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If you have so many tabs open that you forget what you have open and start opening new tabs of the same site, then you should have fewer tabs open. This remind

by gk1 9y ago

If you have so many tabs open that you forget what you have open and start opening new tabs of the same site, then you should have fewer tabs open. This reminds me of the joke where, upon realizing that normal pens don’t work in space, the US spent millions of dollars developing a “space pen” that will work in zero-gravity, while Russia just decided to use pencils.

mattkrause 9y ago
That pen thing would be a great anecdote....if it were true.
- lmm 9y ago
  It's substantially true. The pen was developed by a private company rather than the government, but "the US spent" is fair if we consider it to refer to the country as a whole. Using pencils in space did cause genuine issues, but the Russian space programme did live with those issues until the space pen was developed.
  - EpicEng 9y ago
    >but "the US spent" is fair if we consider it to refer to the country as a whole. Of course, that's not what anyone means when they repeat this nonsense, and the entire point of the story is to create a narrative that the US government is bloated, wasteful, and stupid.
    - lmm 9y ago
      I've seen it more used to create a narrative about US culture as being overly technology-focused and lacking a sense of making do / good-enough. Shrug.
      - EpicEng 9y ago
        Regardless, using a BS story to push such a narrative is a bad idea.
mantas 9y ago
.. then Russians learned pencil breaking off in space ain't good and bought same American pens :)
squeaky-clean 9y ago
Graphite from pencils breaks into small splinters that fly around in zero-g and short out equipment. Sometimes I write and review a long email in one tab over the course of an hour or so while still responding to shorter emails in another tab. Just yesterday I had to out together a small report with some log examples and network graphs. So there's 2 tabs open. Sometimes I'll also have older emails open to refer back to them. Easily brings that to 3, 4, 5 tabs. It also doesn't properly update the mobile app or notifications, and I have one coworker who shows up as a different name whether I'm using the desktop or mobile app.

by gk1 9y ago

mattkrause 9y ago

That pen thing would be a great anecdote....if it were true.

lmm 9y ago
It's substantially true. The pen was developed by a private company rather than the government, but "the US spent" is fair if we consider it to refer to the country as a whole. Using pencils in space did cause genuine issues, but the Russian space programme did live with those issues until the space pen was developed.
- EpicEng 9y ago
  >but "the US spent" is fair if we consider it to refer to the country as a whole. Of course, that's not what anyone means when they repeat this nonsense, and the entire point of the story is to create a narrative that the US government is bloated, wasteful, and stupid.
  - lmm 9y ago
    I've seen it more used to create a narrative about US culture as being overly technology-focused and lacking a sense of making do / good-enough. Shrug.
    - EpicEng 9y ago
      Regardless, using a BS story to push such a narrative is a bad idea.

mantas 9y ago

.. then Russians learned pencil breaking off in space ain't good and bought same American pens :)

squeaky-clean 9y ago

Graphite from pencils breaks into small splinters that fly around in zero-g and short out equipment. Sometimes I write and review a long email in one tab over the course of an hour or so while still responding to shorter emails in another tab. Just yesterday I had to out together a small report with some log examples and network graphs. So there's 2 tabs open. Sometimes I'll also have older emails open to refer back to them. Easily brings that to 3, 4, 5 tabs. It also doesn't properly update the mobile app or notifications, and I have one coworker who shows up as a different name whether I'm using the desktop or mobile app.