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
foone
@Foone
You want to know something about how bullshit insane our brains are?
OK, so there's a physical problem with our eyes: We move them in short fast bursts called "saccades", right? very quick, synchronized movements.
The only problem is: they go all blurry and useless during this

having your vision turn into a blurry mess every time you move your eyes is obviously not a good idea, so our brains hide it from us. Now, imagine you're an engineer and you have this problem.

You've got some obvious solutions you could do.
1. make the vision go black during movement. (Some VR games do this!)
2. just keep showing the last thing we saw prior to movement

both are good options with different downsides, but OH NO. this is assuming everything makes sense and is chronological and (regular) logical.
Your brain does neither of these options, really.

first, it basically puts your visual system on "pause". You're not seeing blackness or even nothing, you're just not seeing period.
then when you finish your saccade, it shows you what you now see at the new position. and then it pretends it can time travel.
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foone
foone
@Foone
So I was talking to @gewt about Job: A Comedy of Justice and I came up with a theory that I think explains why Heinlein's late-period work is so kinda-terrible and why I still enjoy it so much


So Heinlein had always been very interesting in the short parts of his novels, like the little snippets inside chapters. He had a very fun writing style, and wrote some fun dialogue with fun characters, right?>
It probably comes from how much of his early stuff was short fiction

And I think what happened with a lot of his longer works is that he'd just start writing fun bits and hope it would end up going somewhere or having a bigger plot by the end. like eventually he'd figure out where this was going, then go back and rewrite it into a cohesive whole

and I'm sure he had editors that'd help this process. No editor would let you publish something as rambly and changing-gears-every-other-chapter as The Number Of The Beast, for example... unless you were God-King Of Science Fiction 1980s Robert Heinlein.

so basically I think what happened is that by the 80s (when he was in his seventies!!) he lost the drive to go back and rewrite and he was too Untouchable for editors to make him.
CULTURE
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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
foone
foone
@Foone
So a weird thing about ultraviolet light, like blacklights and UV-C disinfecting light, is that it's invisible. Kinda. And also Kinda.

See there's a distinctive look to blacklights, they look like this.


But it turns out this isn't the ultraviolet that you're seeing.
See, the light produced by the bulb isn't perfectly monochromatic UV. Blacklights are in the UV-A range, which is 315 - 400 nm. The human vision range is 380-nm to 700nm.


There's a little overlap there, between the high UVA and the low end of human vision...
And there's multiple types of ultraviolet lights, but the kinds used in blacklights peak at 370nm or 340nm

so while most of the light coming out of the bulb is in the invisible UV range, some of the light is a bit higher up in the spectrum, which makes it slightly into the visible violet range.

So the light you see from UV lights is either the not-UV light it produces as a side effect, or something else fluorescing.
TECH
foone
foone
@Foone
So someone on IRC mentioned the ending(s) to Zero Wing and I found out there's a cheat code to skip to it. I thought it might have some more "All your base" style dialogue I could put in the generator, but I really wasn't prepared for what ending #1 looked like


ending #2 is some very thin credits


ending #3 is reportedly the "true ending", at least on the European release. The Japanese version has 35 endings.

This one is... more serious? a little?


The other 32 endings are translated here, by

functionally all the japanese endings work like this. you get CONGRATULATIONS and then CATS says something to you.
usually something silly, or possibly the debug menu cheat code
GAMING

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ashkan soltani
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BREAKING: @CommonsCMS @DamianCollins just released previously sealed #Six4Three @Facebook documents:

Some random interesting tidbits:

1) Zuck approves shutting down platform API access for Twitter's when Vine is released #competition


2) Facebook engineered ways to access user's call history w/o alerting users:

Team considered access to call history considered 'high PR risk' but 'growth team will charge ahead'. @Facebook created upgrade path to access data w/o subjecting users to Android permissions dialogue.


3) The above also confirms @kashhill and other's suspicion that call history was used to improve PYMK (People You May Know) suggestions and newsfeed rankings.

4) Docs also shed more light into @dseetharaman's story on @Facebook monitoring users' @Onavo VPN activity to determine what competitors to mimic or acquire in 2013.

https://t.co/PwiRIL3v9x
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Guillaume Chaslot
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The YouTube algorithm that I helped build in 2011 still recommends the flat earth theory by the *hundreds of millions*. This investigation by @RawStory shows some of the real-life consequences of this badly designed AI.


This spring at SxSW, @SusanWojcicki promised "Wikipedia snippets" on debated videos. But they didn't put them on flat earth videos, and instead @YouTube is promoting merchandising such as "NASA lies - Never Trust a Snake". 2/


A few example of flat earth videos that were promoted by YouTube #today:
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Jason Kint
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@jason_kint
I could create an entire twitter feed of things Facebook has tried to cover up since 2015. Where do you want to start, Mark and Sheryl? https://t.co/1trgupQEH9


Ok, here. Just one of the 236 mentions of Facebook in the under read but incredibly important interim report from Parliament. ht @CommonsCMS https://t.co/gfhHCrOLeU


Let’s do another, this one to Senate Intel. Question: “Were you or CEO Mark Zuckerberg aware of the hiring of Joseph Chancellor?"
Answer "Facebook has over 30,000 employees. Senior management does not participate in day-today hiring decisions."


Or to @CommonsCMS: Question: "When did Mark Zuckerberg know about Cambridge Analytica?"
Answer: "He did not become aware of allegations CA may not have deleted data about FB users obtained through Dr. Kogan's app until March of 2018, when
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Gbenga Samuel-Wemimo
Gbenga Samuel-Wemimo
@GbengaWemimo
An apostle was addressing his own members
If not for technology, you wouldn't be privy to his discussion with his members
He was sharing with them within the context of their understanding of his message, nature, and personality how he thrived in the middle of a season of casting

down
He mentioned what he achieved and even though it might sound like a boast, he was not boasting to you
He was boasting to his church members and as such, you cannot call it a boast
A father does not need to boast to his children and a shepherd surely does not need to boast to

his sheep
Newspapers needed a scandal and felt the message of the apostle was the right fit in their quest to get eyeballs
You read it and you began to insult the apostle
You, the son of a dog from Abatan refuse dump decided to drag an apostle on Twitter
Do you understand what it

means to be an apostle?
The angels working with an apostle are innumerable, they do not only work at his command, but they also work at his behest!
They are entrusted with the duty of ensuring that the Lordship of his office is respected by both spiritual and mundane entities

In the days of Jesus, many of the Pharisees and religious leaders treated his words and actions the same way many of the gutter bred stone casters with 100 Naira data and stolen or London used phone treated the words of the apostle
Jesus warned them at the time that they were
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James More
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One of the best decisions I made during a very turbulent 2020 was to leave conventional coding behind and embrace the #nocode movement. @bubble made this a reality. Although my own journey thus far is premature, I’ve learned a lot so here’s a power thread on....


‘How I created @buildcamp sales funnel landing page in under 2hours’.

Preview here 👇

https://t.co/s9P5JodSHe

Power thread here 👇

1. Started with a vanilla bubble app ensuring that all styles and UI elements were removed. Created a new page called funnel and set the page size to 960px as this allows the page to render proportionately on both web and mobile when hitting responsive breakpoints.


2. Began dropping elements onto the page to ‘find the style’. These had to be closely aligned to our @buildcamp branding so included text, buttons and groups - nothing too heavy. Played around with a few fonts, colors and gradients and thus pinned down the following style guide.


3. Started to map out sections using groups as my ‘containers’ to hold the relevant information and imagery needed to pad out the sales pitch. At this point, they were merely blocks of color #ff6600 with reduced opacity set to 5% to ease page flair.
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One thing that goes unremarked about Wikipedia: the vast majority of the content was written over 12 years ago—which means (given turnover) that the editors dominant today were not directly involved in that creation.

Put another way, the editors who built the dominant nodes in this network...


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Anshul Pandey
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@Anshulspiritual
BRAHMA VAIVARTA PURAN: IMPORTANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS.

This Puran introduces us to way of Vedas. On the request of Narad Muni Bhagwan Saavarni had preached this Puran. It is a summary of Dharma, Arth, Moksha etc.


Listening to this Puran one gets automatically attached to Vishnu and Shiva and realize that there is no difference between them. Vyasji divided this book into four parts. It has eighteen thousand shlokas. This whole book is in the form of dialogue between Suutji and Maharishi's.

The first part Brahmkhand, consists of Shrishti description. Here Shri is known as Para Brahma and description of Gokul is also mentioned, It also narrates the argument between Brahma and Narad in which both were defeated, and then Narad went to Shiva to attain more gyan.

Shivji advised him to go to Bhagwan Saavarni for this. Narad goes to Saavarni ashram to seek Knowledge and is totally amazed by the sorroundings.

Next is Prakriti khand which consists of dialogue between Narad and Saavarni where they discuss the

Importance of Shri Krishna through various stories. Then there is the discussion of Prakriti and its various hues. Listening to this gets you wealth.
Next is Ganesh Khand which describes the Punyak vrat done by Parvati ji. After this it narrates the birth of Kartikeya and Ganesh.
RELIGION
Vibhu Vashisth
Vibhu Vashisth
@VIBHU_Tweet
महाभारत की कहानी कौन नहीं जानता।लेकिन क्या आपको पता है कि महाभारत के ज्यादातर पात्र किसी न किसी श्राप में फंसे थे।अगर ये श्राप न होते तो कदाचित महाभारत की कहानी कुछ और होती।हिन्दु पौराणिक ग्रंथों में विभिन्न श्रापों का वर्णन मिलता है व हर श्राप के पीछे कोई कहानी अवश्य होती है।


आइए आज जानते हैं महाभारत कथा में वर्णित कुछ श्रापों के बारे में।

1) राजा पाण्डु को ऋषि किन्दम का श्राप

एकबार महाराज पाण्डु शिकार खेलने वन गए।झाडियों के पीछे कुछ हिल रहा था। मृग है सोचकर राजा ने बाण चलाया जो जाकर ऋषि किन्दम और उनकी पत्नी को लगा।वे दोनो रति-क्रीड़ा में लिप्त थे।

जब राजा ने उन्हें देखा तो बहुत दुखी हुए कि ये मुझसे क्या पाप हो गया।बहुत क्षमा याचना के बाद भी किन्दम ऋषि ने पाण्डु को श्राप दे दिया कि जब भी वो किसी स्त्री को काम भावना से स्पर्श करेंगे उसी क्षण उनकी मृत्यु हो जाएगी।पश्चाताप करने, वे सिंहासन पे अन्धे राजा धृतराष्ट्र को बैठाकर...


..स्वयं अपनी रानियों कुंती व माद्री के साथ वन चले गए।पांडवों का जन्म भी कुंती को ऋषि दुर्वासा द्वारा दिए गए मंत्र से हुआ था जिसमे किसी भी देव का स्मरण कर उस देव से कुंती,पुत्र प्राप्त कर सकती थी।एक बार माद्री पे मोहित हो जब पांडु ने उसे स्पर्श किया,उसी क्षण पांडु की मृत्यु होगयी।


2) उर्वशी का अर्जुन को श्राप

महाभारत युद्ध से पहले जब अर्जुन दिव्यास्त्र प्राप्त करने स्वर्ग गए तो वहां उर्वशी नाम की अप्सरा उन पर मोहित हो गयी। अर्जुन ने जब उन्हें अपनी माता के समान बताया तो यह सुनकर उर्वशी क्रोधित हो गयी और अर्जुन को श्राप दे डाला कि तुम नपुंसक की भांति...
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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
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