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Eric Duminil

 Discussion on answer by Agent Smith: …

Imported from a comment discussion on philosophy.stackexchange...
Eric Duminil
Sep 2, 2023 08:29
"Dig a little deeper". In which direction? Any hint would be welcome. Also, here's an explanation why "you can't prove a negative" is wrong. cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/‌​…
Eric Duminil
Sep 2, 2023 08:29
"You can't prove a negative" is wrong, and so is your interpretation. Mathematically speaking, it isn't harder to prove a positive or a negative statement.
 

 Discussion on question by Edwardo: Wh…

Imported from a comment discussion on softwareengineering.stac...
Eric Duminil
Jun 15, 2023 12:43
@KilianFoth "Unit tests never failing is good". Nope. Good unit tests should have failed at least once, otherwise they're useless and provide no additional information. I've seen enough assertTrue(true); to be wary of tests that are always green.
 

 Discussion on question by halloleo: I…

Imported from a comment discussion on english.stackexchange.co...
Eric Duminil
Apr 2, 2023 17:15
@JohnGordon: Please don't. "Or" is inclusive already, so "and / or" is redundant.
Eric Duminil
Apr 2, 2023 17:15
Just curious: what's the point of knowing only the latitude or only the longitude? The only example I can think of would be +-90° latitude.
 

 Discussion on question by allo: How t…

Imported from a comment discussion on matheducators.stackexcha...
Eric Duminil
Mar 23, 2023 13:33
@DanielR.Collins "you can no longer give take-home exams/homework", in bulls*t fields*. ChatGPT is an expert in BS, so it really shouldn't be surprising that it's good at economics.
 

 Discussion on answer by haxor789: Doe…

Imported from a comment discussion on politics.stackexchange.c...
Eric Duminil
Feb 15, 2023 16:42
@einpoklum that's one (wrong) way to see it. Russia would still have gotten and kept Crimea and Donbas according to the article you linked. It would have been a win-win for Russia and a lose-lose for the Ukraine. Once again, Russia has 100% the possibility of stopping the invasion, without any other country having to negotiate anything.
 

 Discussion on question by Schezuk: Di…

Imported from a comment discussion on retrocomputing.stackexch...
Eric Duminil
Feb 12, 2023 18:03
@davidbak: Not related to the question. But still: formdev.com/flatlaf is an awesome project which makes Swing apps finally not ugly.
Eric Duminil
Feb 12, 2023 18:03
@WayneConrad: "For me, the progress was Java -> C -> C++ -> Pascal". I really don't understand what those arrows mean, or what "progress" mean to you.
 

 Discussion on question by TQQQ: How t…

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Eric Duminil
Jan 30, 2023 23:14
When working with 1000A, my first priority would be not to die.
 

 Discussion on question by Kevin Kostl…

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Eric Duminil
Jan 28, 2023 08:37
@DarrelHoffman "A man is broken". As in "A man is dead, and broken"? Falling down from ~1km would probably kill humans with a 99.999% chance.
 

 Discussion between gerrit and Eric Du…

Imported from a comment discussion on politics.stackexchange.c...
Eric Duminil
Oct 4, 2022 11:16
@JonathanReez
"It’s either that or economic regression which is way worse." I don't think we really have a choice. Economic "growth" is completely tied to cheap, available fossil fuels. We'll get peak oil, climate chaos *and* an unprecedented recession.
Eric Duminil
Sep 30, 2022 12:52
@gerrit: Thanks for the link. "fossil fuels are the worst". Well, yes. But they're also the foundation of our modern societies. Sadly, we still do not know how to feed/transport/heat/educate billions of people without oil/gas/coal. :-/ Note that "100% renewable" is not only feasible, but a certainty in the long-term, by definition.
Eric Duminil
Sep 30, 2022 12:52
@gerrit: Interesting indeed. Not every kWh is created equal (baseload vs peakload, intermittent or not, ...) though, so it's not enough to compare € / kWh for different energy sources. And if every externality were accounted for, fossil fuels would all be much more expensive than other sources. It's great to see a lot of PV and wind turbines installed everywhere in Europe. Still, when people say "Nein, danke" to nukes, they implicitly say "Ja, bitte" to coal.
Eric Duminil
Sep 30, 2022 12:52
@gerrit: Thanks for the comment. OP wasn't pleased with the existing answers, and added the comment to the question : "I'm interested in German arguments based on nuclear engineering facts rather than emotions, if any such facts exist".
Eric Duminil
Sep 30, 2022 12:52
On a side note, and to hopefully avoid fruitless discussion: I'm not pro-nuclear. I'm simply more anti-coal than anti-nuclear. IMHO, we should first reduce our energy consumption by a lot. No planes, fewer cars, smaller cars, less meat, less air-conditioning, fewer useless gadgets, more regional and seasonal food. Once that happens, it becomes easier to cover our energy demand with renewables, as much as possible. What's left can then be covered by some fossil fuels and some nukes, with a percentage depending on many factors, but not emotional ones.
 

 Discussion on question by Seal: Why i…

Imported from a comment discussion on philosophy.stackexchange...
Eric Duminil
Sep 12, 2022 16:24
@ToddWilcox: your comment reminded me of the title of this book : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We_Love_Dogs,_Eat_Pigs,_and_Wear_C‌​ows
 

 Discussion on answer by David Siegel:…

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Eric Duminil
Aug 16, 2022 20:47
Ok. So does "posted" mean that if you see the sign, you're not trespassing yet? But as soon as walk by the sign, you would be?
 

 Discussion on answer by Weather Vane:…

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Eric Duminil
Aug 16, 2022 20:46
@WoJ it's an excellent movie indeed. Still, it wasn't about the truth, only about reasonable doubt. And there were only two partial witnesses and the stabbing wasn't recorded on camera.
 

 Discussion on answer by pela: What is…

Imported from a comment discussion on astronomy.stackexchange....
Eric Duminil
Jul 14, 2022 13:15
That's the advantage of astronomy : it's usually not a big problem to be off by an order of magnitude. Still, $4\pi r^2$ is $\approx 9 \cdot 10^{53} \cdot \mathrm{m}^2$, not $\approx 9 \cdot 10^{54} \cdot \mathrm{m}^2$.
 

 Discussion on answer by Ben I.: If a …

Imported from a comment discussion on cseducators.stackexchang...
Eric Duminil
May 17, 2022 14:15
@Tim A dockerfile is much better than nothing. It shows that the code can run on at least one environment. And if you want to try it on another system, you only need to change the first line of the dockerfile. What do you propose as an alternative? Sending 3 GB .vdmk file by e-mail? Hoping that the recipient will know exactly what steps and packages are required to compile the code?
Eric Duminil
May 17, 2022 14:15
@Tim "A docker file means it can run in exactly one environment.". A dockerfile is basically a concise README, describing 1) which OS is required 2) which packages are required 3) where the source code is coming from 4) how it should be compiled 5) how it should be run 6) how it should be tested. You can mentally check if those steps look correct. You're free to follow all those steps manually, on a server/laptop/VM. And, as a huge bonus, you're also able to run the whole process non-interactively, on any system running docker. And surely, BenI, no Docker account is needed.
 

 Discussion on answer by Astralbee: Ho…

Imported from a comment discussion on ell.stackexchange.com/qu...
Eric Duminil
Apr 29, 2022 04:59
This interpretation has a clear advantage : what you read is what you get. You don't need to add any word in order to understand it, and it seems logical that 'friend' mentioned twice refers to the same person. The two conflicting interpretations remind me of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress
 

 Discussion on question by dshin: What…

Imported from a comment discussion on security.stackexchange.c...
Eric Duminil
Apr 22, 2022 21:49
Wouldn't a browser extension be enough for this kind of malicious behavior? They are much easier to distribute than a compromised browser.
 

 Discussion on answer by RedSonja: Is …

Imported from a comment discussion on travel.stackexchange.com...
Eric Duminil
Feb 4, 2022 13:48
@Arno I learned German in Berlin, and started from scratch. I'm thankful for everyone who had the patience to listen to my very bad German then.
Eric Duminil
Feb 4, 2022 13:48
@DKovács I wonder how much of this bad reputation comes from unfriendly Parisian staff, who clearly have a lot of contact with foreigners, but also aren't representative at all of the french mentality. I come from Brittany, and I lived many years in Alsace, so I've heard this saying many times. There are indeed many differences between those 2 regions and "France de l'intérieur": taxes, holidays, food, beverages, language, separation of church and state. And, as you said, mentality.
Eric Duminil
Feb 4, 2022 13:48
@prosfilaes that sounds sad. I just hope that it was because the hosts were a***oles, not because they were French.
Eric Duminil
Feb 4, 2022 13:48
Why "Even France"? If anything, French people might be known to not make efforts to speak other languages. But it would mean that they're happy when foreigners try to speak French, right?
 

 Discussion on answer by Schwern: Is i…

Imported from a comment discussion on skeptics.stackexchange.c...
Eric Duminil
Jan 18, 2022 17:17
@Harper-ReinstateMonica: I still don't get your point, and don't know if I should get offended by your last comment... Please note that I'm not against EVs in particular. I'm against using too much energy to move people, regardless where this energy comes from. We'll have enough energy problems in the future, the first step of finding a solution would be to stop adding problems.
Eric Duminil
Jan 18, 2022 17:17
@Harper-ReinstateMonica: Ignore this "factoid" if you want. But those magical, liquid 10kWh/l given by nature are basically the only reason why humanity has been able to build huge, dense cities, provide food to billions of people or allow them to fly across continents. Without the huge energy density of gasoline, society as we know it simply wouldn't exist. And we still have no clue how it could work without.
Eric Duminil
Jan 18, 2022 17:17
@Harper-ReinstateMonica: I don't understand your comment. Fact is that gasoline has an extremely high energy density, and that li-ion batteries have about 100 times lower energy density. Also, when a gasoline is tank is empty, it weights almost nothing. When a battery is empty, it weights as much as at the beginning. The huge density of gasoline is the reason why cars got so large and powerful. Now that people are used to it, they want to use the exact same design, and don't notice how wrong it is to use hundreds of hps and thousands of kg in order to move a 80kg person.
 

 Discussion on answer by Dilworth: Wha…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Eric Duminil
Dec 20, 2021 16:06
@kaya3: Because it's not possible to talk to 100% of the classroom all the time anyway? Many are not listening, many don't care, many don't understand the math or Latin phrases you've used, and so on and so on... And more importantly, many people outside the classroom didn't even have the opportunity to study that long, or get the right to attend your class. If you think you've included 100%, it just means that you don't notice all the people who got excluded, either explicitly or implicitly. 99.5% is already an unreachable goal.
Eric Duminil
Dec 20, 2021 16:06
@user347489 From what I understand, "ladies and gentlemen" still apply to LGBT, just not to non-binary people. And they seem to represent less than 0.5% of the population. Is talking to 99.5% of the classroom not inclusive enough? As a teacher, if you want to fight for more equality and inclusivity, it might be more efficient to make sure that people from poorer neighborhoods have the ability to study long enough to attend your course, or that people in a wheelchair can physically attend the lesson.
 

 Discussion on answer by Richard: If a…

Imported from a comment discussion on law.stackexchange.com/qu...
Eric Duminil
Dec 13, 2021 12:32
@Richard: Not sure if your last comment was sarcastic or not. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument , or, you know, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
Eric Duminil
Dec 13, 2021 12:32
@Richard: True, I'm always surprised/frightened by the quantity of CCTV everywhere in the UK.
Eric Duminil
Dec 13, 2021 12:32
@Richard "And call the police" Just curious : and then what? What's the probability that they care, that they can identify the assailant, and find them?
 

 Discussion on answer by odinchess.com…

Imported from a comment discussion on chess.stackexchange.com/...
Eric Duminil
Dec 9, 2021 18:19
@PeterCordes JS is quite simply WTFs all the way down. So it obviously doesn't include any integer type. Why do you need integer 1 when you can use double '1.000000000000000' instead and simply hide all the trailing zeroes? Node.js has a web-scale, event-driven, asynchronous non-blocking I/O model, who cares if 2**53 == 2**53 + 1 is true? The more I learn about JS, the less I understand how it can be so widespread.
Eric Duminil
Dec 9, 2021 18:19
@RedwolfPrograms Thats my point, devs need to be extra disciplined in order to write good, clean JS. It's possible, but they have to work against the language instead of with it. Something as simple as sorting an array of floats leads to string conversion (why???). JS was designed in 10 days, and it shows. Typescript is a great attempt at cleaning it.
Eric Duminil
Dec 9, 2021 18:19
I'm not even sure that C++ is "more difficult to write" than JS. It's complex, yes, but at least it's logical. There are so many weird implicit conversions in JS that I find it really hard to write.
 

 Discussion on answer by Italian Philo…

Imported from a comment discussion on politics.stackexchange.c...
Eric Duminil
Nov 24, 2021 19:42
@supercat: Good thing the temperatures didn't fall, then. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_temperature_record#/media/… If you don't consider the IPCC to be real science, I don't know what is. Their predictions have often been surpassed, partly because one input parameter is "How dumb is humanity?". Again, if you consider climate science to be shambolic, please take a deep look at denialists. It's all BS & FUD, happily sponsored by oil companies.
Eric Duminil
Nov 24, 2021 19:42
@supercat: "The scientific methodology 30 years ago was shambolic at best". You cherry-pick one example from 30 years ago, without any reference, and you use it to discredit the whole history of climate change science? I'm out. Please read the IPCC reports for policymakers. They're definitely alarmist, but they're also well sourced and peer-reviewed by hundreds of scientists.
Eric Duminil
Nov 24, 2021 19:42
@supercat: I don't get the logic of your comment, if there's any. You mention supposedly dodgy climate research from 30 years ago, without any reference. Was the data you mentioned used by the IPCC? Do you consider the IPCC to be "maybe honest"? Did you check the pseudoscience of climate change deniers? Doesn't it bother you that they're basically 100% quacks?
Eric Duminil
Nov 24, 2021 19:42
@Acccumulation: "in many cases refer to future circumstances". If you don't believe the IPCC predictions, you can simply look at the evolution of CO2 ppm and average temperatures since the industrial revolution, then.
Eric Duminil
Nov 24, 2021 19:42
It would be a good answer if you removed "assuming there is a climate problem*".
 

 Discussion on answer by manassehkatz-…

Imported from a comment discussion on diy.stackexchange.com/qu...
Eric Duminil
Nov 22, 2021 19:24
@manassehkatz-Moving2Codidact Fair enough. It's just that it's the accepted answer of a HNQ, and "heat" is both the first and last word in your answer.
Eric Duminil
Nov 22, 2021 19:24
If I understand your answer correctly, I think that temperature would be more correct than heat.
 

 Discussion on answer by nobody: Why a…

Imported from a comment discussion on security.stackexchange.c...
Eric Duminil
Nov 16, 2021 09:16
@KonradRudolph schroeder was possibly talking about the URL bar or the search box. Now, those send everything as you type, and the huge privacy violation is a feature, not a bug.
 

 Discussion on answer by Dave: At the …

Imported from a comment discussion on skeptics.stackexchange.c...
Eric Duminil
Sep 29, 2021 18:54
@OscarBravo yes, more externalities should be taken into account for every energy source, including fossil fuels. But there's nothing arbitrary about energy in general, or EROI in particular. This ratio tells you if a proposed solution conflicts with the first law of thermodynamics. If it does, no amount of money will make it work. The economy is built on top of our physical world. It will be a very painful lesson when people finally realize the difference between economic theory and physical laws.
Eric Duminil
Sep 29, 2021 18:54
@OscarBravo: EROI only takes into account energy : how many kWh in and how many kWh out. EROI doesn't take waste (e.g. CO2) into account, Are you suggesting carbon sequestration? This would indeed require more energy, and would lower the EROI. But this technique also isn't proven to work well, or to work at large scale. Fossil fuels would indeed look much worse if we took waste into account, instead of simply releasing it to the atmosphere. But as one satirical party is asking in Germany : "Is it worth it to destroy the economy, just to save the planet?"
Eric Duminil
Sep 29, 2021 18:54
@WeatherVane Basically, I'm saying that we're screwed. As you said, our entire economies (including food supply) depend on available cheap oil. We'll have to stop some day, the sooner the better. But we have no idea how to do so, or we don't accept the harsh implications of a life without all the energy slaves working for us.