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User: WillAdams

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  1. Need to understand it's not a memory typewriter on Ask Slashdot: What Tech Skills Do HS Students Need To Know Now? · · Score: 1

    The problem for how most people use technology is that they accept the defaults, then laboriously, manually, at each necessary point, alter things by hand so as to achieve the desired effect.

    Understanding how to set up:

      - style sheets (even in a basic word processor)
      - macros (yep, word processors have these too)
      - piping commands at the command line
      - semantic tagging

    will go a long way towards making them more productive (and me much happier when I get book manuscripts which are properly set up).

    Hint, if you find it necessary to turn off the viewing of special characters 'cause of the visual noise, you're doing it wrong.

  2. Use pandoc on incoming files on Ask Slashdot: What Is the Best Open Document Format? · · Score: 1

    Convert to your choice of XML and store that

    Use pandoc to convert to whatever format is requested. If a document is requested and edited, use pandoc to read in the edited version and store that.

    Once you've trained everyone to accept the lowest common denominator, it'll work.

    For bonus points you could go straight to MediaWiki markup and put everything into a wiki.

  3. Re:Or... on Online Voting Should Be Verifiable -- But It's a Hard Problem · · Score: 2

    Agreed.

    Paper ballot --- if need be a scanning machine, but there _has_ to be a physical audit trail verifiable w/o the use of a machine.

  4. Tried hard w/ the Shapeoko 2 documentation on RTFM? How To Write a Manual Worth Reading · · Score: 1

    Available here:

    http://docs.shapeoko.com/

    Some awkward aspects are imposed by the source being Markdown on Github, so lowest common denominator for special characters such as what should be em-dashes.

    Interesting footnote to the project is that the note explaining how to use the interactive diagrams was deleted by a person who thought it was unnecessary --- less than half of the people who responded to a poll figured out the interactivity and almost all those who did find it were surprised by it.

    Part of the reason it's hard to write good documentation is that it's hard to get people to make use of it --- similarly we've tried to get everything about this CNC router onto the wiki, but there are still an awful lot of forum posts which I answer w/:

    ``That's on the wiki:

  5. Re:Are they actually dialing up... on Closing This Summer: Verizon To Scoop Up AOL For $4.4 Billion · · Score: 1

    AOL will allow one to convert a paid account to a free one when one cancels --- one keeps all one's old e-mail addresses, and they've increased the number of free ones allowed per account so one doesn't have to delete any.

    I had a paid dial-up for a long, long while and would probably still have it if they hadn't cancelled the members.aol.com webhosting --- if they'd charged for that separately and maintained it, I'd still have it.

  6. Re:While not as cool, I can afford an Elio on Tesla To Unveil Its $35,000 Model 3 In March 2016 · · Score: 1

    1+1 == 2 --- the rear seat looks to be downright claustrophobic though.

  7. How are they competent to train but not retain? on FWD.us To Laid-Off Southern California Edison Workers: Boo-Hoo · · Score: 1

    I don't get it. If they're so incompetent that they can't be kept as workers, how can they be competent enough to be training their replacements?

    Why don't all the workers collectively agree to not impart their obviously flawed work skills and knowledge to their replacements?

    If my boss came to me and said that he was replacing me, I'd say fine. Documentation is on the wiki, the source for everything is written up as literate programs, the only things out-of-date are and --- if you want me to up-date those, call me tomorrow and we'll work up rates.

  8. While not as cool, I can afford an Elio on Tesla To Unveil Its $35,000 Model 3 In March 2016 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's to hoping that they actually go into production:

    http://www.eliomotors.com/

  9. Can we submit a poem? on Australia To Grade Written Essays In National Exam With Cognitive Computing · · Score: 5, Funny

    Eye halve a spelling chequer
    It came with my pea sea
    It plainly marques four my revue
    Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

    Eye strike a key and type a word
    And weight four it two say
    Weather eye am wrong oar write
    It shows me strait a weigh.

    As soon as a mist ache is maid
    It nose bee fore two long
    And eye can put the error rite
    Its rare lea ever wrong.

    Eye have run this poem threw it
    I am shore your pleased two no
    Its letter perfect in it’s weigh
    My chequer tolled me sew.

  10. Re:Makerspace.... on Ask Slashdot: How Should I Build a Maker Space For a Liberal Arts College? · · Score: 1

    There is precedent for them though:

    http://westphillytools.org/

  11. Re: Makerspace.... on Ask Slashdot: How Should I Build a Maker Space For a Liberal Arts College? · · Score: 1

    Yep.

    That's why it's so important that people document this sort of thing w/ open licenses which can't be taken back.

    I've been working on that sort of thing for the Shapeko: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/i...

    Anyone know of any similar wikis / resources?

      - http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Rep... --- I've tried to help out on this, but simply didn't get any help when I expressed how mystifying I found the structure / hierarchy --- finally just did a link dump of 3D printing stuff here: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/i...
      - http://www.reddit.com/r/hobbyc... --- this subreddit has a single page, which addresses the big thing which the Shapeoko wiki can't have, a list / comparison of other machines

    Makerspace == workshop for geeks who missed shop class and don't understand the basics of craftsmanship

  12. Re:Tablets not as useful as expected on We'll Be the Last PC Company Standing, Acer CEO Says · · Score: 1

    The thing is, I won't buy a desktop or laptop that doesn't have a stylus --- I find the stylus essential to my way of working / interacting w/ a computer. I need to be able to:

      - draw / paint / sketch
      - markup / annotate
      - use the machine as a reference device w/o a keyboard being in the way (this is esp. important when using it as a map reader when driving --- need a daylight viewable display for that though, and I can't replace my Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4121)

    If I can fulfill my text input needs w/ a stylus, why do I need to schlep a keyboard around?

  13. Re:I love my Packard Bell on We'll Be the Last PC Company Standing, Acer CEO Says · · Score: 1

    Actually, I rather liked the black Packard Bell-branded Apple II which we had at the school (it was in the office though, so students only got to use it when it needed to have a new spreadsheet created).

  14. Re: Dell, HP, Panasonic on We'll Be the Last PC Company Standing, Acer CEO Says · · Score: 1

    Unless your first experience was buying an Asus Vivotab Note 8, my first new machine since college and it dies in less than a month due to a widespread problem w/ the digitizer cables going out:

    http://forum.tabletpcreview.co...

    What does it say about your brand and QC when that's a top hit for one of your models.

    Guess I'll try a Toshiba Encore 2 Write 10 next --- at least the T1200XE I had was a solid and reliable machine which lasted quite a while.

  15. Lee Valley enforces a reasonable ratio top--bottom on Seattle CEO Cuts $1 Million Salary To $70K, Raises Employee Salaries · · Score: 1

    They have a strict limit set to their ``pay slope'':

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com...

    They're a great company and I'm always pleased to buy stuff from them.

    I wish more companies would pay attention to the studies which note that greater than 22--1 creates a lousy corporate culture.

  16. Serious things treated seriously and w/ dignity on Can Online Reporting System Help Prevent Sexual Assaults On Campus? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There needs to absolutely be a mechanism in place for a woman to:

      - safely be transported to a hospital in a fashion which maintains chain of evidence
      - be examined by a sympathetic, but impartial medical professional using a rape kit to collect evidence
      - make a formal statement, and if it includes an accusation, that to be duly sworn out in a reasonable fashion

    There needs to be in place mechanisms for the hospital, police and other social structures to take the above seriously. If there aren't, that needs to change.

  17. Re:This happened back in the day... on Allegation: Lottery Official Hacked RNG To Score Winning Ticket · · Score: 2

    You're conflating the movie (injecting paint) w/ the real life court case (it was determined that they had sprayed the exterior of the ping pong balls w/ fixative).

  18. Re:Maker movement on eBay Sales Patterns Show That the Maker Movement is Still Growing (Video) · · Score: 1

    Yes, please, thank you.

    Stackexchange managed to totally derail the Digital Fabrication area when they rebranded it as ``Maker'' something or other, and the term just annoys me.

    Can we at least (re)define it as people who read _Make Magazine_?

    Anyway, you may find the Shapeoko wiki of interest: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/

  19. Re:Annoying Orange on New Site Mocks Bad Artwork On Ebook Covers · · Score: 1

    The thing is, uni-directional apostrophes and double quotes aren't foot and inch marks --- the proper symbol for those are primes and double primes (which unfortunately only a few fonts have --- usually one has to get them out of a Pi font):

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

  20. Re:Not so much to replace a real transmisson on a on Man 3D Prints a Working 5-Speed Transmission For Toyota Engines · · Score: 2

    Agreed. I'd also love to see one at the service desk at a car dealership.

  21. Re:RRRRRRGGGHHH!!! on Man 3D Prints a Working 5-Speed Transmission For Toyota Engines · · Score: 1

    If you can get access to one or the other it's pretty straight-forward to bootstrap and make one: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/i...

  22. Criminals and revolutionaries of the future beware on Supreme Court Gives Tacit Approval To Warrantless DNA Collection · · Score: 2

    They'll wind up using the same sort of protective techniques the superstitious used to use against witchcraft --- being careful not to shed any blood, skin, hair or nail clippings when engaged in their illicit activities.

    I can see a scene in a science fiction movie (God forbid it really needs to happen) where the protagonist's best friend, despite the padded, blood-absorbing armor which they were when conducting sabotage against the state is injured, so that a single drop of blood drops to the ground --- while the protagonist looks on in horror and sadness. Then, the doomed buddy simply announces, "I've been blooded. Give me all the ammunition you can spare." and then goes off on a berserk, suicidal assault of the pursuing authorities.

  23. Why were the chunnel building machines buried? on Mooted: An Undersea Link From Finland To Estonia · · Score: 2

    That's one thing I've always been mystified at --- when the English Channel tunnel was finished the machines were run a bit further and entombed --- why weren't they run up to the surface and put up for use on other projects?

  24. Re:What makes a plane a plane? on ESA Complete Spaceplane Test Flight; IXV Safely Returns To Earth · · Score: 3, Informative

    The term you are missing is "Lifting body" --- it has control foils and is able to steer in the air using them (as opposed to using thrusters as capsules must).

  25. Re:Maker "movement" is just that on Rich Olson Embodies the Spirit of the Maker Movement (Video) · · Score: 1

    Or, real life for kids who missed shop class.

    The "Maker" movement labeling really annoys me (and I'm still annoyed 'bout when when stackexchange changed the name of the Digital Fabrication beta in mid launch to some new age maker bullshit).

    I build stuff, both by hand and using tools, I share what I make and learn, including the files ( http://www.shapeoko.com/projec... ), I volunteer as best I can ( http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/i... ), and try to improve how we document and build machines (when the Shapeoko 2 was featured in Popular Mechanics less mechanically inclined people became aware of it and found traditional assembly diagrams hard to read, so we had to update the diagrams so as to make it obvious where "hidden" parts were located: http://docs.shapeoko.com/conte... ).

    I'm not a "maker", I'm just a guy w/ a workbench at one end of the laundry room and a couple of CNC machines and 3D printers scattered around the rest of the house.

    William