The premise here is that Trump loses but refuses to back down, attempting to forcibly claim victory. If Trump legitimately wins, there is a different path. Then…

Assuming multiple systematic failures occur simultaneously, including any of: actual voter fraud, fraudulent electors, congress refusing to certify, a captured supreme court acting in favour of Trump, or actual insurrection on or before Jan 6th.

I actually expect the US Military to step in. Every member is sworn to uphold the constitution. But if the constitution has been discarded, then I’d expect them to step in to restore it.

Failing that, the US likely fractures and we leave the Republic phase.

I love the moo

Yeah, there is risk of some chemistry happening at really low voltages which cause irreversible changes to the structure of the material. Given how the battery responded to tests afterwards, I can only presume that these didn’t happen. Short of dissecting the cells and putting them through XRD. Mind you, I do know a few people in the lab…

Gacha mechanics are patentable in games in Japan?

Man, patents just need to go away.

Oddly enough, it’s probably one of the best and most affordable devices in this sector. You can buy 10-20x units compared to the brand leader (Trimble). So I think they assume that this is how most people will operate.

They’re lithium iron phosphate chemistry, which typically draw down to 2.0V without problems, and tend to be a bit more forgiving. I agree 0.9V is low, but the cells were relatively new. Furthermore, no sign of damage or other typical faults associated with a failing battery, and my battery analyzer (from my drone batteries, same chemistry) approved it. According to my gantt chart, they’ve likely been charged and discharged 75 times since I brought them back to life.

Sadly, because they are a manufacturer device integrated battery pack, and the manufacturer doesn’t sell replacements, my only options would be installing a third party battery pack or buying another device at $1500 or more. I’m happy with the battery recovery process though in this case.

It was designed from its very start to be used for numerical computing. So the language it built around it and it sort of excels in that use case.

This used to be the holy bible of numerical methods, if you want to see some sample code: https://s3.amazonaws.com/nrbook.com/book_F210.html

A lot of the underlying libraries in python are actually written in Fortran (or were when they were conceived, and the Fortran components later replaced). Numpy, for example, was originally pretty much a wrapper on top of BLAS and LAPACK.

This gets even more complex if you’re using a toolkit of some sort. C++ has a batteries-included way of doing something, then STL has another, and Qt yet another… Etc.

Don’t get me wrong. There is still a time and a place for Fortran. And this will also likely always be the case for C++. But I’m not sure it is entirely wise to choose it if you’re creating a new project anymore.

I’ve done a bit of C++ coding in my time. The feature list of the language is so long at this point that it is pretty much impossible for anyone new to learn C++ and grok the design decisions anymore. I don’t know if this is a good thing or not to keep adding and extending or whether C++ should sail into the sunset like Fortran and others before it.

Very true. I went in with perhaps unrealistic expectations and didn’t enjoy the gameplay loop. When I enjoy a game, I really enjoy a game, with several titles having 1000+ hours.

Someone needs to introduce Bethesda to Markov chain based storytelling if they’re going to use procedural generation. Anyway, I digress. I’m looking forward to Outer Worlds 2 ;)

Maybe in five years, if (and only if) they keep working on it like No Man’s Sky, then maybe Starfield might be redeemed.

But they’ve already fucked up by making the DLC paid. Until the game is playable, they should be reinvesting their original sales income. Otherwise they burn all the good will.

I appreciate your caveat about peak load. Fortunately for this device it is largely irrelevant. It’s so old school and analogue that there isn’t a standby draw – it’s either on or off. Its operational time is measured in days on a single 9V.

It might be interesting, so I’ll describe the instrument. Starting with some VLF background:

There are a number of VLF stations scattered around the world – for example station id NAA in Culter, Maine (24.0kHz) – used to communicate with their submarines while submerged. If they only transmitted when they had something interesting to say to the subs, that would be useful information to an enemy. So they have to transmit continuously (except for on scheduled maintenance days for the transmitters). These are very powerful huge antennas, often spanning entire valleys – after all, the wavelength at 24kHz is enormous. Different stations have different frequencies and we know about most of them.

At a sufficient distance away from these antennas, all incoming signals are polarized due to reflecting off the ionosphere. These radio waves pass over linear conductors in the ground which will distort the polarization. What we’re effectively measuring is the distortions in these incoming radio waves to map the locations (and orientations) of linear conductors (natural antennas) in the ground, up to about 250m below surface.

So this device is used to measure the incoming signal direction and polarization. It does so by setting up a harmonic oscillation on the device and emitting a tone. There’s a couple of magnetic coils on the device, and as you swing the device about, the received signal from the transmitter and the onboard oscillator will constructively or destructively interfere, changing the tone. You note the direction the tone is the strongest using a compass and inclinometer (both analogue) and write it down in a notebook. Then move to your next position and repeat.

Prospectors have been using this for five decades at least.

But as you can see, not a complicated thing from an electronics perspective. The only complicated thing is tuning the on-board oscillator properly.

Mild acids that are food grade are great because you don’t have to worry about occupational health exposure. A lot of people use vinegar. I use citric acid – which you can find in the grocery store in the spices section. Citric acid is what makes sour candies sour. You buy it as a powder.

I mix a little water and citric acid and let the part soak in it, then brush with a soft wire brush (not steel wire, as it’s too hard and will scratch the parts too much).

But, as a tangent, buying stronger acids is pretty easy, depending on the acid. Hydrochloric acid is sold in hardware stores as muriatic acid. Sulphuric acid is used to recharge lead-acid batteries. You’ll have a harder time finding nitric acid (because people can make explosives with it) or hydrofluoric acid (cause it is actually deadly as fuck), but industrial suppliers often have them. I wouldn’t handle any of these without some training. Even muriatic acid will off-gas chlorine and cause all the tools in your shop to rust if stored improperly. (From experience.)

I agree. However the Ah capacity of a modern 9V is pretty good compared to the 70s. Unless you buy the cheapest 9V crap you can find ;)

I use citric acid on a lot of connectors when the pins are corroded (for the same reason). Revived a lot of cables that way. Good advice :)

The whole battery mounting board is shot – entire traces corroded on it, and the contacts have effectively dissolved.

Fortunately, the machine was designed in 1977(ish) and batteries have gotten a lot better since. 6x AA batteries can now be replaced by a single modern 9V and it’ll deliver enough current. So I’ll mount a new 9V holder and solder it into the battery board wiring harness. I’ve already tested that solution on the breadboard and the machine appears to work.

Duracell rep might be a sales robot. Or possibly talking about another type of battery? Anyway, points for learning :)

These batteries are in a circuit which has a physical power switch separating it from the device, meaning there should be zero parasitic drain while off.

Thus I conclude your fun fact to be apocryphal.