mcswell

22 ms·

481.
by mcswell 2y ago
Re your #4 (Vim), and the original commenter's #4 that cursor keys etc. were absolutely necessary: Since around 1990, I have re-mapped the Control keys on my keyboard to be cursor keys, using more or less the Vim arrangement (but not o
482.
by mcswell 2y ago
Original article: "Do you ever type function keys? I do not." Your comment: "Function keys are mandatory." I'm in the "I never use function keys" camp, in fact I'd prefer a keyboard without them, si
483.
by mcswell 3y ago
Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space. I assume this is for interplanet
484.
by mcswell 3y ago
Can you say "clueless"? I didn't think so. What you're saying is that if something isn't perfect, it shouldn't exist at all. And guess what: Nothing is perfect.
485.
by mcswell 3y ago
His real name was Dr. Richard Kimble.
486.
by mcswell 3y ago
I should do that. I used to use RCS for everything, and my recollection is that after I read the man page once or twice, I knew almost everything I needed to know. SCCS had a bit more of a learning curve. As for git, I almost always have
487.
by mcswell 3y ago
Rails-to-trail trails are, in my limited experience (mostly in the DC-MD-northern Va region), boringly flat. I suppose out in the Rockies and Cascades they are more un-flat, although if it was originally a railroad line it's still lik
488.
by mcswell 3y ago
Indiana is much more interesting underground, IMO. There are lots of nice caves down around Bloomington and Bedford.
489.
by mcswell 3y ago
Not mentioned yet are DocBook tables, of which there are several types. The kind we used starts here: https://tdg.docbook.org/tdg/5.1/cals.table . You have to drill down to get inside the tables. They have some-
490.
by mcswell 3y ago
I use TBird. I believe there are two search mechanisms: 1) The "Search Messages" dialog that you get to from the menu Edit/Find/Search Messages... Can you say "slow"? I knew you could! I tried this just now
491.
by mcswell 3y ago
In C.S. Lewis' book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", the travelers meet a "retired" star, Ramandu: "In our world," said Eustace, "a star is a huge ball of flaming gas." "Even in your world, my so
492.
by mcswell 3y ago
I posted a link to some fandom before I saw your posts.
493.
by mcswell 3y ago
Sort of like this, only aluminum? https://evil.fandom.com/wiki/Spider_Tank_(Wild_Wild_West)
494.
by mcswell 3y ago
Turn all stoplights green (not red!) at the same time. This was actually the idea of a scifi story back in the 1960s--it came out first as a short story (probably in Analog), then as a book. (FWIW, I found the short story better.) Like ma
495.
by mcswell 3y ago
My guess is that the rudder hydraulics are not located in the engine room, rather they're in a compartment directly over the rudder (or over both rudders, on a twin screw ship). That's how it was on the destroyer I was on, admi
496.
by mcswell 3y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4WJsp16CpY I was in the US Navy decades ago, long before these digital systems. That said, there are many ways to control rudders, and for that matter engines, that don't rely on someo
497.
by mcswell 3y ago
I have used a lot of fonts over the years (many of them non-Roman), but I know nothing about legibility except a few anecdotes. One such anecdote: I was trying to read a sign the other day that said either "68" or "88"--
498.
by mcswell 3y ago
"on earth there are organisms in the deep sea that have completely different biology": Not sure what you mean by that. There are bacteria that metabolize different things than what the bacteria up here metabolize, but they (and w
499.
by mcswell 3y ago
Missing one. When Noah got off the ark, he told the animals "Go forth and multiply." Noah did inspection tours each month. After a couple months there were baby rabbits, soon baby squirrels, and after 16 months there was even a b
500.
by mcswell 3y ago
I have not heard that "inter-intelligible" claim, do you have a link/ citation for it?
501.
by mcswell 3y ago
I now have Half Life on order, your fault. I was intrigued by another Hal Clement title, Trio for Slide Rule and Typewriter. I have a slide rule sitting a few feet from me as I write this, in case of emergency. No typewriter, though.
502.
by mcswell 3y ago
Thank you! With that help, I was able to find the story: "Moment of Inertial." And here's a link to the story: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/067157857X/067157857X__2.htm
503.
by mcswell 3y ago
There was a scifi story decades ago about using small but heavy objects (neutronium, IIRC) as an integral part of space ships. The idea was not to use them to generate energy, but to generate a gravitational field to counteract the effects
504.
by mcswell 3y ago
From the review: "But is any of this really language? Kershenbaum shrewdly sidesteps the question." Of course he does, because it would ruin his thesis. He'd rather use the word "talk" because it's vague en
505.
by mcswell 3y ago
Not sure what you're asking. "Lesser resourced", "less resourced", "low density", and this "low resource" are all terms I've heard. Not to be confused with "less commonly taught"
506.
by mcswell 3y ago
Sure, Han!
507.
by mcswell 3y ago
But think of all the leave time I'd accumulate!
508.
by mcswell 3y ago
It seems like the real problem with the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is that nobody is quite sure what it means. More specifically, if you think it's wrong, you probably have one idea of what SW is, and if you think it's right, you hav
509.
by mcswell 3y ago
What article doesn't mention Sapir-Whorf? They're in the second paragraph of the article I read.
510.
by mcswell 3y ago
Speaking with my linguist hat on, and also with my more-or-less speaker of a couple other languages hat on (picture the Mad Hatter), I'd say that there is sometimes a one-to-one correspondence. The meaning of 'man' in Engl

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