simmons

13 ms·

91.
by simmons 6y ago
I can't claim to have hacked on MythTV or XBMC, but I certainly used them back then, and worked on television set-top box software for much of the ~2001-2017 time frame. As a systems programmer for these devices, I'm afraid I don&
92.
by simmons 6y ago
I don't claim to be any kind of investment guru, but here's my two cents. I've had solid returns from investments in industry segments I've worked in. The strategy outlined above by wegs2 reflects my thoughts almost exac
93.
by simmons 6y ago
I used sc back in the day for many light tasks. I had no idea that James Gosling was an author. (Or didn't know who James Gosling was, at the time.) It's great to see that it's being maintained in some form!
94.
by simmons 6y ago
I'll second this. From the original article: > This is only a piece of the 8086's complex instruction handling. Other latches hold pieces of the instruction indicating register usage and the ALU operation, while a separate cir
95.
by simmons 6y ago
I think the relationship of geography to salary is going to be dictated by the biggest factors in all pricing -- supply and demand. Cost of living adjustments are really just a proxy for acknowledging that a prospective remote worker in Des
96.
by simmons 6y ago
Great, I've been anxious to watch this! I literally just checked the web site yesterday to see if it was streaming anywhere yet. (And it looks like the web site still doesn't mention the Amazon streaming today.) There are probably
97.
by simmons 6y ago
Many great people have come from Mississippi, or passed through on their journey in life. Sadly, I think most of these great people end up leaving, thus re-enforcing some of the problems the area faces. I was thrilled to see a rigorous reve
98.
by simmons 6y ago
To be fair to Microsoft, the C64 BASIC was notoriously outdated when the C64 shipped. Jack Tramiel managed to buy an unlimited-use license to Microsoft's BASIC in 1977, and was determined to get his money's worth. On the bright si
99.
by simmons 6y ago
CoL adjustments have always seemed like a bit of a foreign idea to me, as someone who has been a freelancer for 20 years (WfH for 15). I'm not sure I would be able to sell my customers on the idea that I should get paid more because I
100.
by simmons 7y ago
I think they must be adding slots fairly frequently. (But they might also be snatched up quickly.) My wife and I put in an Amazon Fresh order yesterday after doing a quick "dry run checkout" to confirm there was an available slot.
101.
by simmons 7y ago
As a sibling comment points out, the value of ACA plans may vary quite a bit from state to state. I don't know how it is elsewhere, but here in Colorado the major insurance companies only provide a special, lousy version of their produ
102.
by simmons 7y ago
The station’s once groundbreaking transmitter is long retired but preserved, on-site, beside its modern counterpart. I wonder if they ever offer tours. It would be neat to see some of this history the next time I'm passing through th
103.
by simmons 7y ago
I didn't have an assembler however, so would write out all of the Z-80 instructions by hand on paper... I'm glad I'm not the only one who hand-assembled like this! :) Only for me, it was several years later, on a C64 with 6
104.
by simmons 7y ago
I've been self-employed for 20 years, and the idea that I would need to justify vacation is honestly a bit foreign. I assume that I'm going to be taking vacations, and if a customer has specific availability needs, then that&#x2
105.
by simmons 7y ago
Yes, a lot of these sorts of measurements tend to just be population heat maps. Going down the list of most populous metro areas in the U.S. [1] or the most populous counties [2], all the top places are represented in the list. Although the
106.
by simmons 7y ago
Ah, this brings back memories. I signed up for Caller ID when it was first available to me in 1994. Not only did I have the regular caller ID box, but thanks to a fancy modem that could interpret the caller ID encoding, I rigged a daemon to
107.
by simmons 7y ago
I read Peter Norton's Inside the IBM PC (1986 edition) [1] a while back, out of an interest in computer history. It struck me as being quite a bit different than today's technical books. It had a very conversational writing styl
108.
by simmons 7y ago
Hmm, using a hole puncher is a pretty clever idea. If I had thought of that, instead of crudely sawing off a notch with scissors, maybe my success rate would have been higher. ;) You can also punch holes in 3.5-inch double-density disks to
109.
by simmons 7y ago
While we're brainstorming, I'd add Rainbows End (Vernor Vinge) and Halting State (Charles Stross).
110.
by simmons 7y ago
I'm a bit of a computer history buff, and dig around through old software archives from time to time. It seems to me that developers back in the 80's (at least in the PC / home computer world) were quite possessive of their s
111.
by simmons 7y ago
However, ‘Hard’ is a subjective term. The deeper you are in a trade or the longer you have done it, the easier it comes to feel. I agree with this. I don't think mail is particularly harder than other serious Linux and network system
112.
by simmons 7y ago
I had a similar experience once, years ago, except it was probably my fault. It was the first time I tried using a FedEx account, printing out the form, putting in the clear sleeve, attaching it to the box, etc. I suspect I didn't get
113.
by simmons 7y ago
The concrete example provided by the article is the potential for opaque transmissions via Winlink, which could reduce transparency and thus raise the potential for abuse of the limited spectrum. I knew nothing of Winlink (or this petition)
114.
by simmons 7y ago
For whatever it's worth, it looks like not all "MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)" MacBooks are affected by this. I have one, entered my serial number, and it said that mine was not in the affected range of serial numbe
115.
by simmons 7y ago
I'll chime in, since I moved to PC-based fanless router hardware about 5 years ago, and for my needs it's been fantastic. One of my WAN connections is 100Mbps down (25 up), and I don't have any problem saturating it. I'm
116.
by simmons 7y ago
Contrary to popular opinion, I don't think the technical aspects of operating a mail server are all that hard. Perhaps I'm underestimating the learning curve since I've been doing it for 27 years. (If you're running your
117.
by simmons 8y ago
Like others have posted, my childhood included a lot of typing in BASIC programs from books and magazines. What I remember most is staying up late one night when I was ten years old to type in the text adventure game from the back of "
118.
by simmons 8y ago
It's not exactly a virus, but last fall some folks put together a PoC showing how certain fax machines could be compromised over the phone line, and used to gain access to their connected networks. [1] [1] https://blog.check
119.
by simmons 8y ago
> OTOH, my laptop has more in common with a VAX running Unix than it has with a Commodore PET. This was my thought upon reading the "Big computers and little computers are completely different beasts" quote, and it's also
120.
by simmons 8y ago
Interesting. I also grew up in the Deep South, but people are always surprised to hear it, claim I "don't have an accent", etc. And yet, the quiz positively identified me as having a Southern accent. I assume it's becaus

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