Jerry Cotton posted:

Every one of Dijkstra's opinions about anything related to programming and computer science.

Dumbfire Rocketman posted:

Just went to Best Buy to pick up a new cheap phone after shattering the last one. I had decided on the Moto E4, which they had been advertising on sale for $60. Turns out all they had was the Moto E4 Plus, usually $200, and since they had them on the E4 rack I ended up getting it for $60. It wasn't until I got home that I discovered it has a 5000 (!) mAh battery. Combined with the 720p resolution and low-power processor it has ridiculous battery life, lasting 2 days on the 50% charge it had out of the box.

Shai-Hulud posted:

There are rugged phones (Samsung makes some and I think companies like CAT do) and there are phones with great battery life (The Moto Z Play for example and I think Asus or Acer or someone do some special big battery phones).

Jerry Cotton posted:

Every one of Dijkstra's opinions about anything related to programming and computer science.

Platystemon posted:

“The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.”

Platystemon posted:

“The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.”

Wheany posted:

Pham Nuwen posted:

I draw flowcharts at work occasionally. Simple sketches for myself, to make sure I have the flow of things right, and more formal ones using the correct shapes to impress non-technical management.

Jerry Cotton posted:

Every one of Dijkstra's opinions about anything related to programming and computer science.

Samizdata posted:

Yeah, it's a tool to help with being a better rapper, right?

Jerry Cotton posted:

I wonder if I salvaged my dad's old flowchart ruler or not. Even if I did it's buried in one of the dozens of boxes in my attic

TenCentFang posted:

You must be thinking of flowbots.

Mr.Radar posted:

Earlier today I discovered that someone had uploaded the whole series of the 90s Are You Afraid of the Dark? horror anthology show to the Internet Archive so I've been rewatching some of the episodes I vaguely remembered. One of them is "The Tale of the Phone Police". While watching the episode I couldn't help but think how many of the plot points in it wouldn't make sense to younger people today.

Firstly, the story starts with the our main character and his friend making prank calls. Even at the time the episode was made in 1994 prank calling as a pastime was already on its way out due to the adoption of Caller ID, *69, and screening your calls on your answering machine. Today it wouldn't make sense since almost nobody answers their phone if they don't recognize the number.

Then, the big sister of the main character tells him and his friend they'll be arrested by the titular "phone police" if they keep making prank calls and mentions that it happened to a kid named Billy Baxter. The friend leaves and the main character takes the phone book back to his room to look up Billy Baxter and he finds a listing with only 6 digits (instead of the usual 7). A kid today might know what a phone book was but even if they did they would probably be equally confused by a 7-digit number as they would by a 6-digit one since in the cell phone age you'll pretty much always need to specify the area code when you give out a phone number.

Of course, the main character can't resist calling this strange number and he gets a staticy connection to an old man begging him for help. He freaks and hangs up, only to get called right back . Again, *69 or caller ID makes this horror implications of this plot point less understandable.

The main character disconnects his phone and the next day explains what happened to his friend while they're out walking. His friend doesn't believe him but then they walk by a pay phone which rings and it's the same raspy old voice calling . Of course, a young person today probably wouldn't fully get the horror implications of someone or something being able to call you wherever you were even when you weren't at home.

This prompts them to visit the phone company (which is creatively called "The Phone Company") to find out what this number connects to and the secretary directs them to the "records department" in the basement. The friend decides to wait in the hallway while the main character enters, and of course it's actually the Phone Police and he's under arrest . The friend leaves and goes back to the main character's house to get help from the main character's parents. When he gets there the main character's sister doesn't recognize him or remember having a brother, and when the friend tries to prove the brother existed by showing the sister the main character's bedroom he finds it's now a sewing room with no trace of the main character.

As a kid, that last bit was the part of the episode I found the scariest. The concept that a mysterious secret force could just completely erase you from existence so that even your own family never knew you existed was terrifying and the phone company was the perfect entity to have wield this power. Back in the day, particularly in the pre-breakup "Ma Bell" era, they had the kind of power that was normally reserved for governments. If you wanted to talk to someone in real-time and you weren't together in person you had no choice but to use the phone company. If they disconnected you then you were screwed. Today you can get phone service not just with the "phone company" but also your cable company or 4 different cellular providers (or dozens of MVNOs), not to mention all the Internet-based phone and chat/messaging services. The story loses a bit of its punch in today's era of easy and cheap communication.

Finally, the friend comes up with a plan to rescue the main character. He looks up the main character in the phonebook and finds that he has his own mysterious 6-digit number now (while making a comment that "they work fast" to have gotten the new phone book out so quickly). He goes to the phone company and calls the main character on a payphone in the lobby. The main character lets it ring (as he and the friend had previously discussed as part of the escape plan) and the friend uses the loud ringer to locate where the phone police were holding the main character in the building. Of course, the concept of a phone just ringing without going to voicemail is pretty strange today.

In the end they escape and reality reverts back to normal. Oh yeah, and the framing story has the tale being told via cell phone, and at the end they reveal that the character telling the story is calling them from her own cell phone. I can only imagine how expensive that would have been back in the day.

Keiya posted:

I don't know which of the kids horror anthologies it was but I remember one where some girl ended up in her attic for... some reason I can't remember and found out she was actually an alien, and the aliens all had no faces? I also seem to remember their space ship had this incredibly 90s yellow-and-red paint pattern but that could be added to my memory later, this is very fuzzy.

Funzo posted:

I recovered a Technics SL-D3 turntable from my in-laws house when we helped clean it out. It's pretty grimy, but it spins under it's own power, so it should be usable. I'm planning on replacing the cartridge since it's old, and the needle looks bent up. In researching what I need, I found out there's all kinds of tools and devices for calibration and alignment, I'm a sucker for specialized tools. This is the gateway to $1000 power knobs and gold plated isolation pyramids isn't it?

Funzo posted:

I recovered a Technics SL-D3 turntable from my in-laws house when we helped clean it out. It's pretty grimy, but it spins under it's own power, so it should be usable. I'm planning on replacing the cartridge since it's old, and the needle looks bent up. In researching what I need, I found out there's all kinds of tools and devices for calibration and alignment, I'm a sucker for specialized tools. This is the gateway to $1000 power knobs and gold plated isolation pyramids isn't it?

Funzo posted:

I'm planning on replacing the cartridge since it's old

Wasabi the J posted:

gently caress you Nakamura!

I'm kidding. That's a very cool history lesson.

I love LGR.

Warbird posted:

Speaking of which, who is his buddy with the Alabama hat that occasionally pops up in his videos?

Jerry Cotton posted:

That's not a good reason to replace the cartridge. Just get a new stylus.

Funzo posted:

I didn't actually realize I could do that until I looked it up. If I can figure out what I need that will be way cheaper. It's an older Shure cartridge, and I don't see any kind of model number.

HotCanadianChick posted:

Keep in mind there are two types of styluses for Technics and other turntables using the standardized H-4 bayonet mount: all-in-one cartridges that have a non-replaceable stylus built into a one piece plastic housing (they usually look like this), where you just replace the whole thing when the stylus gets worn, and factory style headshells, which have a replaceable stylus (most often the so-called '1/2-inch' style with two tiny screws on top, set about a half inch apart that hold the stylus attached to the headshell).

Funzo posted:

I didn't actually realize I could do that until I looked it up. If I can figure out what I need that will be way cheaper. It's an older Shure cartridge, and I don't see any kind of model number.

Jerry Cotton posted:

This is completely wrong. Both of those have replaceable styli. Just look at the god drat picture you posted.

e: Actually you literally have no idea of anything you're talking about. You think the cartridge is the stylus.

HotCanadianChick posted:

I was a professional FM radio and nightclub DJ for several years and have owned multiple record players since the 80's and currently own an SL-1200 with a non-replaceable-stylus Stanton one-piece cartridge installed in it right now, with the original factory headshell sitting in a box somewhere. Pro DJs often prefer the one piece carts because trying to replace a separate stylus with four tiny wires and a couple tiny screws in the booth at a dimly lit club is a loving pain in the rear end and it's far easier to just unscrew and bin the old one and put on a whole new one-piece stylus.

Shut yo drat mouth kid.

Jerry Cotton posted:

You god drat literal retard never thought to read the instructions where it clearly shows you can just pull the tip with the stylus off and replace it? Stanton has probably never made a single cartridge with a non-replaceable stylus. The stylus does not have four wires going into it that's the loving cartridge.

Good by the way you totally got me