What do those uniform colors mean, anyway?!

[plynch]

John’s is a good example of the chatreuse-lovin ‘60s a la Kirk’s chartreuse velour that photo’d as mustard.

 

[BK613]

Yep. Quarterdeck watchstanders were typically equipped with sidearms. There was a period in the 1980s where piracy was up in the Malacca Strait so they temporarily mounted 50cals on the bridge wings. PO2 and above received some live fire training on them. I think I have some pics of that setup somewhere; I'll see if I can find and post.

A ship can also have one or more Master-at-Arms billeted.

Still looking for my pics but here is a quick poor quality composite created from the cruise books (think HS yearbook but for long deployments.) One thing I remember from my images is that the the railing was too high so these guys are standing on a shipping pallet.:

 

[Maurice]

Yep, that's what I am saying. Uniform color != career track.

Is != supposed to be ≠ ?

 

[BK613]

Is != supposed to be ≠ ?

Yep. It is represented that way as an operator in many programming languages (like C, C++ and Java) and many DB languages (like SQL.) I type it that way when I can't be bothered with mucking about with the character map.

 

[fireproof78]

Because =/= is hard to find?

 

[BK613]

Because =/= is hard to find?

What can I say? != has been used in computing for nigh to fifty years and on the Internet for as long as I can remember. I've been using it to mean "not equal to" since the mid-nineties.
Fair warning; I sometimes use <= and >= as well.

 

[fireproof78]

What can I say? != has been used in computing for nigh to fifty years and on the Internet for as long as I can remember. I've been using it to mean "not equal to" since the mid-nineties.
Fair warning; I sometimes use <= and >= as well.

Nerd

 

[BK613]

Nerd

Abso-fucking-lutely

 

[fireproof78]

Abso-fucking-lutely

And I honestly didn't know what that nomenclature meant either. Surprisingly not covered in my 7th grade keyboarding class

 

[Maurice]

On my phone or my Mac I just press and hold = and up comes ≈ ≠ = as options. Frankly I don’t recall seeing != on the net much. And I don’t recall seeing programmers write it when I was in game dev, but then they weren’t writing code to me in IMs.

 

[Neopeius]

On my phone or my Mac I just press and hold = and up comes ≈ ≠ = as options. Frankly I don’t recall seeing != on the net much. And I don’t recall seeing programmers write it when I was in game dev, but then they weren’t writing code to me in IMs.

I didn't know there was a way to render "not equal to" other than !=

 

[Maurice]

I didn't know there was a way to render "not equal to" other than !=

Well, I’m a stickler for things like using en and em dashes – —, ≠ ñ © ® and ™, etc. so I always learn the shortcuts or create substitution macros.

EDIT: On the Mac I can type all of these:
Option 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = [ ] \ , . / gets me ⁄ € ‹ › fi fl ‡ ° · ‚ — ± “ ‘ « … æ ≤ ≥ ÷
Option+Shift 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =[ ] \, . / gets me ¡ ™ £ ¢ ∞ § ¶ • ª º – ≠ ” ’ » Ú Æ ¯ ˘ ¿

 

[Neopeius]

Well, I’m a stickler for things like using en and em dashes – —, ≠ ñ © ® and ™, etc. so I always learn the shortcuts or create substitution macros.

Smart. Strangely, I only know the ones for Spanish: á é í ó ú etc.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I just found that in Windows, the code for ≠ is alt-8800, and it works in WordPad, but it does not work on this bboard. I had to copy the ≠ sign from Maurice's post.

 

[Maurice]

Browsers are weird sometimes insofar as extended characters are concerned. It’s sad this stuff is not standardized.

 

[BK613]

the code for ≠ is alt-8800,

The Unicode value is U+2260. Maybe that will work for you.

 

[BK613]

EDIT: On the Mac I can type all of these:
Option 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = [ ] \ , . / gets me ⁄ € ‹ › fi fl ‡ ° · ‚ — ± “ ‘ « … æ ≤ ≥ ÷
Option+Shift 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =[ ] \, . / gets me ¡ ™ £ ¢ ∞ § ¶ • ª º – ≠ ” ’ » Ú Æ ¯ ˘ ¿

Relevancy? I'm not a Mac user and my != usage doesn't require me to memorize any thing at all. And today is the first day anyone that I've met online has ever claimed to be confused by it.

BTW, if you always been a Mac user, I am not sure your Internet experience counts as the usual one:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...-desktop-operating-system-isnt-macos-anymore/

 

[Maurice]

Relevancy? Oh I dunno, it's a discussion. And we were discussing how easy or not it was to type things like ≠.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The Unicode value is U+2260. Maybe that will work for you.

Thanks, I did not know that. Bu according to this, I would have to edit my Registry like a software engineer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_input#In_Microsoft_Windows

Some people will find that route useful. But Windows is user friendly only up until the point where it isn't, and at that point I have stepped off a cliff. I don't want to hose my machine.

 

[BK613]

Thanks, I did not know that. Bu according to this, I would have to edit my Registry like a software engineer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_input#In_Microsoft_Windows

Some people will find that route useful. But Windows is user friendly only up until the point where it isn't, and at that point I have stepped off a cliff. I don't want to hose my machine.

Microsoft support disagrees with that. Confirmed that the hex number 2260 + hold down ALT + X works in Word,

Inserting ASCII seems to work here. Holding ALT and typing 0188 of the numpad gives ¼, for example. However, none of the UnIcode methods listed there seem to work with the TrekBBS editor except using the Character Map. ≠ came from "go to Unicode" 2260, selecting it and then pasting it here.

The convolutedness of which may explain—to those wondering—why "shift+1 =" is my goto on this subject.