d woolverton @woolstar

father, metal bender, software systems and social engineer, perl warper, endlessly shleping around legos, living on the border with chaos. dwoolstar.blogspot.com Cedar Falls, IA Joined December 2006

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d woolverton @woolstar

2 years ago

"The term 'best-best' was applied to plates of a higher price, and even 'best-best-best' being sometimes applied to signify what, in our ignorance, we imagined to be expressed by 'best.' A higher price for good iron was accordingly demanded and paid."

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d woolverton @woolstar

2 years ago

"Contracts were entered into, specifying 'the best plates.' However it was found that some of these plates were very inferior, and on making inquiries, it was discovered that among the ironmasters the word 'best' meant, literally, the ordinary , or common iron."

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d woolverton @woolstar

2 years ago

This seems to be a problem as old as time, as Petroski mentions in his book about design, when retelling the account of Edwin Clark and his trouble specifying the "best" iron for the Britannia Bridge.

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d woolverton @woolstar

2 years ago

While as an engineer, I seek to test out assumptions and be as precise as possible; occasionally I ask for something, and still end up disappointed because the terminology did not survive the translation through the air into another person's brain.

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d woolverton @woolstar

2 years ago

Did the ugliest stick welding you ever did see on 16ga (thin) metal, trying to show how to make a simple box, running an #arccaptain with a lowly 120v plug; but by God I was welding today in NYC.

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d woolverton @woolstar

2 years ago

Yes, you learned not to use global variables anymore. But if you're using shared pointers you're going to have similar problems. "A shared pointer is as good as a global variable." -- Sean Parent, CppCon 2023.

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d woolverton @woolstar

2 years ago

Today's the day when all the databases of the world reach out to me to remind me that they're still keeping track of me. Oh, and my mom too. Hi mom.

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d woolverton @woolstar

2 years ago

Discovered my new favorite podcast player by junking all the podcast players and using an audiobook player instead. It has quirky ideas where the files should be but is otherwise brilliant.

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d woolverton @woolstar

2 years ago

Why do I bother? My head is full of complex technical info of dubious value, some of which I've come to peace with nobody ever caring about again (like NTSC video). But some skills I can still exercise, and its my measure against the universe. I'm still leaving my marks.

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d woolverton @woolstar

2 years ago

Somewhere around 2005 I was working on my own startup, and I bought some servers and deployed them (because that's what you did back then). One of them is still running, but it takes some attention from time to time because it has a 230MB /boot partition, and it was full.

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d woolverton @woolstar

3 years ago

@NASASpaceflight @DrPhiltill @KSpaceAcademy A great discussion on the analysis of the first pad destruction and some great science on particles found even if it took half the interview before the secret of the dispersion was disclosed. Plenty of things to think about as we try to reliably land on other planets.

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d woolverton @woolstar

3 years ago

@MlSTERSANDMAN @DrPhiltill @FossilLocator Well most of the time water near the surface on Mars would probably be frozen, so an ice dome, though it would get warm enough to thaw once in a while, so that could be exciting (or for the construction engineers, a nightmare).

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d woolverton @woolstar

3 years ago

@VlogGarage Grease lightning?

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d woolverton @woolstar

3 years ago

Having popcorn for dinner, because there's no one here to stop me.

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d woolverton @woolstar

3 years ago

@MarcoReps In Arizona, Airgas and Linde would fill up a styrofoam cooler with LN2. Cost about $5. (Yes I did this before.)

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d woolverton @woolstar

3 years ago

@MalloryMcMorrow The old animation festivals that would play once a year at the art houses were the best. Lots of odd stuff from all over, usually a Bill Plympton short, and maybe something from Aardman.

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d woolverton @woolstar

3 years ago

Managed to go shopping at four stores (including Wallmess) without accumulating a single plastic bag. Post consumerism achievement unlocked.

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d woolverton @woolstar

3 years ago

@Rosewind2007 They should get Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso's Roy Kent) to do the voice of Murderbot when they make the movies.

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d woolverton @woolstar

3 years ago

The next serving of Murderbot is out. Now just dancing up and down waiting for my turn to check it out from the library. Hurry up people in front of me, the mayhem is calling. #murderbot

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d woolverton @woolstar

3 years ago

Decided to read the manual for the coffee machine at work (yes it comes with a manual, 134 pages in fact). Just got to the section on "remote telemetry". #internetofcoffeemachines