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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: September 20th, 2023

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  • I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed and the guy sitting up at the counter weighs two hundred and fifteen pounds and knows how to handle himself. I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab of the gray truck outside, and at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Now why would I know that? How can I know that and not know who I am?





  • non-obvious ways

    Reminded…

    This patient’s prescription was for an electron beam, so she positioned the turntable and left the room. In the room next door, shielded from the radiation, was the control terminal. The technician started keying in the prescription to begin the treatment.

    If things were exactly following the routine, she’d be able to communicate with the patient via an intercom, and monitor the patient via a video camera. Sadly, that system had broken down today. Still, this patient had already had a number of treatments, so they knew what to expect, so that communication was hardly necessary. In fact, the Therac-25 and all the supporting equipment were always finicky, so “something doesn’t work” practically was part of the routine.

    Yes good read! (sad aspects too)

    And a kinda spoiler from the next paragraph…

    The technician had run this process so many times she started keying in the prescription. She’d become an extremely fast typist, at least on this device, and perhaps too fast.












  • Would say—

    Traditionally, with paper coupons. Now, targeted digital offers (e-coupons).

    They’d face lawsuits if they changed labels during the day and folks overpaid. Harder to think of a strategy with those labels that would be truly personalized. But like paper labels, would be location dependent (how wealthy and what tastes for the surrounding area).