I think we have a winner. Even my abacus had more storage than that.

I so wanted one of those... a Spectrum seemed too much to wish for.

In the end my VIC-20 had 3K.

I've had this signature for a while:

I suppose I rarely see films at theatres these days, and when I do go it’s to see films that idiots would avoid. If they made a “use your phone” rule I would never go again, but it’s an economic thing– how many people can’t do without their phones vs. how many people absolutely wouldn’t tolerate them. A low-attention-span idiot’s money is as good as mine to the cinema.

Of course it would be possible for the cinemas to have different sessions for different people.

Last summer I devised my optimal hot chocolate recipe using my wife’s electronic kitchen scales. I came up with 9 grams good quality cocoa powder, 11 grams caster (or superfine) sugar, and 175ml milk. Sifting the cocoa and sugar makes it much more amenable to being mixed in with the milk.

Working with PCM sound at work, it’s occasionally necessary to measure lengths down to the sample, or 1/44100 of a second. I didn’t answer the poll because nothing was anywhere near, unless “has an accuracy in 454ths of a pound” is close.

My boss and I (who share the same studio at different times) both share the same ‘piling system’. It works absolutely fine 98% of the time, which I think is fine in terms of the low energy we put into it.

As long as there’s somewhere where high entropy is OK, it’s easy keep the rest of the house neat. When I was a bachelor sharing houses, this area was my room. Now I’m married, it has been the (otherwise unused) second bedroom. Unfortunately (entropy-wise, anyway), our imminent baby will get the second bedroom, and eventually will start to care about its surroundings. So I think the plan at the moment is to try and defy the second law of thermodynamics.

There’s an interesting discussion of all this here:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/the-junk-dna-controversy/4635168

One thing it talks about is the difference between trash, which you throw away, and junk, which keep in the garage in case you ever need it again (or aren’t motivated enough to throw away).

My physician only seems to be concerned that I get more sodium chloride. I dissolve a teaspoon of table salt in a gulp of water, then follow that with two cups of water (which washes away the horrible taste). He’s happy with that.

Disclaimer: I realize that not everyone is a sauna aficionado with unusually salty sweat.

Well how about that, I do! I just upgraded my Mac to Mountain Lion, opened Finale (music typesetting) to see if it ran, and it gave me this. Guess I won’t be disabling it any time soon...

That sounds eminently sensible. Therefore, good luck getting it through the current Congress!

Sorry to appear clueless, and I do know there is a difference between Java and Javascript, but in Firefox say, does this mean in Preferences/Content the “Enable Javascript” box isn’t checked?

Am I reckless if it’s enabled or paranoid if it’s disabled?

Hehe, I added GSM from the point of view of a foreigner unable to use my phone in the US. I should have known that on Slashdot there would be people who knew way way more about phone standards than I did.

I remember that CDMA was implemented in Australia as a replacement for analog phones for rural people because of its better range. Having voice and data on one radio sounds great if you can transmit at least a small amount of data consistently enough for voice.

Being a libertarian society seems to put certain reforms into the Too Hard Basket. Reforms that other countries enjoy include the metric system, the use of coins for small amounts of money, a modern electoral system, GSM, and restricting the use of semiautomatic weapons to professionals.

Of course, if you are as big and powerful as the US, other countries just learn to live with your proprietary standards :-)

I feel freer when I’m not driving the car. I have to drive and park the stupid thing, and driving safely restricts my activities and makes me less fit.

I like to think that there were two millenniums– the People’s Millennium and the Pedants’ Millennium (either name can be adjusted to be kinder or more scathing). The People’s Millennium was more exciting to the average person, and also contained the threat of the Y2K bug. By the time the Pedants’ Millennium arrived, people were over the whole thing.

I had a fun Pedants’ Millennium myself, organizing a pub crawl that was so successful that only my friend and me made it to midnight. We sang O sole mio at 11 volume, accompanied by a pianola. Fun times.