Randomness XVII: The Madness of the Quorum

[PaganMegan]

16 minutes ago, TGP said:

Dogs are dumb too. 
But you’ll never catch them pretending to be otherwise. People on the other hand...?

 

Reason #12 dogs are better than people. 

I dunno, I think Sammie plays dumber than he is.

 

It lets him be lazier!

 

Grump has LUNGS! He blew out almost sixty candles with a single breath!

[kristof65]

9 hours ago, Dilvish the Deliverer said:

The MX-9102 Computer Processor Drawer of the AN/WLR-8 Countermeasures Receiving Set would occasionally throw faults due to vibration unseating the cards over time.  The tech manual took  the whole long troubleshooting method to determine which card was the culprit and had you reseat/replace the card.  Actual practice in the fleet was to rack out the drawer, open the top and tap all of the cards with a rubber mallet (as the cards were really tight to seat by hand).  30 second fix vs 1-3 hour fix.

 

9 hours ago, Chaoswolf said:

Just like @Dilvish the Deliverer, I may have used that same repair method from time to time; it's hard to argue with it if it works.

The secret is to know exactly how much force is required to show the machine spirits that you are tired of their shenanigans without overdoing it and causing damage.

The FRT-39's and 40s I worked on were huge tube based transmitters with a bunch of drawers.  A lot of time things could be "fixed" by pulling a drawer out and gently slamming it back into place - the trick was knowing which drawer to pull out and close with how much force. 

Of course, the RMs would observe the ETs doing this, and try it themselves, which of course would cause the ETs to get mad at them, because it was generally the wrong drawer and too much force. 

 

 

3 hours ago, OneBoot said:

 

Because really, it's an absolutely incredible piece of technological wonder that I wish more of the younger folks (oh gosh the "kids these days" has begun) appreciated. Because I can see how far this thing is from the "OS on floppy disk" days, it's kind of unreal. 

 

 

 This. So much this. 

My kids have no real appreciation for how far tech has come.  Of course, this is partially my fault - I've had a PDA/Pocket PC/Smartphone and a well networked house since before my son was born. There haven't been any real visible improvements for them to see.  

[ShadowRaven]

yeah. Not like some of us whose first exposure to computers included monochrome monitors, and actually floppy disks, or even reel to reel tapes. Kids these days haven't really seen the leaps and bounds technology took to get to where it is now. 

[Inarah]

2 minutes ago, ShadowRaven said:

yeah. Not like some of us whose first exposure to computers included monochrome monitors, and actually floppy disks, or even reel to reel tapes. Kids these days haven't really seen the leaps and bounds technology took to get to where it is now. 

 

In high school the computer "hard drives"  were the size of a birthday cake and sat in a box the size of a mini fridge. My first personal computer had an external hard drive with a whopping 10mb storage.  I don't think you could turn on a cell phone with that today. 

 

[Rob Dean]

11 minutes ago, ShadowRaven said:

yeah. Not like some of us whose first exposure to computers included monochrome monitors, and actually floppy disks, or even reel to reel tapes. Kids these days haven't really seen the leaps and bounds technology took to get to where it is now. 

 

Punch card decks...but only by a narrow margin; they were obsolescent when I used them. 

[Werkrobotwerk]

13 minutes ago, ShadowRaven said:

yeah. Not like some of us whose first exposure to computers included monochrome monitors, and actually floppy disks, or even reel to reel tapes. Kids these days haven't really seen the leaps and bounds technology took to get to where it is now. 

and being old enough to remember when dumb terminals were normal and exactly the problems that going back to them would cause...

[kristof65]

Sneaking into my wife's glass shop again tonight to work on her birthday present.

 

And here is a view of her work progress most of her clients never get to see:

 

[Corsair]

I will only say my Chevelle was high tech with a factory AM/FM, under dash 8track from JC Penney and a Midland 23 channel CB!

[TheAuldGrump]

11 hours ago, Inarah said:

 

I can answer all 4 questions. That just means I'm old.  I remember Watergate. My husband remembers the moon landing. 

 

If you did your homework on a typewriter while listening to cassette tapes, you are probably GenX. 

 

If you did homework with a computer keyboard while listening to CDs, you are probably Gen Y/Millennial.

 

 

Left out one of the biggies - where were you when Kennedy was shot?

 

And 'Do you remember Ted Kennedy at Chappaquiddick?' I was there, at the time, on Martha's Vineyard. We saw the bridge the next day..

 

The Auld Grump lose.

[Green Eyed Monster]

11 minutes ago, TheAuldGrump said:

Left out one of the biggies - where were you when Kennedy was shot?

 

And 'Do you remember Ted Kennedy at Chappaquiddick?' I was there, at the time, on Martha's Vineyard. We saw the bridge the next day..

 

The Auld Grump lose.

In class in 8th grade when one of the other teachers came in and made the announcement.  Classes were pretty much done for the rest of the day at that point.  Assembly for the whole school and a prayer vigil as it was a Christian School.

GEM

[sumbloke]

On 9/12/2020 at 1:05 PM, NebulousMissy said:

 

I wish my university trained me on Zoom. I mean, sure, I can make it work on the chromebook now but that's because I'm an early millennial, I'm of the generation that clicks all the buttons and pulls all the levers to learn technology because I had no other option ever. All of my students are terrified of breaking something without training that the school is not providing. I had to talk two guys through 'how to learn by pushing random buttons' today during my office hours.

https://xkcd.com/627/

 

Edit: Looks like OneBoot beat me to this one.

Edited September 14, 2020 by sumbloke

[sumbloke]

On 9/13/2020 at 4:55 AM, Kangaroorex said:

Depends on the standardized test.  Some tests penalize you for guessing (like the SAT back when i took it) but others, Like the EIT, offer no penalty for a wrong answer over a blank so why not?

 

Of course the first case leads to some interesting cases where you can get half credit for turning in a sheet with just your name...  

And a surprising number of cases where people failed to get even that... 

[Inarah]

58 minutes ago, TheAuldGrump said:

Left out one of the biggies - where were you when Kennedy was shot?

 

And 'Do you remember Ted Kennedy at Chappaquiddick?'

 

I was but a gleam in my mother's eye when JFK was shot.  However Ted Kennedy would expedite my mother's passport a year later so we could join my dad overseas. 

[sumbloke]

On 9/13/2020 at 10:02 AM, Cranky Dog said:

If it doesn't have blue or green frosting, then it's not a real birthday cake. It's only cake.

I'm not sure I've ever had blue or green frosting on one of my birthday cakes. And only one time I can think of with green fondant.

Edited September 14, 2020 by sumbloke

[NebulousMissy]

It's also a birthday cake if it has dinosaur sprinkles.