MattPie

Doolittle is a great example, thanks. For that matter, most people (myself included) can't name all the US presidents post-LIncoln up to FDR.

Someone on my FB feed was lamenting that some 30-year-old waiter at lunch didn't know who he was. That's kind of sad, but I don't see it as a huge deal. Heroes get lost to time. I'm guessing many people here don't know who Alvin York was (unless they saw the movie). I'm sure back in the 60s when he died people were complaining about how kids today don't know who he was.

I'm up to $2295. Woo!

I've been working my way through it the recently, including last night while working. I saw various episodes over the years when I was younger, but it seems there are a bunch that I've never seen or don't remember. I'm in the third season now, "And the Childern Shall Lead" and "Is there No truth in Beauty?" (featuring Spock in a red visor and Dr. Pulaski) last. The Netflix versions have the updated external shots with the computer-rendered ship and planets. I generally like it, but it'd be cool to compare to the original effects from time to time.

I assume that's the stuff that looks like hockey or gaffer tape that I see on athletes all the time now.

It does! I have a couple 5 1/4" ones at home that are the same size as a CD, just with a bigger hole in the middle. From the weight and color, I think it's aluminum with a coating of something ferrous for the magnetic heads to read and write. Later platters looked more like chrome mirrors, so I wonder if they started coating the outside with something for durability or whatever.

Floppy disks came up in the Complaint File, and I thought I'd share something cool I found at work. This is a 70s or 80s era hard drive platter. As you can see from the groovy guy in printout next to it, it's roughly 14" across. They came as a stack in the cake carrier that you stuck into a washing machine sized box to read it. 200MB, so 1/3 of the capacity of CD-ROM.

As in 5 1/4 or 3 1/2? The number of people that call 3 1/2 floppies a "hard disk" (Because it's hard plastic!) rankles me.

I used them for a bit a long time ago but I don't remember why I stopped. I do remember the adhesive emits some visible light when you pull the backing off if the room is dark (or d4rk, as the case may be). I may have to try them again as MrsPie complains about my noisy sleep too. Also, I think you can re-use them a couple times before they stop sticking.

If not, you may want to try BreathRight's new PatellaRight strips, a new adhesive product that you apply to keep that pesky floating knee in place!

Urine is sterile, NBD. :)

Complaint: up until 4:45 last night trying to patch (and subsequently fix) a pile of my Linux systems. The folks that develop on them are doing the right thing in have their own package repos and whatnot, but they've let it crumble a little and made some questionable upgrade packages of to replace system stuff with newer versions so few if any of the upgrades worked without manual intervention.

I like to think I'm a passable writer, despite having EE and CS degrees. I seem to be a little more competent than many of my peers around work.

I put and outlet checker thingy in my cart at amazon today, I'll mess with it and report back. I did the rear brakes on Van-dor tonight in maybe 90 minutes. A chunk of that was wasted using the scissor jack because my little hydraulic jack isn't quite tall enough to get the van up on the jack stands (first time I've tried). Looks like I need a new jack. Everything else went pretty smoothly, although I shouldn't say that before I actually drive it. Also, those 18" wheels and run-flat tires are pretty f'n heavy. And the thing uses some strange lug nut size that I don't have a socket for so I had to use the tire iron from the trunk. It's either 20 or 21 mm, as the 19 and 22 mm don't fit. It's between 13/16 and 7/8" too. Strange.

I'm with JJ, that sounds pretty miserable. It's 32 here nowand I was out a bit earlier doing the back brakes on my car. I was plenty comfortable at 40 with jeans and a sweatshirt. If I had to do the work at 80, I'd have been a pile of sweat.

For Fedun: NHL players and staff have a funny way of figuring guys out after they play enough games. Like GT, Fedun needs to have enough tape that other teams know his weaknesses, and then Fedun needs to compensate and show he can adapt and stay competent.

My dad is convinced I should remove the outlet GFIs and rely on the GFI breaker in the basement. He was an electrician so I should at least try it. That being said, I can't believe the builder did anything above and beyond code so I'm a little worried that I'm setting myself up for hassle when I sell the place.

John has an engineering degree, so that either improves or degrades his ability to write coherent English.

Right. As far as I know, the half-bath outlet is the last thing on the circuit, which runs through all 2.5 baths in the house plus a couple other random outlets along the way. I keep thinking it's a short like you say, but if it was truly shorted it would trip before anything was plugged in, right? I have to do it methodically again (switch out the duplex outlet, check, eliminate the GFI out and see if the other outlet or breaker goes, etc.

True, although I understand it's dictation with some editing, so take that for what it's worth.

I have an outlet in my half bath that I'm not sure has ever worked. I have it disconnected from the circuit upstream because any time I plug something in it trips the upstream GFI outlet. I can't figure out why though; if it were a nail or screw it'd trip before anything was plugged in. I replaced the GFI outlet thinking that was the issue, but nope. One of these days I need to dig into it again.

I don't know if I posted this here, but: I was putting in wall anchors to tie tall furniture to the wall a few months ago (to prevent it from falling on RosePie). I drilled into the drywall in my living room and put the anchor in. Later that week I noticed a small water leak in the basement and after thinking one of the joints went, realized what I probably did. After pulling away the we drywall, I saw I hit the 4" PVC drain pipe from the upstairs bath dead center with the drill. Doh. Fixed it with some JB Weld Pipe stuff and it seems fine. Learned a new technique though: one side of the hole was close enough to the stud that I just cut it over there so I'd have something to screw into. The other side was a good foot from the next stud so I cut a furring strip larger than the hole, and screwed it into place so I'd have something to screw the new piece of drywall to (roughly a foot square so I couldn't use a patch). Worked out well, other than I haven't gotten back to Spackle and paint it yet. :blush:

GT's are hard to draft because every young goaltender has holes. The good ones can learn and adjust to what the "book" on them is once they get to the NHL and shooters can place shots better. The flame-outs are the GT's that can't adjust or open other holes when they fix something, even if their raw athleticism got them by in juniors/etc. The comparison is made to QB in football a lot; the reason QBs are hard to predict is they have to be able to adjust to the NFL D and a whole different level of player. The average college team has a couple of guys on D that might see the NFL; Every NFL team as essentially all-stars from the college level. Some QBs can process that, many can't.

Watching, that doesn't seem like a straight-up punch-out like the Johnson one. He certainly lost fights by judges decision over the years.