Sucks especially hard for the Canadian on board.

The models that cost 3x as much now suck. At least it used to be possible to get one that didn’t suck.

It’s more the printer companies that are evil.

Printers from the 90s and early 2000s were still pretty good. They had problems with paper jams, but that’s not really surprising when you’re moving a physical object around like that. The models designed for office use were really sturdy and built to handle a work environment that was still mostly based around paper. So, they expected to be used heavily.

Since then, they’ve cheaped out on a lot of the components because printing is much less common so they’re not expected to handle as much heavy work. But, more importantly, the DMCA has allowed manufacturers to load them up with DRM that refuses to use any ink that isn’t sold by the printer manufacturer.

The coastal part, sure. The mountain area of Washington is pretty conservative.

Her plane may not have been off-the-shelf, but I’m sure she was heavily involved in any modification to it. She was a pilot, that was her concern.

She probably didn’t consider herself a radio operator, and didn’t realize how critical it was to fully understand the radio gear.

My guess is that at that point in time, being a radio operator would be like someone who knew something like 3d printing in great detail today. It was a niche skill that involved a lot of obscure knowledge. If someone doesn’t know something like 3d printing, someone can set it all up for them and then say “ok, when you’re ready, hit this button, when you’re done, do this” and they can use it. I assume that’s what happened with the radio setup. Someone with expertise set it up, and it might have worked, but she didn’t know enough to troubleshoot it when it went wrong.

To put things in context, this is what they used for communication between a tank and its commanders in WWI:

When the Titanic sunk in 1912, they had a telegraph on board, but no voice radio.

In the 1920s radio took off as a one-way broadcaster to receiver technology, but it still was only rarely used as two-way communications. That only really started for communications between ships in WWII.

So, although she didn’t know how to use the radio in her plane, it was mostly because radio communication was a brand new thing. I’m sure what they put in her plane wasn’t some off-the-shelf radio that had standard switches, antennas and parts. It was probably cobbled together from various parts and only the truly tech-oriented people understood it.

To me what’s wild about it is that it’s completely filled with houses, and the houses seem to all respect the orientation of the nearest street.

You’d think that they’d say “Ok, well in this section we have these two roads coming at a narrow angle, let’s just make this a park”, or something to make the places where the two grids join a little less ugly.

I remember that post, and that only makes it stranger. What is the BBC doing that requires that many monitors?

If Jesus was truly the son of god / some aspect of a god and hell exists, that’s where Chuck Norris is.

I hope whoever this was recorded these snipers for as long as possible.

Putting young-person slang in a movie has been a bad idea since before Gen Z existed.

Nature is healing.

To adults? Or teens? Or 6-year-olds?

The number 69 has staying power. It was hardly new when it was used in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and that was in 1989, 37 years ago.

How long will 6-7 last? I’m guessing not more than a year. I bet even now it’s being included as part of a script for a kids’ movie, and by the time the movie comes out the kids will all think it’s “cringe” (or whatever term replaces cringe).

I still don’t think that would be enough for me to remember it. It would mean I’d have to give it out to people. But, I didn’t do that so often that I’d have memorized the number and remembered it for 30 years.

My steam account dates from the release of the Orange Box. That was a few years after launch, because back at the beginning Steam was only for Valve games and those weren’t really my jam. But, the Orange Box was a great deal. So, I bought it (retail version) and then I had to register a Steam account.

I can remember mine too, 4170129. I just can’t remember why I remember it. The numbers I tend to remember are the ones that I actually had to use often. For example, I remember some phone numbers because to call someone I actually had to punch in (or dial) their phone number. But, did we have to type in our IDs from memory when logging in or something? That seems like it would be a terrible UI, and surely by the mid 90s nobody was still doing that.

I remember my ICQ number, 4170129, but I don’t remember why I know it.

Surely I didn’t have to type it in every time I logged in, did I? That would be a really stupid UI.

They’re still the stupidest thing I’ve heard of.

No, they’re stupid.