Ben Taylor @VoxDei@social.cleverlibre.org

Sneaky. #comics #webcomics #parenting

My social life is as active as the next guy so long as the next guy is Boo Radley.

I DON'T WANT SELF DRIVING CARS!!!!

✔️ I want boring things like public transit that comes so regularly I don't need to check a schedule.

✔️ I want fast passenger rail so accessible and easy it's preferable to suffering airports.

✔️ I want cities that aren't built around cars-as-default

✔️ I want the country to own it.

@SocraticEthics

Greetings. Once upon a time long ago, I was sitting alone in the UCLA ARPANET site #1 computer room late one night when the high Santa Ana winds outside started disrupting power. Hit after hit, very dangerous for the minicomputers, disk drives, and other equipment in that room, since we didn't have uninterruptible power supplies back then.

I made some calls and it was decided I should shut everything in the room down. Everything. I phoned the ARPANET NOC (Network Operations Center) at BBN and explained the situation, since I was about to shut down IMP #1 (essentially, a refrigerator-sized router) on ARPANET which sat in a corner of the room, and doing this could cause disruptions if done in an unplanned manner. The IMP was *always* running -- I had never seen it powered down.

I worked my way around the room, powering down terminals and disks, and printers, and the power supplies on the 11/45 (ARPANET Host #1 - UCLA-ATS) and the 11/70 (Host #129 [1+128 on IMP #1] - UCLA-SECURITY. Back then my email addresses were LAUREN@UCLA-ATS and LAUREN@UCLA-SECURITY -- no domains yet.

The usual roar of the machines gradually got quieter and quieter, until only the IMP was left. I pulled down the power switch. Now there was dead quiet except the hum of the lights, a situation I'd never experienced in that room before. Very odd feeling.

Suddenly I heard a click -- the IMP was powering back up by itself. Damn. I pulled down the switch again. Quiet for a time, then click and it came back up yet again. Before I started thinking about screwing around with its power cables or turning off breakers that could have unexpected effects, I called the NOC again to ask them if they had any ideas.

"Oh yeah. We should have told you! There's a little switch that controls auto-restart. Surprise!"

So I found and flipped that little toggle switch, powered down the IMP again, and this time it stayed down. I had turned off the ARPANET -- at least at UCLA. -L

@emilymbender There is a demand for low-background steel, steel produced before the nuclear tests mid century, for use in Geiger counters. They produce it from scavenging ships sunk during world war one, as it's the only way they can be sure there is no radiation.

The same is going to happen for internet data, only archives pre-2022 will be usable for sociology research and the like as the rest will be contaminated by AI nonsense. Absolute travesty.

@drandrewv2 the biggest lesson I've learnt in the last couple of years is that vulnerability to acknowledge when others are better than you is such a superpower. It takes a huge shift to change from the way we're taught to think.

He talked about electric cars. I don't know anything about cars, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.

Then he talked about rockets. I don't know anything about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.

Now he talks about software. I happen to know a lot about software and Elon Musk is saying the stupidest shit anyone's ever said, so when people say he's a genius I figured I should stay the hell away from his cars and rockets.

I saw a post that said something like “I love mastodon … “ & listed good things about the fediverse & mastodon in particular: ad free, decentralized, not amped up on manipulative algorithms— but in that list was “there’s a learning curve to the tech that will filter for people I relate to—“

Don’t get me wrong,nerds, I probably also have more in common with people who can deal with tech barriers— but I don’t find this valuable. I learn more from those who excel in areas where I’m a disaster— 🧵

#physics #weather It has begun. Based on a wing and a prayer, nothing stops people from injecting sulphur into the atmosphere. What could go wrong?

Captured yesterday morning at the pier in Port Dover, Ontario 🇨🇦

Everything covered by 6-8" of ice...

See a #BeforeAndAfter on 2/2

📷 Tim Warris

1/2

Why do we call them “central banks” and not “apex creditors”?

I really struggled with the icing for my gingerbread barn and it accidentally became a gingerbread slaughterhouse.

Chuckie Egg
1983
AnF Software
ZX Spectrum

#retro #retrogaming #retrogames #retrogamer #80s #1980s #ZXSpectrum #vintagecomputing

So, I'm finding out the hard way that if you start a new Mastodon server, nobody can find you.

This is a shameless request for some boosts so some of the bigger instances see me.

#mastodon #twittermigration #mastodonserver #findme #helpimtrappedinawell #imlonely