BC TECH
Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

Have you gotten tired of mechanical keyboards with all their physical feedback?

Have you considered... A completely flat keyboard?

 It's very flat
my favorite part is that since all buttons are the same shape and size, the spacebar is just 8 space buttons in a row
So why is it flat? Just because they hate good keyboards? Nope! it's for a reason...

Surprise! the plastic cover can be lifted up. The keyboard layout is on a piece of paper.
And it comes with a blank one so you can make your own.
And some of these buttons aren't just buttons. They're macros! From the MS-DOS era, clearly.
the feature I really wasn't expecting:
It has a BEEPER.
It beeps on every key press!
It also has four different connectors. Mine came with an adapter from the left connector to an AT/PS/2 cable.
I think the middle two might be host connectors (AT and PS/2): you can hook a regular keyboard up through them.
The rightmost one is RS-232 serial, most likely
And it turns out this thing is a Model KB3000
And they taped a piece of paper saying "get the utilities and manual from our website" on the back.
So it's by Logic Controls, apparently.
who are still around!
sadly the KB3000 is no longer on their site. TO THE WAYBACK MACHINE!
here we go.
The KB3000 Programmable Keypad!
Yep, I was right, you can daisy-chain other keyboards into it.
dang it.
if you want the DOS version you gotta ask for it.

WELL that info isn't on their page anymore... but I'm gonna ask.
Interestingly the manual says it can emulate an XT keyboard. Fancy.

The other thing is that apparently you can program it without connecting the serial: serial is fully optional. So it must use some kind of out-of-band PS/2 messages to program it.
emailed 'em.
As much as I want them to provide the files, I will be 0% surprised if they just reply "bruh it's 2020"
anyway while I have the progamming tool here and it's windows and should work fine on my windows PC... I think it's gonna need to talk to a real PS/2 port, not this USB adapter. So it's time to pull out a windows 95 machine with real PS/2
Eh, win98, close enough
XMODEM TIME
There we go. We can configurize all of this.
oh no, keyboard cat is missing!
Doesn't work. Shame.
@yngling located a download which includes the DOS utility, though. Lemme try that one:
https://t.co/op7ByWT9au
TEXT MODE
dang it
Maybe the PS/2 controller on this system is too weird? It's one of those funky ones that can magically do keyboard or mouse by autodetecting which one you plugged into it.
I'll have to grab a more generic computer and try it there.
But not right now. I've dug around in the back room enough already today, so I'll have to play with another keyboard.

Like this one!
It's just as flat.
And again, the buttons are written on paper. So you can make your own layouts!
And the one it comes with is double-sided, and the other side is AMAZING.
Have you ever wanted to type on alphabetical comic sans?
no? Fuck you, you're gonna.
It's got a feature very few (wired) keyboards have:
An on/off switch.
So this is an IntelliTools IntelliKeys USB. It does not appear as a USB keyboard! so yes, you do need to install the drivers.
It's also got TRS connectors on the side for switches
So unlike the good luck we had with Logic Controls... IntelliTools doesn't exist anymore. They were sold to AbleNet in 2014.
Although apparently they open sourced the drivers!
https://t.co/17fYshhPwu
Anyway, unlike the previous Flat Keyboard which was designed for industrial/retail automation reasons, this one is designed for accessibility reasons. You can design keyboards with specifically placed large buttons for easy use by people with limited motor skills
and that's what the "switches" connectors are about: you can hook up things like sip-and-puff device or foot pedals or whatever is needed.
hello world
typing on this is slow
also keep in mind that this keyboard is HUGE
Anyway let's open up the KB3000 and see what's in side.
Surprisingly little, for how incredibly heavy this keyboard is.
(the case is sheet metal!)
Bottom of the PCB
Flip it, and we've got 3 chips, two jumpers, and the beeper.
There's some missing parts: I think that's because this one has the serial port but doesn't actually support serial. That's an optional function, so those missing chips are probably serial-TTL chips
So that first chip is a MM74HC4066N. That's a quad analog switch. Maybe it's used to switch between the AT/PS/2 inputs and the microcontroller?
Well that's interesting.
This is a RAMTRON FM24C16, a 2 kilobyte FRAM.
FRAM is ferroelectric RAM, it's non-volatile storage, but acts much like a RAM chip for simplicity.
2K is about how much storage is needed to store the keyboard layout.
And the big chip is an Atmel AT87F51.
As you probably guessed already... that's a 8051.
It's got 4 kilobytes of flash storage for code, and 128 bytes of RAM. It can be run from 0 to 24 MHz. Lemme check the oscillator to see how fast they're running this.
Looks like the answer is 12mhz
I don't have a tool to dump the 8051 right now. I could probably build one using a big enough arduino/teensy, but I don't know if they set the lock bits

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@Foone
I got a Toshiba T1200, which has a bad screen, and a dead CMOS battery, and I thought the hard drive was broken too...


but I rebooted it and heard a KTHUNK and a really loud spin-up noise and holy shit, the hard drive works!


and it still has files on it. the newest date is January 1994.


It's a 21mb hard drive, with ~37k of bad sectors.

This fucker is never going to spin up again, so I better go find some serial cables and copy shit off now.


The backlight is fucked so I'm shining a flashlight on it.
without it, it looks like this.
TECH
foone
foone
@Foone
Do I look like I know what an MPEG is?


di i look like i know what an mpeg is


do i liook like i pw what am ,[eg os
FUN
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foone
foone
@Foone
I like how mediawiki exports pages because there's nothing I enjoy more than parsing a 1 gigabyte XML file

and I'm doing simple-english-wiki! it's way smaller than english wikipedia
I can only imagine how impossibly unparsable that nightmare is

fun fact: when programmers need to write code to extract data from an XML file, the process usually goes like this:
1. find XML file
2. open it in a text editor, see what the structure is
3. write some code that parses that

do you really want to open a 1 gigabyte XML file in your text editor?

do you want to fucking die?

I used to run into this problem back when I worked for the government, because sometimes I'd click a database query log (don't ask why our logs were in XML, it's... complicated) and it would turn out to be 100mb
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foone
foone
@Foone
I think I've permanently confused KiCAD
it's reminding me that I need to connect this capacitor to Nothing


attach this end to ground, this end to +5v, and this end to THE VOID

I accidentally made all the capacitors gigantic and they won't fit anymore

halp


gonna design an ISA card using some of these

it's gonna be tricky to fit in the case


that's from this
SCIENCE
foone
foone
@Foone
Something that I didn't realize but hurt my brain to learn:
John Norman (aka John Frederick Lange Jr.), of the Gor series of sci-fi/BDSM novels, is still alive.
He released two books (one of them a Gor book, #35), in 2019.


I guess with the fact that the series started in 1966 and feels like it's always a historical thing... I assumed he had to have quit writing and/or died back in like 1986.

Nope. Still alive, he's 89, and was apparently still writing as of 2 years ago.

also, my brain being what it is, I totally just googled for the book's cover image by entering "trans man of gor" which is NOT the title.

in my defense, how many book serieses look like this WITH THE SAMEAUTHOR FROM BOOK #1 to BOOK #35?


Anyway if you look at any this and think it's a suggestion that you should try reading any of these novels or learning anything about them, you are quite mistaken.

Gor is bad sci-fi and bad BDSM, and you should skip it for either reason.
CULTURE

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“Why are Tumblr and Facebook cracking down on sex so much? And why is Facebook in so over zealous about it? It’s all Apples fault!” Etc etc

I can explain all. It is largely the fault of a set of US laws called SESTA and FOSTA.
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Nicolas
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A brief analysis and comparison of the CSS for Twitter's PWA vs Twitter's legacy desktop website. The difference is dramatic and I'll touch on some reasons why.

Legacy site *downloads* ~630 KB CSS per theme and writing direction.

6,769 rules
9,252 selectors
16.7k declarations
3,370 unique declarations
44 media queries
36 unique colors
50 unique background colors
46 unique font sizes
39 unique z-indices

https://t.co/qyl4Bt1i5x


PWA *incrementally generates* ~30 KB CSS that handles all themes and writing directions.

735 rules
740 selectors
757 declarations
730 unique declarations
0 media queries
11 unique colors
32 unique background colors
15 unique font sizes
7 unique z-indices

https://t.co/w7oNG5KUkJ


The legacy site's CSS is what happens when hundreds of people directly write CSS over many years. Specificity wars, redundancy, a house of cards that can't be fixed. The result is extremely inefficient and error-prone styling that punishes users and developers.

The PWA's CSS is generated on-demand by a JS framework that manages styles and outputs "atomic CSS". The framework can enforce strict constraints and perform optimisations, which is why the CSS is so much smaller and safer. Style conflicts and unbounded CSS growth are avoided.
TECH
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Devdutta
Devdutta
@Devdutta96
Please please please take your cyber security seriously even if you don’t consider yourself a high risk person. Here are a few easy things to start with. 1/n

Switch from WhatsApp to Signal and enable disappearing messages. Most of us cannot stop using WhatsApp entirely but at least turn off back ups to Google Drive or iCloud. 2/n

Do not have private conversations using the messaging service on any social media platform like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. 3/n

Switch from Gmail to ProtonMail or any other secure email service provider. 4/n


Switch from Google Docs to CryptPad or RiseUp Pad.
CYBER SECURITY , IT PRIVACY , CYBER SECURITY STEPS
Gergely Orosz
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@GergelyOrosz
The 12 most important pieces of information and concepts I wish I knew about equity, as a software engineer.

A thread.

1. Equity is something Big Tech and high-growth companies award to software engineers at all levels. The more senior you are, the bigger the ratio can be:


2. Vesting, cliffs, refreshers, and sign-on clawbacks.

If you get awarded equity, you'll want to understand vesting and cliffs. A 1-year cliff is pretty common in most places that award equity.

Read more in this blog post I wrote: https://t.co/WxQ9pQh2mY


3. Stock options / ESOPs.

The most common form of equity compensation at early-stage startups that are high-growth.

And there are *so* many pitfalls you'll want to be aware of. You need to do your research on this: I can't do justice in a tweet.

https://t.co/cudLn3ngqi


4. RSUs (Restricted Stock Units)

A common form of equity compensation for publicly traded companies and Big Tech. One of the easier types of equity to understand: https://t.co/a5xU1H9IHP

5. Double-trigger RSUs. Typically RSUs for pre-IPO companies. I got these at Uber.


6. ESPP: a (typically) amazing employee perk at publicly traded companies. There's always risk, but this plan can typically offer good upsides.

7. Phantom shares. An interesting setup similar to RSUs... but you don't own stocks. Not frequent, but e.g. Adyen goes with this plan.
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Danny Weinbaum
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A thread about Eastshade's bike mechanic!

When I originally thought of putting a bicycling in Eastshade, I was pretty sure it wasn't going to work, for the simple fact that if it was easy, we'd see a lot more rideable bikes in games. Well, I was wrong. It took a mere week.


Its essentially a first person controller with extra momentum, resulting in the the movement direction lagging behind your look direction. Then I used the angle between the look and the movement to dictate camera "bank" and handle bar rotation, and voila! Game changing feature!


The look of the bike was harder than the movement. Bicycles are fairly modern, so it was tricky to fit it to the setting. I took some artistic liberties and settled on a penny farthing (but wooden), ignoring how impossible that would be to ride on the rugged terrain in Eastshade.

Surprisingly, the hardest part was sound. It didn't feel like riding a bike until I found the right sounds and how to trigger them. For a while I was stuck thinking too realistically. A penny farthing is fixed gear, pedaling sounds nothing like a regular modern bike.

Finally I abandoned realism and went with sounds normal people would associate with biking. We're all so used to modern bikes that we strongly associate the distinct ticking of a freewheel mechanism (think of the sound when you stop pedaling and coast on a modern bike).
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A #story from #Thiruvilayadal puranam-one of divine leelas of Bhagwan Shiva

#threadseries #Madurai

Story 16- it is about how Bhagwan Shiva explained the meaning of Vedas to the Rishis.

வேதத்துக்குப் பொருள் அருளிச் செய்த படலம்


Once there was a great deluge,everything in the world was destroyed.All lifeforms that existed got perished.Afterwards ,due to Bhagwan Shiva creation started.Then from Bhagwan Shiv ji's mouth-birth of 🕉 OM- Pranavam happened.From Pranavam,4 vedas appeared. Rishis learned them.

Many Rishis in Naimisharanya learned Vedas&recited them but they didn't understand the meaning&essence of Vedas. They were worried as they couldn't find any guru who can teach them the meaning of Vedas.That time,Rishi Arabhatar visited them.Rishis told him about need their worry.

Rishi Arabhatar told them that Bhagwan Shiva has given Vedas &he would be grateful enough to teach the meaning as well.But for that rishis have to rigorous penance at a sacred place.Also told them to go to Sundareswarar temple in Madurai to do tapas in front of Dakshinamurthy.

Assured them that Dakshinamurthy himself will come & teach them.Rishis proceeded to Madurai & started their tapas in front of Dakshinamurthy sannidhi for almost a year starting from Karthigai month pournami to next year Karthigai month pournami following all rituals..annadan
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@luciame16
Some thoughts on episode 54 of #Hercai

If you ever cross the distance and come to me, come with love that blooms in your heart.
~ Şems-i Tebrizi

#Reyyan #Miran #ReyMir #EbruŞahin #AkınAkınözü
#HercaiThoughts


1
I have to make a note before writing about this episode. I was the person (still am) who thinks that bringing back D. was a bad idea. I repeat it that for me the writing of S1 and S2 is like tossed into the bin with that plot evolution, but they had to invent something+
#Hercai

2
+ to be able to continue to prolong the general story after Aslan’s story did not work out. All the suffering of M., all the crying seems for “nothing” for two seasons and we viewers are also kind of fed up in seeing him cry all the time when with the upcoming episodes+
#Hercai

3
+he is justified the most to cry. With her resurrection now the attention shifts back to Miran’s storyline and I don’t know if I like this to be honest. This said, Dilsha is here and we have to deal with her.
#Hercai

4
So, my comments are going to be how I find they wrote her into the story, the details we get to know, the flashbacks we get to see, the way it was filmed and directed, with leaving out if I agree on it or not but describing along the way what I saw.
#Hercai
CULTURE
WAKE UP AUSTRALIA WAKE UP
WAKE UP AUSTRALIA WAKE...
@WakeAustralia
Facebook originally a CIA program called "LifeLog".
LifeLog, via DARPA, terminated on Feb 4th, 2004.
Facebook was launched on Feb 4th, 2004.
Many of the LifeLog team became execs at FB.
Zuckerberg is a figurehead.
CIA allowed Cambridge to help Trump win

https://t.co/enzOXDCogV


Pentagon Kills LifeLog
BUSINESS