L. Marcus Posted February 24, 2022 Report Share Posted February 24, 2022 Muzak at almost-sub-hearing volume? Infernal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 Yeesh, I'm on the verge of giggling uncontrollably at things that aren't all that funny. That's a sign I'm exhausted, I know that. But I've been up less than an hour; it's 0725 local time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 Fill in the blank: "My name is Bordflak, and ________________________________." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 Welcome to Jackass! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 …so is yours! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 Bordflak, by the way, sounds like the back of someone's pickup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 I don't remember if that's how it's spelled in the original, but that is how we all pronounce it. And it is a very hardcore test for ancient grognard status. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 20 terabytes a night Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 4, 2022 Report Share Posted March 4, 2022 17 hours ago, Cancer said: 20 terabytes a night Vera Rubin telescope? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 4, 2022 Report Share Posted March 4, 2022 Yeah, that's what they said its raw data production rate would be in a colloquium yesterday. OTOH, it also sounds like the science from the telescope could be considerably compromised by the huge satellite constellations several outfits are putting up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 7, 2022 Report Share Posted March 7, 2022 I think I pulled a muscle while yawning, and it's annoying as hell. Coupled with having to deal with random control-M characters in some students' submitted files, I have the desire to stab things at the base of the rib cage (where the outraged muscle is) and twist vigorously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted March 7, 2022 Report Share Posted March 7, 2022 Next time…push a muscle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 7, 2022 Report Share Posted March 7, 2022 Quote Insight of the month February 6 – March 5 People have spent over 4.4 hours outside working hours on the emails you've sent to your company in the past 4 weeks. Consider reducing the audience or trying delay delivery. To which I say thee: Bite me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted March 7, 2022 Report Share Posted March 7, 2022 "Ya couldn't afford it, love." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted March 9, 2022 Report Share Posted March 9, 2022 Finally finished! Whew! Well, not "finished," but finished as far as I was going to go. For those who don't know (ie, those who aren't Chris), my daughter's Christmas present this year was an older VTX 1300. It was in pretty bad shape, and I have been putting most of my time and all my spare money (HA! There's an oxymoron if ever I heard one!) into restoring it. Finally, as of about thirty minutes ago, I am done. Well, as done as I'm going to go, barring finding some factory pipes that haven't been subjected to the Holey Order modification. Still needs a clutch perch (mirror mount on clutch perch is stripped out), quiet pipes, and a sidecover (some previous owner replaced the stock pipes with ridiculously loud pipes. In traditional "make it noisy and cool" fashion, he went with the absolute cheapest pieces of crap on the market (for those on up on this subject, that would be either "Mac" or "Jardine" brand pipes. These are Macs.). The routing is so poor that they cut too close to the body work and have melted / reshaped one of the side covers. I have a metal one (needs paint) to replace it with, but until I can find some stockers-- at least the head pipes, if not the whole things-- I don't see any reason to change it. Needs detailing, badly (came from Brunswick: it lived in salt air) and some wrinkle black "chrome polish" in places. I'd also like to find a factory seat (some previous owner replaced the stocker there with one of those damned Mustang Customs seats. You know: shave half the padding out so you can sit even lower into the bike, on less padding, and generally-- at least for Mustangs-- shoved closer into the tank, and all the while claim how much you love it and how comfortable it is.... ugh. My opinion? Four-hundred and sixty bucks worth of trash. Worst part? You have to give them your seat: it is your seat that they butcher up and then send back to you. Thing runs like a top now (well, it's a large displacement V-twin (I hate V-Twins), so it runs like a tractor, but at least it's back to running like a brand new tractor! Lots of head work and lots of carb work and re-did the transmission and clutch (why is the entire cruiser market-- the V-twin cruiser market in particular-- so cussed terrified of fuel injection?! It's way more reliable, way less maintenance, and returns both better performance _and_ mileage! Oh, yea-- because it gets wonky when you swamp out the tailpipes for something loud; I forgot about that. 😕 (They're still idiots. You can reprogram an FI module more easily than you can re-jet carburetors. The only real difference is that it costs more than four bucks and you actually have to have some kind of clue what you're doing, but hey-- mo'cycle go VROOM!, right?) Took it for a short spin, and I have to say that I was quite shocked! Hondas don't usually ride that smoothly-- I mean it was _nice_! I hate to say "soft," because it wasn't mushy at all, but it soaked up _everything_ I rode across! Wish it wasn't quite so nose-heavy, but I reckon she'll just have to buff up a bit! I really do need to fab up some rear-sets for the controls, though. Not only did some owner at some point install some forward controls (folks: I am six feet tall, and was having trouble reaching those things comfortably), but on this particular model, the factory set-up was already too far forward (for the look, I guess. Same as the factory-installed T-Bars). The funny thing was the people at work when I mentioned that I should be finished up tonight: "You bought a motorcycle for your daughter? Isn't that kind of....?" Kind of what? She's wanted one since she was six. Ten years later, she has one. And gasoline broke four bucks a gallon, so enjoy your jacked-up Dodge with the aftermarket performance chips, blah-blah-blah. Anyway, too many late nights too close together. Duke sleep now. Old Man, Cancer and Pariah 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 10, 2022 Report Share Posted March 10, 2022 Motorcycle is something I tried riding once at age 17, so it was a couple weeks ago . Almost certainly this is due to my RL DEX 6 peak, but bike & I went forward about 50 feet before I pushed us apart, sideways. Whatever I was doing on the gearshift due to unfamiliarity and indecision I don't know, but I do know that the result was that when I did whatever it was, I was in the next gear up. Kind of the opposite of what I wanted. I was never one to tinker with my vehicles; partly that's because I've never had a garage (I've got no closable covered space where I can put a vehicle) and I don't have the tools, though if I had strong inclinations towards working on vehicles no doubt I'd have both now. In its place, I just have more math and physics textbooks than is reasonable. And next to my bed are Subatomic Physics and Special Relativity. Call me a pervert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted March 10, 2022 Report Share Posted March 10, 2022 If you had 360 university degrees, are you an all-round expert? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 10, 2022 Report Share Posted March 10, 2022 Not if they're the same degree from 360 different universities. Pariah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 10, 2022 Report Share Posted March 10, 2022 12 hours ago, Cancer said: Motorcycle is something I tried riding once at age 17, so it was a couple weeks ago . Almost certainly this is due to my RL DEX 6 peak, but bike & I went forward about 50 feet before I pushed us apart, sideways. Whatever I was doing on the gearshift due to unfamiliarity and indecision I don't know, but I do know that the result was that when I did whatever it was, I was in the next gear up. Kind of the opposite of what I wanted. I rode motorcycles during summer trips to Montana when I was a youth. Mostly Trail 90 bikes, but one time my uncle let me ride his 250 cc dirt bike. On my way back from my little excursion, I took a gravel switchback too fast and laid the bike out from under me. I got the bike back up and running and made it back to the house. Twenty minutes later, my uncle came in carrying the helmet I'd been wearing. There was a gouge 3-4 inches long and probably half an inch deep in the side. That would have been my skull. 12 hours ago, Cancer said: In its place, I just have more math and physics textbooks than is reasonable. And next to my bed are Subatomic Physics and Special Relativity. Call me a pervert. Hey, I'm not here to tell you how to live with your life. If Mrs. Dr. C is okay with it, that's none of my business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted March 11, 2022 Report Share Posted March 11, 2022 I got my first one when I was... nine, I think? It was disassembled, in a box, and my brother's and I were given the box of parts, frame, and wheels for helping clean out the barn in which the box was stored. Nobody seriously thought we'd get it running, and it took all winter, but we did! It took about ten minutes to fall completely in love with them. I have had over a hundred of them in my lifetime. I have never had less than 2 after that, and usually more. When I met my current wife, I had fourteen of them. Honestly, I used to by them in bad condition,fix them up as much as "felt right," rode them and sold them, over and over. I won't say it was lucrative (it's really hard to part with the ones you like), but I made a steady profit over the years. Then two things happened: My wife bought me what has, so far, been the perfect machine: my Valkyrie. Then we had kids. I have never wanted another motorcycle simply because I can't imagine a better all-around machine than my Valk. (though I have a line on another one, cheap, and with way fewer miles on it.... (mine currently has 327,000 or so on it-- I _really_ like to ride)). Even at nine-hundred-odd pounds, it's even pretty solid off-road as well, though the girth keeps me off a lot of trails I'd really enjoy on a proper dirt bike. We've been working on clutch control the past two nights. She keeps wanting to go just a bit further-- just a bit further-- once she gets it moving, but no; we are nowhere near ready for that. Yes: a lot of people think the idea is to learn how to ride while rolling down the road. A lot of people get hurt really, _really_ badly, too. Clutch control: until you let it out perfectly, without thinking about it-- every single time: until you instinctively feather it at crawling speeds-- you're not ready to do more than practice more clutch control. Once we get that-- and make the thumb reach for the kill switch a solid muscle memory-- we will learn the importance of the front brake. (to help with this, I have temporarily removed the rear brake lever. The _front_ brake stops the bike; the _rear_ brake controls the slide. Period. ) Cancer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted March 11, 2022 Report Share Posted March 11, 2022 13 hours ago, Cancer said: Not if they're the same degree from 360 different universities. That’s called specialisation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted March 11, 2022 Report Share Posted March 11, 2022 What makes special relativity so special anyway? Did it go to a special school? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 11, 2022 Report Share Posted March 11, 2022 It is special because it's a special case, the case where there's no acceleration. The general case includes acceleration. The general case is much harder to deal with mathematically, though it can be done; you have lots of strange geometries to work with. The special case you can teach to undergrad physics students (I have taught that course). It is really rare for general relativity to be taught in an undergrad curriculum; I've never had a course in general relativity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted March 11, 2022 Report Share Posted March 11, 2022 Cheers. Makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted March 11, 2022 Report Share Posted March 11, 2022 Three of the hardest books I’ve read: The Book of Causes The Isagoge of Porphyry The Gnosis of Light (officially untitled) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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