Definitely a dystopian alternate universe. Time to hop back in the DeLorean and go back.

How many wish cards do we get?

Care to expound on the subject? Apparently I don't. Even if cloudy (which it was today) I expected it to at least get significantly dark. Yeah, I'm not an astronomy expert but when I'm told we'll get an 80% eclipse, I expect 80% of the sun to disappear at some point, causing a few minutes of the daytime to be 80% darker... I'm not sure what I'm missing but I'm curious to know. I can't be the only one in Cleveland disappointed by this eclipse.

 

I can only tell you to view photos/videos from the path of totality where the full effect was felt.

 

We had about 86% coverage in Columbus, though clouds rolled through around the "peak" time.  It was still noticeably darker.

 

That said, 14% (or whatever your inverse percentage is) of the sun was still shining on us, so it was never going to be totally "dark" like it was in the path of totality.

 

It was still a pretty rare event for the U.S.  It was very cool, even at 86%, to see it through the special glasses.

 

Time to gear up for 2024 when much of Ohio will see a total eclipse!

I sold a Beanie Boo during peak. Also there were two people sitting in the mall common area and someone was ordering food at the Chik-Fil-A.

I did the pinhole thing and saw the coverage. It looked like a crescent shaped spot of light. The magnificence of nature!! Not surprisingly, my iphone didn't capture anything (I didn't have any lenses or glasses so couldn't gaze directly at the sun like our superhero president). I got a picture of a ball of light. While it wasn't dark, the quality of the light definitely changed and took on a more eerie quality, at least for a few minutes. Hey, considering it took all of about 5 minutes out of my day, I'm not complaining.

 

I watched NASA's livestream early on, and the eclipse they covered in Iowa was amazing. Not only did you see the halo effect, you could see two solar flares, and then the triangular light effect they talked about as the eclipse came out of totality. I'm sure they've kept the video available. Check that out. Definitely an interesting phenomenon.

i watched the eclipse on the highline. we had 71% coverage. it was spectacular. the sky got very noticably dark and the birds went nuts flocking around and around. i felt really bad for them, they were clearly confused. we had huge crowds and lots of ooinng and awwing when the moonsun or whatever ya call it came out from the clouds.

 

unfortunately it was impossible to get a photo with an iphone. too much light even with putting the eclipse glasses over the lens. this was the best i could do:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David, can't tell if you were being serious about the cooling effect of the eclipse causing Yellowstone to erupt. That's ludicrous. By that logic, a cloudy day would have the same effect, no? What is the correlation between ground surface temperature, which would be affected by sunlight, and volcanic activity? Am I missing something here?

 

I was watching Youtube videos on conspiracy theories concerning the eclipse that they claimed were backed up by science so I'm pretty sure it wasn't 'ludicrous,' sir.  You're fake news.

 

Seriously though, that super-volcano is due to erupt and when it does, most of the U.S. is absolutely f-ed.  Ohio is probably a Doomsday Prepper's wet dream. We manage to stay out of the way of almost every major threat, minus tornados, which really aren't that big of a threat.

 

I have heard multiple times that earthquakes occur shortly before or after a total eclipse. Yellowstone has recently been experiencing a hell of a lot of earthquake activity lately anyway and earthquakes do trigger volcanic eruption. One just occurred, right before the eclipse: http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/844037/eclipse-solar-eclipse-earthquake-Yellowstone-volcano There have been thousands, recently.

 

When the super-volcano in Yellowstone erupts, it is projected that it will be 1000x more powerful than Mt. St. Helens. We're talking 10 inches of volcanic ash and nuclear winter for MOST of the United States.  That is in addition to lava instantly destroying everything in the western-mid United States. Not only will tens of millons of people die but crops will as well. It will effect the entire world. It may happen tomorrow or thousands of years from now but one thing is certain; it will happen and there will be devastation like we've never seen.

Yes, the gravitational pull of the sun and moon line up and it is believed that larger quakes happen at this time; however, this alignment happens every 28 days during a new moon.  And also when opposite as during the full moon.

I was in the totality zone in Tennessee.  So we experienced everything everyone else did plus the near-total darkness for a little over two minutes.  No photo or video can express how crazy it was.  The colors shifted wildly and the rate of dimming accelerated for about a minute and then it was just...OFF.  I had my back to the sun when it happened and had my back to it again when it the sun peaked out. 

 

The darkness wasn't complete darkness but we could see Venus and probably a few stars.  I imagine that the lighting was similar to what it's like near the poles when the sun dips slightly below the horizon but there is still some light. 

I was in Hopkinsville, KY for the eclipse, which was fully eclipsed for 2 minutes and 40 seconds. It was pretty incredible to see. I wouldn't quite say it looked like night, more like a very dark dusk. You could see stars (and Venus) in the sky during that time, crickets came out and start chirping, street lights came on, etc.

 

However, that level of darkness only occurred while the sun was 100% fully eclipsed. As soon as even a sliver of the sun was unblocked, it just seemed about as dark as a cloudy day... which is to say, not that dark. You basically need to be directly in the path of totality or you're not even going to notice that anything weird happened.

I was in Hopkinsville, KY for the eclipse, which was fully eclipsed for 2 minutes and 40 seconds. It was pretty incredible to see. I wouldn't quite say it looked like night, more like a very dark dusk. You could see stars (and Venus) in the sky during that time, crickets came out and start chirping, street lights came on, etc.

 

However, that level of darkness only occurred while the sun was 100% fully eclipsed. As soon as even a sliver of the sun was unblocked, it just seemed about as dark as a cloudy day... which is to say, not that dark. You basically need to be directly in the path of totality or you're not even going to notice that anything weird happened.

 

Had I known that, I would have made plans to go south. The media really made it seem like it was something to behold for all of us, to an extent. Oh well. Cleveland gets a total eclipse in just a couple years. That's awesome. I won't even have to plan to go anywhere. Since people are more prone to travel to bigger cities, it'll no doubt cause a nice tourism boost up here, which is always good.

I should also mention that traffic coming back from Hopkinsville was complete and total insanity. We would have preferred to book a hotel room in the area but every single hotel, AirBNB, and campground anywhere near the eclipse path was completely full as of a few weeks ago. So we decided to drive down and back home the same day. It took us 4 1/2 hours to get there, as we hit some moderate traffic along the way. But the drive home took us about 8 hours. All of the maps apps were routing us on various two-lane state routes to avoid the interstates which were completely clogged. I'm sure the people in these small towns were blown away that hours after the eclipse, the back roads of Kentucky were still in gridlock. We saw a number of major accidents, most likely caused by drivers that aren't familiar with driving on these narrow back roads. I-71 was flowing at about 15 MPH between Louisville and Cincinnati. It seriously felt like a hurricane evacuation or something along those lines.

 

When I first heard that the state of Kentucky was expecting huge crowds and was preparing for it like they prepare for a big snow/ice event, I thought they were overreacting. But in retrospect, they definitely weren't.

The total eclipse sounds pretty cool.  I watched it downtown Cleveland - it was cool to watch with the glasses but with naked eye, it was not any more dramatic than a slightly overcast day. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/anchors-throw-shade-eclipse-151410779.html

 

David, you weren't the only one underwhelmed lol

Somebody at work told me that they left Nashville at 2:30pm, immediately after the eclipse, and didn't get back to Cincinnati until 3:00am.  Another guy simply didn't return and took today off.  I guess he stayed in his car. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/anchors-throw-shade-eclipse-151410779.html

 

David, you weren't the only one underwhelmed lol

 

 

 

lol -- well what do ya know, the fox guy and the former fox gal just didn't get it.

 

That was great.

 

Shepard Smith is hilarious!

 

I don't generally like Fox News and I especially don't like their politics but Shepard Smith at least keeps it real.

 

"Oh, ...and your kids die, too!" That was classic.

What a lame eclipse

The U.S. Military spends $60 Billion a year, operating and maintaining a nuclear program that relies on 8 inch floppy disks to coordinate its ICBMs, nuclear bombers and tanker support aircraft! The biggest threat to our nuclear defense system is a damn magnet!?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/us/pentagon-floppy-disks-nuclear/index.html

 

 

The U.S. Military spends $60 Billion a year, operating and maintaining a nuclear program that relies on 8 inch floppy disks to coordinate its ICBMs, nuclear bombers and tanker support aircraft! The biggest threat to our nuclear defense system is a damn magnet!?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/us/pentagon-floppy-disks-nuclear/index.html

 

 

 

They very same military who's Navy, in spite of modern radar, GPS and night vision, can't stop running into merchant vessels...

The U.S. Military spends $60 Billion a year, operating and maintaining a nuclear program that relies on 8 inch floppy disks to coordinate its ICBMs, nuclear bombers and tanker support aircraft! The biggest threat to our nuclear defense system is a damn magnet!?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/us/pentagon-floppy-disks-nuclear/index.html

 

These types of stories pop up every few years and are usually spread by people who want to push a narrative of "look at this antiquated government bureaucracy". But it's often a better choice to keep the old technology chugging along than to throw it out and rewrite the software from scratch. Any time you throw away old code and re-write it, you are guaranteed to introduce bugs, and that's not something you want to mess with when talking about something like nuclear weapons.

 

That's also why most of America's banking system is still reliant on software written in ancient programming languages. Does Bank of America or another large bank really want to throw out a 45 year old system that works fine and replace it with something brand new written in a more modern language? When the risk is that you might take down the American financial system, and there's really no direct/immediate benefit, it's not something that the banks are going to do.

^Also, I would assume that much of the military and the controls to the nuclear weapons operate on a closed network where relatively low-tech and relatively labor-intensive processes create an unhackable safeguard.  It would be pretty tough for a foreign entity to physically break into a facility and switch out an 8" floppy disc. 

 

I know a guy who worked on the successful effort to destroy the Iranian centrifuges.  The way they caused the centrifuges to self-destruct was completely reliant on the fact that they were running their refining plant on Windows and used thumb drives. 

^ Oh yeah, that incident was absolutely crazy. In that case, the US government was able to exploit the poor security of Internet connected devices for good. But it goes to show how dangerous it is for us to be putting so many internet-connected devices in our homes. I'm not so much worried about the stuff from major tech companies, but internet-connected lightbulbs and power outlets and security cameras made by no-name Chinese companies are extremely vulnerable to being hacked. So far we have seen hackers use these devices to send spam or start DDOS attacks on websites they want to target. But as we start to put more and more sophisticated internet-connected devices in our homes, the attacks could get much more extreme and cross over into the real world instead of just launching internet-based attacks.

The U.S. Military spends $60 Billion a year, operating and maintaining a nuclear program that relies on 8 inch floppy disks to coordinate its ICBMs, nuclear bombers and tanker support aircraft! The biggest threat to our nuclear defense system is a damn magnet!?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/us/pentagon-floppy-disks-nuclear/index.html

 

These types of stories pop up every few years and are usually spread by people who want to push a narrative of "look at this antiquated government bureaucracy". But it's often a better choice to keep the old technology chugging along than to throw it out and rewrite the software from scratch. Any time you throw away old code and re-write it, you are guaranteed to introduce bugs, and that's not something you want to mess with when talking about something like nuclear weapons.

 

That's also why most of America's banking system is still reliant on software written in ancient programming languages. Does Bank of America or another large bank really want to throw out a 45 year old system that works fine and replace it with something brand new written in a more modern language? When the risk is that you might take down the American financial system, and there's really no direct/immediate benefit, it's not something that the banks are going to do.

 

That's what QA engineers are for, right? I'm sure they had plenty of bugs to work out when they developed the system in the '70s, before they had the ability to test for bugs as easily as we are able to now. I don't see why they couldn't at least upgrade to a more stable form of memory storage while maintaining the same archaic code. Maybe I'm missing something. For the record, I'm not necessarily against 'old code.' Primitive programming languages are closer to assembly and allow the code to be ran quicker and more efficiently. That's why highly demanding video games are still coded in C to C++. However, personally, I think I'd like to see a complete overhaul. I know  it's a huge endeavor with an endless number of extremely frustrating lines of code to be stared at for countless hours and a seemingly endless amount of testing but at some point, you do have to upgrade and get with the times and program in a language like C# , if the military hasn't already done the right thing and developed their own cutting edge programming language.

 

We all know floppy disks are unreliable. The data contained on the disk can easily become unreadable.  Floppy disks physically deteriorate over time, in only a matter of decades. Instructions need to come from a reliable, solid state drive. I know we may differ on this issue but I think it's ridiculous that I'm able to go to Micro Center (I'm like a kid in a candy store at Micro Center!) and buy technology that even the U.S. Military doesn't even use, yet.

 

I know you work in and have a hell of a lot of experience in the industry; I certainly don't discount that. I just don't see why there shouldn't be plans for its modernization. It is going to be modernized very soon regardless but if you have a compelling counter-argument against it, I'm certainly 'all ears' in regard to what what you have to say on the matter as I really do value your opinion.

There's a PBS Nova documentary on Stuxnet, and another documentary I watched on (I think it was Showtime produced). It really was an amazing zero day exploit. If I remember correctly, the facility that was targeted was air-gapped - nothing in it was connected to the internet, hence the flash drive strategy. Israeli agents just "lost" them in places frequented by the Iranian facility workers, knowing a few would grab them and plug them in just to see what was on them, and eventually one of them plugged one of the drives into a computer on the intranet and that's all it took. That type of zero-day exploit can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars on the black market, and it's usually governments paying to buy them. The more complex a software, the more of those there might be. There's not a whole lot of room for exploits or hostile code on an 8" floppy, though.

Well it took the invention of computers to break the German Enigma machine, but I have no doubt that they are keeping things decentralized and doing things manually at that high level today to prevent the errant firing of the missiles.  The errant firing of nuclear weapons is no doubt a greater threat than the very unlikely intentional use of them.

 

This past weekend I stayed at an old hotel in Pennsylvania that used index cards to keep reservations and still had regular keys for the doors.  They did have a credit card reader, though.   

Well it took the invention of computers to break the German Enigma machine, but I have no doubt that they are keeping things decentralized and doing things manually at that high level today to prevent the errant firing of the missiles.  The errant firing of nuclear weapons is no doubt a greater threat than the very unlikely intentional use of them.

 

This past weekend I stayed at an old hotel in Pennsylvania that used index cards to keep reservations and still had regular keys for the doors.  They did have a credit card reader, though.   

 

Unfortunately, Alan Touring's genius and impact on saving the world will be forever understated.

 

Here's a video of 2 minutes of totality in TN.

The U.S. Military spends $60 Billion a year, operating and maintaining a nuclear program that relies on 8 inch floppy disks to coordinate its ICBMs, nuclear bombers and tanker support aircraft! The biggest threat to our nuclear defense system is a damn magnet!?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/us/pentagon-floppy-disks-nuclear/index.html

 

These types of stories pop up every few years and are usually spread by people who want to push a narrative of "look at this antiquated government bureaucracy". But it's often a better choice to keep the old technology chugging along than to throw it out and rewrite the software from scratch. Any time you throw away old code and re-write it, you are guaranteed to introduce bugs, and that's not something you want to mess with when talking about something like nuclear weapons.

 

That's also why most of America's banking system is still reliant on software written in ancient programming languages. Does Bank of America or another large bank really want to throw out a 45 year old system that works fine and replace it with something brand new written in a more modern language? When the risk is that you might take down the American financial system, and there's really no direct/immediate benefit, it's not something that the banks are going to do.

 

That's what QA engineers are for, right? I'm sure they had plenty of bugs to work out when they developed the system in the '70s, before they had the ability to test for bugs as easily as we are able to now. I don't see why they couldn't at least upgrade to a more stable form of memory storage while maintaining the same archaic code. Maybe I'm missing something. For the record, I'm not necessarily against 'old code.' Primitive programming languages are closer to assembly and allow the code to be ran quicker and more efficiently. That's why highly demanding video games are still coded in C to C++. However, personally, I think I'd like to see a complete overhaul. I know  it's a huge endeavor with an endless number of extremely frustrating lines of code to be stared at for countless hours and a seemingly endless amount of testing but at some point, you do have to upgrade and get with the times and program in a language like C# , if the military hasn't already done the right thing and developed their own cutting edge programming language.

 

We all know floppy disks are unreliable. The data contained on the disk can easily become unreadable.  Floppy disks physically deteriorate over time, in only a matter of decades. Instructions need to come from a reliable, solid state drive. I know we may differ on this issue but I think it's ridiculous that I'm able to go to Micro Center (I'm like a kid in a candy store at Micro Center!) and buy technology that even the U.S. Military doesn't even use, yet.

 

I know you work in and have a hell of a lot of experience in the industry; I certainly don't discount that. I just don't see why there shouldn't be plans for its modernization. It is going to be modernized very soon regardless but if you have a compelling counter-argument against it, I'm certainly 'all ears' in regard to what what you have to say on the matter as I really do value your opinion.

 

The only thing I can think of is that the hardware/BIOS/operating system that they are running doesn't support SSDs (and may not even support hard drives). Therefore in order to switch from floppy discs to anything more modern, it would require the entire system to be modernized.

 

I don't disagree that it could/should be modernized. My main point here is that often when very old hardware/software/languages are still in use, there's a good reason.

The sheer size difference in memory might make it think there's not enough memory when in reality there is billions of times more memory than necessary.

that story goes around every couple years. its just shocking clickbait headlines nonsense. the system is closed, works fine and there is no reason to update it. obviously the risks are far too great. do you really think all the people that manage the greatest military power the world has ever known are not fully on top of that?

 

lots of places still use old software and systems. you can read about car repair shops still using trs 80s or whatever to this day too. heck even where i work we have one inhouse system thats so big and old it cant be touched either. its freakin dos with black and greenscreen. sure, its clunky as hell to use, but it holds the data and it works fine in its old outdated way lol.

 

anyway, by far the bigger issue for the military is that unstable, adhd, steriodal propecia haircare popping boss with his finger on the trigger. now that is truly frightening.

Ugh. If their hardware is really that archaic, I really feel that they need a complete overhaul. Too much is at stake; I can see how every millisecond could matter, particularly when you're at war. The military should be using the fastest processors capable of handling the most instructions per cycle, the fastest and most reliable motherboards, the most (and fastest) DDR4 RAM; etc. I have nothing to do with the military but I don't think it's unreasonable to think that there's no good excuses for cutting edge technology to not be in place with the military. I'd like to know that we're competitive.

 

I'm not so much concerned about the software. Higher level languages just entail a lot of bulky and mostly unnecessary libraries, i.e. inefficient and unclean code, more than anything it accomplishes.

 

I'm sure there's a solution to transferring content of floppy disks to better storage devices. Hell, with what all we're told about the military and knowing their insane budget, I'd kind of expect them to be the ones spearheading innovation in reliable storage devices with the highest speed and that hold the most terabytes.

 

Sorry, but I'm not backing down. Reading that article made me feel like it's ridiculous that the military is still stuck in the '70s. It looks like they're getting their way though and that they're getting the overhaul I've been b!tching about. Heh. They're probably going to have a lot of coders guzzling coffee on a lot of sleepless nights.

 

My closet extreme nerdiness is showing right now  :-o Oh well  :-D

well you should actually because you just dont need any of that to launch missles. its pretty straightforward. and there certainly needs to be delays built in to accomodate the human element in that kind of decision. which there are. after all, you are talking about the end of the world.

 

of course the missles themselves need to be constantly modernized, as does their command and control after launch. pretty sure that is done, but its is handled elsewhere.

 

think of it like nasa. cape canaveral handles the launch. once it clears the tower houston takes over.

 

Really? It's just straight-forward? I'd honestly expect to hear a statement as bold as that only from someone who is extremely high ranked in IT in one of the branches of the U.S. military or a qualified person in the Pentagon. I don't even know what you are saying. What you said just looks like a hastily made, man-splaining string from someone that doesn't actually know what they're talking about.

 

You don't think missiles are effected by various, ultimately unpredictable weather conditions like wind and precipitation? You don't think those missiles rely on GPS (or should) and to be truly effective, wouldn't rely on CONSTANT updates (the faster those signals are sent and received, the better) to allow said missile to adjust its instructed trajectory? You think there's no chance of a sudden obstruction in an ICBM's trajectory that should be taken into account? Those are just a few things that need taken into consideration. I have no doubt that there's a lot of other complications I haven't even thought of and that engineers in the military responsible for resolving said issues would even think of without consulting numerous experts.

 

Aside from infrastructure, you're telling me you believe it's irrelevant to have decent, if not top-of-the-line and reliable hardware functioning to send and receive commands at critical moments? Like I said, I can't even tell what you're talking about.

 

You guys (whoever it applies to) need to get out of here with your man-splaining. That's the biggest problem with this forum and I know it's the reason why there is literally no female posters. I haven't even seen 'RockNRoller' lately. I guess I have to be the first to say and admit that... as a dude, it annoys me too. It's actually always annoyed me since 2006 when I first posted here but I put up with it because I've always loved (and always will love) posting here where people ultimately care about similar things in the world and will always consider you all my friends. I admit that I too, have been a culprit and a man-splainer but hell, I've least I've acknowledged the issue and tried to make a difference after that realization. I really hope others do too. It seems to be a natural inclination for folks to oppose anything I say but it should be pretty obvious that there's no women on this forum and probably a good reason why. I honestly think that the tone and the constant need to one-up and be right is the biggest reason for that.

 

Does it really matter if someone is right or not? Aren't we all just here to have fun, kick it, relax and be able to express ourselves and attempt to ultimately gain a better understanding of life and the events around us? I don't understand why posters approach their responses the way they do. The things I've said can't be that outlandish. I think I raise some good points. If I didn't, I really don't think it would be worth so many's time to respond to my 'absurdies.' I'm tired of getting on here and expressing my genuinely unique thoughts and ideas only to be met with people just wanting to argue with me for the sake of arguing and attempting to get the upper-hand; pointing out that I'm wrong when they don't know any more about the issue than I do. It's so stupid.

 

I went to school for coding and I built my own computer from scratch with individual components when I was only 12 years old. Yet, even on this issue I have random MFers explaining to me that I'm wrong, with posts that have almost no substance. I really hope you have the formal education and experience to back up a counter-argument against me.

 

Sh!t is so annoying. I really thought someone would just respond to my original post on that matter with a ::laughing:: emoticon or hitting the like button because it really is funny (at least that was my main point.) I think it's f*cking hilarious that the U.S. military relies on 8 inch floppy disks that can be wiped out with a small magnet. Hell no! It had to get so complex.

 

I wasn't even aware that those existed. My earliest memories entailed playing games like 'number crunchers' on a 5.25 inch floppy at Dana Elementary School and that was only because I went to Columbus Public Schools where we had... antiquated everything. By middle school, I attended 'Cincinnati Academy of Math and Science' where we at least had Apple computers from 1992 or 1993 and after we were done with our Dvorak work learning how to touch-type, we were allowed  to pop in the 3.25 floppy that at least had a hard shell containing 'Oregon Trail.' I can't tell you how many times I have died of dysentery!

We aren't talking about guidance systems -- we're talking about the actual launch commands, the protocol, the communication between people and the computers that make these things ignite and take off. 

 

I don't believe that we are producing any new ICBM's...most of our missiles were probably built in the 70s and 80s.  New ones wouldn't be any more destructive or accurate than the ones we have.  Considering the profound power of these things, they don't need to hit within a mile of the target to destroy it and everything else within a 2-3 mile radius.  All of the calculation is made during the launch and while the rocket engine is actually firing.  There is only so much guidance they can do once the missile has hit its ballistic peak and is falling toward Earth. 

The convo may have digressed. I don't know. I'm not going to act like I'm an expert on their hardware and softtware. However, I do have a hunch that their system is not as robust as it could and absolutely should be.

 

From what I've read, it seems very clear that the floppy disks are heavily involved in the execution of the launch. Back then, you have to understand that floppy disks essentially served as a hard drive. The problem is that the tape within them is a particularly bad, unreliable form of data storage. You know, even today, you hear about SATA hard drives crashing all the time. Hell, my girlfriend's sister has a MacBook Pro and God knows the assumption is that Apple can do no wrong as they use all of the absolute best components (and yeah, I'll point out that they charge well beyond a reasonable price for what those components entail vs. the same components as a 'PC') but anyway, her hard drive crashed and she lost everything - including a lot of things that were really important to her. She never even bothered to consult me when the incident happened to see if I could help rectify the situation but that's a whole other issue. It's safe to assume she didn't have a solid-state drive. It sounds like the U.S. military doesn't even know what that is.

 

My point is that sh!t happens but with antiquated technology, it happens much more frequently and with floppy disks, sh!t happens in ways that aren't even possible with the technology that probably most of us are using regularly today. The floppys in the military need to go. Who the hell even manufactures 8 inch floppy disks? That's what I want to know.

Yeah most of us here know what floppy drives are because we used them in the 80s.  The first PC we had did not have a hard drive and had just one disk drive.  If you wanted to copy a file, you had to copy it into the RAM, which I believe was 128k, then insert a blank disc and the computer then copied the data onto the blank disk. 

 

The reason why a computer's hard drive is often still called the C drive is because it was preceded by A and B drives that were just floppy drives.  Some computers had just an A (like the one I described above) and those that also had a B drive either had a duplicate 51/4 drive or they had a 3.25" drive, which appeared around the same time hard drives first appeared.  CD drives appeared after that, which is why they are typically the D drive.  Later, there were SyQuest, Jazz, and Zip drives. 

 

 

Yeah, I hear you.

 

Remember Zip drives? Haha. They could  certainly hold a lot of data but they definitely didn't last long. That's because they still used tape. It's funny, I was just in Micro Center last week buying a new laptop (btw Cleveland has an extremely lame Micro Centro; I was really disappointed - wtf is going on?) and I noticed a lot of the computers still have optical drives. I don't even recall the last time I stuck a CD in the tray for any reason. Also, I've literally never watched an actual Blu-Ray movie in my life, either. I just download stuff. Somehow, even CDs seem to still be relevant. I was in Wal Mart recently, in the electronics section (I hardly ever shop in those stores period but when I do, I'm always interested in seeing the latest gadgets with their bells and whistles) and I noticed that artists still have 'albums' that are actually contained on physical CDs. It was actually comforting to know but to be honest, it's kind of weird. You can get on the internet and immediatley/instantly download songs to your phone or computer or whatever device and that is certainly the route I go. Honestly though, a part of me is glad that physical forms of media still exist. It just seems right, even though it makes no sense.

I just remembered that my first computer was a Packard-Bell. That thing barely did anything at all but I was so excitied to get it to do anything. I was just a little kid, typing commands in DOS to get the computer to do literally anything. It's weird, realizing that early life lesson on the importance of following syntax.

 

Without floppy disks, there wasn't much of anything it could do on its own. I also had this dot matrix printer attached to it. I think I mostly just used it t to print stuff because I could but what I remember most is how slow it would print stuff. It was like watching paint dry.

 

We've come a long way but since we've figured out that we're just a culture mostly just concerned with consuming online content, at worst, that simply entails streaming video content.  There just isn't much of a mainstream need for a top-of-the-line, innovative computer like there used to be. To be honest, it's sort of depressing to me. It curbs innovation. My computer slows down pretty often and I'm always paranoid it's going to crash when I'm using Visual Studio or some other very demanding application. I really don't feel I should have to worry about that in 2017.

 

I went to Micro Center just a couple weeks ago because my laptop shut off out of nowhere while I was using it and wouldn't turn on. I determined it wasn't the battery  or power supply and tried a hard reset. I also reset the RAM. After disassembling it, discovered that my motherboard was fried, probably from overheating. I needed to get a new computer. My laptop was my baby but I wasn't sad or disappointed; it had a good run. What was disappointing though, is that I went shopping and found out that laptops in the same price range as when I bought the previous one, had close to the same specifications. I essentially bought this laptop for the same price as the old one and got more RAM out of the deal but not really anything more. Over the course of three years, you'd think that there has been some major advancements and that prices have come down, much more. It wasn't very significant though. We're certainly taught to expect and look forward to that.

 

Like I said, even though the market for computers has expanded, most people just use it to stream online media content (for the most part, probably for the purpose of viewing porn if we're being completely honest) and you could honesty get the same or better performance from an 8 year old Dell Lattitude than the average computer sold today. The only thing most consumers notice immediately (and absolutely make a purchase decision based on) is a noticeable difference in screen resolution (claritity) and also brightness. It's just an easy thing to notice when you're shopping, if you aren't particularly tech-savvy. The manufacturers know this. Sound card and speaker quality are another thing to easily notice but also a sleek and shiny design (which, lets be honest, means what looks closest to whatever Apple is doing.) It's funny though, my girl had a really good HP computer she just replaced with a decent HP all-in-one.. Her previous one is about 5 years old but to this day has great competitive specs but it claimed to have "Beats" speakers and I remember we'd try to watch movies in bed (no TV in the bedroom) on that laptop but couldn't even hear absolutely anything over just a fan in the background, even with using VLC Media Player which actually does a really good job of amplifying sound. That was so annoying. Speaker quality and noise level on laptops is a valid concern for a consumer but it doesn't seem like one that many manufacturers are concerned about.

Most likely those 8" floppies are being stored well and cycled/backed up regularly. It is rocket science. It's not like accidentally leaving low-grade floppies from Electronics Boutique in your car or letting them sit on a speaker.

I think UrbanOhio needs to launch a dial up BBS. It can be accessed via modem or Telnet.

Are you like me and use phrases like, "It's not Rocket Surgery"? There's a name for it now! The blend of idioms and clichés are called malaphors!

 

"When life gives you lemons, throw it a person living in a glass house!"

 

I think UrbanOhio needs to launch a dial up BBS. It can be accessed via modem or Telnet.

 

That was my first experience with the "internet".  Some guy I went to high school with gave me two phone numbers for two different BBS's.  Only one guy could be on there at a time.  One was called Crystal Castle and I can't remember the name of the other one.  I immediately -- like right away -- gravitated to the message boards on each and started talking trash.  I had a back-and-forth with some stooge called Spare Change over the course of 2-3 weeks which flamed out when he became a Cosysop and banned me. 

 

The thing about those local bbs's were that they were...local.  You were arguing with someone who likely lived just five miles away.  It seemed within the realm of possibility that they would figure out where you lived and come over and egg your house or do donuts in your lawn.  Also, being a teenager, things escalated very quickly and you took the arguments a little more seriously. 

just for the record the president can launch nukes in 4 minutes. here is a hot off the presses article about it. david you will notice there is no mention of concern about the launch system or protocol:

 

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/08/23/politics/nuclear-football-garrett-graff/index.html

 

but just to ease you troubled mind presumably because of north korea belligerence its known the military just did a somewhat public icbm test launch on aug 2nd. it went fine. they say they have tested the launch system at least 299 times previously since the cold war with no known issues. as far as we know anyway.

Loving certain books can be bittersweet and frustrating. Caleb Carr invented this amazing late 19th century NYC universe in the Alienist (my favorite book) and Angel of Darkness (not as good but still highly enjoyable) - and that's it. He's written other books but there are no rumors of continuing this series, and don't get me started on that abomination of a televised series. The less said about that nonsense the better.

 

It is so frustrating falling in love with these characters, their quirks, the occassional cameo of real historical figures, and seeing a New York and culture in the midst of massive changes and reforms. And that is all we got; in a way I feel cheated despite the illogic.

Loving certain books can be bittersweet and frustrating. Caleb Carr invented this amazing late 19th century NYC universe in the Alienist (my favorite book) and Angel of Darkness (not as good but still highly enjoyable) - and that's it. He's written other books but there are no rumors of continuing this series, and don't get me started on that abomination of a televised series. The less said about that nonsense the better.

 

It is so frustrating falling in love with these characters, their quirks, the occassional cameo of real historical figures, and seeing a New York and culture in the midst of massive changes and reforms. And that is all we got; in a way I feel cheated despite the illogic.

 

Some more popular science fiction serieses (Vorkosigan, Honor Harrington) have inspired a bunch of fan fiction.  Some sucks, some is quite good. 

 

The "1632" alternate history has really opened up, both officially and semi-officially.  They are on like the 70th edition of their online "magazine" and I think 17 or 18 official books.

Anyone watching the fight? McGregor already looks exhausted. Hehe.

Loving certain books can be bittersweet and frustrating. Caleb Carr invented this amazing late 19th century NYC universe in the Alienist (my favorite book) and Angel of Darkness (not as good but still highly enjoyable) - and that's it. He's written other books but there are no rumors of continuing this series, and don't get me started on that abomination of a televised series. The less said about that nonsense the better.

 

It is so frustrating falling in love with these characters, their quirks, the occassional cameo of real historical figures, and seeing a New York and culture in the midst of massive changes and reforms. And that is all we got; in a way I feel cheated despite the illogic.

 

Some more popular science fiction serieses (Vorkosigan, Honor Harrington) have inspired a bunch of fan fiction.  Some sucks, some is quite good. 

 

The "1632" alternate history has really opened up, both officially and semi-officially.  They are on like the 70th edition of their online "magazine" and I think 17 or 18 official books.

 

 

the top of the hill for fan fiction is star trek. the fans invented the genre, which thrived even in the pre-internet era.

 

Random thought: Why does South America seem so irrelevant to world affairs? It literally seems to be the continent that pretty much everyone on earth just doesn't care about. I've always been fascinated by Buenos Aires. I want to spend time there. Also, mega-cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. If you type Sao into Google, Sao Paulo isn't even the first or second thing to come up in the suggested results.

Random thought: Why does South America seem so irrelevant to world affairs? It literally seems to be the continent that pretty much everyone on earth just doesn't care about. I've always been fascinated by Buenos Aires. I want to spend time there. Also, mega-cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. If you type Sao into Google, Sao Paulo isn't even the first or second thing to come up in the suggested results.

The media and others just seem not too focus much on S. America.

Random thought: Why does South America seem so irrelevant to world affairs? It literally seems to be the continent that pretty much everyone on earth just doesn't care about. I've always been fascinated by Buenos Aires. I want to spend time there. Also, mega-cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. If you type Sao into Google, Sao Paulo isn't even the first or second thing to come up in the suggested results.

 

Mostly it's because of too much governmental corruption and instability.  Brazil should be a world power, but isn't.  For that reason.  To a lesser degree, Argentina should be as well.

 

Another historical reason is distance.  It spent the time between the Panama Canal's opening and the advent of air travel being too unimportant and remote from the more influential parts of the world to be bothered with. Especially since its "mother countries" of Spain and Portugal were on the wane as well.  Australia was also remote, but tied to the UK and indirectly to us.

 

"Sao" is saint in Portugese, that's why the city doesn't come up so quickly.

Random thought: Why does South America seem so irrelevant to world affairs? It literally seems to be the continent that pretty much everyone on earth just doesn't care about. I've always been fascinated by Buenos Aires. I want to spend time there. Also, mega-cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. If you type Sao into Google, Sao Paulo isn't even the first or second thing to come up in the suggested results.

 

Mostly it's because of too much governmental corruption and instability.  Brazil should be a world power, but isn't.  For that reason.  To a lesser degree, Argentina should be as well.

 

Another historical reason is distance.  It spent the time between the Panama Canal's opening and the advent of air travel being too unimportant and remote from the more influential parts of the world to be bothered with. Especially since its "mother countries" of Spain and Portugal were on the wane as well.  Australia was also remote, but tied to the UK and indirectly to us.

 

"Sao" is saint in Portugese, that's why the city doesn't come up so quickly.

the Oberbrecht scandal is massive, all over S. America and Caribbean. This and Venezuela has been under reported up here IMHO.