cellio | short takes

Going to the eye-doctor and having my pupils dilated seems to cause the day to become bright and sunny. But this is Pittsburgh, where sunny days are relatively uncommon. Does this mean that most people in Pittsburgh never have their eyes checked this way, or are we all mysteriously choosing the same few days for this?

I posted the preceding on the "great unanswered questions" page on our wiki at work. In keeping with the name, I've received no answers.

Why does Windows 8 hide the control to shut down the computer? The discussion in the (currently-)top-voted answer makes a good deal of sense. And I actually didn't know that it's now considered safe to just turn a running computer off; decades of "don't do that" have trained me not to.

Back in July 530nm330hz posted a review of a new book of lessons from the talmud, specifically tractrate B'rachot (blessings). Based on that review I recently bought the book and I'm quite enjoying it so far. It's organized by talmudic page, so I first jumped to the entries on particular pages that I know and love -- how does God pray, different themes of concluding blessings, the tussle over leadership where they deposed Rabban Gamliel (I previously wrote about that one), and one or two others. Now I'll go back and read the rest. I hope this book is the first in a series.

I forget where I came across this special "de-motivator" image, but why should I keep all the fun to myself? (Image behind cut.)

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Win8: Interesting. Tapping the power button is not something I even think of, probably because I'm one of those people they mention who mentally associates it with a forcible hardware action--if I'm pressing it it's because I'm holding it down trying to get an uncooperative OS to reset itself. (In my new laptop where I cannot access the battery without unscrewing the case, I'm still slightly nervous about there being no "just pull the plug" option in case the power button also fails to work.)

But really, every software application works this way too--something outside it starts it up, something within it shuts it down.

OK that Demotivational poster is something special...LOL!

Glad you found my review useful. They just sent me Erica Brown's new book for the aseret yemei teshuvah and I'm really looking forward to hunkering down with it over Shabbat.

This is a question seriously discussed in the Talmud?

I am stunned to see this - I was also taught that it's dangerous to switch a computer off via the power button, and whenever I have done so I've ended up with a scary message about how your computer didn't shut down properly and do you want to use safe mode and yada yada. (But maybe it *was* dangerous with older computers? mine *is* older, it runs on Vista.)

Yup. Is your surprise that they say God prays, or that they discuss what that prayer is?

Yeah, same here -- those post-power-cycle messages were scary-sounding enough that we just stopped doing that! And they're way older than Vista...

This evolved as seen on Very Demotivational--maybe you found it there?

In any case it was kinda hilarious. :)

Older computers had power shut-off buttons. Newer ones have "power off request" buttons, which send the signal please ask the OS nicely to turn things off for you. (Macs have been this way for a lot longer than Windows machines, but all modern laptops work this way.)

And even yanking the cord out of the wall (assuming a desktop machine) isn't as catastrophic as it once was. Yeah, you might do damage if you happen to be writing a file *right* as you yank the cord, but the systems have become quite fault-tolerant. The problem is: it *occasionally* doesn't fail safe, and no one likes to "occasionally" lose their work...

*falls into the demotivational tunnel, giggling all the way*

Oh, so the function of the power button has changed? Any idea at what stage this happened?

(I am aware that these days it's quite often possible to recover stuff even after an abrupt shutdown, which is wonderful. I well remember the days when it wasn't... that's how I learned to do backups, after losing a 9-page complex legal document I'd typed...)

It's changed gradually over the past 20 years, depending on what brand of machine you have and what OS you run.

When was the last time you saw a power *switch* on a computer, of the type that rocks back and forth, rather than a power button that you press in? The switches interrupt the physical flow of power...so that'll give you some idea of when it definitely wasn't the case.

The first one. I wouldn't be surprised at the Talmud discussing what prayer is, but am a bit perplexed at what they might mean by the idea of God praying at all - talking to himself? (not being funny, just seriously curious.)

oh wow, I don't even remember that :)

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How does God pray?

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