The emphasized bit is correct, and another AC claimed "relativity does not work that way", which is incorrect, because relativity does work that way. Astronauts on the ISS experience a net dilation of 21 or so microseconds per day -- dilation of about 25 microseconds due to velocity relative to ground and compression of about 4 microseconds due to being higher up the gravity well. Over a 6-month stay, that would be about 4 milliseconds.

While that's probably well within the margin of error of any mechanical watch, GPS devices are a different story. They have rather accurate internal clocks, and relativistic errors are large enough that GPS satellites have to compensate for the discrepancy.

CDC, poultry, pigs, more pigs (the references have more). Good overview of the CDC report from Wired: here and here.

So yeah, maybe not cows, directly. Not yet.

I guess inferiority is relative...

I wasn't trying to move the goalposts on you. The last print job (black and white book with some diagrams) I worked on used film-to-plate transfers with manual layouts, but that was well over a decade ago, in a third-world country. Looks like technology has moved forward a lot from that. I'd heard about newer print processes using direct computer-to-plate transfers (which is probably what you're referring to). I didn't know how prevalent that was for predominantly monochrome text printing nowadays until your comments got me reading. I'm happy to be corrected. Thanks :)

The analog I was referring to are, in this case, letter shapes. They don't need to be approximated with discrete pixels when you're using movable type, for example, or carved woodblocks; and even etched plates can use analog curves if the master image does, hence, no anti-aliasing. As to color mixing, I'm familiar with the dithering and registration required to render them because of the inks. It can be a real pain to get right.

I don't remember the details of the 2-bit grayscale printer, i read about it was some time back. I'm not even sure now if it was an experimental technology or if it was commercially available. It might even have been vaporware... :p

Generally, books are printed with a press. Whether it uses movable type or etched plates, the printing technology is analog, even if digital technology is used to lay out the plate or type. That's why I made the distinction between analog vs. digital... analog type don't need to be anti-aliased, since their "pixels" are effectively molecules.

My statement about digital print was a hasty generalization. In retrospect, it's probably only a handful of digital printers that are capable of anti-aliasing, like one with 2-bit grayscale pixels that I read about somewhere.

Condescending sarcasm only works if you're actually making an intelligent point, otherwise you just end up sounding like a jackass. The point of my statement, in case it went over your head, was that there are 26 characters in the English alphabet, and 9 pixel patterns are insufficient to portray them all. Nice try anyway.

It should also be pointed out that the 2x2 lowercase font you're bragging about isn't 2x2. The h is 2x3; n, m, u and v are 3x2, s, t and y are 3x3... and those are just the ones I spotted in the first line. So yes, BS for a 2x2 font was correct.

Those fonts are readable in the same way grass is edible. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it's useful as a reading font. It can be used to convey information and the reader can with some adjustment get used to it. That is far from "perfectly readable." Reading anything longer than a paragraph becomes an exercise in masochism. They might be useful as a small machine readable font that needs to remain decipherable by humans, similar to OCR-A.

Simply changing the color of text from grey to white doesn't make it boldface. What if the text is white to begin with? Boldface refers to using heavier weight strokes, which you can't do with your 3x3 font without making it unreadable.

So now you're passing judgement on the knowledge or lack thereof of complete strangers on the Internet, when your own demonstrated credentials are the presentation of the work of another person?

I'd normally refrain from this, but you did bring it up. I worked with 8-bit machines running CRT displays in the early 80s. Those displays are pretty low res and the built-in text patterns tended to use an 8x8 grid. To fit more information on the screen, I designed 7x5 and 5x5 pixel character sets. I also made one for 3x5 but I thought it was terribly ugly. I was 12 at the time. In high school, I was a writer and later editor of my schools' papers. In later years, I did a lot of desktop publishing work -- editing, layout and graphic design. I've also run an in-house press for one company.

None of that really matters, because the original point, which others have also raised, is that your friend's 3x3 font isn't very readable. Not unreadable, but definitely far from anything any reasonable person would describe as readable. Anyway, you have a nice day, Mr. Has-a-friend-who's-an-expert-on-fonts.

scenarios

Sorry, pet peeve: pseudo-latin/greek plurals.