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Topic: OT: Tech Nerd Thread

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Cincydawg

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #168 on: May 12, 2025, 12:02:42 PM »


White to move, mate in 2.

utee94

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #169 on: May 12, 2025, 12:04:52 PM »
This is tech nerd talk.

The chess nerd thread is over there ------------->

FearlessF

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #170 on: May 12, 2025, 12:06:16 PM »
I'm not takin the bait
"Courage; Generosity; Fairness; Honor; In these are the true awards of manly sport."

betarhoalphadelta

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #171 on: May 12, 2025, 12:30:35 PM »
It seems like back in the 90's and early 2000's you wouldn't dream of a computer lasting 5 years.  1-2 years, those things were toast.  But also back then the difference in processors was huge after a couple of years.  I'm sure the processors are faster all the time even now (Moore's law and whatnot) but maybe the existing chips are just so powerful that it doesn't make that much of a difference.  You only need so much computing power for excel, chrome, and word. 
Yep. And a lot of people don't even need that. They need access to Google Sheets and Google Docs, which is all through Chrome anyway. 

For most people, modern PCs are basically glorified thin clients. All the "compute" is on the other side of the network connection. 

Now, that's not everyone, of course. 

847badgerfan

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #172 on: May 12, 2025, 12:37:50 PM »
Yep. And a lot of people don't even need that. They need access to Google Sheets and Google Docs, which is all through Chrome anyway.

For most people, modern PCs are basically glorified thin clients. All the "compute" is on the other side of the network connection.

Now, that's not everyone, of course.
Not me.
U RAH RAH! WIS CON SIN!

MikeDeTiger

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #173 on: May 12, 2025, 01:14:05 PM »
It seems like back in the 90's and early 2000's you wouldn't dream of a computer lasting 5 years.  1-2 years, those things were toast.  But also back then the difference in processors was huge after a couple of years.  I'm sure the processors are faster all the time even now (Moore's law and whatnot) but maybe the existing chips are just so powerful that it doesn't make that much of a difference.  You only need so much computing power for excel, chrome, and word. 

This is definitely true.  The majority of users are fine with limited processing power and memory.  It's the CPU/GPU intensive applications like gaming, graphical rendering, and these days AI, that demand higher levels of hardware capability.
My laptop at home is a Dell, can't think of the specific line, but it's from 2012.  A buddy in Austin gave it to me used in 2018.  It doesn't have a lot of storage space on the hard drive, and it's true that for the most part I'm not doing anything resource intensive on it.  However, as far as running Office, messing with .pdf's in Adobe, surfing the internet, and maybe playing some music at the same time, it's never had even the slightest problem.  And I used it for school when I went back for data science, and it handles the Anaconda suite fine, which is known to be bloated and kind of a resource hog, and all the processing needed for complex visualization rendering and the machine learning stuff I did.  I probably wouldn't want to stray too far into the real world with ML on it.....I'm sure our school work was built to be lighter to accommodate the fact we were all on our home computers, and I wouldn't want to try deep learning with it, probably.  But it handles the programming languages, the associated modules, and millions and millions of rows and gobs of columns worth of data quickly, with no problems.  It's by far the longest-lasting laptop I've ever had (all my previous ones were also Dells). 
I can't complain about that thing at all. 

FearlessF

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #174 on: May 12, 2025, 01:42:00 PM »
most folks (90+%) have more computer than they need and more internet speed than they need
but, it's way better to have more than you need than not quite enuff
"Courage; Generosity; Fairness; Honor; In these are the true awards of manly sport."

betarhoalphadelta

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #175 on: May 16, 2025, 04:35:22 PM »

Gigem

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #176 on: May 20, 2025, 09:09:10 PM »

https://twitter.com/80s_channel/status/1924837107517829425?s=46&t=EHozF964Pc_xZmTZKPCcEA

I always had the same thought. Seemed out of place. As I recall in the original the ships were just flashes of light. They added in the ships in the ‘97 SE. 

MikeDeTiger

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #177 on: May 21, 2025, 11:25:18 AM »
How did he even get in that thing?  Does he have to climb the pole and scramble in while avoiding falling to his death, or does a helicopter drop him down in it?  And what about when he has to go to the bathroom? 

That's the Hazing post for sure. 

Officer:  *giggling*  "Hey rookie.  Climb up that tower and try not to die.  Look out for spaceships with lasers."

Rookie:  "Aw, man...do I get a blaster or something to protect myself with?"

Officer:  "No.  Here, take this...uh...."  *looks around*  "Take this spear."  *more giggling*

utee94

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #178 on: May 21, 2025, 11:30:50 AM »
Yeah I've always thought that bit was comically weird as well.  

Star Wars is a space western, but it's also a space pirate movie, and that dude is up in the crow's nest.


Gigem

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #179 on: May 21, 2025, 01:19:26 PM »
George Lucas didn't really anticipate how popular Star Wars would become.  They simply hoped for some modest success.  Obviously Fox didn't realize it either since they let him have the merchandising rights and such.  Back in that time-frame, sequels weren't really a thing, or if they were there were few and far between.  The Summer Blockbuster was relatively recent as well with Jaws in 1975.  

Other oddities about Star Wars:  When R2D2 interfaces with a computer he sticks out a "probe looking thingy" and mechanically inserts it into a circular hole, and then mechanically rotates it.  They said that it was akin to needing a key to open a door, and it needed to "do" something.  Modern audiences would simply accept something like a USB stick being plugged in, no mechanical manipulation necessary.  Also, when Vader asks Lea about the Death Star plans, he mentions "stolen data tapes".  They've got ships that can go to light-speed, but they've got the DS plans on "data-tapes".  Having them on "Data disks" would've made much more sense, but I'm not sure the floppy or anything like it was even invented then.  The medal ceremony at the end is a bit odd as well, and it was put there because nobody was sure they would get a sequel so they gave the film an "ending" so it would be OK as a stand-alone film.  

utee94

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #180 on: May 21, 2025, 01:30:15 PM »
George Lucas didn't really anticipate how popular Star Wars would become.  They simply hoped for some modest success.  Obviously Fox didn't realize it either since they let him have the merchandising rights and such.  Back in that time-frame, sequels weren't really a thing, or if they were there were few and far between.  The Summer Blockbuster was relatively recent as well with Jaws in 1975. 

Other oddities about Star Wars:  When R2D2 interfaces with a computer he sticks out a "probe looking thingy" and mechanically inserts it into a circular hole, and then mechanically rotates it.  They said that it was akin to needing a key to open a door, and it needed to "do" something.  Modern audiences would simply accept something like a USB stick being plugged in, no mechanical manipulation necessary.  Also, when Vader asks Lea about the Death Star plans, he mentions "stolen data tapes".  They've got ships that can go to light-speed, but they've got the DS plans on "data-tapes".  Having them on "Data disks" would've made much more sense, but I'm not sure the floppy or anything like it was even invented then.  The medal ceremony at the end is a bit odd as well, and it was put there because nobody was sure they would get a sequel so they gave the film an "ending" so it would be OK as a stand-alone film. 
I don't mind the apparent anachronisms like R2 turning the key or references to data tapes, because as you point out, the general public at the time would relate better to those ideas.  Floppy disks were around since the late 60s but in 1977 most people still wouldn't know about them.  Personal computers weren't yet widespread and the early ones didn't have disk drives anyway.  The image of computers in most folks' minds were these large room-dominating mainframes with lots of reel to reel tape drives for storage.

And not only did they not know if there would ever be a sequel, they thoroughly expected there not to be one.  That's why all of the later shoe-horning of the "Vader betrayed and murdered your father... from a certain point of view" and the Luke/Leia brother-sister thing all seem awkward and forced-- because they were.


Gigem

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Re: OT: Tech Nerd Thread
« Reply #181 on: May 21, 2025, 02:08:56 PM »
I always wondered how much of the original Trilogy George Lucas really had mapped out.  Did he always plan to have Vader be Anakin Skywalker and Luke's father, or did he conceive it later?  Information from on-line sources is spotty, and I've never seen anything that says he had all 3 movies/scripts wrote out ahead of time.  

One of my earliest memories is going to the theater to see Star Wars. I'm told it was the first movie I ever went to, being born in '75.  I vaguely recall being in the theatre, and vaguely recall certain scenes.  I only learned recently that they re-screened the movie several times so it's possible I was a lot older than 2 when I saw it, possibly as old as 3-5.  Late 70's/80's...what a great childhood.  

 

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