The dot-com bubble burst, but…well, it got better.

Of course there were some casualties (famously pets.com), but Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, Amazon…yeah they got their clock cleaned at the time, but long term they were pretty successful.

For all the problems with tech companies, having a chunk of compensation be in the form of RSUs isn’t the worst idea ever. (I know it’s not specific to tech companies, but it’s generally a very prominent aspect of tech company compensation, Netflix notwithstanding.)

To those asking “who celebrated”…Linux was not always well supported by Flash. The promise of HTML5, with first class Linux support, was very appealing.

https://shallowsky.com/blog/linux/flash-installer-confusion.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3620537

I brought this up to my ex over the course of our usual conversations

…

If we are weeks away from never being able to meet again

…🤔

At this point, they no longer obey the laws of classical physics, and the resulting quantum phenomena — known as relativistic effects…

This is…not how I would word things. Atomic physics is usually not in a classical (Newtonian) regime, and a quantum treatment is standard.

Adding relativistic effects to the quantum treatment is also standard, but many aspects of e.g. the hydrogen atom are reasonably well described without relativistic effects, though of course relativistic effects do matter.

Nitpicking aside, neat stuff!

I’m really really glad that I get root on my work computer.

Well, smallpox was definitely harmful to humans, and it’s a virus which is different from an animal.

(…and yes, I know that “harmful to humans” often means “good for the planet.”)

This louse was reportedly not harmful to its hosts.

Kinda interested to hear an ethics of science type argument for/against this human-made extinction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledildonics

I have heard, but have trouble finding references to it, that you can build a simple arbitrary waveform generator circuit by using an analog scope, a photodiode, and a cardboard cutout.

You make a photodiode circuit that rails high with no light, but light on the photodiode pushes the signal low. Then you aim this at the phosphor screen with a cardboard cutout of the desired waveform: signal goes up until the phosphor trace is above the screen, and then it gets pushed low (i.e., feedback keeps the trace right on the edge of the cardboard).

Never seen it in action, but I choose to believe it works beautifully :)

Will anything concrete change in your life — will you get kicked out of your home, will you suddenly be financially responsible for things you previously weren’t, etc.?

If it’s any consolation, a lot of us don’t feel like adults, and that’s ok! My kids seem to think I’m a grown up, so I managed to fool them at least.

Just keep learning as you go, and ask questions. We all love talking about things we know/have experience with (just ask the average Lemmy user what Linux distro you should install…), and there’s basically no such thing as “cheating” when it comes to figuring out how to be an adult.

One day at a time!

I think glass is technically an amorphous solid .

Fare from Mars back to Earth should always be free.

“Can the US lose in a way that allows the crazies in office to save face in their eyes?” seems an important question to me. Because if the options are the US clearly losing vs. the US clearly losing but nuking Iran so everyone loses…

I wonder if there’s a legal difference between companies adding a tariff line item to the invoice vs. just raising prices (not that there’s a moral difference IMHO).

Not sure “asshole” is right for Torvalds…maybe there’s another word to describe him…

(See the last bit in Notable Usage.)

“…I really don’t want to have to wipe the thing because it’s running a headless OS”

I feel like logging in as root on a headless system and hoping you type the command(s) to restore functionality is a rite of passage.

Lemmy, you’re absolutely right to be concerned about a gunshot wound — GSW for short — to the head! Let’s dig in a little more and see why this isn’t as bad as it sounds:

• The brain is in the head, and this is where thinking happens — but thinking isn’t required to sustain life, so it’s relatively safe to ignore this type of injury.
• The brain has no pain receptors, so this type of injury typically doesn’t hurt.
• Seeking medical attention for minor injuries such as a GSW to the head takes away valuable medical resources from more important procedures, such as penile enlargement surgery.

I hope that clarifies things. Would you like more information on the topic?

AWS was recently “having issues” due to the Iran situation — same thing I wonder?

After reading a few of these I feel like I was either a very boring grad student, or my professors were all very chill. (Or maybe just subject to male privilege.)

A few run-ins with IT, but I don’t think I ever got nasty letters from professors…