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When I started my relationship hacking series, I said that I would post both the good and the bad...

I'm not really sure where to start on this journal entry, so I'll just lay it out here. Over the last while (a couple months, maybe), the romantic spark between my wife and I has practically disappeared. We still love each other a lot, we are kind to each other, we are still best friends... Everything is great except the spark is missing -- or at least quite muted.

I'm not quite sure what the cause is. I think that one major factor is that we are tired. My daughter is difficult at times (she's a 2 year old...) and we are tired. It's like we are working two jobs. I work my normal 9-5 job then I go home for the evening shift which involves making/cleaning dinner, a little play time with my daughter, then bedtime. That's all done sometime after 8:00, and by then we are both exhausted. We don't have the energy left to spend quality time together. We'll either watch TV together or she'll watch TV while I sit at my computer.

Meanwhile, I'm dating two different women and seeing them almost once a week each. Those 1-2 nights a week that I'm out is my only time that I'm not either at work or with my daughter. Most Saturdays I'm looking after my daughter alone, and Sunday is the only day we actually spend together as a family. Most of the time on those Sundays we are too tired to plan anything fun and end up catching up on household chores. My wife has a couple weekdays partially to herself. On Mondays Grandma takes my daughter for a few hours, and on Tuesdays she's in daycare so my wife has pretty much the whole day to herself. I guess I'm trying to justify those 1-2 nights per week when I'm gone -- My wife has two weekdays, I have two weeknights. I dunno...

Anyways, that's where we are at. We actually have a date night planned for Saturday night. That's a pretty special treat. We practically never have time away from our daughter. It's the 3rd time since she was born. We are going to get massages and then go out for a steak dinner. We have the entire night alone. Hopefully we can rekindle some of the spark.

I don't know if this is a result of the open relationship or not. On one hand, having a kid means our energy is focused there. By the time that job is done, we are exhausted. On the other hand, my wife sees me going on regular dates with two different women where she is lucky to get a date with me every 6 months. That's hardly fair.

One thing that I think needs to change is that my wife an I need to have more date nights. We need to find a babysitter. We need to carve out quality time together. I also think that her working almost every Saturday is taking it's toll. To me, it feels like I work 6 days a week, and on the 7th we spend it doing chores. We do need the extra money though.

I also don't know if this is a normal thing for new parents. Even before I had my daughter, the romantic connection between my wife and I would ebb and flow. It doesn't seem unreasonable that with the additional stress of raising a child that the romance suffers a bit. I've heard countless stories of deadbedrooms after children.

When it comes to my dating, I obviously really enjoy it. It's MY time. It's time when I can be my own person. Make my own memories and have my own experiences. It's the only time I have that is not either at work or at home. Is it selfish? Maybe, but it's a source of happiness. It gives me the energy and motivation to give 110% effort when I'm at home. I feel confident and attractive -- something that I have struggled with. I honestly think that if it weren't for the dating that I would be struggling with depression.

So that's where I'm at right now. I'd love to hear about your experience with keeping romance alive with children. Do you have tips? Am I being selfish with my dating (probably... but I feel like it's keeping me sane)?

Typewriters are ancient and should be abolished. People who want to keep a typewriter should be punished by being forced to use one.

One problem with typewriters is that sometimes certain letters might not work.

This would make it difficult to understand an article explaining the difference between a 3.5 inch floppy di_{_}k and a big hard di_{_}k, versus a mi_{_}roSD   _{_}ard.

It would become almost impossible for the reader to infer what the malfunctioning letter might be.

Or multiple malfunctioning letters on some typewriters.

More evidence that dark matter DOESN'T BLOODY EXIST, and they should look behind the curtain!

https://phys.org/news/2019-03-dark-evidence-axions.html

MDC quotes are going in the motd at the bottom of the page rotation starting tomorrow morning if my alarm can wake me up before I have to head out for yet another day of extreme remodeling. Post your favorites here.

[Update: Let's give it until Saturday before they go live, so people can be awake to actually contribute some quotes.]

[Update: (20190327_122317 UTC) Looks like @The+Mighty+Buzzard; had the same idea. He will collect sayings from comments to either one. New quotes can be added later, of course, but I would suggest getting any suggestions in as soon as possible. It's currently Wednesday, a reasonable cutoff date would be recommendations made through Saturday, inclusive. --martyb]

What Got this Started:

Like many others here, I was saddened to learn of the passing of Michael David Crawford (MDC).

Then I saw takyon's comment with a suggestion:

Maybe we can put a quote or two of his in the quotations thing.

"You say that like it's a bad thing."
"I Am Eternally In Your Debt."
"The Mind Simply Reels."
"Thank You For Your Submission. Our customer service personnel will respond to your request in the order it was received."

I think that is a brilliant idea! Disclaimer: I have not discussed this with anyone else on staff. Absent any opposition, I hereby volunteer to take on this task. A quick look at the man pages for fortune and for strfile as well as references in the code suggests it should be relatively straightforward.

What I Need from the SoylentNews Community:

MDC was... prolific in his writings. On SoylentNews alone, I see 6683 comments and who knows how many Journal entries. I can read pretty quickly, but not THAT fast! Further, my reading of something may miss a nuance that was obvious to someone else. So, I'm asking for help from the community.

If there was an expression or phrase of his which you would like to be considered, please reply to this journal entry with:

1. The quotation you would like considered.
2. A link (or links) to where you found it.

I would hope it would be obvious why, but I need to ascertain that said quote was actually his. If the quotation was taken from SoylentNews, then please provide a link to the actual comment (the link under the (#nnnnnn) part of the comment title bar) or, at a minimum, to the story or journal article in which it appeared.

If the quote is from elsewhere, then please provide a link to where it appeared.

So what say you? What has Michael David Crawford posted on-line that you would like to see considered for memorialization on this site?

Task:
        To blink an LED.

        A blinking LED is required on a control panel to indicate
          a warning condition.
        Therefore it must be extremely reliable.

Hardware engineer:

        Easy, I'll use a 555, a few resistors and a capacitor; or LM3909 chip.
        Done. Did I win a prize?

DIY Maker:

        Easy. I'll use an Arduino with the blink sketch and a resistor.
        Done. I have more billable hours than the first guy.

Senior Software Engineer:

        You guys have it all wrong.
        Such a system would never be flexible enough for a real application
          where a blinking LED indicator is required.

        Consider the inflexibility of the 555 approach.
        What if the marketing people change the requirements from a simple
          on/off blink to a different blink pattern.
        The simplest example would be the double blink.
                Blink, Blink, long pause, Blink, Blink, etc.

        Then consider the lack of sophistication that the Arduino has.
        With a simple microcontroller you can't have a web interface
          to configure the LED's blink rate.
        You would have to re flash the firmware.

        With a more sophisticated controller, like a Raspberry PI, or
          even better, a Beagle Bone, the system could automatically
          check on the internet for software updates; and automatically
          download and apply them.
        For security, downloads could be signed with 4096 bit keys
          using private certificates from the manufacturer.
        (This also ensures ongoing contracts since no other vendor
          would have the private certificates.)
        Higher end boards provide more flexibility.
        The LED controller could have it's own WiFI connection to
          not burden the rest of the system to provide its
          internet access.
        And even better . . .

(lightning bolt strikes in mid sentence)

Epic Showcases Gorgeous Ray Tracing Unreal Engine 4 Demo Running on a Single RTX 2080Ti GPU

During yesterday’s ‘State of Unreal’ keynote at the Game Developers Conference 2019, Epic Games showcased a gorgeous ray tracing demo titled ‘Troll’. Running on a single GeForce RTX 2080Ti graphics card and made with the Unreal Engine 4.22, Troll was developed with no custom plugins or code by Goodbye Kansas and Deep Forest Films.

‘Troll’ was visually inspired by the works of Swedish painter and illustrator John Bauer, who is famous for his illustrations of Swedish folklore and fairy tales anthology ‘Among Gnomes and Trolls’. Epic’s 3Lateral took care of 3D and 4D facial scanning.

“Troll’ from Goodbye Kansas and Deep Forest Films | GDC 2019 | Unreal Engine (1m33s)

As I've often noted, it's sad that few people have a decent grasp of history.

Given that what has come before is both a strong indicator and a significant influence on what is now and what's to come, it seems odd that many folks choose to remain ignorant of the past.

History is vast. So much has gone before. And if the Doomsday Argument is considered valid, quite a bit is still to come.

As such, it seems to me that those with a reasonable interest in the future should also have a reasonable interest in history as well.

If one accepts that, the question becomes: "Where do I start?"

Given that SoylentNews is an English language site, most users likely live in cultures evolving from The Western Tradition. That seems like a good place to start.

The series entitled The Western Tradition^* is a personal (as Eugen Weber points out, history is inherently a personal journey) journey through the history of Western civilization.

The video series above consists of 52 half-hour episodes. That seems like a lot, but consider that the series covers many thousands of years.

As such, the series must go through all this very fast. But, as Dr. Weber points out, here in America, we do everything fast. For example, here's the history of man in four minutes or so.

Regardless, I invite you to check this out and share it with others, especially children, as it provides a good look at how we got to where we are now (and, if cogitated upon, can provide us with some clues as to where we might be going).

Do any of you have suggestions to supplement the above? Including the works of Gibbon, Spengler and Spheeris.

Also, what (if anything) has history meant to you? Has it impacted your thoughts and actions in the present and/or your ruminations about the future?

Let's discuss.

^*Updated playlist that's actually in order/complete. Thanks to Hendrikboom for calling me out on my laziness with the initial link.

Somewhere around 4 years ago, I had a coworker named Vic.

At first blush, Vic was a charming man. He was a Brit and was originally hired on as a temp worker to pick up a few tickets while the rest of the team was busy with a major project. Vic seemed to have a good attitude (IMO probably the biggest thing with a new hire), and was eager to learn.

We ended up hiring Vic full time and as the project was winding down I started spending time on him trying to get him trained up and more useful. I quickly realized that training this guy was going to be a goddamn expedition. I had to train him on switching directories in a command window. I was literally starting from zero with him.

I would spend hours sitting beside him teaching him super basic stuff that many non-IT users probably know. After quite a few sessions, it became clear to me that this guy had some sort of learning disability. He was practically untrainable. I would try train him on something and he would take notes on whatever we were doing, but the next day we would be back at square one.

At one point I had assigned him a simple task that should have taken an hour or two to complete. I gave him two weeks to do it. Every day I would ask how is XX coming along? "Oh, good", he would say followed by some frantic clicking. I would tell him if he has any questions, I'm right here.

Finally the two weeks were up and I asked for the completed whatever it was. He had nothing. He had literally nothing to show. I lost it on him. "What the hell have you been doing for the last two weeks? You had literally one thing to do that should have taken a couple hours and you have nothing. I was right there and you asked nothing. What the hell, man?"

That was the last straw for me. This guy was fucking useless. Worse than useless. He would actively fuck stuff up and I would have to fix it. I told management that he was garbage and needed to go and a couple months later he was gone.

That should be the end of the story, but unfortunately that is just the beginning. After being let go, he contacted the team to see if anyone would be willing to give him a reference. The 3 of us politely told him that no, we didn't feel comfortable providing a reference. For a couple months, he would call us every few weeks asking for us to give us a reference we would always refuse. He decided to use one of my coworkers as a reference anyways, which was a little awkward when they called her. She had to politely refuse.

We went a couple years without hearing or thinking about him, until about a month ago when he emails my coworker asking why she won't give him a reference. He also sends her a message on Facebook asking the same. My coworker goes to our manager and HR about this, and together they draft up a reply basically saying I don't feel comfortable providing a reference and furhter inquiries can be made directly to HR.

Well he didn't like that. Since then he has been sending increasingly crazy emails. Here is the most recent:

Mr [corporate legal counsel],

Good Morning.

Finally, I got your attention.

Listen, do not tell me what you are going to do.

ACTION speaks louder than 'empty' words.

Go ahead and take your steps.

Let's head over Queens Bench, we will escalate this matter.

Don't forget now, file for harassment and to top it off, get a restraining order.

Keep smiling and have and good day.

Good Luck :)

[crazy Vic],

What a nutbar... This guy seems to think he is entitled to a good reference. He was not good with computers. He sucked at learning. He was/is not IT material. I don't see what his end game is. Does he expect that after enough harassment we'll all of a sudden be all like "Oh, sorry, yea you actually are a good worker; I'd love to give a reference..."

Fucking guy...

AMD Ryzen 3000 CPUs Get Early BIOS Support in X370 & X470 Motherboards, Next-Gen Zen 2 Based Family Internally Codenamed as Valhalla

Also, the creator of the Ryzen DRAM calculator has listed down some new features that might be coming in the Ryzen 3000 processors with one confirming that the Ryzen 3000 series processors would indeed ship with CCD (Compute Core Design, a new name for CCX), support a maximum of 32 threads which confirms 16 core parts, following is the full list of features which were found:

1) New memory controller with partial error correction for nonECC memory
2) Desktop processor with two (2 CCD) chiplets on board, 32 threads maximum
3) New MBIST (Memory built-in self-test)
4) Core watchdog – is a fail/safe function used to reset a system in case the microprocessor gets lost due to address or data errors
5) XFR – at the moment I do not see anything special about it, the algorithm and limits have been updated. Scalar Controll come back with new processors.
6) Updated core control has a symmetric configuration of the active cores . In 2CCD configurations, each chiplet has its own RAM channel in order to minimize latency to memory access. 1 channel on 8 cores will be a bottleneck if you use the system in the default state.

Have you heard of any feature like this? Does it even matter?

If you are buying 8 GB or 16+ GB DRAM modules, do they need to be ECC?