jqubed
@jqubed@lemmy.world
- Comment on What is your favorite indie game? 7 hours ago:
I haven’t seen it mentioned and feel like it should count, since it really just had a solo programmer working with a graphic designer and musician, but RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 took a big chunk of my gaming time.
- Comment on Consumers make their voices heard as Microsoft's huge venture flatlines in popularity 1 week ago:
Copilot is Microsoft’s name for their AI service, like Google’s Gemini or Chat GPT. Recall is their service that will screenshot everything you do for
trainingimproving the results. - Comment on What do office workers actually do? 1 week ago:
Office work is largely paperwork, even if very little is on actual paper nowadays. Much of the work involves creating records or communicating with others to get things done. A salesperson will try to find clients for the product or service. They’ll typically create a record of customers or prospects with their contact information and notes about the negotiation. They’ll create a formal quotation or estimate for the customer and if the customer wants to move forward they’ll create an order confirmation. That document will trigger some other department to fulfill the order, either by providing a service or product to the customer. A work order might be provided to a service technician specifying what work is to be done and where. If a product needs to be delivered a picking slip might be created to tell someone in a warehouse where to get the product and how many to get. Once it’s been picked the product will go to the shipping department to be packed and shipped. An item fulfillment will be created saying what items were packed, how many, and what the tracking number is. Once the order is fulfilled an invoice will be created. If the customer paid in advance the payment will get applied to the invoice automatically or by someone in the accounting department. If the customer is on credit terms they’ll be sent the invoice with instructions on how to pay and when payment is due.
There are so many steps like this. The records help the business plan. They know how many parts and supplies to order. They can track if they’re selling more or less than forecast, if they need to place a rush order for more parts, ask people to work overtime or hire more employees. If something starts costing more they can look to see if they need to raise prices or redesign the product to use a different component, or find an alternate source. At the end of the day, it all comes down to accounting, making sure the company is generating enough income to pay the bills, suppliers, and employees, and hopefully make a profit.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
And getting a completely new phone and number while you’re at it
- Comment on Cinema has a physical media problem and it just keeps getting worse 2 weeks ago:
That second-to-last sentence is great!
- Comment on Pens in Space 2 weeks ago:
I don’t know if anyone still makes the pencils. IIRC they used a special formulation for the graphite that reduced the dust and risk of breakage, but I don’t think there’s much market for that outside the space program since that’s about the only place the dust would float and be hazardous. The pens were in development even before the space program because there’s a market for pens that can write in unusual orientations. I’m sure the marketing of it being a pen used in space helps expands that market some, but the market would exist regardless. It’s supposed to be a nice pen to write with also, although I don’t know how much of that is kind of a placebo to justify spending $10-20+ on a pen. I’m sure it’s nicer than a 50¢ pen, though.
Felt pens can be prone to leakage, especially in lower atmospheric pressure. This can be a problem even in airliners, and definitely not what you want in space. There’s nothing in the pen mechanism to seal the ink in when not in use. A properly made ballpoint pen actually seals the ink in when not in use. That was Bíró’s big selling point over earlier technologies like fountain pens; the pen still writes even if you leave it uncapped and the ink doesn’t dry out. The Bic pen was revolutionary for creating a manufacturing process that could produce them cheaply.
- Comment on Pens in Space 2 weeks ago:
Fisher’s claim to fame before inventing the Space Pen was inventing a universal replacement ink cartridge. You can even put the space pen cartridge in pens from other manufacturers.
- Comment on Pens in Space 2 weeks ago:
The Soviets were using grease pencils IIRC before also switching to the Fisher Space Pen around 1969. The grease pencil eliminated the risk of graphite floating around but the writing quality isn’t great.
- Comment on Pens in Space 2 weeks ago:
Your points about a cost-plus contract have merit but aren’t applicable here because the pens weren’t developed under a contract at all. Paul Fisher of the Fisher Pen Company had started developing a pressurized pen before the space program even began (to develop a pen that could write in other orientations than on a desk), although learning of the concerns from the program gave him renewed impetus to solve the design. Fisher patented the design in 1966 after ten years of development and about $1 million in cost. Prior to the pens NASA had been purchasing special pencils at $128.89/each. The original purchase order for the pens bought 400 at $2.95/each.
Original Space Pen Purchase Order from NASA
The Soviet space program bought the pens in 1969, and besides the Americans they’re still used today by the Russian and Chinese space programs. You can buy one yourself for as little as $7 if you don’t care about it being refillable. On the one hand that’s a lot for a disposable pen, on the other hand that’s not terribly expensive for a pen that writes upside-down if you need that, and might not feel too bad if you’re prone to losing pens.
- Comment on What are the odds of a person getting poisoned by food delivery driver? How would the odds change if the person is a public figure (such as Twitch Streamers)? 3 weeks ago:
Yeah, it would be easier to just fake being a delivery driver and drop off tainted food and act like somebody else ordered it. The odds of a driver being able to target someone specific with a legit order are very low.
That said, don’t eat random food you didn’t order!
- Comment on Anon works at a warehouse 3 weeks ago:
I had a sales guy once ask me what tablet he should purchase for watching porn. He was later fired for buying groceries with his P-card.
- Comment on Do you use your blinker in a car? 3 weeks ago:
Basically everywhere. Not always when pulling in my driveway if no one else is around, but I’ve certainly seen driveways where you might even use it pulling out. I don’t use it pulling out of my driveway. It’s rare that I not use it otherwise, though. Very occasionally I’ll think I’ve put it on but discover while turning that I didn’t have it on. Might be my ADHD causing that.
- Comment on CBS Loses Right to Distribute ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ ‘Jeopardy!’ 3 weeks ago:
I always found it odd that CBS distributed a Sony production. Really interesting read about the dispute!
- Comment on Anon is looking for a new video game 3 weeks ago:
I feel like anon could’ve researched this online ahead of time
- Comment on Is this picture idea immature? 3 weeks ago:
Actually I’ve done very well with girls who think I’m a dork, in an endearing way
- Comment on IGN: Mario Kart World: First Hands-on Preview 4 weeks ago:
It looks fun, but that price is going to be something to make me pause
- Comment on WordPress maker Automattic lays off 16% of staff. 4 weeks ago:
I wonder if we’ll get a lot more anonymous inside details now about the WPengine debacle?
- Comment on What kind of car is this? 5 weeks ago:
It’s a Jeep Wrangler or Gladiator, and based on the hood and red interior probably one of the higher trims like Rubicon. That’s the larger, 8.4-inch infotainment touchscreen. It’s also the pre-facelift interior, so it’s either a 2018-2023 Wrangler/Wrangler Unlimited (JL/JLU) or 2020-2024 Gladiator (JT). I can’t quite see enough detail but one of the icons on the screen looks more like a pickup truck, so I’m inclined to say it’s a Gladiator. Someone else might chime in with more details.
- Comment on the pain of knowing you have no girlfriend but THIS door does 1 month ago:
I’m suspecting it’s a 3D render
- Comment on ‘Little House On the Prairie’ Reboot For Netflix Begins Search For Ingalls Family Members 1 month ago:
I wonder if this one will be closer to the books? Sometimes I questioned if Landon had ever even read the books. Not that I watched a lot, but we used to run the reruns at a TV station where I used to work.
- Comment on Anon is waiting for Japan 1 month ago:
Maybe Japan is so advanced it already moved past the overhyped generative “AI” and that’s why we haven’t heard anything about it
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
Does that apply in Europe? OP says most European capitals have direct flights, that take 2-4 hours, so that probably puts this somewhere in Europe.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
You bought a bunch of land with no plan for it??
It looks like it’s been farmed recently. I don’t know what the growing season there is, you might be too late to start this year, but if you can lease it to a farmer for this season that at least has the land be productive while you figure out your longer-term plan. That way you can put plans in place to start work when the growing season is finished.
- Comment on The great Canadian milk bag LIE [3:48] 1 month ago:
At this point in the US I really only see the plastic jugs for half-gallon and gallon sizes (~1.9 and 3.75 liters respectively), but the gallon size jugs are also used for water, especially distilled water like people would use in a clothes iron or CPAP machine. They also have half-gallon cartons, though, and any smaller sizes for milk have traditionally only been cartons, except sometimes if you buy milk at a convenience store like a gas station it will be in a plastic bottle like most of the other single-serving beverages.
I’m sure I’ve seen the gallon jug style in Quebec but don’t know what volume they contain, although from what I’ve seen with a lot of things when Canada went metric they just changed the labels but kept the same sizes.
- Comment on Proton GE 9-26 Released With Updates For Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, GTA 5 Enhanced, And More 1 month ago:
Does 2020 work?
- Comment on Why Are People Buying iPods Again? 1 month ago:
I did like my Classic 4th Gen, except gapless playback was introduced with the 5th Gen. Maybe I should finally put Rockbox on mine, try some mods for more space
- Comment on The great Canadian milk bag LIE [3:48] 1 month ago:
I’ve seen bagged milk in Quebec but also normal (to Americans) cartons, bottles, and jugs.
- Comment on YouTube, when the walls fell 1 month ago:
Yes, it’s a shame he doesn’t seem to be considering PeerTube
- Comment on Trending Communities for Friday 7th March 2025 1 month ago:
Oh, yay, the bot’s back!
- Comment on Jackbox Games coming to Smart TVs for free 1 month ago:
I never pay full price for any of the games, they always have a few discounted and rotate through their full catalog eventually.
