3D printing using electroplating

Would it be possible to 3D print using electroplating by using a mobile electrode that was insulated other than at its tip, such that the tip is the print head of the 3D printer?

Polytunnel in the desert

If you were to cover an area of desert with polytunnels, would the reduced water loss be enough to de-desertify the desert, and if so, how long would it take?

I would hope that the area would undergoe ecological succession, beginning with cacti, but progressing to more economically useful species, whilst developing a richer soil.

Additive manufacturing using household waste

I've been thinking a lot lately about how consumers could make use of their household waste in additive manufacturing. I've posted previously on 3D printing using waste paper, but I'm also interested in other materials. Those I've been thinking about include aluminium cans, tin cans (which are tin-plated steel) and thermoplastics. My first thought was that the challenge would be getting the necessary temperature, but Markus Kayser's SolarSinter project, suggests that this is not really a problem (at least in sunny places). The remaining challenge is granularizing the waste material to be used for the sintering. This is less of a problem with the thermoplastics - they would probably succumb to a househouse paper shredder (although that wouldn't be sufficiently granular).

Traffic lights: how many are there; and how lucky have I been?

Often when driving, particularly when driving a route I do often, I wonder how many traffic lights there are on the route, and how lucky I have been (how many of them I have had to wait at, and how long I have had to wait at traffic lights in total). Obviously the latter is indicated by journey time, but I want more data than that.

Obviously, I could manually note down each traffic light on the route, and the length of time I've had to wait at it, but where would be the fun in that. I want an automated solution. The combination of GPS, clock and map data.

When planning the route on Google Maps before the journey, I'd like data on how many traffic lights there are for that journey.

When I finish a journey, I'd like a message on my dashboard saying "There were X traffic lights on that journey, at which you had to wait at Y, for Z minutes in total".

GuilTea pleasures

I was thinking today about a brand for snacks: GuilTea pleasures. Perhaps with the taglines: treat yourself; treats for tea; biscuits for tea; teatime treats; treats to have with tea.

Cool times

I have a 24h digital clock with a 4 digit 7 segment display. I can't help but notice that some of the times on this clock are "cooler" than others. I seemed to come across these numbers more often than I expected (given that there are 1440 hour minute combinations each day) (probably an example of confimration bias). Some examples:

Symmetry around the colon
00:00
01:10
02:20
03:30
04:40
05:50
10:01
11:11
12:21
13:31
14:41
15:51
20:02
21:12
22:22
23:32





Symmetry around the colon (taking into account that 2s are the mirror image of 5s)
02:50
05:20
12:51
15:21
20:05
21:15
22:25
22:52
22:55
23:35

Sequential up (each digit)
01:23
12:34
23:45

Sequential up (hours, then minutes)
00:01
01:02
02:03
03:04
04:05
05:06
06:07
07:08
08:09
09:10
10:11
11:12
12:13
13:14
14:15
15:16
16:17
17:18
18:19
19:20
20:21
21:22
22:23
23:24

Sequential down (hours, then minutes)
01:00
02:01
03:02
04:03
05:04
06:05
07:06
08:07
09:08
10:09
11:10
12:11
13:12
14:13
15:14
16:15
17:16
18:17
19:18
20:19
21:20
22:21
23:22

Hours = minutes
00:00
01:01
02:02
03:03
04:04
05:05
06:06
07:07
08:08
09:09
10:10
11:11
12:12
13:13
14:14
15:15
16:16
17:17
18:18
19:19
20:20
21:21
22:22
23:23

Minutes = Hours x 2
01:02
02:04
03:06
04:08
05:10
06:12
07:14
08:16
09:18
10:20
11:22
12:24
13:26
14:28
15:30
16:32
17:34
18:36
19:38
20:40
21:42
22:44
23:46

Hours = Minutes x 2
02:01
04:02
06:03
08:04
10:05
12:06
14:07
16:08
18:09
20:10
22:11

There are also a few specials:

00:12    Weak sequential
00:42    Answer to life the universe and everything
03:14    Pi
09:50    Ten to ten
10:10    Ten past ten
16:18    Golden ratio
21:50    Ten to ten
22:10    Ten past ten

In conclusion, I think the reason for my observation reflects when I typically go to bed:
23:22
23:23
23:24

An idea coming from this: a 24h digital clock with a 4 digit 7 segment display that displays the "cool" numbers in a different colour.

(N.B. 121 cool numbers identified using the above rules)

It's all about...

Judgement, and having the right framework for judging against.

Alternating stripes

It's not often that I venture into fashion design with me thinking, but here goes. I understand that vertical stripes decrease the perception of width, whilst horizontal stripes increase it. There is a fashionable optimum for the shape of a woman's body (the coke bottle shape), which emphasises the hips and  breasts. I wonder whether it would be possible to emphasize this with stripe: vertical around shoulders, horizontal around the breasts, vertical around the waist, horizontal around the hips and bottom. Similarly, the fashionable optimum for men is broad shoulders, but a narrow waist. Would it be possible to emphasize this with horizontal stripes for the shoulder and chest, vertical stripes for the waist.

Tax debt shield

Why do companies use debt as a form of financing? Partly because it's tax-efficient: interest is tax deductable. The tax rules encourage companies to use debt. But debt is bad for companies as it can be called in forcing the company into liquidation. By making interest not tax deductable we can make companies, and hence our economy, more stable, as they will be incentivised to use less debt. This will also reduce the value of cash, encouraging more individuals to invest in shares.

Sentry guns on aircraft

Why don't military aircraft have sentry guns (autonomous sensor-guided guns) to fire at incoming missiles and attacking aircraft? Applying such weapons to aircraft (as opposed to ground vehicles) would be fairly low risk of friendly fire as they would only be turned on when the aircraft was operating independently. It would be possible to add several sentry guns to an aircraft to cover all angles. One might imagine that this would be particularly useful for UAVs, which may not be able to replicate human dogfighting abilities for some time. The technology certainly exists.

Unions

When an entity has the word "united" in its title, this implies to me that it is less united than entities without the word. The United States of America, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United Nations. All of these are less united than entities that do not have the word, for example, China. The concept of a union acknowledges and perpetuates differences, whereas adopting a name without such a word will encourage identification with that name, and thereby overcome differences.

An interview question for competency-based HR people

Tell me about a time when you realised that competency-based interviews were an ineffective form of assessment.


What was the impact of that realisation?

Random generation

Why isn't it everywhere? I've talked about biomorphs before, but even without the complicating factor of artificial selection, random generation is very useful. Take, for example, computer games. There are very few computer games, typically the storyline intensive ones, where random generation of levels would not be an added extra for players. Particularly where there's the ability to save and share a randomly generated one that you've tried with other players. Adding random generating extends the playability, making a great game into a classic.

Running away

You live to run away another day.

It's all about...

Giving up. And then getting going again.


(with the exception of relationships, where you have to respect a person's right to not want to engage with you)

Everything happens for a reason

I've heard this said. Often when the proverbial has hit the fan. But such a short, flippant statement has significant implications: destiny or some kind creator/overseer; lack of free will. So I don't buy it.

What is a useful alternative? Slightly more verbose, but how about:

You cannot know the counterfactual of any outcome, therefore it is impossible to form a firm judgement of whether the outcome is good or bad.

Autoblog

Say you're developing a website with information on a particular subject. The website is expanded and updated bit by bit. For the user tracking the website, seeing all of the changes and new material would require going through every page, unless changes/additions are highlighted on a blog. The problem is that such a blog requires more effort from the creator. So would it be possible to autoblog the changes? Changing typos and formatting probably important enough to capture, but new pages, or significant additons/removals to a page should automatically be blogged (with a link to the page).