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Cake day: December 9th, 2024

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  • CodexArcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.comtoMemes@sopuli.xyzFuck Fahrenheit
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    4 days ago

    It isn’t just about intuition as randomly judged by how you or anyone else feels about it. Humans do a lot of things on 0 to 100 and 0 to 10 scales. Literally the basis of the metric system. But all measurements are arbitrary comparisons to some target object: “the meter”.

    So a temperature scale that closely aligns the 0 to 100 scale to the minimum and maximum commonly experienced surface temperature of the planet we live on is going to feel more natural to use than one which aligns to the boiling point of water, something we don’t usually encounter in nature.

    Now we do encounter boiling liquids, and hotter, in labs and in kitchens, which is why C probably feels natural to scientists and people who cook a lot.

    But the resolution of it isn’t particularly intuitive. What does 1\100th of the aggregate temperature of boiling water have to do with anything? Why a linear scale? It takes more energy to add 1°C of heat to an ice cube than to the equivalent amount of 20°C (“room temperature”) water.

    Measurements are about both precision and repeatability, but also about conveying information in an easily understandable way. Sometimes those goals conflict, particularly when a scale of measurement is used in both informal and formal settings.


  • CodexArcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.comtoMemes@sopuli.xyzFuck Fahrenheit
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    4 days ago

    “Includes” was the wrong word, its like the opposite of hyperbole here. The range humans can survive in is roughly 0 to 100 in F, the full range of the scale. The range in Centigrade is roughly -17 to 30. It isnt that it “includes” it, the entire useful portion of the meter is dedicated to it.


  • Yeah, it begs my blood pressure too. I usually say masala chai to avoid redundancy and be specific to the kind of chai, but garam masala just means hot spice blend, similar to melange. Spice Melange is the name for the magic spice in Dune, but Dune is called Arrakis by the native people (which probably just means sand dune in the Freman language.)


  • CodexArcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.comtoMemes@sopuli.xyzFuck Fahrenheit
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    4 days ago

    100F was originally set to roughly human body temperature. 0 was the freezing point of a brine mixture (water, salt, and ammonium) meant to be similar to sea water. It was used because the temperature would self-stabilize at a particular temperature, which was defined as 0 degrees.

    That’s why its “humanistic,” the scale roughly includes the temperature range we can survive in, and provides decent granularity within that range. Metric based everything on pure water, which is pretty arbitrary also, as evidenced by both scales being redefined as more precise and repeatable means of defining measured units have become available.





  • You have to remember that 99% of people talking about “dystopian” novels mean the Hunger Games and Divergent books, maybe also Harry Potter. Dystopian YA novels were best sellers in the US for like a decade, so most peoples’ image of a dystopian protagonist is a teenager with limited responsibilities outside “growing up” and “overcoming the system.” And after your “youthful rebellion” against the oppressive nightmare system, you can become a cop protecting it!

    If you wonder why Americans are so bad at all this stuff, it’s because generations of us were raised on fake revolution stories.


  • It’s a fair bit of work to set up, but I replaced Keep with Obsidian.

    I suppose you could just pay for obsidian sync and then basically have parity. I do not. I use syncthing to sync my notebooks (vaults in obsidian terms) between my devices.

    To get my existing notes, I used Google Takeout to get a copy of all my data, but you can just ask for the Keep data. They’ll send you a bunch of json files, which I was able to extract the text of my notes from pretty easily and copy into Obsidian notes.


  • Alas! I fear we cannot stay here longer,’ said Aragorn. He looked towards the mountains and held up his sword. ‘Farewell, Gandalf!’ he cried. ‘Did I not say to you: if you pass the doors of Moria, beware? Alas that I spoke true! What hope have we without you?’

    He turned to the Company. ‘We must do without hope,’ he said. ‘At least we may yet be avenged. Let us gird ourselves and weep no more! Come! We have a long road, and much to do.’


  • Preservation, while perhaps idealistic, is about keeping every version that we can. Doom is a great example. Because Carmac released the source code, source ports have proliferated. That means anyone can play the original Doom on just about any machine. Varying degrees of accuracy to the original DOS release exist thanks to ports like Chocolate Doom, GZDoom, Eternity Engine, et al. As do varying degrees of accuracy to Doom 95, the Windows 95 rerelease. Or to the version running on Xbox packed in with Doom 3.

    Ports cover the engine, but we also have an archive of all the doom.wad files, the contents. We have demo and prototype versions. The dos release. Officially patched versions. The win95 release. The Xbox release.

    But a preservationist also wants the original Bethesda Unity release, wad and engine. The Kex release with the new engine and new episodes. Neither of those Bethesda engines needs to exist but why not keep them too? They’re a part of the Doom legacy, an ongoing chapter in the endless story of Doom.

    Its good that in this community we’ve gotten to preserve so much. It keeps the history of one of the most important video games alive and relevant. It keeps the game itself relevant. Without the original source release, there’s no GZDoom and there’s probably no Bethesda rereleases. The impact that source release had on the gaming community, gaming as an industry, modding and indie gaming, is incalculable.

    That Crysis–also a landmark game in its own time–deserves any less is laughable. The original release of the game should always be present and available: as an artifact of its time, as a fine game in its own right, and as a piece of living history that can be stood up against its remakes, sequels, and the games it inspired.



  • So if sunlight hurts vampires, but moonlight doesn’t (but moonlight is reflected sunlight) then does that mean the moon absorbs all holy light, and only reflects unholy light? Sunlight, we must assume, is composed of a random mix of all wavelengths and divinities of light. Therefore, can a vampire’s reflection be seen if the vampire is illuminated by moonlight? Only if using a non-silver mirror? What about office fluorescent light, the most evil light of all?