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bballard

61 karma · joined January 28, 2014

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bballard··on The Epson HX-20 – A Contrarian's View (2021)
As a forward observer once radioed to artillery during WWII, "Stop computing and start shooting!"
bballard··on Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad
Hawthorne was a place.
bballard··on Japan resumes commercial whaling after 30 years
Exactly! Not just wooden boats -- cedar boats.
bballard··on Tom Wolfe Has Died
I agree, this is a great starting point. It contains a selection of articles on such diverse subjects as hot rods, Phil Spector, insomnia-inducing Las Vegas, NASCAR (and moonshining), 60s dance crazes (the mashed potato, etc), The Beatles landing at JFK, Cary Grant, Muhammad Ali, Nannies in NYC, and suits with real buttonholes. All are fantastic reads.
bballard··on Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)
I still use a wire brush sometimes, but it's a different type with longer stiffer bristles. There's no way one of these bristles is going to get accidentally lodged in your food. These bristles just don't fall out and if they did you would see it pretty easily. You have to use it a bit more perpendicular to the grates, but it works. http://a.co/gyIkCeK
bballard··on YouTube monetization analysis
So you're telling me there's a way we might demonetize "kinder playtime", "hailey's magical playhouse", "funtoys", and "toys unlimited"?

THAT is a noble cause! Gimme the sixty-five. I'm on the job!

bballard··on Useless design features in modern products
Architecture is full of further examples of useless design features, from facades to fascia, to non-load bearing columns. There are entire books (even novels) on this subject.
bballard··on Navy Returns to Compasses and Pencils to Help Avoid Collisions at Sea
Yes, that was the reason we were told we had to do it on paper, in case the systems failed. Only we always did it on paper, not just for practice.
bballard··on Navy Returns to Compasses and Pencils to Help Avoid Collisions at Sea
As a former naval officer, I was shocked to hear they didn't still require conning officers to plot and track the closest point of approach of all contacts on paper. To rely on a computer or radar system to do that for you is craziness. Sure, the commercial ships do that, but then in this case they should have avoided hitting Navy ships, but they are rather stealthy and weren't broadcasting their positions, so it's up to the junior officers on watch. Doing this on paper keeps you alert and reduces boredom, believe me.

It is possible to get into a "Kobayashi Maru" situation coming into a busy shipping channel with contacts coming in from all sides, similar to the iPhone game "HarborMaster" which always ends with a collision. But there are rules to follow along the way, whether it's adjusting course to avoid a close approach, contacting other ships on bridge-to-bridge VHF radio, waking the captain, blasting the ship's horn, making evasive maneuvers before you get "in extremis". None of these happened. This is what I found so hard to believe in these two cases, but it makes perfect sense when you're relying on imperfect automated systems and essentially driving asleep at the wheel.

bballard··on Sir Roger Moore, James Bond actor, dies aged 89
Dalton and even Lazenby actually hold up quite well. Perhaps it has more to do with the script and directing than the actor. The films of these least "successful" Bonds are among the best Bond films, and far better than the worst outings by Craig, Brosnan, Moore and even Connery.
bballard··on How Ikea's Billy bookcase took over the world
Another option is FJÄLKINGE (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60221683/)

I recently got one of these for the kids room. It's all steel construction, the shelves actually seem pretty solid, they seem to have a lattice or some reinforcement inside. Depth of 13 3/4 inch / 35cm is perfect for board games.

bballard··on Improve your touch typing
This should really be the default and only setting. It's very annoying and incorrect otherwise.
bballard··on How MySQL is able to scale to 200M QPS – MySQL Cluster
Command logging has worked this way since VoltDB 2.0. Sync mode needs hardware that can support more frequent fsyncs, such as disk controller with BBWC (does the job and inexpensive), or a server-class SSD, and should be configured to write the command log and snapshots to separate spindles. Async mode is the default setting so that out of the box VoltDB will perform as expected in the cloud, on a VM, or on a laptop.
bballard··on Why I love databases
(I work at VoltDB)

VoltDB is easy to try. There is a free 30-day trial available on voltdb.com, and a docker-based demo (http://voltdb.com/voltdb-demo).

bballard··on Dr. Dre as the voice of Siri
Hell yeah!