Ask Lemmy

Aphantasia, it blows someone's mind every time.

Don't know nifty I'd be qualified, but the Fediverse and self hosting

My single-timeline theory, although it's really just a sci fi idea to eliminate paradoxes from time travel stories.

Something on the subject of public transportation. Depending on the city and how much I spent in it before I was teleported (assuming the stage is in the same city), I could whip up a more or less localized talk.

What it's like to 38 without getting to first base is the first thing that comes to mind

I could think of a few subjects, but with such a short time to prepare I'd probably ramble on like a rabbit hole of connections to related stuff. It wouldn't be a great TED talk overall.

See what makes this hard is that my speech would have to explain why I am giving it barefoot with shorts.

As I am currently shitting, I will be having a discussion on the important of bringing me some pants and shit tickets as soon as possible.

Different types of climbing. Different styles, rules, goals, how they developed, how they evolve. It wouldn't be very interesting but I would have fun talking about it.

Slime molds.

ask if anyone has an ibm 5100

I could talk for hours on how skateboarding has impacted my life, but Rodney Mullen already did the perfect TED talk on that, and how do you improve on the master?

Seriously, even if you aren't into skateboarding, watch that one.

I guess two topics I could easily spend a half hour off the cuff on could be "Video conference systems design and best practices for Zoom and Teams call", or "How to survive a permadeath vegetarian run in Subnatica".

Then let the audience decide which they'd rather be bored to sleep listening to.

Probably best topic for me would probably be how to statistically model quality in manufacturing. Like what is hypothesis testing, what is a gage r&r, what is spc, how do you properly do those things, what are the footguns, how do you interpret the results, what's a spec limit vs a control limit vs action limit?

How can you manipulate the tests for your business case? To be clear on that last one I'm not saying manipulate to lie, but it depends on business. For example your control limits are typically +/- 3 standard deviations. If you run a dark business making plastic forks but to get a engineer to fly out and adjust the machine is a few thousand dollarsand no one will care if the tongs on the fork are 3 thou longer than normal. You may set your control limits at 5 times. If you make the steel beams which hold up bridges where hundreds of people die if they can't hold the forces and you're measuring width of the beams you may go down to 1 or 2 times standard deviation. Yeah you will waste engineer time which is money but it's hundred of people's lives if it fails. Those are different business cases and you shouldn't just default to the standard 3 st.dev in those cases.

"What we own to each other", a talk based entirely on me using misrembering philosophy quotes from "The good place" to justify my personal beliefs.

Definitely not what I should pick, but the first thing I came up with within 30 seconds.

Follow up talk would be "platos lair", explaining how we're all delusional because we're so upset that "vimms lair" isn't what it use to be due to Nintendo being assholes.

The microplastics and nanoplastics that shed off of polyester, acrylic, nylon, spandex, elastane clothing and bedding.

Stop wearing synthetic plastic fibres, they are inferior to natural fibres like cotton, wool, viscose, linen, hemp in almost every way. Such as for temperature regulation, or how synthetic fibres grow bacteria.

Every time you wash synthetic fibres you pollute water ways with billions or trillions of nanoplastcs. When you dry them you pollute the air and surfaces of your home with nanoplastics.

Your skin and body will be much happier and more comfortable in natural fibres.