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It's not what you think.[^]
Honest. It's just your dirty mind. "Would you like to see other shapes?" had me seriously laughing. 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Witnesses were stunned, startled, aghast, taken aback, stupefied, flummoxed, gobsmacked, confused, shocked, rattled, paralyzed, dazed, bewildered, mixed up, surprised, awed, dumbfounded, nonplussed, flabbergasted, astounded, amazed, confounded, astonished, overwhelmed, horrified, numbed, speechless, and perplexed.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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I am lost for words.
I got there late
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Wordle 1,061 4/6*
⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛
🟨⬛⬛🟨🟨
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 1,061 3/6
⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟨⬛⬛🟨⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 1,061 3/6*
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Very lucky guess - loads of possibilities!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Wordle 1,061 3/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 1,061 4/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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So, I pay all my utilities via credit card, and I receive emails when the bill is due and amount. Last month, the water department notified me that my bill was $240 and change. Considering my normal bill is $39 my attention was captured.
Here's the interesting thing - about 4 months ago, the water department started rolling out smart meters that they could query and collect usage information. Think now - water department, smart meters, automatic billing.... most of the people I've met from the county departments leave me less than inspired. This month, my water usage has been at a square wave. Normally 400 gallons a month, it's been spiking at various times and days to over a thousand gallons per day. I've already pointed out that their data is corrupt, but all I get is a tired voice on the line.
I may have found a new career, no, sorry misspoke, consulting opportunity.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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charlieg wrote: consulting opportunity
Working for them seems more of a headache opportunity.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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charlieg wrote: over a thousand gallons per day.
Wow! That's like a 1" pipe going full tilt the whole day! Maybe you shouldn't fill your pool daily; you know, it's not a bathtub 
Mircea
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This sounds like a broken pipe.
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Whilst I was perusing another article in the MSN info world (that another member had mentioned) I stumbled across the following article "Scientists have found 'evidence' of advanced alien civilisations". The article relates to a scientific study of a combination of star surveys (roughly 5 million stars) and a methodology to filter the stars looking for specific emission markers that make the star unusual and possibly a Dyson sphere under construction. In the article there is a link to the official paper that the group produced (haven't finished reading it yet).
My own feelings are that Dyson spheres sound cool, but the amount of physical material that would go into making one would be prohibitive. Stars are big. Even red dwarf stars. Surrounding the star with technological material (all of the support devices to convert, control the flow of energy, store and forward it to the area of need). Would require the literal conversion of several star systems of every bit of matter in them (planets, moons, asteroids, every spec of material left over from the star formation) to provide the raw materials for the build. We might want to look for star systems surrounding a suspected Dyson sphere that have no planetary bodies associated with the star.
Of course, an advanced civilization might be able to capture the solar wind and also convert a large part of the radiant energy directly to usable matter.
In any case, here is the link. Have fun.
MSN[^]
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I suppose one way to do it is to cannibalize the other planets in the system. Like hit each planet with a giant spatula to flatten it.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Here's a question, how do you maintain gravity in a Dyson Sphere (assuming you do not have "artificial gravity")?
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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I would suggest spinning it. You'd wind up with only a ring world's amount of living space but (like 640kb) that should be enough for anyone. It would probably make for an interesting typography in that "down" might not be perpendicular to the surface, but hey, you've already solved the hard problem of making and spinning it. This is probably a minor issue, comparatively. On the plus side there's no need to worry about artificial gravity failures sending the atmosphere and other loose material, like people, into the sun.
The "unused" sides, the axis poles as it were, could be for energy harvesting and such. They'd also make fairly good access points for ingress/egress of the sphere.
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From the CP newsletter
Astronomers are on the Hunt for Dyson Spheres - Universe Today[^]
Gary Stachelski 2021 wrote: but the amount of physical material that would go into making one would be prohibitive
There are all sorts of engineering problems, economical problems, and political ones as well. Those are pretty standard constraints on all fantastical theoretical constructs. Even much smaller ones.
Consider this - lets say one claims that the material in the solar system is enough. How do you dismantle Jupiter without destabilizing the entire star system.
Or what political system must the world have in place such that it would remain stable enough for perhaps hundreds of thousands of years while this was happening.
Those who want to believe often rely on yet more fantastical stuff to avoid such problems.
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Startups will claim anything...
Hogan
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When I see any article where a startup is making tall claims my mind goes straight to Theranos, FTX, Nikola and such.
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The problem and solution reminds me of analog computing but using light instead of electricity.
Interesting that both quantum and this light method both look for minimal energy states to define the best possible solution to the problem.
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I've come to understand quantum computing to be a bit like Plinko on the Price is Right.
You set up your equation which can metaphorically be represented as placing the pegs into the board and then setting all the dividers for the troughs the chip may eventually fall into.
As a chip dropped in plinko settles to the lowest entropy of a trough. "Execute" is dropping a bunch of chips into the board and letting them settle entropically, then your answer is in counting the troughs.
There are some ways this metaphor doesn't play but some ways it plays really well.
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