Official Off Topic Discussion Thread #1

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I put up all the binding and stripping, and now I gotta put up siding.
It's about 99F but it's a dry heat.
Seriously, and the AC makes it drier.
I have 7 tanks and 4 sumps going in my house, and you can still get shocked petting the cat.

But I don't have 4 sweaty kids running the bathtub, so perhaps I'm forgetting the "joys" of the past.
 
celebrist said:
I remember that story!
Wasn't in some sort of anthology of novellas?
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Hello; That could be but I do not recall just now. He wrote a book about the fire bombing of Dresden Germany during WWII called Slaughterhouse 5 which was kind of strange.
I know the idea of healthy fit people with good eyesight and hearing having to wear devices that reduced them to the level of average folks seemed very farfetched back then. Now I fully expect even more boneheaded things to take place.
 
No problem buddy. It was no effort at all.

Remember what research used to be like when you had to travel?

I remember the story, and in particular the bags of weight and the noisey radio, in an entire country handicapped by its bureaucracy.

But without your mention I would not have remembered that Kurt Vonnegut was the author, though I have read a few of his novels including Breakfast of Champions, Timequake, Slaughterhouse-Five and IIRC, Venus on the Half-Shell
 
Anybody on limited bandwidth who opens my First Big DIY Systems thread will be sorry because I loaded up some huge photos and can't recode them as thumbnails. I'm used to forums with unlimited editing because I own them LOL.** The latest pix are thumbnails only and should load quickly.

(Maybe a bored admin will stumble on this post . . . )

**Gnarwheels.proboards.com is the only site I still run, and it's tiny. I don't promote the site and so I didn't make a hot-link. You don't have to be over 60 years old and still skating gnarly hills to join, but that's how it was started: by the Lordy-Lordys of DH legend, song, and stories. Well, actually, there is no song, but the stories are often amazing. If you are old and on meds . . . :shakehead
 
Ulu said:
Remember what research used to be like when you had to travel?
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Hello; When I was an undergraduate at Morehead State University back in the 1960's I had a part time job in the university library. I worked in the periodical section ( bound magazines). Many of the bound periodicals where the more serious rags in science, math, medicine, politics and such. Some went back many years. Most were a full year of a magazine and often very heavy.
There was a massive set of cross referenced files which was the way to look up particular subjects. Best I can recall copy machines were not common yet. Everyone had to sit and hand write all information gleaned from the bound volumes. All straight quotes copied by hand including all footnotes and reference information for a term paper or thesis paper.
The volumes could not be removed from the library so many a late night spent doing research. The experience helped me a lot when I had to do my own research. Only way to get the most current information was from the monthly publications since a bound book was usually out of date to some degree the day it was published.
In addition to helping students look up a needed article I had to reshelf all the heavy volumes every night.
When I first began to grasp the structure of the internet years later it seemed a wonderful leap in progress. I did not yet understand all the useless crud and misinformation that would flood the web. I do not believe there is anything we humans can fail to screw up.
 
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I didn't live in a college town until 1974. I had to travel 75 miles just to a town with a JC.
Later I was commuting from my folks place to a state U on the other side of the mountains.
But to access the big library at U of U was a 5 hour round trip minimum. Modem time was high and photo transmission was imperfect at the best of times.

Things are so sweet nowadays. I can get in contact with researchers around the world, with almost zero physical effort. People don't realize how rich that makes us as a society. This was unavailable at any cost and is now available for the cost of a cheap smartphone or chromebook, tablet, etc.

I don't know if the Kindle will ever replace the book, but I keep looking at all the space taken up by my books. I may just give them all to the Salvation Army.
 
Ulu said:
I didn't live in a college town until 1974. I had to travel 75 miles just to a town with a JC.
Later I was commuting from my folks place to a state U on the other side of the mountains.
But to access the big library at U of U was a 5 hour round trip minimum. Modem time was high and photo transmission was imperfect at the best of times.

Things are so sweet nowadays. I can get in contact with researchers around the world, with almost zero physical effort. People don't realize how rich that makes us as a society. This was unavailable at any cost and is now available for the cost of a cheap smartphone or chromebook, tablet, etc.

I don't know if the Kindle will ever replace the book, but I keep looking at all the space taken up by my books. I may just give them all to the Salvation Army.
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Oh no, don’t do that. There is something wonderful about the smell of books. Older books especially.
I love how easy it is to get information now. Just a few clicks and you can learn a new skill even. As a kid I could never have imagined how easy learning new things could be. I don’t think my kids will truly ever appreciate how easy they have things now. I think I would have been a lot more motivated in school if the internet was available to me back then.
 
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