Today I learned...

[itadakimasu]

Today I learned... that scsi is not hot-swappable.

The drives may be but the cables for damn sure aren't. I was going to try to set up this raid array we just got at work and as soon as I plugged the cable in the server blue screened... Then I rebooted and it was showing 2 failed drives. I spent about 15 minutes in the config and the Perc tools trying to find a fix and couldn't...

sucked it up and told my co-worker who then spent less then 2 minutes fixing it.

luckily it is an old server and not mission critical.

[XanBcoo]

Tonight I learned that being a "Busser" at a restaurant is equivalent to being a Janitor for 7 hours, with a break at the beginning of your shift.

I'm going to go die now.

[itadakimasu]

i occasionally had to bus when i worked at my last crappy job. it would get so busy that it was like i was the only person there... i'm so glad i've moved past shitty employment like that. food service is definately not for me.

[Animeniax]

Everyone should do food service at some point in their formative years, just so they can learn what they don't want to do for the rest of their lives. I worked at a Subway sandwich shop. That sucked, let me tell you what.

[XanBcoo]

Everyone should do food service at some point in their formative years, just so they can learn what they don't want to do for the rest of their lives.

This is the reason I'm not going to quit, despite how crappy it is. I want to be able to say that I've done that kind of work and come out better for it.

Also it gives me a good chance to practice my Spanish, since only one of the other bussers can even understand English.

"Tres salsas para ellos" "Esa mesa está sucia, allá" "barre atrás" etc, etc.

[The Heretic Azazel]

Everyone should do food service at some point in their formative years, just so they can learn what they don't want to do for the rest of their lives. I worked at a Subway sandwich shop. That sucked, let me tell you what.

The thought of you making my footlong turkey and cheddar makes me ill.

Today I learned the drummer from Bad Company had $400,000 worth of jewels stolen from his house when he was on vacation. When asked if he had locked the doors, he said he couldn't remember. Oy.

[Buffalobiian]

I never wanted to work in food service, but here I am. I think I've been at a Pizza Hut long enough though. It's time for ime to find a job that grants me the experience I'll actually need. Hopefully that will happen 6 months from now.

[NM]

I never wanted to work in food service, but here I am. I think I've been at a Pizza Hut long enough though. It's time for ime to find a job that grants me the experience I'll actually need. Hopefully that will happen 6 months from now.

Go go go! Working even in a retail pharmacy will help you out ALOT during pharmacy school dude. The only downfall is dealing with shitty customers who yell at you when their own damn insurance doesn't work. Its as if they think we have the power to change the copays on their prescriptions. -____-

But yeah, working in some area of pharmacy in the real world is highly recommended Buff. I'm thinking about trying an internship at a company next year if I can get into one. And its cool to know that I'm in the same forum with another pharmacist-in-training (although I've known this for awhile so I didn't really learn anything...).

[Buffalobiian]

Today I learned that a red panda is also known as a firefox. wiki

Go go go! Working even in a retail pharmacy will help you out ALOT during pharmacy school dude. The only downfall is dealing with shitty customers who yell at you when their own damn insurance doesn't work. Its as if they think we have the power to change the copays on their prescriptions. -____-

But yeah, working in some area of pharmacy in the real world is highly recommended Buff. I'm thinking about trying an internship at a company next year if I can get into one. And its cool to know that I'm in the same forum with another pharmacist-in-training (although I've known this for awhile so I didn't really learn anything...).

Thanks NM

[Psyke]

I read a few days back on how Kojima likes to use the different versions of the name John for characters in Metal Gear, and even Jack is a diminutive form of John. It was all quite amusing to me.

Ironically I learnt today that my name is the irish version of John.

[python862]

Today I learned that writing 6 thousand words in one sitting is not fun. I'm only sad I couldn't make it OVER NINE THOUSAND... but that's my next goal.

[lelouch]

Today I learned more about CSS coding. Moving onto PHP soon.

[complich8]

Today I learned that I can hit 30mph on my stationary bike at a pretty high resistance setting, but can only sustain it for about 40 seconds before I have to drop back to about 15 and catch my breath.

My officemate and my supervisor both did 40+ mile death-tracks over the weekend on their actual bikes (riding up absurd ascents and such). The supervisor did 54 miles, which included a 1500 foot ascent over 3 miles, a 1000 foot ascent over a mile, and a 900 foot ascent over 2 miles.

I ... have no idea how they do it, and only the vaguest notion why they do it.

[saman]

today i learned that all i had to do to make h264 videos run on my computer was clean it out a bit and install a new version of my codecs. my hi-res videos now run like clock work. smooth, beautiful clockwork

[Assertn]

Too many people in this thread fail to differentiate between learning factual knowledge and realizing an experience. If a man trips and falls in front of you, you did NOT learn that a man has tripped. The reason why this derails the thread is because the purpose of the thread is to share your discoveries for mutual benefit. Understanding how fast you can ride your bike or that you had spyware on your computer is merely self-serving, and is therefore pointless.

A more appropriate example would be something like this:
Today I learned that rough objects create less drag than smooth ones. Hence the reason why golf balls have dimples.

[Animeniax]

Too many people in this thread fail to differentiate between learning factual knowledge and realizing an experience. If a man trips and falls in front of you, you did NOT learn that a man has tripped. The reason why this derails the thread is because the purpose of the thread is to share your discoveries for mutual benefit. Understanding how fast you can ride your bike or that you had spyware on your computer is merely self-serving, and is therefore pointless.

A more appropriate example would be something like this:
Today I learned that rough objects create less drag than smooth ones. Hence the reason why golf balls have dimples.

I think either kind of learning is beneficial for the masses. Oftentimes experience can be a greater teacher than factual knowledge. Self-actualization is also a form of learning. Sharing your own life experiences, though they may seem mundane or thread-derailing, can help others learn something about themselves, which in turn can help the poster learn something about himself.

Taking your golf ball dimples example, even though it is interesting in its seemingly illogicalness, how will that tidbit of information help me in my daily life? Whereas complich8's post had me thinking about the last time I was on an exercise bike doing 32mph at low-medium resistance, and how I will test my endurance the next time I'm on an exercise bike, since it would be shameful to lose to a pudgy sysadmin.

[Assertn]

Your argument is in itself a contradiction. Any knowledge worth learning through experience should be, well, learned through experience. It's self-directed and has holds no context from the perspective of anyone else, and certainly holds no context within the purpose of this thread. If you want to create a "Today I experienced" thread, then go ahead.

To say that learning of other peoples' personal experiences through a textual medium derives greater benefit is laughable, although I commend your attempted ludic fallacy, using selective comparison to create some sort of value. This is also irrelevant to the thread, however, since the topic is not "Real-world skills I obtained today".

It's like the Snapple bottle caps. If you twist off a Snapple cap and the underside says "A brown-out corrupted my 10 page term paper," does that enhance your knowledge via proxy of a hypothetical experience? Is it supposed to? At least with objective facts, you can find some degree of amusement.

[Animeniax]

I didn't understand all those big words, but learning can come from many forms beyond objective facts. If you want to limit the scope of a thread, it will have limited usage and purpose and fade into obscurity.

So why not let this thread encompass all forms of learning? Even self-directed musings can hold lessons for others, but they can also be a means of self-reflection for the poster by way of considering word choice and recalling events while posting as well as receiving feedback from other posters.

If you want to limit a thread called "today I learned" to "interesting factual tidbits", then that's your choice too. But don't blame everyone else for interpreting the thread title to encompass more than just factoids.

[Board of Command]

Today I learned that you should always spread the thermal paste out when applying it to naked GPU dies. The "dab in the middle" method used for CPUs doesn't always work for naked GPU dies.

[KitKat]

Often in a day I'll pick up a random bit of trivia that I find really cool, or I'll learn something at school that I find fascinating, or I just have something random that I want to say. I'm pretty sure there are some of you who feel the same, so let's have a thread for this!

I do love the random. Making this thread completely factual would make it somewhat boring and restrictive. Any others of you go back to the first post in the thread as a result of this discussion and burst out laughing at basey's diagram in the second post?

This summer I'm learning a lot about how to interact with people who have mental disabilities and visual impairments. I came into my cabin yesterday to find a guy lying on the floor in the middle of the hall, wearing a helmet, in his pyjamas. It does take some getting used to.