peckrob

21 ms·

121.
by peckrob 9y ago
Yup. My Apple password is one of the very few remaining ones that isn't a random string generated by 1Password because Apple makes me enter it all the time. :(
122.
by peckrob 9y ago
Heh, this was me with my TI-85 in the late 90s. I had a computer at home, but not in class. So after finishing whatever thing we had to work on in class, I'd write programs and games on my TI-85. A friend and I wrote a chat program tha
123.
by peckrob 9y ago
I was literally JUST thinking about doing this today! Although I was thinking I would only do the actual core (connection handling, database, etc) in Go, and do much of the actual game programming in Lua so that players could extend the gam
124.
by peckrob 9y ago
> Specifically that the FAA is likely to clamp down on "Uber Air Taxi" market and declare them common carriers. The FAA has some really arcane rules, which is why aviation law is an actual speciality. Like, for instance, as a p
125.
by peckrob 10y ago
Pretty much, yeah. I never noticed it on campus because I was sitting on a 10 megabit connection. That added an extra dimension to the confusion because I was sure this never happened when I was on campus, only when I was sitting 300 mile
126.
by peckrob 10y ago
This reminds me of one of my favorite old tech stories. A long while back (seems like this was the late 90s or early 2000s) I was working on a script that did some data processing on a remote machine. It had to loop through a bunch of text
127.
by peckrob 10y ago
I used to work IT for a somewhat large fan convention. For all the servers and switches we had to roll in for our needs (registration, store, etc), I build a wooden rack [0] [1] that rolled on casters. We could prep everything before loadin
128.
by peckrob 10y ago
I've watched this happen to my friends. One that I graduated high school with in particular comes to mind. We all played video games back then. Half Life, Goldeneye, Starcraft, Everquest, etc. He was a smart guy, driven, usually made b
129.
by peckrob 10y ago
These actually do exist! Do a Google search for "self service garage" or "DIY garage" to see if there's one near your location. You may have to hunt around a bit as some of these places may not have websites. The on
130.
by peckrob 10y ago
> also weather does not usually confine itself to state boundaries. This is a very good point. During the height of the 2011 Super Outbreak [0], April 27th, many of the strongest tornadoes crossed state lines. Taken as a whole, the event
131.
by peckrob 10y ago
I live in Dixie Alley [0], a place prone to incredibly violent tornadoes. The National Weather Service, part on NOAA, has saved many lives here. If you follow along on a weather enthusiast forum like TalkWeather [1], you'll see just so
132.
by peckrob 10y ago
On lemons: if you have a dirty microwave, put half a lemon in a glass of water and microwave for a few minutes. Then wipe down the inside of the microwave with no effort. After that, cut the lemon up and put the lemon down the disposal. Run
133.
by peckrob 10y ago
> The noobs have a "sandbox" to play in by modifying the game. First they follow tutorials or copy/paste code into patches. But eventually something remarkable happens when they start to modify that logic to accomplish the
134.
by peckrob 10y ago
When I worked for the Park Service, we had this positively ancient Chevy van we inherited from the Air Force. Thing was older than me, I think. No one knew exactly how many miles it actually had on it because the odometer only had five spac
135.
by peckrob 10y ago
I'm a resident of Alabama, 49th on the list. Unhealthy lifestyles is the biggest cause and it cuts across racial lines. * Astronomically high rates of obesity, diabetes, etc. across all genders, races and incomes. * Poor diet. The food
136.
by peckrob 10y ago
> Stihl Chainsaws Can definitely speak to the quality of Stihl tools. When I bought my first house, for the first three years I ended up buying a new cheap electric $80 string trimmer every year. They would burn out, mysteriously fail, o
137.
by peckrob 10y ago
If you're interested in more detailed info (like aeronautical charts and such), I recommend ForeFlight [0]. It's what I use when I'm actually flying. It also uses the GPS in your mobile device rather than the slightly delayed
138.
by peckrob 10y ago
The story of the hunt for liquid helium is one of the more fascinating and colorful stores I've read. The blog Damn Interesting weaves the story pretty well. https://www.damninteresting.com/absolute-zero-is-0k/
139.
by peckrob 10y ago
I run UAP-AC-Pros in my house (along with pfSense for a router) and have nothing but good things to say about them. Eliminated the wifi problems I was having and they just work. Rebooted the three I have the other day to install newer firmw
140.
by peckrob 10y ago
Because it's not just you reading this? I found the reverse engineering part interesting too. Like I said, it's incredibly well done. But it's also legally problematic and anyone reading this should understand the risks they
141.
by peckrob 10y ago
Yes, I see the disclaimer. You are walking an incredibly fine line. If you did this to the GPS that is currently in your airplane, unless you are also a licensed A&P or your aircraft is registered as experimental, you potentially made
142.
by peckrob 10y ago
> Interestingly, by 14 CFR 43.3(k) even the "official" method described in the article is noncompliant, as the device is removed from the aircraft, and put into a docking-station at home, loaded via RS232. It's not noncomp
143.
by peckrob 10y ago
Pilot here. Generally speaking, FAA regs allow owners to update GPS databases (14 CFR 43.3 [0]) if we're provided with the means to do so. However, this method of doing it may be legally questionable. The crux of the matter is this reg
144.
by peckrob 10y ago
This is kind of what we're building in Huntsville, Ala. right now. The local city owned utility, Huntsville Utilities, is building out the fiber network and other ISPs will operate the actual service. So far the only one announced is G
145.
by peckrob 10y ago
0. The Moon is not "seismically dead." 1. The Moon has not cooled and solidified. 2. We do not have existing technology to create massive underground Moon factories. It would be unbelievably difficult, even on Earth, to drill 500
146.
by peckrob 10y ago
> lunar colonization. The other things are impossible or might as well be, at least based on our current understanding of physics. The reason lunar colonization hasn't happened is not because it is impossible but because there'
147.
by peckrob 10y ago
The Martian is a great gateway for casual readers into sci-fi. One person I gave The Martian to loved it so much the next week they asked me for another recommendation. I recommended John Scalzi's Old Man's War. He's no
148.
by peckrob 10y ago
This is very close to how I feel about Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. I read them because many of my friends who were also sci-fi readers raved about them. I enjoyed Red Mars but I really had to slog through Green Mars and
149.
by peckrob 10y ago
I read a lot of Science Fiction for fun. These are a few of my favorites that I've given to other people: 1. Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter. When I think of epic hard science fiction, the Xeelee Sequence books spring to mind. With
150.
by peckrob 10y ago
I have large portions of that book memorized thanks to the Journalism courses I took in college. "Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise."

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