“My battery is low and it’s getting dark.”

It’s still surreal to see OpenAI’s need for training data be so vast that they casually developed and open sourced a generational leap in transcription technology just so that they could scrape online videos better.

NuPhy’s got some interesting options as well. https://nuphy.com/collections/keyboards/products/halo75-v2-qmk-via-wireless-custom-mechanical-keyboard

The low profile space is a little tricky. It leans into column staggered ergonomic boards really quickly. Kailh’s Choc switch is as low as you can go, but those folks get really custom really quick. They’re not big on function rows or arrow clusters, so the next step after Keychron or NuPhy would be something along the lines of the Afternoon Breeze. https://www.afternoonlabs.com/breeze/

Have you taken a look at any of Keychron’s offerings? https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-k3-max-qmk-via-wireless-custom-mechanical-keyboard Checks most of the boxes other than the knob.

The Hard Fork podcast had a pretty good episode recently where they interviewed one of the engineers on the project. They’d troubleshooted the spacecraft enough in the past that they weren’t starting from square one, but it still sounded pretty difficult.

Modern satellites are protected by various means of encryption, but there’s an enthusiast community that tracks down and communicates with very old unencrypted zombie satellites. There’s even been an NGO which managed to fire rockets on an abandoned NASA/ESA probe (with their approval.)

The Voyagers benefits primarily from the lack of groups with an adequate deep space network to communicate with it. Their communication standards are otherwise completely open and well documented.

I still cannot believe NASA managed to re-establish a connection with Voyager 1.

That scene from The Martian where JPL had a hardware copy of Pathfinder on Earth? That’s not apocryphal. NASA keeps a lot of engineering models around for a variety of purposes including this sort of hardware troubleshooting.

It’s a practice they started after Voyager. They shot that patch off into space based off of old documentation, blueprints, and internal memos.

The two hardest problems in computer science are cache invalidation, naming things, and off by one errors.

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

My favorite compile error happened while I was taking a Haskell class.

ghc: panic! (the ‘impossible’ happened)

The issue is plainly stated, and it provides clear next steps to the developer.

Thirty minutes. So mostly misspelled words. Most implementations of this type of feature also have a small “Edited” flag.

Deep Space Nine Young Adult Book #5: Arcade

There’s a new player on the Promenade: a Ferengi shop owner, Bokat. His Games Bazaar specializes in hard-to-find virtual reality computer games. He approaches Jake Sisko and Nog with a tempting offer to play a hot new game called The Zhodran Crystal Quest. No non-Zhodran player has ever won this game, but then, Jake and Nog have the best scores on all the other games at the Games Bazaar. And Bokat is willing to bet on their ability to win the game, and – as a result – win Bokat a lucrative business deal with the Zhodrans.

But soon, kids all over the station are falling into comas, their minds trapped in an ever-changing game. Suddenly, it’s up to Jake to go into the game and rescue them. It he wins, so does the Federation. If he loses, he’ll be trapped forever in a deadly game with a very real Borg!

I’m glad Star Trek novelists were given exactly zero guard rails on what they could write about. .Hack//Trek? Sure, why not!

Scanners indicate high presence of FODs.

These memes are spoofing Reddit’s “Am I The Asshole”? subreddit. The original posts are usually personal anecdotes about someone having to cancel plans at the last minute or stealing a coworker’s lunch. They’ve been replaced here with first person perspectives from various Vulcan episodes, with Illogical being swapped in for Asshole. The acronyms everyone’s using are letter swapped versions of popular responses on that Reddit. (NTA, cars break down. YTA, don’t steal your coworker’s lunch. Etc.)

Yup!

My favorite one of these shows up in 3D printing. The most popular open source 3D print server gives you a head’s up if your printer’s firmware lacks “Thermal Runaway Protection”. If you click the learn more link, it patiently explains, “There aren’t preventative measures to stop your printer from accidentally catching itself on fire”.

(It’s fine, you usually just need to install a decent MOSFET in the cheaper printers.)

Whoops, already made the second part of the verse.

That cart was a friend. *Exits Room.*

There’s a whole linage of arcade game button design, but you occasionally see keyboard switches show up in custom fighting game sticks.

Mice and trackballs often borrow from the whole universe of buttons to make their sculpted formfactors work. I feel like I’ve seen one or two with mechanical keyboard switches in them.

Like rockSlayer mentioned, they just bridge a physical connection between two pins and can technically be used anywhere a typical button could be. Keyboard switches are so optimized for their large square footprint and particular travel distance that they’re usually not the best fit for random industrial needs. You could make an elevator control panel out of key switches, but there’s probably a cheaper, more well suited button you could use instead.