Split-browser architecture. This is huge:
Fattest pipes, limitless cache, rendering and image processing on one of the world’s most powerful computer infrastructures… in a lightweight tablet. Amazing.
The lumber yard had some 1.5w LED bulbs in the clearance bin for $3. They were pathetically dim so I cut one open with a hacksaw:
Identical bulbs with clear plastic envelopes were selling just fine at $15.
Most of the light produced by the LED was wasted by the milky-plastic envelope – no wonder they didn’t sell!
Here’s a close-up look at the circuit. Of course these are little bulbs suitable for a bedside lamp or a safety light. Bigger LED bulbs designed to equal 60w output would have cooling fins, etc.
Microsoft does a lot of things that piss me off, but this little stunt always fills me with white-hot murderous rage:
Windows decides you can't shut off your laptop until it finishes dinking around
I’m at the end of a meeting and need to bolt to another meeting. Sure, I should just close the lid and let it go to sleep but suppose I accidentally hit the wrong button to shut it down instead? And it says; “Sorry, you can’t shut down your machine for a half-hour or more, or you’ll face a rebuild.” So I have to keep it powered up long enough to finish this nonsense – and it can hang on a particular update for just about any length of time. In this case, forty minutes or so.
Of course when I turned the system back on, it said “Preparing to configure Windows updates” and restarted itself a couple times before it would let me do anything. OK, fine – that was ten more minutes. Then when I went to shut it down again? Three more updates. And then “Preparing to configure…” again when it started up. All with the warning “Do not turn off your computer”.
Um, Windows? Were you planning to let me use my computer anytime soon?
When I’m using Linux (often on the same machine) it never does anything this rude. It lets me know when it wants to install updates and then I decide. Oh, and one other thing: I can actually install updates in Linux while I’m doing other things. No worries about freezing up or unexpected shutdowns.
Microsoft, I paid for your damn operating system and you can’t even do as well as one that’s free?
Foxtrot is wonderful…
FOXTROT's HTML tag game. Click image to visit Foxtrot.com. Amend's website says; "For non-commercial websites, I’m generally okay with people reposting a strip now and then, so long as you include a link back to foxtrot.com." Gary Larson, are you listening?
It’s a perfect setup: I really should carry a piece of chalk in my backpack for occasions like this.
Chalk message on campus: "Free bible in any language"
(I don’t actually know anything about FORTRAN except that it’s a programming language but it would be fun to not tell them that and see if they try to find a bible in it.)