can’t believe i’m quoting a transformers fanfic but here we are…

“Hang on,” Wheeljack said, “I’d worry about passive systems, not active. This mech wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about where he was going. I’d bet on some kind of system he wouldn’t be able to control at all—better yet, something that doesn’t rely on power or signal at all. Something he couldn’t rip out, or block by hiding—”

Hook and Scrapper had come over. “Exterior composition,” Scrapper said instantly. “I’ve thought of doing something of the sort for transport containers—stripe the cladding with varying amounts of a neutrino-scan-visible material for tracking, even underground. Megatron, if that’s the method they’ve used, we don’t have enough appropriate materials to block it. They’ll be able to locate him with satellite scanners, and they’re certainly sweeping for us already. We’ve got to dispose of him at once. Ideally, by melting him down.”

“Hey!” Ratchet stood up. “How about we don’t jump to slagging one of my patients!”

Hook stared at him as if he was insane. “What melodramatic nonsense. You’ve never even spoken to him!”

“He’s on my table, he’s my patient!” Ratchet said.

“Enough,” Megatron said. “Offer me a rational alternative, or shut up.”

Great, that wasn’t pressure or anything. “Fine, how about this: destroying him is stupid,” Ratchet said. “We still don’t know basically anything about this planet, we’ve nearly been taken down twice already, and now they know for sure we’ll be trying for the Excelsior, which means they’re going to be waiting for us there with everything they’ve got. We need intel, and he’s probably got it.” Megatron’s face didn’t change, but he kept listening, at least. “And we don’t need to cover him head to toe with palladium sheathing. We just need to make sure he doesn’t match the pattern they’re scanning for.”

“Well?” Megatron said to Scrapper.

“We’d have to isolate the material they used… but I suppose Mixmaster could analyze a panel of his frame,” Scrapper said grudgingly. “We could disguise him…”

“Except then they will find a pattern here that doesn’t match anything in their database,” Hook said.

“Yeah, but they can’t have a negative-match process,” Wheeljack put in. “They’re not energy-bound, right? They’re materials-bound. That’s why they—recycle instead of smelt down. Any one of their mechs is probably carrying a dozen old parts, and you’d get a negative match any place two patterns overlap. They probably just make sure each new mech gets at least some parts in a unique pattern, and that’s what they’ll be looking for.”

but if there’s also cameras everywhere then every time a negative match comes out then it just triggers the cameras to pick out those cars. best bet would be collectively agreeing to use one set of specific id for everyone, not a randomized id and thus unique id’s

firefox eats ram, but steam web process are worse. computer slow? kill steam. idk what browser engine it is but long term steam being open is bad.

hardware store parts didn’t work out so well for Shinzo Abe too.

i tried that and didn’t like it. also, in my heart there’s rice why no eat?

now i steam rice in tiny little bowls.

(https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/birth-of-the-computer/4/83)

early generation computers fueled a demand that was being supplied by rooms and rooms of human calculators calculating and checking each other’s works for scientists, engineers, businesses, and government agencies

(Manhattan Project, Atomic Heritage Foundation picture)

they would not have died out, because they were a necessary part of the evolution of technology at their time. more importantly, they were more accurate than their human calculators. computers don’t forget to carry a number to the next digit or flip them around. barring exceptionally rare cosmic radiation events. and their technological progression fueled an ever greater need until now when tech has entered post-scarcity when it comes to calculating power.

generative AI in contrast was an offering looking for a purpose. spare gigaflops no longer needed for tech people are trying to sell by building more and more hype for calculating power. sucks to be the one who invests into it, but that’s business. sometimes investment don’t work out. if microsoft can’t hype up a demand then it is unnecessary technology.

not to the point of fast sloppy cursive so bad i can’t read it myself, and that’s what i get with windows after using it for years. linux apps just didn’t match up and i keep getting cranky it’s better to just stop.

edit: went looking around and still no new ones or updates to the ones existing. it’s possible i missed something, i don’t actually pay attention to this anymore.

i miss handwriting input; both english and chinese writing. yes keyboard is faster but time spent writing isn’t that wasted for me, and my posture is better when i used a drawing tablet exclusively instead of mouse and keyboard, also i’ve bullied windows handwriting recognition enough that it’s pretty much chicken scratch input.

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Python and node.js successfully transitioned out of the bdfl phase through wildly different paths. might be interesting for a while though.

CultRepo’s video coming to youtube in 2027!

agreeing with orclev - i setup an older nvidia gpu pc on linux mint and that pc has to have all other applications closed to play minecraft when it used to handle youtube video or actual video running and maybe an antivirus scan in the background and minecraft on top fine in windows.

GPU is running (as opposed to when the driver failed to load haha) but some kind of processing is still on CPU, i tracked down the problem but the point where i figured out i need to keep up with the latest vaapi and compile it to just diagnose it i stopped and told the kids how to quit other programs first before minecraft. or bloons.

edit: found my problem. mission center randomly spikes in cpu and memory use and gets to 99% in both…and i’m constantly running it. now i bask in swap utilization 0% forever and ever

got mint xfce, because that’s what i used before win10, and that’s what i use on and off usually ever since then. i think it’s gnome that made me change to xfce and it was clunky back then on ubuntu, though i can’t remember my actual beef with it, so i changed to mint and never changed to anything else.

i use handwriting input on windows and have bullied the pattern recognition into learning my handwriting almost perfectly - that’s the only thing i miss. i miss it a lot…

expecting at some point my mom will give up and ask for linux on her windows 10 laptop since her grandkids use ‘free online games’ websites (she doesn’t do any banking or serious stuff on it, so i’m not that bothered) and it will get devoured by malware but even odds it will be me or my brother.