[bobthecockroach]

The distance I have to be from a door to make it quicker to check the weather on my phone than to check it by going outside -- 20 ft.

Your turn.

[jthomas1600]

This is funny. I just figured out distance, time to sail and fuel consumption from Niteroi, Brazil to Fortaleza, Brazil, to Duala, Cameroon (Africa) to Luanda, Angola. Pre-internet this would have taken me several hours and involved digging out several charts and nautical publications and spreading them all over the chart table. Today, even with a crummy connection....15 minutes-- while chatting with my wife on facebook to boot. I gotta tell ya, I love technology.

Of course this whole trip will take us about 15 days. Pre-diesel engines it would have taken a month, pre-coal powered steam engines it would have taken 6-12 months. I'm telling you sailors from the 17-1800's are not appreciated enough for the amazing things they accomplished with wooden boats, sails, a compass, and a sextant. I'll take my GPS, radar, depth sounder, satellite phone and internet, air conditioning, ipod, TV/DVD player for my off time, etc. etc. etc. Yes, technology is a very good thing.

[bobthecockroach]

Number of continents whose residents I've interacted with today -- 3

Time awake -- 4 hours

[Ben Toast]

I think I know more people outside the USA than I know people inside the USA. I have friends in Australia, all over Europe, I even have a close friend in Beirut, Lebanon.

I remember when turning on your computer meant this:

Push the power button..
Go vacuum the living room..
Go back to the computer..
Log in..
Go make youself a sandwich..
Go back and start using your computer.

because it took so long to boot up and log in, that you could do those things in-between...

Now it's

Push power button
Text your friend, but only if it's a short text
Log in
wait 10 agonozing seconds for all your apps to load.
Go online
Freak out if Facebook takes more than 3 seconds to load.

yep...

numbers..

[mulletman]

Technology can be useful. It can save a lot of time.

Frequently, I find it to be unnecessarily complex. There are many different flight-planning programs available. I can still do it quicker using one of these:



Seriously, the guy who invented that thing is a freaking genius.



As a side note, I can bring my 'computer' in my kneeboard, run all possible calculations immediately and while in flight, and the batteries never die. They make 'electronic flight bags' now too, so pilots don't need to carry around a bag of charts and approach plates. It's generally on an ipad or similar device, or software integrated into the EFIS. Funny thing about my loose-leaf approach plates is that they don't go to hell when my electrical system does.

I find technology most useful when I have the luxury of having enough time for when the technology doesn't work.






Edit: To make this on topic..... So far in the last 15 minutes I've looked at over 10 stores to find the best price on tires.

[Ben Toast]

How does that thing work? It looks pretty neat.

[mulletman]

It's like a round slide rule. You can do all kinds of calculations on it.

E6B - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[bobthecockroach]

Originally Posted by Ben Toast

How does that thing work? It looks pretty neat.

Originally Posted by mulletman

It's like a round slide rule. You can do all kinds of calculations on it.

E6B - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Things I thought I'd never hear:

"It's like a slide rule," offered as explanation for how something works.

So um... how does a slide rule work?

[slap_j]

Originally Posted by mulletman

Technology can be useful. It can save a lot of time.

Frequently, I find it to be unnecessarily complex. There are many different flight-planning programs available. I can still do it quicker using one of these:



Seriously, the guy who invented that thing is a freaking genius.

That is technology. Beautiful in its parsimony. But still, technology. Or as Ali G calls it, techmology.

[mulletman]

Originally Posted by bobthecockroach

Things I thought I'd never hear:

"It's like a slide rule," offered as explanation for how something works.

So um... how does a slide rule work?

You slide things, and then it produces an answer based on the relation of the scales that you are comparing.

I wasn't aware that the slide rule was an unfamiliar concept.

[bobthecockroach]

Originally Posted by mulletman

I wasn't aware that the slide rule was an unfamiliar concept.

You live in a strange world. I think the fact that I've actually seen one puts me in the minority for people my age (mid 20s).

[mulletman]

Originally Posted by bobthecockroach

You live in a strange world. I think the fact that I've actually seen one puts me in the minority for people my age (mid 20s).

We all live in a strange world.

[OiBoyz]

Originally Posted by bobthecockroach

You live in a strange world. I think the fact that I've actually seen one puts me in the minority for people my age (mid 20s).

I'm 47. I know of sliderules. I don't know that I've ever seen one, and I do know that I haven't got the faintest idea how it works.

Mulletman is a nerd. And probably a geek as well.

[bobthecockroach]

I've actually seen both a regular one and a round one... but my dad is an engineer and I'm a computer programmer, so I'm not totally unfamiliar with strange worlds.

[mulletman]

Try #2 for obsolete technology that people should know about:


Sundials?