I'd love a citation on that. Not to prove you right/wrong, I'd just love to see the definitive etymology of "Application" to describe software. I'm trying to remember what 'software' was called in the mainframe docs I looked at back then.
Wikipedia says: `The first modern theory of software was proposed by Alan Turing in his 1935 essay Computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem (decision problem).[2]`, but I think that was being used as a verb, not noun.
Nice - I signed up for it and I'm seeing images of mail being sent to my previous address (that's actually addressed to the current occupants, not my mail being mis-delivered).
Unfortunately, I don't _think_ this propagates to other Apple devices that are set to alert you to incoming calls. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this).
There are other blocklists you can use besides the default. Some quick googling turned up half a dozen that folks like. Some more restrictive, some less.
I don't know if the barrier to entry was all that low...
You needed a computer and modem (until the C64 & ZX-81 came along, you were talking ~$2k including modem, floppy drive, and monitor for an Apple 2, TRS-80, Pet, or similar - adjusted =~$4k today). You needed a dedicated phone line, not nearly as easy to get back then as now.
Plus, you needed to be able to justify the gear - You couldn't do a whole lot with a personal computer back then besides writing, spreadsheets, and gaming. It was absolutely not a 'practical' purchase for 90% of the population.
I wonder if the pilot got any compensation for the fuel savings? I could see that being a dangerous incentive though, forcing pilots to opt for more risky conditions for the fuel savings bonus.
Back in the early 1980's, there was a weekly PBS series called The Computer Chronicles. It was a rundown of tech at the time. Being an older geek, I remember watching them first-run to learn about shiny new things like VisiCalc, sound cards and The Internet. Thankfully, folks have managed to digitize most of the original tapes and it's now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ComputerChroniclesYT
I've found that going back and watching them has stirred some great nostalgia and perspective.
Is there an effective mnemonic for the model designations? I've heard the lineup several times and it's just not sticking. Because of this, I tend to forcibly _not_ think about the iPhone to save mental CPU cycles.
Earlier poster is correct about not being intuitive. Now that I know about it, that's awesome. Sadly, it's not supported by the Google keyboard (long press kicks off voice search).
Figure out where the toxic shitstorms are coming from and cut those items out of your life.
In my case, the main FB news stream and TV news were the primary antagonizers. I stopped watching TV news and get my news from HN and Google News (even that's a struggle to hide the useless crap). For FB, there are several special-interest-groups about things I'm interested in (Fusion 360, woodworking, blacksmithing, etc) that are not prone to off-topic or sensational chatter (thank you, moderators!) and I installed 'News Feed Eradicator for Facebook'[0] which has cut way back on the unpleasantness and even turned FB into a positive experience.
No, but a growing number of utilities can inform customers that it is a 'peak usage' time and customer devices can adapt accordingly.
Nest (and I assume other internet-connected) thermostats are able to accept peak-usage notifications from the power company and dynamically reduce usage. In my case (Portland Electric), it's two-way communications, if Nest can prove to the power company that I let its device reduce usage during peak-load times, I get a credit at the end of the year. The Nest in my house has almost paid for itself.
Just because there might be bloggers out there reading this looking to improve things - SHOW ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATES! This is especially critical for tech blogs.
So much this - It's hard to get invested in a product when it's a nebulous cloud rather than a bright point. This is so much like the Performa SKU sprawl that almost killed Apple in the days of old. The problem now is there's no Prodigal Son to swoop back in and kick things into shape.
Our company has several LifeSpan treadmill desks (~$1200) scattered throughout campus. For a while, I was using one daily. My experience:
1. You're bouncing up and down while you're walking. At best, you can read something - typing/mousing is a challenge. I had little success writing or coding. I ended up using the desk first thing in the mornings while I caught up on emails, news and such. This was the dealbreaker for me in getting a setup at home.
2. I wanted a separate set of footwear for the treadmill. I suppose I was right on the edge of sweating too much to be comfortable the rest of the day in my 'walking clothes', but swapping out shoes/socks was a must.
3. It _is_ much better than not using one. For all the same reasons that any regular exercise is good - better mood, lost weight, break in the day, etc.
The desks had 'dead mans switch' leashes (strap that kills the treadmill if it's pulled out), workout computers with HRM, adjustable height desks with memory and were beefy solid machines. I think the only thing they missed was a USB charge port. I would think a cheaper machine might be flimsier, which could aggravate the bouncing issue.
I know I'm late to the party, but I'm surprised nobody mentioned the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series - It's a BBC Radio Play, but was my first exposure to the story, and a fantastic one at that. I also really enjoyed the Star Wars radio drama.
My typical web pattern is to open a page, read it's content, open any interesting links in background tabs, then deal with them either immediately after reading the current page, or in bulk at my next idle moment.
Dealing with them depends on the content. Generally, I'll take one of 3 paths:
If it's something I want to action against soon (IE - a really neat ESP8266 project or very cool VIM trick), I'll add the URL to ToDoist. I'll review all my links in that every week or so and either discard, take action, or move to the next two options. I've managed to keep my ToDoist URL queue fairly short - under 100 items.
If it's an article or long form journalism I want to read later for recreational purposes (IE - the history of the ESP8266 or how VIM has made the ESC key the battleground of the technical elite), I'll generally add it to Pocket (which captures the article text) thinking I'll go through and catch up on them the next time I have an hour to burn (usually a plane flight). This never happens though. My Pocket list is huge and untouched.
If it's a link in reference to something I'm interested in doing/exploring (IE - something about ESP8266 projects or VIM tricks), I'll add it to Pinboard.in and pull it up when I start messing with those projects again. I actually refer to my Pinboard.in account frequently, but never expire anything. There's ~12k links and it's a bit of history of what I've been interested in over the years.
I've used Device42[0] in the past and found it pretty good for asset tracking. It can map software to hardware and manage software relationships. It's a datacenter manager first though. That said, it's been a couple of years since I used it and I hardly scratched the surface of it's capabilities. It was reasonably priced, IIR.