The #A

Please do not remove my text reviews if you are reblogging music from me. Writing Fandom Social Commentary Art AFAB/37 years old Non-binary Idgaf about pronouns, you can call me whatever

[commodorez]

Weatherstar and other specialty hardware from the Weather Channel of decades past.

Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 17

[gametunes]

Visit Original Link

Final Fantasy: Pray - The Promised Land

[memeclassheroes]

[theatomickatz]

I-I CAN'T -- I CAN'T MOVE?!

[bigscreenvideomusic]

Visit Original Link

A new EP! 2023 hasn’t been going great for me so far, but that isn’t any reason for me to give up. None of you can give up. I won’t let you. Thank you for listening, I’m trying to be more active on Tumblr but I have been insanely busy dealing with family. Caregiving is exhausting, as many of you know, but I’ve managed to find a little time for myself and I managed to create this – my first effort for 2023. I hope to do more! 

Remember, you are loved. Especially if you don’t feel like you are.

[toastbutteregg]

[capitalismkillz]

I love this meme because I think humans 10,000 years ago or 100,000 years ago would also like it

[keezybees]

It’s been a long week

[ironwoman359]

I felt this so hard

[exeunt-pursued-by-a-bear]

[funny-history]

[arroz-con-yolo]

There is NO reason this should be so fucking funny

[wagnetic]

I’ve seen this before but I still like it so much that I held my phone in front of my dog so she could see it.

[jethroq]

[soft-october-night]

Like to charge reblog to cast

[toonskribblez]

Medusa but instead of snakes her hair is made of these guys

[arrgh-whatever]

[xxthenumberaxx]

Things I never thought I'd be doing in 2022

[xxthenumberaxx]

The Mars Volta are making music again.

And touring.

This is the best solstice ever.

[lookcaitlin]

[averyterrible]

i can’t believe, 14 years later, we are presented with the greatest Bushism ever realized

[plum-soup]

I’m. Fucking losing it. Jesus

[swan2swan]

You know what?

I’m no longer holding Star Trek or Star Wars “accountable” for their clunky-looking sixties-and-seventies future technology.

Why?

Because the Enterprise is off on a years-long voyage through space. There’s no Verizon store, no Radio Shack, no Geek Squad out there. If the Klingons fire photon torpedoes and the bridge shakes and Spock’s head bangs against the fancy iPad72 touchscreen and cracks the glass, the ship’s toast. If Han Solo’s fingerprints get all over the starchart and the touch-calibration is off by half a centimeter, the Falcon is going right into a star. But if Mister Worf accidentally twists the command knob too hard and pops it off, he can just screw that thing right back on and it will keep working. Dust gets in there? Take it apart and clean it out. All the plugs are big and universal, all the power cells are functional and have a decent battery life, and nothing is built to expire in the next six months so you have to buy a new one.

That tech isn’t anachronistic or suffering a bad case of Zeerust–it’s practical, effective, and it works. Apple tried launching its own space exploration craft, it had to come back for full repairs within three months, and then it had to be upgraded over the next two.

But this? This is just good, long-lasting, fully-functional, and reliable craftsmanship.

[alexkablob]

The actual real-life space shuttles’ electronics looked pretty much like that for their entire lifespan and this is exactly why.

[marithlizard]

Oh my god, it all makes sense now. The Enterprise is the spaceship equivalent of a Volkswagen. 

[confused--robot]

Do people just not know what industrial/military equipment looks like?

Consumer devices are designed to break on purpose and lately be impossible to repair and no matter how sleek it is that’s a deplorable practice. On the other hand, industrial and military interfaces and hardware are designed for all the above points like resistance to fouling, repairable, designed for the angry 200 lb gorilla using it while wearing a space suit. I imagine a spaceship would look a lot like a ship down on earth:

In fact exactly the issues the above people pointed out about touch screens and fancy sleek touch control have happened. DDG-56 John S McCain suffered a collision with a commercial vessel due to complications with touch based throttle and steering controls; difficult to use, crew training, technical oversight. The Navy has decided touchscreens have proven to be a risk and will be replaced with more traditional controls.

Controls in aircraft look just as chunky because, again, it’s reliable and works. Granted multifunction displays (MFDs) and “glass cockpits” have been around since the 60s/70s in aircraft (first military and commercial much later) but in these cases they’re more display devices with switches and buttons for control input (iirc).

In summary I fucking hate when sci fi makes every surface polished white with enormous touch screens and gentle annunciators.

[swan2swan]

It’s been a number of years since I made this post, and this is one of the best additions (though there have been many good ones).

I also want to note that it has occurred to me that movies deliberately put in the smooth, sleek, consumer-optimized touchscreens and holograms because they’re selling you the products. They want you to see Tony Stark and Captain Kirk using these fancy smooth screens so you’ll go out and buy a new smartphone just like they use in the MCU (filmed on Samsung Cameras, using Apple Movie Studios!). 

It’s a SCAM.

[radical-eve]