceans.
The problem can be solved by knowing your time relative to some reference point. This is how Greenwich Observatory became so important to timekeeping: to determine longitude, ships had to carry a good clock that showed them what time it was at Greenwich, and the difference in time between when the sun was directly overhead on the ship and noon at Greenwich told them their longitude.
So, the main piece of information that gives away your latitude is actually the time, assuming it is either stored as UTC or as local time with a UTC offset…
- Comment on Why did/does Oman not raise a stink about Iran also closing their half of the strait? 5 weeks ago:
As I recall, the part of the strait that large tankers can actually use is very narrow. As a result, the tankers have to navigate the strait slowly and they are easy to intercept.
On top of that, Iran has several islands in perfect position to be used as naval bases. So, they can go our and put patrol boats (smaller, so not limited in where they can navigate, and well armed) in the way of ships, and threaten to sink them if they disobey orders to go no further.
As to why Oman doesn’t object, I can only assume that Oman doesn’t have enough naval power of its own to put up a serious fight against Iran. So, when the Iranians come and threaten tankers, whether it’s in international waters or Omani waters, Oman probably can’t do much about it.
- Comment on 5 weeks ago:
We don’t have to imagine it, we made it! It looked like this:
- Comment on is the romantic period due, in any part, to the high alcohol content of their food ? 5 weeks ago:
There is a school of thought that says that 1000+ years ago, clean water may have been hard to come by in some areas, and it was actually safer to drink beer than the local water.
It turns out, though, that much of the benefit comes from boiling the water as part of the beer making process - if those people had simply boiled their water before drinking it, it would have been just as effective.
The beer they drank back then was also much weaker than beer today. So nobody was getting drunk on it regularly, and it was not quite as dehydrating as modern alcoholic drinks.
The Royal Navy famously gave beer and rum as part of their rations while at sea, because the alcohol served to kill microbes. They could dilute it with water before handing out the rations for the day, and the alcohol would kill any microbes in the water, essentially helping them to stretch out the life og their water rations as well.
- Comment on hockey team owner selfishly engraves his whole family on the Stanley Cup 5 weeks ago:
Yes, it’s the same trophy. There are metal bands where they engrave the names every year. The trophy can only hold about 50 years worth of names, though. When it fills up, they replace the oldest metal band and send it to the Hockey Hall of Fame to make room for new names.
- Comment on Mitch McConnel's Wikipedia page has been heavily edited the last few days, with the last ones being 4 hours ago. So around 1PM EST. What could that mean? 1 month ago:
Um, it means they are actively editing it? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
There’s a whole section now on “Mid-2026 hospitalization and death rumors”
- Comment on What should I do with boxes of old photos? 1 month ago:
Why feel bad? They’re just things. If you have them scanned in then you can reprint them whenever you want.
