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Tex Long

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Posts posted by Tex Long

  1. 6 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

    So I can beat the bike with my 1982 Fuji Berkeley.

    But I feel like musical instruments are a cheat code to this game. Oh, there's the 1995 Ibanez bass. The 1989 Ensoniq synth I still use. The 1984 Peavey Combo amp for the bass. Mom's ca 1969 Sorrento classical guitar.

    But beating all that is the 1700s-era cello, and if you don't think that's tech, I'll point out that this uses a design that predates Stradivarius, which every cello/viola/violin since has mimicked. But that's why this particular cello sounds so cool.

    Post some cool sounds from it. Or links to such.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  2. Got a $13,000 microcomputer in a corner of my studio. Haven't touched it this century, but it worked the last time I turned it on. I think it's probably from around a 1978 or so.

    I had a project with Shell, designing, building and installing power station real-time control system for a new facility. Brown & Root was construction. B&R had a cost-plus contract on it, and had frequent meetings with Shell and we were part of those. BR always brought ten or fifteen engineers to the meetings, getting' that 10% on the plus.

    One meeting, at B&R, the lead guy for Shell had a traffic problem, so we all got to sit around in a big space, waiting. Off in one corner was an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous blonde at a desk with a computer terminal on it. She would type for about thirty seconds, hit an ENTER key, pick up a book and read for about five minutes. The terminal would beep, she'd put down her book, look at a printout on her desk, turn to the terminal, type for about thirty seconds... rinse, repeat...

    I went over to see what she was doing. Fair game, because the whole office was dedicated to that project, so... The printout was the data defining the analog control instrumentation – this thing had like 16,000 analog instruments, some just data, some just controls, and some both. It took six tab cards for each one of those – 480 characters. There were also another 8,000 switches, which were simple on/off things that could be turned on, turned off, or interrogated to see whether they were on or off. They only took three tab cards. So, yeah, lots of pages in the printout.

    She said they were using the “big computer” in time-share mode, and they got a slice about every five minutes. She was correcting individual tab cards that had changes noted on the printout. Needless to say, a lot of those corrections were from my group... and now I knew why it was taking so goddamned long for B&R to get those corrections into the system.

    When the Shell guy arrived and we got the meeting started, I got to bring up what we just saw. B&R said they weren't happy either, but they had orders to use their “big computer” and no outside services. Could they rent equipment? Yes, yes they could. We settled on $5,000 a month for the balance of the project (about nine more months).

    I bought the latest and greatest CP/M microcomputer from CroMemCo, a snappy little z-100 based thing, with not one, but two, TWO 8-inch floppy drives (a full megabyte each). Got a copy of dBase II – total hardware and software, around $14,000. Took about three hours to write a little data entry, maintenance, and backup program in dBase II, a day to break up the data into groups small enough to fit on a disk. Took it to the B&R office, and the blonde took about all of thirty seconds to figure out how to use it. Showed the B&R Systems Programmers how to copy to and from the mainframe, they worked close to a week to create a Procedure to update from floppies to their big computer and back (this was in the days when the computers were still the bailiwick of the Accounting Department and everything had to be specified completely and approved by Managers before they could write a line of code).

    Since it was only “rented”, I took it back when they were done with it.

    I could probably let it go, cheap...

    • Hook 'Em 1
  3. 1 hour ago, High Plains Drifter said:

     

    Has there ever been a game, since the invention of the line of scrimmage, that ended in a 0-0 tie?

    Because I feel pretty good making the statement, "If you can hold your opponent to zero points, you will win the game." The number of times that statement ends up not being true is insignificant. 

     

     

    I'd think lots of 0-0, particularly in Olden  Daze. I know the '36 Sugar Bowl was a 3-2 game, TCU over LSU, and the '42 one was 2-0 Fightin' Lombardis over Mizzou. I think Lombardi was at Fordham in 30's, but I always associated him with Fordham.

    NFL overtime still allows for ties, but I don't know what NC2A has done with college rules - wouldn't surprise me either way.

     

    EDIT: Treaty Oak beat me to it, at least NFL-wise, and with actual data instead of speculation.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  4. 7 minutes ago, TrashMaster G said:

    Assuming all that happens at some point, when Quinn is healthy and starts again, we will once more face the avalanche of internet BS saying Arch should start / is going to transfer / the Mannings are pissed, etc., etc.

    That, too. 

  5. Arch starting is likely when Ewers goes down in a game and Arch finishes it, then Ewers isn't back next game. Like Maalik, Arch takes over one game and then stars the next if and only if Ewers is still hurt.

    Assuming Arch finishes out a win and looks good, the hype for the First Start may exceed Prime level. That hyperhype would be a certainty if the preserved win is 0U and the First Start is Jawja.

  6. On 4/29/2024 at 2:24 PM, Carl Spackler said:

    Who the fuck are the Elks?

     

    On 4/29/2024 at 2:33 PM, Lhorn said:

    Never heard of the Elks ... 

    Used to be Esquimaux Eskimos before it was racist.

    Being Elk Brothers just doesn't seem the same...

    • Haha 2
  7. 37 minutes ago, Nivek said:

    I have no idea what the fuck is going on.  (also the title of my sextape)

    Your avatar reflects you very well.

    What would it take for Prime to appeal to an NFL owner? Suppose - magic, I know, but just suppose - he could pick up those couple of games that last year they should have won but didn't, to go with the couple they shouldn't have won but did. So they get to 7-5 or so (magically, right?). Would that be enough for some moron NFL to put him on that next level?

    I really, really doubt it - just like most surly folk, but if it happened, who'd be dumb enough to take a shit -- oooh, froodean, I mean a shot -- at him? Is there an owner that dumb?

     

     

  8. I'm going with 10-2 +/- 2.

    Could be as bad as 8-4 (highly doubtful) and as good as 12-0 (highly likely). I definitely see 12-0 as probable and 8-4 as not, really. Maybe I should go with 11-1 +/-1, so 10-2 downside, 12-0 up.

    We have a lot of good elements around and in the football program: high quality players, coaches, staff, infrastructure both material and psychological... so much that looks far better than we have had for so long. Last year was close, but no cigar. The possible single loss still lurks there, depends more on D than on O, I think. 

    Gonna be a fun one.

     

     

    • Hook 'Em 2
  9. 4 hours ago, Texasborn91 said:

    If he knew he wasn’t going to be a great tester why not come back to school and get stronger? Sure he would have gotten a fat NIL check. 

    Compare rookie check to NIL? Compare 4-year for this draft to 4-year for next ... IF he gets bigger, better blocking, better testing, and catches that do-or-die TD or sells the interference call.

    All things considered, I'd say it's a toss-up and the bird in the hand is as good a reason to go to the draft. Good decision or bad decsion? Remains to be seen.

  10. 20 hours ago, Deej said:

    Not aggy, but one of our older secretaries at work kept cropdusting her attorney in his office.

    AI came up with this...he wants to have it blown up and hung up at her retirement party.

     

    image.png

    I am particularly pleased with the 2-blade prop. Proof aggy involved.

    • Haha 1
  11. One I've found particularly helpful is to take a baseball or softball (maybe a billiard ball - you do have a pool table in your man cave, right?), lay it on the desk. put your calf on the ball, and move it around until you find a sore spot. Once you've got that, press as hard as comfortable, and roll the ball. Check for other sore spots and repeat.

    This came from a massage therapist who said he used it for runners quite effectively. 

    Works for me.

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