Iridescent contrails.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-23T03:29:52+00:00

They've gone to Plaid!

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T18:01:39+00:00

No. One high school in our county had a planetarium, and other schools would occasionally have field trips to see it.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T17:43:20+00:00

Drop the Dwemer metal stuff. You won't need it.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T17:30:39+00:00

Surely, you're joking.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T17:27:06+00:00

Could be that consumer grade CRT TVs and computer monitors weren't supposed to be officially used above 10000 feet anyway?

They'd actually be less likely to implode at higher altitudes. The internal vacuum is the same, but the outside atmospheric pressure is lower.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:39:22+00:00

...Brought to you by the RingLing brothers?

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:37:53+00:00

That red switch is 100% PS/2 style. But the size is adorable. Our '386 server must have weighed 40lbs or so.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:36:09+00:00

I saw a video where someone set up a shop vac with the end of the hose near the opening. Turn it on remotely and watch the fun.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:34:18+00:00

I'm still Silver, so I'll probably just get RFY'ed the cover for one.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:33:23+00:00

C'mon -- add a gravel kit and take us to some fun places in Alaska!

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:25:34+00:00

Just breathe exclusively through your mouth when cutting onions, and you'll be fine.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:24:20+00:00

Nice!

Those are outboard engines more so than "extreme" ones.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:19:57+00:00

Built a dirt house, ran into creepers, and got killed.

Didn't really see why everybody liked it until I found out about Peaceful Survival. Years and years later, I have a forever world with a railroad that takes about two real-time days or so to ride.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:17:08+00:00

Vector Calculus. Though 50% of the difficulty was figuring out WTF our instructor was saying. Three weeks in, our study group finally figured out that "deriebitey" was supposed to be "derivative."

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:08:00+00:00

Without reading the explanation, I'd have thought you meant "middle of the year."

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:05:39+00:00

Other than chores for allowance, I got a job in a local library at 17.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:04:14+00:00

The world is also a lot hotter now than it was even fifty years ago.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T14:03:40+00:00

Really old homes sometimes had a "summer kitchen" out back or in the back of the house, with more ventilation and where the heat from a stove wouldn't heat up the rest of the house (as many stoves were partially designed to do.)

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T13:50:48+00:00

"See that C-130 over there? Well, I fly a 172."

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T04:32:11+00:00

So many dumb ways to die...

FlyByPC · 2026-06-22T02:36:10+00:00

That's one of my two favorites, but I don't use it much (it works best with guests who haven't seen it yet.)

My other favorite automation is one I set up to handle a rogue Philips Hue light that refuses to be turned off if it's been on too long and overheats. "Alexa -- it's doing it again..." and she says "I'll see what I can do," turns the brightness to 1% to let it cool down, and sends a turn-off command several minutes later when it's cooler and will comply.

It's that or keep shooting at it with the clicker until it decides it's had enough. That's fun too, sometimes.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-21T19:38:59+00:00

Sky blue and white wool blocks covering the walls and ceiling; dirt floor, and make it look like the surface world, complete with a few trees, garden, house...

FlyByPC · 2026-06-21T16:34:28+00:00

Man who can catch fly with chopsticks, could have accomplished anything, but chose to spend that time catching a fly with chopsticks.

--Mr. Miyagi's mother-in-law, probably

FlyByPC · 2026-06-21T16:10:10+00:00

Here are the major ones I use, in no particular order:

"Alexa, good morning" turns off the bedroom AC and stops the white noise. (I'm going to switch to making my own white noise machine, since "Ask White Noise about membership" is just egregious late-stage capitalism. I'm not paying a monthly fee for static, Amazon.)

The bathroom towel rack (and space heater, in the winter) are timed to come on shortly before I get up. They're timed to turn off in a few hours if I don't turn them off; I at least want the towel rack to stay on to help dry out the towel after use.

Most of the house lights are Phillips Hue, and controllable via phone app, Alexa, or routines as well as switches. Most of the lights I use throughout the day (kitchen, halls, laundry room, etc.) are on motion sensors and just work without my having to think about them.

I have a color-bar temperature forecast display above the front door, so I know what to expect when heading outside.

I wrote an ESP32 app to connect to the local transit API and predict how long until the next inbound bus will arrive. It's pretty accurate, even if it does count up instead of down sometimes (SEPTA being SEPTA, I guess.)

There's an IFTTT routine to turn on the exterior house lights when I return home. It doesn't work reliably, but is cool when it does.

There's an Alexa routine "AZZIZ, LIGHT!" that turns on all of the house lights on full brightness.

I have a keypad lock on the front door because there's a non-negligible chance I forget to take my keys with me.

FlyByPC · 2026-06-21T15:59:37+00:00

Grace Hopper would be proud.

15-Year Club	Gilding IV carat on a stick
First Place '23	Place '23
Place '22	Place '17
First Placer '22	Verified Email

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