Phil Landmeier @shuttersparks@qoto.org

@HopelessDemigod Hmm, I lack context here. In my case, due to my work schedule, I usually fast Thu, Fri, and Sat, then on Sunday gradually restart my digestive system. On Thu, Fri, Sat, my diet consists of six shots of espresso in the morning, then just water. Research shows this is good and will extend my life, so that's cool. Fasting is easier for me than most because I'm a chef. I cook food all day long, which kills my appetite.

@lauren Hmm, yes, if you're talking about what I think you're talking about, yes, that happened too. Hahaha.

@karlauerbach Agreed.

@w7voa Excellent.This is what we do and I fear a lot of new hams don't know this. I hope I'm wrong. It's called the Amateur Radio SERVICE. This is what it means. In exchange for the wonderful privileges we have, this is the "price". Although to me providing this service is a joy.

@karlauerbach @lauren Amazing. Wish I could have seen it. Mellonics was impressive enough for me. If you yell from one end of the room and someone at the other end hears nothing, it's a big computer room. Lol.

Seems I do have you beat in one single area. I was brought in by a friend to see the Sage7 in operation at SDC and got a demonstration, walked the rows of racks, sat at the console and used the lightpen to bring up real-time flight info for any blip on the screen. At that time, this was mind-blowing.

He also demonstrated the diagnostics possible because it was two mirrored machines. Walk down an aisle, yank out one of the logic modules, and a couple seconds later, the glacially slow line printer would print out the location of the failure and the ID of the module to replace. This was jaw-dropping to say the least. I'm still speechless today about this and can't get my head around it. Using tubes. Really? Yeah, tubes.

That experience was a useful lesson that I applied later in my career. It was also humbling. When I think back on it, I think, "Yeah, you're really smart, exceptional, done a lot of amazing things, but there are people much smarter then you still."

@karlauerbach @lauren That sounds like serious fun. :-)

@lauren
Unfortunately, I could not do this in the biggest installations I've worked in since they operated 24/7. Come to think of it, I don't even know where the light controls were for the 1 acre sized computer room at Litton Mellonics. I sure would have liked to and taken photos.

However, I did this very thing thing at Litton Aero Service / Westrex (Yes, THAT Westrex). I had a key to the building and on weekends had the whole place to myself. I would do that. Shut all the lights off. Just me and the computer in the dark. Haha. Yeah. Weird. Okay, I'm weird. I don't deny it, but I'm old and don't give a shit.

However, it was nowhere near the systems we had at Mellonics. That would have been an insane photo. A 370/168, 64 3330 disk drives, 56 2314 disk drives, 120 tape drives, 7 3211 printers, four-platter 6,000 RPM cache memory, two CDC 6600 machines in the corner, on and on. Serious fun. And Litton was very cool. On Sundays we programmers had the entire facility to ourselves to use for any personal projects we wished. There were about 8 of us who took advantage of it.

@lovelylovely I'd really like to know what makes her tick -- whether it's some mental problem or bribes.

@HopelessDemigod @lovelylovely Yeah, it strikes me as kind of weird, actually, but that's how I am.

@malwaretech That's very cool but they're not riding out a direct hit from a Cat 5 and won't be should that happen to their reinforced villa.

It's only a matter of time.

@lovelylovely Everyone has a breaking point, and the point can be very sharp. My personality is like this, and I'm not unique. I am accepting and tolerant and generous beyond all reasonable levels. But if you pass a certain point, I snap and become your enemy. From then on I will pursue you like a ruthless wolf.

Probably not a great style but that's how I am.

@lauren Hmm. True. Hadn't given this much thought until this moment. Glad I'm not a sex-crazed 19 year-old anymore. It would be inconvenient nowadays.

@lauren So you've done that too.

@lauren Hahaha. What genre? Hmm. Probably "Nerdporn" if there is such a thing.