• Announcements

    • Robin

      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!

Recommended Posts

Just finished watching "Twin Peaks: The Return" on Showtime. WOW. Classic David Lynch. Lots of NSFW (and NSF Network TV) stuff this time around. It helped that we watched the last episode of Season 2 before we watched the new stuff. Mrs. Prof was confused as hell at points, but she was just as into it as I was. "In for a penny, in for a pound," that sort of thing.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

BIG TIME racing day today. Right now, I'm watching the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix. Mrs. Prof is still asleep—she had a busy day handing out cat medicine at the Pet Adoption Center yesterday, and she's not really an F1 fan. She is an IndyCar fan, though, and she will be waking up in time to watch the coverage of the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500, which starts at 10:00 a.m. CDT. We will both need mass quantities of coffee to make it through the race (assuming there isn't a rain delay)—her for physical fatigue, me to fight off medicine-induced sleepiness.

We will watch the Indy 500, though, come hell or high water. There's too much intrigue in today's race, with Fernando Alonso driving, Scott Dixon on pole with a monstrously fast speed, and questions about Honda's engine reliability after James Hinchcliffe's engine went kablammo during carb day Friday, despite Honda's overall speed advantage. It's going to be a hell of a race.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It was a hell of a race. Several more Hondas went kablammo, including Fernando Alonso's. Helio Castroneves came 5 laps short of winning his fourth race, but in the end it was Takuma Sato winning his first Indianapolis 500, marking the first time a Japanese racer (in a Honda-powered car, no less) has ever won the event. In other words, a driver with Formula One experience won the race—it just wasn't Fernando Alonso. ;)

Now watching the Big XII Baseball Tournament Final match between Texas and Oklahoma State. Texas is down by a couple of runs in the bottom of the 6th inning.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
17 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Texas and Oklahoma State. Texas is down by a couple of runs in the bottom of the 6th inning

I assume you meant "University of Texas at Austin".

Signed "University of Texas at El Paso"  Alumni. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Placing the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

I watch events like this to see if the President makes a mistake in protocol.  This time, it was the General who started to drop his salute before the "Order Arms" command had been given.

 

When States stick their name on multiple schools, the Universities need to make sure to emphasize the unique elements of the name.  Not the Family name.

If you speak about Michigan, for example, you are assumed to be referring to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.  Not Michigan State.  Not Michigan Tech.  Not Eastern, Western, Central, or Northern Michigan.  Not even Michigan RAG. 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
16 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

When States stick their name on multiple schools, the Universities need to make sure to emphasize the unique elements of the name.  Not the Family name.

So, Prof should have just said "Austin" then?  What makes UTEP less of a school that UTA that UTA gets the pass on being called "at Austin"?

Warning that is a loaded question.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Having grown up on the University of Illinois's main campus, as well as getting two Bachelors and one Doctorate there, I would get rather irritated at anyone who assumed that the U of I must be in Chicago, as if the whole rest of the state didn't exist!  The main campus is in Champaign-Urbana, thank you very much.  (Of course, the U of I didn't really help matters by referring to themselves as "UIUC", being the only ones who ever put Urbana before Champaign, but that's another gripe....)  It was also rather irritating when I was a student and people would ask me which suburb I was from, but I do admit that the odds were in their favor on that one.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

 It was also rather irritating when I was a student and people would ask me which suburb I was from, but I do admit that the odds were in their favor on that one.

Don't try to tell someone in Ann Arbor that they are in a "Suburb of Detroit".  In Washtenaw County, that is Justifiable Homicide.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm installing Cygwin, Photoshop, Office 365, Dry Mud Pro, Daz3d and Eve on my new to me computer.  All at the same time.  Came with Chrome loaded so there is that.  Looks like it is going to take about an hour. 

 

I have started a countdown to Linux.  For every time the Windows Machine makes me yell at it, for a reason that my Linux and OS X machines don't,  it gets a point.  If it gets to 10 points, I make it into a grunty Linux box.  I've shown it the flash stick already.  It knows it better be good.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, mlooney said:

We have found that we are going to use Linux anyway.  How do you windows people stand it?

 

Try to imagine that you are wearing full kit. Now you get told that you also have to carry the squad radio. This radio, as it happens, turns out to be a WW2 hand-me-down that weighs around 40 lbs. Now imagine that you get told to march along one of the roads the Germans laid down in order to improve communications between various key defense points on the western coast of Jutland. These are always straight as a ruler. You get told to cover twenty miles and they are all straight ahead. No turns, little variation in elevation, barely any change in the landscape at all. Mental exhaustion from boredom gradually reaches the point where you do not even notice your physical tiredness anymore. It becomes an effort of will to put one foot in front of another, not because you are tired (though you are) but because you can no longer see any point to doing so. If you are making any progress at all, it is beyond your ability to quantify how much.

Now imagine you are using Windows.

See? Two minutes of that, and you are already longing for the time where you were marching in full kit on that bollocking ruler-straight road.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Today I determined something quite surprising about a printing problem I've been having: it's the physical location of the printer.

If I take the printer out of the cabinet and set it on a chair in front of the cabinet, it works fine.

IN the cabinet, apparently there's something messing up the wifi connection, and by the time the printer has received three lines of text it's ready to give up on waiting for the computer to send more.

 

Now to see if a new version of LibreOffice fixed the *other* printing problem I've been having: attempting to print from that program crashes the program.

Edit: yes, it did. Or something incidental to working on the first problem did. Anyway, it seems to be fixed.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Watching Aussie Rules Football again. Live match between Hawthorn and Gold Coast from the MCG in Melbourne. Gold Coast is up 43 to 29 at the Half Time siren.

Will be watching much auto racing tomorrow. Formula 1 qualifying, then a replay of today's IndyCar qualifying, followed immediately by the 600 kilometer race at the Texas Motor Speedway. Many bratwurst, bockwurst, and Weisswurst will be consumed, as long as I don't get sick again.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@The Old Hack , you know you're responsible for a good deal of the Wurstfest. Many thanks. BTW, here's a link (yes, pun) to what you ordered for my family:

http://www.saags.com/products/saags-bistro-bockwurst/

I even wrote the company for cooking instructions, since they weren't on the packet. They got back to me very quickly! Pan fry, then finish off by steaming. Looking forward to it!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Formula One Azerbaijan Grand Prix. There's been so many bumps that have left debris on the track that they've red flagged the race at lap 23 of 51 so they can clean the entire track. It's been a bizarre race, to be sure, and it's not even halfway over.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm attempting to watch coverage of The Championships, Wimbledon.  Attempting because I am at such a low latitude that my satellite dish is pointed practically horizontal over the Gulf of Mexico.  Any bad weather above the Gulf out over a hundred miles can block the signal1.

If I'm not in the same room where I can see the picture, I can't tell if I've lost signal, or if the English crowd is being especially polite during a match.

I guess hooliganism has not made the leap from football to tennis.

1This is an especially attractive feature when trying to get weather updates during a hurricane.

Edit:  The signal is strong again. The precipitation has moved inland. Apparently the signal can't get through distant clouds, but can penetrate local rain.

Edited by Pharaoh RutinTutin
Relevant detail added

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Edit:  The signal is strong again. The precipitation has moved inland. Apparently the signal can't get through distant clouds, but can penetrate local rain.

That is the case.  Has to do with droplet size vs the wavelength of the transmitter.   This is why normal clouds, in general, don't show up on the radar as much as storm clouds do.  There are some other issues, but a lot of it boils down to droplet size.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Last week, and again this week, I was tired of waiting for my usual podcasts to update, so I started looking on YouTube for reviews of that weekend's new Doctor Who episode.  Instead of looking at the most popular channels and videos, which usually come up first on searches, I scrolled down to some with under a hundred views.  I found these to be just as enjoyable as the "big name" reviewers, and very appreciative of Likes and comments.  They weren't always up on the facts and history of the show, and at least one was relentlessly negative based on several things he clearly either didn't understand or misunderstood (with the underlying cause of not liking one of the characters so being inclined to negativity about anything related to her), but it was still refreshing to see so many new perspectives on the series.  Plus, the videos were usually a lot shorter than the multi-reviewer "big names" which are often as long as the episode was, so I could watch more of them in the time I had.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Watching live Aussie Rules Football from Melbourne. Geelong is beating Hawthorne 21 to 6 in the first quarter with just over 5 1/2 minutes left.

And waiting for word from Mrs. Prof about Loudmouth from the emergency vet.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now