Posts by Colinvparker@mathstodon.xyz
(DIR) Post #AQJKA5mOcphkYWOIVs by Colinvparker@mathstodon.xyz
2022-12-05T21:54:25Z
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@Alon @jfred I guess it depends what “mid-20c” means, but there was a brief period where people who grew up using draft animals for transportation flew in jet planes, and I don’t think we’ll match that level of rapid change again.
(DIR) Post #ASr8FoSr4cMAanIbzc by Colinvparker@mathstodon.xyz
2023-02-20T01:52:32Z
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@mjg59 @taviso @corsac If you only ever enter the PW into the app, isn’t that already significantly harder to phish, since the app presumably always connects to the correct host and verifies the certificate?
(DIR) Post #AiMSfw7ld1fcH6Ib32 by Colinvparker@mathstodon.xyz
2024-05-28T20:03:44Z
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@DiegoBeghin @Alon I think in the old days the labor cost versus a hotel construction cost was a different ratio and that’s part of why night trains made sense?
(DIR) Post #AjxKZv28MYcbNgQ1mi by Colinvparker@mathstodon.xyz
2024-07-15T13:07:58Z
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@DiegoBeghin @pony @wollman There were teletype machines already, so probably you’d want to hijack the laptop’s keyboard to feed those in. For example, multiplex 26 Morse or Baudet code inputs, one on each letter.
(DIR) Post #AjxQCnNdFbzAi2pcI4 by Colinvparker@mathstodon.xyz
2024-07-15T14:24:55Z
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@pony @DiegoBeghin @wollman Wiring the individual keys would be better but I was originally thinking a mechanical system that pushes the keys. There would be bandwidth issues, although 200 events per second is easily a high enough symbol rate to handle human typists. With 5-bit Baudot code (using two keys, one for + one for -) and reasonable framing you could do 25 chars/sec. With Morse in a single key maybe more like 10. Anyway 1920s typists would have been familiar with such limitations, since mechanical typewriters also make errors if the entry is too fast. The bigger limitation is probably the number of keys that can be detected down at the same time, which would limit the multiplexing.USB (even the lowest speeds) seems pretty challenging, the symbol rate is far too high for anything electromechanical and you’d need a forest of vacuum tubes.Probably the best pure electrical input/output on a laptop is the mic/audio jack, but that’s only one line so you’d probably want to save it (e.g. it’s probably the only viable output).
(DIR) Post #AjxTuxloHYJHXNtQ9I by Colinvparker@mathstodon.xyz
2024-07-15T15:05:09Z
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@pony @DiegoBeghin @wollman Well they had punch tape already, so storing batches wouldn’t be that hard, if you input through a single hijacked keyboard even at 100 symbols per second split over 8 keys that’s 100 B/sec.Alternatively, if the laptop has a camera you could scroll punched tape in front of the camera, but that requires more programming work to do on the interface, past the level of “using MS Excel to decode text files”.
(DIR) Post #AkxPvuXNQwwrmhr0FM by Colinvparker@mathstodon.xyz
2024-08-14T12:08:00Z
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@kaia @kkarhan I didn't believe it at first, but it's real: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/34.07966/-118.41164
(DIR) Post #AnhD2aGiyF2VS4wO3s by Colinvparker@mathstodon.xyz
2024-11-04T01:28:15Z
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@DiegoBeghin @Alon Are you using time spent in discussions as an inverse measure of importance or a correlated one? The former seems obvious but maybe I’m missing something.
(DIR) Post #AsunnPEtjp3qFRVijI by Colinvparker@mathstodon.xyz
2025-04-09T11:24:37Z
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@christianp It wouldn’t surprise me if it actually was a cost savings to switch, landline phones (at least, in the USA) are antiquated and can be expensive to maintain, and Teams probably comes included with whatever package your Uni already has. Now, it’s less convenient, sure, but “less convenient and saves a small amount of money” would be on-brand here too.
(DIR) Post #AsunnQxFMQ87ZHGeUi by Colinvparker@mathstodon.xyz
2025-04-09T12:57:21Z
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@christianp Well longer term I think proper landlines are going to be either not an option, or very expensive. There’s just no reason to run copper anymore, and when the stuff that’s already there wears out, there’s no reason to fix it. My parents just were forced to give their landline up, the wire degraded and the phone company can’t do anything about it, it’s a dinosaur organization that makes money from old customers who forgot they even subscribe to it or don’t understand the alternatives.The choice will be between various VOIP options, and if you’re buying Office anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if MSFT are the cheapest.