kengr

I recently decided to clean up some files. Specifically some video files. A long time ago, I'd been converting some files from their existing formats (which didn't play correctly on some devices) to .mp4 files.

Thing is, I'd converted a bunch but hadn't gotten around playing the converted version to check that the new versions worked.

So I have an unknown number of supposedly fixed files, and the same number of ol.d files that need to be replaced.

But since I'd been converting files from several different directories, pairing things up is more than a bit complicated The one thing I *do* know is that the new versions have the same name as the old versions, but with .mp4 added to the old file name.

So "all" I have to do is get a listing of *all* the files on the disk in question (almost 4 TB) and look for files with almost the same name. No problem at all, right?

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"I think I've found a way to protect our clothes from vermin damage. There a spell that looks promising in this old grimoire."

The thief perked up. He'd been fond of that cloak of invisibility, Now it was a joke with all the huge holes in it.

"Still working on the translation. Looks like I'll need body parts from some sort of insect. Probably a giant one so we don't have collect huge numbers of them."

The combat types exchanged looks. "Giant insects again?"

The mage kept on muttering half to himself. "Hmmm, Winged insects... Ok, some sort of Lepidoptra... nocturnal.... dull colored wings... so not butterflies."

He pored carefully over the text squiting.

"Ok, need the,,, gonads? of the male ones." More muttering. "Oh, of course, the testes!"

The bard stared at him. "You. Want. Us. To Gather. Giant. Moth Balls."

You know that some asteroids are just loose collections of gravel and dust, right?

Well, it occurred to me that some times (accidentally or on purpose) they may have collected around a core of something. Say an alien artifact or an alien ship.

So, here you are mining this gravel bank, and your scoop hits something solid....

Yesterday's post got me thinking about various forms of communication from science fiction.

The "paired devices", non-interceptable is not uncommon and usually tied to quantum entanglement or the like.

Another one I've seen plays games with "phase velocity". This is a concept from waveguides where the phase velocity (speed at which changes of phase move thru the guide) is higher than the "group velocity".

This results inn a system where you can't communicate across a link until a signal from you has reached them. Once that happens, you can (in fictional theory) send messages to them FTL. They have to send a signal back to be able to send the other way.

This has some fun limitations, such as it being essentially useless except between "fixed" stations. and it taking a long time to set up any sort of network.

If you have FTL *travel*, then you can cheat and place relay station at some convenient distance apart and send signals to start links between *them*. Speeds things up a lot but requires a lot more infrastructure.

There's also the question of *how* much faster than light your signals travel.

Next one is a weirdie. Dirac radio,

With normal EM communications, a signal travels thru space like a ripple across a pond. The ripples spread at the speed of light.

With Dirac radio, the signals act like raising or lowering the level of the pond uniformly. So they are instantaneous. Of course there are a *few* problems. Like where does the energy come from? And what happens if several transmitters are operating at the same time. These are pretty much handwaved away.

Obviously *everyone with a receiver gets the signal at the same time, and it's not directional.

James Blich who was the first aothor to use it, came up with some other interesting effects. :-)

And then there are the "simple" ideas where the signal (of whatever sort) just travels FTL (buut not at infinite speed) and drops off with distance. And can have direction finding.

Can't think of any others at the moment.

Space Shuttle Challenger lost
1986-01-28 1638 UTC

Saw yet another link for a "glitter bomb" vid and I got to thinking. Glitter gets *everywhere* and is notorious for being next to impossible to completely remove. So I got a couple ideas.

Using glitter as a "carrier" for a curse or spell effect.

"Rainbow goo" (as opposed to "gray goo") scenario: self-replicating glitter

I have this image of groups of people (tribes?) on an Earth-like world, but with *hugely* longer days.

They are always on the move, though they can stay maybe a week or so to hunt or harvest before they have to move on.

Probably two sets. The Sunrise people who are always advancing near the sunrise line and the Sunset people who are always heading towards the sunset.

This is going to require that there be a more or less continuous band of land around the planet at their latitude(s).

I'm not sure how bad mid-night and mid-day would be but almost certainly not easily survivable.

My current guestimate is that the day would be around 3 earth-years long.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Resources?

The recent court decisions forcing Trump to pay for SNAP benefits have implications that I'm not sure most people recognize.

In particular his "request" that the courts tell him where to get the money.

This is actually a *major* red flag. He wants the courts to spell it out so he can use their logic to mess with other funds that h's been holding back (illegally!) and redirect money to things he wants.

So that "innocent request" is apt to become a *major* problem if the courts don't treat it like the trap it is.

Thanks top the 100+ temps a couple months ago, I learned that there are limits to the stability of "shelf stable" milk.

The room I was storing them in wasn't air conditioned and the cartons that were in there have curdled. They still taste and smell ok, but but they look like very thin cream of wheat.

Still work (mostly) for cooking, and cereal, just very very odd.

Stumbled across this on youtube.

Shatner works fairly well as Archie, doesn't he?