Reposts – Page 65

“MarI/O” – how an evolutionary neural network learned to play Mario

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

Seth Bling

Is it possible to ‘blow’ a whistle or other wind/brass instrument underwater? How?

This self-post was originally posted to /r/askscience. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

Wind and brass instruments (which I’ve just learned are collectively ‘aerophones’) work because since characteristic of their shape causes the air that is pushed or drawn through them to vibrate at particular frequencies. They work in air whether you’re down a mine or at the top of a mountain, so there’s clearly some tolerance to pressure variation. I presume, therefore, that you could play them using other gases too (e.g. by connecting a whistle to a pump in a nitrogen atmosphere, for example), albeit presumably with a change in pitch (we have whistles driven by an air/steam mixture on steam locomotives, for example).

But I wonder: can such an instrument be used with other fluids? How about a liquid, like water? Can I pump water through an underwater whistle in order to make a whistle-like noise? What are the physical constraints on doing so (e.g do I need a higher pressure difference in water)?

If it’s not possible, why not? What could be done, hypothetically, to construct an aerophone-style (“hydrophone”?) instrument that would work underwater?

tl;dr: Could I pump water through an underwater whistle to ‘blow’ it? If not, how can I ‘fix’ that?

Guess where I woke up this morning, MegaMasons?

This link was originally posted to /r/MegaMasonsLounge. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

The original link was: http://i.imgur.com/vUxVG6Z.jpg

So yeah: that’s not entirely pleasant. A couple of days ago I was diagnosed with what was supposed to be a minor bladder infection and given antibiotics. Then yesterday I became feverish and collapsed. And now I’m in hospital.

But on the upside, they’ve spent all night pumping me full of some kind of intravaenous antibiotic that must be made from like unicorn spunk and leprechaun tears or something because it’s frankly magical: feeling so much better today than yesterday.

Just wanted to say hi. Hi, all!

[x-post /r/MegaMegaMegaLounge] [Graph] Tracking ‘engagement’ across the MegaLounges. Why are some Megas more-active than others? (interpretation in comments)

This link was originally posted to /r/MegaMegaMonitor. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

The original link was: https://i.imgur.com/3aXKsxq.png

In /u/10_9_‘s recent thread about gilding trends, /u/razerxs made an interesting observation: that the huge ‘drop offs’ in membership of MegaLounges after /r/MegaMegaMegaLounge does not correlate with their expectations, based upon the level of activity in /r/MegaLoungeV. /u/razerxs

observed that e.g. /r/MegaLoungeV is a highly-active sub, which isn’t necessarily what you’d expect if the activity level was based entirely upon the number of people permitted to have access.

I started wondering if there might be a better predictor of engagement levels. I experimented by looking at the ratio of how many people ‘subscribe’ to each MegaLounge to how many people are permitted into there. This isn’t a perfect measure of engagement, of course, but my thinking was that of the people who are invited into a MegaLounge, only some of those will add it to their front page… but that those who add it to their front page are more-likely to actively participate.

The graph shows three things. From the left axis, the blue and red lines show the number of people who are allowed into each MegaLounge and the number of people who are subscribed to each MegaLounge. As you might expect, there’s a gap between the two and the gap narrows in higher lounges, where there are fewer people.

But what I was interested in is whether and where this gap changes proportionally: is the “subscription rate” among eligible people higher in particular lounges, and can this been seen as a predictor of activity levels and engagement rates in each lounge? That’s what the green bars show (against the right-hand axis: note that it doesn’t start at zero). In general, across the MegaLounges up to and including /r/MegaLoungeSol, there does seem to be a slight upward trend: i.e. the higher a lounge you’re in, the more-likely that eligible people are to add that lounge to their front page. Beyond /r/MegaLoungeSol the bars jump around all over the place, probably because of the small number of people ‘up there’, and I suggest that we ignore them: accuracy of this as a predictor would be expected to be better where there were more subscribers: say, up to about /r/MegaLoungeDiamond.

What this would predict would be a “lull” at /r/MegaLoungeVIII. I don’t know if that’s your experience or not. And, interestingly, the ‘subscription ratio’ at /r/MegaLoungeV and /r/MegaLoungeX are also unusually low, bucking the overall trend. What does this mean? I don’t know. But if /r/MegaLoungeV really is to be considered one of the more “active” MegaLounges, then I think that we can safely say that my hypothesis – that we might be able to predict activity hotspots by looking at the subscription rate – is not backed up by the data.

Still: interesting stuff.

Welcome to the planets, new astronauts!

This self-post was originally posted to /r/MegaLoungeNeptune. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

I just wanted to give a wave to our three new astronauts, freshly arrived here in the planets just over the course of this last week. They are:

/u/dystopika (who’s already set a course for the next planet)
/u/ninjabarbie79 (who’s leading the way there)
/u/AllAboutLove (who missed the rocket ship… perhaps you can help)

Happy space exploration!

Welcome to Opal, new gems

This self-post was originally posted to /r/MegaLoungeOpal. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

I just wanted to wave a welcome to the new folks joining us in the gemstones over the last seven days – they are:

/u/bg-j38
/u/jonandkaylatoler (who’s busily carrying on up)
/u/dangermond
/u/ULTIMATUM7
/u/kyle8998
/u/Silfax

Welcome all!

Welcome new members of MegaLoungeV!

This self-post was originally posted to /r/MegaLoungeV. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

New folks joining us this last week are:

/u/george_the_7th (who’s proceeding to rocket on through to higher lounges still)
/u/j0be
/u/sh2nn0n
/u/brainiac555
/u/D0m1nator
/u/kurokitsune91

Welcome!

Off into surgery: wish me luck!

This self-post was originally posted to /r/MegaMasonsLounge. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

Apparently when I had wisdom teeth removed, ooh, a little over 25 years ago, the dentist who did so fucked up and managed to leave fragments of tooth embedded in my gum, which might have been harmless except that they’ve lately become infected with something and are may ultimately threaten my jawbone.

So, yeah. In about 15 minutes I’m off into surgery. Local anaesthetic (though I’m wondering if I should have opted for general… gulp!), then some digging around in my gums to pull out some pieces of tooth shrapnel: nice, eh?

Wish me luck, Masons!

Update: Went swimmingly! Minimal pain/discomfort, lovely surgery staff. A++ would thingy again. Which is for the best, because I’ve got a slightly more-complex (related) procedure on the other side of my mouth in five weeks or so!

I’m “doing an avapoet” again – I’m upgilding EVERYONE in /r/MegaLoungeOpal!

This link was originally posted to /r/gilderguild. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

The original link was: https://www.reddit.com/r/MegaLoungeOpal/comments/37funa/woke_up_this_morning_to_a_pleasant_surprise_in_my/

Woke up this morning to a pleasant surprise in my bank account. ALL OF THE GOLD!

This link was originally posted to /r/MegaLoungeOpal. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

The original link was: https://i.imgur.com/mzHhe1s.jpg

People who should REALLY be using MegaMegaMonitor

This self-post was originally posted to /r/MegaMegaMegaMonitor. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

You know how I love to play with statistics and data mining. Well, I’ve been doing so, and I thought I’d share with you uber-elites some fun-but-pointless data I’ve been extracting: the names of the Redditors who’d probably most-benefit from MegaMegaMonitor, but who aren’t using it (based on how many tracked private subs they’re part of – note that some subs are tracked but don’t [yet] have icons…):

I wonder if I should have some kind of referrals scheme, whereby people can claim credit for getting other people ‘hooked’ on MegaMegaMonitor. Or maybe just have a scoreboard of “who suggested it to whom”.

Or maybe I’m overthinking it all again.

Anyway: just wanted to share with you. I’m thinking of doing some statistics cross-referencing “highest MegaLounge” against “number of (tracked) private sub memberships”, because I’ll bet there’s a correlation there… and if there is, I’d be interested to see who the outliers are! /u/k_princess would probably be one, as she’s in lots of private subs but is only up to /r/MegaLoungeSaturn, somehow. /u/outroversion even more so, with a highest MegaLounge of /r/MegaLoungeRuby. But there’s always a lot we can learn from the outliers. And there must be outliers at the other extreme, too: people who are way up in the MegaLounges but aren’t in many other private subs: I wonder who they are?

This has been your insight into my mind, for today. Have a great week!

For the first time, I’m thinking that there might be such a thing as too many icons…

This link was originally posted to /r/MegaMegaMonitor. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

The original link was: https://i.imgur.com/cUK5Znz.png

MegaMegaMonitor now supports the noble Ninjas! (and the filthy pirates, I suppose)

This self-post was originally posted to /r/NinjaLounge. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

As of MegaMegaMonitor v120, the browser plugin now supports /r/NinjaLounge! What does this mean – well, if you install MegaMegaMonitor into your browser:

You’ll be able to see your ninja brethren everywhere on Reddit: they’ll have a “ninja” icon after their name, so you can’t miss them!
You’ll be able to write secret messages that only other ninjas (who use MegaMegaMonitor) will be able to decode. A great way to “out” suspected pirates when you meet them elsewhere in Reddit and to coordinate attacks.
If you choose, you can go into your MegaMegaMonitor settings and take off your ninja disguise! If you do this, even pirates (who use MegaMegaMonitor) will be able to see that you’re a ninja by the icon next to your name, so it’s only an option for ninjas who prefer an aggressive stance rather than a stealthy one. It’s up to you!

The pirates are about to make this same discovery, too, but (on account of me being a ninja!) you’re hearing about it first. To arms!

What is MegaMegaMonitor? How do I install it? All the most-popular questions are answered in the FAQ.

This self-post was originally posted to /r/MegaMegaMonitor. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

To install MegaMegaMonitor:

Install MegaMegaMonitor

For all other questions:

See the FAQ

v114 released – performance improvements

This self-post was originally posted to /r/MegaMegaMonitor. See more things from Dan's Reddit account.

I’ve just released version 114 of MegaMegaMonitor. You’ll get the upgrade automatically within the next day or so, or you can force it to upgrade manually by clicking here. If you’re not using it yet, install it here. Changes in this release are:

Performance improvements – many users, and particularly those on slower computers, those using Firefox, those with access to many private subreddits, and those browsing long comment threads, have seen MegaMegaMonitor get painfully slow. Performance should be much improved for these users, now.
Two new subreddits – MegaMegaMonitor now supports /r/gildedgonewild and /r/ElephantLounge. /r/ElephantLounge is another subreddit to which I don’t personally have access, so I’d love to hear from people who do to reassure me that the icons are working as they’d expect. These newly-added subreddits support all of the usual MMM features including encrypted messages.
Prettier icons – people at ‘gemstone’ level MegaLounges now have appropriate icons, and people ‘stuck’ (black icons) in the MegaLounge chain theme “after the sun” now have part of the style of the icon carried over, too.

As always, I’d love to hear what you think, including any ideas for the future. I’m still hoping to make the “gossip” feature, mostly for the folks in /r/gilderguild, and I’ve still got grand ideas to help support /r/NinjaLounge and /r/PirateLounge (I’m just waiting for the go-ahead!). I’d also like to add some stability-improving features in an upcoming release, to help ensure that MegaMegaMonitor stays working with minimal intervention and is hopefully even capable of outliving me!

Update: I’ve also just pushed out v116, which also adds:

Encrypted messages on wiki pages – it’s now possible to use the secret message feature to put encrypted messages onto Reddit wiki pages, too. I’ve done this so that I can use some as examples in the upcoming documentation that’ll be appearing later today.

Update2: MMM updates are like buses. You wait for ages for one to come along, and then three come all at once. Here’s v120, which adds:

/r/NinjaLounge and /r/PirateLounge support – not only do pirates and ninjas get icons and encrypted messages, like everybody else: they also get an extra setting on their options page to choose whether or not their identity is protected (via ninja stealth or pirate magic) – the default – or if they’re going out proud and fully-armed (which means that their enemies can see their icon, too!).