It's difficult to skim the stream of symbols and instantly recognize concepts. Think of a word finding box puzzle in English (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=word+finding+puzzle&iax=images&ia=...). It helps if you add spaces and periods, but I still think kanji make it easier to quickly pick out concepts.
In this video, Yuta compares different ways of writing the same sentence and discusses efforts to eliminate Kanji: "Why Do Japanese Still Use Kanji?" • https://youtu.be/O27TgLW6pCU?t=220
Another analogy: I find the flat enunciation of "voice to text" on my phone a bit difficult to follow. I can understand if I pay attention, but I can't passively listen and multitask like I can with human read text (@see - The Guardian's "The Long Read" podcast).
My favorite tape for attenuating bright or annoying LEDs is ruby litho tape (3M Lithographers Tape 616). It passes deep red light and dims bright green and blue LEDs to a faint red. It's perfect for green/amber status lights; the green "OK" is mostly blocked and the amber "Problem" shines through. Removes easily without leaving a mark.
My second favorite tape is Honda's spicy rodent deterrent tape. It's made in Japan with capsaicin. It's not cheap, but much cheaper than an wiring repair at an auto shop*. The lowest price I was able to find seemed be be a dealer in Colorado … until I created an account, went through the order and saw the ~$20 S&H. The best deal including shipping was from the same dealer on eBay — no S&H charge.
Rats chewed through wiring in my car on two occasions. Both occasions were in cold weather and the chewed wires were above shelf-like spots in the engine compartment. One was a transmission solenoid wire and the other was the ignition wire in the main harness above the wheel well. In both cases I was able to self-repair by popping the pins out of the wiring connectors and soldering new leads (pig tails) to the pins. YouTube has several videos explaining the process.
The "original process" of integrated circuit design was cutting rubylith - this was well into the 70s. The venerable MOS 6502 was done this way as was the Intel 8008.
The verb tapeout was used for litho prior to integrated circuits though, back into the 40s.
But you should realize that PCBs and integrated circuits predate generally available computers and digital data storage.
> exported to a data tape for transport to the fab.
There was an article in The Register years ago that promulgated this misattribution - it was generally never a reliable source, no exception here.
That's why IC layouts used to be called "floor plans". They were floor-sized drawings on which people laid out lines with tape. The floor plan was then photographed from above and color-separated into masks.
"Back into the 40s?" ICs aren't that old.
Printed circuit boards have long been laid out by hand, and sometimes still are, but they're not usually photo-reduced. They're laid out at full scale.
I think the parent is saying that the verb 'tapeout' goes back to litho processes before litho's use in IC production, not that IC production went back to the 40s.
Can confirm. When I was a kid I was an offset printer. We used rubylith for that. Then I learned PC design. Rubylith again. Then I went to work for an IC design firm. No rubylith there; our product produced Gerber file tapes. But the old-timers still called it "taping out" because it used rubylith before the Gerber days.
What do you think they did in the early days, before such things as data tapes or anything that could read them even existed? It used to be all photo masks, and the masters for those photo masks were made with... tape. Usually rubylith. Always by hand.
Good to know. I wasn’t even aware such a tape existed when I covered some powerful blue leds that were interfering with my sleep. Sometimes I wonder if the correct leds are used for status leds. The blue LEDs Im talking about were lighting up a whole wall at night and from somewhat useful they turned to a nuisance of sorts.
Blue leds are an obviously incorrect choice; they are only used because are novel and trendy (well, I guess they used to be novel and trendy, anyway). Human color vision is the least sensitive to blue light – but human low-light vision is the most sensitive to it!
Ah, I’m red/green blind too but most blue leds in electronics don’t seem to have a status function beyond "on/off", they’re there just to look futuristic.
One of my HP switches have setting for that, you can choose a time interval when the lights should be dimmed or turned off.
Thankfully the era of "slap blue led so the hardware looks modern" is over (back then blue leds were new thing and pretty expensive), but some devices still go too bright.
Status LEDs should be only bright enough to be obvious, they should be frosted/opaque, and should only be Red, Orange, Yellow, or Green.
Retina searing water-clear blue and violet LEDS have no business being used for any status light anywhere. Even in bright light, the better choice would be bright green due to the eye's sensitivity being maximum in the green.
> temporary impact on your credit score. Applying for multiple credit cards at once will reduce your score for a few months; if you will be applying for a mortgage, car loan, job, apartment, or other situation that requires a check of your credit, it is a good idea to stop all churning activity as far in advance as possible. Most conservative estimates recommend at least 2 years as "hard pulls" from credit card inquiries will fall off your credit report in 2 years.
> your homeowners insurance rate can be impacted by your churning activity, even though your credit score remains high. Your insurer regular does a soft pull on your credit, and they may increase your rate if there are a lot of new credit lines, even though your overall credit score and utilization may remain in good standing.
I have (and use daily) a pair of 13 year old Westone 3’s*. I bought them thinking of using them for a 40 minute walking commute involving freeway underpasses and a noisy sales pit style office.
The commute case didn’t work out because they didn’t seal fully. There was too much noise leakage to hear podcasts. Music wasn’t isolated enough and I didn’t want to turn it up too high and damage my hearing. The audiologist who made the molds had me chew while the mold material was curing in my ear canals and this resulted in a poor seal. A poor seal also means poor bass response. I think the audiologist had me chew to make the molds more comfortable for long hours of use and for snacking at the desk. Hearing aids were his main business and he seemed inexperienced with musician monitors.
I’ve recently discovered that I can apply clear finger nail polish to the inserted portion to “fine tune” the fit. I’m getting a good seal and they’er still comfortable. I mainly use them when working with power tools at home.
For office use there are a couple of caveats: 1) If you have a tight fit, they will be more difficult to insert and remove. This can be a nusiance in a highly-collaborative work environment. Also, people tend to ignore the earpieces and expect you to hear what they’re saying. 2) Chewing is very loud and borderline uncomfortable. This was the case with the original, narrower width as well.
> Can they double as concert earplugs or do I need a second set only for that?
My Westones have removeable cables, so they could be used that way, but there’s a better alternative: you can use the same molds to get relatively inexpensive silicone molds with tuned attenuation "filters". Mine use Etymotic 9, 15, 25 and solid 30 dB filters. The filters reduce frequencies more evenly, allowing more high end through than foam earplugs (except for the solid filters). I have Sensaphonics ER "Custom Musican”[2] plugs and Westone ES49[3], both made from silicone. The Sensaphonics are softer, but I prefer the Westones because they are lower profile, they have little handles for removal, and the firmer silicone is easier to insert/remove.
* Westone seems to have discontinued products for musicians and HiFi
Some ideas for playing a notification sound in a script runtime:
Shell
# system beep; also flashes the screen if you have that enabled in accessibility
osascript -e 'beep'
# play the sound file given by the file system the path
afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Hero.aiff
AppleScript
beep
do shell script "afplay '/System/Library/Sounds/Hero.aiff'"
JXA + Cocoa API
$.NSBeep()
// search for and play a sound file; the lookup path is defined by macOS
$.NSSound.soundNamed('Glass').play
> Market capitalization, commonly called market cap, is the market value of a publicly traded company's outstanding shares
> Market cap is given by the formula MC = N * P, where MC is the market capitalization, N is the number of shares outstanding, and P is the closing price per share
> A more comprehensive measure is enterprise value (EV), which gives effect to outstanding debt, preferred stock, and other factors
In this video, Yuta compares different ways of writing the same sentence and discusses efforts to eliminate Kanji: "Why Do Japanese Still Use Kanji?" • https://youtu.be/O27TgLW6pCU?t=220
Another analogy: I find the flat enunciation of "voice to text" on my phone a bit difficult to follow. I can understand if I pay attention, but I can't passively listen and multitask like I can with human read text (@see - The Guardian's "The Long Read" podcast).