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Posts Tagged ‘computers’

Among the Machines

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , , , , , on September 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Happy Stanislav Petrov Day, everyone! Perhaps you, like me, could use a refresher? Not to worry, Sam Matey-Coste has us covered.

Happy Stanislav Petrov Day

Petrov was under direct orders to follow protocol and to immediately, without hesitation, report any Oko nuclear launch warning to Soviet high command. Who would then, presumably, launch a nuclear counterattack on the United States. This nuclear World War III would have devastated human civilization, perhaps irrevocably.

Stanislav Petrov disobeyed his orders.

It’s a good story, made even more important because it’s true. 

Petrov died in 2017. As one source said at the time, “He is survived by his two children, two grandchildren, and the entire human race.”

Let’s hear it for the humanity that still matters, even among the machines.

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Photo by Dave Hoefler on Unsplash

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Quick Note for Mac Users

Posted in Other, tagged , , , , , , , on October 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I just upgraded to Safari 18 on my Mac and ran into a problem. Under most circumstances at the moment, it’s not possible to drag and drop the URL icon to a folder, desktop, or document.

This is deeply annoying. It’s a function I use for work. All. The. Time.

Yes, you can drag the URL and get a link with gobbledygook as the identifier.

— example link, no page header included: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255802563?sortBy=rank

(Good luck remembering what that link is for, especially when it’s snuggled up to several dozen of its friends.)

But if you want a normal link with the page header hot linked, like, you know, every person ever, you may be out of luck.

— what I’d rather have: safari 18 lost the ability to drag URL to… – Apple Community

The drag-and-drop method works sometimes, if you only have one window open and haven’t clicked on any links, or you drag sideways while muttering imprecations incantations, or hit the command button before (but not during) the actual click, or you’ve sacrificed a venti latte double mocha with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles to the IT gods, but otherwise not so much.

If I’d known about this I would have waited to update. If I could roll back I would. Maybe you won’t have the same problem, but maybe you will. Here’s hoping you can learn from my mistake.

I look forward to a fix.

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Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

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