Notices by Aaron Sawdey, Ph.D. (acsawdey@fosstodon.org)

@kiwa DUAL!! pentium 2? 😮

Netfinity branding -- that had to be a server when it was sold new. Is this a pentium II xeon? Actual 2 sockets?

@mattblaze @BrianJopek Color film would have been pretty niche in 1934 .. we have some large format color transparencies from a little later than that in my family -- but only because my grandfather was a research chemist at Kodak working on color dyes.

@lanodan @linear I think you’d be better off fixing the toolchain … irix on a little r5000 box back in the day wasn’t great. 30 years of development in Linux or bsd since then.

@lanodan @linear I don’t know if there’s a modern equivalent to this but sgi irix “n32” abi was very nice because you got 32-bit pointers for small data footprint but 64-bit registers. Given the memory size of the N64 … you’ll be wanting as much efficiency as you can find.

@lanodan @niconiconi @whitequark waveguide filled with a wedge of dielectric? If not .. sorcery always an option, it’s RF.

@foone Please don't, somebody will have to build a computer with a floating point format that uses a base-3 mantissa.

@demi @cstross Not exactly an air defense system, but the sidewinder missile's latest incarnations are "all aspect" and do not need hot engine exhaust to lock on to, they have a cooled IR Sensor for targeting, and a laser proximity system to trigger the warhead when they get close.

@orman @demi @cstross With an infrared system like like this, RCS does not enter into it at all. If it is warmer than the background sky, the seeker can lock on. Exactly how much warmer? I don't know, but to target a subsonic aircraft from the front based on air friction on the skin, it can't be a big difference.

@0xabad1dea I have had MacOS and iOS both play this game with me too ... if you ever see an explanation for this, please share as I would really like to know what the heck is going on here.

Just feeds my curmudgeonly assertion that "wifi is networking for when you're not serious" and "just buy more cat6 cable and switches" is the cure for wifi ills.

@trantion @ryanc It's implied when they ghost your request for help ...

@sennoma @inthehands The human cost of layoffs is very much underestimated, I think. And there’s a cost to those who aren’t laid off as well.

@sennoma @inthehands And for the organization.. well the top talent is going to vote with their feet.

@inthehands I lucked into a couple research groups that were led by decent people. But the madness was all around. I finished my Ph.D. and ran for industry. I enjoy teaching but doing it as an adjunct faculty has had zero appeal.

@inthehands @GottaLaff @lisamelton There's the theory that this was political rope-a-dope in action ...

@inthehands This has very much the same "we're being railroaded" vibe as the run-up to the 2003 gulf war 😕

@thomasfuchs I've got a soft spot in my heart for the Kaypro II, IV, and 10 ...

@thomasfuchs The Kaypro II was the first computer I ever overclocked ... turns out that a 2MHz z80 isn't enough to keep up with a 130wpm keyboarder (not me 😂) ... though the code in Wordstar coped pretty well. It would stop updating the screen and just print ! characters and keep buffering the input. Then she'd stop typing and it would take a good 60 seconds to unload the input buffer and get back to normal. Same person regularly wore out 80's mechanical keyboards, which takes some doing.

@thomasfuchs Does TV have it's own version of the "loudness wars" that have destroyed music recordings by compressing the hell out of everything?

@MLE_online @madrush Yeah that's really all I was trying to point out.

I don't care if they all look the same, what I want back is the smaller sizes, clean lines, and the bigger greenhouses and attendant better visibility that all came with roughly 1990's automotive styling. Today's giant road going bunkers are ridiculous, and I'll even tar sedans with that brush -- the outward visibility in my 2015 civic is crap compared to my 2001 civic (both 4dr).

@MLE_online @madrush Oh, and the REAL problem is (and I think this is widespread) that what I want in a new vehicle is and EV that is modest sized and doesn't cost $50k+ and they really just don't exist. Chevy Bolt is kind of there but still too expensive and weirdly SUV-ish.