Comment Robot Umps (Score 2) 11
Which will be called "Rumps" in 3... 2... 1...
Comment Re:Point of interest: Failure modes (Score 1) 22
Or "heat pipe dream" anyway.
Comment Re:You are once again responding to a bot (Score 1) 105
If you're referring to me, I'm not a bot; I just have that in my name -- from about 1998 - as an homage to Farscape slang "fahrbot" and the various Futurama robots "-bot". -- Cheers, Rick
Comment Re:Holy shit this thread attracted to boomers (Score 4, Insightful) 105
I would love to have one of you fuckers explain to me why you like right wing propaganda so much though.
I would guess it's because so much of it simply blames problems on others and/or make others the "bad guys" and that's *way* more palatable. The right is more like "you're the problem for us", where the left is more like "we're all part of the problem" (and "the solution"). The former is easier and latter harder. In the case of MAGA specifically, it really seems to be a party of exclusion - with the test being if you're currently "MAGA enough" and an ever-narrowing definition of what that is. Just $0.02 from my Left pocket.
Comment Re:It's Trump (Score 4, Interesting) 105
We go through this in cycles where every 8 years we get obsessed with some stupid moral panic and we elect Republicans and then they destroy everything because that's pretty much all they can do.
Then the Democrats come in and fix as much as they can and it's never enough because the Republicans are actively sabotaging them but they at least gets enough fixed that we can go about our lives just in a slightly lower quality.
You forgot the part where the fixing is often more painful than the breaking - like tax hikes vs cuts - which makes people unhappy, especially in the moment, because many have the memory and attention span of a goldfish and have forgotten how we all got there and they're disinterested in the future.
To illustrate your comment about Republicans / "Conservatives", think about how they lost their collective minds about trans athletes, then consider there are only 10 (ten) trans U.S. college athletes, out of 500,000. From Trans Women in Sports: Facts Over Fear:
Trans people are estimated to make up 1-2% of the population of the United States; however, trans people make up less than less than 0.002% (10/500,000) of US college athletes, and even fewer of recent Olympians (0.001%) identify as trans.
Got to hand it to them; it got people riled up though and some of those voted on that issue. Unfortunately, that says more about the voters than the politicians, and it's not necessarily good.
Comment Re:Let me translate for everyone (Score 1) 105
I expect them to be just as productive as a guy with 40 years of experience
Who also has 40 years of accumulated code to pull from.
Comment Re:I've hired Gen Zers, and I am not impressed. (Score 3, Funny) 105
Not as interesting as his other quote, "I drank what?"
(From Real Genius.)
Comment Re:I've hired Gen Zers, and I am not impressed. (Score 3, Insightful) 105
This was a few years ago, so not exactly Gen-Z, but a similar situation. I was helping a very recent hire, just out of university, with a project and he asked when he would get promoted from a Junior to Senior Software Engineer. I told him, among other things, when he didn't need a senior engineer to help him with his work.
It took him two weeks to complete his task, even with my on-request guidance. When he was done, he thanked me for all the help and remarked that I had always been ready with an answer and to talk through things and he asked how I had done that. I told him that prior to being given the work his manager asked me if I thought this would an appropriate task to give him. I said I'd check it out by doing it myself first, and I had run into many of the same issue he did. The junior guy asked me how long it took me; I said two hours (which was true). Granted, I had many years of experience on him and a lot of accumulated (Perl) code from which I could pull that helped reduce my effort.
Comment Re:A life of 8500 hours? (Score 2) 39
Just a guess here, and I could easily be wrong. But maybe that's 8500 hours of direct and strong sunlight?
The Applied Optical Materials.journal article referenced in TFA/S describes the stability testing setup:
2.6. Stability Testing and Color Alteration Characterization
DSSCs along with UV filter films were subjected to an intensive light soaking protocol using an Atlas XLS+ solar simulation system. The xenon lamp of the system (model NXE 1700), which simulates the AM1.5G solar spectrum, (34) facilitated a 1000-h exposure to artificial sunlight. The spectral irradiance within the UV 300–400 nm range was quantified at approximately 240 MJ/m2. The simulator maintained internal conditions of approximately 35 C, a black standard temperature (BST) of 60 C, and a relative humidity level of 20%. Thermal imaging, conducted with a Fluke TiS75 camera, indicated the average temperature of the filters and DSSC to be 45 C. This 1000-h duration was chosen since it aligns with standard light soaking protocols in photovoltaic research, corresponding to roughly one year of outdoor exposure in a central European climate under the AM 1.5G solar spectrum. (54)
Comment Re:Silly question ... (Score 1) 39
... is stuff gonna eat that solar panel covering now?
It's the red coloring in the onion skins, which is extracted and bound with cellulose from wood pulp. From TFA:
The CNF-ROE film—short for cellulose nanofiber with red onion extract
I'm guessing it'll be too meager a meal for termites...
Comment Re:A life of 8500 hours? (Score 2) 39
For those keeping score at home, 8500 hours is just over 354 days.
(a) The Sun doesn't shine 24 hours/day. (On on spot on the Earth
(b) It's still projected to last 5.6x longer than the current petroleum-based coating.
Submission + - More durable UV coating for solar panels made from red onion skins (zmescience.com)
fahrbot-bot writes: In a lab in Turku, Finland, scientists have found a surprising ally in the fight for sustainable solar energy: the papery red skin of an onion.
Researchers from the University of Turku, in collaboration with Aalto University and Wageningen University, have developed a bio-based UV protection film for solar cells that not only blocks nearly all harmful ultraviolet light but also outperforms commercial plastic films. The key ingredient is a water extract made from red onion skins.
Sunlight can degrade the delicate components in solar panels—particularly the electrolyte inside dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), a type known for their flexibility and low-light performance. To mitigate this, manufacturers typically wrap cells in UV-protective films made from petroleum-based plastics like polyethylene terephthalate (PET). But these plastics degrade over time and are difficult to recycle.
Seeking a greener alternative, the team turned to nanocellulose, a renewable material derived from wood pulp. Nanocellulose can be processed into thin, transparent films that serve as the perfect substrate for UV-blocking compounds.
Their breakthrough came when they dyed these films using an extract from red onion skins, a common kitchen waste. The result was a filter that blocked 99.9% of UV radiation up to 400 nanometers, a feat that outstripped even the PET-based commercial filters chosen for comparison.
In solar cells, preserving visible and near-infrared light is crucial. That’s the part of the spectrum that powers electricity generation. And here, too, the onion-treated filter excelled: it let through over 80% of light in the 650–1,100 nm range—an ideal sweet spot for energy absorption.
Testing under 1,000 hours of artificial sunlight, the CNF-ROE film—short for cellulose nanofiber with red onion extract—held up remarkably well. It exhibited only minor discoloration and preserved the yellow hue of the electrolyte far better than any other filter. Even predictive modeling based on early degradation trends suggested the CNF-ROE filter could extend a solar cell’s lifetime to roughly 8,500 hours. The PET-based filter? Just 1,500 hours.
Google: red onions solar panels
Researchers from the University of Turku, in collaboration with Aalto University and Wageningen University, have developed a bio-based UV protection film for solar cells that not only blocks nearly all harmful ultraviolet light but also outperforms commercial plastic films. The key ingredient is a water extract made from red onion skins.
Sunlight can degrade the delicate components in solar panels—particularly the electrolyte inside dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), a type known for their flexibility and low-light performance. To mitigate this, manufacturers typically wrap cells in UV-protective films made from petroleum-based plastics like polyethylene terephthalate (PET). But these plastics degrade over time and are difficult to recycle.
Seeking a greener alternative, the team turned to nanocellulose, a renewable material derived from wood pulp. Nanocellulose can be processed into thin, transparent films that serve as the perfect substrate for UV-blocking compounds.
Their breakthrough came when they dyed these films using an extract from red onion skins, a common kitchen waste. The result was a filter that blocked 99.9% of UV radiation up to 400 nanometers, a feat that outstripped even the PET-based commercial filters chosen for comparison.
In solar cells, preserving visible and near-infrared light is crucial. That’s the part of the spectrum that powers electricity generation. And here, too, the onion-treated filter excelled: it let through over 80% of light in the 650–1,100 nm range—an ideal sweet spot for energy absorption.
Testing under 1,000 hours of artificial sunlight, the CNF-ROE film—short for cellulose nanofiber with red onion extract—held up remarkably well. It exhibited only minor discoloration and preserved the yellow hue of the electrolyte far better than any other filter. Even predictive modeling based on early degradation trends suggested the CNF-ROE filter could extend a solar cell’s lifetime to roughly 8,500 hours. The PET-based filter? Just 1,500 hours.
Google: red onions solar panels
Comment Re:So... when? (Score 1) 26
So when can we expect this violent eruption/explosion? 10 years? 10,000 years?
I'm a busy man. I don't have millennia to waste on this.
Excellent thought; could happen anytime, even tomorrow. Something people often, annoyingly, forget, like in this bit from The Fifth Element:
Billy [Luke Perry]: When is this "snake" act supposed to occur?
Professor Pacoli: Well, if this is the five and this is the one... [counting under his breath] Every 5,000 years.
Billy: So I've got some time then.
[The Mondoshawans show up literally a minute later.]
Comment Re:"We are Stardust" (Score 1) 26
Certainly, someone was.
Comment Re:This should stop the abuse of H1-B (Score 1) 231
$100K is only 1 year of a $100K annual salary...
The $100k visa fee is *annual* -- up from $215/year.
Trump signs proclamation that adds $100K annual fee to H-1B visas for high-skilled workers
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