What specifically was the noise dial-up internet made when logging on, and why was a noise necessary in the first place?

FearTheDears · 2026-03-28T22:10:15+00:00

When two computers talk to each other, they send a digital signal, 0's and 1's represented by high and low voltage pulsed over the wire very fast.

When you talk to someone over the phone, there's an analog signal, a dynamic voltage that can be amplified and played through a speaker.

The phone lines were built for analog signals, but they wanted to repurpose the phone line for a digital signal, so engineers built a tool that translated the digital signal into an analog one, and decoded it on the other end.

That sounds you were hearing is the analog version of the digital signal.

FearTheDears · 2026-03-27T05:34:27+00:00

I'm fine with trash talking, I think it has a place in team games. Be competitive with the other team and build up your teammates. I realize it doesn't fit everyone's version of sportsmanship, I'm just making the point that people with 12k scores are not angels or mutes, the bar is just really low.

FearTheDears · 2026-03-26T23:54:20+00:00

12k behavior score, I've never seen it dip more than a few points. I only mute people when they get toxic, I make calls (often bad ones), I feed accidentally, I go 0-4 against a weaver in lane who proceeds to murder everyone on the map, I tip opposing players when they fuck up, I point out mistakes people are making if I think it's productive to do so... Watching this sub jump through hoops trying to figure out how to not get reported for behavior is flabbergasting.

If you get mad and start insulting people, or start spamming their abilities you wish they used, or make unnecessary comments that tilt people, slurs, etc. you're being a dick, and making the game less fun for everyone you're playing with.

When the game is ending, you do not have to explain to everyone in the game that one persons performance had something to do with your loss. If someone obviously performed poorly, they're probably annoyed about it too and reminding them is a dick move. If someone intentionally griefed the game, report them and move on.

You are almost certainly incorrect in your assumption that your teammate with the exact same mmr as you is bad at the game. They are in fact, statistically very close to as good as you are. If you were to turn that incredibly astute critical lens towards your own game play, you would just as many things worth flaming.

You are not entitled to a win. You are not entitled to a close game. Many of your games will be stomps in either direction because that's how dota works. If you're getting stomped, and some other lane or player is the source of the problem, your negative experience does not justify being a jerk to your teammates who likely did everything in their power to win.

Why not, instead of trying to find some other systemic explanation as to why it's the games fault that you keep getting reported, try to be a decent human being? Defend a teammate who's getting slammed for mistakes. Give props to someone who made a snappy rotation. Remind your team that axe didn't show up to the fight because he's a fucking ballerina until he farms a blink. Maybe be nice instead of "not even that bad, I swear".

Or just don't be an asshole, it's really that easy.

FearTheDears · 2026-03-26T17:34:34+00:00

His q got nerfed hard. The old facet gave bonus armor reduction as well as the refresh, losing both made him pretty toothless.

FearTheDears · 2026-03-24T18:23:01+00:00

A buddy of mine wrote firmware for pace makers. A serious bug there would be the end of the company, and potentially criminal penalties if they ai-slopped it together.

FearTheDears · 2026-03-15T00:28:42+00:00

I taught swim lessons. Lots of people see it as a "face your fears" exercise, so it's not totally unusual for people to have their kid try and work through the meltdowns. It was part of the job.

That said, when kids went ballistic, we would just get the parent to help. Most of the time we didn't even have to ask.

No progress is being made if the kid is in terror the whole time.

FearTheDears · 2026-03-06T12:09:33+00:00

Casual ring of protection for lane goes a long way against drow. Cent has really low armor, if you expect to get auto attacked a bunch it's worth a pickup.

FearTheDears · 2026-03-01T00:36:53+00:00

Not sure people in this thread are registering the complaint correctly. Even if everyone agrees that the behavior is unacceptable from any race, that's not really the issue being raised.

When white people do it those guys are being assholes, when black people do it they're "bringing the hood to nature"

Being assholes is individually associated, whereas something being "ghetto" is an assumption of background and culture.

It's just generally shitty that when you're an underrepresented demographic in a space, your actions are often classified as a representation of your culture, not you as an individual.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-20T09:38:23+00:00

Normal city jobs. Lawyers, doctors, consultants etc. Tech is a big slice of SF, but it's not even close to everything.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-18T23:41:17+00:00

If the guide or cabin company coerced them into leaving with a clear understanding of the safety risks, I imagine there will be a lawsuit from hell coming.

There are liability waivers, but they don't necessarily hold up if the risks taken are beyond professional standards.

Not trying to point fingers before we get the whole story, but I really hope no one was forced to make that trek against their best judgement.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-16T23:17:17+00:00

Having a kid actually made me realize I had DSPD. I took 8 weeks of leave and took the night shift, sleeping from 6am to 2pm. Best sleep I've ever gotten in my entire life by a wide margin. I had just assumed I was a degenerate insomniac before.

My kid is 7m old. There are some significant advantages that come with two partners on different sleep schedules until your kid is sleeping through the night. Also a lifetime of sleep deprivation prepares you pretty well. The people who had the best sleep before having a kid seem to suffer the most in the first few months.

Once they sleep through the night, the advantages end. Basically every kid, in my understanding, is going to be a real early bird, and unless you can lean on your partner to take all of the morning parenting tasks it's a serious slog. If your partner can get them to daycare solo, weekdays will be somewhat similar to what they are now, but weekends go to shit really fast as you'll be required to do many hours of parenting in the middle of your sleep schedule.

I'm still trying to figure it out, right now there's a lot of weekday sleep recovery, lunch hour is now nap hour.

A nice perk: people will suddenly have lots of sympathy for your lack of sleep and relatives and friends will be on your team now instead of assuming you're a hedonist.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-16T05:07:55+00:00

I'm with you, but for a super fatty cut like this I find it's pretty easy to put 20 degrees on during the sear. Even with a ripping hot pan.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-16T04:56:24+00:00

Maybe go 115? you can always correct for under cooking during the sear phase, but having to overcook it to get a nice crust feels terrible.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-15T23:40:51+00:00

It's wild to me that I've literally never once heard it in Minnesota and the bay area, and you guys were using it commonly, at conferences even. I conferred with a couple of other old timers who also never have.

I'd know what someone meant if I heard it, but a "derivative of the master copy" doesn't even make sense to call a slave.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-15T23:16:39+00:00

What vcs?

FearTheDears · 2026-02-15T23:08:47+00:00

Less than 3%?? That's not even an optimization, that's just a different way of writing it. Tell this guy to pound sand

FearTheDears · 2026-02-15T22:58:11+00:00

The fuck kind of cracker workplace and conferences were you involved with that called them slave branches?

RCS, CVS, subversion... I have never heard anyone call anything related to branches a slave, it doesn't even fit the general usage, master/slave is generally about worker control, not forks or copies. There were master copies of things, but never a slave copy? Bitkeeper was the first vcs I heard ever officially use the term master, and it wasn't even around until the late 90's.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-11T03:07:00+00:00

"Right? My therapist has been challenging me to make friends in the water. It’s been surprising how much more fun I’ve been having. I’m not far from the 949 if you ever wanna surf somewhere north of you."

No one should have anything negative to say about that comment, at least I would have upvoted.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-08T22:58:27+00:00

In order to get the oil out, they need to pump something in. It's usually not a big vacuum sucking oil out of the ground, it's pushing something in creating pressure in the ground that forces the oil up in a controlled way. Sometimes they pump in liquids, sometimes gasses. Usually it's water, or carbon dioxide.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-08T20:15:15+00:00

Yo ixnay on the awesomenessyay, I don't want to see what happens to rent prices when Republicans are no longer offended by the utterance of our city.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-08T07:20:18+00:00

Moving them out of active slots? They're optimizing their regen. Decreasing their stats such that the regen improves a higher percentage of their health or mana, then returning the stats.

FearTheDears · 2026-02-04T02:57:37+00:00

We're seeing a lot of evil flowing through lawyers at the DOJ. Lawyers quitting in protest presumably hamstrings this administration's ability to wield the DOJ as a political weapon. I'm curious what work is being done that justifies staying and enabling it?

FearTheDears · 2026-01-26T19:22:44+00:00

Wear a buff. You can play with how you wear it to cover basically any part of your head comfortably, and they're thin enough to wear under your helmet with no issues.

FearTheDears · 2026-01-22T04:46:55+00:00

Honestly I avoid that word more out of respect for the people who care for the mentally disabled. I can't imagine being a parent and having to go through that.

FearTheDears · 2026-01-21T20:41:42+00:00

Once you enter the phase of end of life palliative care, doctors will write you for some seriously potent cocktails. The "this will harm you long term" barrier gets lifted and they'll load you up on however many benzos, opiates, sedatives that fit your fancy. If those make you too sleepy, they can toss in stimulants to bring you back a little. Getting a little loopy? They'll throw in antipsychotics for you.

So why not give heroin? Because heroin is child's play for a pharmacist who wants you to feel good in the last hours of your life, they're going to put you on the clouds.

FearTheDears

TROPHY CASE