-
6 votes
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The language sounds that could exist, but don't
18 votes -
European regulators have ordered immediate checks on recently delivered versions of some Airbus helicopters after a crash in Arctic Norway last month
7 votes -
The rise and fall of Iceland's tourism miracle – the widespread decline of tourism across the country presents intractable problems
8 votes -
Free-to-Play games: Three key trade-offs
7 votes -
Search advertising and information discovery: Are consumers averse to sponsored messages?
6 votes -
What's your dream laptop for running *nix?
What's your dream laptop for running *nix? I'm currently using a Lenovo Thinkpad T410s, and it's getting ready to die. I think it's a great machine, but every computer eventually dies. It runs...
What's your dream laptop for running *nix?
I'm currently using a Lenovo Thinkpad T410s, and it's getting ready to die. I think it's a great machine, but every computer eventually dies. It runs Debian 8 (Jessie), but it can't handle 9 (Stretch) without overheating. On top of that, I need to use the proprietary drivers! My computer got dropped on the floor today (not my fault!), and it got me thinking that maybe it's time to start shopping for a new laptop.
What are your ideas about what a good laptop for *nix OS's? Any recommendations? What should I look for? What should I avoid?
I love having a SSD HDD, and playing with different distros, but I'd like to avoid the headache I've had with the propitiatory Intel drivers. I like to have control of my hardware, but still use the latest software. If a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone could match the performance of a laptop then I'd seriously consider using one.
26 votes -
From bullying and sexual assault to squalid living conditions and forced labour, working at sea can be a grim business – and one deep-sea fishing fleet is particularly notorious
8 votes -
Gay Anglican priests fight to get church blessing of their same-sex marriage
11 votes -
The time when Zambia tried to go to Mars
8 votes -
Less human than human: The design philosophy of Steve Jobs
9 votes -
Intersections in real time: the decision to build the KH-11 KENNEN reconnaissance satellite
5 votes -
Recipe for disaster: The meteoric rise and ongoing demise of Blue Apron
7 votes -
Free Solo climber Alex Honnold's next summit? The rest of his life
7 votes -
Harm reduction for nicotine addicts
So given the outbreak of severe lung disease apparently related to vaping, mentioned in recent Tildes threads here, here, and here, I thought I'd provide some semi-informed opinion and experience....
So given the outbreak of severe lung disease apparently related to vaping, mentioned in recent Tildes threads here, here, and here, I thought I'd provide some semi-informed opinion and experience.
I've had to kick a nasty smoking habit more than a few times, and the last effort was only partially successful. I stayed hooked on nicotine gum, got jaw problems, and switched to vaping.
Vaping was cool! You can play with the electronic gadgets, get involved in the vaping equivalent of hot-rodding and over-clocking communities, play with liquid formulas, build coils, and do all kinds of intricate hobby-type stuff... while slowly poisoning yourself. Vaping was cheap, both by comparison with cigarettes, and with the FDA-approved nicotine-cessation systems. I'd been spending $50/week on gum, but $20/month for the liquids.
I was breathing outrageous dragon clouds, going through 50 ml of liquid a week, and getting nowhere near nicotine freedom. Despite careful avoidance of noticeably irritating flavors, I was getting back to the good old smoker's cough in the morning.
I've since formulated a super-simple homegrown nicotine mint recipe (below) that's as minimally toxic as I can manage, and very slowly gotten down to the equivalent of a cigarette or two a day.
So here's my advice:
-
Avoid pre-made e-liquids and cartridges. There's no telling what's in them; in the U.S., at least, there are no labelling requirements other than nicotine concentration.
-
Avoid flavorings altogether. "Generally Regarded As Safe", the FDA designation for flavorings, only applies to food ingredients. Many common flavor chemicals are known as toxic to inhale. Extracts are often complex mixtures, and there's little data on how all the constituents may interact in your lungs.
I'm not going to provide advice on "safe" ones - just don't use flavorings.
- If you must vape, do so at the lowest possible temperature. Even unflavored liquids can create toxic byproducts when heated.
You can get pure, unflavored USP-calibrated nicotine liquid base, in a wide range of concentrations, from the same vendors that sell other e-liquid ingredients. I personally preferred propylene glycol (PG) base, because it vaporizes at a lower temperature, and forms less toxic heat decomposition byproducts than glycerin.
- Don't vape. Nicotine inhalation has some pharmacological advantages - quick brain hit, few or no gastrointestinal effects, but lungs really want clean air. If you're seriously nicotine addicted, you can continue on oral or dermal products with less risk. If you're in a country that doesn't charge outrageously for drugs, there are regulated nicotine nasal sprays.
If you're in a country that does charge outrageously even for over-the-counter medicines, my solution follows.
So, the latest and greatest version, the ultimate plug-and-play version, of the cheap garage DIY nicotine mint:
SAFETY WARNINGS:
Nicotine is a deadly, neurotoxic poison, even on skin contact.
-Do not use nicotine solution concentrations greater than 24 mg/ml at home. Even this concentration is potentially hazardous - wear gloves, work on a washable tray to contain any spills, purchase the smallest size containers you can. Higher concentrations are extremely dangerous without special precautions I won't discuss here.-
Store all nicotine products, treated mints, and potentially contaminated tools and materials far out of the reach of children and pets, preferably under lock and key.
-
Wash any exposed skin under running water as soon as possible. Call a Poison Control Center immediately if you suspect that there's been an incident of ingestion or extensive skin contact with nicotine liquid.
-
Store mints and materials only in properly labeled, secure containers. [I've found a labelled medicine bottle eliminates social awkwardnesses about not sharing candy.]
-
Work on a washable surface, wipe up, wash down with soap and water, and safely dispose cleaning materials for any spills.
-
Following these instructions is at your own risk. Based on my knowledge and experience, this nicotine mint recipe is safer than smoking or vaping, but to an unknown degree. You should consult a doctor and/or use approved pharmaceuticals.
Tools and materials:
-
Intact 1-qt. (1 L) Ziploc or other sealable polyethylene bag
-
10 ml syringe, optionally with 12- or 14-gauge Luer-lock blunt needle
-
Nitrile gloves
-
24 mg/ml (2.4%) nicotine USP solution in propylene glycol** (There are many potential vendors.)
-
8-pack of Altoids "Arctic" flavor sugar-free mints* (cheapest available price on Amazon)
This recipe makes approximately 389 mints at 1.2 mg/mint nicotine strength. Divide or modify it at risk of your own math.
Instructions:
-
Open tins of mints and empty them into the Ziploc bag.
-
Wear gloves. Using the syringe, measure and add 20 ml of nicotine to the bag. (Nicotine solution comes in sealed bottles. To minimize risk of spills, you can use a blunt needle tip on the syringe to pierce the seal and withdraw nicotine liquid without fully opening the bottle.)
-
Completely seal the Ziploc bag. Massage the mints and nicotine liquid together until uniformly distributed and completely coated.
-
Let stand at least overnight, turning and mixing the mints every few hours, until all the liquid is completely absorbed.
Use:
Dosing is similar to nicotine lozenges - hold a treated mint under your tongue until dissolved, repeat no more than a total dosage of 24 per day.
*There are other sugar-free mints that are usable, but I've found sorbitol mints work best for this purpose, and the 0.5 gm per mint size gives a nicely steady nicotine release for 15 - 20 minutes.
**You can use a lower concentration, but the dosage in the final recipe will vary accordingly. Exceeding 20 ml per 8-pack of mints may leave them sticky, and if the liquid isn't fully absorbed, you can become ill from handling the mints. Don't do it.
7 votes -
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French white supremacist network Suavelos is attracting traffic to their site by using deceptive Facebook pages that appear to support popular causes
8 votes -
Former nail biters --- how did you quit?
I'm sitting here reading about Jeremy Renner's failed app and new Amazon store and filing my nails down. I've mostly stopped biting, but I still do every so often. So if you've quit, how the hell...
I'm sitting here reading about Jeremy Renner's failed app and new Amazon store and filing my nails down. I've mostly stopped biting, but I still do every so often.
So if you've quit, how the hell did you do it? The bad tasting nail polish stuff doesn't taste bad enough for me... is there an Allen Carr for biters?
22 votes -
Why Sergio Leone played music on set
9 votes -
Libraries and archivists are scanning and uploading books that are secretly in the public domain
8 votes -
How the Greenland ice sheet fared in 2019
7 votes -
Final Fantasy VII Remake | Tokyo Game Show 2019 trailer
9 votes -
System Shock 3 | Pre-alpha gameplay teaser
5 votes -
The FDA is finalizing a plan to clear the market of all unauthorized flavored e-cigarette products to help combat youth usage
8 votes -
University of Virginia health system sues thousands of patients, seizing paychecks and putting liens on homes
14 votes -
Methods of creating invisible tutorials
7 votes -
Democracy devouring itself: The paper predicting the end of democracy
20 votes -
Turkey information thread: AmA you're curious about Turkey
@gergir mentioned the idea, and I thought, why not give it a try? I'm a young adult from Turkey, lived up until now in Istanbul. Whether specific to that city or not, and whether about life,...
@gergir mentioned the idea, and I thought, why not give it a try?
I'm a young adult from Turkey, lived up until now in Istanbul. Whether specific to that city or not, and whether about life, tourist attractions, politics, culture, etc., just AmA.
If you have anything you don't want to publicly ask, I'l love to help if you PM me your question.
32 votes -
Sacklers would give up ownership of Purdue Pharma under settlement proposal
11 votes -
Hubble telescope spies water [cycle] on distant world
12 votes -
Sayonara Wild Hearts | Launch trailer (releases September 19)
5 votes -
Ryan Celsius - Trappin in Japan 14 (2019)
3 votes -
Brexit: Scottish judges rule Parliament suspension is unlawful
17 votes -
The iPhone and Apple’s services strategy
7 votes -
US Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas's radical vision of race
14 votes -
string length is complicated
13 votes -
Apple Keynote Discussion Thread [September 10, 2019 @ 10:00 am PDT]
The Apple Keynote is on September 10th, at 10am Pacific Daylight Time (daylight savings is in effect). I'm making this thread as a place to discuss the announcements here on ~tech. TIme: 10:00am...
The Apple Keynote is on September 10th, at 10am Pacific Daylight Time (daylight savings is in effect). I'm making this thread as a place to discuss the announcements here on ~tech.
TIme:
- 10:00am PDT (California / Apple time)
- 5:00pm GMT (Greenwich time)
Livestream Links
- Apple's website stream -- requires a browser that supports both HLS and HEVC (safari and edge)
- Apple's Youtube stream -- first time Apple is streaming on youtube. Should work anywhere that Youtube works :) They'll probably break the stream record.
Tl;Dr of actual announcements (updating right now)
- Apple Arcade announced
- $4.99 / month and one month free.
- 100 indie exclusives on launch
- Apple TV+ announced
- $4.99 / month, launching November 1
- New originals every month! 100 countries at launch
- Including 1 year free with device (iPhone, iPad, or mac) purchases starting today.
- New base model iPad
- 10.2 inch display, Runs A10 Fusion chip, (optional) smart keyboard
- New iPad is made from 100% recycled aluminum (like the new MacBook air)
- Starts at $399 (competing with chrome books). $299 for education customers.
- includes Apple Pencil support
- Apple Watch Series 5!!!!
- Health and Fitness video
- 3 New health studies!!!
- Apple Hearing Study
- Apple Women's Health Study (How cycles affect various health conditions)
- Apple Heart Study
- Enrollment is voluntary. OPT-IN by downloading the app and getting enrolled. - Apple Watch Series 5
- ALWAYS ON LTPO OLED display, with Dynamic Refresh Rate (1Hz - 60Hz VRR)
- Same 18 hour battery life
- International Emergency Calling on all cellular models
- 100% recycled aluminum.
- Stainless Steel, Titanium, Ceramic
- Series 3 watch starts at $199, Series 5 starts at $499
- iPhone 11!
- Aluminum and Glass, comes in a bunch of colors
- Spatial audio + Dolby Atmos for next level smartphone sound
- New Camera -- 120º FOV Wide angle camera, 12MP with 100% Focus Pixels
- 0.5x Optical Zoom out :)
- New Image processing pipelines, with semantic rendering and adaptive tone mapping
- Portrait mode improvements (wider portraits, and more) (yay, now for pets!)
- Night Mode has adaptive image slicing and fusion for reducing blur in long exposure.
- 4K HDR video at 60fps (was previously 30fps!)
- Front Camera is now 12MP wide angle
- 4K 30fps HDR video, Slowmotion Video for front facing camera! :) - A13 Bionic processor
- fastest GPU and CPU ever in a smartphone
- Game demo showing off Metal 2 Shaders, Bloom, and AA in realtime at 60fps
- Battery is now 1 hr longer than the previous XR
- U1 Chip? (on slide, not mentioned) - Wifi 6 support!
- 2m water resistance for 30 minutes
- 6.1 inch Liquid Retina display
- Priced sanely at $699
- iPhone 11 Pro
- 3 camera array
- Matte Textured Glass
- Super Retina XDR Display.
- 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio
- 1200 nits of brightness
- 426 ppi
- Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos - A13 Bionic Chip Design
- Machine Learning Matrix Multiplier Accelerators make matrix operations 6x faster on iPhone
- Best ML platform of any Smartphone
- Lower power design using 7nm+ lithography
- 8.5 Billion Transistors
- 4 High Efficiency CPU cores
- Hundreds of Voltage domains and clock domains
- Each region of the chip is at least 20% faster, and uses at least 20% less power - 3 camera system
- 4x zoom range (0.5 to 2x)
- 53-13mm focal lengths, and f1.8 to f2.4
- Deep Fusion camera system - stitches together burst photos + long exposure to maximize detail and reduce noise.
- Filmic Pro demo -- allowing multiple camera use at the same time. - iPhone 11 Pro at $999, Pro Max at $1099
- iPhone 11 at $699 and XR at $599 and iPhone 8 at $499 to complete the lineup.
- Apple Store Updates
- Apple Watch Studio - pair any watch with any band of your choice. Configure as you want
- iPhone trade ins can now be used for a lower monthly rate if you buy an iPhone, rather than simply taking off the purchase price.
- 5th Ave Store is being redesigned and re-opening Sept 20th!
Other miscellaneous / fun stuff
- Apple Keynote Bingo Card -- 5 in a row to win! :)
- Upgrade Podcast Draft Card -- the hosts have predicted what they should see at the event. Person with the most points wins.
Edits:
- fixed part about browsers with HLS support, and added a table showing compatible browsers.
- remved "what we're expecting" section, and started updating the event live feed.
26 votes -
How to make alkaline, low-hydration ramen noodles at home
9 votes -
Charles Koch has spent a fortune pushing the American government to the right. Now his foundation is promoting a vision of US power shared by many progressives: restraint
4 votes -
Has science shown that consciousness is only an illusion?
6 votes -
Strike with the band - The world of classical music is neither noble nor fair, though its reputation says otherwise
6 votes -
Will the millennials save Playboy?
10 votes -
93% of British Columbians want to scrap changing clocks for daylight time, survey says
11 votes -
What has NASA's Juno discovered around Jupiter so far? (three year update)
5 votes -
On a night when several smaller parties are set for big gains in Norway's elections, some of the country's biggest parties took a bruising
5 votes -
Iceland makes the top of the list when it comes to online news consumption, a study conducted by the OECD revealed
5 votes -
noclip.website - A website that lets you view famous levels from all kinds of games in 3D
33 votes -
German fiscal frugality is the stuff of legends – but they have nothing on the abstemious Swedes
8 votes -
angel (short poem)
i have no idea where i am who i have been i have the slightest glimpse into the present a wavering image of a time long past my soul sits on siain heights above the fish and birds where we know...
i have no idea where i am
who i have been
i have the slightest glimpse into the present
a wavering image of a time long past
my soul sits on siain heights
above the fish and birds
where we know endless comfort
and a burning desire for wisdom
this version, far away from the peaks
that I am so accustomed to;
yet drawn to the body of man,
who screams in agony as he is raised to the heavens.4 votes -
The State of California is getting closer to adopting the Fair Pay to Play Act, a law that would end NCAA amateurism as we know it
12 votes -
How is China able to provide enough food to feed its population of over one billion people? Do they import food or are they self-sustainable?
9 votes