@_thegeoff do you have experience or ideas on how to mask off infrared leakage from an emitter to a detector that are next to each other (the intent is to detect reflections/diffuse reflections)?
I currently have 5mm IR LEDs and a photodiode next to each other, in black heat shrink that extends down to the slight ridge in the base, but don't overlap it. I still get significant signal when there's nothing in front and adding more layers of heat shrink doesn't help. My best guess is that I am seeing emission going backwards and scattering off the pcb into the photodiode, but am somewhat unsure how to deal with that given that I need something ir-opaque, nonconductive, and able to withstand the heat of soldering.
WTF Osram, why do your LEDs have longer cathodes than anodes? (https://look.ams-osram.com/m/6985efa866041336/original/SFH-4547.pdf)
software annoyances
```
LOG_NLS_V | info | Start solving Non-Linear System 207 (size 8) at time 0 with Hybrd Solver
| | | | | 1. der(reactor.coolant_vessel.medium.h) = 0.000000
| | | | | | nominal = 250000000.000000
| | | | | | old = 0.000000
| | | | | | extrapolated = 0.000000
| | | | | 2. test_loop.flow_restr_2.flowModel.states[2].h = 100000.000000
| | | | | | nominal = 500000.000000
| | | | | | old = 100000.000000
| | | | | | extrapolated = 0.000000
| | | | | 3. test_loop.pump.heatTransfer.states[1].h = 84030.539315
| | | | | | nominal = 500000.000000
| | | | | | old = 84030.539315
| | | | | | extrapolated = 0.000000
| | | | | 4. test_loop.pump_2.heatTransfer.states[1].p = 119900.000000
| | | | | | nominal = 100000.000000
| | | | | | old = 119900.000000
| | | | | | extrapolated = 0.000000
| | | | | 5. test_loop.pump_2.heatTransfer.states[1].h = 84030.539315
| | | | | | nominal = 500000.000000
| | | | | | old = 84030.539315
| | | | | | extrapolated = 9701582846615680389965170410065635635592644909986107348146830517680841797018933994035582096881053530010197810704725168063739672624651808469562738004095429049456876177299072376746747482865664.000000
| | | | | 6. test_loop.pump.heatTransfer.states[1].p = 119900.000000
| | | | | | nominal = 100000.000000
| | | | | | old = 119900.000000
| | | | | | extrapolated = 1395545749263273562353094300355912123666420127868569549243039153200782685590445388375565229326362995465733389002326171356874244432514685387165896028648662914933266970943160745918382187935715352284279593816494624266522555068710912.000000
| | | | | 7. test_loop.pump.N = 1500.000000
| | | | | | nominal = 1.000000
| | | | | | old = 1500.000000
| | | | | | extrapolated = 107477949771266220580127046916236898947795277663670987074868389930580837650472937515744177753777718814327714610808858911987699308800252211914642615367406474047816442643162274605062751179869984619432932445505357721667305696715179033483470650708221688317554936849744913235968.000000
| | | | | 8. test_loop.pump_2.N = 1500.000000
| | | | | | nominal = 1.000000
| | | | | | old = 1500.000000
| | | | | | extrapolated = 24371644343455766312317374891129151099810235543819179569928328023469746077106736735078443514579514619241838070512462790807003317472949993331128066179656919744985893279289689732107804348505109936163901058751957917554869003401675407360.000000
```
Well, ok, but _why_? _What_ is the system of equations that leads to this absurd outcome during search for valid initial values?
Let's assume we have a fixed container filled with some amount of a liquid and its vapor. If we heat it up, obviously the fraction of mass that's in vapor form will increase (being in gas is higher energy state, fraction of stuff that's in a higher energy state increases as energy increases in a thermodynamic equilibrium; I might be wrong if there's something really wonky going on with surface tension). What about volume fraction? At first glance it seems that it can change in either direction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nusselt_number#Dittus%E2%80%93Boelter_equation says:
> n = 0.4 for the fluid being heated, and n = 0.3 for the fluid being cooled.
WTAF. Why do we have different power laws for heat transfer between a solid and liquid when the flow is turbulent _depending on the direction of heat transfer_? I can't think of any simple mean field approximation of the process that would yield that.
I shot a short video of the new bike tunnel in Zürich. https://youtu.be/HPwRAEOwQI0
OK that's a nice framing of multi-party computation application. Exchanging otherwise classified information about vessel discovery (radar fingerprints) between allied states. https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/1590.pdf
Delta is a Polish #math/#physics/#compsci monthly magazine, mainly aimed at high school students, but read by people of all ages (as evidenced by participation in their send-in monthly problem league). For some unknown to me reason, its April 2025 issue has an English translation: https://deltami.edu.pl/media/issues/2025/04/delta-2025-04-EN.pdf
Enjoy :)
Mein Stromzähler wurde diese Woche mit einem "Smart Meter" ersetzt. Bezüglich Datenschutz gibt ewz an:
> Die Datenübertragung ist zwar eine wichtige Funktion, die der intelligente Stromzähler mit sich bringt. Gesendet wird aber nur einmal täglich und zwar in verschlüsselter pseudonymisierter Form. Das heisst: Übermittelt werden lediglich die Nummer Ihres intelligenten Zählers und die aktuellen Verbrauchswerte. (...) So kann aufgrund der Verbrauchsdaten nicht darauf geschlossen werden, welche Tätigkeiten die Bewohner*innen ausüben.
-- https://www.ewz.ch/de/private/strom/anschluesse/smart-meter.html#faq
Das ist schon ein bisschen überverspechend: tagliche Stromverbrauchwerte lassen jemand feststellen, ob ich weg (im Urlaub) sind, oder ob ich an diesem Tag gekocht habe (und vielleicht ob für mehrere Personen gekocht wurde).
Danach habe ich aus Neugiere auf mein ewz geguckt und hat da Stromverbrauch separat für jede 15 Minuten gefunden. Das ist sicherlich genug um viel mehr über meine Tätigkeiten festzustellen: wenn ich komme nach Hause, wenn ich Tee am Morgen mache, vlt. wenn ich koche, usw.
Ich bin ein bisschen enttäuscht mit dem Kleinmachen und irreführenden Erklärungen (wie beim Datenschutz vom Swisspass, der "nur" ein Kennnummer ablesen lässt). Ich bin auch neugierig, ob Angriffversuche auf den System von den Einbrechern finanziert werden.
I’m looking for a job, so…
I’ll be living in Gliwice (Poland), so I’m preferably looking for a remote job that can be done vaguely within the EU timezone, but local in office is fine too. I’m a (mostly backend) software developer with ~10 year of experience. Currently most fluent in Rust, but no language should be a barrier. I also have experience as an SRE and maintaining servers, plus lots of maths knowledge. I’m happy to do any of the above and more, as long as the result has a non-negative impact on society. I believe all my past employers have been very happy with my performance, and I can definitely promise you’ll be too!
Made by Zach, but not Zachtronics: Kaizen is the just-announced Japanese-factory automation game from Coincidence that'll have you managing and optimizing an assembly line making all sorts of stuff
https://thinkygames.com/news/kaizen-a-factory-story-is-a-new-automation-game-from-the-developers-behind-beloved-zachtronics-titles/
https://atomic-spectra.net/ shows emission spectra of various atoms _with intensities_ and with pictures acquired experimentally.
TIL that in oceans (assuming lack of salinity gradients) it's actually the coldest water that sinks:
> The temperature of maximum density and the freezing point of water decrease as salt is added to water, and the temperature of maximum density decreases more rapidly than the freezing point. At salinities less than 24.7 psu the density maximum is reached before the ice point, while at the higher salinities more typical of the open oceans the maximum density is never achieved naturally.
-- https://www.britannica.com/science/seawater/Thermal-properties
I enjoy things around information theory (and data compression), complexity theory (and cryptography), read hard scifi, currently work on weird ML (we'll see how it goes), am somewhat literal minded and have approximate knowledge of random things. I like when statements have truth values, and when things can be described simply (which is not exactly the same as shortly) and yet have interesting properties.
I live in the largest city of Switzerland (and yet have cow and sheep pastures and a swimmable lake within a few hundred meters of my place :)). I speak Polish, English, German, and can understand simple Swiss German and French.
If in doubt, please err on the side of being direct with me. I very much appreciate when people tell me that I'm being inaccurate. I think that satisfying people's curiosity is the most important thing I could be doing (and usually enjoy doing it). I am normally terse in my writing and would appreciate requests to verbosify.
I appreciate it if my grammar or style is corrected (in any of the languages I use here).