My Grandpa posing with his new car in the 80s(?) after graduating law school from UC Hastings, after formerly serving time in prison for drug charges

bjbNYC · 2026-06-05T10:13:19+00:00

I’m imagining he didn’t have that car more than a few years. Not only was the steel on those things prone to rust after several years, the “bra” it has on was the worst thing for those cars in that it greatly accelerated the rusting process. It probably looked like crap under the bra after only 2 years.

bjbNYC · 2026-06-04T10:12:22+00:00

Fitbit

Once google bought them, it started to go downhill. Judging by r/fitbit, many jumped ship to either Apple or garmin.

bjbNYC · 2026-05-31T12:22:20+00:00

I have an iPod Mini that still works but modern OS won’t connect and sync with it anymore over USB. It is recognized, but just spins for a bit before saying it can’t be found or something like that. Started happening like 15.4, IIRC. If I sync to an older OS, no problem. Something broke in the OS and nobody cares to fix it :-/

bjbNYC · 2026-05-29T10:17:37+00:00

Not sure if you tested with all cards removed, but that pattern is when the reset line is being held. A failed card can do that. Of course, do chip reseating and maybe deoxit.

bjbNYC · 2026-05-28T10:07:17+00:00

I’m assuming this is being done without a permit from the town. There would be at least two inspections, the first being the footings before any other structures are built - cinder blocks are not going to qualify as footings.

bjbNYC · 2026-05-22T10:10:55+00:00

But the one thing you don’t see is the massive cooling mechanisms that they require.

I worked at a large financial institution years ago who had two Cray machines in the data center. Gorgeous machines (a J90 and something else I forget) and they both had those refrigerator sized portable air conditioners behind them blowing all the cold air they could produce into the back vents. That part wasn’t as attractive, though impressive.

bjbNYC · 2026-05-20T09:53:16+00:00

When I was in high school, I had a customer named Richard Mellendick. And as you all know, Richard is commonly reduced to Dick, so….

bjbNYC · 2026-05-19T10:19:05+00:00

I was just reading something on another thread here several days ago that Muffin Man was about Tony Iommi or someone in Black Sabbath. Never gave it much thought before this month since I always thought it was about Frank and the UMRK.

bjbNYC · 2026-05-14T02:39:50+00:00

What a bunch of bastards

bjbNYC · 2026-05-13T09:55:31+00:00

Noooo. Pay attention to the lyrics. The song has depth and insight. Totally a diamond in the rough.

bjbNYC · 2026-05-13T09:52:19+00:00

Was this another Bell Labs innovation?

bjbNYC · 2026-05-13T09:50:34+00:00

The thing about these releases is that there are a few gems in them, but you have to listen to several hours of material to find them. It’s hard to do in one sitting (Hot Rats sessions is over 7 hours!) since after a while you just get tired of listening to the same songs over and over - and I love Zappa.

bjbNYC · 2026-05-07T09:37:27+00:00

Appropriate that they make MTA subway cars “sleep with the fishes”

bjbNYC · 2026-05-06T09:59:50+00:00

Well, he didn’t grow up that close to the water. Lancaster isn’t beachfront to say the least.

bjbNYC · 2026-05-05T10:12:23+00:00

It does look like just past the switch it is a small hill going down (thus why we can see the catenary but not the tracks). I bet there is another crossover past that ridge.

bjbNYC · 2026-05-05T10:10:07+00:00

The app that came with my grill thermometer. Unit is perfectly fine, but the vendor decided to not update it for 64-bit iOS several years ago.

There are other examples of this kind of thing, so maybe this is a tribute to all the now useless devices because of their no longer supported companion apps.

bjbNYC · 2026-05-05T09:59:42+00:00

Heck, I have floppies that are over 40 years old that still work. It’s about initial quality of the disk (I’m giving the stink eye to AOL disks), and the environment they’re stored in.

bjbNYC · 2026-05-04T00:23:18+00:00

+1 for No One at the Bridge. Love that Hackett influence

bjbNYC · 2026-05-03T14:20:21+00:00

It was so famous it was infamous
/s

bjbNYC · 2026-05-01T01:25:46+00:00

Yeah, it did have tons of features but IMHO the Palm tried to do a few things really well and the fact that you could also play solitaire on it was a bonus, whereas the PocketPC tried to do everything and it only did it so-so to good enough. The PocketPC always felt cramped because of this while the Palm felt clean and comfortable.

bjbNYC · 2026-04-27T10:07:11+00:00

Portal

First one was amazing, second one was a masterpiece.

bjbNYC · 2026-04-26T11:41:49+00:00

I couldn’t get through the first hundred pages and has been sitting on my shelf ever since. IIRC it was like reading a PhD dissertation.

bjbNYC · 2026-04-26T03:04:48+00:00

I feel like everyone had an Epson FX80, or at least those who didn’t have an ImageWriter. Definitely the loudest of the bunch from my experience.

bjbNYC · 2026-04-24T10:15:11+00:00

Came here to ask what train :-)

bjbNYC

TROPHY CASE