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I have zero experience with anything in the space program, but this all looks REMARKABLY like the F/A-18 Avionics I worked on for years. The board connecters look identical to what most of those boxes used, as well as the test benches (I'm specifically familiar with the AN/USM-484). The circuit board designs, etc. all have a ton of similarities as well.

I imagine it was a function of the design constraints in that time period, and similar program needs.

There are very few records of any of this out there, similar to the Spacelab equipment I imagine. The -484 ran a Harris H100 minicomputer with an HP terminal and a GPIB bus. I've linked one of the few photos that you can find, but it's from an extended version of the test bench and has the minicomputer rack off to the right cut off.

Sorry for the off topic, but it's always cool to see stuff like what I spent years working on come across this site!

https://api.army.mil/e2/c/-images/2007/02/12/2612/army.mil-2...


I have a 5090 machine sitting idle that I'm considering turning into a machine for my own small team (3 devs).

Are you willing to share any lessons learned, etc. that I could make use of? We are evaluating paying for a SOTA sub or trying this, and the talk about Qwen3.6-27B makes me want to try deploying this machine.


Sell the machine for $4K, use it to pay for Codex Pro for everyone for a year. Everyone will be significantly more productive and happy.

It's not even a real comparison if they are actually using them for coding.

If you are deploying always running agents (e.g. monitoring logs and services) then sure - a QWEN local server is a good choice. But for coding the cost in productivity of using a lower performing model is way too high.


The 5h quota of Codex Pro on GPT 5.4 Medium lasts me for around an hour and a half, maybe 2 hours. And this is already the "savy" setup. Enable GPT 5.5 High fast and you will be beached in 30 minutes with active development.

For continues all day work you definitely need a higher tier sub level.

I'm actually looking into deploying a GPU at my company because we can not give out our code. Qwen 3.6 looks good


this might be true for the plus account. For the "Pro" tier ($100-$200/month) the 5h limit is never a problem.

Right, I did swap that. Still, you have to pay that 4k then every year and give out the code. I also assume that prices will go up as no AI company (but NVIDIA -> selling shovels) is currently making any money.

For some projects the giving out the code part might be ok (i use Codex there too) but for the core app at the company I'm working at there is currently a strict no-AI policy. A local GPU solves this.


Anyone who frivolously suggests throwing away possible independence in favor of dependence on a Silicon Valley company is either incredibly naïve or acting in bad faith.

Not necessarily so. I can see how a bid to predict how thing will be in 1 year in AI-based coding is likely a losing one. So the idea is to extract the maximum value now, and turn it into profits that would buy you whatever is adequate for the next steps. For comparison, the AI-based coding landscape a year ago, in May 2025, wasn't even close to what we have now, and half the key tools did not exist.

OTOH, as we see, the larger models demonstrate diminishing returns, smaller models demonstrate improvements, and hardware does not show any signs of becoming cheaper, so holding on existing decent GPUs may, too, be a winning strategy in longer term.


I'll choose not to respond to your personal attack.

But in term of actually running a dev team - you are free to use QWEN or another quantized local model that can run on an RTX 5090 for coding if it makes you feel more independence. However you would struggle and spend many many more hours achieving the same thing, with a lot more debugging time, long delays before it's done, and many more prompts.

It's just not the right approach. I use QWEN and other local models all the time, but for more clearly defined monitoring and classification tasks.


I have a van that does all of that better. Seriously.

Mercedes Metris, and I average 27MPG driving it like I do my Leaf.

It's also amazing for going to the water and being able to change in it, going skiing and being able to dress out, etc.

SUV's are hugely overrated. I have a 4WD (GX470) and honestly we rarely ever drive it because even for fire roads the van is more than capable enough.

That said, it IS a niche vehicle. I'm rather sad they didn't catch on more.


Yeah, a van is the real sport utility vehicle.

And yeah, people hugely misunderstand needing 4WD. If you aren't off-roading it's not doing much for you.


To be pedantic American Express and Discover exist.

But I agree with your meaning. We are beholden to some third party no matter how we move in the current situation.


I've found it funny how many people still believe that most places in the US don't take Discover. I almost exclusively use my Discover card and the number of times I've had it declined is a tiny fraction of a percent. Most people also don't seem to realize that Discover is also a bank, so you can use it for both credit and checking/savings. So yeah, you likely don't have to be forced to use the duopoly of Visa and Mastercard. The only time I've recently used one of my Visa cards was when I visited Europe where I found much more places don't accept Discover, although there were still many that did.

Hopefully the acquisition of Discover by Capital One results in lower processing fees so the network broadens globally and makes the notion that Discover isn't viable a thing of the past.


Amex is regularly rejected by businesses and cannot be your only credit card, so really you maybe have Discover.

I also wouldn’t say either of those is particularly better than Visa/Mastercard. They all engage in the same practices more or less


The only places I've found that refuse AMEX are very small mom and pop operations. And of those, many don't accept cards of any type: cash only.

Fair enough, it's probably not as common as I think and is more of a reputation.

Costco?

[Edit] -- And I've frequented several independent coffee shops that are cashless.


Costco doesn't even accept Mastercard (credit cards), so they're kind of a unique case here where they intentionally choose to only accept one particular type of credit cards.

Guessing they have their own branded card that they push you to use?

Correct, and it used to be AMEX.

Why is this downvoted? While slightly sarcastic, you make a good point.

Is it possible to get a UnionPay (China) or JCB (Japan) credit card issued by a European bank? That would be very interesting. I assume in the last 10 years, there is way more acceptance of UnionPay in Europe. UnionPay is widely accepted all over East and South East Asia these days because there are so many Chinese tourists.


Not in the slightest.

Its both about your decision making in getting to that point, and about what you might do to get out from under those debts.

Exactly the issue we see in this situation.


I tried looking this up, and they don't say anywhere what they mean by prescription. Mine are 90 days, so I want to assume thats normal but don't honestly know. Looking up dosing it seems that 3x300mg is as small as is prescribed, and it can go up to 3x1200mg.

Then we have the increase in incidence. The incidence rate is already small in those age groups, so even doubling it is a tiny number.

I'm going to stop taking it (I take something between 1/10 and 1/5 of my prescribed dose anyhow) and think about if the benefit to me is worth the added risk.


I unfortunately don't really have the luxury of just stopping it - if I don't take it, the nerves in my hands and feet start to almost feel like they are 'buzzing', like constantly, randomly active.. which makes sleep practically impossible


Sorry to hear that. I'd say that risk very small absolute risk is worth it then, given both the quality of life and the other health problems that lack of sleep would bring.


I have worse version of that, when I feel any sensation as pain all over skin. Nothing helps much, so I got into opioid abuse.

Right now, fresh out of rehab, thinking about my options.


Well damn. I take this as needed for a back injury that left me with chronic pain. My prescription is for a LOT more than I take (I take it about 20% as often as prescribed).

Now I'm not so sure I want to take it. My saving grace is that I'm on the younger end and haven't taken it that long.

After reading the paper and looking into dosing I learned that I'm taking a tiny fraction of the normal dose. Wow. Learn something every day.


I had to look this up because I wasn't aware of it. It seems the creators themselves have refuted this and said that it was a journalist twisting their answers.

https://www.them.us/story/lilly-wachowski-work-in-progress-s...


That's a bit overly reductive of their answer:

'It's not something that I want to come out and rebut. Like, yes, it's a trans allegory — it was made by two closeted trans women, how can it not be?! But the way that they put that question in front of my answer, it seems like I’m coming out emphatically saying, “Oh yeah, we were thinking about it the whole time.”'


I have to say, thats like someone saying anything I write is an allegory for my career (military). It may be informed by it, but its not an allegory beyond the fact that it shaped me.


Sure, the same way LotR is not an allegory for WW1, but it's difficult to miss the connections, whether Tolkien intentionally placed them there, or simply because those themes were something he felt deeply about.


In both cases the artists were, as one would say, working through some stuff...


Turns out "You can't go home again" is a powerful storytelling frame


Some of these are, as others have commented, guidelines meant to be broken. Others are solid insights into technical limitations leveling the playing field (Phase One being equal to a phone after compression and resizing when displayed on a phone).

I have to say that the one regarding the rule of thirds was... wrong. Thats always been a rule to break, and square isn't even close to a new format. Shooting 120 film in 6x6 is, and was, common. Its what the Apollo Astronauts took with them. Its also my favorite format.


I actually really feel this. Before I retired I had a homelab in the learning, testing, experimenting sense. I didn't run anything for home "production" on it because the downtime wasn't appreciated.

Now I have a more capable rack, but it's all just running stuff I use. I don't experiment on it at all, and I don't use it to gain any new skills.

So I do call it a homelab, but its not quite what people understand that to be.


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