DeaconBlue's recent activity
-
Comment on A few questions about replacing our clothes washing machine in ~life
-
Comment on A few questions about replacing our clothes washing machine in ~life
DeaconBlue (edited )LinkI have used a top loader my entire life. Balancing issues might come up if you just dump your laundry in haphazardly, but it is generally not too big a deal to try to spread clothes out. Just...To avoid the same problem we had with this one, we’re looking at top-loaders instead of front-loaders, but I’ve heard they have balancing issues. Anyone have experience with these?
I have used a top loader my entire life. Balancing issues might come up if you just dump your laundry in haphazardly, but it is generally not too big a deal to try to spread clothes out. Just don't put all of your towels or jeans on one side and it should be a non-issue.
As a more general statement about washers and dryers, they are kind of a solved problem as far as I am concerned. Don't get a smart one. These are machines that deal with warm water, you want as few computers involved as possible and you don't want to have to replace your unit because the fancy display doesn't work. Knobs and buttons are good. I always just go to the local scratch and dent to pick up washers and dryers when I move and they have always been fine.
-
Comment on How many of you play Old School RuneScape (OSRS)? in ~games
DeaconBlue LinkI played an ironman for a few years and stopped around the time they made the desert raid (apologies for not remembering the name). I had all stats around 90s with combat stuff and slayer far...I played an ironman for a few years and stopped around the time they made the desert raid (apologies for not remembering the name). I had all stats around 90s with combat stuff and slayer far beyond 99.
It was around that time that stuff like "red X" clicking to stall bosses stopped being some weird obscure bug and started being the main mechanism by which people did bosses. It was actively encouraged by some of the desert raid challenge mode bosses. I decided that was the time that the game and community had drifted far enough away from the game I wanted to play that it was time to say goodbye.
-
Comment on What have you spent "too much time" trying to fix or streamline? in ~talk
DeaconBlue (edited )Link ParentWhen I moved into my house I found the vent through the attic was 100% clogged. Previous owner just said the dryer sucked. A shop vac from the bottom and from the top and the dryer has been right...When I moved into my house I found the vent through the attic was 100% clogged. Previous owner just said the dryer sucked.
A shop vac from the bottom and from the top and the dryer has been right as rain for years minus one belt replacement because it was getting squeaky.
-
Comment on CrowdStrike avoids customer exodus after triggering global IT outage in ~tech
DeaconBlue LinkI bought as much of their stock as I could afford shortly after the incident and I have no regrets. There are no other players in this game at this scale. There are so many multi-year contracts...I bought as much of their stock as I could afford shortly after the incident and I have no regrets.
There are no other players in this game at this scale. There are so many multi-year contracts that they literally could not fail because of a single issue.
I think that their position to be able to halt half of the businesses in the west with a single update is absolutely insane but it was obvious that they weren't going down from this.
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
DeaconBlue Link ParentThat does seem like a very similar idea, though the scope is much too high for what I want to do with it. This project isn't going to have any bigger plans, it just needs to do one simple thing well.That does seem like a very similar idea, though the scope is much too high for what I want to do with it. This project isn't going to have any bigger plans, it just needs to do one simple thing well.
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
DeaconBlue LinkNot a particularly high tech endeavor, but I made a media player for my toddler. I wanted her to have some autonomy over running the television during her allowed time, but I didn't want to give...Not a particularly high tech endeavor, but I made a media player for my toddler.
I wanted her to have some autonomy over running the television during her allowed time, but I didn't want to give her a device with internet access to stumble on whatever.
My solution was a NFC reader on a raspberry pi. I got a bunch of little NFC chips for like a nickel a piece, used the library to print off stickers for her shows, and made a configuration that reached out to the relevant media source.
I made tokens for some movies that she likes, which reach out to a file on a network drive. I made some tokens for PBS shows that reach out to the PBS Kids API to fetch a current episode. I made some tokens for old PBS shows that do a random directory walk on a network directory to pick an episode.
All of this allows her to watch shows that she likes without needing to ask for assistance from parents. I feel like it would be very analogous to a VCR player from when I was a kid.
-
Comment on Good software development habits in ~comp
DeaconBlue LinkRegarding 1: A lot of people get quite far in their careers before they learn that squash merges are a thing. Sometimes people are afraid of polluting the history with a bunch of tiny commits, but...Regarding 1:
Keep commits small enough that you wonder if you're taking this "keep commits small" thing a little too far.
A lot of people get quite far in their careers before they learn that squash merges are a thing. Sometimes people are afraid of polluting the history with a bunch of tiny commits, but you can keep the one line changes out of the final history by squashing the entire feature into one commit when merging.
-
Comment on I've added ~society for topics related to politics, law, policies, and similar societal-level subjects in ~tildes.official
DeaconBlue Link ParentThis is me as well. The filtering system sounds useful but is a good way to end up turning a forum into (even more of) an echo chamber. If there are enough topics that I can't do a quick scan of...This is me as well.
The filtering system sounds useful but is a good way to end up turning a forum into (even more of) an echo chamber. If there are enough topics that I can't do a quick scan of what seems interesting once a day or so then I might use it.
-
Comment on Thoughts on a Democratic postmortem in ~society
DeaconBlue LinkI live in a deeply red state, so there was no chance of Harris doing anything of consequence in my area. Even with that said, I was surprised at how little people knew about the dem side of the...I live in a deeply red state, so there was no chance of Harris doing anything of consequence in my area. Even with that said, I was surprised at how little people knew about the dem side of the aisle.
I talked to some people that were genuinely confused that Biden was not on the ballot when they went to vote. I talked to some people that had no idea what Harris' first name was.
There is clearly a general communication issue here. I don't know if it was just accepted that my deep red state wasn't worth any effort.
-
Comment on Winamp deletes GitHub repository after a rocky few weeks in ~tech
DeaconBlue LinkThis whole situation has been very funny to watch from the sidelines, but it really feels like this is going to hurt any efforts to get old abandonware source code made public.This whole situation has been very funny to watch from the sidelines, but it really feels like this is going to hurt any efforts to get old abandonware source code made public.
-
Comment on Paralyzed man unable to walk after maker of his powered exoskeleton tells him it's now obsolete in ~health
DeaconBlue Link ParentI remain optimistic about the situation. People are willing and able to DIY hack medical technology when they have access to the hardware. I know of several people that had homebrew closed loop...I remain optimistic about the situation.
People are willing and able to DIY hack medical technology when they have access to the hardware. I know of several people that had homebrew closed loop insulin pumps long before anyone was even close to getting them FDA approved by hacking the firmware of old pumps and rolling their own software.
The niche is obviously smaller for exoskeletons, but the importance is so much higher.
-
Comment on License plate readers are creating a US-wide database of more than just cars in ~tech
DeaconBlue LinkI am not sure why people seem surprised or offended by this. Google cars roam the streets every day and have been for years. The rules on photographing from public spaces is well defined. I hate...I am not sure why people seem surprised or offended by this.
Google cars roam the streets every day and have been for years. The rules on photographing from public spaces is well defined.
I hate it, but it would be naïve to think this wasn't happening. It is the cost of living in an area with few rules on recording in public compared to somewhere like Germany with (as I understand) strict public recording laws.
-
Comment on Guest Passes for Nebula now available in ~tech
DeaconBlue LinkI have a lifetime pass and I want Nebula to succeed, but I have to say that there isn't currently a whole lot that I would want to share with friends and family in the current state. The bar to...I have a lifetime pass and I want Nebula to succeed, but I have to say that there isn't currently a whole lot that I would want to share with friends and family in the current state.
The bar to tell a friend or family member to download a new application and sign up is pretty high for me, because I think that it is important to not fill your device with a ton of distracting bloat. Right now, the most interesting stuff on Nebula is also on YouTube. I don't want to use YouTube, but I understand that most people are totally fine with the current state of the service (or fine enough to not see the value in changing).
If I am going to tell someone to try something new, it needs to be different enough to the status quo to justify the effort of setup. Nebula isn't there yet.
-
Comment on When the mismanagerial class destroys great companies in ~finance
DeaconBlue (edited )LinkOpening statements like this always annoy me. The article opens with this as a blatant failure of the CEO because they were not an engineer. The rest of the article is more or less fine, but it is...Ultimately, Otellini declined. He thought the initial costs would be too high and the resulting sales too low. Since then, Apple has sold 2.3 billion iPhones.
Opening statements like this always annoy me. The article opens with this as a blatant failure of the CEO because they were not an engineer.
The rest of the article is more or less fine, but it is an absolutely absurd premise to base the rest of the article on. In 2005, Moore's law was still in full swing. Companies were throwing shit at the wall to see what stuck everywhere. Choosing not to invest in the iPhone was not some massive failure as CEO nor would investing have shown them as some kind of fortune teller.
Even more, being an engineer would not change the fact that the iPhone and Apple in general were (and are) as much a social status symbol as technically capable machines. I don't think that it would have made more sense to an engineer to invest in it than a non-engineer. Apple was, at this time, doing the "I'm a Mac / I'm a PC" ads. They were leaning hard into social status, not machine specs. That is not a way to win over engineers in my experience.
-
Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
DeaconBlue LinkGiven that the big draw of premium is the lack of advertisements, I want to ask about the current state of youtube's advertising. I think the other big draw is sponsorblock, which is just another...Given that the big draw of premium is the lack of advertisements, I want to ask about the current state of youtube's advertising. I think the other big draw is sponsorblock, which is just another adblocker.
I was part of their tests for the threat model where they said they'd restrict views after blocking ads X number of times. I was never restricted from viewing anything despite not caring about the message.
I was also part of their tests for in-stream ads. These sufficiently annoyed me that I closed the website as soon as they popped up (which is likely a win for the advertising team at Google).
It seems like they have removed both of those from me at least. Are they still doing both or either of those things? Is there some new fancy measure that they have in place that I am not part of some A/B testing on? I don't use the site often enough to say that I've noticed anything in at least a few months.
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
DeaconBlue LinkI have been making it a point to learn Rust. I don't have a lot of practical applications for it, but it seems worthwhile to learn a new language now and then to keep sharp. To try to solve...I have been making it a point to learn Rust. I don't have a lot of practical applications for it, but it seems worthwhile to learn a new language now and then to keep sharp.
To try to solve interesting problems, I tried solving this image manipulation problem and I am going through the Advent of Code.
It is a very interesting language. I don't know if I will find a lot of uses for it, but I do like it enforcing "good" code.
-
Comment on Taskmaster Series 18, Episode 1 - 'The faceless facilitators.' | Full episode in ~tv
DeaconBlue Link ParentI always feel like the first couple of episodes of each season are weak on the live portions while everyone is still learning to read each other in the context of the show.I always feel like the first couple of episodes of each season are weak on the live portions while everyone is still learning to read each other in the context of the show.
-
Comment on How to spot a good fake ID (2021) in ~life
DeaconBlue LinkDifferent places have different security features too! Colorado has a really cool system where the pictures are not in color, but are instead lasered onto multiple layers through what I can only...Different places have different security features too!
Colorado has a really cool system where the pictures are not in color, but are instead lasered onto multiple layers through what I can only assume is magic, which makes it almost look 3D?
I once worked at a company that was helping get this system set up and only knew about it tangentially but the samples were always very cool.
-
Comment on Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and vastly cheaper than mined diamonds. Beating nature took decades of hard graft and millions of pounds of pressure. in ~science
DeaconBlue LinkSerious question here - Is the quality of the gem relevant to a substantial portion of the population when it comes to buying them for jewelry? In the groups that I am around, everyone kind of...Serious question here - Is the quality of the gem relevant to a substantial portion of the population when it comes to buying them for jewelry?
In the groups that I am around, everyone kind of falls into one of the following camps:
- I don't want a "fake" diamond no matter what
- I don't want a "real" diamond because of a myriad of ethical issues
- I don't want to spend a substantial amount of money on a rock, let's go on a vacation instead
It is very possible that I am not in the kind of circles that are relevant to this topic though, and I would like to hear what the rest of the world's outlooks are.
Stores that buy the dented or scratched appliances that get returned from deliveries or second hand or whatever. The appliances still function fine but have blemishes on the outside. If you search "{Your City} Scratch and Dent" I would expect to find several results.
They generally don't have a huge selection, just whatever they happened to get hold of at a given time. For something like a washing machine that goes in a basement and is meant to do a job, I find that they are a good source.