Earlier this year, I saw a string-based pin setter for the first time (Lucky Strike, San Francisco), and was appalled such a thing existed. Based on what I could see from my end, I initially thought the design's appeal was that it consumed less physical depth than free-standing pin setters -- a potentially desirable characteristic where square footage is at premium prices. It does make sense that it would consume less electricity, as there's no pin lifter that has to run continuously, but it never occurred to me that maintenance costs were lower (although I'd like to see numbers on this).

Yes, European bowling alleys have used string-based setters for a long time, but bear in mind that most European bowling is of the nine-pin variety, which uses much smaller balls and pins. Ten-pin alleys in Europe still use the free-standing pin setters.

And yes, the pin action is very different. The movement of the tethers against each other can pull down pins that otherwise would have been left standing. I witnessed this at least twice. And I can't imagine anyone picking up a 7-10 split with one of these things.

And maybe it's just me (and it probably is), but there seems a certain inauthenticity -- a certain chintziness -- to a string-based pin setter, like I'm playing with a cheap replica for kids rather than the real thing for grown-ups. ("Hey! Are you calling European nine-pins chintzy?" No, just... Unfamiliar. I'm sure there are whole schools of thought on how best to use the tethers to your advantage, and which tether materials are "better" than others. It clearly works for them.)

Anyway, point is, we had ads in our free content for about 50 years, and that's what paid for the content. We wished there were not ads, but it was part of life. And it was fine. [ ... ]

It was not fine. Everyone put up with it, because there was no other real choice, but it was not fine.

Even at the time, people correctly complained that the ad block model made certain kinds of shows impossible. Do you think a televised production of Death of a Salesman would have the same emotional impact if it got interrupted every 10 minutes to sell beer?

Ads infuriated me as a child, and the intervening decades have done nothing to improve my opinion of them. Indeed, I regard them as vandalism, litter, pollution -- unnecessary, unwanted, and destructive by their very nature. I hate them so much that.... I pay for YouTube Premium. I visit YouTube exclusively with Firefox, I have never witnessed this reported start delay, and I never am troubled with ads.

There is a very primitive Rust utility called btop that is clearly little more than a proof of concept at this stage.

Nevertheless, thanks for the link -- btop looks quite cool.

Google authenticator worked as intended [ ... ]

"NOTABUG: Working as designed."

Yeah, we know, Sparky... The design is fucking idiotic!

It seems clear that one of the OTP codes got them into the rube's account -- the second OTP code allowed them to copy out his Google Authenticator database. If that copy hadn't existed -- and indeed did not exist until Google decided to make copies for itself -- then they would have had to keep pumping him for OTP codes, and the damage would likely have been more limited.

The first compromise can be laid at the feet of the dopey employee. Google bears partial responsibility for all subsequent compromises -- for making and keeping a copy of a sensitive database that the entire security community told them at the time was a STUPID FUCKING IDEA!

To be fair, AirBNB isn't a hotel chain, they're a booking facilitator [ ... ]

"Well, actually..." Let me summarize their so-called argument:

"We are Craigslist. We only list one kind of thing: Rooms for short-term rental. Like items listed on Craigslist, any transaction between rentee and renter is completely private, and any difficulties that may arise are exclusively between them -- we are nothing more than a listing agent and payment processor, and take a small cut of the transaction as our listing fee."

Same "reasoning" with Oober and Lypht, except they only list ride shares.

Looks like all the employees on LI use stock photos:

Gee, it's a real shame that LinkedIn doesn't have the resources of a true software giant, who could dispatch a couple of interns to kluge together a few functions that would compare uploaded profile photos to images available on stock photo sites, and flag them if they find a match...

Yes... Truly a shame that is, evidently, far beyond their capabilities...

What's your favorite tech innovation?

• Illegal cab company
• Illegal hotel chain
• Fake money for criminals
• Plagiarism machine

...Twitter is the hot and popular bar that everyone goes to [ ... ]

"Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded. (Also: It's full of Nazis.)"

...who wants to hang out at some smaller bar with no crowd?

Um... Maybe because the drinks are better, made by actual bartenders who know what they're doing (instead of a computer pumping pre-measured servings out of a spigot), and made using decent, fresh ingredients instead of bathtub gin and lime-flavored high-fructose corn syrup? (And because the place isn't overrun by Nazis?)

I mean, if all you want is a Long Island Iced Tea, fine, I'll empty a bar mat into a pint glass for you, but don't try to pretend you're engaged in some higher appreciation of mixology -- you're just getting wasted.

What do you call the diesel and E85 pumps? And before that you had to make sure you pumped from the leaded/unleaded pumps.

Yeah the CONNECTOR isn't an issue but that doesn't mean the pump is compatible with your vehicle. (Though one actual connector incompatibility I can think of is that truck diesel nozzles are too large to fit in diesel passenger car ports)

It seems like a better solution would be to electrify segments of the route where it's easiest to, only needing the battery to cover the gaps, rather than trying to travel long distances on battery.

A bunch of the cost of a fully electric line is taken up by utility headaches in specific areas (far from supply, no place to build substation easily, etc.). If you just create a dense enough patchwork you would only need small batteries.

Depends. Some EPROMs last longer than others, and it can also depend on the voltage they were programmed at. I've seen plenty of EPROMs programmed 1980-1983 read/dump just fine.

I believe storage temperature has an effect as well.

...but my job is engineering principles. I'm a very principled engineer.

Having a common standard for the EV charging plug should help to facilitate deployment of charging stations.

There was a standard connector! SAE J1772. Every electric vehicle in North America used it... Except Tesla.

I can't understand why everyone's suddenly falling all over themselves to switch over.

Don't agree? Three points:

1. You're wrong,
2. Watch this YooToob video -- it will be one of the most informative two-plus hours you will spend this week,
3. Go visit the site Web3 is Going Just Great, which has a new post every day -- every damned day -- about the latest cryptocurrency and NFT regulatory actions, arrests, scams, and fsck-ups.