Recent submissions

Comment · 2 months ago
I was a gradeschool student in the nineties, and I just want to close the loop for you.

All of us young people knew those bendy, half-plastic, scratchy-lead pencils were trash. (The graphite would even break inside the barrel). They were barely fit to play the role of tinkertoys.

I hope the PE firm did something magnanimous with the money it saved.

Comment · 5 months ago
You didn't have a router with dialup, or early DSL, where the modem was a separate device. You'd often get publicly routable IPv4s in your university dorm, too. See also napster. :-)
Comment · 9 months ago
Just amazing. I had a need for something like this but wound up building it out in Mathesar. That, too, is an amazing project, but my business logic has to remain separate. Jeepers, you're even getting into labor accounting - well done!
Comment · 11 months ago
Newton's Rings. Anti-newton glass is frosted, loses resolution.

Professional drum scanners would immerse the film in mineral oil. Epson used to ship a kit for their flatbeds. Popular with 8x10 photographers.

Comment · 1 year ago
There is a scene near the end where their dealer/friend/squatter rolls an enormous, conical joint, which he calls a "Camberwell Carrot."

I'm not from the UK and have been dying to know if there's more cultural nuance to that slang than name dropping a neighborhood.

Comment · 1 year ago
See also these internet-historical gems from everything2:

Uberman's sleep schedule - every 4 hours, sleep 20 minutes.

https://everything2.com/title/Uberman%2527s+Sleep+Schedule

Everyman sleep schedule - per above, with an additional 3-hour nap each 24 hours.

https://everything2.com/title/Everyman+Sleep+Schedule

Of course, the surest way to experiment with an alternative sleep schedule is to simply take care of a newborn, something humans have gotten pretty good at over the millennia.

Comment · 1 year ago
Comment · 2 years ago
Hee hee. But it is Farnsworthed, the default 40 WPM is quite spaced out!
Comment · 2 years ago
Worth noting that the movement to drop morse code, "No-code International," was spearheaded by none other than K6BP. Bruce Perens, one of our own!
Comment · 2 years ago
In absolute terms, probably, but some are declaring a renaissance associated with the increasing popularity in portable operation. Summits On The Air (SOTA) in particular favors lightweight transmitters. CW is such an efficient mode, in terms of speed, reach and circuit design that it is worth learning Morse for that single use case.

Personally, once I gained some proficiency with CW I realized that it is an enjoyable pursuit in and of itself, so now while not climbing mountains I stay on the low parts of the band and exchange postcards with octogenarians and I couldn't be happier.

Comment · 2 years ago
Comment · 2 years ago

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