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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • So, most pump POS used to have a labeled or unlabeled mute button. That has become rare.

    So far, I’ve been able to kick all of them into a diagnostic/trouble menu by pressing pairs of keys on each side of the monitor in sequence from the top.

    Some of them have a timeout on this screen, but the counter resets when you hit a key.

    Passwords can be entered from the keypad, with ok/enter also working. I bet the passwords are the manufacturer default, probably a 5-7 digit number. I was able to find partial training manuals and setup docs from one of the POS vendors but I didn’t find a default password or deeper technical docs for the one brand I looked into.

    Fucking ads in my face fucking piss me off.





  • Novel inbound. Don’t think I’ve ever written this down.

    I hadn’t heard of the big mountain lion from Florida, I’ll have to look into it. Nifty.

    I have heard that the lions in Florida experienced a bad genetic bottleneck and are inbred and won’t survive long term without intervention. There has been discussion about bringing in fresh breeding stock to try and help them, don’t know if its been instituted.

    I saw mine deep in the woods, about 10mi north of a place called Cougar Holler. (I heard about that holler after this.) I saw the cat in Skyline WMA in North Alabama. Was 2mi from a road, no trail, after dark, coming up the side of a holler.

    On a flat spot up the side, almost to the top, I saw what looked like green headlights coming towards me. It was confusing because you couldn’t even get a four wheeler in there and it was quiet. Realized it was eyes as it got closer, we were moving towards each other. Got to about 20 yards and realized it was a giant cat. LED lamp, so color isn’t great/lot of green, but it looked like gold/tan fur and white belly. Its tail was proportionally shorter than a house cat and longer than a bobcat. End of the tail was squarish, almost tufted. Face was blocky and a little flatter than a common housecat. It was twice, maybe three times the size of a bobcat, so probably a juvenile.

    The way it moved was like a snake slithering. It was up on a deadfall, and it kept sliding out of my light. It slid off the log towards me. At that point I drew my handgun and started growling and hissing. It stopped and stared at me and I kept moving towards it. It turned back the way it came and just casually slithered away. It wasn’t afraid of me, just no longer interested.

    I know bobcats and house cats. This was not that.

    I will never, ever, forget its eyes or the way it moved. The entire event is burned into my memory. Adrenaline was up, but I wasn’t scared, living in the moment, excited. Got the shakes when I made it back to my truck and sat down.

    One of the peak experiences of my life.



  • Machinist@lemmy.worldtoAsklemmy@lemmy.mlWhat Pseudoscience do you Believe?
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    4 months ago

    All electrical components contain magic smoke that was put into them at the time of manufacture. If that smoke is released, it doesn’t work anymore.

    Some broken or malfunctioning machinery respond to incantations projected with emotion. Cuss a machine hard enough and it will start working again.

    Another one I’ve personally experienced, but don’t know of any studies for: the main casting of machining equipment such as mills or lathes is a big crystal with unique properties. Each machine has different frequencies it resonates at when cutting. You can hear and feel the vibration when cutting and tune the machine/program for more efficient cutting and tool life. Sort of like taking a guitar that is out of tune and tuning it to a pleasant chord. Two identical machines will need different tunings. This tuning can change over time due to wear, temperature, humidity or maybe the phase of the moon.

    Unrelated to machinery: there are mountain lions in the deep south in the deep woods. I had one check me out once. The state wildlife agency denies the modern existence of mountain lions and I didn’t believe in them until I was face to face with one. I had to growl and hiss at it to convince it that I wasn’t interesting.





  • My ears always perk up when somebody starts yakking about Zionism. (Not that I support the Palestinian genocide or Israel, blah, blah, blah.)

    I don’t really understand why it’s such a big thing on Lemmy. Is it a tankie thing? A non-US perspective that I’m not used to? Some weird strain of Leftist ideology?

    It has been my experience that people going on about Zionism get real pissy real quick. They also seem to be somewhat detached from reality. Detached from like working and struggling for a living. It seems counterproductive to the Left’s goals a lot of the time.

    Is it kids that have picked up a bunch of talking points from somewhere?








  • The manual lathe is the most dangerous piece of equipment in a shop in terms of fatalities. They cannot be made ‘safe’. You can only train people how to use them safely and not put idiots on them.

    I’ve seen the chuck key of shame used and support its use. My rule was one chuck key fuckup, second offense, immediate termination.

    I used to have a safety presentation on lathes. It was called, “The Happy Fun Lathe Safety Presentation.” Kittens and puppies on the title and chock full of gore.