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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • You have identified the purpose of these questions. They are determining your mindset when dealing with novel circumstances. Do you make an effort to explore and understand the actual constraints, or do you impose your own, preconceived notions on the scenario? Do you limit yourself needlessly?

    The worst you can do is to treat it as a riddle and immediately give the “correct” answer. An interview isn’t a knowledge test. They aren’t trying to determine if you’ve seen and retained the accepted solution. They ask this sort of question to gain some insight into your problem solving skills.

    A better answer is to step in to the question, and treat it like a real world scenario. Acknowledge the stated constraints, then explore them.

    How much effort should we put into this problem? How much time and treasure are we going to spend on this? Why are we even determining which switch controls the light in the first place? What are the consequences of a wrong answer? If we’re going to get fired for a wrong answer, we should take our time and get it right. If the consequences are “go try again”, let’s just start flipping switches.

    Do we have other resources available? Is there someone in the room? Can we put someone in the room? Is there someone else available who uses the switch regularly? Can we ask their assistance? (If the room isn’t being used often enough for anybody to know how the switches work, should it be repurposed to something more useful?)

    Do we know that these are normal, simple switches? If they are three-way switches, or installed upside down, we can’t trust their position.

    Is it safe to assume the bulb is functional? The “riddle” answer fails on this.

    Is it safe to assume the bulb starts cold? Did they run this test with another candidate a minute earlier? Did they leave it in a “hot” state for us already?

    Is the light accessible when we get into the room, or is it inside a ceiling fixture, 12-feet over our heads?

    What are the other switches connected to? If they control fans or lights or other appliances that can be sensed outside the room, we don’t even need to leave the first room.

    What is the necessity of the specific, given constraints? If this is a real-world scenario, we’re probably not going to have a limitation on entering the room only once. If we can eliminate that constraint, the problem is a lot easier to solve.

    Get feedback from the interviewer: Have we adequately explored this scenario to their satisfaction? Is there some other aspect we need to address?



  • At 30,000 feet and +50C, which literally never happens, your density altitude is ~38,000 feet and 100 KCAS will get you 194 KTAS. Not quite 400 😜

    This is why I’m a balloon pilot and not a fixed wing pilot. 30,000 is 12,001ft higher than I’ll ever see, and 30kias will probably collapse my envelope and splatter me in a corn field. 😵‍💫

    and winds aloft forecasts from one of the government agencies the Republicans are desperate to destroy,

    Can confirm: the accuracy of forecasts in general (and vertical wind profile data in particular) plummeted for this year’s flying season. The GOP is needlessly endangering aviation safety on multiple fronts.


  • I imagined it would be relative to wind speed at the craft, as measured by some instrument. Which would make the comic at least true in a general sense, as it does state the altitude is constant?

    That is the misconception I am trying to address. Check out this wind report:

    1kt of wind on the surface, 5kts at 100ft. My balloon is 120ft tall. My balloon is experiencing those 5kt winds while I’m floating inches off the ground. If I have an airspeed indicator in the basket, it’s going to be reading 4kts. (Actually closer to 5kts due to the change in direction as well as speed)

    How about if I’m at 150ft in the basket, in 5kt winds. The top of my balloon is 270ft, in 12kt winds. My airspeed indicator is going to be reading 7kts. I’m going to have 7kts of wind in my face.

    I’m trying to point out that the height of a balloon is very often larger than the gradient between two different air masses.

    I have experienced 15kt shears: my basket is hanging in an air current 15kts slower than the air current that my envelope is riding within. I have felt 15kt winds in my face while riding in a balloon that is carried by the wind.


  • Edit: yep, air speed is relative to the air the vessel is moving through

    Just to complicate it a little bit, “Airspeed” usually refers to “Indicated Airspeed”, which is provided by measuring the ram air pressure into the pitot tube relative to the static air pressure. It’s a measure of dynamic pressure rather than actual speed. It’s how fast your wings think they are moving through the air.

    If your wings need 100kts in the thick air at sea level to lift off the runway, they will need to “think” they are moving at 100kts when you get into the thin air at 30,000ft.

    Depending on altitude, you might actually be moving at 400kts past a weather balloon, but your “Indicated Airspeed” might only be 100kts.


  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todaytoxkcd@lemmy.worldxkcd #3161: Airspeed
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    3 months ago

    Balloons don’t carry such instruments, but they do experience airspeed. Balloons can climb and descend at over 500fpm. We experience vertical “wind” at those speeds.

    Balloons are tall enough that the envelope can be above a wind shear, while the basket can be below. I’ve experienced 15kt shears, enough to deform the bottom of the envelope into a “question mark”.

    On most flights, pilots will experience 5-7kt shears at certain times.


  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todaytoxkcd@lemmy.worldxkcd #3161: Airspeed
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    3 months ago

    Randall isn’t a hot air balloon pilot.

    Most balloons are about 100’ tall. The difference in wind speed between the surface and 200’ AGL can be 15kts. (it can be much greater, of course, but shears that strong are below flight minimums).

    It is not at all unusual to descend through a shear such that the envelope is in 20kt winds, while the basket is in 5kt winds. It’s rather scary, actually, because our aerostatic aircraft start experiencing aerodynamic effects: “False Lift”. These effects only exist while the balloon is crossing the shear. Once it passes through the shear, all that aerodynamic “false” lift disappears, and the balloon starts sinking like a rock.




  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todaytoFunny@sh.itjust.worksBatwerp
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    3 months ago

    The joker has become a hero in the past.

    And then, recidivism. He goes right back to being the bad guy.

    The message is that you can’t ever trust the offender. Even though it seems like they’ve gotten their life together, they are a minute away from returning to evil. The message they are sending is that all “rehabilitation” is temporary at best.

    There’s nothing to fix, he’s just like that.

    Exactly. They are saying that rehabilitation can’t possibly work; the bad guy can never change.

    The lesson actually being taught is that the hero’s naivete enables the villain’s future harm. The villain should never be trusted again, because rehabilitation is an impossibility. Trust and compassion are the hero’s true weaknesses.

    Batman is not about rehabilitation.

    There are plenty of stories available of former bad guys getting their lives together and becoming heroes themselves. Those are stories of rehabilitation. Batman is not.






  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todaytolinuxmemes@lemmy.worldAn enigma.
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    5 months ago

    I think it is a testament of how bloated it is. I mean, we could get 20 Linux users together, list every package we have collectively installed, and produce a new distro with all of those packages that would serve all 20 of us without needing to add anything else. But our new distro would easily be the largest available, and none of us would use everything we’ve included.


  • I start typing in URLs that aren’t linked anywhere on the site, then I’m accessing stuff the site hasn’t explicitly indicated I have access to.

    Doesn’t work like that. With the policy you describe, anyone who ever sees a “404” error is a criminal.

    I don’t have to publish everything I am willing to offer. You are free to ask for something I may or may not have. I get to decide how to respond to your request.

    To use your analogy, I can walk up to your door and request a glass of water. You’ve never explicitly offered a glass of water to anyone; I’m still allowed to ask. If you dont want me to have your water, you can say “No” or you can ignore me.

    When you go ahead and give me a glass of water, you don’t get to claim I stole it from you. It is not theft to ask.

    You have to make some sort of effort to have your web server limit my access, and I have to make some sort of effort to convince your webserver to bypass those restrictions before you can claim I am exceeding my authorization.


  • Terrible analogy. A webserver is not at all like a door. It doesn’t block or allow traffic to and from your file system.

    A web server is more like a receptionist. It handles requests. “Can I have your basic catalog?” “Certainly, here you go.”

    “Can I get this item from your basic catalog?” “Certainly.”

    “I don’t see it in your catalog, but my buddy said he got this other item from you. Can I have this other item too?” “Absolutely.”

    “Can I borrow your stapler?” Sure. “How about a pad of paper?” “Of Course”. “Can I just have the contents of your supply closet?” “Here you go.” “How about your accounting files, can I get those?” “No problem!” “How about your entire customer list?” “Consider it done!”

    When you hire a receptionist and specifically tell them to give customers anything they request, that’s entirely on you. You have to at least make a token effort to restrict access to only authorized users before you can even claim that a particular user was unauthorized.

    This wasn’t burglary. This was putting up signs that say “come in” and labeling everything in your house with “free” stickers.