Yesterday, I received a notification of a news story about tsunami half way around the world. If I stick around on the board for a few minutes, someone who is in that region will likely give an update. Amazing.
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Yesterday, I received a notification of a news story about tsunami half way around the world. If I stick around on the board for a few minutes, someone who is in that region will likely give an update. Amazing.
My call center job was making reservations for hotels around the world including Phucket (gotta watch how you pronounce that one). The day the tsunami hit I was off and the rest of the people working the account accept for one called in sick because of a storm. All night long she got calls to cancel or people wondering what was going to happen to their reservations.
In addition to the Windows computers and the ones in my pocket and her purse, we also have computers in:
The car
The furnace
The water heater
The generator
The fridge
The oven/microwave
The septic system
The thermostat
About half of those want me to connect them to the internet.
For Christmas, my niece gave me a little box to plug a lamp into so you can turn it on and off with your phone. From halfway around the world, if you want.
ETA: Oh, yeah, the "smart" TV. Which I heard was listening to everything you say and sending it back to Samsung. Mine isn't, because I didn't connect it.
“Where are they all going to go? It’s not like you need a computer in every doorknob!”Quote:
Originally Posted by Trebuchet
“Years later, I went back to the same hotel. I noticed the room keys had been replaced by electronic cards you slide into slots in the doors. There was a computer in every doorknob.”
My employer has a sort-of electronic suggestion box.
One of the recent suggestions that has gotten a lot of interest is to modify the automated meeting alerts. The complaint is that the shortest alert time, five minutes prior to the meeting, is too long.
Not too long ago, the thought that everyone's clocks would be so closely synchronized that a five minute warning would be "too long" would be considered absurd.
It's 3 am on Boxing Day, I'm laying in bed on my phone and watching live view earth from space! https://youtu.be/4993sBLAzGA
When doing my masters, I did appreciate being able to do my reading lying on the couch with my 5mm thick pad and access the world's knowledge via ScienceDirect.
Also, a meme I can't find comparing the original Legend of Zelda to Breath of the Wild and their respective cartridges.
I was talking to my cousin in St Paul on a little box I was holding in my hand yesterday when something started beeping. It took me a minute or two to figure which of the various electronic noise devices it was. The dishwasher was done.
Your dishwasher is obsolete. :) It should have generated a notification on your hand-held device.
It probably could if I let it. But I'm a guy, so haven't read the instructions.Quote:
Originally Posted by selden
Which reminds me, I need to go out and program the generator. And I'm not making that up.
In our house, my wife is the one who hasn't read the instructions. I read the instructions before I switch the damn thing on. (Why wouldn't you do that?)Quote:
Originally Posted by Trebuchet
My wife once phoned me while I was sitting in the Accident & Emergency department with my 90-year-old mother, asking me how to get the TV to display the signal from the blu ray player.
Grant Hutchison
I suspect we could have an entire thread on spouses, significant others, and friends asking for assistance at inappropriate times and from inappropriate distances.Quote:
Originally Posted by grant hutchison
My wife once called me when I was on a business trip (she was in Ohio, I was in Texas - over 1500 km apart) to tell me there was a mouse in the house.
Oh. Oh. I have one of those.Quote:
Originally Posted by Swift
A colleague tells the story of a friend who worked in Indonesia, who came home to Scotland to marry, and whose new wife, on the flight to Indonesia (her first trip out of the UK), asked, "Are there any lizards in Indonesia? I'm frightened of lizards."
Heart-sink.
So this turned out to be a Really Big Thing for her, to the extent she was entirely unnerved by geckos on the living room wall. Much counselling ensued, on the theme of, "They're more afraid of you than you are of them." And she seemed to kind of relax into it, after a while.
But on his first day back at work, she phoned him to say there was a lizard in the living room. To which he replied, "Remember what we discussed, just ignore it and it'll soon be gone."
Twenty minutes, later, she phoned to say it was still there. "Remember what we discussed, just ignore it and it'll soon be gone."
Another twenty minutes, another phone call, and: "Remember what we discussed, just ignore it and it'll soon be gone."
To which she replied, furiously, "I'm trying to ignore it, but it just knocked over the television."
Grant Hutchison
Hopefully she wasn’t going to Komodo...Quote:
Originally Posted by grant hutchison
My mother has the same mortal fear of lizards and had to similarly spend some time in SE Asia. It's funny because she also used to call my dad at work when she saw lizards in the house. I never understood her line of reasoning for calling my dad, what could he possibly do from an hour drive away?!Quote:
Originally Posted by grant hutchison
It seems like all logic and reasoning broke down by seeing a small lizard quietly hunting some mosquitoes on a wall.
Asian water monitor, I believe. But you wouldn't want to mess with one of those.Quote:
Originally Posted by KaiYeves
Grant Hutchison
The good news is: after a visit from one of those sweethearts, she might no longer be frightened of the smaller ones. :)
From the SpaceX thread:
Cameron County has posted public notice that it will close Highway 4 to Boca Chica Beach for space flight activities from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well, 4 meters is not exactly the Karman line... ;)
The future is behind you, watching everything you do.... in your own home.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/investiga...505113061.html
Homeowner's Blood 'Ran Cold' as Smart Cameras, Thermostat Hacked, He Says. “Right as I approached the baby’s room, I heard a deep voice talking to him,” Sud said.
By Courtney Copenhagen and Katie Kim
Published Jan 30, 2019 at 7:13 PM | Updated at 10:58 PM CST on Jan 30, 2019
---
https://www.azcentral.com/story/mone...me/2115698002/
Phoenix man says hacker talked to him through a Nest security camera in his home
Agnel Philip, Arizona RepublicPublished 8:09 a.m. MT Dec. 3, 2018 | Updated 7:43 a.m. MT Dec. 20, 2018
Yes, I’d consider that rocket testing and that, at least, seems old hat to me. That it potentially represents something like the type of future we were promised when I was young does feel important, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nicolas
It sure does. Those fifties style/children book rocket drawings are suddenly becoming more realistic than intended. :) The future...is now.
[intones in a deep voice] And the future is where you and I will spend the rest of our lives.
Time keeps slipping into the future.
Stuff that happened in 2009 is ten years ago now?!?!Quote:
Originally Posted by The Backroad Astronomer
Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard) was 47 when "The Next Generation" began. Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) will be 47 this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by KaiYeves
Stuff that happened in 868 AD is 1151 years ago now. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by KaiYeves
The song came out in 1976.Quote:
Originally Posted by KaiYeves
https://youtu.be/c1f7eZ8cHpM
I live so far in the future I've forgotten how many interstellar vehicles the US has launched, I think it's five but maybe four or six.
FIVE! Found it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_probe
Can't believe I had to look that up. I kinda thought there were six.