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Here's some more old-rear end oil. A customer brought this in to dispose of it. It's still sealed. Made by Sears Roebuck and Co. we figure late 50s or early 60s. We gave it to a local hot-rod shop - they're going to display it with their show cars.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 02:56 |
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# ? May 28, 2024 14:51 |
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Ensign Expendable posted:That reminds me of videos you could get on a GameBoy Advance cartridge. A whole episode of Pokemon for twenty bucks, in the era of affordable portable media players? Wow, what a bargain! Holy poo poo, they actually released full length movies on it: This isn't a double pack. It's one cartridge. This has gotta be the biggest GBA cart ever made. The ones with two half-hour TV episodes are around 32MB, so I can only imagine how huge this beast is (for reference, GBA ROM file sizes generally top out at around 16MB). Interestingly, the GBA Video cartridges wouldn't work on the Gamecube's Game Boy Player attachment, because Nintendo didn't want to be raise the ire of film companies by stealing away their customers. Mr. Bones has a new favorite as of 01:05 on Oct 15, 2012 |
# ? Oct 10, 2012 03:28 |
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Manfrompoot posted:Holy poo poo, they actually released full length movies on it: Even half-hour episodes are horribly compressed (for comparison, a 640*360 video of a 22-minute show would take up probably about 100MB, depending on compression). I think it's less watching Shrek and more watching giant pixels.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 03:34 |
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Really, UMD video format was just as useless but it had an actual media company with a library behind it so Sony could keep flooding the market.Coffee And Pie posted:There were a lot of weird portable video systems for kids in the early 00s that ran off of weird proprietary disks and cartridges, come to think of it. "were"? There are still a ton of dumb proprietary electronics for kids, in an age where smartphones and tablets and ebook readers have an ocean of free content available spending $300 on a crippled day-glo tablet is ridonkulous. Farbtoner has a new favorite as of 04:03 on Oct 10, 2012 |
# ? Oct 10, 2012 04:01 |
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larrystorch posted:Despite having those, almost all still have an RS-232 port for transfering programs into the machine controllers. We have a couple of 2003-era CNCs at work and they all still use serial ports for the direct numeric control programs. And not just any serial ports; the 25-pin kind, that were never that common on computers in the first place. So we have a 25-pin to 9-pin adapter plugged into the machine, connected to a 9-pin cable, connected to a 9-pin to USB adapter, plugged into a brand spanking new Precision workstation that runs the ancient serial port driver software in XP mode. Whee. There are empty panels on the CNCs for ethernet and USB cards, so that you could either network them like a giant printer or plug in a flash drive, but both of those were multi-thousand-dollar options and the higher-ups decided that serial worked just fine in the past so why upgrade? And after all, if you don't like serial, you can always just load your program onto a 3.5" floppy disk. We also have an older desktop 3-axis sitting in the back that loads programs from little DAT tapes (maybe, the tape drive is about that size but no one here has ever seen one of the tapes in person) and uses the monitor from a TRS-80. I'd kind of like to get that running again just for the novelty of seeing it go. Killer robot posted:Also one of those old treadle type sewing machines, very similar to this one: They do a lot of jobs better than modern machines. Yeah, you can only make one or sometimes two kinds of stitch, but those things are beasts that will stand up to anything you can think of. The body is one solid piece of cast iron, and the moving parts are all forged and machined brass. Very slightly modernized versions, with an industrial motor replacing the treadle and flywheel, are still used in tons of factories today for ultra-heavy-duty assembly. Put on a good needle, and you can stitch together a pair of leather belts like there's nothing there.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 08:07 |
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I love those old singers if not only for their simplistic and durable construction but also the neat little contraptions you can attach to them.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 13:51 |
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coldpudding posted:I love those old singers if not only for their simplistic and durable construction Ahh, finally! My parents had all these parts in a junk drawer and I always wondered what the hell they were for.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 14:37 |
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Reading Farbtoner posted:Really, UMD video format was just as useless but it had an actual media company with a library behind it so Sony could keep flooding the market. and earlier, Sagebrush posted:No, those were UMDs. What kind of idiot is in charge there who keeps dreaming up this kind of ridiculous poo poo? Is it some kind of corporate pride? Is it hereditary? "My father-sensei came up with Betamax, so I -must- invent something new! A-ha! UMDs!"
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 15:05 |
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Laserjet 4P posted:Reading If you can win one of these battles, you get to reap the rewards for ages in licensing fees. Think about how much money a company Apple makes licensing its 30 pin/lightning connector. For media storage, odd formats also nominally help prevent piracy. Did anyone ever pirate GameCube games? How would that even work?
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 15:34 |
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Boxman posted:If you can win one of these battles, you get to reap the rewards for ages in licensing fees. Think about how much money a company Apple makes licensing its 30 pin/lightning connector. For media storage, odd formats also nominally help prevent piracy. Did anyone ever pirate GameCube games? How would that even work? If you had Phantasy Star Online and a Network Adapter you could set up some sort of server to "stream" an iso to the system. Got bored one day and tried it out. It worked, but not well.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 15:49 |
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Laserjet 4P posted:Reading They stand to earn a lot of money if it gets adopted as the industry standard. They finally succeeded with Blu-ray.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 16:21 |
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Related to weird proprietary physical formats, there's also weird proprietary software formats and codecs. Though like "cheap kids' players" these have some excuse of practical budget. And sometimes there was hardware! This being an example of the MPEG card. Back when MPEG-1 was a popular and high-quality standard, whether for VideoCDs (VideoCD had dedicated players too, but I'm focusing here on MPEG on personal computers) or standalone clips, it took a powerful computer to be able to render them in software. Really playing the full scale 352x240 video wasn't something PCs could manage comfortably until the later 90s, so if you had some 386 or 486 you'd get a codec card to process it for you. If you didn't have that, you had to get buy with even crappier video sources like Cinepak, or the sometimes decent quality but often baffling maze of other codecs that developed over the 90s, when you didn't have much native OS support or easily compiled codec packs besides. Some of those were commercial too: MovieCD was an example, you could buy TV shows, movies, what have you on CD to play on your computer, using their custom codec and playback options. I only even know it existed since once I bought an anime episode on a discount rack that way back in the day. Looked pretty good for the time even! Like a lot of these codecs, it also got used for video in a number of PC games, and like some other obscure or less supported ones it can cause problems reinstalling to play on a modern PC. All of this eventually went away. On the hardware side, DVD killed VCD quickly in the developed world (though early adopters saw another round of PC hardware decoders for DVD, and there was also Super Video CD which used DVD's MPEG-2 but on a CD), and on the software side...well, lots of variant codecs are still around, but the "standard" set today is a lot better quality, and OS support and codec packs have made playing less common formats much easier than it used to be.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 17:15 |
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MRC48B posted:They finally succeeded with Blu-ray. The rewards for winning a format war are too great to not embark on it. DAT was also a big success within the music community due to its high quality. I don't think they ever seriously tried to make UMD a contender for video though, it was really just a medium invented for PSP that had high data-density, was cheap to produce (unlike cartridges), and was robust so little kids wouldn't break it. The video aspect was more of a side-effect.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 17:17 |
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minato posted:and the CD, floppy disc, MiniDisc (very popular in Japan), PlayStation 1/2/3, BetaCam (the format used by many pro-cameras, != BetaMax). I suppose it's how you look at it, PlayStations aren't media formats. Blu-Ray and Compact-Disc had a large amount of development done by Phillips (and other companies in the case of Blu-Ray) in addition to Sony. There was a lot of work done before and after Sony's involvement during the transition from 5 1/4" floppies and 3 1/2" floppies. UMD was entirely Sony and flopped pretty hard. BetaCam and DAT are pretty solid, though. So while Sony has certainly had a lot of success when dealing with a lot of media formats, only a few of its own creations have really taken off. At least that's how I see it.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 18:11 |
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Manfrompoot posted:Holy poo poo, they actually released full length movies on it: Oh man, I wonder what kind of resolution/frame rate these things got. I can't imagine this was even remotely watchable.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 18:27 |
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Ensign Expendable posted:Oh man, I wonder what kind of resolution/frame rate these things got. I can't imagine this was even remotely watchable. You could get better quality video with a homebrew setup, converting your own videos. Nerdrock posted:If you had Phantasy Star Online and a Network Adapter you could set up some sort of server to "stream" an iso to the system. Got bored one day and tried it out. It worked, but not well. It's funny how much easier pirating Wii games seems than pirating Gamecube games; you can load a bunch of them onto an external hard drive and run them on the Wii from there. The more standard disc format probably helped a lot. (Emulation of the Gamecube and Wii is pretty solid too, and you can even use a real Wiimote with it.)
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 18:40 |
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Ensign Expendable posted:Oh man, I wonder what kind of resolution/frame rate these things got. I can't imagine this was even remotely watchable. I don't know about framerate, but the GBA has a 240x160 screen, and even outside of cartridge size limitations it doesn't have near the graphical horsepower to use a high quality codec so it's going to be even shittier than a modern web video of that resolution and file size.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 18:54 |
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My grandmother was using a wringer washer in her basement into the 1970s, as well as a treadle sewing machine. The power of that thing was amazing and I have no doubt it could've sewn right through my hand. My grandfather was an amateur carpenter with few power tools. You haven't drilled a hole until you've done so with one of these: As a kid I found them a bitch to use but he could do it like it was nothing.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 19:20 |
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Parallel Paraplegic posted:So what happens when an older anesthesia machine has an error and/or alarm while someone is under, and the hospital doesn't have any laptops with serial ports? Because now I'm terrified of surgery. Well, the downloading of errors and alarms is after the fact. You don't do it then and there while it's alarming. And aside from the most SERIOUS of errors, the machine will still work. And even in the most serious of errors, where the machine completely shuts down, doesn't even have power, it will still work in manual mode. The gasses will still flow, the anesthesiologist just has to "bag" the patient, the machine (obviously) isn't capable of breathing for the patient anymore. So the gas fills a bag attached to the machine, and the doctor/CRNA squeezes the bag to send the gas to the patient, and releases it to let them exhale and let it fill back up again. The biggest problem, aside from the doctor not being able to play with his iPhone anymore*, is that there is little/no monitoring of the pressures and volumes. There is always a manual pressure gauge on the machine that will work, but if the doctor isn't looking right at it, he doesn't know the pressure at that exact moment. Modern machines have screens with waveforms so they can see pressure trends and such. Parallel Paraplegic posted:Actually an "Ask me about repairing the stuff that keeps you alive at the doctor" thread might be pretty interesting, come to think of it... I've thought about starting one before, but I'm not sure how popular it would be...especially once I start ripping into all the doctors and nurses for not fully understanding how the devices work, and breaking my machines! *Seriously, you would be shocked at how many anesthesia providers (mostly the doctors, the CRNAs tend to be more focused) play around on their phones, iPads, read books/magazines during surgery. They do a lot of work at the start and end of the case: putting meds in the patient, putting them to sleep, intubating them, getting initial vitals, then reversing all that when it's done. But once they're under and surgery's started? They basically let the machine do the work and barely pay attention. But in their defense, 95% of surgeries have no complications, go perfectly normal, and are all well and good. So spending a couple hours just starring at a couple screens that have EKG, BP, tidal volume, etc... would get so boring you'd want to stab yourself in the eye.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 19:21 |
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Manfrompoot posted:More lovely music devices: I see your HitClips, and raise you one Pocket Rocker! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqy7NB3nxhY I actually had one of these for a while before I talked my dad into getting me one of those lovely red stereo's that were kinda rounded on the edges. You know the ones I'm talking about. I think they came in other colors too. They were the next best thing to having your own boombox, and you didn't have to be a body builder to carry that poo poo around.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 19:47 |
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Boxman posted:Did anyone ever pirate GameCube games? How would that even work?
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 20:31 |
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torjus posted:As far as I know replacements for the plastic surrounding the discs were manufactured so you could swap out the stock one and fit standard DVDs in the GameCube. or, you could drop the cash for the sweet Panasonic Q Gamecube.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 20:36 |
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Sagebrush posted:Singer Sewing machine For those reasons this type of machine are still very popular in parts of the world. My mum went to a tailor in Ghana, gave him her measurements and watched as he went to work on one of these, it was pretty cool. You can actually still buy treadle machines- lighter, more manageable ones. They're popular in parts of the world with power cut problems, like rural India.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 20:46 |
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MiniDiscs are obsolete CD changers are obsolete Have a two-for-one:
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 20:48 |
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I had this awesome stereo in college It was such a beast. It was loud as loving hell and held 51 CDs. You could program the CDs titles into the thing too and it would remember! And you could program play lists and poo poo. (And it was easy to move.) Eventually the CD changer carousel died. Ithink I can still remember that the three good Metallica albums were 19, 20, 21. I had Dave Matthews Under the Table and Dreaming number 1 for seduction purposes. The best stereo I ever had. Now I listen to a loving iphone with headphones. euphronius has a new favorite as of 21:11 on Oct 10, 2012 |
# ? Oct 10, 2012 21:04 |
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Killer robot posted:
Oh my god we used to have one of these for the longest time! It was in really bad shape though, so much so that this picture is the first time I've seen what one is supposed to look like. It was one of those things that someone always had a plan to restore, but never got around to it and so it was given from one family member to another and continued to deteriorate until finally it was thrown away.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 21:37 |
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Killer robot posted:All of this eventually went away. On the hardware side, DVD killed VCD quickly in the developed world (though early adopters saw another round of PC hardware decoders for DVD, and there was also Super Video CD which used DVD's MPEG-2 but on a CD) Hell there was a time when nearly all 3D accelerators were doing this same thing since they weren't built up enough to do all the mundane video processing. I had one of the first 3dfx ones that had 2D AND 3D in the same hardware . Man what a trip that was seeing fully rendered 640x480 with texture smoothing and everything. Edit: The Voodoo Rush, apparently I was one of the only people who got the silly thing. It kicked rear end at the time though. LethalGeek has a new favorite as of 21:44 on Oct 10, 2012 |
# ? Oct 10, 2012 21:37 |
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I had a 25 disc changer, and I loving loved that thing. As convenient as iPods and mp3s are, I still miss browsing for CDs and the whole experience involved in buying tangible music. The closest I get these days is browsing the vinyl at Half-Price Books.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 21:38 |
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I loved the insane robotic sounds my 3-disc changer stereo made when switching between trays. I kept The Rock movie soundtrack in tray 3 for the better half of the 90's. Friend of mine still has a 5-disk changer which he still uses, and we give him poo poo for the thing all the time. No idea 51-changers existed, holy poo poo.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 22:05 |
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Manfrompoot posted:More lovely music devices: I always wondered: why the hell would I want to listen to only part of a song?
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 22:05 |
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Sagebrush posted:They do a lot of jobs better than modern machines. Yeah, you can only make one or sometimes two kinds of stitch, but those things are beasts that will stand up to anything you can think of. The body is one solid piece of cast iron, and the moving parts are all forged and machined brass. Very slightly modernized versions, with an industrial motor replacing the treadle and flywheel, are still used in tons of factories today for ultra-heavy-duty assembly. Put on a good needle, and you can stitch together a pair of leather belts like there's nothing there. Hell yes - my mom has one of these that was passed down to her from my great-grandmother, and it's still the best sewing machine she's ever used. Works great for its age too, my great-grandpa built a cherry cabinet for it with doors that swing open in front of the foot pedal, and the thing is loving heavy. I miss the days when stuff was built to last...
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 22:13 |
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Palpatine MD posted:I loved the insane robotic sounds my 3-disc changer stereo made when switching between trays. I kept The Rock movie soundtrack in tray 3 for the better half of the 90's. Friend of mine still has a 5-disk changer which he still uses, and we give him poo poo for the thing all the time. No idea 51-changers existed, holy poo poo. My wife had a 100 CD changer when she was in high school. Her uncle worked for Pioneer and she used to get all sorts of crazy crap from him. We still have the 5.1 DVD player she got from him in the early 2000's and never used to full potential because she was afraid she was going to wake her landlords. I'll have to swap it out for a Blu Ray eventually but it's pretty great for now.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 22:21 |
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Palpatine MD posted:I loved the insane robotic sounds my 3-disc changer stereo made when switching between trays. I kept The Rock movie soundtrack in tray 3 for the better half of the 90's. Friend of mine still has a 5-disk changer which he still uses, and we give him poo poo for the thing all the time. No idea 51-changers existed, holy poo poo. We have an old three disc changer boom box that plays elevator music in our waiting room at work and the drat thing is so loud when it shifts discs that you can hear it a few offices over. I remember getting a five disc CD player hooked up to my receiver back when and thinking it was cool as poo poo. Now I get just as excited that I can load up a flash drive with several days of music and just plug it into the front of my receiver.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 22:23 |
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Manfrompoot posted:More lovely music devices: Shugojin posted:I always wondered: why the hell would I want to listen to only part of a song? Did you look at what songs are in the picture?
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 23:37 |
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Killer robot posted:Also one of those old treadle type sewing machines, very similar to this one: One of our customers uses one of these (minus actual machine) as a computer desk, and whenever I'm over there to fix something I always end up working the pedal the entire time, just spinning that flywheel.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 23:42 |
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Killer robot posted:
My mother has one of those in her living room. I don't think she uses it anymore, but it sure does look nice still.
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# ? Oct 10, 2012 23:54 |
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When I was younger, I had this little blue portable dvd player thing, but it took little CD type things. Tiny black and white screen, but I thought I was cool as hell watching spongebob on an airplane. Anyone know the name?
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# ? Oct 11, 2012 00:05 |
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Shugojin posted:I always wondered: why the hell would I want to listen to only part of a song?
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# ? Oct 11, 2012 00:13 |
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Framptonlive posted:When I was younger, I had this little blue portable dvd player thing, but it took little CD type things. Tiny black and white screen, but I thought I was cool as hell watching spongebob on an airplane. Anyone know the name? Sounds like VideoNow Speaking of HitClips, how about Pocket Rockers? I remember wanting one of these so bad. Something about the mini cassette.
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# ? Oct 11, 2012 00:40 |
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# ? May 28, 2024 14:51 |
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DrBouvenstein posted:*Seriously, you would be shocked at how many anesthesia providers (mostly the doctors, the CRNAs tend to be more focused) play around on their phones, iPads, read books/magazines during surgery. They do a lot of work at the start and end of the case: putting meds in the patient, putting them to sleep, intubating them, getting initial vitals, then reversing all that when it's done. My father describes anesthesiology, based on his experiences during medical school, as "ninety-nine percent mind-numbing boredom and one percent raw, guttural terror." Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, oh holy loving poo poo he's stopped breathing fix it fix it fix it nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing... Palpatine MD posted:No idea 51-changers existed, holy poo poo. 51? Meh. Try 400: When I was an undergrad our IT department had a couple of units very similar to that, but with an ethernet connection instead of the video-out, which they used to store all the software installer discs required for the whole campus.
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# ? Oct 11, 2012 00:49 |