Random Thoughts

[Scott5114]

(i.e. anything under 50% is grounds for a ban)

It's not. What I said was "If it was up to me, I'd ban anyone with a majority of their posts there." But in the end, it's not up to me (i.e. none of the other staff members agree with that position so far as I know), so that is not actual grounds for a ban. Thus why there's no mention of it in the forum rules.

(Though I did use the word "majority", in actuality I'd probably set the threshold higher than 50%. I post what I'd consider to be a "typical" amount in Off-Topic, and that's 31% of my posts, so doubling that would be about 60%, and I could see arguments for setting it higher than that.)

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm not certain when or if I've seen a genuine soap box, much less someone ranting atop of one.

[Hobart]

I'm not certain when or if I've seen a genuine soap box, much less someone ranting atop of one.

I've seen soap boxes, but only the little ones my Irish Spring comes in. I feel like the expression stuck around longer than the object.

[formulanone]

I'm not certain when or if I've seen a genuine soap box, much less someone ranting atop of one.

I've seen soap boxes, but only the little ones my Irish Spring comes in. I feel like the expression stuck around longer than the object.

It's not Irish Spring unless you can cut it with a pocket knife, which in retrospect...seems like a weird thing to do to soap, and an even less appealing idea if it's body wash.

[jeffandnicole]

I'm not certain when or if I've seen a genuine soap box, much less someone ranting atop of one.

Or an actual ice box, rather than a fridge.

[kurumi]

In the same manner, I've seen wrecking balls only in children's books. The demolition practice now seems to be explosives or excavators with the "thagomizer" attachment (jackhammer or claw).

[J N Winkler]

In the same manner, I've seen wrecking balls only in children's books. The demolition practice now seems to be explosives or excavators with the "thagomizer" attachment (jackhammer or claw).

While it notes that wrecking balls are nowhere near as popular as they were in the 1950's and 1960's, the Wikipedia article does have a photo of one and video of another in action demolishing a feed mill in Germany.  It also says they are still used when lead or asbestos is a concern.

[ZLoth]

This past weekend, I was at Microcenter picking up a 256GB SSD drive as a promotional freebie. This was a house brand SSD with a selling price of $20 and it got me thinking of how much SSDs have changed. My first SSD purchased was a Crucial M4 256 GB SSD about ten years ago for my Core 2 Duo system, and at the time, it cost me $200. A year and a half later, it would be transferred over to my i7-4790K system as part of a new build. That drive would later be replaced with a PNY CS2211 960 GB SSD in 2016, and would be in continuous use until my i7-4790K died earlier this month. I recycled it for my replacement home theater PC. At 50,759 hours (just over 2,114 days) and still at 95% life, it is going to last me a few years. While it is slower in transfer speeds compared to a m.2 drive, it is still quite fast enough for the needs of that system.



Just for fun, I checked the pricing at NewEgg for 250-256GB SSD drives, and the pricing for the lower end drives start now at $16. If you just double the capacity to 500-512GB, then the prices start at $23. Double again to 1TB, and the drives start at $38. We won't even go into USB flash drives. Still, it is absolutely amazing the technological improvement when a 256GB SSD, in ten years time, goes from a $200 premium purchase to a giveaway part.

[kkt]

Yes.  One of the things I love about my car is that the sound system plays files off a USB flash drive.  I've got thousands of hours of music and misc. recordings on there.  In the "where is AM radio going" thread, this is really the answer to what to listen to when no FM station is in range.

[kphoger]

I'm not certain when or if I've seen a genuine soap box, much less someone ranting atop of one.

I've seen soap boxes, but only the little ones my Irish Spring comes in. I feel like the expression stuck around longer than the object.

Well, the proverbial soapbox that someone gets down from after preaching their message would be a wooden crate like this:



I don't believe I've ever seen one of these either, unless it was at an antique store or in someone's house as decoration and I just didn't notice.

However, I personally own one of these, which is indeed a soapbox but quite useless for standing on:

[hotdogPi]

Today at Texas Roadhouse, the music was behaving strangely. I was able to see a music video TV from my seat.

Normal when we came in.
Texas Roadhouse theme song. (In normal times, this is a cue for the servers to get ready to line dance. They started doing so.)
Footloose. Cut off early.
Texas Roadhouse theme song.
God Blessed Texas. Cut off early.
Texas Roadhouse theme song.
Footloose. Cut off early, but later than the first time. This is the one the servers were dancing to, although we did get waited on during it, so it wasn't everyone.
Texas Roadhouse theme song.
God Blessed Texas. Cut off early.
One or two normal songs.
The same song twice in a row, with an incorrect description on the TV (but the correct music video) at one point late in the first cycle.
About 30 minutes of normal music.
Texas Roadhouse theme song, except the music video didn't change and was still showing the previous song.
(I left the table at this point because I was done with my meal. I could no longer see the TV.)
Shivers by Ed Sheeran, which isn't a country song. At this point, I think the music went into default mode. I left the building in the middle of this song.

[Scott5114]

Well, the proverbial soapbox that someone gets down from after preaching their message would be a wooden crate like this:

[snip]

When I was growing up, we had a wooden crate like that, but it was for beer, not soap. Nice sturdy box, though, that we filled with all sorts of random crap. The inside of the lid had a chessboard painted on it, and we had a bag of chess pieces of the appropriate size that we kept in the box.

[Flint1979]

Updated Michigan construction map.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

It's just unfortunate that you will have to drive through plenty of it to reach the areas shaded in blue.

But despite all I've seen in the US, there's nowhere else I'd rather be but by the Great Lakes.

[vdeane]

That map is inaccurate.

The Gordie Howe Bridge crosses an area shaded in blue.

[Flint1979]

That map is inaccurate.

The Gordie Howe Bridge crosses an area shaded in blue.

And the Mackinac Bridge crosses an area shaded in blue and that bridge is constantly under construction.

[kurumi]

How many lasers are in active use in your household? The answer was likely zero a few decades ago; and might have peaked in the early 2000s with CD and CD-ROM use.

(Having said that, there might be a wider variety of uses now.)

[formulanone]

How many lasers are in active use in your household? The answer was likely zero a few decades ago; and might have peaked in the early 2000s with CD and CD-ROM use.

(Having said that, there might be a wider variety of uses now.)

I always have a laser pointer on me at work, and it gets used about 1-10 minutes in day.

Not sure if too many other of our household items have lasers in them. Maybe the robotic vacuum, but I'm entirely sure of the technology behind the proximity sensors.

[kphoger]

The DVD/Blu-ray player
The kids' laser pointers

Golly, could that be all of them?

[ZLoth]

Lets see here... the BluRay and 4K players (but no CD players), the two BluRay drives on one of my computers, the Powerpoint presenter remote that I carry around, a color and b&w laser printer, and a infrared thermometer where the laser is intended to help locate where you are pointing.

[Scott5114]

I have a laser printer because I got sick of inkjet cartridges drying up on me between uses.

The annoying garage door sensors probably have lasers in them too. 

[kkt]

Let's see. 
bluray players, 2.
computer multipurpose disc playsers, 2.
optical mice, 1
printer, 1
cd player, 1

I think that's the lot.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Spooky action at a distance.

Me and a friend are constantly one-upping each other, to see how far away we can make something physically happen.

We can all turn our lights on from [wherever] but...

I remote-desktopped one of my co-worker's computers ... in India ... and ejected his optical drive. Pretty sure that's about as far as one can get from Colorado and still be on the same planet.

[on_wisconsin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=najcug_WXZI

[kphoger]

optical mice

Ooh!  Good call.