* Posts by My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

598 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Mar 2018

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FCC ups broadband benchmark speeds, says rural areas still underserved

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Teaser text error

I've said it before: I pay for just better than that (25/5). It's the max the legacy phone company copper wires can do, but that's here in some relatively affluent suburbs, not long-distance rural.

My only non-wireless option for more bandwidth is the "cable" company whose uptime is horrendous. You'd think that for what my neighbors pay them (a lot) that the phone company could easily suck in all that dosh with a fiber rollout. But no... phone company want to push me to wireless home "broadband" without any mention of bandwidth (max speed and/or stability), uptime (connection stability), or cost -- just "no added cost", but there's no obvious benefit.

These new targets might still be satisfied in our neighborhood, but only for customers of brand "X" when it's actually working (and they're all paying out the nose).

The lack of choice is the problem. Open the market -- more choices would make all providers offer more performance for lower cost.

Font security 'still a Helvetica of a problem' says Australian graphics outfit Canva

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Trollface

Re: KISS

The most KISS thing is to ditch digital publishing entirely. My typewriter has ONE built-in font -- with zero upgrade potential -- and the only way to "hack" it would be to change the color of the ink ribbon or maybe relabel the keys. (Not sure if the keycaps can be rearranged, but I'm not going to risk destroying it trying to find out!)

Trump supporters forge AI deepfakes to woo Black voters

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Except

"In the Age of AI people will have to grow up. Most won't like growing up and it won't happen until reality smacks them in the face enough times."

In the last "few" years (ranging from 3 to 10), many folks have instead embraced the lies that make them comfortable, honestly believing them to be truth, calling truth "lies" and surrounding themselves with folks who believe the same to further insulate them from reality. And it happens at *both* extremes of any/every spectrum/facet of society.

IMHO, AI is going to reinforce this and further insulate people from reality rather than confront them with it. Society isn't "growing up" -- it's well past maturity and descending into child-like dementia (the kind where rational suppression fades and the old racist/sexist ideas come out at random).

AT&T's apology for Thursday's outage should stretch to a cup of coffee

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: The phone company DOES care (spoiler alert)

At least, they sure did in The President's Analyst (1967 American satirical black comedy film -- description is from Wikipedia, where the link goes).

A small Alaska town wants a big bronze Riker

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Go

Make it so!

Can we also get a statue of Sir Patrick in a French vineyard? Or a crowdfunded "Picard" limited-edition vintage with ST-inspired label graphics (better yet, in a Klein bottle)?

Microsoft Publisher books its retirement party for 2026

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Only rarely did I have a chance to use Microsoft Publisher. While an editor for the high school newspaper [1], I learned Adobe PageMaker. After that, I volunteered in college with the student government, whose Communications dept. used Quark Xpress [2].

[1] Rest in peace. My tenure (graduated 1998) was near the end of its life as an actual newspaper printed on an offset press from tabloid-size rolls by the local (county) newspaper in our town. It was replaced by a photocopied newsletter with horrible design -- no polish whatsoever. By now it's all digital media with zero semblance of real journalism.

[2] I was their first e-mail newsletter wrangler, using Eudora and a manually curated list -- no automation; the university website login didn't work and social media wasn't yet a thing. I wouldn't have minded learning Quark, but I never got a chance -- the single station (Power Mac) was always occupied.

Cory Doctorow has a plan to wipe away the enshittification of tech

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Not sure his plans to fix it are realistic

"The problem is that ...people would still go to McDonalds. Why?" Because they're addicted to it, exactly the way Big Biz has chemically engineered it.

And the same addiction exists in social media, if not worse since there is no biological "fullness" to urge you to stop consuming (for the moment).

"How do we fix that?" Education will never fix addiction, and the users will not seek their own path out -- "I can quit whenever I want" being one of the biggest lies ever. Trying to regulate these industries and put limits on the measures their greed will utilize seems like the only option.

Boeing goes boing: 757 loses a wheel while taxiing down the runway

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: click bait

Full circle between reality and art...

Michael Crichton's "Airframe", set at a fictional aircraft assembler in southern Cali (pre-Boeing McD?) has discussions between engineers that make clear maintenance is not their problem, especially with regards to certain elements, in this case an engine. In a "breaking news" incident unrelated to the main plot, an engine fan disk bursts, spewing shrapnel through its housing and into the wing and lower fuselage. The "powerplant" engineer gets irate, saying he told that airline not to buy those "piece of s***" engines (from another fictional company) because they had -- you guessed it -- early cracks, but the airframe maker has to install whatever engines the customer wants. As the news names the airframe company, he doubles down screaming THEIR airframe saved everyone from that bad engine, and the smoke was not due to fire (fuel) but hydraulic fluid spewing on to a hot, exposed engine from hydraulic lines in the wing being cut by the shrapnel.

As someone else mentioned bad parts down below: the main story is a combination of a counterfeit (and unreliable -- broken before usual lifetime) part and procedures not being followed (nepotism) combined with lack of proper training. Mix in some airline coverups, vengeful media, and a young VP out to find the truth even if it kills her and it's my favorite Crichton book that I keep coming back to, mainly because it's so grounded in reality, referencing both real and fictional-copies-of-real airline incidents and leveraging heavy on the technology that millions use every day for travel. You'll never look at wing flaps and slats the same way again. (And yes, it's mentioned how the FAA can't keep the airframe certifications lest the competition walk in and take a peek at proprietary design.)

Intuit ordered to use the word 'free' less freely in its ads

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Not just Intuit / Turbo Tax

"Cash App Taxes". From their help pages: "Cash App Taxes is always free to prepare and file federal and single-state income tax returns, regardless of adjusted gross income." They do admit there are limitations, "like if you lived and worked in different states, or had foreign income over $600" (and other situations) -- they still won't charge, because they can't handle those at all.

It used to be "Credit Karma Tax", part of the credit-watch firm Credit Karma, but when their credit-bureau owner (Transunion or Experian) sold Karma off to Intuit, they naturally had to spin the Tax portion off to someone else.

The downsides are 1) you have to sign up for Cash App, and 2) Cash App (parent/subsidiaries/etc.) will have your tax info, and may actually do things with it, so read the Ts&Cs.

Caveats: I never use Cash App for anything else, IANAL, and I'm not paid to advertise.

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Mushroom

Not just Intuit / Turbo Tax

TaxAct (aka TaxACT), H&R Block, and (at least a few) other web-based tax filing systems do the same thing: start for free, but the moment you ask for Form XY, or answer "yes" to a question leading to that form, you've been baited and here's the switch.

I've been trying to use truly-free alternatives for a while, but I won't shamelessly plug them this year (unless someone asks). My returns -- joint with the missus -- aren't "simple" but are pretty consistent year-to-year, so navigating the process stays pretty much the same. Even if I receive an unexpected form in the mail, the internal search lets me figure it out rather easily, and I always look over the entire stack (as a PDF) before filing.

(One year I put all the same info into TaxAct, looked at the free pre-filing "summary" page, and found the math was different -- not enough details to figure out exactly what step -- and my preferred vendor was in my favor. If the IRS had complained, I would have gladly paid the < $20 difference.)

Icon ---> Blow up the tax industry, reform the whole system and bring it all in-house to the IRS where it belongs. (And contract my employer for the necessary IT work! Doesn't help my job specifically, but it's good for the company.)

Musk lashes out at Biden administration over rural broadband

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

"...cars that allow people to run their high-beams during the day..."

True of just about every car I've driven, including owned, leased, or rented, and I've been driving since 1995. I don't use the high-beams often (quite rarely, actually), but I could if I wanted, because in the past cars had less smarts and fewer controls on user behavior. I remember back when there wasn't even a safety check that the driver's belt was buckled. If anything, a high-tech company like Tesla would be the kind of opportunity to introduce such a feature to override the user input and keep the high-beams off for daytime safety's sake. (Some cars already have auto high-beams for nighttime, making me think it's tied into the situational awareness sensors; a daytime override wouldn't be a big addition.)

And to your other point: Comcast? Really? Only if the gov't can get them to stop the predatory price hikes that make "customers" (victims) call and change plans every year (or worse, 6 months). And they need to improve their reliability also, based on the reports of my neighbors. In the capitalist tradition, I'll stick with any company -- even ignoring politics -- that gives me what I actually pay for as long as I'm getting a fair deal, and everyone I know says Comcast ain't it.

Sierra Space bursts full-scale inflatable space habitat module

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Pint

Safety margins

I expect my COTS items to have 0% -- or even negative -- margin, meaning performance peaks, or the item fails, at or below rated limits.

Having 50% to 100% margin on any limit (that's additive, so 1.5X to 2X) is somewhat standard.

Taking it to 4X (300% margin) is partly a "Star Trek" joke and mostly pure awesomeness.

But 77 compared to 15.2 = 5X plus 1?! Mind blown as completely as that bubble. They deserve these -->

Musk floats idea of boat mod for Cybertruck

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Pint

Have this for the 70 Maxims reference -->

CLIs are simply wizard at character building. Let’s not keep them to ourselves

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Options and settings

* Some require you to confirm/save/apply, and some don't (immediate action).

I prefer the former -- it lets you check for something stupid before committing.

Having options to NOT apply, either temporarily (cancel instead of confirm but keep showing the intended changes) and/or revert to previous settings are sometimes necessary and always appreciated.

Cloud engineer wreaks havoc on bank network after getting fired

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Not an Engineer

It's (mostly) a matter of state licensing. Many can call themselves engineers* based on the job/role, but you can't use the suffix "professional engineer" (PE) without having a valid state license, and many projects -- notably civil engineering, construction, and the like -- require a PE to sign the drawings, change orders, et cetera.

* I do, to be blunt. I once took the Engineer in Training (EIT) entrance exam in my birth state -- where I also got my highest degree -- which enabled me for official apprenticeship, but only got a career position many months later, in a different state, in a job that doesn't require PE for most of the staff. I could have "imported" my EIT for a fee (state reciprocity) and requested PE mentoring, but I'm not sure they even had an electrical PE to oversee my continuing education or sponsor me for the full detailed PE exam. Regarding organizations, I was a student member of IEEE but let it lapse shortly after starting that job. In my current position, I know the customer requires a PE to sign drawings, but we're only a subcontractor; the prime contractor has a PE who rubber-stamps them.

NASA engineers got their parachute wires crossed for OSIRIS-REx mission

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Thumb Up

Re: So easy to do...

Everything ^^^ said above, agreed, from an electrical engineer who works more with ground (wheels & tracks) and water stuff (but a certain unmentionable "d"-word -- check my nickname again -- gets lumped with "aerospace" all the time). The job is hard enough when the "wiring label definitions" are "inconsistent" (always!) without something actually being, you know, *incorrect*.

I've crossed my own wires between various documents/drawings/design artifacts, and the folks who are supposed to be checking me often don't catch the errors, which doubles my own workload. Thankfully, when I've also had to play technician and build some of my own designs, I found out many of the errors before they became (human and/or equipment) safety or performance issues.

Steve Jobs' $4.01 RadioShack check set to fetch small fortune at auction

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: 01/100 a US thing?

I agree, it's a thing.

Here's a related thing to the reply to the post asking the question (not to detract from said reply, sorry): I just recently wrote my first check in months [1] [2] for an "even dollar" amount, and per custom -- as learned from my parents -- added "and no/100" to make it clear that "no" (zero) cents are to be added to the dollars involved. Using "00/100" could easily be hand-modified to be "100/100" or more.

As the other reply alluded to, filling up the line prevents even worse manipulation.

1. I pay most everything via direct EFT (mortgage, credit payments, and utility bills) or debit when necessary. Even my weekly charitable giving (church), which was the last one to transition, uses EFT.

2. Coincidentally, it was the last check in the current "book". I may have more books in a "check box" somewhere but can't be bothered to look right now. Let's see how long it takes until I need another physical check!

That time a JPL engineer almost killed a Mars Rover before it left Earth

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Just

It was designed specifically for that one-off custom-designed rover and likely built at the same time, but still "bespoke" since test equipment from a different rover certainly wouldn't work!

USB Cart of Death: The wheeled scourge that drove Windows devs to despair

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Pint

Wish I could upvote you twice for the Citizen dot-matrix reference. Care for this ----> instead?

Those were the days of IBM DOS 2.1 and the original Broderbund Print Shop making our own greeting cards and calendars...

Fast forward: Our Citizen eventually blew a fuse, and my replacement must not have been quite right because it let out some magic blue smoke with a small "BANG!" and a spark. It had served our family well.

Datacenter architect creates bonkers designs to illustrate the craft, and quirks, of building bit barns

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

With a ring of solar panels around its equator for power all month long!

Any gov't that contributes to that massive project gets to tap the resulting power for free.

It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Consent

Obviously one gives consent by making the connection to the car. To prevent further issues, never physically connect personal communication devices with anything else ever again.

(Ad nauseum paranoid conclusion: don't use any device for communication, not even basic twisted-pair phone service -- face-to-face only, in a soundproof room cleared of bugs, with no windows to prevent drone cameras.)

BOFH: Adventures in overenthusiastic automation

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Good use

And I thought my series of Chevrolet Traverses were bad. Jack up front corner; pull off front wheel (you do have a decent X-wrench, right?); unscrew underside/wheel-well liner (requires laying on ground, so hope you have a clean, heated garage); reach in blindly; try to do everything with one arm (requires superhuman finger strength and dexterity); reverse all steps (there's the ground and dirty wheel again).

If it meant I could see what I was doing, and the fasteners were accessible, I would have gladly removed pieces from the front.

Ace holed: Hardware store empire felled by cyberattack

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Ace always playing catch-up

I worked for an Ace franchise (locally owned and operated) for various seasons and part-time schedules from the late '90s through early 2005 (before finally starting my "real" career and moving states for the job). The on-hands knowledge gained, both of hardware and dealing with retail customers, is invaluable, but provides some interesting anecdotes.

1. From the time said store became an Ace to around 2000, the catalog was PAPER in about a dozen volumes. Catalog updates would come with the twice-weekly shipments from the nearest warehouse, and I did my fair share of them, releasing the special flat-bindings (not your standard 3-rings) and swapping the stack of paper.

2. Our first on-the-floor PC (the checkouts used remote TTY terminals with green screens) held the catalog on CD-ROM. Updates were much easier, and there were more product images, but we kept the paper as a backup.

3. Finally we got internet (dial-up) and had a connection to the warehouse to check inventory and live pricing for special/bulk orders. This was done through a normal browser (IE if I recall) with a similar interface as the CD-ROM software, which was faster as long as we didn't need the stock/price info.

Shortly after I left, the owner finally had to upgrade the IT of the entire store. Checkouts were supposed to become Windows machines with all the catalog functions built-in and a broadband internet connection.

As a consumer, I can say Ace's website and app are not as useful as Home Depot's (leader) or Lowe's (follower but ahead of Ace). I think this company as a whole is behind the times, but I'm glad they're still around -- I just don't trust their online side, and this article multiplies that.

(Most of my Ace purchases are hardware -- think nuts & bolts -- which in my region is provided & priced by the Hilman Company, not stocked at Ace warehouses and not available through their site/app. Ace/Hilman's selection is much better than the big-box stores, especially for odd things.)

Artemis II Orion service and crew modules slotted together at last

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Boffin

Per person growth (with math)

330 ft^3 / 4 people = 82.5 ft^3 per person

210 ft^3 / 3 people = 70 ft^3 per person

82.5/70 ~ 118%, easily rounded to (i.e.: marketed as) "almost 20% more space per person," which I'm sure is appreciated by the future crew.

Raspberry Pi 5: Hot takes and cooler mistakes

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Thumb Up

El Reg: "We're special like that."

We know, and we love you for it. That's exactly why we -- at least some of us -- keep coming back (and some of us might also be "special"; just ask our families/coworkers).

British boffins say aircraft could fly on trash, cutting pollution debt by 80%

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Black Helicopters

Re: Betteridge's Law of Headlines

So instead of lizard people, it's actually the Sith running American politics on both sides, warring against the middle?

Oh look, here they come now. ---->

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: they've moved on

I think I prefer that situation to the rampant consumerism of "own everything while owing everything to your creditors". Under that scenario, I would net-own nothing -- possibly negative due to interest -- and the things I "own" will still "pwn" me (already do).

(Need a "thinking deeply about it" icon.)

EU threatens X with DSA penalties over spread of Israel-Hamas disinformation

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Musk universe is Twitter

That's no joke.

It seems through my adult life that those whose perceptions twists reality the most appear to control it for the rest of us. The only option is to ditch those relationships, or, often enough, let those "crazy" ones ditch us -- we get the blame either way.

Net neutrality meets opposition in US, while Europe mulls charges for Big Tech

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: " “pay almost nothing for data transport in our networks.”

"Maybe a similar idea (where the service company is disconnected from the company that owns the local cable, and is forced to be impartial) would work in America?"

Probably not.

Anecdote: I remember a coworker trying just that back in 2005-06, but when the service didn't work the two companies just pointed the finger at each other, plus there were billing issues between them. They both wanted to get paid as if they both provided the whole package but without taking responsibility for the lack of actual service.

Practice: our major providers differ in terms of technology. Until that is sorted -- probably requiring legislation at state level -- they will maintain independent systems and not work together at all. (My local duopoly gives you a choice of copper coax or copper twisted pair; neither has upgraded to fiber-to-the-premises yet, and using cellular for home internet is a joke unless 5G actually works but I haven't tested that yet, and there are supposed drawbacks to that.)

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: " “pay almost nothing for data transport in our networks.”

My apologies and I agree; I was extending the metaphor to the first story, not arguing against your point.

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: " “pay almost nothing for data transport in our networks.”

A bus company is a public service that can't boot people off for protected classes (sex/gender, age, religion, and general appearance including inoffensive clothing choices) nor because of where they shop at. ("Victoria's Secret? Not on my bus!")

We need the FCC to reclassify the ISPs as public services -- like the phone companies of yore, and like it was just a few years ago -- to gain that same protection for the users, so that their packages/parcels (data packets) don't matter, only whether they paid the fare. Similarly, what's in those packets shouldn't force someone off the express bus and onto the local bus unless their sheer volume violates their service contract.

US govt talks up $2B X-ray photobooth to check its nuke weapon sims are right

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Headmaster

Re: Demon Core

Pardon the correction (see icon), but the demon core itself WAS a sphere.

The first incident used reflector blocks -- one of which got dropped right on top -- not the hemispherical beryllium reflectors of the second incident. The screwdriver was only used as a non-standard/non-approved method by a cocky S.O.B. that paid for it with his life; the approved method used shims.

Wikipedia > Demon Core has all the facts, including validating that Feynman coined the phrase. (Could this have inspired J.K. Rowling's motto for Hogwarts, "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus" / "Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon"?)

Meet Honda's latest electric vehicle: A rideable suitcase

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: How dare Honda have fun with an idea?!

Stickers. Lots of stickers. Especially those made for car bumpers.

I would have wanted one ~20 years ago back in grad school at a major public university. Big monogram logo on one side, smiling mascot on the other. (Would also need a wagon-trailer to haul groceries -- I could have rigged an interface to the seat post.)

NASA wants to believe ... that you can help it crack UFO mysteries

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Why?!

The US politicians who claim to pray to God the most, actually don't; they pray to the idols of money, power, and corporate greed. Can't fix a planet with that attitude -- instead of being good stewards of it like God intended, it's more like rape and pillage the planet for all its resources, then burn them.

(Remember, kids, "pillage then burn". Better return on investment than vice versa.)

Watt's the worst thing you can do to a datacenter? Failing to RTFM, electrically

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Plus ca change....

Too late to change all the test kit related to CAN bus by various vendors. (CAN is technically serial, but not RS-232.)

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Plus ca change....

If I have to use cheap connectors, I prefer automotive ones like the Deutsch DT series. At least you can specify keyways to prevent connector mismatching.

I just built a box with (1) 8-position and (3) 12-positions (A, B, C). As long as I wire up the other side correctly, you can't swap them, so no worries.

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: I I be a-goin there, I be-n't start from here

A proper bench-top power supply should be able to display both volts and amps at the same time.

I just tested a hand-built assembly over the weekend. The little bench supply I have on hand can do 30V, 10A, but is set to 24V and I get to read the live amps to see actual load taking place (0.1A on one circuit, 0.24A each on a couple others).

India warns ecommerce 'basket sneaks' and 'confirm shamers' their days are numbered

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Devil

Excuses & motivations

Article: "And if those companies can stop using dark patterns in the world's most populous nation, ... excuses for letting them appear elsewhere will be harder to find."

The excuse will be simply "because we can and they [the dark patterns] make us more money."

Bombshell biography: Fearing nuclear war, Musk blocked Starlink to stymie Ukraine attack on Russia

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: "Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars"

"Hopefully governments will grow some balls and stand up to him instead of funding him."

Have you seen who was running the US federal government from January 2017 to 2021? (Not to mention influencing it, mostly via media, both before and after.)

Mozilla calls cars from 25 automakers 'data privacy nightmares on wheels'

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Unhappy

US conservative "fear" meme

A recent meme posted by a Facebook "friend" basically wants people to fear EVs (among other things) since they can be "shut off" by others which is an element of control over your behavior.

The engineer in me knew that any vehicle with enough brains to connect to a phone and/or online services -- regardless of powertrain -- is probably taking data and may be receiving over-the-air software updates; the former (data) leads to control and the latter IS control over the vehicle already purchased.

I figured just about every automaker does it and concluded that only new laws would end it, but the conservatives -- especially the kind who show a clear anti-EV bias -- wouldn't like to hear about new "regulations" on the auto (or any) industry. So I shook my head and moved on without commenting.

And then this article arrives two days later, proving my very point.

(The first meme item was "smart meters". First, smart meters are still meters, not shutoff devices -- if the electric utility wanted to shut me off, they could dispatch a worker at any time, period. Second, everyone has been complaining that the local electric grid's reliability has been poor, and these meters are part of a larger plan to be able to track the distribution system -- seems like a fine engineering solution, since this utility IS supposed to control their own system and "you can't control what you don't measure". However (thirdly), the "smarts" in the meters have now allowed for "time of day" rate changing, raising rates during peak hours when demand is highest, but that's just market economics, right? Something US conservatives should be supporting, not against. Maybe the problem is lack of choice -- no alternatives due to this forced monopoly, but influencing the utility would take *gasp* more laws/regulations. I wonder what's wrong with conservative voters that make them believe these bull$hit memes so easily without being able to think critically.)

The Pentagon has the worst IT helpdesk in the US govt

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
IT Angle

Re: Goes both ways

I tend to see retired soldiers move into private sector, especially in "sales" where they can schmooze the people they used to work with.

On the other hand, I've seen plenty of private-sector/contractor engineers (former colleagues) gravitate toward becoming DoD civilian employees, doing the same work they did before but more R&D-focused instead of platform design/development -- the contractor in question wasn't interested in spending capital for IRaD and/or the DoD wanted to keep those R&D dollars in-house.

(Icon: none of this was IT work. Technical, yes, but way more mechanical.)

Want tech cred? Learn how to email like a pro

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Hmmmm...

Let's say I get added to a chain sent to a group (> 1 receiver plus me) that has >= 3 messages (more like 5), top-posted. The first time I receive, I read bottom-up.

For any additional replies, if the *new* content is at the top, the Outlook preview shows me what I need. An "auto-scroll to bottom" would be redundant if I already read the chain's history.

I would prefer a "scroll to bottom" button over making it automatic.

(If using the Preview pane, Ctrl-End may go to the end of the message list unless I click in the Preview pane first. If I wanted extra clicks, I'd open the message as a separate window. Plus, I don't like going between mouse/trackball and keyboard too much, especially for a two-hand key combo like that. And yes, I need two hands because I need "Fn" on this laptop to enable "End" instead of F12, since I prefer having Fn locked to enable full-time F# keys, particularly F2 in Excel, instead of mostly-useless multimedia functions. I'll admit I can turn off NumLock and have navigation keys on the number pad, or use a separate keyboard, but either is actually more hassle for me than using Fn for Home and End, and the other four navigation functions -- PgUp, PgDn, insert, delete -- have their own keys outside the number pad.)

IBM sells off cloud business – yes, we mean Weather.com

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: I see Apple mostly ditched them a while ago - and predictions improved

I assume you mean lousy, because that's my experience.

Wife and I both have iFruit phones. I use the Weather Channel app, she the built-in weather, and mine always seems more accurate.

(She sometimes uses weather reports from a local TV station via their app, which are better except for ads.)

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Good.

Weather.com has been generally unusable for decades now.

All I wanted to do was print a week-long forecast for the high school marching band director for our July 1997 trip to Boston (from Minnesota).

Trying to print that graphic-heavy and ad-laden crap hung the computer and resulted in a figurative ream of literal garbage from the printer.

(Note the year -- we couldn't check a smartphone app on the road. We were packing the motorcoaches (fancy buses), so I was at the school already and using their resources. Maybe at home I would have had a fighting chance, maybe retyping the forecast as a simple Word document, text only.)

LG's $1,000 TV-in-a-briefcase is unlikely to travel much further than the garden

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: WTaF?

If I was going to tap off car power, I have headrest-mounted DVD players (built-in screens) for the kids.

Without AC power [1], if I wanted to do that -- or any significant task, maybe using an inverter -- outside the car, I'd bring along a second full-size car battery [2]. I might build a cable from the 12V power port to recharge the "spare" battery.

1. We always camp in state parks with nearby outlets, primarily for those with trailers/RVs (BIG campers), but useful for a fan, hair dryer, inflator, radio, or whatever, given an extension cord and suitable power strip (I have an 80-foot reel with 4 outlets that I keep in the garage but always bring for camping). And "whatever" could possibly include my $200 32" monitor -- or a projector borrowed from the library -- and our normal HDMI DVD player ($100). Plenty of good times right in the tent if we wished.

2. Had quite the adventure with one of our cars this spring, already damaged from a collision (their fault; ran a red light). Started with a flat tire, and the experience (hazard lights) also killed the battery. Both replaced, but about a month later there was a "final" incident that left it further damaged and barely operational. Sold it to a nearby scrapyard, but I stipulated that I wanted that battery. (They could keep the tire since I didn't know if I'd get another vehicle with the same rims.) I took that battery home and they didn't even reduce my payout; it sits on my workbench on the float charger, ready to jump our other (older) car or the riding lawnmower... or provide off-site power for a while. (I should build that recharge cable...)

Scientists strangely unable to follow recipe for holy grail room-temp superconductor

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Pint

Re: Based on what I've read of its atomic structure

@Amblyopius thanks for the follow-up! Have one on me -->

(I was pretty confident it was a Roland but couldn't remember the 808 or 707.)

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: Based on what I've read of its atomic structure

Yet another similar tale:

One early-generation "drum machine" (drum-sounding electronic box) got its signature sound, particularly the bass/kick drum, from some flawed transistors from a dodgy source, but it was the perfect sound for its time. The company started running out of said transistors and couldn't find any more -- normal pieces were unflawed, therefore useless for the sound -- so they stopped production. (I'd give a link but I forgot the make and model.)

We'd pay good money to see... oh dear, Elon Musk 'needs an MRI scan'

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Holmes

Re: Hasbeen in chronic pain for years

Painkiller addiction and acting like an asocial jerk, starving for attention? Sounds like straight out of TV's "House" (aka "House, M.D.")

Icon --> because House solving medical mysteries plus his sidekick Wilson were meant to be like Holmes (and his cocaine) & Watson.

Google Street View car careens into creek after 100mph cop chase

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Re: For readers outsie the US

Montana's experiment lasted only a year or two after the Feds started letting the states set the rules (previous max was 60 urban, 65 rural).

Michigan's cops -- and this is from cops attending my church -- don't care about the highways until you're 15 over. Surface streets, it depends on the jurisdiction and actual road in question (15 for major routes, 5 or 10 for others).

But Ohio... If you have out-of-state plates -- especially Michigan -- don't go even ONE over, no matter what the rest of traffic is doing, at least on the I-80/I-90 Ohio Turnpike (toll road). I've driven some off-highway Ohio state routes with nothing but farms around for miles, cruising a nice 5 to 10 over and no one in sight to stop me.

Wisconsin (I-94) acts similarly to Minnesotan plates: 5 over, no more, but traffic will be passing you.

My other car WAS an IAV Stryker
Headmaster

Re: For readers outsie the US

It's not always 70 MPH for interstate highways either. In metro areas it is often less (55 / 60 / 65), and in rural areas it can be more (75 is the max in Michigan, but I've heard of 80 or 85 in some states).

Your history of the "Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways" (according to Wikipedia) is spot on, though.

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