My first real computer was an RCA CDP 1802 with a hex key pad and 256 Bytes of memory. However, it had video that mapped part of that memory to a black and white monitor.

I think it was called a COSMIC ELF and was made by RCA I think. You had to write down the opcodes for the program you wanted to run then hand assemble them into the HEX bytes to key in on the key pad. I am 75 now and don' t remember a lot of the details since that was something over 40 years ago and maybe a bit more.

Both the processor and memory were CMOS so it would run right down to DC which made single stepping the go to diagnostic tool. Can't remember the clock speed when running but it was pretty low.

During a drought a decade or so ago I installed shower head shut offs in my house. Wet down yourself and the soap, turn off the water flow, soap up with shower off. When finished turn water back on and rinse off. This was back in the day of separate valves for Hot and Cold so it let the water temperature stay about the same. Not sure if it would be needed with single handle valves.

Yep! Proton UI was it for me too. This double spaced drop down shit that can not be turned off is my biggest complaint. Been mostly using Brave since the Proton UI screwed up what was once a good browser.

PS: Started on the Internet with Archie and Veronica LONG before browsers existed.

My late wife and I watched this through my old refactor telescope from my child hood. I had a proper solar filter and had used the scope for observing sunspots for years.

She and I often stayed out late on our deck to watch meteor showers, and especially the apparition of comets.

However, this was the last astronomical event that we were able to share, since she became terminally ill shorty after and passed at the end of October that year.

The memories of this are both sweet and bitter.

Been considering buying one, but this caused me to scratch them from my list. When companies with too many lawyers act like ass holes I just don't give them my business.

I am now a 75 year old engineer, long retired. I can't remember exactly when, but I was learning my first programming language in the late 1960's. It was Algol 60, and of course back then, it was all punch cards and batch processing. MY CLASS assignments were machine graded BACK THEN! Throwing the letters A and I at the same process does what? Why is it new?

I have been thinking of getting one or more of their cameras since the price is good and the image quality seems better than some others, but this kind of inattention to a major security flaw has me rethinking this idea.

In any case I don't think I want to put things like this on my main network. I think my TP Link gateway router might let me set up a separate LAN or VLAN and keep it and any other IOT stuff separate and put a separate WIFI access device on that segment. Not sure, since things have changed a lot since I retired 15 years ago!

After my wife died in 2012 the IRS declared ME dead when I tried to file my 2013 taxes. It took almost a year to get that straightened out, and receive my refund from my 2013 tax filing.

EXACTLY seven years latter (matching their records retention schedule), I became dead again when I filed my 2019 tax return. Since the IRS was completely closed for COVID, I went through my local Congressman's office (who was able to get in touch with the IRS) but it took them until October 2021 to get my 2019 refund, which I had filed in March of 2020. However, the IRS still refuses to pay interest on the time I was "dead".

They have bigger problems than anyone can imagine.

As a 74+ year old retired engineer the two skills that were most critical to my entire career were being able to work with people from all different backgrounds and the ability to write and communicate well in person. I did not learn either of these skills in the engineering university I attended, but in my four years in the Air Force after graduation. Being at the bottom of the barrel in terms of rank and authority at the beginning of my service I was not able to order things to be done, but had to get cooperation and buy in from everyone. This is where I learned to work with people, and not just things. While serving during the Vietnam war in SEA i maintained a letter correspondence with one of my cousins who was an English professor at a college in Alaska. This is how I learned to write and be able to communicate my thoughts where others could understand them. After my military service I got my first job writing and updating operational manuals for mainframe computer system used by a very large organization. Within a few years I moved up to doing analysis and far more technical work, and retired as the senior network engineer and network security officer. ALL of these jobs required writing, working with everyone from the top management to the people actually using the systems. The so called soft skills that engineers are often not taught were, for me, the most critical in my entire career.

Been using them since my teens. All but the entry level Amateur Radio licences in the US have questions on the exams that require the use of complex numbers to get the answer. And yes, j is used to avoid confusion with i which is used for current in electronics.

I remember a device from the late 1950's or early 1960's that was designed to be clamped to the stern of a fishing boat at a private lake where my dad was a member.

He had one of these things that had a tiller like handle extending above the transom of the boat and underwater there was a fin that was hinged to the shaft. By moving the tiller back and forth you could both propel the boat and control its direction.

I have no idea what these were called, but they were very easy to use since as a pre-teen my dad was happy to let me drive the boat as he trolled for fish. Seemed to work to -- he caught more when he had this than with any trolling motor or even oars or paddles.

Gave up on Firefox after using it for decades. The new Proton UI does not let me make the changes that I would need to make it where I can really use it any more.

In 2007 the US Congress decided to change the dates that most, but not all, of the US would go onto and off of DST. The very last major project I worked on before my retirement was to have my group install patches from Microsoft (manually one at a time) on about 200 workstations and over 20 servers so that they could use what was in effect the same tz time zone file that Unix and Linux had been using. I can't remember which version or versions of windows all the workstations were on but I suspect it was some mix of Win2k and XP. I don't think there were any Windows 7 workstations at the time. We did, however, have a Unix minicomputer and several Linux computers. Those "Just Worked" as usual. If I remember (which at my age is not a given) Congress passed the law change and it went into effect very soon there after. It was definitely before June 1st since I was gone then!

After my wife died in 2012 I discovered that due to some kind of clerical error at the IRS I had been marked DECEASED in 2013. I was never notified of this and the only way I found out was when I started making inquiries about my long overdue tax refund. I contacted and worked directly with the Taxpayer Advocate's office. I had filed my taxes (paper forms back then) well before the April 15th deadline for my 2013 taxes in 2014. It was not until February 2015 that I finally received my refund. I don't remember if I got any interest on it then or not. The refund was not that large and the interest would have been minimal I think. I never received any explanation of what happened other than some sort of systems or clerical problem between the IRS and the Social Security Administration. I don't think it was on the SSA side since they kept paying my Social Security Benefits the entire time that the IRS considered me dead.

Fast forward to my 2019. Note that this is EXACTLY 7 years after the first incident described above. This also happens to be the standard IRS records retention period. I was again marked DECEASED and my account locked and frozen by the IRS. This time, however, I was getting a MUCH larger refund due to some extra withholding that I forgot to change. Also 2020 was the year we began COVID-19 problems. Again, I filed in mid March of 2020. I began checking the IRS's "Where's My Refund" web site in April or May, and when it showed no indication that they had even received my return I began trying to contact the IRS again. This time, however, due to COVID-19 there was nobody at the IRS that I could get in touch with at all. Finally, I reached out to my Congressman's office and they took over from me in getting in touch with the IRS Taxpayer's Advocate's Office. This was probably in July of 2020. Over the summer I had to resubmit all of my returns and other documents through my Congressman's office for forwarding to the IRS along with images of documents to prove I was still alive. It was not until June 2021 that I received a notice from my Congressman's office that I was again alive in the IRS view and that my account was unlocked, but still Frozen until an upper level manager could unfreeze it. Eventually on September 10, 2021 I got the notice that my refund check was being issued and I was to receive an extra $62 in interest for the delay. $62 interest on a large refund delayed over 17 months! The IRS was apparently not wanting to pay me interest on the time that their "System" considered me deceased. Using published data from the IRS I was able to calculate that the proper amount of interest for the size and lateness of my refund should have been about $400. I did get the check for the refund and the $62 in interest they calculated on Friday September 24, 2021. I have not yet cashed that check. We are still in discussions on the remaining interest I am owed.

Since the IRS has twice declared me deceased, although I was till paying withholding into my "Closed/Frozen" account, and I was never notified of this declaration, I think that ANY system changes at the IRS should be directed to just FIX THEIR DAMN SYSTEMS FIRST!

I still have no word on the status of my 2020 return filing, which I had to file on paper in March of 2021, since an attempt to file on-line informed me that I was still dead. This time I sent it with tracking and I have documentation that it was delivered.

I have often thought that politicians should be dragged kicking and screaming into office. Perhaps it should be a temporary duty that is considered as worse than being drafted once was or perhaps Jury Duty is by some today. PS.-- I avoided the draft by enlisting. One of the best things I ever did.