Pics that make you smile

[Privateer]

My wife was recalling last night how 20 years ago people were freaking out about how the world as we know it was about to end because "y2k".

Ah yes, good old Y2K, 20 years ago today I (and the rest of my colleagues) had to drive to work and ensure that the company's mainframe computer worked OK after two years of constantly testing and retesting the system for the date change on a spare mainframe. Mind you the overtime rate per hour was quite good!

There was much-hyped concern whether cars, traffic lights, cash machines, etc would work and whether aeroplanes would fall out of the sky.

However, if any of those old systems are still in use by 2033 onwards then the Y2K bug might raise its head again as a lot of coding determined that the actual year was "19xx" if the two-digit year was greater than 33 and "20xx" if the two-digit year was less than or equal to 33! NB the actual year may vary by a few years for each system.

 

[Dashmellow]

My first encounters with the "Y2K problem" were real rather than hypothetical. In late 1997 I received a new VISA credit card in the mail to replace one that was about to expire. The new one didn't expire until after 2000. Every time I went to use the card the transaction wouldn't go through. The system would report the card as "expired" even though it was a brand new card. The same thing happened a few months later with a new Mastercard I received. Then, when I contacted the two card issuers and eventually worked my way up to various supervisors trying to get some answers, nobody had a clue about what was causing the problem. So I began searching online and discovered this thing about an old computer programming date convention that was predicted in some circles to create significant problems at the turn of the century but it was a fringe thing that hadn't gotten much attention yet. I recall thinking, "This is a BIG deal!, Why isn't this getting more attention?" It was about six months or so later that it suddenly started to hit the media, and the rest is history. To this day, I am one of the very few people I know of who actually encountered actual Y2K glitches.

 

[jokiin]

 

[Gibson99]

 

[kamkar]

I keep trying to tell people that, thinking they are unique for some reason ( most often a wrong one ) and then proceed to tell about what we Danes call "the back side of the medal" about being unique.
And like so often i end up feeling i am talking to a door.

 

[Gibson99]

 

[Dashmellow]

Mom vs Dad

 

[kuoh]

Dads always know how to have more fun!

KuoH

Mom vs Dad
View attachment 50086

 

[country_hick]

Are we in more danger from foods that make us fat and cause health problems than from anything else?

 

[kamkar]

Ill take that picatinny rail, and dispense with it in minutes,,,,,, that's the kind of anti NRA man i am
But yeah it is ironic, and to be honest ever since i saw that animated movie with the little robot and fat humans in hover chairs i have been unable to forget it.

 

[Dashmellow]

Ill take that picatinny rail, and dispense with it in minutes,,,,,, that's the kind of anti NRA man i am
But yeah it is ironic, and to be honest ever since i saw that animated movie with the little robot and fat humans in hover chairs i have been unable to forget it.

Have no fear, starting next week you'll be able to buy your very own (sort of) WALL-E style hover chair from Segway.

Segway Is Bringing the Hoverchairs From WALL-E to Life

 

[kamkar]

Too late for Steven Hawking, would have been cool to see him zip around in one of those.

 

[jokiin]

Are we in more danger from foods that make us fat and cause health problems than from anything else?

View attachment 50093

too true

 

[Dashmellow]

Too late for Steven Hawking, would have been cool to see him zip around in one of those.

Actually, Segway manufactured a really cool wheel chair that could climb stairs. Hawking may even have had one as I sort of recall. Johnson & Johnson took it off the market in 2009 but I read that it may be about to get reintroduced via a collaboration with Toyota.

 

[jokiin]

got a bit toasty here yesterday

 

[kamkar]

Yeah,,,, its not good at all.

The area of AU that have been burned are larger than my whole country that to me put a few things in perspective, aside for the horror of the fires how small my home country are, and how large my adopted home country are.

PS: i did get a little giggle however, seeing that if you drive north west out of Sydney you reach a town called Dubbo

 

[Nigel]

got a bit toasty here yesterday

Australia:

"Ranked 56th in this year’s CCPI, Australia with an overall very low rating remains under the bottom five performers. The country continues to receive very low ratings in the Energy Use category and ranks at the bottom of low performers in both the GHG Emissions and Renewable Energy categories. National experts observe a lack of progress in these areas with the government failing to clarify how it will meet the country’s insufficient 2030 emission reduction target and inaction in developing a long term mitigation strategy. While the government is not proposing any further targets for renewable energy beyond 2020, it continues to promote the expansion of fossil fuels and in April 2019 approved the opening of the highly controversial Adani coalmine. Experts note that the new government is an increasingly regressive force in negotiations and has been criticised for its lack of ambition by several Pacific Island nations in the context of this year’s Pacific Island Forum. "

USA:

"For the first time, the United States of America is ranked at the very bottom of the CCPI. The country receives very low ratings throughout all categories without exception. Experts’ comments show a highly problematic picture of US climate policy in all areas. On the national level, there is neither a target nor a policy for reducing the country’s very high GHG emissions. Furthermore, the country has a very poor public transport system and its farm and forest policies are extremely destructive and thus not sustainable. National experts emphasise that the national climate policy has worsened under President Donald Trump’s administration... At international level, the performance completes the picture on national level, with the US acting as a destructive player in international negotiations on all levels. "

UK:

"Ranked 7th, the United Kingdom remains in the top ten of this year’s CCPI. The country receives high ratings in all categories. Notably, the UK is showing positive trends in the categories GHG Emissions and Energy Use, and a very positive trend in the Renewable Energy category. Experts note that in 2019, for the first time renewable energy provided more electricity to UK homes and businesses than fossil fuels."

https://newclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/CCPI-2020-Results_Web_Version.pdf

 

[jokiin]

governments keep doing dumb stuff here, fires are nothing to do with emission targets or whatever though, just poor forestry management

 

[Nigel]

governments keep doing dumb stuff here, fires are nothing to do with emission targets or whatever though, just poor forestry management

It used to be the case that no climate related catastrophe could be directly linked to human created climate change, but in a year when we had record temperatures around the world, record hurricanes, record tornadoes, record rainfall, etc. , it is hard to claim that the fires have not been made significantly worse by climate change. Yes, with enough forestry management the damage could have been a lot less, but the fuel was at record dryness after a record drought and your rains are late so nature is not putting out the flames as it normally would, the problem is made vastly worse by a combination of climate events that 100 years ago would almost certainly not have occurred together but should now be expected.

 

[jokiin]

climate has made things worse, major problem is the amount of fuel available which was previously managed but has not been for some time due to the know nothing do gooders getting involved