In the 80's, NASA was still using telemetry computers that had to be booted by entering the boot code by hand. 8 (or 16... I don't remember) dip switches and an enter button for each word. I was allowed to boot the computers for testing, but I wasn't fast or accurate enough (and didn't have the boot code memorized) to reboot the computer during an actual mission.

I can't remember what the OS on a VAX PDP11 was called. The first computer that I owned was a Commodore PET that was given to me by a company, when I help them replace it with a TRS-80. I don't remember what the replacement OS for the TRS-80 was called, but it wasn't the one that Radio Shack provided. Then, it was Unix with X-windows for a while at work, and Commodore 64 at home, before transitioning to PCs with DOS, freeBSD, Windows, Linux, etc.

I have a Lumix FZ1000 II that I use mainly for wildlife photography. It does a great job (so long as I can get close enough to the wildlife), but sometimes I wish that it had more than a 400 mm lens. I considered replacing it (or augmenting it) with an FZ80 or FZ300 to get more zoom, and they get good reviews, but then I realized that they are 5 and 7 years old, and (even thought they are fairly inexpensive) I didn't want invest in technology that old. One of the advantage of the mid-priced bridge cameras is that I can afford to replace them as newer technology comes out. Note that the FZ1000 II is now over 3 years old; so right now, I am watching and waiting for something new to come out.

WRT to the 400mm lens: anything over 400mm starts to get "flat", so it is always better to get closer if you can... but that is sometimes easier said than done when you are dealing with lions, etc.

Also, note that these are much lighter than a DSLR; but they are, by no means, a pocket camera. They take up quite a bit of room in a backpack.

I will never buy another Epson specifically for that reason. I once bought a brand new Epson, and shortly after that, upgraded my computer. Epson didn't provide upgraded drivers for the printers that they were still selling at the time.

I occasionally have that problem with AA or AAA NiMh Batteries. Sometimes the device that I use them discharges them so far that my good battery charger won't recognize that a battery is installed. I have to put them in a cheap battery charger (that mindlessly starts applying a voltage to them) to get the voltage up to the point that my good battery charger will recognize them.

Discharging any battery that far isn't good for it, but they seem to survive.

Charging a dead battery directly from a good battery will also work, but isn't very good for either battery, unless you put a resistor inline to limit the current.

Issues with automotive electronics seems to be par for the course these days. I had a 2014 Audi Q5 that I loved. I replaced it with a 2021 Q5 which drives OK, but the electronic interface is atrocious. After I had it for about a year, they did a recall/software upgrade (that took them 2 days to perform), and (for the most part) stopped it from crashing and rebooting all of the time (which affected the backup cameras, which is what classified it as a recall). But, the user interface is still poorly designed and hard to use (and the touch screen is distracting).

Still, occasionally, I get in the car and there is nothing that I can do to get Apple Car Play or Android Auto to connect to the system (rebooting the phone or restarting the car won't help). Then, the next time I get in the car, it will be fine.

It is the fight or flight response, and they choose flight.

Not trying to get this kicked to that attic, but... teaching that people can't trust the police make it more likely that they will chose fight or flight when they encounter the police, and becomes a self fulfilling prophesy (and is bad for all involved).

I was just at Flume Gorge, New Hampshire. At the Visitors Center, there are two pay phones; because people need to call shuttles, and there is no cell coverage. At first, I assume they were old and not connected, but they still worked. Looking at that picture, it might actually be Flume Gorge.

From: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-release-fukushima-water-into-ocean-starting-aug-24-2023-08-22 :

The released water will contain 190 becquerels of tritium per liter, far below the World Health Organization’s safety limit of 10,000 becquerels per liter for drinking water, according to the Tokyo Electric Power Company.

From https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/issues/tbd23 (but it's not clear what the original source was):

Two plants in the UK release between 400 and 2,000 terabecquerels of tritium into the ocean every year. Plants in Japan also discharged terabecquerels of tritium before the Fukushima accident.

Generally speaking, an Inverter is a electronic circuit that raises a voltage. Calling it an inverter only makes sense to a power engineer. They used to be called boost-buck (or buck-boost, I can't remember); another name that only made sense to a power engineer, but it least it was descriptive of how it worked. These days, they are much more sophisticated, much more efficient, and can have a lot more features (like variable output levels).

In the old days, the Backlight (which is what the Inverter powers) would have been a fluorescent light. On modern LCDs displays, it is an LED light (but it still needs an inverter to get the voltage up high enough).

> Tires today are much better than years ago

Depending on your definition of years ago, I haven't had such luck. Ten to Fifteen years ago, I had two cars that had low profile Continental tires (it was what they came with from the dealer). Of the 8 tires, I had 5 blowouts while driving (and no can of fix-a-flat was going to fix that). Towards the end, I could recognize the vibration starting (oh, no, here we go again...), and pull off the road before it actually blew (just a big bubble on the side of the tire). Fortunately, in those days, cars came with full size spares. I no longer buy Continental tires, even if they aren't low profile.

Audi USED TO HAVE a collapsing spare (in 2014, at least). It was cool, I used it once. I have no idea mechanically how it worked.

They no longer do (in 2021, at least). Now, it is just a compressor and a can of Fix-a-flat. I would prefer some kind of a spare.

The little caps that you mention were cheap plastic. They were hard to get back on if you didn't take them off carefully.

I had never noticed that box with the arrow before, so I went looking for it. It turns out that it shows up in Chrome, but not in Firefox. However, if I copied the link (that gets opened up in Chrome) into my Firefox browser, I get the information for the account that I access from Firefox.

Yes, I have too many email accounts and too many browsers, but somethings work better in Firefox, somethings work better in Chrome, and a very few only work in Edge.

As I said in the other thread:

Gmail is unique in that the folders aren't really folders, they are "Labels", sort of like tags. You can have multiple labels on an email, and it doesn't make multiple copies of the email, just multiple tags on the same email. Deleting a label just removes that particular tag, it doesn't delete the email. [but, deleting an email, when viewing under one label, deletes it everywhere]

Updates and Promotions are labels that Gmail automatically puts on incoming email, you can disable that, I think.

Because of the way that Gmail displays labels as folders in an email client (as opposed to the gmail website), you get weird results when you try to delete mail [in an email client].

Just below the list of emails on the web interface, mine say:

64% full
Using 9.68 GB of your 15 GB