Posts by jake

Re: Rabbit nozzles

They dispense water. It's essentially a check valve that replaces a bottle's cap. Functionally, it's a ball held captive in a peened-over tube. Bunny licks the ball, out comes water. Requires little maintenance other than refilling the bottle once or twice per day.

They make a varietal that plugs into your barn's pressure water supply, but I don't like those. Too much to go wrong.

It's no trick, but I have so far managed not to install Chrome at all.

Fuck alphagoo, the horse they rode in on, the saddle they sat on, etc. etc.

Re: Greybeard 2

"Existence tends to beat most of them."

Longevity tends to beat the rest.

Compilers aren't perfect, and never will be ... although see "longevity", above.

Re: Looking forward to that "more in-depth review"!

"I went from OS/2 to Win2k, that being the first version of Windows that was half decent."

Win2K was peak Microsoft. It's all been downhill from there.

Re: Compilers?

I've been using gcc with OS/2 for decades. Works fine.

Note: That's assuming you know something about programming.

For hardware compatibility, try:

https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/arcaos/technical-specifications/

Their phone support is excellent once you have a copy.

Over the years I've tried to convince them to make it available for free to home users, but it would seem that IBM, in their infinite glory, wants nothing to do with that scene.

Yes, that's 64GB.

Re: Expose

"most editions of the bible aren’t free"

"Most editions" is not equivalent to "most copies". Not by a long shot.

The Gideons supposedly distribute more than two copies per second, all day, every day. (They claim 70 million copies per year).

Re: Expose

The Books of Gideon are so free, sometimes you'll find several copies behind the sofa you're hiding from the Mormons behind.

Re: Expose

Only one M in that, so I gotta ask, what were (or are) "ormons"?

Re: Huh

I suspect it's not so much software as the logic involved in the current flow across a Wheatstone bridge.

Which isn't exactly unknown to most of the commentardariat here, I'd wager ... O-level physics, from what I remember.

Re: Do you want snakes in your mailbox?

"Do you want snakes in your mailbox?"

Sure! If they aren't useful (Sonoma weather-proof rodent eaters), they will at least be tasty.

Re: POOP poop a doo

Nonetheless, there are better ways of dealing with massive quantities of human poop than dumping it into rivers untreated. Or treated, for that matter.

Re: Carbon 14

"Whether or not this is specifically about low background steel is unknown"

It's not, it's about bulk scrap steel.

"(because it's illegal salvage, nobody is keeping track of where it ends up)".

It's winding up at places that use a lot of steel, mostly China, South Korea and Japan.

"but I've seen calculations that economically it wouldn't have made sense to salvage these wrecks at the time for just "normal" scrap steel prices."

Not here in the West, no. But once you can ignore little things like taxes, insurance, shareholders, minimum wage, minimum age, working hours, unions, government safety checks, pollution and the like (and the office buildings full of staff to handle the paperwork for the above) it becomes surprisingly lucrative.

Re: Be fair:

The new PBS DIY show: This Old Pile ... and the daughter show, Ask This Old Pile.

Re: Carbon 14

"You still need a measurement of background to subtract from the counts."

Of course. Nowhere did I suggest that calibration was not needed. Nor would I.

Re: Carbon 14

"taking steel and other metals from older shipwrecks for use in building certain instrumentation"

This used to be true. Kinda. Sorta. Ish.

They did make "isolation rooms" out of scrap pieces of steel armor plate salvaged from pre-Bomb warships, yes. This was to minimize background radiation when measuring exposure of various folks for various reasons. But that was then, this is now. Today, they just use normal metals & correct for instrumentation error. Computers are kind of handy when it comes to that sort of thing.

One other bit of marine salvage that I am aware of ... SLAC, Sandia and Lawrence Livermore all have lead shielding that was salvaged from centuries old ship's ballast. Most of the stories included pirates of the Caribbean; some included lurid tales of how the ship was sunk. Allegedly this was because of the old lead's lack of man-made radiation, which would skew the data. Again, modern computers make this kind of thing pointless ... One of my older mentors wrecked the romantic stories by telling us that the real reason they used it was because it was the cheapest lead they could get their hands on at the time.

Re: Please stop ffs....

Oh, goodie. Another boorish xenophobe. Is it just me, or is ElReg attracting these kiddies all of a sudden?

The plural of boar can indeed be boars, at least according to my big dic. (OED, 2nd dead tree edition.)

As a Yank, I can assure you that nobody uses "aircrafts" or "deers" over here. Perhaps your issue is a trifle more local?

As for your hacking little baby pigs up with knives, WOW! What a man! Not that it has ever happened ... no adult would allow you to do such a thing. The release of stress hormones from the critter would make the meat virtually inedible, which would be both a shame and a waste.

Re: Typo/fact checking

"I think you mean English. Our language, our rules! Merriam-Webster is not an English language dictionary!"

The book I was discussing was both translated and published in The Strand, London, approximately one year before Noah Webster was born, so I rather suspect that the British had more to say about it than any prototype American outlaw lexicographer.

Re: Hold the f'ing panic!

Mis-translation, Shirley.

The boar was clearly taking the laptop, but not necessarily taken to using it.

Re: Typo/fact checking

"so they call it "wolf-ram"."

No, you ignorant sophomoric xenophobe, we do not. It has always been Tungsten on this side of the pond. However, the Brits used Wolfram for a period of time through at least the mid-1700s.

c.f. the 1757 English translation of Henckel’s Pyritologia, "Though this tin ore be not easily separable from wolfram, a kind of mock-tin, or an irony tin mineral." ... Chapter IX, page 132.

Personally, I think it SHOULD be called Wolfram, because that's what the guys who first managed to isolate it called it.

Re: This is actually a devious plan .....

"Elsewhere in Germany wild board is regularly on the menu"

I had some plank in Berlin once. Sauteed in butter. Tasted like a really, really bad California Chardonnay.

Re: Care?

BBT has its place, I guess. And I have seen an actual funny bit once or twice (one of the guys next door watches it religiously).

But don't ask me to sit through a complete episode. Not my cuppa. TV is a vast wasteland, and I have better things to do.

Re: Care?

Didn't you read the man? It's a LARGE number!

WOW!

Re: Care?

Re-read what I wrote. The entire sentence reads "Man hasn't been making an appreciable impact on much of anything for hundreds of thousands of years yet.", which somewhat changes the meaning of the bit you carefully edited to support your thesis. Learning well from your "climate science" masters, I see.

Short-term effects do not an Epoch make.

Re: This is actually a devious plan .....

You must have had a bad experience. Poor thing.

Re: Hold the f'ing panic!

It's really, really tasty when done right. Here's a recipe;

Brine 8 to 10 lb (3.5 to 4.5 kilo) whole pork shoulder in fridge overnight (can go bigger or smaller, nothing changes but the cooking time). Dry off, and then place in fridge, uncovered, for about 12 hours. Place in 220F (105C) smoker with well soaked apple wood chips and a pan of water underneath to catch the drippings and provide humidity. Cook approximately 12 to 14 hours, until thermometer reads 195F (90C). Keep light smoke (NO BURNING!) going for at least the first 3 or 5 hours, or to taste. You can take the shoulder out of the smoker after you're done with the smoke and wrap it well in foil (two layers), finishing the cooking process on a rack in a roasting pan in a very low (220F, 105C) preheated oven. I prefer to leave it in the smoker for the entire cooking time. When up to temperature, remove and allow to rest, covered lightly with foil, for around an hour. (If finishing in the oven, simply turn off the oven and crack open the door for the last hour, leaving it in the foil with the juices). Serve however you like.

Notes:

0) I use Cambro clear polycarbonate containers for brining (cambro.com), but large ziplock storage bags work well. If using ziplocks, place in a container in the fridge to catch leaks!

1) My brine is just sea salt and water usually ("tastes like the sea"), but you can add bay leaves, peppercorns, allspice berries, a couple habaneros cut in half, onions, garlic, or whatever else floats your boat. Don't use that narsty "iodized table salt" unless you like metallic tasting pork.

2a) This sounds like a long cooking time, and that temperature sounds well over-done ... but you need that to properly break down the connective tissue. Low and slow is a tried and true cooking technique for this kind of meat, it always turns out nice and juicy.

2b)Some people prefer to cook to 185F, some take it to 205F, I've found the 195F compromise works well.

3) When the internal temperature hits about 150F it'll probably stop increasing for a couple hours. Don't panic! This is normal. I won't go into why here (look up "smoker stall" if you care), but suffice to say it'll start to rise again eventually. The stall might not happen at all, and it might take 5 hours to come out of it, but relax. It's doing what it's supposed to be doing. Remember, this kind of cooking is always better the next day, so plan accordingly.

4) It is safe to use the drippings for a sauce. Discard the solids, and skim off most of the fat first, though, or it'll be greasy. Save the fat for roasting potatoes.

5) This method works for chicken and turkey, too ... pull from smoker at recommended roasting temperature.

6) This kind of cooking is well suited to an electric smoker. Buy one that allows you to use any wood chips you like, avoid the ones that force you to purchase pellets or pucks from specific distributors. A built-in digital display for cooking temperature and a timer are useful, but hardly necessary. Also, I have never found bluetooth connectivity to be a help, but a separate quality two to four channel, non-WiFi remote thermometer is quite handy. Something like this is a good, solid unit that should last the home cook a couple decades. You're on your own for the thermometer.

Re: you say tomato

"America doesn't do IUPAC."

I guess we should throw the IUPAC Secretariat out of North Carolina, then.

Re: Care?

"The idea of an Anthropocene is more than plastics deposition. It reflects man as a major factor in the Earth history"

Personally, I'm of the opinion that it reflects man's need to receive research money from the Government.

A geologic epoch runs from hundreds of thousands of years to tens of millions. Man hasn't been making an appreciable impact on much of anything for hundreds of thousands of years yet. Except perhaps the meaning of the word "hubris".

Re: Hold the f'ing panic!

"so apparently Americans can eat Bavarian wild boars"

Why pay the import costs, though?

We have plenty of our own wild boar on this side of the pond ... and they are considered an invasive species, so it's pretty much open season on the varmints.

Re: How the Hell did he manage that???

Nowhere did TFA say anything about TC500s

Regardless, the story was that the rag got into the mechanism between the encoder and the print head, jamming it, causing the encoders to operate outside their design tolerances, thus trashing them.

The real gripe should be that TOA seemingly forgot to plug the overload circuitry back in ...

Re: Stories from Grandad

"(but still.. the tie thing.... crazy!!)"

Indeed. There's a reason that ties were fair game for anyone with a pair of scissors at most early (mid '70s) Silly Con Valley companies ... hand-built one-off prototypes often had voracious cooling fans. The theory was that if we starved 'em of ties they'd be too weak to do much other damage. Not even IBM Field Circus folks were safe from the shears ... HP, somewhat wisely, decided ties were pretty useless fairly early on, as did DEC's Palo Alto contingent. Most of the other big names followed. Some of the Military Brass working out of Ford Aerospace, Varian & etc. had special dispensation to do without neck-ware "so they'd fit in with the locals" ... We had high hopes that it'd become a world-wide movement and we'd be done with the useless things for good.

_{The only real use for a tie is as a handle when trying to shake sense into the wearer.}

Re: Only self-damage

"Be careful! Blood doesn't dry the same colo(u)r as rubylith, and the customer will bitch about it!"

And besides, dried blood cracks easily & lets light through. Doesn't mix well with hot wax, either.

_{Strangely for a computer nerd, I actually enjoy old-fashioned paste-up ...}

Re: Another way?

"If wanted a 100y+ "web presence" I would think more along the lines of a perpetual trust"

My daughter will take over the family WWW site/Portal and its server when I'm gone ... and her daughter is already helping us maintain/update it. That should easily make it 100 years or so. It's not exactly rocket surgery.

Re: Do you remember?

"Why would anyone actually want one of those addresses?"

As an alumnus, I maintain a couple of "free"[0] email addresses from a couple of Unis. Both are around 45 years old, and both are included in research papers that I helped author way back when. I get a couple dozen legit[1] emails per year between them, mostly from kids currently studying in that field ... but occasionally I get a note from someone that I knew way back when who managed to track me down through an old research paper. Both examples are sensible reasons to maintain them, IMO.

No, I don't manually check those mailboxes daily ... I have a cron job that checks 'em twice per week.

[0] In quotes, because those schools received a LOT of money from me ... Not just in tuition, but in research grants & etc.

[1] No spam. I installed the filters decades ago, and trained the generations of admins since then.

Re: Nearly half the web?

"What "powers" the web is electricity!"

Nah. What powers the Web is rumo(u)r, lies, conspiracy, sensationalism and gossip, with sides of pR0n and cute cats.

Re: Another way?

Norsemen? Sounds like a re-write of Logan's Run to me ...

Re: Tell me that Linux is never going to be a mainsteam option without telling me....etc.

How to tell me you're not a car guy without telling me you're not a car guy.

"If Ubuntu is so good,"

It really isn't. It has many of the same issues as the commercial offerings from Redmond and Cupertino, and for the same reasons.

"why is everyone trying to fix it by spinning it off to things like this?"

First of all, Ubuntu is itself a spin-off, from Debian. The 2nd gen spin-offs are not trying to fix it. They are trying to capitalize on it. Just like Canonical.

Re: Pretty impressive

THAT'S NOT FUNNY, MAN!

_{Seriously, don't give Marketing any ideas.}