Humor Random Comments Thread

[jimblah]

Before the Internet

I was born in '70. I remember voyager (I'm not referring to Janeway's Voyager) and space flight was a big thing to me as a young boy. I used to go to the public library and they had these rows of file cabinets next to the card catalog. In these file cabinets were folders filled with newspaper clippings, and magazine articles about everything you could "possibly imagine." I remember holding those clippings regarding spaceflight in my boyish little hands. By the age of twelve I was sending requests for pictures and information from each of the aerospace contractors working on the shuttle like Rockwell International; including places like jpl, aames; any address I could get my hands on within NASA who might send a screen print of the rings of saturn, or the eye of jupiter, etc. I used to have quite a collection. I caught my self wondering the other day if a young person did something like that today; what would happen? Especially given the current economic situation and the wealth of information on the internet; could they, would they be able to reply?

 

[n122vu]

I haven't watched the new one either. I have season 1 of the new BSG in my Netflix instant queue, right behind all the seasons of Babylon 5. I'm going to have no trouble keeping busy this summer, that's for sure.

 

[jimblah]

Babylon

I really enjoyed Babylon 5. If you like it you should check out: http://babylon.hard-light.net/

 

[Carmen A]

By the age of twelve I was sending requests for pictures and information from each of the aerospace contractors working on the shuttle like Rockwell International; including places like jpl, aames; any address I could get my hands on within NASA who might send a screen print of the rings of saturn, or the eye of jupiter, etc. I used to have quite a collection. I caught my self wondering the other day if a young person did something like that today; what would happen?

My Mom at the age of 16 sent a letter to the Royal Navy in response to a recruitment ad... from Malaysia.

They actually replied. (That was the British Royal Navy, not the Malaysian one lmao)

Now, if South East Asian culture were less stuck-up about my Mom's international ambitions (Mom had part Irish heritage), I might be writing Horatio Hornblower style nautical tales today. Considering I spent most of my younger days reading up on naval history

But how would a large organisation respond to such curious little letters today?

Sadly the world today is pretty much an insolent one and I expect a response similar to the so-called customer service employed by businesses everywhere - no response at all.

 

[jimblah]

We're sorry, you're sorry, we're all sorry...

Alas corporate america. I was a loan adjuster with Bank of America. I created a separate work queue for single mothers who were struggling financially and set them up on easy payment arrangements within my authority. I was denied a "Level One Performance Evaluation" for this. Had I got this rating I would have been flown to the Bay Area from So. Cal. to meet with the CEO at the time. I resigned immediately and told them what they could do with their performance evaluation.:compbash:
PS. I'm part irish too!

 

[Linguofreak]

Interesting: Most of the unix timestamp to date conversion tools I've found on the internet interpret any year between 0 and 99 AD as a year between 1900 and 1999 AD, even if given as a four digit year (ie, 1-1-0000 is interpreted as 1-1-1900), however, they interpret negative years as correctly as possible (given that there was no year zero, so that '0 AD' would actually be 1 BC), as well as dates past 100 AD.

GNU date does not have this problem (it only interprets a year between 00 and 99 as being in the 20th century if it has exactly two digits, and furthermore, interprets two digit years between 00 and 68 as being in the 21st century), but it doesn't handle negative years.

 

[tblaxland]

Especially given the current economic situation and the wealth of information on the internet; could they, would they be able to reply?

I recently had some guys from Optus and Australian Space Research Institute send me some information about Woomera Test Range, just because I asked :thumbup:

 

[jimblah]

Made in the shade

Man you guys have it made in windows! I can confidently run Orbiter and its a joy! In linux I have gedit with all the plugins open to read wine output , embedded terminals in gedit and nautilus with pastebin plugins, system monitors, xchat, etc. on different workspaces. Hardware issues, software issues, driver issues. Case sensitivity issues. Duplicating results can be difficult. It's enough to make a man want to give up. Don't get me wrong, it's a different kind of fun. But I can see it getting old compared to running Orbiter in xp. It feels like I'm not any closer to learning how to fly than I was when I first laid eyes on Orbiter. Which is something I'm going to have to make time for. I'm looking for flight controls. Learning how to fly is the appeal Orbiter has for me over Celestia.

 

[Spacethingy]

By the age of twelve I was sending requests for pictures and information from each of the aerospace contractors working on the shuttle like Rockwell International; including places like jpl, aames; any address I could get my hands on within NASA who might send a screen print of the rings of saturn, or the eye of jupiter, etc. I used to have quite a collection. I caught my self wondering the other day if a young person did something like that today; what would happen?

When I was younger (about a decade ago) I wrote a letter to a lighthouse keeper, to thank him for a tour he gave us of his lighthouse.

I got a lovely big pack of pictures and leaflets back from Trinity House!

 

[Carmen A]

Alas corporate america. I was a loan adjuster with Bank of America. I created a separate work queue for single mothers who were struggling financially and set them up on easy payment arrangements within my authority. I was denied a "Level One Performance Evaluation" for this. Had I got this rating I would have been flown to the Bay Area from So. Cal. to meet with the CEO at the time. I resigned immediately and told them what they could do with their performance evaluation.:compbash:
PS. I'm part irish too!

Ouch!

Such initiatives are the cornerstone of my present employers' modus operandi. Any welfare given to staff absolutely guarantees increased operational capabilities in the end. Consideration for individuals' circumstances = morale and high morale is A Good Thing in this day and age (bad economy, abusive culture, etc).

Seems like the corporate fat cats need to learn that IQ isn't everything. When dealing with human beings. People power is paramount in the XXI Century, don't they know?

I've worked with some big-name restaurant chains too that told me, as a management intern, that "customer service is a waste of time". I remember walking out of the place shortly thereafter but not without giving the corporate HQ about 400 customer compliment letters in a year.

 

[jimblah]

Corporate Repercussions

Charles Ferguson's Oscar Speech Rips Wall Street: 'Inside Job' Director Levels Criticism During Acceptance

"Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong," Ferguson said.

Total Wall Street Bailout Cost
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Wall_Street_Bailout_Cost

GRAND TOTAL: $4.72 TRILLION DISBURSED $13.86 TRILLION MAX. AT-RISK $1.93 TRILLION OUTSTANDING

NASA gets just over $18.5 billion each year. (92.5 billion) for the next five years. We'll see if they get to keep that. These are estimates. Not to mention the other horrific effects this has caused.
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/516674main_FY12Budget_Estimates_Overview.pdf

:facepalm:

 

[n72.75]

WOOT 1000th POST!!!!

<hangs head in shame>

Sorry.

 

[Stevodoran]

WOOT 1000th POST!!!!

<hangs head in shame>

Sorry.

I will not be drawn into a conversation with you n72.75, about tractors.

 

[Izack]

Purple?? No, no, no my friend. Shoulder.

 

[jedidia]

Ha, finally back from the dead.

That is, my connection finally works again. And it looks like they switched us to a flat-rate, which is just as fine...

 

[n122vu]

I don't understand why all those people are trying to kill Jason Bourne in those movies. I mean, all the guy is doing is trying to see if everyone is brushed up on their spaceflight history. "Who ran project Redstone?" :rofl:

 

[Urwumpe]

A dramatic development in Egypt, with historical dimensions:

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahi_Hawass"]Zahi Hawass[/ame] resigned.

 

[Polaris]

If I had been one of the Marines in Aliens, I would have blown up Burke with a grenade.

 

[Linguofreak]

while (1)
{
     System.out.println("I know a song that gets on ");
     for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
         System.out.println("everybody's nerves, ");
     System.out.println("I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes... : ");
}

 

[Saturn V]

My arse itches...