Farscape
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- 3 yr. ago
- Posts
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- 267
- Joined
- 3 yr. ago
It works in Helium and Edge, the two Chromium browsers I have used for such purposes. All my other browser usage is through Firefox.
I did find THIS tutorial to get Keychron to work in Linux.
Back in my skydiving days, I coached jumpers just off student status on their canopy flying skills. Everything from packing, to learning how to shoot accuracy. I even taught high performance landings, though I drew the line at hook turns.
While I was never known as "CanopyFlyer" at my home DZ, I was known as someone that a student could come to and get good safe coaching. A couple of my students are now doing it professionally and you've seen them in the movies. Although, their skills have far outstripped anything I've taught them. I'm proud to have least provided them a foundation that they could build on.
Firefox
If I need a Chrome based browser, such as for Keychron Assistant, I use Helium.
3 years I had a normal blood pressure.
5 years and 2 months ago I had a back.
10 years ago I had knees.
Oh, and I haven't slept more than 5 or 6 hours a night in several years and most of the time I'm lucky to get 4.
I truly do not mind getting older. It has a lot of benefits, but damn... I'd like there be enough of my body left to enjoy it.
Pill box... I have take enough pills that it helps to have a pill box to organize them. Not just any pill box, mine has separate compartments for morning and night pills.
I'm 55. Sigh...
Yeah, we lived in the Greater Cincinnati area. I moved there in 1991 for a job. She moved there in 1999 for her Fellowship and Residence. We moved to Wisconsin in 2006 and we like it a lot better.
Semi-blind date. We were setup by a friend of mine that worked with her.
At the time, I was not in a good place and really was not interested in dating. My plan was to meet her, go to dinner, go to a movie then disappear. Why didn't I just say "No" to the date? My friend is a former Navy SEAL and is not one to give up.... Ever. It was just easier for me to say "yes" to the date, go, then go back to my life.
Life had other plans. We met at Newport on the Levee, which is an entertainment/ Shopping complex located right on the Ohio river in Newport, KY. This was in 2004 and the complex was brand new and very popular. So when we exited the restaurant we discovered the line for the movie theater was literally out the door and that was on top of a back and forth line near the box office. So we decided to go to the Barnes and Nobles and get hot chocolate. Neither of us like coffee. We sat down and talked... For THREE hours. It was the best conversation I've ever had with another human being.
We've been together ever since and that was in 2004. We have two boys and live 400 miles away from the Cincinnati area now.
Driver's Ed: 1986 Chevy Cavalier and it was a horrible brown color.
Parent's Cars:
1986 Buick Skyhawk: Very crappy car. The gas pedal didn't so much produce acceleration, but rather an eventual increase of the angular momentum of the tires.
1970 Chevy Impala: Loved this car. Huge and had a 400cid small block with a 400 Turbo Hydromatic with a 12 bolt posi rear end. It's the car that really taught me how to drive. It eventually ran 13's in the quarter mile.
Learned how to drive manual: 1983 (I think) Ford Escort
REALLY learned how to drive a manual: 1949 Willys Overland. A friend's Dad's car. Why did it REALLY teach me how to drive a manual? Easy, it had a non-syncrho'd transmission, much like the big rigs have. This car taught me rev-matching, double clutching, and an appreciation about how cars really work. It also had a column shifter. Once I learned how to handle the transmission, it was a lot of fun to drive. It made me a much better driver.
The car that taught me how to race (there were two):
1985 Toyota MR-2: Was a friend's car that I Autocrossed (Pro Solo) along with him. He actually made it to Nationals with this car several times. Later he won Nationals with a Supra Turbo. This was in the mid-90's.
1985 Corolla GT-S: This was my car. It was the AE86 platform with the same engine as the MR-2. Absolutely ferocious car. It didn't handle as well as the MR-2, but it was soooo much fun. This car taught me "trail braking" and a lot of other performance driving skills. This remains my favorite car I've ever owned, even to this day. I'd love to find one and restore it.
"Never pass up the opportunity to keep your mouth shut."
-- Canopyflyer's Mother circa 1982
So long as you’re not arguing, its a non issue.
Well... Shit.
Off to therapy I suppose.
30 year IT professional here, whose company is starting to utilize AI. So far for my workflow it does not provide any benefit. With that said, I am working with my team to find somewhere in our business and technical processes to make things better. It just hasn't happened yet.
I am against it, but not dead set. What I am against are the insane things that are happening due to the over zealous investment into LLMs. The Three Mile Island #1 reactor is in the process of being brought back into operation by Microsoft, just to power an AI data center.
That is absolutely insane. TMI #1 is a 60 year old reactor design that was built over 50 years ago and that is at least two generations behind modern reactors. TMI #2 experienced a meltdown back in 1979, hence why it is not an option to bring back into operation. There are several documented issues with that reactor design (remember that #2 melted down? It was due to one of these issues.) that will require monitoring and processes in place to make sure the reactor stays safe. Monitoring that is not needed on more modern reactor designs.
Western Digital has announced that their entire production run of hard drives is completely sold out. Micron exited the consumer market in order to supply AI. So hard drive and memory prices are going to get even higher than what they are now. That means computers, phones, and any consumer device that uses memory or HDD storage will see massive price increases.
That's the issue I have with LLMs. If the role out was anywhere near sane, then my attitude would be different. Right now it just looks like massive amounts of resources and money are being thrown into a pit with a dim hope that there would be some kind of return. Instead of a deliberate and planned role out that is sustainable in the long term.
Sometimes the complication is a smoke screen too.
Case in point... I picked up a contract to be the corporate Change Manager for a manufacturing company just before COVID. It's the type of company that makes appliances and other things that are destined for the garbage pile. Not really anything of note.
The guy I was taking over for had put in his notice and was moving on and had 2 days to train me. Fortunately, the ITIL system they used was ServiceNow, which I already had a lot of experience with. He got to the monthly report and in his own words he called the method of generating it "byzantine" and it was a horrible process that took almost an entire day to finish. Fortunately, he gave me step by step instructions that were accurate.
Side note, the process for generating came from my boss. She was one of these people that had just enough intelligence to be dangerous. Yeah, this contract was a fun one.
So I used my decades of reporting experience and broke down how all the reports were generated. It turned out that the Director had never really learned how to use Pivot tables and that was why there were dozens of steps in generating about 7 different reports. I took about two days to write an Excel spreadsheet (because SNOW Reporting was not capable of generating some of these reports) and automated the entire thing. I ran the original process concurrently with my new spreadsheet for another month and they both generated the exact same numbers, I canned the old process.
But I did NOT tell a soul about it. Everyone, including my boss, thought I was still taking a full day to generate those stupid reports, when I was actually doing it in 5 minutes. 4 of which were waiting for ServiceNow to run its report and download it into a CSV file.
Oh I had tried to let my boss know that I had made myself a lot more efficient, she just got angry and actually yelled at me for a couple of minutes, then she promptly forgot about it. So I just kept it to myself after that. My plan was to just pass on the old process to the next poor schmuck to get this contract, but instead the reporting part of it was handed over to someone I actually liked. She told me flat out when she found out she was taking the Change Reporting piece that she was terrified of that process. So I had her sit with me at my desk and showed her the new spreadsheet. You would have thought I bought her a puppy.
So sometimes the complications in the business world are defense mechanisms for people's time.
Kauai and Maui. Only two Hawaiian island I've been to. Kauai if you want scenic hikes and Allerton Gardens is a must see. Maui if you want great food.
Door County Wisconsin and associated Washington Island when the lavender fields are in bloom.
House on the Rock in Spring Green Wisconsin. I don't care how far away you live, you should see this place. It's either a monument to a man's ascent to brilliance... Or of his decent into madness. Words really cannot do this place justice, it's just insane.
Red River Gorge, Kentucky. One of the greatest concentrations of natural bridges and arches in the world. I have spent years hiking in and around this area and still don't think I've seen all the arches. Come with your hiking boots and be prepared for moderate to difficult hikes that can include some climbing.
Banff Canada: Took a ski trip to that area back in 1999. It's an absolutely spectacular area. Lake Louise is still my favorite place to ski after all these years.
My favorite band is that awesome trio from Toronto...
Triumph.
Slowly exits stage left.
The ONE class from High School that taught me something I literally use every single day.
Typing.
I graduated High School in 1988 and have used a keyboard almost every single day and can touch type with alacrity. As far as what layout, QWERTY.
While Dvorak is supposed to be faster and more efficient, I'm an old IT guy and not a typist. While some of my work does include writing presentations and reports, I'm doing more punching commands and using short cuts. It's just not worth the effort to learn another layout.
Back in 2009 our youngest was born and I had lost my job due to the economic downturn. My wife was the cook at the time, but was also the sole bread winner as well.
I had some basic skills in the kitchen, but really could not say I could cook. My wife was a great cook. However, it did not make any sense for her to work a 12 hour day and come home to cook. When I had been home with the baby and our older son all day.
So I had her teach me what she knew. Mainly it involved in how to read recipes. Learning the difference between a TSP and Tbsp and those types of things. While I would not say I have a talent for cooking, I did have a penchant for it. That lead me to cooking almost every day and discovering that a lot of getting good at cooking is practicing cooking techniques.
Fast forward to today and I've been a hobbyist cook for 17 years. I can confidently open any cookbook to any page and at least competently make that recipe, if not put restaurant quality meal on the table.
Am I as good as professional cook or chef? Oh hell no. I'm a home cook... A great home cook, but still a home cook. I'd probably be lost in a professional kitchen.
My girlfriend of 3 years simply ghosted me. I was 22. In my naivete I attempted to call her to at least make sure she was OK for about two weeks. She never answered the phone, never returned my calls. We also had started talking about marriage as well.
It was completely debilitating. Depression, anger, sadness, and a feeling of just being completely worthless. It catastrophically affected my dating life throughout my entire 20's. From the ages of 22 to 30, I had exactly one other girlfriend and she was more of a FWB than anything else as she was much older than me.
I did start dating around when I hit 30, but it was just one disaster after another. So much so, that I considered myself to be the common denominator and decided to just be a permanent bachelor. It was fairly obvious to me that there was something wrong with me and that's why I was having such bad luck.
Then I met the future Mrs CanopyFlyer in 2004. We've been together ever since. So it turned out that yeah, all those women I dated in my early thirties were all assholes. My wife is the best human being I have ever known.
Hmmm... Maybe that just gave her the patience to deal with such a jerk as myself.... NO, it was all the girls I dated that were the problem!