I thought they stopped selling children at Walmart

Yeah, but bland as the last one was, can you imagine Vance doing the right thing and certifying the election after the shit show on Jan 6th?

I may not be a Pence fan, but he earned a ton of respect from me that day.

The pace of change is about every five years, and some elements are always in transition.

All in one turn key solutions are always one to two cycles behind, so may work great with the stuff I’m already replacing.

I think these are honest attempts to simplify, but by the time they have it sorted its obsolete. If I have to build modules anyway to work with new equipemnt, might as well just write all the code in my native language.

These also tend to be attempts at all in one devices, requiring you to use devices only compatible with those subsystems. I want to be able to use best tech from what ever manufacturer. New and fancy almost always means a command line interface, which again means coding.

20 years ago at a trade show, a new module based visual coding tool was introduced in my field which claimed “You’ll never need another programmer”.

Oddly enough, I still have a job.

The tools have gotten better, but I still write code every day because procedural programming is still the best way to do things.

It is just now reaching the point that we can do some small to medium scale projects with plug and play systems, but only with very specific equipment and configurations.

This is my solution. I’ve said it before, but think it should be repeated. The global population was half of today’s when I was born. 4 billion instead of the current 8+ billion.

That means if half the population disappeared today, we’d just be back where we were in 1975.

Not having kids is the best thing I can do for both the environment, and myself.

Has the added benifit of leaving me as a passive observer who doesn’t have a biological need to care about the future.

I went into one of the larger local shops to buy some risers or something to try and adjust my old setup. Older sales guy about my age took one look at my gear and said “Your knees must hurt like hell”.

I had the money, so I just went full in on new gear, and came away with something I would never have picked for myself.

Not only did he size everything proper for me, he made sure all the pieces were right together. For the first time in my life toe and heel line up exactly with the edge, and where they belong on the pressure points. I’d always riden too small a board and had far too wide a stance to make up for it.

I was still skeptical, but he told me if I didn’t love it he’d do a full price exchange.

Even though it’s about the longest board I’ve ever had, the banana camber makes it feel half the size. Took about three runs to actually trust the board, and I was completely sold, you couldn’t pay me to ride the old gear again.

True, but at least where I ride they have 100% snow making covered. Solution to man made warning is man made snow.

Joking aside, the season in the midwest sure has shrunk since I was a kid.

It’s like going from moms station wagon to a high end sports car. Do I need the performance sports car? Usually no, but those few times you push it, it’s ready for all that and more.

Thermal form boots are a must, though I guess that tech is more than 15 years old in ski boots at least. I no longer cringe and grunt when I put on my boots, they are as comfortable as any footwear I’ve owned.

The flexibility in modern plastics means the straps and bindings themselves are stiffer where they need to be, and have give where they don’t. Combined with the boots there are no more pinch points at all, and all the force you put into riding goes where you want it.

I ride almost exclusively in the midwest US, so hard, rough, icy conditions that most people wouldn’t consider snowboarding in are the every day. A board with reverse camber, often called banana, and magna tractions, serrated edges for holding grip on ice, are a must.

“Turns ice into powder”, well I dont know if I’d go that far. I can lay into turns in the worst conditions and completely trust the edge to hold. When you get that horrible downhill edge that wants to catch and slam you into the ground, the newer complex curves in the camber means more often than not you will pivot out instead of hanging up. I can’t count the number of times I’ve felt that edge wanting to catch and end my day, only to slip around switch and get away with it.

I’m sure there are more now, but a product called 3DO gel was the first I saw. Flexible and soft normally, it turns ridged under force. I have pads of that stuff basically all over my body, knee and elbow pads, but also tail bone, forearms, and in the liner of the helmet. Saw a demo where they were hitting a guy with a shovel and instantly thought “That’s for me”.

If I had to pick one, a board with C2 or C3 gen camber from lib tech, or its equivalent makes the biggest difference. The over all package of a new setup bought and sized together for my cough, um, “modern” weight requirements, took riding from a painful and nervous experience, and made it relaxed and enjoyable again. Due to many old injuries, I used to ride an hour, maybe two, and had to quit. Now I can ride a full evening, and feel good about doing a few hours the next day as well.

The advances in material science and manufacturing in sports equipment in the past 15 years has been amazing.

That means boots, bindings, and a snowboard that would have seemed like alien technology to me when I started riding. Same goes for all the saftey gear, knee pads, helmets, integrated wrist guards in gloves.

The performance, comfort, and saftey offered by modern equipement means I can still enjoy my favorite sports at 50. The thought of getting on a hill with gear I had just 15 years ago makes me shudder.

My earliest gaming memory is my dad taking me to a local hotel bar to play Pac-Man when it came out, which suggests spring of 1980.

I know I played pong, river raid, and pitfall on home consoles as well, not sure which was first.

One xmass we got an Atari, but when my dad realized it came with a poker game he returned it a few days later.

First system I had actual private access to was a TRS-80.

No, I don’t think that would work for me.

Vert skating in the Olympics

And small blue creatures from alpha centuri where real small blue creatures from alpha centuri.

I’m old enough to remember when both released and I don’t have a good answer to this, assuming you mean the pink floyd movie and not some other I’m not aware of.

The two consessions I’ve made are Teams, and the MFA software.

I am often running around to various sites and being able to use a quick chat is better than pulling out my laptop, and I turn it off when I’m off the clock.

I do like those, but can add my own easy enough.

Always wanted a Volvo, my sister in law raced an V70 R for a while.

Requirements for a car. 1: All wheel drive 2: Small station wagon 3: Manual transmission 4: No touch screen 5: Does not connect to internet

Yup, looks like 2014 is the newest car I can buy.

Get your shit together car companies and maybe I’ll be interested in you products again.

I’ve skated and hung out with a lot of pro skaters over the years at various demos, but the one who is probably most universally recognized is Bam Margera.

It’s either him or Ben Bernanke, the ex federal reserve chair.

That is still one of the most surreal moments to come out of that whole mess.

I just don’t understand how it was allowed to play out. At some point, someone had to decide that going ahead with it was more important than waiting a day and finding a suitable location.

For the life of me I can’t remember what the press conference was about, only the screw up.