• Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Back in the 90s part of my job was to change the daily backup tape on a computer when I got there in the morning. It was an 8GB cassette the size of a deck of cards, and I remember marveling that I could carry 8 Gigabytes in my shirt pocket. Now you can get thumb drives for $20 that hold many times more, and thousands of times more than my first hard drive. (which cost about a grand)

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      I mean it’s almost wrong handed to call something like an iPhone or Android device a “phone” because it’s really a pocket computer that, among many other things, can place phone calls.

      • MrPoopbutt@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        For that reason, I like how they are called Hand Terminals in the Expanse (books, I dont think they are referred to at all in the show)

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      A good chunk? My watch is far more capable than my first computer, many times the storage, and its screen has more pixels

    • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Combined with the Internet a “phone” - as we still charmingly call it - does what the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy could do.

    • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.worldOP
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      7 months ago

      I sometimes wonder if tesla was successful in his expiements but realized how it could be quickly weaponized or has some other moral implications so that he destroyed all his research.

    • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Im surprised to see this pop up multiple times. If my device more or less is still plugged in with wireless chargers (as it can’t really be “off” the pad) it’s really not that impressive to me. Not to mention we’ve been pumping power through the air since the first radio.

      If my device could charge anywhere within a certain radius (feet/meters), that would be impressive.

    • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.worldOP
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      7 months ago

      That one cuts deep. It’s really weird too because if you asked your parents they would say america would never elect a felon. Then they went on to elect a felon.

      I sometimes think about trying to reach out to order folks to better understand their views but they I remember the absolute garbage brain rot they believe.

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Directly measuring gravity waves, the first measurement using LIGO was back in 2016 and they’ve observed almost a hundred so far. The observations are being used to create newer generations of gravity wave detectors.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      I have a calculator in my pocket that I can talk to and it’ll talk back. “Hey Bixby, what’s half of five and three-eighths?”

      About 33% of the time the dumb bitch comes back with “Okay, here’s what I found on the internet.”

        • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I don’t know if I suffer from dyscalculia but, man, is mental arithmetic so hard for some reason. I did well in all my other math classes up to college, wtaf, brain.

          • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Arithmetic was easy for me. It made sense. What didnt make sense was finance and accounting. That shit exists just to muddy waters and hurt people. 5

    • cygnosis@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      For real. Who would have guessed the most realistic prediction from Star Trek was talking directly to the computer. Whereas the least realistic one is that a post-scarcity society would benefit average people.

  • Cuberoot@lemmynsfw.com
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    7 months ago

    A computer program winning a Go tournament.

    In chess, human grandmasters routinely beat the best computers, but changing that was simply a matter of faster processors and larger memory, problems solvable by the application of sufficient quantities of money. In principle the game was already solved, and within a few decades, would be solved in practice as well.

    Go was considered a much harder problem. Programs of similar complexity to a decent chess program couldn’t even look at a finished game between go pros and reliably say who won, let alone get there itself. Well, guess what?

    • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      That one does blow me away - I’ve had a cordless drill for years, but a tablesaw??? - when I realized they even existed I couldn’t believe it.

      • owenfromcanada@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I mean, when you think about it, it’s just a battery-powered circular saw flipped upside-down. Not too crazy to consider like that.

        • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          Battery powered circular saws were also science fiction the day I was born.

          Go watch early seasons of The New Yankee Workshop and look for the cordless power drill he uses in the first couple of seasons. It’s got this gigantic permanently attached battery hanging out of the hand grip (the hand grip is like a foot long) and it can just barely turn a wood screw.

          By the time I was in high school tiny, underpowered circ saws were available that ran on drill batteries. These things had like 5 inch ultrathin blades. Now look at it.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        The first battery powered drills were pretty horrible. Batteries have come a long way