Twenty or so years ago, Levis had a program called Personal Pair (they paired with a firm/product called Intellifit) where you would step into a millimeter wave 3D scanner and get your precise measurements.
Which you could use to get a custom pair of jeans made just for you. This failed partly because the target market turned out to be middle-aged adults (that buy fewer pairs), and not 18-25 year olds like they were hoping. Partly over privacy concerns. Partly the ability of the factory to make jeans to that tight of a tolerance. And partly because it was promoted like it was a novelty ("Consumers love it!"). Mentioned here previously:
But with this software - the tolerances are looser, so the clothing becomes more manufacturable. And the measurements can be anonymous - you don't feel like you're stepping into a TSA scanner for everyone to see.
I hope they are able to make relationships with multiple clothing brands so shopping from home will become less hit-or-miss. The benefit to the brands is going to be fewer returns for size issues.
There should still be privacy concerns, especially with their demo which sends a POST on "Generate". The author suggests the model is 85kB of weights, which could run perfectly well in browser.
> But with this software - the tolerances are looser, so the clothing becomes more manufacturable.
Does it? How do looser measurements help? I assume manufacturer would always take the upper bound of dimensions. Suppose model also predicted your dimensions are higher then they really are, so these two in combination give you an oversized piece of clothing.
Not just oversized - undersized also happens. Most cloth is still cut by hand using large electric saws and it's just not that accurate. (caution: loud music)
Notice that the panels are marked out with chalk and if the operator doesn't stay square to the table, or isn't diligent in marking up the panels, they won't be consistent with the brand's standard sizing.
I mean - ideally a set of panels of a piece of clothing would be cut by computerized laser so it's accurate to what the buyer needs. But that costs too much and takes too long.
I took a visitor from Finland to a Jim's location in Austin, and they were in awe. "It's just like from the movies!" (because it was - it has been used several times as a filming location).
If you have a classic diner in your town, take your foreign guests there for the experience.
Something you've got to realize is that this form of culture is something that has gone far beyond America's borders. To the European, it is the very pinnacle of "American Food" -- and 50s/60s themed diners are all over the place.
I'd hazard that there are nearly as many of these restaurants outside the US as there are inside of it. Within the US it's "throwback/nostalgia." Outside the US it's "exotic/kitsch."
Maybe your Finnish friend was remarking that the American version somehow felt more "real"? I don't know... I've been to all sorts, and the ones in Europe are truly very similar.
Your first link is a restaurant in a shopping mall. It has the interior facade of being a diner, and it serves...avocado bites, spicy chicken nachos, kimchi burgers, etc. Not really the same!
Every now and again someone will open a "American Diner" here in London, then have normal opening times and serve basically the same food every pub serves, only with more milkshakes.
Like, no. I want my American-style hash browns, over-easy eggs, and country-fried steak, not the same burger every pub on the street is doing.
And (refillable) filter coffee please, not just espresso drinks.
Fun to see all that, but curious why I haven't seen any on any of my trips across the UK and Ireland. I even asked some locals and they did not know of any diners anywhere in the country. I would've thought they would've been all over it.
Eddie Rocket's is an Irish chain of American diners. I've eaten there in Dublin. Although at least that location is downtown, and in a bigger building, not a classic diner style building. The inside is very much American Diner themed with vinyl seats, chrome, jukebox controls at the table, and of course the menu of burgers, fries, shakes, etc.
We have an independent one, Herbie's, just down the road from us outside Cambridge. It's pretty good! They have a wide range of imported US fizzy drinks cans too!
> Something you've got to realize is that this form of culture is something that has gone far beyond America's borders. To the European, it is the very pinnacle of "American Food" -- and 50s/60s themed diners are all over the place.
Burgers, shakes, pancakes, hot dogs, sometimes BLTs and tuna melts. That sort of thing. In Europe, the "American Diner" is usually the only place that'll serve a normal plate of pancakes. (Everywhere else it's crepes, which are completely different...)
Fried chicken, liver and onions, biscuits and gravy - the breakfast options are my jam, but not really the other entrees. You can order dessert regardless though!
At a diner in America, I'd be unsurprised to see some less "diner" offerings. When I go to my local non-chain diner, I order fettucine alfredo. And the article here has a good picture of a diner advertising "American and Korean food". I think part of the core diner concept is a somewhat athematic menu that is meant to cater to local tastes.
So I'm a little surprised at the idea of a diner that only has classic burgers / shakes / pancakes, but I'd have to admit those are fairly core dishes.
Yes, absolutely. They talk to you the way I expect to be talked to in a diner (lotsa “huns”), the coffee never ends, and sometimes you get to watch UFC live. The food is so easy to eat, too.
I think there's a difference between the "squeeze-in" style diners and simply American-style diners like the ones you've posted. A lot of the nostalgia comes from the tiny prefab buildings that barely manage to fit a bar and row of booth seats. Those are the ones from the movies that feel more authentic/classic in person, at least to me.
I recently visited my brother in Spokane (we're British, he moved out there a few years ago) and we went to Frank's Diner, still in it's original 1906 railcar. Not my first diner experience, but by far my favourite. Diners are probably my favourite part of American culinary culture.
Also, on my first visit to San Francisco, my mum and I stayed opposite the Pinecrest Diner on the edge of the Tenderloin. Being jetlagged, I woke up at 5am the first morning and went there just as it opened, and having my coffee and huge breakfast as various diner regulars stopped by was just fantastic.
I was really sad to learn recently an old diner I went to often in Venice Beach (Cafe' 50'S, on Lincoln and Lake) burned at some point and the building is just an empty husk now.
Jim's is legit amazing. I end up going very rarely but every time I do it's been a perfect diner experience.
I tried their liver and onions (an aquired taste it turns out I don't really have) and a slice of some meregiune pie and idk, it really transported me, the food is always very real tasting, it's hard to isolate what it is that makes so much food taste manufactured now.
It's like Donns Depot, places that connect us to some wholesome parts in our shared history.
Depends on how they're using it. To find an unknown person and prove they were at a scene - yeah you'll have the 100 person's worth of DNA to sort through and then match against a (presently) incomplete DNA database. But if you already have a suspect and need to place them at the scene, if their DNA is one of the 100 then they have shown that.
That's something that would have to be addressed at the trial by the defense attorney raising challenges.
If the DNA is present, it's present - barring any procedural mistakes by the forensics technicians (mislabeled sample, dirty lab equipment, didn't follow manufacturers instructions, etc). Or deceit by one or more members of the forensics team to implicate the suspect.
>That's something that would have to be addressed at the trial by the defense attorney raising challenges.
This is the wrong point at which to correct the problem. When prosecutors are allowed to introduce "science" as their evidence, jurors give this way too much deference. It's the prosecutor basically saying "you're too stupid to understand it, so indulge my appeal to authority" and jurors tend to happily acquiesce. This is why judges are supposed to gatekeep expert testimony and not just let any quack step in and make outrageous claims... and despite their attempts, quacks have repeatedly done just that these past few decades.
If is true that the presence of DNA means essentially nothing, then it shouldn't be permitted to be introduced at trial. Protection from wrongful conviction shouldn't rest on someone having an attorney expensive enough to be able to unsway too-easily-swayed jurors with counter-specious arguments.
> The Atro Tracker also has declination limits of +90° and -47° and a lower altitude limit of -6°. The latitude is limited to the range between -2° and +90°; the system automatically switches hemispheres so both the North and South latitudes are usable.
Why would the system need to have a much greater range of declination (celestial sphere) than latitude (Earth spheroid)? Because the Astro Tracker and Angle Computer could flip over to the Southern hemisphere (was this automatic or was there a switch?) having that much declination range seems unnecessary. Perhaps to allow for pitch of the aircraft in flight?
BTW, being able to operate in both the Northern & Southern hemispheres was an important capability for the B-52. Previous bombers (B-36 mostly) had the range but not the reliability or in-flight refueling for global reach.
Sadly, I didn't get the chance to look at the B-52 at the Museum of Flight when I was there. If you ever meet Charles Simonyi, please thank him for his support of the museum.
If you're flying in low latitudes, nearly half the stars that you want to use are going to have negative declination, so negative declinations are important. As for the hemisphere switching, this happened automatically.
It's totally normal to be in the northern hemisphere and looking at stars below the celestial equator. For instance, Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky and is in the southern half of the celestial sphere. So if you wanted to navigate with Sirius, the system had to support negative declination. (They define negative declination as in the opposite N/S hemisphere from the aircraft.)
The B-52 is one of my favorite aircraft, and the one at the Museum of Flight is an absolute beast -- I never thought it was small, but it's still bigger than I expected.
It took a while to reach full production rate for the F-35. Partly because the supply chain (mostly US based because of the Buy American Act) had to come up to speed[0]. But also because there were running-changes being made to the plane, necessitating changes to the production line to accommodate them.
The F-22 production tooling is supposedly in storage at Sierra Army Depot. Why there and not at the boneyard at Davis-Monthan is an interesting question[1]. Spooling production of the F-22 back up will take less time than originally, but still won't be quick (a secure factory floor large enough has to be found, workforce knowledge has been lost, adding upgrades, etc.)
[0] Scattered across as many congressional districts as possible.
[1] I was at Sierra in the 80's on TDY and it was all Army and Army civilians. A USAF guy like me really stood out.
The PS/2 also used configuration disks for their Microchannel machines - not sure about the lower tier machines that were ISA - I don't recall if you still played "jumper madness" with them.
The local IBM tech had consolidated a lot of the files onto a few diskettes so he didn't need to carry around a briefcase full of them. Made his job much easier.
In college I worked at a record store that had a Ticketmaster machine. At the time, it was a custom ticket printer with CRT terminal and modem that took up a lot of counter space. When you camped out and bought a ticket the moment they went on sale you got an actual ticket, with perforations. Lots of people saved their stubs as collector's items. The surcharge was: $2.50
That paid for the equipment, maintenance, the ticket stock, the central computer, but not the leased phone line (the store paid for that).
These days, you're using your computer, your paper (or phone), and afterwards you have nothing collectible. The surcharge can be $40 or more.
Why the huge difference? It can't all be inflation. I think it's primarily because of monopolistic power and collusion with the venue[0]. But also - when bands toured back then it was considered supplemental income to the sale of the album. These days they hardly make anything off album sales/streaming, and more of their income comes from touring (ticket and merchandise sales).
[0] You could buy tickets at the venue and not pay the surcharge. But now Ticketmaster gets their cut even if you do that.
If you haven't read Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story you should. The system was operational, but Motorola's dysfunction and impossible sales goals leading to disillusionment meant that Dan Colussy & team was able to pick it up for $25 million (development price: $5 billion)
I think the point was that those stocks are causing the S&P to be overweight towards those firms that are highly invested in AI. It's like comparing personal wealth when Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are included in the list - the average ends up far above the median.
> The 10 biggest companies in the S&P 500 make up almost 40% of the index, and if Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX are added later this year, the concentration could approach 50%, see chart below. The bottom line is that the S&P 500 basically doesn’t offer much diversification anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1IceHjADbQ
Which you could use to get a custom pair of jeans made just for you. This failed partly because the target market turned out to be middle-aged adults (that buy fewer pairs), and not 18-25 year olds like they were hoping. Partly over privacy concerns. Partly the ability of the factory to make jeans to that tight of a tolerance. And partly because it was promoted like it was a novelty ("Consumers love it!"). Mentioned here previously:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2444319
But with this software - the tolerances are looser, so the clothing becomes more manufacturable. And the measurements can be anonymous - you don't feel like you're stepping into a TSA scanner for everyone to see.
I hope they are able to make relationships with multiple clothing brands so shopping from home will become less hit-or-miss. The benefit to the brands is going to be fewer returns for size issues.
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