Re: Normal
Ed Milliwatt, I like it. Real nerds may also know him as Ed 0dBm
1097 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Sep 2006
I know that English is a wonderfully flexible language and that meanings change over time, but I am sorry that this particular word has changed so much in only 64 years. The article could have said "noticed" and most would understand.
Example of one version of the original definition:- "Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed – to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience."
My coat? The one with "grumpy old man" on the back.... ;-)
"There is a good chance that was from PC Pro magazine... And I helped put that together, and I wrote the accompanying 2 part feature."
There is more than a good chance Liam, and I am still a subscriber, mainly for the real world stories at the back. Anyway thanks, it has been my main OS at home since those days.
I wonder where they got that idea?
Judith : [on Stan's desire to be a mother] Here! I've got an idea: Suppose you agree that he can't actually have babies, not having a womb - which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans' - but that he can have the *right* to have babies.
Francis : Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother... sister, sorry.
Reg : What's the *point*?
Francis : What?
Reg : What's the point of fighting for his right to have babies, when he can't have babies?
Francis : It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.
Reg : It's symbolic of his struggle against reality.
(Life of Brian, 1979)
Well the alternative (when overloaded or blocked) was to let it flow down the street so I think those victorian engineers knew what they were doing. We may not like it today, but it is working as designed. As in Russia maybe we could have spent a little more time upgrading in recent decades.....
"The difference between a basic shampoo and dish soap is the coloring and scent for the most part."
I keep saying "it's just soap" when referring to many cleaning products and am then corrected every time due to the huge difference in price. Marketing:- you won this one.
Yes I have worked in a soap factory, very slippery underfoot.
We used to have a "purple plunger of doom", awarded to the last person to fsck it up (3ft handle, plunger on the end). No one wants to work next to that for long.
We also used to have a huge clock, about 2ft diameter, awarded to the last one who was late for work. These things are jokey ways to keep people focussed and at least aware of consequences so I hope it works for him.
Who says computers can't be fun.
Some decades ago (college course) we were introduced to various project/programming/data analysis methodologies e.g top down, bottom up, JSP (Jackson Structured Programming) etc etc. Our lecturer was real old school so he also told us about the one method we really needed to learn and would always find a use for:- JFDI. Still use it today.
Such a good line.
The answer of course is that the cost/ease of retrieval is directly proportional to the importance of the data.
Unless you want stuff to remain a secret, then it will become public knowledge a few seconds after typing/copying/saving etc.
Around here (within sight of Emley), modellers normally only fly with line of sight on relatively clear days. Hang gliders similar, some launch from the same hill as Holme Moss mast or other hills around but don't normally go cross country. The nearby airfield (Crossland Moor, also known as Huddersfield International Airport) handles larger light aircraft but they look at the maps as pointed out above. Balloons pass by occasionally, but again on calm clear days. None of the above should be flying at night, and we are pretty much smack on the approach to MAN and sometimes LBA so there are various other limits. A large, well known, static mast is the least of your worries.
By definition half the world is below average on lots of measures, including resistance to bullshit marketing (I work with some). But they still have money to spend and are a valuable part of society. The rest of us (ahem) may make different choices, but we are in the minority and we probably spend less on consumer goods anyway.
It got a bit complicated in the 90s. A friend worked for a local council (computing dept), at one point they were running 3 very separate systems to do the same thing:- Old rates + business rates (tax on property), council tax (which replaced rates and was applied individually to every adult), new rates system when council tax was dumped. They all had to run in parallel for many years due to non-payers and those in arrears. Anyway it kept him busy.
Agree, essential skill. At the apprentice training centre one of the firtst things you made was your own toolbox. You then got to padlock it to keep your tools safe. Next skill was picking locks so you could nick tools from other apprentices, or, in the case of one imaginative oik, open the box, fill it with hydraulic oil, refit lock leaving no trace.
Collaboration is very important. 20 years ago (small business) we started using a feature in excel where a spreadsheet could be shared. It worked ok but was always flaky and when it crashed we had to shut down the app on all machines and restart. Sometimes that didn't work so we had to round trip the shared file through openoffice (which removed the crud). We could live with this as it only happened every few weeks but the file was used constantly by several people in different parts of the building. Then we discovered google sheets and have used that since without problem. Businesses generally don't care what the app is called or who owns it, we just want it to work! Libreoffice has been working on this feature I believe but I don't think it is there yet. Big business will have a "proper" solution perhaps, involving databases and stuff, when many just need something simple to share.
"spilling trade secrets"
Good point, I assume that most manufacturers use existing designs to make the next one, so releasing ALL the details of any product even if obsolete would be a leap too far for many, especially where software is involved. I think they should, but I like tinkering with stuff. Perhaps after some years of going EOL but defining that is going to be a challenge.
Floppy! Ha, paper tape with G-codes anyone?
We have 2 machines with floppys, 1 with USB so yes they have a long life. They do get more difficult to maintain as they get older. One machine had a hard disc fail (IDE) and we were quoted over £500 for a replacement. I found a few in an old cupboard (one of which which we used) and the engineer then told me to hang on to them as they were getting like unicorn droppings (very rare and hard to find).
"..controllers for $100k CNC machines"
Yup, we just got a new machine for that sort of money (last month). Briefly during boot up, before the custom screen appears there is a windows splash screen. You can connect these things to the network (and are recommended to do so by the manufacturers), many do, we don't.
On a new machine here (win11), with all new applications installed, as soon as I opened an old file I noticed an old printer driver was installed. This machine had gone to recycling long ago, but I assume because the old file had a record of which printer was last used, the OS decided to install the driver (yes it was an HP). I can't see a good reason for this unless you actually try to print it. I have removed it, but it keeps re-appearing so now it will live on, forever reminding us how far we have come in printer driver management, oh hang on....
"How about putting renewable power generation near the demand?"
It is happening with a lot of UK industry, mainly solar of course. Most UK water companies have the space to do it (and they are) and of course have a constant demand.
In years gone by a lot of water was pumped overnight (to fill service reservoirs) as the 'leccy was cheaper and the MD (maximum demand) limit higher. Today more can be done during the day when the sun shines - shifting water around uses a lot of energy.
Icon is 95% water.
Just in case anyone has no idea how that much money could be spent on paper records, here is one answer:-
A large city centre hospital near me has no space left on site so they have a separate secure facility a few miles away, sort of an industrial estate type building. A fleet of vans, and a team of people, go back and forth 24/7 to send/retrieve patient records. How anyone thought this was cost effective/efficient/timely as the hospital expanded over the decades is hard to fathom, but here we are and hopefully their digitization process is a little more advanced than some.