Random Thoughts 7

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AI Thread Summary
The discussion in the "Random Thoughts 7" thread begins with a user expressing a desire to have the first civilian post. Participants reminisce about a missing member, Evo, and share their hopes for her well-being. The conversation shifts to humorous musings about chatbots and the origins of the term "robot," followed by reflections on pop culture, including reactions to Matthew Perry's passing. There are also light-hearted anecdotes about close encounters with deer while driving and observations on the challenges of transitioning from undergraduate to graduate studies. Overall, the thread captures a mix of nostalgia, humor, and personal experiences.
  • #451
Interesting job offer. Fun doing the research, but I have to do the documentation too. But the client gets full credit . Just for doing what besides providing a topic, I'm not sure.
 
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  • #452
WWGD said:
Interesting job offer. Fun doing the research, but I have to do the documentation too. But the client gets full credit . Just for doing what besides providing a topic, I'm not sure.
Huh?
 
  • #453
phinds said:
Huh?
I mean, the job involves me analyzing, interpreting data, given a topic, then formatting . So I do essentially all the work while the client published under their name. EDIT: I had done similar where the client did basic analysis and then was responsible for the APA or otherwise formatting. Now I do it all and the client puts their name .
 
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  • #455
Astronuc said:

Detectorist strikes gold with largest ever nugget found under English soil​

https://www.yahoo.com/news/detectorist-strikes-gold-largest-ever-203934554.html

Thar's gold in them thar hills!

Pretty impressive nugget. But Australia has bigger nuggets.
Who said that, anyway? Agreed. Lots of bigger nuggets, and Australia has big black opals too!

Still a lot of gold in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains too, California and Nevada. Sitting there under mining bans too since the early '80s, though.

Anyone thinking of going vacationing/prospecting in England for gold now, make sure to buy the most powerful EM metal detector on the market. Deeper is better. I've always wanted to try to construct and wire up a huge metal detector. Gold fever is a virus that one can never fully get rid of. Prospecting makes walking fun.
 
  • #456
I ran into a former advisor from college. I remember once , asking him for advice, he seemed intensely, deeply focused, interested on what I was saying. Until, some 5 minutes into the meet, he shouted " Hypochondriac, that's it, hypochondriac ".
 
  • #457
Only IT (anti-support) industry can be so lame that even after years of struggle with the frequent black screens of faulty docking stations (of a hyped, but apparently crappy brand) they still blame the user and believe that just one more FW update will miraculously solve the issue.

For any other industry, those offices would be long burned down by and with complaints.
 
  • #458
Rive said:
Only IT (anti-support) industry can be so lame that even after years of struggle with the frequent black screens of faulty docking stations (of a hyped, but apparently crappy brand) they still blame the user and believe that just one more FW update will miraculously solve the issue.

For any other industry, those offices would be long burned down by and with complaints.
The messages in black/blue screen used to read along " Windows has experienced a problem and will be shutting down", to " Your PC has experienced a problem and will be shutting down". So I guess Windows' IT group is not quite better at taking responsibility.
 
  • #460
Why teenagers should not be allowed to drive high performance vehicles. A 19-year old driver flips a Porsche Taycan 6 times after crashing at 100 mph. Judging from the limited view of the neighborhood, I expect the speed limit was about 35 mph (56 kmph)

MSRP : From $111,100, base model

 
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  • #461
I have been away from this thread for a long time!
kyphysics said:
Dick's House of Sports store seems an awful waste of space.
If you want to hear an off-color and political joke about Dick's stores, message me.
Astronuc said:
Two passenger planes hit over 800 mph on recent flights due to strong winds. That's over 200 mph more than a typical plane ride.

Cruising speed is about 550-600 mph, and a 250-200 mph tail wind gets the ground speed up to 800 mph. Nothing special here. The air speed was normal, and the aircraft were not traveling at 800 mph in the air, but with respect to ground. I've flown in airliners before where the speed was 600 to 650 mph - easy when traveling eastward with the jet stream. Sometimes, one arrives well in advance and sits on the tarmac waiting for a gate.
I had the opposite: an east to west flight from Hartford CT to Phoenix, AZ. The flight just went on and on and on. Finally, I asked the flight attendant "what's going on, we should have landed over an hour ago." She said the captain told them we were flying directly into a 250 mph headwind. So, our groundspeed was ~350 mph. That's 560 kph to you guys (BDL to PHX is 2200 miles, 3540 km).
 
  • #462
I have the unenviable task of working with Sharepoint 2019 at work. So, while it will allow you to load hundreds of thousands of records, it will break the ability to view them if you have more than 5000. It seems that you have to create special views that greatly limit how many records can be viewed. If I want to look at other records, I have to create over 20+ views if I have 100K records???? What a worthless piece of junk!
 
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  • #463
gmax137 said:
I have been away from this thread for a long time!

If you want to hear an off-color and political joke about Dick's stores, message me.

I had the opposite: an east to west flight from Hartford CT to Phoenix, AZ. The flight just went on and on and on. Finally, I asked the flight attendant "what's going on, we should have landed over an hour ago." She said the captain told them we were flying directly into a 250 mph headwind. So, our groundspeed was ~350 mph. That's 560 kph to you guys (BDL to PHX is 2200 miles, 3540 km).
I was on a flight from Europe to US, with a headwind. I don't remember the speed, but probably > 100 mph, possibly ~150 mph. The flight was supposed to be 6.5 hrs, but it lasted 9 hours (2.5 hours late). Engines were roaring and it seemed we were going slower than we should have given the sound of the engines.
 
  • #464
Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge (I-695) collapses after ship collision; 2 rescued, search continues
https://news.yahoo.com/baltimore-bridge-partially-collapses-collusion-075148049.html
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/baltimore-bridge-collapse-03-26-24-intl-hnk/index.html
"All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge," the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) said on X early Tuesday. "Traffic is being detoured."

Quite an understatement given that the bridge collapsed.

The ship his one of the piers. From the image, it looks like pier on the south side of the main span, south of the channel where the boat was supposed to be, if it was underway. Someone screwed up big time!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_(Baltimore)

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/26/us/baltimore-bridge-collapse

It looks like the ship changed course in the last minutes and veered into the bridge. It seems like they were on course to pass under the main span - in the appropriate channel.

https://news.yahoo.com/live/baltimo...after-container-ship-collision-114855033.html


Update: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...scale-of-cargo-ship-crash-tragedy/ss-BB1kzubb

Bridge not appropriately protected
Problematic ship/crew
What was the pilot doing?
Where were the tugboats to realign the ship when it lost power?
 
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  • #465
Well,..., second...sixteenth seventeenth time's the charm; t-tax is getting a veerrryyyy nasty/letter/review...given that I'm eventually successful.
 
  • #466
  • #467
Astronuc said:
Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge (I-695) collapses after ship collision; 2 rescued, search continues
https://news.yahoo.com/baltimore-bridge-partially-collapses-collusion-075148049.html
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/baltimore-bridge-collapse-03-26-24-intl-hnk/index.html


Quite an understatement given that the bridge collapsed.

The ship his one of the piers. From the image, it looks like pier on the south side of the main span, south of the channel where the boat was supposed to be, if it was underway. Someone screwed up big time!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_(Baltimore)

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/26/us/baltimore-bridge-collapse

It looks like the ship changed course in the last minutes and veered into the bridge. It seems like they were on course to pass under the main span - in the appropriate channel.

https://news.yahoo.com/live/baltimo...after-container-ship-collision-114855033.html


Update: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...scale-of-cargo-ship-crash-tragedy/ss-BB1kzubb

Bridge not appropriately protected
Problematic ship/crew
What was the pilot doing?
Where were the tugboats to realign the ship when it lost power?
In the video I saw of the ship approach, a LARGE puff of black smoke was emitted. The voice-over also stated that a mayday was broadcast that control of the ship had been lost and they were heading toward a bridge support.

Authorities shutdown vehicle access to the bridge from both directions, preventing any more cars from getting on the bridge (and getting wet).

1) Big puff of black smoke from ship
2) Loss of ship control
3) Reported to the harbor office
Speculation: Blown engine

Sounds like good decisions by several people in a bad situation.

Cheers,
Tom
 
  • #468
Astronuc said:
Why teenagers should not be allowed to drive high performance vehicles. A 19-year old driver flips a Porsche Taycan 6 times after crashing at 100 mph. Judging from the limited view of the neighborhood, I expect the speed limit was about 35 mph (56 kmph)

MSRP : From $111,100, base model


I drive past a high school on the way home and really hate it when I'm driving home when school lets out. I was nearly T-Boned yesterday when I started to enter an intersection and a driver went through their red light at over 60 MPH in a 30 MPH zone.
 
  • #469
Tom.G said:
In the video I saw of the ship approach, a LARGE puff of black smoke was emitted. The voice-over also stated that a mayday was broadcast that control of the ship had been lost and they were heading toward a bridge support.

Authorities shutdown vehicle access to the bridge from both directions, preventing any more cars from getting on the bridge (and getting wet).

1) Big puff of black smoke from ship
2) Loss of ship control
3) Reported to the harbor office
Speculation: Blown engine

Sounds like good decisions by several people in a bad situation.

Cheers,
Tom

I was thinking more in terms of protecting the bridge from vessel strikes (civil/marine engineering), and preventing vessel strikes (marine vessel engineering).

I found the answer about the pilot

TRADE ASSOCIATION DIRECTOR SAYS SHIP'S PILOT TRIED TO SLOW DOWN

The pilot of the ship that caused the Baltimore bridge collapse tried to slow it down before the crash, the head of a trade association for maritime pilots said.

Clay Diamond, executive director of the American Pilots’ Association, said he has been in close contact with officials from the Association of Maryland Pilots who described to him what happened as the ship approached the bridge. He said when the ship was a few minutes out, it lost all power, including to its engines.

The pilot immediately ordered the rudder hard to port to keep the ship from turning right and ordered the port anchor be dropped, which it was, Diamond said. The pilot also contacted a dispatch office to get the bridge shut down.

Diamond said widely circulated images show the ship’s lights turning off and then back on, sparking questions about whether the vessel had regained power. But, he said, the emergency generators that kicked in turned the lights back on but not the ship’s propulsion.
From - https://news.yahoo.com/news/live-updates-governor-ship-reported-143614239.html

One would think that emergency generators would ensure control (navigation) of the ship - but in this case, No! Flawed engineering.

At least the rudder should have been powered. Had the rudder been able to move to port, then perhaps the ship would not have hit the pier. It appeared from one plot, that ship was headed straight down the middle, until it veered slightly right (starboard) and straight toward the southern pier of the main span.


Edit/update: Dali apparently had engine/power problems while berthed. Maybe it shouldn't have left port. I've heard speculation about dirty/contaminated fuel.

Some analysis. The black smoke from it's funnel indicates a breeze, possibly to the south or SW. That may have contributed to the ship very toward the south pier of the bridge. Until power lost, and even slightly after, the ship was left of center in the correct channel. Two tugboats had left the Dali as it completed its turn to line up with the channel.

 
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  • #470
So Tatiana, in one of the former Soviet republics, is looking for a partner and starts with an Aloha , and includes 3 attachments in her emails. Surely I will open those ASAP, Tatiana, you're looking for love in all the wrong places, Tati.
 
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  • #471
WWGD said:
So Tatiana, in one of the former Soviet republics, is looking for a partner and starts with an Aloha , and includes 3 attachments in her emails.
I wonder whether this kind of fishing could be snuffed out by some kind of regular 'official spam' of same manner with only a warning and educational explanation attached ...

I know, there are all those ethical considerations, but honestly, for me it would mean just a bit more stuffed spam folder. I could accept that much inconvenience for the greater good.
 
  • #472
Rive said:
I wonder whether this kind of fishing could be snuffed out by some kind of regular 'official spam' of same manner with only a warning and educational explanation attached ...
I think I read on here about someone whose printer suddenly spat out a sheet of paper from their friendly neighbourhood hacker pointing out that they might want to secure their network a bit...
 
  • #473
Rive said:
I wonder whether this kind of fishing could be snuffed out by some kind of regular 'official spam' of same manner with only a warning and educational explanation attached ...

I know, there are all those ethical considerations, but honestly, for me it would mean just a bit more stuffed spam folder. I could accept that much inconvenience for the greater good.
I doubt Microsoft puts much effort into its spam filtering. Its proportion of false positives, negatives has likely increased.
 
  • #474
Talking about Outlook, there's too, the charming fact that emails randomly decide to render , display, in odd ways. For one, font size magically increasing up to 15, without the option of lowering it. Other features are disabled, so I can't slide the screen up nor down, sideways, so I cant read most of the message. Ive read that main issue is Outlook doesnt use a fixed set of protocols for rendering messages. Ends up turning emails into like a sort of image file cut to half the screen . Somehow it seemed like a good idea to open an account in the mid-2000's.
 
  • #475
Ibix said:
friendly neighbourhood hacker
I'm not particularly fond of the whole 'ethical hacker' thing at all, but some artificial spam of educational purposes and without harm would not make much fuss, I think.
 
  • #476
I run into this guy from time to time. It's like a routine : "Ah, you're still doing Math, guy, what are you up to now, Calc 23? " ( Or insert your number. A Natural number for now).
 
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  • #477
Interesting phrase I ran into today:

"It's not its, it's it's "
 
  • #478
  • #479
Dang Kansas weather. :frown: Thunder storms all around and I'm in a Tornado watch.
 
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  • #480
Did/Should we have PSA , a la TIL? Just got an interesting item on Outlook that I should notify them if I wanted to be removed from notification lists, terse to point of unintelligibility; sh*t-canned immediately if not sooner, but ... something a bit off about it ... AI-Frankenstein-phish-sockpuppet-troll hybrid.
 
  • #481
Bystander said:
Did/Should we have PSA , a la TIL? Just got an interesting item on Outlook that I should notify them if I wanted to be removed from notification lists, terse to point of unintelligibility; sh*t-canned immediately if not sooner, but ... something a bit off about it ... AI-Frankenstein-phish-sockpuppet-troll hybrid.
I've been asked to provide my email to unregister. Hmm. But, then again, I've had HR who've told me they found my CV interesting, to send them a copy of it as an attachment.
 
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  • #482
Just noticed: the aggressive beggars of the underpasses never tries their luck with the bible-thumpers of the underpasses. :doh:
 
  • #483
Today, while working on a word document, MS auto-generated Alt-Text when I inserted an image. I'll have to go figure out where that setting is and turn it off.
 
  • #484
Just did it again. Forgot to use a private window for checking a sudden interest (proved to be useless as the digging went on) on youtube, and now the starting page is wrecked with random trash, with barely anything left from the type of content I'm actually interested in :doh:

Usually takes weeks to recover 😰
 
  • #485
Wonder if there's an actual connection with Physics from this British band " Dead or Alive". Specially re their hit " You Spin me right round".' Dead or Alive' , re Schrodinger, then ' Spin' . Just a coincidence? Did a bit of reading on it, couldn't confirm nor deny.
 
  • #486
WWGD said:
Talking about Outlook, there's too, the charming fact that emails randomly decide to render , display, in odd ways. For one, font size magically increasing up to 15, without the option of lowering it. Other features are disabled, so I can't slide the screen up nor down, sideways, so I cant read most of the message. Ive read that main issue is Outlook doesnt use a fixed set of protocols for rendering messages. Ends up turning emails into like a sort of image file cut to half the screen . Somehow it seemed like a good idea to open an account in the mid-2000's.
Just FYI, desktop Outlook does not have any of those problems, so they KNOW how to get it right but it's probably a Windows vs Android thing.
 
  • #487
change-the-future.jpg
 
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  • #488
Granted some scientists should improve their knowledge of the Humanities. But the converse is true as well.
 
  • #489
phinds said:
Just FYI, desktop Outlook does not have any of those problems, so they KNOW how to get it right but it's probably a Windows vs Android thing.
Any chance you, anyone, knows how to prevent a website from opening a new tab for every thing one does? I've looked it up but found no worksble solutions for my Samsung Android.
 
  • #490
WWGD said:
Any chance you, anyone, knows how to prevent a website from opening a new tab for every thing one does? I've looked it up but found no worksble solutions for my Samsung Android.
If you have a URL for the site you want to open, just paste that URL in the address bar of an existing tab that you are OK with overwriting. Or, you can open in a new WINDOW instead of a new tab.
 
  • #491
I am getting a large number of phone calls from "Name Unavailable" lately. Both at home and also at work now. I'm sure that it's just Microsoft calling to tell me that I've got a virus on my computer that they can fix remotely. :oldeyes:
 
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  • #492
Let's see when I finally absorb that hitting on the X, won't close a tab, dialog box from...X.
 
  • #493
Borg said:
I am getting a large number of phone calls from "Name Unavailable" lately. Both at home and also at work now. I'm sure that it's just Microsoft calling to tell me that I've got a virus on my computer that they can fix remotely. :oldeyes:
An opportunity to be creative if you fail to avoid them. I stuttered at a rate of around a word per minute when I failed to filter one.
 
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  • #494
To avoid the confusion of any 'measurement by vote' you just better not have more than one of these kind of ... devices...
IMG_20240411_124453.jpg
 
  • #495
WWGD said:
Wonder if there's an actual connection with Physics from this British band " Dead or Alive". Specially re their hit " You Spin me right round".' Dead or Alive' , re Schrodinger, then ' Spin' . Just a coincidence? Did a bit of reading on it, couldn't confirm nor deny.
I think it just means this person has a big effect on the other. That's the way i read it.
 
  • #496
pinball1970 said:
I think it just means this person has a big effect on the other. That's the way i read it.
Thank you, I agree, but I thought also about the name " Dead or Alive", which I thought may be referring to Schrodinger's Cat.
 
  • #497
WWGD said:
Thank you, I agree, but I thought also about the name " Dead or Alive", which I thought may be referring to Schrodinger's Cat.
A quick google - They went through a few name changes before settling on Dead or Alive, it could be a reference to physics but my bet is it is based part of the saying, "wanted dead or alive."
That seems the simpler explanation.
Not my sort of music as a rule but I actually like that one.
 
  • #498
pinball1970 said:
A quick google - They went through a few name changes before settling on Dead or Alive, it could be a reference to physics but my bet is it is based part of the saying, "wanted dead or alive."
That seems the simpler explanation.
Not my sort of music as a rule but I actually like that one.
Makes sense. And, yes, me too, I liked it, but not their music overall. It somehow popped into my YouTube feed.
 
  • #499
I've been using a web site for years that lets me select and display various news feeds. Today, my Chrome browser suddenly alerted me that the website is dangerous and initially blocked me from it. It eventually allowed me to access it but it now has a prominent red "Dangerous" label on the URL. Of course there's no way to turn it off even though the 'dangerous' content is probably scripted links that I personally added to some of the links. :oldeyes:
 
  • #500

Bridge Collapses After Just 10 Years Because Designers Were Too Focused On Looks​

https://news.yahoo.com/bridge-collapses-just-10-years-134500502.html
“The investigation has shown that inadequate caution was exercised in the planning, design, inspection and approval of Tretten Bridge, with respect to the risk factors linked to its unconventional design,” the report said.

What’s more, the reports found that the bridge should have undergone strengthening and support work in 2016 that could have saved it from collapse. This came after the Perkolo Bridge fell into a river when a heavy goods vehicle attempted to cross.

Similarities were spotted between the designs of the two bridges, which the New Civil Engineer called “inherent vulnerabilities in its design.”

One additional factor that could have weakened the design of the Tretten Bridge even further came as a result of the time frame in which it was constructed. During the bridge’s design and build process, Norway was transitioning from its own, older building regulations to new European rules governing bridge design.
 
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