Journal Journal: SQL: * expansion inside of EXISTS()
[Used gemini for formatting. It seems to have edited the text somewhere, and the table on bottom is atrocious. I ought to come back to this later. It's too late to continue with it now.]
Comment Re:Congratulations (Score 1) 6
and the boys were already ten and eleven years old when I entered their life
I hope you got a good relationship with them! My son can't even talk yet. So, right now, he's just this cute thing that runs around and causes trou^H^H^H^Hgood things to happen.
Comment Re:I can't even imagine kids after 50 (Score 1) 6
Well, some of that is for classes for people who can't see that default 3-pixel wide scrollbar on Windows 11 in high contrast dark mode.
Fair. Just making fun of Windows 11.
Yeah, you're blessed to have one of each. Until they start conspiring against you, which you KNOW is going to happen.
ha!
Hopefully we'll raise them better than that. And let them see us honoring our parents.
Comment Re:I can't even imagine kids after 50 (Score 1) 6
You charge to "upgrade" to Windows 11? How evil are you?
For all my pro-life ramblings, we were granted only one child.
Precious. I feel bad you couldn't have more though. G-d has been very generous to us.
Keeping up with two toddlers after age 50 can't be easy.
And yet i wouldn't trade it for anything! Thank G-d, we have a lot of help. Especially, when some neighboring girls come by to take our son for a walk. G-d bless them all.
Journal Journal: Verbiage: Kids are heavy 6
So, my son is around 20 pounds now. At my age, that's heavy. My left shoulder became sore from holding all the time he wanted to be held. So sore, i slept on my right side the last few nights just so it wouldn't hurt. But not only that, my daughter just had her one-month checkup and is at 7lb 9oz. She's also getting heavy. Sometimes, i want to hold her all day, but after a few minutes, i have to give up. She lying on my right shoulder as i type this right now.
Submission + - Another large Black hole in "our" Galaxy (arxiv.org)
RockDoctor writes: A recent paper on ArXiv reports a novel idea about the central regions of "our" galaxy.
Remember the hoopla a few years ago about radio-astronomical observations producing an "image" of our central black hole — or rather, an image of the accretion disc around the black hole — long designated by astronomers as "Sagittarius A*" (or SGR-A*)? If you remember the image published then, one thing should be striking — it's not very symmetrical. If you think about viewing a spinning object, then you'd expect to see something with a "mirror" symmetry plane where we would see the rotation axis (if someone had marked it). If anything, that published image has three bright spots on a fainter ring. And the spots are not even approximately the same brightness.
This paper suggests that the image we see is the result of the light (radio waves) from SGR-A* being "lensed" by another black hole, near (but not quite on) the line of sight between SGR-A* and us. By various modelling approaches, they then refine this idea to a "best-fit" of a black hole with mass around 1000 times the Sun, orbiting between the distance of the closest-observed star to SGR-A* ("S2" — most imaginative name, ever!), and around 10 times that distance. That's far enough to make a strong interaction with "S2" unlikely within the lifetime of S2 before it's accretion onto SGR-A*.)
The region around SGR-A* is crowded. Within 25 parsecs (~80 light years, the distance to Regulus [in the constellation Leo] or Merak [in the Great Bear]) there is around 4 times more mass in several millions of "normal" stars than in the SGR-A* black hole. Finding a large (not "super massive") black hole in such a concentration of matter shouldn't surprise anyone.
This proposed black hole is larger than anything which has been detected by gravitational waves (yet) ; but not immensely larger — only a factor of 15 or so. (The authors also anticipate the "what about these big black holes spiralling together?" question : quote "and the amplitude of gravitational waves generated by the binary black holes is negligible.")
Being so close to SGR-A*, the proposed black hole is likely to be moving rapidly across our line of sight. At the distance of "S2" it's orbital period would be around 26 years (but the "new" black hole is probably further out than than that). Which might be an explanation for some of the variability and "flickering" reported for SGR-A* ever since it's discovery.
As always, more observations are needed. Which, for SGR-A* are frequently being taken, so improving (or ruling out) this explanation should happen fairly quickly. But it's a very interesting, and fun, idea.
Remember the hoopla a few years ago about radio-astronomical observations producing an "image" of our central black hole — or rather, an image of the accretion disc around the black hole — long designated by astronomers as "Sagittarius A*" (or SGR-A*)? If you remember the image published then, one thing should be striking — it's not very symmetrical. If you think about viewing a spinning object, then you'd expect to see something with a "mirror" symmetry plane where we would see the rotation axis (if someone had marked it). If anything, that published image has three bright spots on a fainter ring. And the spots are not even approximately the same brightness.
This paper suggests that the image we see is the result of the light (radio waves) from SGR-A* being "lensed" by another black hole, near (but not quite on) the line of sight between SGR-A* and us. By various modelling approaches, they then refine this idea to a "best-fit" of a black hole with mass around 1000 times the Sun, orbiting between the distance of the closest-observed star to SGR-A* ("S2" — most imaginative name, ever!), and around 10 times that distance. That's far enough to make a strong interaction with "S2" unlikely within the lifetime of S2 before it's accretion onto SGR-A*.)
The region around SGR-A* is crowded. Within 25 parsecs (~80 light years, the distance to Regulus [in the constellation Leo] or Merak [in the Great Bear]) there is around 4 times more mass in several millions of "normal" stars than in the SGR-A* black hole. Finding a large (not "super massive") black hole in such a concentration of matter shouldn't surprise anyone.
This proposed black hole is larger than anything which has been detected by gravitational waves (yet) ; but not immensely larger — only a factor of 15 or so. (The authors also anticipate the "what about these big black holes spiralling together?" question : quote "and the amplitude of gravitational waves generated by the binary black holes is negligible.")
Being so close to SGR-A*, the proposed black hole is likely to be moving rapidly across our line of sight. At the distance of "S2" it's orbital period would be around 26 years (but the "new" black hole is probably further out than than that). Which might be an explanation for some of the variability and "flickering" reported for SGR-A* ever since it's discovery.
As always, more observations are needed. Which, for SGR-A* are frequently being taken, so improving (or ruling out) this explanation should happen fairly quickly. But it's a very interesting, and fun, idea.
Submission + - Surado, formerly Slashdot Japan, is closing at the end of the month. (srad.jp) 1
AmiMoJo writes: Slashdot Japan was launched on May 28, 2001. On 2025/03/31, it will finally close. Since starting the site separated from the main Slashdot one, and eventually rebranded as "Surado", which was it's Japanese nickname.
Last year the site stopped posting new stories, and was subsequently unable to find a buyer. In a final story announcing the end, many users expressed their sadness and gratitude for all the years of service.
Last year the site stopped posting new stories, and was subsequently unable to find a buyer. In a final story announcing the end, many users expressed their sadness and gratitude for all the years of service.
Comment Re:Then offer sports seperately. (Score 1) 109
Maybe the idea should be to tell a compelling story. Once you got that down, you can be as diverse and inclusive as you like, people will watch it. Not because it's diverse or inclusive but because it has a compelling story.
Take Star Trek. TOS. That was a revolutionary show back in the days. A black female officer at the height of the civil movement and a Russian navigation officer only a few years after the whole McCarthy era. And let's not forget the first interracial kiss in a nationally broadcast TV show.
And guess what, it was a success. It still is. Mostly because it actually had an interesting story to tell.
Even Goebbels knew that you can slip any and all sorts of propaganda into your programming, but first and foremost, people have to WANT to watch your show. They'll easily accept all the propaganda you want to add, but first you MUST entertain them!
Comment Re:Microsoft Windows Vista Strikes Back. (Score 1) 100
Too bad, you could actually have learned something.
Oh well, some people just prefer to pretend they already know everything.
Comment What was the board meeting for that decision like? (Score 1) 109
"Ok, folks, we're losing subscribers. Why did people sign up with us in the first place?"
"Well, mostly because they were fed up with cable TV and we offered an alternative that only only let them choose what they wanted to see but was also heaps cheaper."
"Great. So what could we do to be more like cable TV?"
"We could throw in some programs nobody asked for and up the price."
"Perfect, let's do that!"
Comment Re:Then offer sports seperately. (Score 1) 109
Neither does anyone else currently subscribed to Netflix, but how else could you justify yet another price hike so soon after the last one if you don't throw in another shovel of garbage?
Comment Re:stop forcing sports on us! (Score 1) 109
Well, it's sweaty guys in ridiculous outfits... yeah, it's sports.
Comment Re:Microsoft Windows Vista Strikes Back. (Score 1) 100
Perfect security isn't one that keeps you from getting where you want to go by reminding you of its presence with every step you take.
Perfect security is so stealthy that you don't even know it is there until you try to do something that compromises it.
Security that gets into your way is something you WILL get rid of, and without a guilty conscience. You're doing it to improve your productivity. An example:
If you work in a warehouse where stuff gets stolen and security demands that the doors are closed and locked at all times, and your job is to carry boxes out to the delivery truck, your work cycle is like this: Pick up a crate, carry it to the door, unlock the door, open the door, carry the box through the door, close the door, lock the door, carry the box to the delivery truck, return to the door, unlock the door, open the door, step through the door, close the door, lock the door, start over.
How many times do you think the average worker will do that before there's a wedge under the door to keep it open?
Comment Between a rock and a hard place (Score 1) 100
You have to use our products.
You will be judged by your security work.
Double bind at its finest.
Comment Re:The employees are wrong here (Score 1) 76
Part of that pitting smarts against the rule is to avoid the backlash.
