Humor Random Comments Thread

[Thunder Chicken]

I believe the technical term is "deceleration sickness".

It's not the long fall that gets you, it's the sudden stop at the end! :lol:

When I was learning to pack parachutes in the Air Force, our instructors persuaded a few of the gullible low IQ folks in the class that it was possible to survive a jump with a parachute that failed to open. The critical thing, they explained, was to avoid the first big bounce. If they had quick enough reflexes, they could "grab grass", hold onto the earth, and avoid the first bounce.:rofl:

I remember exchanging some significant glances and eyerolls with the instructors when these guys accepted this Wile E. Coyote physics as fact, each writing "Important, must grab grass" in their notebooks. :facepalm:

 

[jedidia]

You just made my sig :rofl:

It's kind of weird though, because in Switzerland paratroopers are about the most elite unit we have. They're only used for recon, so the bulk of their job usually involves finding their way back through enemy territory, avoid being seen and gather as much intelligence as they can while doing so. Most of them are way smarter than I am.

 

[Artlav]

Most of them are way smarter than I am.

Well, intelligence can be compartmentalized.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

I was in parachute and fabrication technical school learning to maintain ejection seat, drogue, and cargo parachutes, not in paratroopers. The airmen technician trainees were mostly high school graduates, some just barely so. I was class leader as I had a few years of college at that point.

Some of airmen, if they were any slower, would need to be watered twice weekly. Thankfully normal procedure is to have two technicians packing the chutes - one doing the work and the other verifying that it was done properly. In a lot of shops these guys would not be allowed to touch anything more complicated than patching engine covers.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

"if they were any slower, would need to be watered twice weekly"

:rofl:

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

 

[Artlav]

Today's children will never have a childhood with toys that ran on punched cards...

On the other hand, back when i was in early school i used to imagine some completely impossible things that, never the less, most people take for granted these days.

Makes me hopeful about the remaining things that they don't yet.

 

[Andy44]

Today's children will never have a childhood with toys that ran on punched cards...

On the other hand, back when i was in early school i used to imagine some completely impossible things that, never the less, most people take for granted these days.

Makes me hopeful about the remaining things that they don't yet.

Having a pocket-sized moving map display that uses satellite navigation while playing music and, oh yeah, you can even make phone calls on it, that would've been pure fantasy just 15 years ago.

 

[Urwumpe]

Having a pocket-sized moving map display that uses satellite navigation while playing music and, oh yeah, you can even make phone calls on it, that would've been pure fantasy just 15 years ago.

And which has two cameras (usually) installed which are better than every digital camera you had seen 20 years ago.

Which has more CPU cores than a 1986 number cruncher...

And has a better GPU than a gaming console from 2005...

And which you can also use for paying at the supermarket...

And which allows you enter text by speech...

And which has such a good annoying assistant function, that Samuel Vimes would likely have tried to drown it in lava....

 

[Artlav]

I was thinking more about things like that:

Unfortunately, the future went into a keyboard-less direction, and these three are about all there is.

There are plenty of tiny inputless computers, however.
Also nice things to have, but not as useful.

Oh, and have i mentioned having a screen in your car that shows a map with an arrow at your current location? Spy movie stuff, only practical.

 

[Linguofreak]

Today's children will never have a childhood with toys that ran on punched cards...

IIRC, you're about my age, and I never had toys that ran on punched cards.

 

[mojoey]

A) It's Artlav
B) It's Russia
C) See A

 

[Urwumpe]

VW sold more cars in the USA this year - The Postillon was right, now VW is the favorite brand of the coaler scene.

 

[jedidia]

Today's children will never have a childhood with toys that ran on punched cards...

They'll have toys that run on Linux instead... frankly, I have no Idea what course my life would have taken if I had a Raspberry Pi when I was 10.

 

[Urwumpe]

They'll have toys that run on Linux instead... frankly, I have no Idea what course my life would have taken if I had a Raspberry Pi when I was 10.

You would sit around in Southern Europe and your day would sound like:

"My home directory exceeds the quota of 30 GB. Fix it!"
"You now have 30 GB free disk space available."
"Additionally to the 30 GB I already had?"
"No, instead of it."

---------- Post added at 12:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:39 AM ----------

The anthem of Java EE development:

".war - What is it good for?"

 

[Thunder Chicken]

They'll have toys that run on Linux instead... frankly, I have no Idea what course my life would have taken if I had a Raspberry Pi when I was 10.

If a RPi fell out of a wormhole into my lap during my graduate program it would have made my life a whole lot easier. I'd probably would have needed a display and a keyboard to fall out of the wormhole too, as I don't think USB was used back then. We were using Mathematica for fluids courses and the students in that class were constantly fighting for seats in the computer lab at the special machines which had it installed. Now RPis come with Mathematica included, for $35, and frankly it probably has about the same speed and processing ability as the PCs we were fighting to use. A lot of the computations involved pressing the button, then going to get a bagel and a coffee while it churned away.

I bought an RPi for myself last year and loved it so much that I had six purchased for my power lab course. They are very empowering.

 

[n122vu]

Inspired by MaverickSawyer's ChatBox salute to the A10 being re-funded:

 

[PhantomCruiser]

 

[n122vu]

 

[mojoey]