Wordle 725 4/6 ⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛ ⬛🟨⬛🟨⬛ 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

-Bob

"Sir, the truth is, I talk to God all the time, and, no offense, but He never mentioned you."

-Bob

When I die, I'd prefer to go like my grandfather did: peacefully in my sleep. Not screaming in terror like his passengers.

-Bob

Weeeeeell, poop. So I can't use an extra Audible credit to listen the whole thing? This comes under the popcorn-in-the-office rule - you can't just pop a bag, let the buttery aroma fill the place, and then leave for the day and take the popcorn with you. "Did you make enough for everybody?" "No Ma'am." "Then spit it out." :laugh: We also had a similarly unforgiving rule about microwaving fish dishes or leaving a gallon jar of kombucha to ferment in the break room. Honestly, I'd read/listen to the whole thing. I'll look up the author/series and see what's available in a travel-friendly format. Thanks! :-D

-Bob

I've upgraded my laptop to Windows 11 as the office guinea pig - all is going well and nothing has broken with the Adobe Suite, AutoDesk Suite, or any other software used by my coworkers for productive work. I tried to run windows update a week after upgrading, and it's not working. So... I went to the windows update catalog site and something is definitely wrong there. The SSL certificate is for a site "*.hs.llnwd.net" - very strange for a mega-global-corporation to screw that up. Right? Anyway, I paused updates for a week out of an abundance of caution. https://photos.app.goo.gl/Fuu8jgsPBYNqCF94A[^]

-Bob

How 'bout a password created from characters not on the keyboard? ¬└┴─╞󶧶¬•♀⌐ÅÆôæ Unicode character [codes] based on significant dates, phone numbers, or lottery tickets - easy to remember. Press the alt key, enter the char code... Makes the character pool much larger for brute force attacks. but I think the only real way the make brute force or dictionary attacks unfeasible is a built-in delay, either in each attempt, or a lockout after a preset number of failed attempts. A thousand bots trying a thousand times a second are much more likely to find a password (or hash collision) than only being able to try three times, and then having to wait 30 minutes to try the next. I agree with you - phishing and social engineering are much more likely attack vectors these days.

-Bob

My father-in-law is in his mid 80s and has lost a little over 30% of his visual acuity to glaucoma. As others have said, faint outlines on text boxes, grey text, particularly on pastel backgrounds, and tiny-type are his biggest challenges - and in the age of lockdowns pages and apps with those features are the only way to stay connected to family, friends and shopping. The ADA standards need to embraced by UI developers - at least to the point of providing an button for "Make this page readable" or a "Simplified View" to unclutter an app and allow for larger text and buttons. [His skin is quite dry at his age and his fingers are calloused from decades of farming. A stylus is only a marginal help as his hands shake a bit too much to accurately pick tiny spots on the screen of his phone and laptop with either a fingertip or a stylus pen. It's maddeningly frustrating for a still-independent adult to have to put up with faddish, self-absorbed designs. Yes, I know it's a brand thing, but designers need to consider the entire audience - even the ones that aren't part of the "target" demographic. He loves the internet - that's the only way he can see his great-grandchildren and the other members of his family, who all live out of state.

-Bob

You're in good company!

Quote:

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. -– Albert Einstein

-Bob

Thanks!

-Bob

Is it me, or is it you? They are arriving every 3 to 5 minutes for the past hour.

-Bob

Apparently a rhetorical answer is just as powerful as a rhetorical ques... Wait, that won't work, either. :confused:

-Bob

I don't think you're overreacting a bit. I've done exactly that - delivered, dropped off, or told them to pick up the computer at the agreed upon date without the recipient having stopped by to set up their user account, peripherals, and such. Only when it's family do I really try to adjust and coordinate and get it worked out. I'm "the tech guy" at work and at home. At work we're on a 4-year refresh cycle for computers, and employees get first crack at buying their old office machines for a nominal sum and taking them home [after I reset them and wipe the free space on the drive]. Great deal for $25 bucks. But the office has a very clear policy on future support - Bob's not responsible for any help once it leaves the office. If I agree to help, it's on my own time. It's only happened once that a now-home-machine came back. The employee had a sheepish look asking for help (No kidding:) She said, "my Dad goes weird places on the internet and now it doesn't work". The thing was totally riddled with viruses. "I don't get an antivirus?", I was asked. "Not for $25." I ended up resetting the machine from disk ("Where are all my Dad's files?" I answered, "The virus ate them. Tell your dad to get a different hobby. And, please don't bring this back into the office.") I actually enjoy the work - something different everyday, but I have billable work to do and this kind of tech stuff takes a back seat.

- Bob =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Husband, father, veteran, hunter-gatherer, engineer, welder, owner-builder, beekeeper, coffee roaster

Interesting - perhaps that's why we were taught to peen while our welds and surrounding metal were still red hot - relieves differential cooling induced stresses. Compare with the cold-metal shot-peening that induces surface compressive stresses.

-Bob

In welding class we had to peen our welds - hitting them while still red-hot with the rounded end of a ball-peen hammer. It was to relieve the stresses caused by the differential cooling the two pieces as they cooled at the very-localized, very-dramatic heat differential of the weld line. Something about carbon, crystals, and brittleness was mentioned too. According to Wikipedia's article on peening, " in 1930, a few engineers at Buick noticed that "shot blasting" (as it was originally termed) made springs resistant to fatigue. " I always tend to peen my welds -habit more than necessity since everything I weld tends to be over-engineered. Peening the new bend as it cooled should have made it "tougher", but YMMV.

-Bob

http://www.girdersandgears.com/erector-type3.html[^] I spent years making everything I could imagine with this kit. Ended up with a career as a civil engineer, city planner, website designer, ASP.net programmer, vb.net application/utility programmer, the techy-go-to-guy in the office, and construction cost estimator. I think being able to see (or imagine) how things fit and work together is a large part of my success. I don't know if any of these are related - but as they say "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life". :-D

-Bob

tl;dr: I started working for an Architectural firm as an engineer. They bought me a computer, said "get to work". Work slowed down, so I helped network the company's PCs together. I asked for a new computer - said a server was the way to go. They got me one. Wrote a few web apps whenever work slowed (Apache + PHP). Brought in some work not realated to the main business - but complimentary to it. Eventually became the go-to guy for all things HTML and web-app-ish. Got more work, wrote more apps (IIS). Asked for a new server, plus a laptop for demo-ing to clients. Got 'em both. And an extra laptop. Fast forward 15 years. Manager asked if "those iPad things" could be used in the office. My answer: Yup. And it would be great if they would serve as an incentive to keep the cr@p-ware off the company machines (I serve as the malware sheriff most days; and our machines aren't locked down :wtf: ). ** bottom line ** Two years ago, in leiu of a Christmas bonus, the management gave everyone got an iPad - and we were asked (told nicely) to use the work machines for work only: if the software isn't required for generating a billable hour, uninstall it. Turns out, they're much more than toys: - I can check email in under a minute at the airport - I can look up tech specs, css tricks, javascript samples, and API specs in less time. - I've got my Harley's maintenance and electrical system manuals available on the road (as searchable pdfs) - I can update my out-of-office status, facebook page, personal web page, and company portal from nearly anywhere I have wifi or 3G coverage. - And, although I'm still removing malware from company machines - it's very rare compared to our pre-iPad days. < rant > ;P Yes, my phone can do all of that. But, I just passed 50, and I hate wearing my new glasses to see the microscopic print on the touch screen and my fingers are, in a word, "stout". Need another word? Try "stubby". It seems the current crop of phones aren't designed for those of us with calloused, substantial digits. And, I am very adept at misplacing styluses. < /rant >

-Bob

Maybe I'm just showing my age and where I went to High School (So. California) - but my first thought was that the message would be followed by "as if" and "gnarly" prompts. :doh:

-Bob

"Bob! Glad you're here - we have a quick in-house database we need you to put together for next week's partners meeting. Nothing much; just something for tracking information from past projects and contracts to use in future resumes, estimates, and requests for proposals... that kind of thing. "Here's a sketch. "Oh, and reports, too. One that looks like the government proposal response thing would be good to show at the meeting. "Have a great weekend!" My aha! moment was realizing that each project and contract was a separate and distinct entity tied together by a single parameter - type of project. There was no need for a full-blown database solution. I ditched the whole database/cloud thing and opened a Visual Studio web site project. God bless XML, XSL, DHTML, and my quirky habit of backing up everything I ever do for anyone to a drive that doesn't take adminstrator rights to access, recover, and restore. I asked our graphics guru for a minimalist web interface and pieced the whole project together from the Frankenstien lab of past efforts on my backup drive in less than a week. It's been running for a little over 4 years now and marketing (especially marketing), management, and the rest of the staff like it and use it. Reports are now available in word, xml, and HTML. No one is sure if we're actually getting more work because of it, but we're spending a LOT less time tasking staff for inputs to put together bids and proposals on new work. And, we seem to be making more money on the work we do get. </tootingOwnHorn> :-D

-Bob

Do not speak of our benevolent alien overlords! Repent! Repent! (From the Reptilian root "-repost", to eschew responsibility for obfuscatatory text being presented as authoritative data). Oh wait, it's not Labor Day, yet. You're fine. Please continue. :omg:

-Bob

I always thought that the point of the thought experiment was that "you don't know anything until you get off your behind, open the box, and take a look." Without gathering additional information, the cat is both "as good as new" and "as good as dead" as far as the rest of us are concerned - and the cat doesn't get a vote in the matter. Perhaps I missed the point of the lecture way back when... :doh: As far as the use of synaptic efficiency enhancer goes, I think 3 full shots of a reputable single-malt will get you started nicely.

-Bob