Humor Random Comments Thread

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

What OS is it running?

Windows 7 and Lubuntu on seperate hard drives that I swap back and forth depending on which OS I want to use.

The machine came with a well thought out seperate bay that houses the ram and the hard drive, which made it very easy to swap things out.

Even with the few issues the thing has had with hardware slowly dying, its been a decently enjoyable laptop to use. Id have to give Samsung a B+ on this one.

 

[TMac3000]

Windows 7 and Lubuntu on seperate hard drives that I swap back and forth depending on which OS I want to use.

The machine came with a well thought out seperate bay that houses the ram cards and the hard drive, which made it very easy to swap things out.

Even with the few issues the thing has had with hardware slowly dying, its been a decently enjoyable laptop to use. Id have to give Samsung a B+ on this one.

Sounds like an interesting design indeed
But that's a tower sitting underneath it, yes?

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Sounds like an interesting design indeed
But that's a tower sitting underneath it, yes?

Ahh, yeah, the laptop is sitting on top of a different computer.

The one underneath it is an ancient Compaq (!) box that runs XP and just wont work with any modern linux distros. I set it up on a spare wifi router not connected to the internet as a home ftp server. And also installed a few other more modern programs for development and things like that. The selection of software that will still run on XP is not too bad IMO, so ancient pieces of garbage like it can still be put to some use.

Every time I use it I end up shaking my head and wondering how this old fossil was ever state of the art technology. :lol:

 

[Urwumpe]

Why is there no news thread on the Space Launch System, only add-on projects and requests?

And did you know that the aluminum tank domes of the SLS are made in Germany? Made by MT Aerospace, the same company that produces the tank domes for the Ariane V.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Why is there no news thread on the Space Launch System, only add-on projects and requests?

Because I, for one, expect it to die a quiet death a la Constellation.

 

[Andy44]

Why is there no news thread on the Space Launch System, only add-on projects and requests?

Looks like you just volunteered!

Because I, for one, expect it to die a quiet death a la Constellation.

Sadly that has a high probability of being true.

Back in 2007 I rained on everyone's parade here by stating my belief that as soon as a new president takes office all that pie-in-the-sky Contellation back-to-the-moon stuff would get canned. Turns out I was right.

You know what's coming in a year and a half? Another new president.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Looks like you just volunteered!



Sadly that has a high probability of being true.

Back in 2007 I rained on everyone's parade here by stating my belief that as soon as a new president takes office all that pie-in-the-sky Contellation back-to-the-moon stuff would get canned. Turns out I was right.

You know what's coming in a year and a half? Another new president.

Yep. Constellation was a real big point in favor of one of the key tenets of the Mars Direct program: Set a FAST and HARD deadline of ten years or less. Otherwise, Constellation.
Problem is, NASA doesn't WANT to do it. Neither does Congress. They just want to make jobs, but never actually GO. :2cents:

 

[orbitingpluto]

Problem is, NASA doesn't WANT to do it. Neither does Congress. They just want to make jobs, but never actually GO. :2cents:

NASA would gladly go for a Mars plan, workable or not, but if the President isn't willing to push for it, and Congress won't fund anything but pet projects and the bare minimum(or less) of what NASA needs to do it's regular work, there's little NASA can do.

NASA can't even convince Congress to fully fund the Commercial Crew effort, and that's far less expensive than any human Mars mission, and directly applicable to research, development, and operations experience that should precede a Mars mission.. Getting near enough budget for that has been like pulling teeth- I think the lack of interest you see in NASA has more to do with that agency being more concerned with just getting the funds it needs to complete the projects it has, rather than going hat in hand to the Congress with a considerably more expensive project than Apollo, one that every Congress since the dawn of the space age has been unwilling to pay for.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

NASA would gladly go for a Mars plan, workable or not, but if the President isn't willing to push for it, and Congress won't fund anything but pet projects and the bare minimum(or less) of what NASA needs to do it's regular work, there's little NASA can do.

NASA can't even convince Congress to fully fund the Commercial Crew effort, and that's far less expensive than any human Mars mission, and directly applicable to research, development, and operations experience that should precede a Mars mission.. Getting near enough budget for that has been like pulling teeth- I think the lack of interest you see in NASA has more to do with that agency being more concerned with just getting the funds it needs to complete the projects it has, rather than going hat in hand to the Congress with a considerably more expensive project than Apollo, one that every Congress since the dawn of the space age has been unwilling to pay for.

It's more of a culture thing now. My dad's worked with them in the recent past, on man-rated hardware. They're incredibly risk-averse with manned missions these days. The loss of Columbia hit them hard, and they still haven't recovered. I strongly suspect that NASA's out of the in-house manned mission business for the foreseeable future.

 

[Quick_Nick]

They just want to make jobs, but never actually GO. :2cents:

Relevant: NASA’s $349 million monument to its drift

It's worth reading in its entirety for anyone who has the time.

 

[n122vu]

Every time I use it I end up shaking my head and wondering how this old fossil was ever state of the art technology. :lol:

Eh, it could be worse. Much, much worse:
http://www.techrepublic.com/article...-that-haunts-a-michigan-public-school-system/

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Eh, it could be worse. Much, much worse:
http://www.techrepublic.com/article...-that-haunts-a-michigan-public-school-system/

Damn. Reliable machine! :lol:

 

[n122vu]

Damn. Reliable machine! :lol:

Right? And to think, back when I was a desktop tech for a furniture manufacturer 5-6 years ago, I was frustrated that they were running CNC machines with IBM PC 350GLs running Windows 98. We were able to virtualize those on an XP host to get a few more years out of the programs and the CNCs, but XP's retirement forced them off the network and last I heard they had to sneakernet the CNC files via USB thumbdrive.

 

[jedidia]

they were running CNC machines with IBM PC 350GLs running Windows 98

:blink:
CNC machines on Win98? oh boy... aren't things like these exactly what Windows NT was made for in the first place?

sneakernet

:rofl:

 

[TMac3000]

I truly never thought I'd see the day when these words would come out of my mouth/keyboard: God bless OpenSUSE!

So I was doing an update, which you have to do manually through Zypper or Yast, because it's just a little weird like that...and the thing got stuck for a really long time at 95%, and my fan was in 6th gear. I was patient for quite sometime, and then figured the updater had crashed. So I just rebooted.

And broke X. The thing was terminal-only, even after multiple reboots. I thought for sure I would have to reboot from my trusty Lubuntu CD, back up my stuff to my external HD, reinstall, and reevaluate whether I should continue to use this OS.

That's when I discovered what the Snapshot feature is for:woohoo:

This OS not only works a thousand times better than 12.1, it saved MY ass when I did something stupid. That tears it. This one's a keeper:thumbup:

A word from one who has suffered, my children: NEVER reboot during an update. Never. I don't care if the updater has crashed. I don't care if it sits there until doomsday. Don't reboot while the updater is running. No exceptions.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Right? And to think, back when I was a desktop tech for a furniture manufacturer 5-6 years ago, I was frustrated that they were running CNC machines with IBM PC 350GLs running Windows 98. We were able to virtualize those on an XP host to get a few more years out of the programs and the CNCs, but XP's retirement forced them off the network and last I heard they had to sneakernet the CNC files via USB thumbdrive.

Hey, for a CNC, you don't need a hell of a lot of processing power. And honestly, today's machines can be a bit on the thoroughbred side: Capable of incredible performance, but prone to failure at the slightest disturbance.

 

[Andy44]

You guys speaking all this computer gibberish make me feel old and obsolete...

I'm at the point now where I just want computers to be tools that work and do things for me. I no longer have the motivation to build my own machine like I used to. I have always been more of an analog electronics guy anyway.

 

[Notebook]

CNC...Computer Numerical Control. or have I got it wrong?

N,

 

[MaverickSawyer]

CNC...Computer Numerical Control. or have I got it wrong?

N,

You have it right. It's wonderful stuff when programmed right. If not... It's expensive. :shifty:

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Eh, it could be worse. Much, much worse:
http://www.techrepublic.com/article...-that-haunts-a-michigan-public-school-system/

Dear God.

I mean, you could probably make enough money from selling an old dinosaur like that to a collector that you could replace the whole system with something decent. :facepalm: