• 0 Posts
  • 81 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 19th, 2023

help-circle

  • I picked up some stranded skaters in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night because they flashed SOS with their headlights after I drove past them. They had been there for like 8 hours. I’m sure they would’ve rather had a flashlight to do the work for them.

    But I agree that there should be another UI for getting to the emergency flashing. Like hold for 5 seconds or something unlikely to be used during normal operation.

    I have a flashlight that has multiple flashy settings, but they are disabled after like 5 or 10 seconds of idle power on time. So the first click turns it on, and if you wait a while, the next click turns it off.



  • “Short enough to finish in a day” seems pretty tough for me, but maybe I read slowly.

    Short story books are good for casual reading in short sessions. Robot Dreams by Asimov, or Welcome to the Monkey House by Vonnegut. I used to carry each of those around and read a short story while waiting at a restaurant or at the DMV or whatever.

    I really liked Altered Carbon. Approachable sci fi with drugs, violence, sex, politics, and of course high tech ideas like flying cars, AI hotels, digital consciousness.


  • Asimov is so, so good. I first got into him by reading his collection of short stories Robot Dreams. It’s really approachable, and because it’s all short stories there’s no long term commitment or sense of letdown if you decide to stop reading halfway through the book.

    Sally was particularly interesting (though not the best story in the book). I was working at a self driving car startup when I read it, and it was amazing that in 1954 Asimov predicted robotaxis that we were trying to build.



  • My guess is that the most expensive single component would be the lidar. Prices on lidars can be well over $100k. When I worked with lidar about 5 years ago, IIRC a Velodyne 128 was $160k. These robots would probably be using a 32 though, which is probably going to be less than 1/4 of a 128.

    Also, Velodyne and Ouster merged since I last used lidar. Ouster does in-device sensor fusion, which likely takes a significant load off the CPU and potentially GPU, meaning these robots may be able to get away with lower spec CPU and GPU.

    It appears that Ouster now does object detection, which is another reason these could get away with lower spec GPUs (assuming they’re using Ouster)

    Obviously there’s a lot of speculation in my response, but since there’s no teardown of the robot, and without spec sheets or a BOM, all we can do is speculate.









  • it’s hard to be brave enough to approach new people

    I was talking to my wife yesterday about how I gained social skills as an adult, and part of it was making a deliberate effort to start conversations with at least a few strangers everyday. Not hold a conversation, merely start one. Doing this for a while helps you get comfortable making chit chat and feeling out if it’s worth continuing a conversation, and breaks down the idea that every conversation has to be meaningful.

    Not sure if this helps you, but it really helped me.

    As for where to go, look for gatherings like flea markets, car shows, street fairs, anything. Even if you don’t care about the topic, be there for the people, and keep an open, curious mind. Maybe even make a game out of it, like the meow game, or some other goofy phrase, or try to ask a variety of people the same question. Or bring something that is a conversation starter like a dog, or juggling balls, or something small related to your furry hobby. The idea is to be around people in a mode that makes interaction easy.

    Meeting people is just the first part though. Moving on to friendship obviously takes more work and time.


  • Lots of good advice in this thread already, but I want to add a few details:

    • that loose hoodie would be even better if the pockets zip up. Losing important items on a plane sucks. Also the pockets work great as a security checkpoint stash: remove your metal and empty your pants pockets all into your sweatshirt pockets, zip them, remove and put in the bin. On the other side you put it back on and have everything easily available.
    • if you can’t find a zippable hoodie, go with a non-hoodie with zip pockets and a beanie that you can pull down over your eyes.
    • for sleep aids, it’s a good idea to wait until after the first meal, which is usually within the first two hours of the flight, but you can ask and make sure.
    • make sure your headphones have a plug, not just Bluetooth. The in-flight entertainment usually does not work with only Bluetooth, though some do.