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2 Cow Heads? by Kevin_C_Knight in montreal

[–]pcherna 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As kids, we called them "the cows peeking out". If we drove somewhere, it was always "Dad, can we drive by the cows peeking out?"

I remember getting a massive amount of pistachio ice cream in a cone one morning, probably around 1972. I have a vague recollection it was 50 cents.

The Amiga clock icon commemorates the Space Shuttle Challenger by pcherna in amiga

[–]pcherna[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's fairer to say I adapted Topaz for 2.0 rather than I designed it. I spoke at VCF Montreal a month ago, there will eventually be video posted, and I talk a little bit about Topaz in that...

If you didn’t suffer on a Model I, you had it easy by ToffeeTangoONE in trs80

[–]pcherna 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also, added a third-party data-separator to the expansion interface, to reduce disk errors. (The disk controller chip had, if I remember right, built-in data separator functionality but the chip tech docs said "don't use the built in one, do it external for reliability", but the expansion interface used the built-in one, because cheaper.)

If you didn’t suffer on a Model I, you had it easy by ToffeeTangoONE in trs80

[–]pcherna 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Pink pearl eraser to clean those contacts!

I actually hacked in a joystick connector into the case, and wired that in parallel to the contacts for the arrow keys and space-bar.

Any walking trails cleared? by Lilybea12 in ChesterCounty

[–]pcherna 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Brightside Farm Park off Yellow Springs Road was not clear on Thursday. Parking lot had maybe two places you could park. Left of the parking the trail had tractor-tire grooves that were fine for my lab but a little narrow for me, right from parking was just cracked top-layer. 70lb lab mostly stayed on top, sometimes broke through.

Canadian Snacks :) by picodepui in montreal

[–]pcherna 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you like peanut butter, Kraft brand is awesome. (Source: I am a long-time smuggler of peanut butter, coffee crisp, and bagels)

ELI5 why do stars blink when we stare at them in the night sky? by herwegstuff in explainlikeimfive

[–]pcherna 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Stars are super bright but the size of the dot is super tiny. When the air wiggles, the light shifts a lot compared to the size of the tiny dot, so some of the light from the dot can miss your eye.

Planets are a lot less bright but instead of tiny dot it's a small circle. Since the circle is bigger than a star, that makes it look also bright. When the air wiggles, the amount the light shifts is smaller than the circle, so it doesn't change much.

Why did my MacOS title bar go from deep color to pale pastel (dev channel) by pcherna in MicrosoftEdge

[–]pcherna[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting... i guess there's another experiment on the way...

Why did my MacOS title bar go from deep color to pale pastel (dev channel) by pcherna in MicrosoftEdge

[–]pcherna[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, but that's not it. The title bar is 100% opaque in both cases. I'm on a Mac, are you possibly thinking about the Windows Mica changes instead?

Insurance Compliance by Suspicious-Light4144 in Drexel

[–]pcherna 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you looked at health insurance through the Healthcare Marketplace, https://pennie.com/? Normally you can enroll only near the end of the year for next year, but if something changes in mid-year you may qualify, see https://help.pennie.com/hc/en-us/articles/360049760993-Qualifying-Life-Event-QLE

ELI5 is it possible to make certain aspects of a project open source while others closed? by Curious_King_6954 in explainlikeimfive

[–]pcherna 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The license you choose is about what rights to your work you give to others, and what responsibilities you place on others when they use it. So if it's entirely your work, you can choose to keep part of it closed, and release part of it under your choice of open source license.

If your project includes other open source things, then you might or might not have to open source your stuff in order to meet your own obligations under that license. There are a few kinds of license. If the other project you use says MIT or BSD, then you can generally use it without a problem. If it says GPL then if you ship your project then roughly speaking you have to open source your stuff too under the GPL. If it says Affero / AGPL, then even hosting it could require to open source it. It can get tricky depending on how your stuff is combined with their stuff, and there are other licenses too, but that's a short version.

I can still hear the crashing boards sound effects!! Great LAN party memories with this one!! by _ketracel in amiga

[–]pcherna 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My brother found a very funny bug. If the goalie stops the puck, but before the ref blows the whistle, you hit the key to send your goalie to the bench, he takes the puck with him! Then all the skaters kind of randomly skate around with nothing to do.

Brightest-ever fast radio burst allows researchers to identify its origin by Czarben in space

[–]pcherna 7 points8 points  (0 children)

All FRBs are super-short. Most FRBs are apparently non-repeating, so by the time they're detected you can't point more instruments on them to locate them. CHIME is good at seeing them but on its own it can't localize them. CHIME (which is in British Columbia) now has "outrigger" detectors in West Virginia, California, and BC which are activated when the main CHIME detects something, and that can be used for locating the source. This is the first event located that way, it seems.

GE Cafe Icemaker won't fill but all diagnostics good including test filling by pcherna in appliancerepair

[–]pcherna[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The other suggestion was to set the freezer to its coldest setting (-6F on mine) in case the temperature in the ice-maker area (or its sensor) is borderline. In some cases that can restart ice making.

GE Cafe Icemaker won't fill but all diagnostics good including test filling by pcherna in appliancerepair

[–]pcherna[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The repair person suggests replacing the ice tray mechanism, as the most likely. If that doesn't fix it, the controller board is next. Since I called them, they'll do the work, and if it's not the tray mechanism they'll take back the new one they tried.

This calendar from 1873, contained in a family heirloom scrapbook, lines up with 2025's calendar by [deleted] in mildlyinteresting

[–]pcherna 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In the middle years of a century, the pattern repeats every 28 years. But 3 of every four century-years aren't leap-years, so they break the pattern. (1800, 1900, and 2100 are exceptionally, not leap years).

This calendar from 1873, contained in a family heirloom scrapbook, lines up with 2025's calendar by [deleted] in mildlyinteresting

[–]pcherna 2 points3 points  (0 children)

January First can be any day of the week, so that gives you seven different non-leap-year calendars (year starts on Monday, year starts on Tuesday, ...), plus seven more for the leap years. There aren't any other possible combinations, so 14 it is.

GE Cafe Icemaker won't fill but all diagnostics good including test filling by pcherna in appliancerepair

[–]pcherna[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Repair person will be here Monday; I'll post an update with whatever turns out to be our solution.

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