HansardExpert

> At which point I stop reading and I'm thinking "finally, I see why he's emailing us".

I never like to discourage 'too much' information because frankly 'end users' don't know what they need to tell us in support (that is kind of what our job is right?). I'd much prefer the above than just 'it won't let me log in' - where there maybe context that I'd want.

I spend more time asking follow up questions (without being able to provide even a modicum of solution) in many cases, I try to couch my 'questions answering questions' reply with why I am asking (more typing and explaining) when users don't give me chapter and verse, even if it is mostly 'puff'.

> I now work as a software developer for a startup and often have to interact directly with clients, and when I communicate with them, I always make sure have my desired "call to action" (even if only summarised) within the first sentence.

But that is after they have emailed you right? You cannot summarize anything until you actually have them tell you what is wrong, no matter how long takes them. So yes summarize in the first sentence is always useful and if you don't kow the solution (yet) it never hurts to admit that and say something like, 'but we can try X or see what Y is doing as that will help me understand the issue in more detail' etc.

Customer Support is hard work sometimes, now try doing it with someone who doesn't speak your language very well ;)

As a support engineer...

"Hey Mr Customer... don't worry that all your data is corrupt or you lost access to your disks ... you have been set in a new direction and we're just making your day job 'fun'"

They're not Bugs ... what you have here are little balls of 'fun' /s

;)

by Gwynna Forgham-Thrift

Engineer Omid Sadeghpour has designed and built an on-vehicle charging system for his Tesla Model Y. Now, whenever he parks it in a sunny lot, he can deploy the panels; and rather than merely baking the interior of the car, he's generating juice.

You can browse previous issues of the paper here (

https://sag.stparchive.com/

This is lovely article (albeit in a sad way). I worked in the print industry for many years; offset-litho than letter press but I learnt how to set leaded type at college and occasionally we out-sourced some work to letter-press printers as there are just some jobs that are better suited to the mechanics of letterpress than the rather aggressive processes of offset litho - putting the paper between many rollers, custom wedding invitations are a good example of when we would use letter press.

There is just something wonderful, to me anyway, about the entire process of printing, letter-press more so.

I see his set up also included a folding machine - we used to have to do a lot of hand-folding for some more delicate or low-run jobs that were not worth the time taken to setting up our folding machine to work on.

I am glad people like Dean Combs exist. May he keep doing what he does for as long as he can and the good folk of Saguache realise what a gem they have here.

Generic cabinets from the Golden Age of arcade gaming tended to be functional workhorses...That said, there were occasions when some manufacturers toyed with design ideas to attract players to these generic cabinets.

In 1981, Japanese manufacturer Taito designed a universal cabinet, known as The Taitan that could accommodate any one of twelve of its most popular games.

I enjoyed that.

--snip-- She heard this story and she shook her head and said, "Where do people find the time?" That was her question. And I just kind of snapped. And I said, "No one who works in TV gets to ask that question. You know where the time comes from. It comes from the cognitive surplus you've been masking for 50 years." --snip--

That made me laugh.

Generative audio-visual ambient light sculpture

WS2812B / Arduino / Raspberry Pi / C++

This two-ingredient dish allegedly halted religious conflict, and is still cherished today.

Hmm

https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2023/11/11/kants-theory-of-th...

The essay is (roughly 850 words) and I can forgive the not-insignificant pre-amble, but the notes take this up to 2600 words.

Is this really a thousand word essay when it is propped up with so many explanatory notes.

First I get an UNKNOWN ISSUER from Firefox as a security warning, if I bypass that I get.

Then my corp network reports

FortiGuard Intrusion Prevention - Access Blocked Web Page Blocked

You have tried to access a web page that is in violation of your Internet usage policy. Category Newly Observed Domain URL https://www.videogist.co/

:/

Combining function with designey-ness, last year manufacturer CyberPower unveiled this PC case with automated cooling vents:

Why? It seems no different than actors or musicians. Maybe they didn't make a living and 'just got by'.

While we're on HN I ask the same question about software engineers. How did (do) so many people make a living producing Twitter or Facebook? If that isn't luxury I don't know what is.

If I had to choose, I think I'd rather live in a world full of poets than software engineers.

james Starley – considered the “father of the bicycle.” He left Coventry Machinists Co in 1870 and, with William Hillman set up their own business. In 1876 James Starley patented the ‘Coventry Lever’ Tricycle as depicted on the Starley Memorial in Coventry.

As a meteorologist for the United States Navy for more than twenty years, Kristine Harper is distinctly qualified to talk about the weather.

In 2003, the Japanese municipality of Kamikatsu declared their intention to become a Zero-Waste Town. While true zero-waste is impossible, 20 years later the town has reached an impressive 80% recycling rate. (The national average in Japan is just 20%; in America, single digits.)

"I warned you earlier this year that I would have to beat this particular drum quite loudly. I apologize for repeating myself, but this is one of those important moments in the history of the magazine. Our future has shifted back into uncertainty and this is the last issue in which I can talk to those subscribers.

There are over 1800 of them. No, we don’t know who they are. Amazon doesn’t share.

If you are currently subscribed to us on Amazon, we hope this isn’t goodbye. If you are already subscribed elsewhere, thank you. If you’ve never subscribed or lapsed, now would be a really good time to come back. Next month is our seventeenth anniversary issue. With your support, I hope to celebrate many more"

>Sometimes

I think that is probably the underlying point.

From my own experience it is no longer 'Sometimes' but seems to now the rule rather than the exception.

A company called CountyComm designs and manufactures specialty equipment for government agencies, the aerospace industry and Silicon Valley clients. They then sell their overstock to the general public, and their random library of wares perfectly intersects with the EDC market.

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ― Oscar Wilde

The Wikipedia entry for Newton mentions this and cites Michael White's book from 1997 - The last sorcerer.

In that he states

"Newton was an MP for almost exactly one year, but he seems to have contributed nothing personally to the proceedings of the new parliament. He reported back to the Vice-Chancellor faithfully and in minute detail, but according to one anecdote, which may or may not be true, he said only one thing during the year-long proceedings. Feeling a draught down his back, he asked a nearby usher to close an open window."

But there is no other reference in that book to where that came from.

Official records of what was and what as not said in Parliament didn't really come into the public until Hansard (circa 1800) there is 'WIlliam COBBETT's parliamentary history of England : from the Norman conquest, in 1066, to the year, 1803' which has been a reference before the 1800's and you can find a copy of that on the Internet Archive

https://archive.org/details/pp809777_0001/mode/2up

There is one reference to the string 'Newton' in that search but it is just a name of a borough.

I wonder where that comes from (is it apocryphal?) as prior to Hansard - which itself is not always verbatim and is the body that records the daily goings-on in the Houses of Parliament - there was very little documented on what was actually said in Parliament - let alone who said it.

It's a nice anecdote if nothing else.