ShaunaTheDead

Oh interesting! I must have mixed my facts up or something, my bad. You’re right that it’s attributed to Zhuge Liang, but it seems like Wikipedia thinks it was a fictional story when attributed to Zhuge Liang, but it looks like he wasn’t the first to use this strategy and he wasn’t the last. Regardless, I was wrong about Sun Tzu having done it and I learned more about history, so thanks!

Here’s the Wikipedia article I was referring to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_Fort_Strategy#Zhuge_Liang

On a somewhat related note, that Sun Tzu quote reminds me of something he did. Sun Tzu had a rivalry with this other general who he often got into skirmishes with and always defeated him or outmaneuvered him with some kind of trickery. So one time this rival general actually had Sun Tzu on the ropes and had chased him into a bit of a corner. Sun Tzu was in a smallish fort with the enemy general closing in and he definitely did not have enough soldiers to hold the fort for long.

So instead of trying to intimidate his rival with a show of force or making his army seem bigger than it was or whatever else he might have tried instead when his rival arrived at the fort he found the front gate fully open and nobody in sight except Sun Tzu himself sitting on the battlement playing an instrument somewhat akin to a lyre I think.

His rival was so wary of trickery that he assumed it must be a trap, or a distraction while a larger army moves in to reinforce him, so he left and Sun Tzu and his army survived.

I think upgrading the RAM as you mentioned is going to make a big difference. While the physical RAM might be soldered to the motherboard, you could buy a fairly cheap SD card or USB and set the system up to use that as virtual memory. It won’t be as fast as actual RAM but it might help and large SD cards are honestly really cheap these days.

I love Eric Barone! He sticks to his convictions in the way I wish more video game developers would. He’s made so much money from Stardew Valley that he never needs to work a day for the rest of his life, but he chooses to put in the time to continue releasing free content and working on new passion projects and giving back to the community. He could have monetized the hell out of Stardew, releasing DLCs and hired a huge development team to crank out new content to make him richer until the original game became unrecognizable.

So many game developers have gone down that route, or simply sold off their creation to a company that they know full well plans to do just that.

Also, I just love his mentality about things. He knows that nobody really asked for Haunted Chocolatier, and he doesn’t really care if it’s successful, he just wants to make something new for himself. I hope it is successful, but I’m glad to see that he’s not hinging his hopes on it’s success but instead just enjoying the process of making something, which is really beautiful and I think more people should focus their energies on those kinds of exploits and outcomes.

Doorbell?

If you like what’s on offer by Spotify, there’s a free alternative that I like called Spotube. It uses your Spotify account for recommendations but then uses YouTube’s (and YouTube Music’s) backend to get the songs. You can also change the backend use a Piped instance instead of YouTube.

Trig requires some assumptions and special tools, like SOHCAHTOA and what not that don’t really exist in standard algebra.

Exactly, as labels are meant to be. Use them if they suit you, don’t bother if it’s not for you.

I think the absolute best way I’ve heard it described is simply: Extroverts get charged up around people, while introverts lose energy around people and need some time by themselves to recharge their batteries before socializing again.

Or just switch to Linux. It works flawlessly with everything except games that with anti-cheat that refuse to support it.

It seems like this vehicle comes with (as far as I know) the first solid state battery in a commercial vehicle which is HUGE news if true! I’m slightly skeptical because of this claim coming from the Chinese government, but who knows, it would be a huge boon for all of humanity if they’ve figured out solid state batteries.

The huge benefits we’ll all see are increased capacity so batteries last longer, and INSANELY fast charge times. You could recharge your car to 100% in the same time as it takes to fill it up with gas currently.

The thing about time is that any likely division of an hour that you’d like, there’s an easy and even division. /2 = 30, /3 = 20, /4 = 15, /5 = 12, /6 =10, /10 = 6 and vice versa.

It’s pretty easy to get in the mind state of thinking a half hour is 30 minutes, or more specifically you can think 1.5 hours * 60 minutes / hour. The hours cancel out and you get 90 minutes.

It’s like the old saying, “If you think everyone around you is an asshole, just remember that you’re the common denominator in every situation”. So if your teammates are trash, it’s time to look inward at whether you’re actually the problem, or if you’re not, what you can do to help your teammates succeed.

My steps in engaging in polite conversation on the internet are:

Explain my point as clearly and concisely as possible.

Try to be respectful of differing opinions and keep an open mind.

Realize that mistakes happen, apologize for my mistakes and admit when I’m wrong. Also, be forgiving of the mistakes of others, point out any mistakes but do so as gently as possible.

Ignore people that are either intentionally misunderstanding you or aren’t making an effort to understand you.

I think the first two points are obvious and most people follow them, it’s the last two that a lot of people struggle with, even myself at times, but I’m working on it. I think the worst thing you can do on the internet is trash someone’s entire idea just because they made one tiny mistake. And putting in effort with trolls will quickly exhaust you, so you need to learn to identify and ignore them.

Star Trek Enterprise

lol jk

The problem here is that the riddle tricks you into thinking the total at the end should be 30, but because the herders originally give 30, but then get 3 back, the new total of sheep that changed hands is actually 27. In the end, the troll has 25 sheep and his sons have 2 sheep, 25 + 2 = 27 so all sheep are accounted for.

Yes, but as @Chee_Koala already pointed out it’s flat terrain and for the most part it’s relatively soft. If you were to extended walking in your home it would probably be wise to wear shoes or change your gait. Walking on hard cement or stone for extended periods of time while landing primarily on your heel would definitely be bad for you.

I doubt that there’s any real benefit to walking barefoot. There seems to be very little science to support it that I can find, but I’d be interested to see if anyone can find some.

I question the benefits mostly because it’s well known by historians that before the invention of modern shoes, most people walked very differently than we do now. Heel-to-toe walking basically didn’t exist until modern thick-soled shoes became commonplace, and instead toe-to-heel or rather ball-of-the-foot-to-heel was the norm.

If you’re going to walk barefoot, make sure you learn how to walk barefoot safely. Here’s a pretty good video about how to do it correctly: https://pi.ggtyler.dev/watch?v=3iLJ0frWE9E

I’ve watched Sabine for awhile, she’s a really great science reporter who keeps things simple and pretty brief. Just a note though, I feel like she sometimes takes very skeptical and conservative views on some subjects where she doesn’t really have any expertise. It also makes me kind of uncomfortable how she seems to be obsessed with Elon Musk, she mentions him in basically every video.

Despite all that, she’s pretty great, check her out, just keep in mind she talks about a lot of things she isn’t an expert in.

If the person in question has ADHD, maybe cut them some slack. I have ADHD and I’m terrible at messaging people even though I enjoy talking to them and hanging out with them. I hope that my friends understand that.