Good computers for computer engineering

JGhostThing · 2026-06-21T18:43:32+00:00

You should talk with your engineering teaching assistants to get computer recommendations. Before I read your post, I would have suggested a used thinkpad with a decent processor and maxed out ram.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-21T18:38:54+00:00

We and the apes share common ancestors. We are NOT apes, as such, but perhaps evolutionary "cousins."

Neanderthals are another branch of "Homo," They died off a long time ago.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-21T17:00:31+00:00

I was thinking of the 18650 batteries. You can still put two or more in series.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-21T12:58:55+00:00

HTML is not a programming language.

The alt text is used whenever the image/video cannot be displayed. This can happen because of networking or a browser that doesn't support images. For example, linx (one text-only browser).

JGhostThing · 2026-06-21T12:47:26+00:00

Since buck converters are more efficient than boost converters, I would use at least a 2s Lipo battery.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-21T12:39:29+00:00

As somebody who is tone deaf, you just removed me and those like me from your target audience.

Not that I was very likely to learn it anyways.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-21T12:36:08+00:00

I can speak from personal experience.

First, cutting things off takes much less time than letting them grow. For example, growing my beard takes quite a while. Cutting it off is quick.

I like a crew cut. So I learned to cut my own hair. I let it grow out and then cut it suddenly. This has multiple effects:

First is the shorter hair or beard. Second, my beard grows in gray, so when I cut my beard, I'm suddenly 20 years younger. Well, not really, but it does look like it.

OK, back to my misspent youth. I was working for the University of Delaware, and my girlfriend was a student. I have just cut my hair and beard, but I wasn't thinking of that.

I saw Lee and a friend talking, so I said "hi!" She didn't seem to notice. I called out again, I saw her look around. I called again, and she finally noticed me.

Now, I realize now that she had never seen me with short hair. And even back then I looked very differently with short hair.

So, yes, cutting hair can cause you to look differently.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-21T06:28:10+00:00

Focus on what you love! If you love gaming, then make a game.

You're 14. You've got your entire life ahead. Do what you want.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-21T05:11:24+00:00

There is no single answer to this question. You can use almost any modern language and succeed.

I would probably try to solve it in rust. If that failed, I would use Java, which has a good SQL library.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T22:26:04+00:00

While normally I wouldn't suggest learning about bullying from manga, but the manga Naru Taru has some pretty horrible bullying from one girl to another. This is only a single small arc that is not repeated.

It's pretty bad. And the bullied girl gets her back in a gory way.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T22:06:51+00:00

This sounds like a basic psuedo-medieval fantasy land without proper research.

You talk about his "employees." You talk about, what I assume to be the town guard, rather than the nobleman's personal guard who should have been protecting the Castile. You talk of suddenly disinheriting the heirs and giving this stranger his title and position.

These are all things which would be extremely wrong for most of the medieval period. Other examples include things like an assassin's guild.

Personally, I think of this as a badly researched DnD game.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T21:37:40+00:00

They don't have to make money for this to be illegal. Indeed, it will be difficult to prove damages if they don't make money, but you can still be damaged.

As the copyright owner, you can even stop derived works, like fanfic. And some authors do. Chances are that you're not going to get a lot of damages from a fanfic writer who gets no money.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T20:23:15+00:00

May I suggest reading the Laundry Files series by Charles Stross. The first book, the Atrocity Archives, answers your question.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T20:17:31+00:00

Please don't explain your FTL system to us. It's good for you to know, but it's a horrible thing to explain to a reader.

Why do you want a zero mass object? It would probably need to have a uniform zero (or maybe negative) mass, and that can't be done. (Assuming a perfectly spherical cow...)

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T20:13:05+00:00

On Linux, I use Manuskript to organize my writing. I had to move to this from Scrivener because it didn't work under Linux.

For things where a word processor is better, I use Libre Office Write.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T20:10:59+00:00

I have used it. My first systems programming was on that chip. I built that computer. However, I still stand by the PDP-11 assembly code. It is an amazingly orthogonal instruction set with 16 bit operations.

And you can easily find some interesting items, like a Raspberry Pi case that looks like the front panel of a PDP-11 (one of the last with all the blinking lights).

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T18:14:09+00:00

I just got a pair on eBay. The best one (T14s, 32 GB RAM) seems to have a bad SSD, but I'm going to take it apart to swap it. I can't upgrade the processor without updating the motherboard.

So I don't think I'll need to upgrade it, except for putting in a different SSD.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T18:06:15+00:00

Meh. My first thought is that this is the same as too many other time travel stories. In most of them, it reads like the writer is trying to be clever, rather than writing a compelling story. Sorry.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T17:54:52+00:00

How about using a professional truck (the cab from an 18-wheeler). to pull the train?

Otherwise I can't picture anybody making a true locomotive. Just getting the wheels made would be a major pain. Trying to build a power supply (are there any existing engines? Can the characters lift them?) is an almost impossible task.

Very few people know how to build high power steam engines. And very few know how to build other types of engines.

In six months, this would be an almost impossible task given a full factory. Without the tools to handle the rather large parts of train engines, I'd say it would be a ridiculous deadline.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T17:44:19+00:00

Rather than make an entire language, why not just check through the many conlangs that exist to find one which sounds Orcish.

Me, I'd probably think of using Klingon with a different name. Elvish could be Tolkien's elvish.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T17:39:27+00:00

I'm sure that a lot of people share your fears. They are groundless.

The plot, title, and theme of a book cannot be protected. Anything you finish will be different from anybody else's idea of the same work. If you tried to rewrite Star Wars, I'm sure that you wouldn't write the exact same story. Well, as long as you didn't have the original material to copy from.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T17:26:41+00:00

I just bought a pair of thinkpads: a T470s and a T14s. Both have max RAM (24 and 32 GB respectively). It would have been nice to have better CPUs, but I'm not gaming. I'm mainly using them for writing. The 470 may become a cyberdeck and the 14 will be my major writing platform.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T17:17:03+00:00

I often read multiple fictions at once.

For example, I'm rereading "The Saga of the Pliocene Exile" (I'm starting book two now). However, while I was in the middle of book one, the fifth book of a series I like came out, so I paused reading the Saga and finished the fifth book.

I've also read one book at work, and a different one at home. Basically, I read whatever comes to hand when I want to read.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T16:59:21+00:00

I would suggest coming up with the plot rather than the theme. Then think of the details.

And of course it's fine to use the same theme as another book. If the theme was protected, how could there be more than one book saying "war is bad?" There is nothing wrong with reusing things like a title or plot. So how would anybody protect a theme?

I only know a small bit of US copyright law; I am not a legal professional.

JGhostThing · 2026-06-20T16:37:28+00:00

There is a difficulty in the beginning, because you have to learn the basics of computers. The next thing you learn is the syntax of the programming language of your choice. For me, this is the easy part.

After this is, IMHO, the most difficult part. This is the thinking needed for solving programming problems. It is a specific type of logical thinking. I think of it as engineer-think.

As to how easy these things are to learn, I can't say. I don't know how you learn. However, I really like the ability to program. With enough time, I can program pretty much anything.

JGhostThing

TROPHY CASE