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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 2nd, 2023

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  • Let me take this a step absurdly far:

    You may be slightly more buoyant (and therefore apply less force on a scale) everytime you breath in. It’s not the presence of air that has this effect, it’s the decrease in density of your total body (mass/volume) that has that effect. (Helium just contributes a fractional more difference in density compared to air, but how much you breath in probably matters much more than what you breath)

    Except, maybe not. Because the air you breath in partially dissolves in your blood. Dissolved matter does not decrease density, rather the opposite: it packs tightly into the voids, increasing mass for the same volume.

    How much of an effect this has is hugely debatable, probably depends on a dozen biological and circumstantial factors, and this is where my knowledge ends. But it’s fun to imagine.

    However, if you can imagine inhaling but holding your breath at the same time, creating a vacuum in your lungs, then yes, you would be more buoyant, even more than inhaling helium, and the scale would read slightly less.








  • Here in Canada, I find the prices pretty neck and neck. Small items tend to be a bit cheaper at the stores, since there is very little overhead for them to carry small items compared to Amazon’s picking and delivery logistics. Big items tend to be a bit cheaper on Amazon. For tech specifically, Best Buy price matches items, so it’s not that bad… Memory express and CC sometimes have lower prices than Amazon too (see PCPartPicker).

    The main reason to use Amazon is you can easily find some really obscure stuff. Then again, you can buy direct from manufacturer, like Vevor, for often cheaper.








  • It’s funny that with all our technology, paper is still the most durable storage medium (under normal conditions) that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

    Sophistication often creates fragility. The human mind marvels at sophistication naturally; appreciation for resilience usually only comes after that fragile thing has broken. Of course it’s too late by then.

    All them young whipper snappers will continue to learn these life lessons the hard way, it seems.




  • This is not how patents work. At all.

    For one, patent owners are generally more than happy to license their technology to integrators, and even competitors, if there is money to be made.

    More importantly, patents cannot be used to get exclusivity on products. Rather, patents can only protect novel approaches to how a product is made or served.

    The patent system is designed to protect R&D costs exclusively, not some get out of jail card for anti trust. Of course, the patent office isn’t perfect, the system does get abused in anti-competitive ways. But in the end, it’s rare that that results in less consumer choice, because of licensing deals.