Helvetica is everywhere for a reason. So is Times Roman. Classic typefaces, what type is supposed
to look like.
The last time I did serious font research was designing maps for a GPS-based asset-tracking system.
I wanted a font that was distinctive, but not too distinctive. After some looking through Adobe's font catalog
I settled on Myriad. It worked fine until word came
from On High that we must emulate the visual appearance of Google Maps. So be it.
I started working from home in the summer of 2016 after several rounds of downsizing left me the
last person standing. We tried a shared office environment for a while but decided it was costing
us more than it was worth. Working remotely required some adjustment. It took some getting used to.
It can be lonely. It can be depressing. It can also be liberating, but only for somebody who can
plan and organize their work themselves, because nobody's going to do it for you. I'm fairly strict on
work time vs me time. Again, I have to do it, nobody's going to do it for me.
The main people I work with are two time zones east of me. My boss and I have a regular weekly call. The time is reasonable
for both of us (1100 Pacific, 1300 Central). The worst was a past life when the bulk of the engineering staff rarely showed
up before 1100 Pacific time. This drove our European colleagues nuts. I took many phone calls along the lines of "is there
anybody in Engineering?" The flipside was "Laura, wanna come over to Paris and show us how the new software works?"
The weather is nuts. That's obvious. What to do about it is not at all obvious.
And any "solution" that doesn't have China and India on board isn't a solution.
The world will come to an end in 12 years. It's on the internet, so it must be true. AOC said so, so it must
be true. How will people to do their best to make the world a better place if they've already given up?
Personally, I see it as an opportunity. Consider how we could increase agriculture productivity if temperate
and northern climates had longer growing seasons.
What problem does it solve? If any? Ditch it and save the time, money and hassle.
I've been to places that have better things to worry about. Not just tropical places where the length of
the day doesn't vary anyway, but also Arizona (UTC-7 all year) and Saskatchewan (UTC-6 all year).
I always take a telescope with me whenever I visit the southern hemisphere and have spent many evenings
(mainly from Australia)
exploring the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Tarantula Nebula is one of those must-see items on any such trip.
The Small Magellanic Cloud doesn't have as many goodies but has 47 Tucanae next door which
more than makes up for it.
My favourite is to come on to them. Doesn't matter if it's a man or a woman. Talk dirty. Gets them every time.
I signed the papers on a new place the other day and I'm planning to use Asterisk to screen my calls. Two or three whitelisted numbers, block everything else.
A YouTuber I follow is at the Avalon Airshow, just south
of Melbourne. Not only is it pushing 40,
it's windy, that hair-dryer hot wind that makes 40-ish temperatures even worse. In the meantime we've just had the
coldest February ever here in Vancouver.
It's obvious the neural network was trained on stock images, including lots of celebrities.
I saw Angelina Jolie's eyes, Brad Pitt's jaw, Caitlin Jenner's hair.
I've seen the Pipistrel Alpha Electro
in action. Almost silent, quick-change battery packs. Cute as hell.
And short legs: an hour plus reserve in the air. If it was good for two hours I'd be interested in getting checked
out in one and renting it for local flights. Four hours and I'd look thoughtfully at my bank account. Here in B.C.
it would plug in to hydro dams, so its carbon footprint is nil.
You can get a two-way pager if you want one. There are pagers that just send in the fact that they've received a message, that it was read, or ones that can compose a message and send it in.
I work for a paging company. Paging is very much a niche product, but a good niche product has always been a license to
print money.
A generation has been sold a bill of goods and some are starting to realize this.
Eventually the universities will get back to what they once were: research institutions, places of higher learning
for the academically-inclined. They are not job training and never were. They are not for everybody.
Some years ago I quietly programmed one of our office printers to display INSERT COIN
when it was idle. This confused one of our summer students, but they all tended to be easily confused.
It also caused some consternation
when my former boss noticed and asked our sysadmin for an explanation.
A lot of us were waiting for a new iPad mini 5. I use an iPad mini 4 for flight planning and
it works brilliantly, exactly the right size to use in the cockpit. But it's four years old now, and
while its CPU and graphics are up to the task, its battery life kinda sucks.
Years go I had a job where we could work longer hours for fewer days: 3 very long days a week (not popular),
4 long days a week (not popular either), 9 slightly long days every two weeks (very popular), or 5 regular days each
week. Almost everybody (including me) worked a nine day fortnight. I liked it, a reasonable balance between long
days and time off. Management hated it, and were trying to eliminate it. By now (nearly 30 years later) they
have probably done so.
I'd love to work less, have more time for myself. I've felt my employers out on such things, and their answer amounts
to "You kidding? LOL".
Here in Canada there is a push in some regions to abolish daylight saving time. Parts of the country (e.g. Saskatchewan) are already sane about this. Ditto the northeast corner of B.C.
Even at my relatively southerly latitude (49 degrees north) summers are light regardless of our nominal time zone. Winters are dark, again, regardless of our time zone. If we stayed on PST (UTC-8) all year the sun would set at 2030 in the summer. What more do people want? And on PDT all year (UTC-7) the sun would still set at 1700 in December. What good is that? It wouldn't rise until 0900. Ugh.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't use Alexa.
I flatly refuse to have a device in my home that is connected to the internet and that, by design, monitors the sound around it. No f**king way.
...laura
Helvetica is everywhere for a reason. So is Times Roman. Classic typefaces, what type is supposed to look like.
The last time I did serious font research was designing maps for a GPS-based asset-tracking system. I wanted a font that was distinctive, but not too distinctive. After some looking through Adobe's font catalog I settled on Myriad. It worked fine until word came from On High that we must emulate the visual appearance of Google Maps. So be it.
I use Souvenir for my resume, BTW.
...laura
I started working from home in the summer of 2016 after several rounds of downsizing left me the last person standing. We tried a shared office environment for a while but decided it was costing us more than it was worth. Working remotely required some adjustment. It took some getting used to. It can be lonely. It can be depressing. It can also be liberating, but only for somebody who can plan and organize their work themselves, because nobody's going to do it for you. I'm fairly strict on work time vs me time. Again, I have to do it, nobody's going to do it for me.
The main people I work with are two time zones east of me. My boss and I have a regular weekly call. The time is reasonable for both of us (1100 Pacific, 1300 Central). The worst was a past life when the bulk of the engineering staff rarely showed up before 1100 Pacific time. This drove our European colleagues nuts. I took many phone calls along the lines of "is there anybody in Engineering?" The flipside was "Laura, wanna come over to Paris and show us how the new software works?"
...laura
The weather is nuts. That's obvious. What to do about it is not at all obvious. And any "solution" that doesn't have China and India on board isn't a solution.
The world will come to an end in 12 years. It's on the internet, so it must be true. AOC said so, so it must be true. How will people to do their best to make the world a better place if they've already given up?
Personally, I see it as an opportunity. Consider how we could increase agriculture productivity if temperate and northern climates had longer growing seasons.
...laura
What problem does it solve? If any? Ditch it and save the time, money and hassle. I've been to places that have better things to worry about. Not just tropical places where the length of the day doesn't vary anyway, but also Arizona (UTC-7 all year) and Saskatchewan (UTC-6 all year).
Everybody hates it. Why is it taking so long?
...laura
I always take a telescope with me whenever I visit the southern hemisphere and have spent many evenings (mainly from Australia) exploring the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Tarantula Nebula is one of those must-see items on any such trip.
The Small Magellanic Cloud doesn't have as many goodies but has 47 Tucanae next door which more than makes up for it.
...laura
My favourite is to come on to them. Doesn't matter if it's a man or a woman. Talk dirty. Gets them every time.
I signed the papers on a new place the other day and I'm planning to use Asterisk to screen my calls. Two or three whitelisted numbers, block everything else.
...laura
To put it more precisely, Facebook is useless in a manner inconsistent with its normal uselessness.
A YouTuber I follow is at the Avalon Airshow, just south of Melbourne. Not only is it pushing 40, it's windy, that hair-dryer hot wind that makes 40-ish temperatures even worse. In the meantime we've just had the coldest February ever here in Vancouver.
...laura
It's obvious the neural network was trained on stock images, including lots of celebrities. I saw Angelina Jolie's eyes, Brad Pitt's jaw, Caitlin Jenner's hair.
...laura
It's not weaponized if the videos actually do suck.
...laura
People have been gaming Google for ages. Remember "miserable failure"? Remember the fake 404 page for "weapons of mass destruction"?
...laura
Every time somebody describes a lunar eclipse as a blood moon a puppy dies.
...laura
I've seen the Pipistrel Alpha Electro in action. Almost silent, quick-change battery packs. Cute as hell.
And short legs: an hour plus reserve in the air. If it was good for two hours I'd be interested in getting checked out in one and renting it for local flights. Four hours and I'd look thoughtfully at my bank account. Here in B.C. it would plug in to hydro dams, so its carbon footprint is nil.
...laura
You can get a two-way pager if you want one. There are pagers that just send in the fact that they've received a message, that it was read, or ones that can compose a message and send it in.
I work for a paging company. Paging is very much a niche product, but a good niche product has always been a license to print money.
...laura
A generation has been sold a bill of goods and some are starting to realize this.
Eventually the universities will get back to what they once were: research institutions, places of higher learning for the academically-inclined. They are not job training and never were. They are not for everybody.
...laura
Some years ago I quietly programmed one of our office printers to display INSERT COIN when it was idle. This confused one of our summer students, but they all tended to be easily confused. It also caused some consternation when my former boss noticed and asked our sysadmin for an explanation.
...laura
The iPhone screen is too small to display charts and navigation data. Both practically, and legally. Some countries have regulations on the subject.
A lot of us were waiting for a new iPad mini 5. I use an iPad mini 4 for flight planning and it works brilliantly, exactly the right size to use in the cockpit. But it's four years old now, and while its CPU and graphics are up to the task, its battery life kinda sucks.
I'm not sure if Justin is an honest politician.
One that stays bought.
A lot of the information was classified until the 1990s. Many of the people involved never got the credit they deserved.
Some of it was declassified later, like very careful statistical analysis that suggested the most likely rotors in use.
If you can't stand up in front of me and explain why I should hire you, maybe you should apply at McDonalds.
If I interview you part will be explaining something to me with a pen and a whiteboard. Communication skills are non-negotiable.
...laura
Years go I had a job where we could work longer hours for fewer days: 3 very long days a week (not popular), 4 long days a week (not popular either), 9 slightly long days every two weeks (very popular), or 5 regular days each week. Almost everybody (including me) worked a nine day fortnight. I liked it, a reasonable balance between long days and time off. Management hated it, and were trying to eliminate it. By now (nearly 30 years later) they have probably done so.
I'd love to work less, have more time for myself. I've felt my employers out on such things, and their answer amounts to "You kidding? LOL".
...laura
Here in Canada there is a push in some regions to abolish daylight saving time. Parts of the country (e.g. Saskatchewan) are already sane about this. Ditto the northeast corner of B.C.
Even at my relatively southerly latitude (49 degrees north) summers are light regardless of our nominal time zone. Winters are dark, again, regardless of our time zone. If we stayed on PST (UTC-8) all year the sun would set at 2030 in the summer. What more do people want? And on PDT all year (UTC-7) the sun would still set at 1700 in December. What good is that? It wouldn't rise until 0900. Ugh.
...laura
We use simple paper ballots in Canada. Here's your ballot, mark an X, put it in the ballot box. Try hacking that!
...laura