Author Topic: Interesting "stuff" (Read 2,070,568 times)

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #725 on:** April 24, 2015, 06:38 PM »

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Today I Found Out Learn Interesting Facts Every Day

Cunningham's Law- The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, but to post the wrong answer.

Why C is the Default Hard Drive Letter in Many Computers

MilesAhead · « **Reply #726 on:** April 24, 2015, 10:35 PM »

Quote from: Arizona Hot on April 24, 2015, 06:38 PM

Why C is the Default Hard Drive Letter in Many Computers

This one I would have answered in one sentence. "The hard drive was C: because A: and B: were used by floppy drives."

But now that I've posted the wrong answer on the internet...

I remember Gary Kildall talking about it(the IBM deal) on Computer Chronicles or some documentary shown on CC. He basically said the agreement IBM wanted was one where they could slit his throat at their whim by enforcing the drastic sections. That always made me believe the wording was such that only Bill Gates would accept the terms.

But anyway.. it might be fun to watch some of those CC episodes again.

Renegade · « **Reply #727 on:** April 25, 2015, 01:08 PM »

A drink with a severed human toe. In Canada. In the Yukon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGzfENx7I-U

Cabin fever at its finest!

tomos · « **Reply #728 on:** April 25, 2015, 07:13 PM »

Quote from: Renegade on April 25, 2015, 01:08 PM

A drink with a severed human toe. In Canada. In the Yukon.

all I can say is thank god for flashblock

MilesAhead · « **Reply #729 on:** April 25, 2015, 07:26 PM »

Quote from: Renegade on April 25, 2015, 01:08 PM

A drink with a severed human toe. In Canada. In the Yukon.

Cabin fever at its finest!

There's a literalist in every crowd. When another drinker challenged the guy to go toe to toe he put his foot in his mouth I'd say.

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #730 on:** April 25, 2015, 11:33 PM »

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Apple Watch teardown reveals deactivated blood oxygen sensors

4wd · « **Reply #731 on:** April 26, 2015, 12:37 AM »

Quote from: Arizona Hot on April 25, 2015, 11:33 PM

(see attachment in previous post)
Apple Watch teardown reveals deactivated blood oxygen sensors

What they haven't said is that the sensors are really activated and when they detect that one of Apple's income providers are dangerously near asphyxiation not only will Apple be notified but an ambulance will be dispatched to ensure no potential loss of future revenue.

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #732 on:** April 28, 2015, 03:35 AM »

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General Motors, John Deere want to make tinkering, self-repair illegal

Any car hackers here? Why do they think making it illegal will stop people from doing something like this?

tomos · « **Reply #733 on:** April 28, 2015, 10:25 AM »

^ more details in this thread:
Automakers Want to Outlaw Gearheads From Working on Their Own Cars

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #734 on:** April 28, 2015, 03:24 PM »

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Track your stuff anywhere in the world, without GPS

Something to find stuff lost further away.

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #735 on:** April 30, 2015, 03:55 AM »

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Apple finds defects with Apple watch - WSJ

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Infrared implant brings practical sight to the blind

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #736 on:** April 30, 2015, 03:58 AM »

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Secret Cell Plans Savings Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint Don't Want You to Know About

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Math explains why beating 'Tetris' is basically impossible

Renegade · « **Reply #737 on:** April 30, 2015, 03:18 PM »

Does NASA have a warp drive?

http://au.ign.com/articles/2015/04/28/nasa-may-have-invented-a-warp-drive

Quote

According to posts on the NASA Space Flight forum, when lasers were fired into the EmDrive resonance chamber, it was found that some of the beams were travelling faster than the speed of light.

If this is true, then it would mean that the EmDrive is producing a warp field or bubble. A forum post says that "this signature (the interference pattern) on the EmDrive looks just like what a warp bubble looks like. And the math behind the warp bubble apparently matches the interference pattern found in the EmDrive."

Link to NASA forum thread: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36313.1860

Was Star Trek predictive programming? Or inspiration?

THEY LIVE!

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #738 on:** April 30, 2015, 10:29 PM »

At 100 µN of thrust it will take a long time to get even to lightspeed(assuming relativistic mass gain will let you).

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #739 on:** April 30, 2015, 10:37 PM »

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You can play MS-DOS games on Twitter and it's amazing

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Not My Type: Why the Web Hates Comic Sans

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #740 on:** May 03, 2015, 09:54 PM »

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Google patches Password Alert after flaw exposed - CNET

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Digital Life - Time to put down that smartphone

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #741 on:** May 03, 2015, 09:58 PM »

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The Internet's dark side you don't use

MilesAhead · « **Reply #742 on:** May 04, 2015, 12:46 PM »

Quote from: Arizona Hot on May 03, 2015, 09:54 PM

Digital Life - Time to put down that smartphone

A lot of people in Miami do phone no matter what else they are doing. Biking down the street. Skateboarding. Driving their cars. Walking. On trains and elevators. I see people using it as a mechanism to avoid dealing with people. I see many people scolling the same text up and down. Perhaps if it is class notes it is useful for studying. But I think mostly it is used to be alone in a crowd.

When not reading or looking at photos they are talking to someone. I don't know who it is on the other end of the line at 4:00 AM. Maybe they are pretending thinking if they are in contact wih someone they cannot be mugged. Like the News Cameraman who thinks because he has the violence in the frame it cannot reach through to him due to nebulous magic.

When I hear people speak I don't look to see who is talking. I just assume they are talking into the phone. I often wonder who listens to the drab play by play.. "I'm crossing 8th street. I'm almost to the other side. I'm stepping up on the curb..." Is anyone really listening to that drivel? Or maybe they pick up the hand set every few minutes and say "Uh huh." Perhaps it is Cortana.

I thought it would be a great thing when cell went flat rate. Way wrong on that one!

Renegade · « **Reply #743 on:** May 04, 2015, 04:31 PM »

Quote from: MilesAhead on May 04, 2015, 12:46 PM

Quote from: Arizona Hot on May 03, 2015, 09:54 PM
Digital Life - Time to put down that smartphone

A lot of people in Miami do phone no matter what else they are doing. Biking down the street. Skateboarding. Driving their cars. Walking. On trains and elevators. I see people using it as a mechanism to avoid dealing with people. I see many people scolling the same text up and down. Perhaps if it is class notes it is useful for studying. But I think mostly it is used to be alone in a crowd.

When not reading or looking at photos they are talking to someone. I don't know who it is on the other end of the line at 4:00 AM. Maybe they are pretending thinking if they are in contact wih someone they cannot be mugged. Like the News Cameraman who thinks because he has the violence in the frame it cannot reach through to him due to nebulous magic.

When I hear people speak I don't look to see who is talking. I just assume they are talking into the phone. I often wonder who listens to the drab play by play.. "I'm crossing 8th street. I'm almost to the other side. I'm stepping up on the curb..." Is anyone really listening to that drivel? Or maybe they pick up the hand set every few minutes and say "Uh huh." Perhaps it is Cortana.

I thought it would be a great thing when cell went flat rate. Way wrong on that one!

Some good points and well raised.

What I have noticed is that smart phones are nothing but an amplifier or magnifying glass for what people normally do.

One thing that I have noticed over pretty much my entire life is that if I didn't move while walking down the street, I'd hit people everywhere because nobody looks where they are going. And that goes back to before smart phones were a thing.

One of these days, I should just walk down the street with a phone in hand and ignore where I'm walking. Actually... no. I tend to walk much faster than most people and I could hurt someone if I did that, so I wouldn't. (Could also be because I'm Canadian.

) But I'd like to so that I'd know what it's like to walk around oblivious. I've actually tried it at slower walking paces, and guess what... people just don't move at all. It's like they're zombies.

I think most people just want to tune out from the entire world around them. I don't know why.

tomos · « **Reply #744 on:** May 04, 2015, 08:11 PM »

Quote from: Renegade on May 04, 2015, 04:31 PM

Quote from: MilesAhead on May 04, 2015, 12:46 PM
... I see people using it as a mechanism to avoid dealing with people. ...
...
I think most people just want to tune out from the entire world around them. I don't know why.

I got myself a cheap smartphone lately - so far I hardly use it any more than my old button phone.
I was having a coffee on my own in town Saturday, sitting outside - and started messing with the settings and letting it apply an update for the wifi - at one stage I looked up and it was actually a shock to see the 'real' world. It amazed me how 'not-there' I was while messing with it.

I'd say it'd be pretty easy to get lost in there...

x16wda · « **Reply #745 on:** May 05, 2015, 01:22 AM »

Quote from: tomos on May 04, 2015, 08:11 PM

I'd say it'd be pretty easy to get lost in there...

Sometimes a mindless escape into a gadget is the only sanity break we can get. Scroll around, load a new app, check the weather next week -- then once more unto the breach.

IainB · « **Reply #746 on:** May 05, 2015, 01:55 AM »

Quote from: x16wda on May 05, 2015, 01:22 AM

Quote from: tomos on May 04, 2015, 08:11 PM
I'd say it'd be pretty easy to get lost in there...
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Sometimes a mindless escape into a gadget is the only sanity break we can get. Scroll around, load a new app, check the weather next week -- then once more unto the breach.
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Yes, I think it's escapism - which is harmless in small doses - but the trouble with escapism is that, if it is prolonged, then it can become too much of a good thing, whereupon such a putatively relaxing "mindless escape" can become a real time bandit where one can spend a great deal of one's cognitive surplus (and experience of life) in playing with (say) a smartphone, or watching TV, or something.

Having discovered that to be the case for me with an HP Palm some time back, I had to try to be more self-disciplined. I would have no desire to succumb to a new temptation manifested in the form of a smartphone, unless I have a real and defined business use for it.
I guess there's a dividing line between "play" (where one can risk learning and then practicing something) and "mindless escape".
Quite different to daydreaming, which seems to be an entirely natural and potentially useful way for the mind to think and reflect at random/whim, and to sometimes come up with new ideas.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #747 on:** May 05, 2015, 02:43 AM »

I think phones are more than an amplifier.

Except for minor "we forgot how to watch for people", they are changing our lives in many ways for the good because people can get "minor" things done in ten minutes that used to take three hours. (Without being rabid) a few texts, check the web for something, a map, sometimes the gps, I like my timer-stopwatch, and more.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #748 on:** May 05, 2015, 12:17 PM »

Quote from: MilesAhead on April 25, 2015, 07:26 PM

There's a literalist in every crowd. When another drinker challenged the guy to go toe to toe he put his foot in his mouth I'd say.

What a heel!

MilesAhead · « **Reply #749 on:** May 05, 2015, 12:45 PM »

Quote from: cranioscopical on May 05, 2015, 12:17 PM

Quote from: MilesAhead on April 25, 2015, 07:26 PM
There's a literalist in every crowd. When another drinker challenged the guy to go toe to toe he put his foot in his mouth I'd say.
What a heel!

The man obviously lacks soul.