> Who are we to believe - the repliers, or our own lying eyes?
Believe the repliers: I created an account in May 2024 and I have not added a phone number. Here's a screenshot from my settings: https://imgur.com/a/Q7kJpDv
But also, your eyes aren't lying to you: some servers require accounts to have confirmed phone number in order to join. So there is probably a lot of people who have had the experience of creating a Discord account, trying to join a server / accept an invite, and immediately seeing a "you must provide a phone number" prompt.
Highly recommend Summoning Salt in general. I never thought I'd find video game speed runs, records, etc, interesting, but his videos end up being very entertaining. His pacing, tone, and the way he works in music are very effective.
> I'm curious how this can be applied with the inevitable combinatorial exhaustion that will happen with musical aspects such as melody, chord progression, and rhythm.
They did this in 2020. The article points out that "Whether this tactic actually works in court remains to be seen" and I haven't been following along with the story, so I don't know the current status.
> Although it has been on my mind for a long time, I haven’t been able to read a comprehensive book based on these studies
Deep Work by Cal Newport focuses on these ideas pretty heavily, and he cites plenty of studies to back up his arguments. Like the author of the blogpost says, "There’s no guarantee that what works for them will work for you", but I found my productivity increased noticeably after I applied some of the advice from the book.
I released a game using OCaml bindings to the Raylib library. I had never written OCaml before and I didn't spend very much time refactoring, so the code is pretty messy and maybe isn't the best example of the language. But some of it turned out pretty nice - the first ~90 lines of this file detect collisions between two shapes using the Separating Axis theorem: https://github.com/mega-dean/hallowdale/blob/main/src/collis...
In 2008/2009, I bought a DVD of this movie called "The Fall": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_(2006_film) . I'm a sucker for visually-appealing films so I loved it, but I eventually lost the DVD and was never able to find another copy, despite checking every year or two. The wikipedia page says:
> As of September 2023, The Fall had been unavailable on streaming services or rental services, making it notoriously difficult to access with secondhand Blu-ray copies of the film being very expensive.
But apparently that isn't the case anymore! MUBI bought the rights earlier this year, and it looks like I can watch it through Amazon Video if I sign up for a MUBI trial.
EDIT: I maybe should have visited https://mubi.com/ before commenting - clips from The Fall is the very first thing they show.
> Does anybody smarter have a good point of re-assurance?
I'm not very smart, but I don't think you need to worry about drones using the linked flamethrower attachment: in order to buy from the website, the terrorist needs to click the "Agree" checkbox that says "I understand that operating a drone or UAS in the US with this attachment would require a Part 107 Waiver."
This page has some information about operating drones over people: https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/operations_over... . That page says "the remote pilot must take steps using a safety risk-based approach to ensure that ... the small UAS is not operated in a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another (§ 107.23)". So IIUC, I think it's likely that the FAA would deny the application for the Part 107 Waiver, and the terrorist wouldn't be able to use it.
I’m 99% sure you’re joking… but since this is the internet, I’ll say it explicitly: obviously the terrorist would check the box, never bother applying for FAA waiver, and fly the drone anyway.
In the 49x49x49 video, he goes over previous world records of "Highest Order nxnxn Twisty Puzzle", and I thought it was weird he didn't mention the 34x34x34. But in the youtube description, he links to this forum post where he announces it on August 10 (a few weeks before the video, but still well after May 10): https://www.twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39559 There is a comment from the creator of the 34x34x34:
> Ah there's so much I want to say, where to begin? Well, soon after finishing the 34x34, I notified Greg, who immediately notified me about the 49x49. At that point, Preston had already checkered the 49x49, so I did not consider the 34x34 a world record. It seems nobody noticed this, but nowhere in any of my videos did I claim the 34x34 was a world record :lol: But still, everyone just assumed it was :lol:
Believe the repliers: I created an account in May 2024 and I have not added a phone number. Here's a screenshot from my settings: https://imgur.com/a/Q7kJpDv
But also, your eyes aren't lying to you: some servers require accounts to have confirmed phone number in order to join. So there is probably a lot of people who have had the experience of creating a Discord account, trying to join a server / accept an invite, and immediately seeing a "you must provide a phone number" prompt.