crb3

In WordStar it's a little more nuanced than that.

First, it's properly ^K X, as the ^K prefix subcommands block/file actions, as written by Rob Barnaby into all the WordStar versions starting with CP/M.

Second, ^KX as 'exit' means to save the latest revisions out to file before quitting, while ^KQ, 'quit', means to abandon the revisions. You might get a confirmation dialog and a chance to change your mind before you're dumped back to the commandline.

Current-convention iconic close-window behavior more closely emulates the latter.

Any word on whether / how well that Windows-only IDE performs on WINE in Linux? (Hint to Cypress: that Windows-only thing is a dealbreaker for enough of us that you really should address it.)

./configure; make; make believe

--john 3:16

> King's foes were not ONLY the US intelligence service.

ftfy

Is this new? It's the pennies algorithm: to roll a d6, flip five pennies, count heads and add 1. I was doing this back in the '90's in Turbo C and (with a zener noise source) 8051 assembly.

How conductive? Relatively high-resistance can be worked around for CMOS logic- and MCU-based circuits (mainly high RC constants), but analog that has to be built with high-decade resistances is likely to be noise-prone and flaky, and forget power sections, they'll have to be built on conventional glass-epoxy and hooked up with flex-edge headers.

The lack of a good gas-tight bond between component and conductor is also problematic: silver tarnishes. Silver-clad switch contacts can be made self-wiping, but not static contacts. Absent some kind of hot-weld method, I can just see SMD parts popping off of flex-circuits.

This is a promising start to a new base-level technology, but it's got a ways to go before it's ready for the R&D lab as a tool rather than a patient. I look forward to seeing these issues overcome.

Sounds to me like it's time to hit the Wayback Machine for prior-existence references and instances of your code, just in case.

Sounds like the Stasi are sure they've bought themselves a judge.

A lot of the old wall warts are "Type 2", which means transformer, rectifier, reservoir capacitor -- no regulation there at all. With light or no load, the output voltage can soar (such as, 18v DC no-load from a nominal 12v DC @ 300 mA wart). The switchers are regulated, so you get what it says on the tin.

In the same spirit, I'd like to suggest that anyone trying this use some sort of jig to hold the disc against the belt rather then try to hold it in place against lateral force with your bare fingers.

Source: long-ago experience. Ouch.

A belt sander with rough grit should take care of that without damage to device or surroundings. Sand from the top -- that's where the data is, or used to be. For paranoid satisfaction, sand it all the way through.

Raspberry Pi, Arduino and their board-level Maker-centric ilk. It's a viable flea-market ecosystem now that everybody already has at least a computer of some sort, so the learning machine doesn't have to be that do-all hub-of-activity machine, it just has to connect to it.

Having GPIO pins to play with also helps with the learning. The Boca Raton model of computing device was a bit stifling for homebrew hardware extension because of having to accommodate the de facto standards of the IBM PC/AT model (RS232 serial, Centronics parallel, CGA/EGA/VGA display, DIN5/PS2 kybd/mouse) to get a hackable connection going.

Is this leading towards an upwards adjustment of the legal age of majority? I think Tolkien had it right with the hobbits' "tweenies", but the last thing we need to do is set it as law.

It takes awhile, once you're finally allowed behind the wheel, to develop a sure hand and a discerning eye for steering the course of your own life. That's going to be true no matter where they set the age below which you're not allowed to drive yourself. Better it be when the brain still has the described plasticity so the needed life-lessons are learned well.

How do we know that that's true? If you were under a gag order, you'd have to say that, right?

So "think of the children" trumps "think of the Secret Police"?

Climate-change deniers are silly. Our governments have created and sustained a climate of terror for over a decade!

(ref photo 1 caption:) FYI, a nibbler would do the board-trimming job better and put less fiberglas in your air.

> There's no profit to be made from genocide.

There is from imprisonment.

Well, I was hoping for a cake that was ohm-made...

A coupla years ago I told 'em they could use one candle if they striped it blue, red, black, gold. They didn't get it.

No, what I (currently 64) have noticed is a swift reduction in unbroken-focus time. Unlike in my 20's and 30's, I have personal responsibilities, now, y'see.

We're not designed to preemptively multitask; I just crash my stack when I try. We can cooperatively multitask, but the context-switching has to planned ahead. Even then, interrupts are costly. Used to be there was nothing between me and putting in a sleepless weekend on a project except me and my fatigue, which enthusiasm overcame easily. Now I've got kids and elderly parents and they're not only interrupting, they're nonmaskable. Stack-crash, context-dump and a profound weariness from loss of momentum, next stop.

I love it when I can shove in the earplugs, unplug the phone and dive in on a new learning adventure -- I hunger for that, it's part of who I am. Those times when I can trust the world to handshake timeslices and mask interrupts are very rare these days, however. From the outside it might look like slower learning; from in here, it's that the learning seldom gets any runtime.

One obervation: if you're really that adamant about Real Names, you're going to be regarded as just another privacy reaper. I suggest you implement some form of locally-registered aliases if your concern is accountability, because there are entirely too many real reasons for limiting exposure surface on the Internet. Of course, if it is all about the tracking...

So you prefer Slashdot?

'Demystifying ourselves' meaning presenting our processes in a comprehensible manner so as to educate the audience? I don't think that'll work, because there are an awful lot of them who have active disinterest in that learning process, and plenty whose positions of power are dependent on that. Look at Kansas, where it's not just WBC who're trying to forcibly simplify reality with mob tactics. Look at DOJ -- do you think they want to be reined in by having the bright light of informed scrutiny shone on their methods?

It's already pitchfork o'clock, and has been for a very long time (see 'Copernicus'). Until that changes, it's not safe for any of us outside the broom closet.

Sounds like a plug for sugared chewing gum.

We use an answering machine to screen calls. I put SIT tones (the tones usually followed by a network message such as "we're sorry but the call cannot be completed as dialed" -- google SIT.WAV) at the beginning of our outgoing message. We don't pick up until the message ends.

We get a lot of 'ghosts', calls dropped before the message is done -- those were automated calls. We get callers which are partway through delivering a canned spiel at that point because their delivery system triggered on the tones as if 'your-turn' beep -- those were automated calls intended to be left as recorded messages.

It's not exactly what the contest is about, but it does provide some personal relief on a landline.

Firefox 3.5.6 on Mepis Linux 8.0 here; NoScript permissions open to github and tumbler otherwise I wouldn't see code onscreen fwiw, tnx for feedback

Apparently not; sorry.

The blog's github interface is annoying: in order to save-to-disk more than just the opening paragraphs in Firefox, I had to bring up Web Developer's View Generated Source function and save the result of that. Not cool for anybody who prefers to study offline.

One important part missing: none of the posted entries are page-savable from a browser. Maybe your corner of the culture doesn't save pages to disk for ready reference, maybe this is a 'get off my lawn' issue, but.. Maybe a 'printable' link?

--crb3