grouchyOldGuy

9 ms·

1.
by grouchyOldGuy 17y ago
Thanks! I'd forgotten about the fit-PC. I now have need for something small and miserly on power for home automation (and maybe another for an mp3 player in my car).
2.
by grouchyOldGuy 17y ago
I wish that I had the space available to build this machine. I would love to play with it.
3.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I thought it was a joke that these pitchmen would get their own "reality" TV show, but apparently it's true. I can't stand any of their commercials and can't hit the mute button fast enough on my TV, so I can't watch a half-hour of Billy Ma
4.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
This wasn't imcompetence--it was thuggery. They use the same "shock and awe" tactics as the police and military--crush your opponent with overwhelming force so that everyone else will be terrified of you and cower before you. This is a deli
5.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
If it blew out the walls of the garage, then the roof would collapse. That doesn't bode well for anyone under the roof at that time.
6.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
A friend of mine once described getting a college degree as "getting your union card". A college degree doesn't indicate knowledge or experience per se, but what it does imply is that person can make a long-term commitment and complete it.
7.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I remember a guy I worked for showing me his new digital watch. It was a matrix of tiny red LEDs that consumed so much current from the batteries, that the display would only light up when you pushed a button on the side of the watch. I bou
8.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I was there, youngster. The bong and pong were a natural pairing--get toasted and play pong for hours. Another plus: Saturday Night Live was actually fuuny back then.
9.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
But if I read the paper, won't I change its outcome?
10.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
Just because you CAN screw around with someone else's property doesn't mean you SHOULD. Although it can be exciting (especially at that age) to do something forbidden, he can suffer the consequences if caught. He might inadvertently harm th
11.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I completed my BS degree several years ago. I carried a full-time school load and worked full-time. I got 90% of my school work done on the weekends. During the week I was too tired from work to do much more than the absolute minimum requir
12.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
Why not just buy a netbook if you're going to carry something around that large? I'm not trolling here--it's a sincere question. I do like the idea of "e-ink" though, and I haven't seen a device that uses it, so my opinion might be changed
13.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I flat-out refuse to use PayPal for anything. I am reluctant to use my credit card except for shopping sites that have a decent track record of security. A small site with a Comodo certificate won't get my business. If HN used Amazon for pa
14.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I sent this info to my sister. She teaches science in a high school and the school's Internet filter blocks all access to YouTube, so she was thrilled to learn about this.
15.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I store all my account URLs, user IDs, and passwords in a text file that is inside of an encrypted TrueCrypt volume. The TrueCrypt volume appears as an ordinary file on my computer, and the password to decrypt it is stronger than any passwo
16.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I also got prescription computer glasses a few months ago after using non-prescription reading glasses. They seem to work well, and I paid extra to get the anti-reflective coating too. I spend 8-16 hours a day staring at computer screens. I
17.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
Although the lower-case "G" is not easily discernible, the bright colors make it stand out more on my bookmarks toolbar, so I prefer it for that reason alone.
18.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I personally prefer building my own systems so that I can upgrade or repair it easily. All of the big box manufacturers use non-standard cases, motherboards, and power supplies. They will use standard components like RAM, drives, etc. but m
19.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
Have you thought about modifying it so that it's not just eye candy, but can also be used for navigation (like proceeding to the page uncovered behind the curl)?
20.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I feel the opposite way: eliminate CC: and keep BCC:. People use CC: way too often when a BCC: is more appropriate. Unfortunately, the worst abusers are the most clueless and least likely to change.
21.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
Your sarcasm detector seems to be broken. Check its batteries.
22.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I don't know how useful that opencourseware will be to you. There are other free resources on the Internet. http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/ This is a free e-book written by a professional programmer that teaches basic progra
23.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
A clever and witty epitaph. It may not please Eliza, but it pleases me.
24.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I concur. NewEgg gets 99.9% of all my tech-related purchases. It's too bad that Circuit City couldn't survive, but I've only been in my local store once in the past year (and IIRC, I didn't buy anything then and left empty-handed.)
25.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
If that really bothers you, just alias those commands. alias listopenfiles=ls alias netfind=ngrep ...and so forth. I've done that to add the DOS "cls" command to clear my terminal screen. Also, I'm a Cisco admin, so I have aliased "en" to "
26.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
Dell has long been ambivalent about Linux. Their earlier offerings were difficult to locate on their website. They rarely mentioned Linux in their direct mail catalogs. Only recently when they switched from SUSE to Ubuntu have they increase
27.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
My thoughts exactly. Current Macs are Intel CPUs that can natively run all major popular operating systems, so what is this guy getting worked up about? Doesn't he know that you can run Windows on a Mac in a VM or natively, as the primary O
28.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
Identifiable brands are ususally obfuscated unless the brand owner pays to advertise their brand (at least in the USA). Look at sitcoms on TV. The husband drinks beer out of a can that is red & white like a Budweiser can, but it clearly
29.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
Water is the enemy of wood and can rot it pretty quickly as well as invite termites. If wood is kept dry, it will last nearly forever. There is some ancient Egyptian furniture in museums that is more than 2,000 years old, and even more furn
30.
by grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I still have the first computer I bought: an Apple ][+. I haven't booted it up in over fifteen years. If it still works it could be useful for some things, but without a TCP/IP stack, it can never connect to the Internet or even a LAN which

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