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Comment The DVIS system - 1980's tech at NASA (Score 2) 123

used the infrared curtain concept. It was basically a badass intercom, or a closed loop HAM radio that used fiber optics instead of radio depending on how you want to look at it.

Not super awesome capacitive touchscreen tech - but it's something that will work for gloved or calloused fingers - something touch screens have a problem with. (you have no idea how many bad "drops" I've made on video games because the screen doesn't work on my callouses)

Comment What are the chances those on the side of force (Score 1) 1051

as in forcing children to get the vaccines or incur penalties are the same ones who are demanding we leave our borders completely unchecked. As in allowing unvaccinated people to walk in unregistered and do as they please in our our country. So it's okay to force our own people to do it, but it's racist to expect other people in our borders to do it.

Time to learn some objectivity here!

Slashdot used to be a nice place to discuss technical things, it's slowly started taking on a pro-big-brother attitude.

Comment My old coworkers intentionally broke mine. (Score 1) 312

As a tech I tend to change jobs and work with people I've worked with before, we tend to pull each other along to better places. I have had a reputation for an incredible ability to focus on the task at hand and tune out the world around me. Part of being an aspie geek.

My old coworkers thought it was hilarious to "pull me out of the zone" intentionally.

The end result is I can still focus rather well, but I'm now more attentive to what's around me. I'm more easily distracted than I used to be - but I've noticed a compounding issue - so is everyone else.

It seems like the late 90's - mid 00's that everyone was more able to do their job. As time has gone by I've noticed that in contrast to the coworkers that pulled me out of the zone intentionally that everyone around me feels the need to chat, interrupt, and generally draw my attention away from what I'm doing, regardless of age. Part of what makes me a valuable work - my ability to focus and get things done - is completely contrary to the way every place I've been in the past decade+ does business. When I first started this career field in my late teens it seemed accepted that people had to focus on what they were doing, now it's a full time IRC channel in the real world the Endless September interruptions. To top it off some of the worst offenders when it comes to interrupting are coworkers I had over a decade ago elsewhere. I still get projects done, but it's nowhere near as efficiently as I used to be able to do.

Comment You can keep your Apple Watch, (Score 1) 415

I bought my Casio in 2005, it's solar rechargeable. I've worn it daily with the original batter every since I bought it, never a problem and the time is always right. I'm too utilitarian to want something that needs constant attention. Maybe it comes from being a tech, I get tired of fixing problems and see no reason to generate them.

Great watch.

Comment Re:"women are more practical than men" (Score 1) 608

I like those cargo pants that you linked to. What I can't tell on yours for certain, but one picture seems to say yes, is if it has a data pocket or not. The pockets on mine actually have another pocket under them that's vertical "behind the flap" and in the middle. I put my phone in one and often my Bluetooth mouse in the other where the big pockets are still available for other use. I gave up on belt holsters for my phone years ago and just bought pants that have their own, when I got laid off from NASA I switched to these from carpenters (carpenters appear to be the defacto standard at both Johnson and Kennedy).

I lost most of my really old stuff when hurricane Ike hit, I'm looking to get a new buckling springs keyboard soon with the requirement that it be multi-media, controlling volume at the system level seems to have won out over controlling at the speakers as time moved on and finding a good multi-media keyboard is a bit of a challenge. Daskeyboard appears to be my answer, even though I would prefer one of the model M clones from pckeyboard.com otherwise.

I'm from the American Southwest (even though I live in the Gulf region now). I'm the black-sheep geek from a family that has rural roots, both settler and Indian on my dads side, and poor European immigrant on my moms. Cast iron isn't even a question where I'm from, using something else makes as much sense as using a crescent wrench instead of the proper sized wrenches or not painting a steel fence. Cast iron is just what you cook with, be it the ever useful and popular skillet, the dutch oven, or my moms favorite the small griddle. Works equally well on a camp fire or stove. You find that lot in rural country people, these fancy ceramics and (now proven dangerous) Teflon stuff is just yuppy toys to us. I guess you can take me out of the sticks, but some of the sticks are still here.

Comment Re:"women are more practical than men" (Score 1) 608

I haven't had plants in quite a long time, not since I last had a house.

I stopped collecting old hardware! I still have a few things here and there, but considering it's my profession I've done well in the getting rid of stuff department. (I've probably got a few too many bike parts however)

I've integrated most of my stuff and I'm integrating further. I'm actually going to commit the heresy of ditching my game consoles for emulators soon (once I get the system rock-solid reliable) and combine it all into one entertainment PC in the living room (that can network to other rooms if needed).

I wear pants with leg pockets! (seriously, these Wranglers are a god-send for geek use - even passes for business casual)

I've been letting my beard go a bit wild, I only use a little soap in it and I clip off anything that becomes annoying.

I love cast-iron! The non-stick ceramic, easy break, can't use metal utensils in stuff vs. my cast-iron and stainless has been a little mini-war. I do need to pass my cast iron over a proper open wood fire and have a real grease fire in it to season it a little better, but I'm almost to the point where I can fry an egg on it without it sticking.

Comment "women are more practical than men" (Score 4, Funny) 608

Looks at decorative towels and wash clothes in bathroom we're not allowed to use taking up prime realestate that would be great for useful things.

Looks at fake flowers sitting on top of storage furniture I access frequently that must be moved before accessing said stored objects and returned.

Looks at useless decorative items that must remain on kitchen counter despite being useless, in the way, and knocked around regularly.

Thinks of how many times I've been asked to hold a purse because it's impractical for the owner to do things, or carry something in my pockets because the objects owner didn't bring their own pockets.

Thinks of how the toilet paper is stored in the closet at the entry of the dwelling because the storage areas in the bathroom are taken care of rarely used beauty products and appliances.

My head is shaved - literally a bar of soap, a stick of deodorant, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a razor and some shaving gel is all I have for bathroom use in comparison.

I call this quote for the summary into question

Comment Re:What's the point of ChromeOS? (Score 1) 345

Firefox is quite nice and quite usable, and the problems with their old versions of sync, which is why I delved into Chrome for a little while, are gone. I like Firefox so much now days I even use it on my Android phone.

ChromeOS on the other hand is friggin great overall. So much so I think Mozilla should answer it on PCish devices (I actually had this idea years ago before ChromeOS when I was a Mozilla holdout refusing to go Firefox).

Comment Re:I quit using Belkin years ago, (Score 1) 191

I've got an old Cisco small business router on the Ethernet side and an Ubiquiti for wireless. Can't complain. Wouldn't mind something a little newer than that Cisco up front just for a Gigabit switch built in instead of the 10/100, but it doesn't really matter on the broadband side and the Blue Ray player and Wii are all that's really plugged into that, so whatever.

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