The Vent and Rant Thread

[ApK]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Might I suggest a read of The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein?

Never heard of it, but if this quote from the description is accurate, it's sounds like it's for me:
"If you like science, and if you like watching someone work out mysteries, and if you like detailed weird alien worlds and human cultures, if really good prose appeals... you’re really in luck."

Looks like no audio book version, though...sadness.

ApK

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by ApK

Never heard of it, but if this quote from the description is accurate, it's sounds like it's for me:
"If you like science, and if you like watching someone work out mysteries, and if you like detailed weird alien worlds and human cultures, if really good prose appeals... you’re really in luck."

Looks like no audio book version, though...sadness.

ApK

No audio books, I'm afraid. But one of my all time favourite series. We actually had Ms. Kirstein join us for the discussion of The Steerswoman for the MobileRead Book Club. You might find that discussion of interest. Though, sadly, Ms. Kirstein hasn't yet finished the 5th and 6th books in the series.

[silverraven]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, as we ALL know, 99% of the population thinks that electricity is magic. Comes right out of the wall, right? PFM. Most people don't give a second thought to how it's created for them to plug in and use. Just magic! "Electricity-armus!"

Hitch

Hamsters on wheels in the wall. Geeze, I thought everyone knew that was how electricity was made. Gerbils too, they run super fast.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, as we ALL know, 99% of the population thinks that electricity is magic. Comes right out of the wall, right? PFM. Most people don't give a second thought to how it's created for them to plug in and use. Just magic! "Electricity-armus!"

Hitch

Not if you live in the largest city of the world's third largest energy exporting nation (after Saudi Arabia and Russia) ==>> Sydney asks residents to reduce electricity consumption to avoid blackouts

BR

[cromag]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I know you guys think I make this stuff up, but...

A gentleman has been emailing us, the last few days, asking for "help" uploading his "book" (sorry for the surfeit of quotation marks) to KDP/Amazon, to sell it. I asked, several times, for the file so that I could see what the problem is/was.

FINALLY, today, he sends...well, what appears to be one page of it.

It's made in Google SHEETS. Each and every line, is a paragraph, apparently. There are no first-line-indents, no space between the...apparent paragraphs.

The font is 2.63pt Arial. 2.63point! I had to zoom it to 300%, to begin to read it. And that's with my cheaters on.

I confess, I'm pretty aghast. I would say speechless, but obviously, here I am kvetching about it, so not speechless.

I mean, do people not use word processors, ever? I just had a lady that was still--in 2022!!!--using MSFT WORKS, which I think has been d/ced for what, 30 years? And now this. This one takes the damn cake.

Hitch

Your mention of Microsoft Works reminded me of this oldie. Apologies if I've posted it already.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Not if you live in the largest city of the world's third largest energy exporting nation (after Saudi Arabia and Russia) ==>> Sydney asks residents to reduce electricity consumption to avoid blackouts

BR

That still doesn't mean that the majority of the population--there or in the surrounding areas--doesn't believe that electricity is magic. They do. It's just how it is.

Hitch

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by Hitch

That still doesn't mean that the majority of the population--there or in the surrounding areas--doesn't believe that electricity is magic. They do. It's just how it is.

Hitch

Every single time I get on a jet airplane, I marvel at the the fact it flies. Lift-off never, EVER gets old!

Yeah, I guess it's all physics, and plenty o' fossil fuel and whatnot, but it's still MAGIC in my world!

Likewise for my computer, the internet, e-ink, all that. OK, computers were around when I grew up, but they were HUGE beasts that occupied ROOMS at NASA, nothing like what we now have. I don't take it all for granted. I feel privileged that our mod cons exist every single darn day.

Naturally, I also feel rather happy that I'm still above ground!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by graycyn

Every single time I get on a jet airplane, I marvel at the the fact it flies. Lift-off never, EVER gets old!

Yeah, I guess it's all physics, and plenty o' fossil fuel and whatnot, but it's still MAGIC in my world!

Likewise for my computer, the internet, e-ink, all that. OK, computers were around when I grew up, but they were HUGE beasts that occupied ROOMS at NASA, nothing like what we now have. I don't take it all for granted. I feel privileged that our mod cons exist every single darn day.

Naturally, I also feel rather happy that I'm still above ground!

Oh, Lord, yes, I'm all down with the "mod cons" too (that's not a term you really hear in the USA, in that form). Absolutely, positively.

And yes, I'm bl**dy grateful that I'm on this side of the turf, too. The geezer has had not one but two close calls--he's percolating along quite nicely, now, thanks to modern science--and I'm hoping we keep going that way for a bit yet.

I just...I really wish that people would think about where some of the mod cons come from. Ain't no such thang as a free lunch, as they say. :-)

BUT, that's a tangent we shouldn't take off on, to be ungrammatical!

Hitch

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I just...I really wish that people would think about where some of the mod cons come from. Ain't no such thang as a free lunch, as they say. :-)

I thought most people would know most of their what-nots come from China

[DNSB]

I recently had an argument with a relative who lives in West Virginia. He was proud of how he was reducing pollution by driving his new Chevrolet Bolt. He got rather upset when I pointed out that he was polluting more than a modern gasoline burning vehicle. He had never thought about the majority of the electricity in the state being produced by coal fired plants. Allowing for the inefficiencies in the system, he produces about 200% more carbon dioxide per kilometer than the equivalent sized gasoline vehicle. Then we got into the amount of radiation produced by the coal fired plants, an amount that would get any nuclear powered plant in North America shutdown (the fly ash from a coal fired plant produces about 100 times the radiation from the equivalent nuclear powered plant).

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by Hitch

And yes, I'm bl**dy grateful that I'm on this side of the turf, too. The geezer has had not one but two close calls--he's percolating along quite nicely, now, thanks to modern science--and I'm hoping we keep going that way for a bit yet.

My geezer had a VERY close call this past summer with a perforated ulcer, two surgeries, and a 17 day hospital stay, but is also doing well.

I just...I really wish that people would think about where some of the mod cons come from. Ain't no such thang as a free lunch, as they say. :-)

You are very correct, definitely no free lunch. I try to at least think about it.

The friend who got me started with e-readers was all hooked because it would "save the trees". I'm afraid I've not been convinced that many trees have been saved.

All these lithium ion batteries in our mobile devices, I bet plenty are not being disposed of correctly when they die. And they certainly aren't free. Those materials come from somewhere. As does the energy to convert them into batteries.

Then there's the plastics that house our beloved e-readers and so much else. We know darn well that more and more plastics are finding their way into our bodies and it's not a good thing... Yet, hasn't stopped me from adopting this, or many other technologies.

I have a Kirby vacuum made mostly of metal. It will probably outlive me. I'm quite the fan of well-made long-lasting gear. But when my spine diagnosis came in, I realized that if I want to stay mobile, I needed a lighter vacuum for every day use, with the heavy duty beast to be saved for major tasks. And that lighter vacuum is a Shark, mostly plastic. But dang, it's made vacuuming SO MUCH LESS PAINFUL!

Whatcha gonna do? I make things last as well as I can, and try to buy once, as much as possible. Obviously, e-readers have been a big exception!

Given that I'm a senior citizen and am still happily driving my second car, I guess I'm not doing too badly.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by cromag

Your mention of Microsoft Works reminded me of this oldie. Apologies if I've posted it already.

*Always* worth a re-watch! Mailbox, open-mailbox!!

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by graycyn

All these lithium ion batteries in our mobile devices, I bet plenty are not being disposed of correctly when they die. And they certainly aren't free. Those materials come from somewhere. As does the energy to convert them into batteries.

I hate to think of how much e-waste was created by the 00s capacitor plague. (I lost a GPU to it myself.)

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I hate to think of how much e-waste was created by the 00s capacitor plague. (I lost a GPU to it myself.)

I remember that time well. We had ~1000 IBM devices where IBM replaced the motherboard at their expense. I hate to think of the total cost to the big computer manufacturers when they ate the cost of replacing those mobos.

[CRussel]

Yes, I had a couple of HP servers. What failed on them wasn't the motherboard, but the d*** power supplies. I went through 6 power supplies across the two servers in less than 3 months. Finally, HP replaced one entire server rather than admit what was going on. And the other got two (working!) power supplies, and one spare from the same batch. I still have the spare kicking around here somewhere, even though the server has long gone to someone's landfill.