mercano

@mercano@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dont copy⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For 3.5” floppy, an infrared LED and light sensor is used. If write protext slider is in the closed position, the light is blocked, and you can write to the disk. If the slider is in the open position, light passes through, and the disk is read-only. For floppies that were manufactured specifically to distribute software, they’d sometimes not have a slider at all, so you could never accidentally overwrite the disk. (At least, not without taping over the write protect hole.)

  Later 3.5” floppies would have two holes, on either side of the label. One was the write protect hole, and the other identified the disk to the drive as a 1.4 MB high density disk, as opposed to the earlier 800KB disks.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Important information about compatibility of Nintendo Switch games with Nintendo Switch 2⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It also makes upgrading cheaper, though your little brother playing as Player 2 will have to suffer through having an inferior controller. (As is tradition.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are Zambonis right-side drive in countries that use right-side drive cars?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If they did so, they’d also require Zamboni drivers to do their circuits in the opposite direction, counterclockwise instead of clockwise. They like to drive along the boards on the driver’s side so they can tuck up against the wall gently & see just how close they’re getting.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft accidentally removed Copilot in the latest Windows 11 update.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “… and nothing of value was lost.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Im watching an episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, filmed in black and white. In this scene a guest is showing glass making. What is going on with the film to make these black areas by the flame?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know if Mr Rodger’s was shot on film or video, but either way, the flame was glowing in a wavelength the camera couldn’t pick up. Either it was a color that the chemicals in the film don’t react too or it’s not something the electronic sensors were sensitive too. Probably a high frequency violet bordering on ultraviolet. TV cameras are optimized to record the frequencies of light the human eye can see, making allowances for cost & technological capabilities. They may not work the way you’d expect as red fades to infrared or violet goes towards ultraviolet, especially when using 70’s or 80’s TV cameras in the price range of PBS.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'll show them⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Wow, a DEC AlphaStation computer. That couldn’t have been cheap.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨SHUT UP EDDINGTON! NOBODY LIKES YOU!⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  A commodore is a one star flag officer. Commodore, rear admiral, vice admiral, admiral.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨SHUT UP EDDINGTON! NOBODY LIKES YOU!⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Counter argument: Geordi’s in a gold admiral’s uniform.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Confusion on Trek Eras⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s super annoying, but even though they’re all airing at the same time, Picard, Lower Decks, and Prodigy all take place at slightly different times. At least they’re consistent with TNG stardates, where 41000 is 2364, and each 1000 stardates equals one Earth year, so you can get a year from a captain’s log entry. From Memory Alpha:

  Lower Decks: 2380-2382

  Prodigy: 2383–2385

  Picard: 2399-2341 (Ignoring flashbacks)

  I miss the TNG / DS9 / VOY era, when shows airing concurrently all take place at the same time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas release 20 years ago today.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Such an upgrade over the previous two. Three whole cities to explore, plus the countryside. They managed to stream the world data from the disc as you moved about, so no more loading screens between islands like III and VC had. This was the first GTA where you could swim, so water was no longer a death trap, and the first to introduce skills, so you could swim further and faster as you got better.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨San Francisco to pay $212 million to end reliance on 5.25-inch floppy disks⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The idea was one computer on the LAN would hold the “talking stick” (the token) and transmit whatever data it needed to, then pass the token off to the next computer in the ring. If a computer received the token and didn’t have anything to transmit, it’d just pass on the token. The problem would be detecting when one of the computers in the loop had gone offline or crashed and taken the token with it. After some amount of time with no traffic, some system was responsible for generating a new token and an amended turn order. Similar problems existed when a new computer wanted to get added to the rotation.