OT Things to ponder

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: MuguNiner

I have been really enjoying this off topic topic, and now for something different.

gorn

Excellent! [&o] That gave me a woody! I thought I had seen all the episodes of Downtown Abbey. How'd I miss that?

[geofflambert]

So I woke up this morning and MicroSoftintheHead had taken over my computer (via Windows Update I suppose) and installed Windows 10 without my explicit permission. I was having kittens. "All your files are right where you left them." Really? Where the eff is Internet Explorer and my home page? And what is this The Edge thing? Who is this chick called Cortana and how old is she? Does everyone on Windows 10 get a chick and are they all called "Cortana" or does everyone get a chick with their own personal made up name? Anyways I found Internet Explorer and pinned it to my toolbar and everything is ok for now.

[geofflambert]

Alright I'm mad now. Those bloody bstards at MS have effed around with my defaults. Irfanview was my default picture viewer. Does anyone know how to fix that in Windows 10?

Oh, and they added flipping bing to my "favorites". How kind and thoughtful of them.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: danlongman

My professional experience with the press in general is that they are completely
unreliable in all but the most simplistic things. Most people have an area of
expertise, usually their trade or profession and one or two hobbies or side interests.
The rest of our general information we get from the press and other conventional
sources. I noticed early in my career that they were almost completely inept at
providing any kind of accurate technical detail in my knowledge area and the language
and terms used indicated no understanding of anything except in a most general way.
I thought since they cannot get my areas of expertise remotely near the truth this
must happen for every other field as well.

warspite1

Agreed. I have been doing a lot of research into the Battle of Jutland recently. Out of curiosity, part of this has involved reading newspaper articles and I have to say the level of accurate writing is low. In fact that is unfair - its pretty appalling and if, as you say, most people get their general knowledge from sources like the press then its a sorry state of affairs. Frankly I would sooner believe something written by soojan than something written in the newspapers....

So what has Soojan written about the battle?

[Orm]

So I woke up this morning and MicroSoftintheHead had taken over my computer (via Windows Update I suppose) and installed Windows 10 without my explicit permission.

Have you checked your "new" security settings? So that they are as you prefer them.

[geofflambert]

For your (and Warspite's edification) the NYT headlines the day the Battle of Jutland began:

[geofflambert]

June 1st

[geofflambert]

June 2nd

[geofflambert]

June 3rd

[geofflambert]

Warspite1, would you like me to copy any or all of the relevant articles and post them?

[geofflambert]

I will take other requests as well. Maybe tomorrow I'll post on Dogger Bank.

[Zorch]

Gorn, do these steps now:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2971725/ ... piece.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2975289/ ... aches.html

[geofflambert]

Thanks Zorch. [&o]

I did turn almost everything they wanted "on" "off". You know those things that would make your PC faster by sending them various kinds of info which is none of their business.

[Zorch]

You are welcome.
I don't intend to upgrade anytime in the next 100 years.

[bomccarthy]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: danlongman

My professional experience with the press in general is that they are completely
unreliable in all but the most simplistic things. Most people have an area of
expertise, usually their trade or profession and one or two hobbies or side interests.
The rest of our general information we get from the press and other conventional
sources. I noticed early in my career that they were almost completely inept at
providing any kind of accurate technical detail in my knowledge area and the language
and terms used indicated no understanding of anything except in a most general way.
I thought since they cannot get my areas of expertise remotely near the truth this
must happen for every other field as well.

warspite1

Agreed. I have been doing a lot of research into the Battle of Jutland recently. Out of curiosity, part of this has involved reading newspaper articles and I have to say the level of accurate writing is low. In fact that is unfair - its pretty appalling and if, as you say, most people get their general knowledge from sources like the press then its a sorry state of affairs. Frankly I would sooner believe something written by soojan than something written in the newspapers....

To be fair, most journalists have to cover a wide range of subjects. Certain areas, particularly finance, law, and M&A, enjoy coverage by specialists with related degrees and experience. However, you won't find their articles in the Des Moines Spectator or Eugene Press Telegram (I made those names up). Look instead in the Wall Street Journal or business pages of the NY Times (Andrew Ross Sorkin currently writes a regular M&A "column" for the NY Times - subscribe to Dealbook for daily email headlines - when he isn't creating TV shows like "Billions" for cable).

Most readers on this forum are interested in military subjects - this area definitely lacks knowledgeable reporters. In the two decades after WWII, there were many reporters well-versed in military matters, primarily because they served during the war. People like Robert Leckie, who had been a local newspaper reporter before the war, would have never considered serving in the military but for Pearl Harbor. After the war, they returned to journalism with a knowledge of the military that they lacked before the war.

With the end of the draft in the early 70s, the US military reverted back to recruiting only those who had a pre-existing interest in serving, few of whom had a journalism bent. As a result, you have to search far and wide today to find a journalist with first-hand knowledge of military matters.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: bomccarthy

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: danlongman

My professional experience with the press in general is that they are completely
unreliable in all but the most simplistic things. Most people have an area of
expertise, usually their trade or profession and one or two hobbies or side interests.
The rest of our general information we get from the press and other conventional
sources. I noticed early in my career that they were almost completely inept at
providing any kind of accurate technical detail in my knowledge area and the language
and terms used indicated no understanding of anything except in a most general way.
I thought since they cannot get my areas of expertise remotely near the truth this
must happen for every other field as well.

warspite1

Agreed. I have been doing a lot of research into the Battle of Jutland recently. Out of curiosity, part of this has involved reading newspaper articles and I have to say the level of accurate writing is low. In fact that is unfair - its pretty appalling and if, as you say, most people get their general knowledge from sources like the press then its a sorry state of affairs. Frankly I would sooner believe something written by soojan than something written in the newspapers....

To be fair, most journalists have to cover a wide range of subjects. Certain areas, particularly finance, law, and M&A, enjoy coverage by specialists with related degrees and experience. However, you won't find their articles in the Des Moines Spectator or Eugene Press Telegram (I made those names up). Look instead in the Wall Street Journal or business pages of the NY Times (Andrew Ross Sorkin currently writes a regular M&A "column" for the NY Times - subscribe to Dealbook for daily email headlines - when he isn't creating TV shows like "Billions" for cable).

Most readers on this forum are interested in military subjects - this area definitely lacks knowledgeable reporters. In the two decades after WWII, there were many reporters well-versed in military matters, primarily because they served during the war. People like Robert Leckie, who had been a local newspaper reporter before the war, would have never considered serving in the military but for Pearl Harbor. After the war, they returned to journalism with a knowledge of the military that they lacked before the war.

With the end of the draft in the early 70s, the US military reverted back to recruiting only those who had a pre-existing interest in serving, few of whom had a journalism bent. As a result, you have to search far and wide today to find a journalist with first-hand knowledge of military matters.

In the "old days" up to about the end of WWII the reporters were at the mercy of the military establishment who put up a wall of secrecy and only allowed certain filtered information to come out, often admitting to something only after a leak had exposed it.

Nowadays the military have massive PR 'spin' departments to shape the military's image. Any reporter not playing nice is likely to be left off the guest list for numerous demonstrations, briefings and combat zone billets.

Someone said "the first casualty of war is truth", but that holds true for military war preparation as well.

[geofflambert]

Here's the dog I trained to fetch me my calamari (not really).

[geofflambert]

Are other navies having this problem? Should we wargame bombing the sea in front of Chinese or Russian ships with cayenne peppers?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/09/europe/br ... _expansion

[geofflambert]

I've been trying to see what I can do with my little camera. Here is a short clip of Mars. Lots of noise. There are several things I can do to try to clean it up. I took video because trying to take a pic involves jostling the camera, which is no good. I don't believe a cable trigger is made for it, but I can time the pic so it's hands off, as long as I get the target in the frame. I'll do that after I get a better result than this.

[geofflambert]

I attempted to do Saturn as well, but it is so faint and you can't make out the rings. I'll try again once I improve the Mars shot as much as I can.