Paper tapes and classic yellow tty paper printouts from
the early 1970s, probably no timestamps though. PDP 8 FOCAL

Punch cards and printouts from mid 1970s, printouts would
have timestamps. CDC 6500, mostly FORTRAN, COMPASS (yeech)
Also some graphics printouts, one of which was published.

DEC tape from a famous PDP 11/70 running PWB Unix,
written 1979. Wish I had a DEC tape drive.

If I were sufficiently motivated I could
presumably look up the formats for paper tape
and punch cards and get the info. So of course
it is the DEC tape I'd like to be able to read.

> You can't get used to it because you are constantly changing between the two.

I wear glasses virtually all day every day.

Here is an example that is constant: Vision in the eye that had the retina
surgically reattached still looks distorted (like looking through textured
privacy glass) after a year. Theory is that the retina didn't get reattached
smoothly.

The upside-down lens experiment sounds interesting. Maybe my brain just
isn't plastic enough.

> Sure it might not be ideal but it's better than not being able to see at all.

I'm not saying it wouldn't be an improvement, I'm just doubting that it would
look normal.

> The visual field would soon 'look' fairly normal as neural plasticity
> made the peripheral visual system do the job of the central and integrate
> that into visual processing. There would be loss of visual and color
> acuity since the peripheral retina isn't as densely populated, and had
> very little chromatic visual receptors. Within weeks any differences
> noted would fade as what's being presented became to seem normal.

I sincerely doubt that. I can't even get used to the "wide angle lens"
effect of my eyeglasses. (Changing the focus to correct for myopia
changes the magnification.) I would *really* like lenses that correct
the focus without changing the magnification.

This "donut" thing sounds worse.

For the optical wizards out there, what would it take to make
eyeglasses that can correct extreme myopia without changing
the magnification? Would a multiple element lens be able to
do this?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99838367
Adjustable power lenses for $19 ? What's the catch?
More distortion or other optical problem? Are they fragile
or otherwise not very durable? These sound wonderful as
an alternative to bifocals/trifocals/etc. Need to look
at something X distance away? Just adjust your glasses
as needed.

> The classification as "medical devices" by the FDA is what
> attaches the requirement of a prescription.

Why aren't drugstore reading glasses classified as "medical devices"?
If you are slightly far-sighted you can get 3 pairs for $10 and
the quality is surprising decent. If you are near-sighted you
have to spend hundreds of dollars.

The eyephone app thingy sounds useful, (was planning on actually
reading TFA ( *gasp* ), but it crashed my browser) but will it
check your eyes for health problems? Of course none of my eye
doctors ever warned me that I was at high risk for retinal
detachment, so maybe the eyephone app would have been just as good?
GRUMBLE

"Sorry, we're not cool enough to support your browser. Please keep it real with one of the following browsers:"

At least Facebook admits they aren't cool.

Is anyone working on treatments (stem cells, carbon nanotubes,
magic fairy dust, whatever...) for repairing a wrinkled retina?
(It detached, and the fine surgeon didn't get it reattached smoothly,
so that eye is like trying to look through textured privacy glass.)

For the optical wizards out there, what would it take to make
eyeglasses that can correct extreme myopia without changing
the magnification? Would a multiple element lens be able to
do this?

For those of you with extreme myopia, you are at higher risk for
retinal detachment. Talk with your eye doctor about getting
your retina "spot welded" with a laser to prevent this.
You do NOT want your retina to detach!!!

NBC is a free broadcast network. Comcrap is pay cable.
How well is comcrap going to support/maintain NBC's broadcasting
given that comcrap wants everyone to subscribe to their crappy
cable service?

OTA TV is less compressed than cable/satelite,
and recording it is legal. MIfiAA lawyers can take
a hike.

Yeah, NBC doesn't have much worth watching at the moment,
but that stuff goes in cycles, and someday NBC will have
great stuff again. Unless comcrap is allowed to destroy
NBC forever.

Clear antitrust, but is anyone paying attention? Where
is Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?

And now for something completely different:

> You couldn't get 90% of voters to oppose Hitler.

Dig out your history books and look up who was running
against Hitler. Reminds me of some recent US elections.

> whats wrong with sony, samsung, or intel.

Sony: rootkit
Intel: an endless list of bugs and design problems,
fdiv being one of the more infamous.
Samsung: I give up, you tell me.

Reiser has a method for eliminating unwanted bits, but there
is a bug that chroots you inside a jail.

>>> The probability of a hash collision for a 256 bit hash (or even a 128
>>> bit one) is negligible.

Which means idiots will assume that it never happens. In other
news, real estate prices never go down and o-rings on space
shuttles never leak.

>> I run Linux, where's my ZFS?

Upgrade to FreeBSD.

> Log files Log files can only be appended to.

See OpenBSD.

> Managed files Managed files are random-access files managed by a
> database or archive program.

Such a limited view. I have lots of random access files I
maintain with emacs.

My VW has special glass that prevents the interior from
heating up and it works *great*. Park the thing on blacktop
all day in the hot summer sun and the interior barely gets
warm at all. Orders of magnitude more comfortable than cars
with regular glass. I assume the glass is low-e although VW
didn't describe it as such.

The glass is no darker than normal factory tinted glass.
The garage door opener remote works fine.

For those of you whining about the heavy hand of government,
there are many far worse problems than requiring decent
glass in cars. Many of these problems are discussed in
slashdot so you ought to be aware of them.

> we do not have thermostatic regulators on cars that vary
> the work of the compressors

Maybe yours doesn't but mine does.

>>>> What needs to happen is that the OS needs to become more browser-like

Sorry, I need an OS that works properly, and isn't full of unnecessary crap,
bugs, and security holes. Actually I need that in a web browser but can't
find one.

>>> What's next, a way to make web browsers faster by making /dev/kmem remotely writable?

Oh please don't give the morons any ideas.

>> Does EVERYTHING need to be reinvented (poorly) on port 80? Really!!!???

Why is thus modded funny?

> It can be expected that web browsers use decent security practices

You have GOT to be kidding.

BTW re: javascript, I find that browsers crash a lot less with it turned off.

As mcgrew points out, the treatment for retinal detachment is such fun.
Surprisingly, having your eyes spot-welded with a laser is the least of it.
The scleral buckling makes your myopia even worse. (Why can't you get
inexpensive glasses with minus lenses similar to the drugstore reading
glasses?) Trying to sleep face down to keep the C3F8 Octafluoropropane in
the correct place is a nightmare. And then, the C3F8 gives you cataracts.

Has anyone tried http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetyl-carnosine
eyedrops as an alternative to surgery for cataracts? So far I
haven't found any reference to risks, side effects or other
downsides, which seems too good to be true.

> incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software

As opposed to other web browsers? Seriously,
when are we going to have a web browser that
actually works properly?

And when you sneeze, it reboots!