noah's recent activity

  1. Comment on Need help BCCing entire Outlook autofill contact list in ~comp

    noah
    Link Parent
    If OP really wants to solve this, an archive of emails plus a python script to get all emails, filter unique, combine and print is the best bet. But by the time it’s written and debugged… there...

    If OP really wants to solve this, an archive of emails plus a python script to get all emails, filter unique, combine and print is the best bet. But by the time it’s written and debugged… there are better uses of time on OPs last day… like making sure employment documents, healthcare info, etc are sent to personal email as a backup or printed since that stuff can be hard to find once access is lost

    5 votes
  2. Comment on Need help BCCing entire Outlook autofill contact list in ~comp

    noah
    Link
    my suggestion is not technical, but instead of that, I would just let a few of your clients know and then just tell your boss you sent it to everyone. There’s really no need to send an email to...

    my suggestion is not technical, but instead of that, I would just let a few of your clients know and then just tell your boss you sent it to everyone. There’s really no need to send an email to everybody that you’ve ever worked with. Just make sure that whoever your boss would possibly ask is on the list of BCC‘s, your boss won’t be able to see the BCC anyway, it seems a little silly to do what he wants.

    I know if I was a recipient who hasn’t spoken to you in a while, I’d be annoyed by the spam. Plus a BCC is a little bit impersonal. IMO it’s up to your boss to let them know if/when it’s prudent.

    4 votes
  3. Comment on Honest Question: What benefits can I hope to achieve by switching from jquery to react? in ~comp

    noah
    Link
    Reading through these comments, I don’t think anyone actually answered whether you should consider the switch. I would say no. If you are doing freelance work for smaller projects, you’ll be...

    Reading through these comments, I don’t think anyone actually answered whether you should consider the switch.

    I would say no.

    If you are doing freelance work for smaller projects, you’ll be better served by using what you’re comfortable with so you can have a higher output. The long tail of SMB (small & medium business) clients who need a relatively simple site or app are absolutely not going to know a difference (and probably shouldn’t even be aware or care).

    Your job is to make something that fits their needs as fast as you can and move on (well, don’t discount maintenance contracts, but you know what I mean - you deal in volume).

    It may be time for you to start exploring a more modern look, if your bootstrap stuff has the same look it did fifteen years ago, but I’m sure either new Bootstrap themes or Tailwind help you there.

    And I’m actually excited to see what jQuery 4 is going to bring, too! Sure, a lot of stuff is now just as easy in vanilla JS as in jQ 3, but the team knows that, so we’ll see how v4 revolutionizes jQ.

    Now of course there’s nothing wrong with learning something new, but I would definitely advise against using it in a real project while it’s new to you, because it will sneak up on you and steal your time, meaning not only will you fail to meet deadlines, but you’ll also fall behind with other clients, and end up less profitable.

    2 votes
  4. Comment on An equitable solution to a problem at work regarding sick leave and staffing? in ~life

    noah
    Link Parent
    I agree with you on all counts, but the OP is about pre-k, so we’re talking about 0-6 age range Lately I’ve been trying to avoid saying “just do [thing that will never happen]”, because I’ve...

    I agree with you on all counts, but

    1. the OP is about pre-k, so we’re talking about 0-6 age range

    2. Lately I’ve been trying to avoid saying “just do [thing that will never happen]”, because I’ve noticed it just makes me feel even more disenfranchised. If the answer is universal healthcare, EU-level workers rights, housing for everyone, etc… that’s not really an answer here, at least not in this decade.

    7 votes
  5. Comment on An equitable solution to a problem at work regarding sick leave and staffing? in ~life

    noah
    Link Parent
    Yeah. Parents collectively care way more about the inconvenience of their daycare shutting down than about the well-being of the teachers. It’s important to remember that in a case like this,...

    Yeah. Parents collectively care way more about the inconvenience of their daycare shutting down than about the well-being of the teachers. It’s important to remember that in a case like this, where two teachers stay home sick, now 10-20 students’ families are suddenly in the same spot, because they either also need to find alternative care or they need to stay home sick themselves.

    The only mutually beneficial solution for the teachers and the parents is the school having a “second string” / large pool of subs to pull from who can be activated on a very short timeline, but all aspects of that cost a bunch of money, especially for an event that seldom happens (>40-50% teacher sickness at once).

    I honestly don’t know what a good answer is to this problem that all three groups could agree to.

    6 votes
  6. Comment on A Reddit-led boycott of Loblaws, one of Canadas largest grocers, begins today in ~finance

    noah
    Link Parent
    I would imagine that for short enough time spans (say, 2-5 day boycotts), the boycott could actually benefit the company - if interpreted correctly, it could provide valuable data (even if the...

    Why are people putting time limits on their boycotts?

    I would imagine that for short enough time spans (say, 2-5 day boycotts), the boycott could actually benefit the company - if interpreted correctly, it could provide valuable data (even if the data was "nothing changed" - then that's just even more of a reason to ignore the boycotter's stance)

    3 votes
  7. Comment on What your next water heater will look like in ~enviro

    noah
    Link Parent
    If they are installed in a basement, I wonder if they can be ducted into the HVAC loop on the first floor of the home, providing more cooling during the summer months? Could maybe even have a...

    If they are installed in a basement, I wonder if they can be ducted into the HVAC loop on the first floor of the home, providing more cooling during the summer months? Could maybe even have a disconnect so that in the winter months it just takes basement air?

    Although either way, I like the idea of having a built-in dehumidifier for the basement, since it's unfinished and occasionally gets some water.

    2 votes
  8. Comment on Why you can't stay focused (and how to fix it) in ~health.mental

    noah
    Link Parent
    Mine didn’t involve meditation, but I also go through these spurts of being better at managing distractions followed by relapse. It feels just like when I find another ADHD hobby, when I get...

    Mine didn’t involve meditation, but I also go through these spurts of being better at managing distractions followed by relapse. It feels just like when I find another ADHD hobby, when I get really excited about a topic and go all-in on it for a couple months before moving on to the next.

    But I do still know a lot about my old hobbies, and they influence my life. In the same way, although I’ve failed in the short term to modulate my life, I’ve learned the signs, and I’ve become more mindful.

    I don’t know how much of this I can do on my own, and it’s a big downer thinking about it. And there’s a lot of anger associated with it both towards our corporations who are exploiting our own psychologies to get us addicted, as well as towards myself for knowing that and still failing to break the cycle.

    The scariest part for me is figuring out how I’ll deal with it when my kids are at the age where these technological pressures are coming from peers. It’s scary. At least most of us here can remember a time before this was our reality.

    edit: oh, and the hardest part to wrap my head around is that I’m not even in super deep. On my worst days I’m only a few hours into social media or distractions of some sort. It feels like a good chunk of society have between 4-8 hours of unhealthy screen time per day. That is just nuts.

    2 votes
  9. Comment on I was scared to say this to NASA... (but I said it anyway) in ~space

    noah
    Link Parent
    What about it exactly could cause doors to close? Who would dislike what he has to say and then make future choices influenced by the talk? Both specific to this situation and the “workplace...

    What about it exactly could cause doors to close? Who would dislike what he has to say and then make future choices influenced by the talk? Both specific to this situation and the “workplace politics” game in general, i just don’t understand how a friendly negative opinion can cause possible future harm

    2 votes
  10. Comment on Why do so many developers provide only 64-bit or x64 builds of their software these days? in ~comp

    noah
    Link Parent
    Maybe by Windows 14 we can get rid of Program Files (x86) then?

    Maybe by Windows 14 we can get rid of Program Files (x86) then?

    6 votes
  11. Comment on Plastics have shaped nearly every aspect of society. Now what? in ~enviro

    noah
    Link Parent
    Plastics have, I imagine, greatly benefited some areas of society. For instance, they allow for cheap & effective single-use items in the medical field. I'm sure there are more examples of...

    Plastics have, I imagine, greatly benefited some areas of society. For instance, they allow for cheap & effective single-use items in the medical field. I'm sure there are more examples of industries where they should continue to be available.

    With that said, for-profit companies have done a great job at using plastics to extract every last penny from consumers - not only by selling them low-quality versions of goods that were previously produced with metal (ex. any sort of tool or toy with gears in it, like stand-up mixers or power tools) - but also by enabling the production of, for the lack of a better phrase, "shit."

    It's everywhere. Walk through a grocery store and see all of the cheap toys hanging from the racks. Receive a new laptop from your employer and everything will come wrapped in plastic. I can only imagine - and it's probably outside of my imagination, even - how much plastic is used by businesses every day to save a dollar, a lot of it mostly unnecessary.

    We've been conditioned to expect perfect goods that come tidily wrapped, probably to benefit the plastics industry. We've been taught to want to replace our things quicker, so people don't even get very upset when they break - they've probably already bought a new one!

    One way or another, we've been conditioned to want this. Of course it's going to be an uphill battle - and therefore probably never happen - if we try to eliminate plastics and tell consumers that goods will cost more. Not only are people already struggling, but we've very recently seen that prices will go up just because, so how are we to trust that this time it's a necessary price increase (if it even is)? And how will we ever overcome our consumerist society to even tell people to buy less? That they don't need the water bottles, or the ziplock bags, or the thousands of other little trinkets that fill all of our homes. Sure, minimalism is probably healthier, but getting new junk makes us feel good.

    20 votes
  12. Comment on Show Tildes: critique my first portfolio site in ~comp

    noah
    Link Parent
    extra bullet point on the readings page for me as well :)

    extra bullet point on the readings page for me as well :)

    2 votes
  13. Comment on Using a VPN may make you less secure in ~tech

    noah
    Link
    Who should these articles target? In my mind, the only people who would need to read something like this is the type of person who doesn't have a firm grasp on how to remain 'completely'...

    Who should these articles target? In my mind, the only people who would need to read something like this is the type of person who doesn't have a firm grasp on how to remain 'completely' anonymous, but still chooses to break the law (enough that their government will care). I would say most of us fall into two categories - those who use VPNs for piracy, streaming, and maybe NSFW traffic, and those of us who are attempting to circumvent internet filters which prohibit free speech (in countries like China).

    I can't speak for those living in countries where free speech/access is an issue, but for me and most fellow North Americans, I would assume our use case is, as listed above, mainly for piracy and alternate streaming services, in which case I don't really see a negative to VPNs storing logs (even though I hope they don't!).

    Stu, what are your thoughts as the author? Do you have a target demographic in mind? Do you think the average VPN user should have a certain level of knowledge about what a VPN does and does not protect against, or is it more important for ignorant people who are hoping to scour websites for common illegal commodities one would use tor for?

    A follow-up article may be an overview of what information is actually safe over tor as well, in case people read your VPN article and wonder "okay, how can I be more secure then?" I'd imagine a lot of them see tor and think "okay, done! I'll just install this on my desktop at home and I'll be safe from ever being caught!"

    12 votes
  14. Comment on Do you think there is anything from the past we should bring back? in ~talk

    noah
    Link Parent
    When I was deployed everyone hung out in a big hangar, and my small crew (4 people) also had our own little shack with an xbox 360 but no internet. The hangar did have internet but I didn't bring...

    When I was deployed everyone hung out in a big hangar, and my small crew (4 people) also had our own little shack with an xbox 360 but no internet. The hangar did have internet but I didn't bring a phone or laptop so I couldn't make use of it.

    I'm an introvert, and that was probably the most social I've ever been in my life - and it was great. I was also able to entertain myself with books (kindle) and I read more than I had since I was in my teens (used to be an avid reader, but in the past ~10 years I'm lucky if I read 2-3 books a year).

    I will always look back on it as a wonderful experience. It's hard to even comprehend what it's like to go months without reddit/youtube/texting/tv/etc., but it was so liberating and relaxing. I also loved the feeling of not being responsible for answering other people 24/7, as that is somewhat of an expectation now that cell phones are commonplace.

    Along with the revival of reading, the revival of local multiplayer is something I hadn't realized I'd missed so badly. Playing Diablo 3, WWE Smackdown (10? 12?) (both games I personally have never touched before or since, but which I enjoyed simply for the experience), watching people play SSB, playing ping pong any time of the day or night - online multiplayer will never be a true replacement for sitting right next to friends and sharing an experience together.

    9 votes
  15. Comment on Will you install the contact-tracing app on your phone? in ~health

    noah
    Link Parent
    How are we expecting it to work if location services aren't enabled? I haven't really been following news about it. And even without location services, could it track wifi networks we see? I'm on...

    How are we expecting it to work if location services aren't enabled? I haven't really been following news about it. And even without location services, could it track wifi networks we see? I'm on iPhone myself and not too sure if that is an accessible API (of course if it's an Apple-made app that restriction may not matter)

    6 votes
  16. Comment on What keyboard shortcut was a game changer for you? in ~tech

    noah
    Link
    cmd - shift - 5 (mac) / win - shift - S (pc): I really like being able to take screenshots without breaking workflow, so it was especially helpful on windows after print screen + paint or win -...
    • cmd - shift - 5 (mac) / win - shift - S (pc): I really like being able to take screenshots without breaking workflow, so it was especially helpful on windows after print screen + paint or win - print screen and navigating to pictures folder, and mac added a few helpful options over cmd - shift - 3/4 with the new option

    • Mac's spotlight (cmd - space) [replaced with alfred on my machines]: pretty hard to beat the speed of opening basically anything you'd want. I use windows search fairly frequently too, but generally only for launching apps or settings panes, as windows doesn't do as good a job of indexing files and therefore takes a while to find them.

    • win - x: Most stuff I need falls under this shortcut, from settings to cmd/powershell.

    • On Mac, I can't live without simple shortcuts like browser back, window (/tab) close, and (mission control? all screens on current desktop) mapped to my mouse. Again makes general use a lot quicker, especially for navigating a lot of threads quickly.

    • On windows, I also use mouse shortcuts, but mainly for audio control, as I'm usually playing Rocket League if I'm on my personal PC. Mute/play-pause/next track/vol up+down.

    • When I was using 1pass, cmd/ctrl + \ was my most used shortcut because of the ease of hitting it with one hand, but after the switch to bitwarden cmd/ctrl + shift + L (or Y if not logged in) is a lot harder for me to remember, so half the time I end up clicking on the extension icon in the browser. This is one case where I wish I could modify the shortcut (which I guess I could probably do in system preferences, but I CBA)

    1 vote
  17. Comment on Fitness tracker recommendations? in ~health

    noah
    Link
    Have you looked at Garmin? They're another popular brand for this style of device

    Have you looked at Garmin? They're another popular brand for this style of device

    2 votes
  18. Comment on Pansexuality 101: Five key facts you need to know in ~lgbt

    noah
    Link Parent
    Do you think that if the term Pansexual would have been more popular than Bisexual (which definitely seemed to be in more people's vocabularies, at least from what I remember growing up), we would...

    Do you think that if the term Pansexual would have been more popular than Bisexual (which definitely seemed to be in more people's vocabularies, at least from what I remember growing up), we would still have a need for the "Bi-" prefix, or if they are largely seen as relatively similar/equal, we could have all just stuck with "Pan-"? It seems to me like "Bi-" is more likely to cause issues/"trigger" people who are more vocal about not excluding those who don't fit into traditional gender roles.

    2 votes
  19. Comment on This Week In Election Night, 2020 (Week 18) in ~misc

    noah
    Link
    So... what exactly do I need to do to take part in the primaries? didn't end up registering until last year.

    So... what exactly do I need to do to take part in the primaries? didn't end up registering until last year.

  20. Comment on What password manager, if any, would you recommend? in ~tech

    noah
    Link Parent
    For anyone who uses a lot of subdomains/local addresses, I recently moved to Bitwarden from 1pass for this specific reason. 1pass only matches on domain.tld, where Bitwarden has many more options,...

    For anyone who uses a lot of subdomains/local addresses, I recently moved to Bitwarden from 1pass for this specific reason. 1pass only matches on domain.tld, where Bitwarden has many more options, including regex matching.

    Besides ignoring the above issue for years, 1pass has been in the news recently for some serious mishandling of feature offerings, which was what spurred me to make the change.

    3 votes