Trek Humor

Dad is a n00b

Bob

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means

This entrepreneur is going places

This Map Shows Where to Get the Best Bagel in Every State | The Nosher

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/this-map-shows-where-to-get-the-best-bagel-in-every-state/

Bob

“Me too!”

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." 

I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." 

I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region."

 I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." 

"Heretic!," I shouted. And I pushed him over.

Fun things found in video games

Reddit has a channel for conversations which unexpectedly swerve into Python territory 

If I fits I sits: A citizen science investigation into illusory contour susceptibility in domestic cats (Felis silvestri...

A well-known phenomenon to cat owners is the tendency of their cats to sit in enclosed spaces such as boxes, laundry baskets, and even shape outlines taped on the floor. This investigative study asks whether domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) are also susceptible to sitting in enclosures that are illusory in nature, utilizing cats' attraction to box-like spaces to assess their perception of the Kanizsa square visual illusion. 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168159121001258

Medical Humor

An immunologist and a cardiologist are kidnapped.

The kidnappers threaten to shoot both but promise that whoever has made the greater contribution to humanity will be shot the next day..

The cardiologist says, "Well, I've identified drugs that have saved the lives of millions of people." 

Impressed, the kidnappers turn to the immunologist. "What have you done?" they ask.

The immunologist says, "The thing is, the immune system is very complicated…"

And the cardiologist says, "Shoot me first."
,

“Stare it down and nourish what comes near you”

I watched a YouTube video on the Beatles song "Rain" and they discussed the backward tracks at the end of the song.

 They showed a Japanese lyric sheet where the transcribers didn't  understand that the vocals were backwards, so they tried to make sense of what they heard.

Movie Science

Why I like Quora discussion groups

What was the purpose of all of the blinking lights on the early computers (think Univac and Eniac) of the 1950s & 1960s? What information did they convey?

I am almost 78 now but I started on computers in the early 60s. I was working for IBM at the System Development Corporation (SDC) in Santa Monica, California in 1965. I supported the AN/FSQ-32, which was the largest transistor (solid state) computer ever made and it weight 60.3 metric tons (132,960 lb). You could walk around inside the computer system. I had to learn every pulse within this system. It took me 9 months at 40 hours a week to learn the entire system so that I could trouble shoot any hardware problem.

I also worked on the IBM AN/FSQ-31 SAC Data Processing System at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska. Both the Q31 and Q32 needed 24x7 support by electronic technicians or as I was called an IBM Field Engineer assigned to a job site. I did hardware support for the 8 years I supported these systems before going into programming full time. Below is a picture to what I saw for 8 years. Many of the lights show the binary value of each register with in the system. If you know how the system works, then you can look to see if the register has the correct binary information!

The man in the picture is touching a console that has a possibility of four instructions. You had to put your instruction in binary because each row of instructions had an on/off switch for a one or zero. Many times I would put an instruction (Like LDA for load accumulator) in the first row, then a branch back to that LDA instruction in the next row. I may be able to look at the blink lights and determine a problem because one bit was not able to change from a one to a zero. I often would put the computer in a loop using the switch console, then go find where I thought the problem was located and then use an oscilloscope to finish the trouble shooting.

 If I found the problem I may have to change out a "flip-flop" circuit so that the machine would now run correctly. Most of the time, the lights were used by the hardware field engineers for troubleshooting but some time by the systems programmers and very seldom by the application programmers. Note: about 30% of the hardware in the Q31 and Q32 was error checking hardware. This system used parity bits for all data transfers, therefore if any bit failed out 24, the parity bit would be in the wrong position and an error would be sent. You could set the computer so that as soon as the error occurred, the system would completely stop with the registers showing the status of the entire system. 

Again, if you know how the system worked, you could look at the registers and make a reasonable assessment.

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1950s snowstorm party

Bob