NomadicCoder's recent activity

  1. Comment on American Red Cross declares second-ever national blood supply crisis, urges immediate blood donations in ~health

    NomadicCoder
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    I way a lot of dark leafy greens, gardened, foraged, and otherwise, but it still isn’t keeping up. I added an iron supplement recently, but it didn’t make a huge difference, so my doctor...

    I way a lot of dark leafy greens, gardened, foraged, and otherwise, but it still isn’t keeping up.

    I added an iron supplement recently, but it didn’t make a huge difference, so my doctor recommended every other day — surprisingly there’s evidence that it might improve uptake.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on American Red Cross declares second-ever national blood supply crisis, urges immediate blood donations in ~health

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    I recently learned that my iron is low, and supplementation hasn’t helped much after a few months so I definitely won’t be able to donate any time soon. I’ve been vegetarian for a long while and...

    I recently learned that my iron is low, and supplementation hasn’t helped much after a few months so I definitely won’t be able to donate any time soon. I’ve been vegetarian for a long while and wasn’t supplementing enough, so all of the ones harder to get with a vegetarian diet were low (creatine, b12, and iron) so I’ve been much more consistent lately.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Which privacy-friendly home appliances exist? e.g. robot vacuum cleaners. in ~tech

    NomadicCoder
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    I just don’t connect my robot vacuum to the network and start it manually — which is my preference anyhow. It still navigates just fine, I just can’t specify a specific room. It’s a Dereeme (sp?),...

    I just don’t connect my robot vacuum to the network and start it manually — which is my preference anyhow. It still navigates just fine, I just can’t specify a specific room. It’s a Dereeme (sp?), with lidar and camera.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker in ~tech

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    Yeah. That’s what I thought, which is why I never bothered trying others.

    Yeah. That’s what I thought, which is why I never bothered trying others.

  5. Comment on Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker in ~tech

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    I have the AdGuard extension installed and opened the website in Safari and it is just fine. While I would probably trust Firefox's adblock more than AdGuard, you can still block ads in Safari....

    I have the AdGuard extension installed and opened the website in Safari and it is just fine. While I would probably trust Firefox's adblock more than AdGuard, you can still block ads in Safari. That said, Apple claims that their extension design does prevent the extension from knowing your browsing history.

  6. Comment on Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker in ~tech

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    How is the experience using Firefox (or any alternative browser) on iOS? I feel like there's some cookie sharing between the web views in apps and the main browser, which can be either good or bad...

    How is the experience using Firefox (or any alternative browser) on iOS? I feel like there's some cookie sharing between the web views in apps and the main browser, which can be either good or bad depending on context. Also, it used to be that alternative browsers were forced to use the Safari rendering engine anyhow, so I didn't see much reason to switch -- is that still true? (I guess I could DDG it, but I figured I'd ask you since I'm more curious about the experience than the technical details).

  7. Comment on Elon Musk on tomatoes in ~food

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    Oh, I know much of that from personal experience. I grew up lower middle class on a farm and was later homeless in order to afford going to university while working full time to pay my own way. My...

    Oh, I know much of that from personal experience.

    I grew up lower middle class on a farm and was later homeless in order to afford going to university while working full time to pay my own way. My parents were completely against it for religious reason (university will turn you liberal and gay!), making it so that I couldn't get financial aid since they had sufficient 'wealth' due to owning an inherited family farm (non-liquid wealth), and also wouldn't help me by providing the documentation that I needed. I may have been able to work within the system to get help, but I had nobody to mentor me and was barely staying afloat, so I didn't invest the time to look into it. It also didn't help that I was so sheltered that I knew nothing about how the academic system worked.

    I know that I'm the rare exception that broke the cycle, I've seen my cousins and others not escape it. I'm now a software developer that has been the lead developer on some major projects for some very major companies (in the top 50 of the Fortune 500 list) and have enough of a network to be turning down more work than I take, having been recruited to every job I've ever had.

    My wife and I argue this a lot. She's more of the mindset that I'm proof that hard work can lead to success, whereas I see it as luck -- luck that I made the decision to run away from home and be homeless rather than stay in that environment, luck that I had good enough health to work, luck that my Tourette syndrome is not more severe leading to extreme stigma (it was bad enough that I was severely bullied by students and teachers alike in elementary school), luck that I was naturally an avid reader (even as my parents actively discouraged the habit, saying I should live in the real world), luck that I had a natural aptitude and interest in something that happens to pay well, luck that I had a few good mentors like my fifth grade teacher who recognized my interest in programming and would let me into the classroom an hour early every morning so that I could work on the computer (back when few had home computers, and my parents wouldn't have allowed one anyway) and give me what I now realize were made-up problems with requirements to solve (like a program to administer and grade quizzes and provide him with the reports) to keep me engaged and learning, luck that I was accepted into the university, luck that I wasn't kicked out for my poor performance due to working full time while taking a full course-load (but I was on academic probation more than once), luck that the son of the owners at my high-school McDonald's job needed help with his computer science homework and later recruited me to my first job that set the path for the rest of my career, luck that I decided to take a full time position at one of my consulting clients before they were bought-out and had a substantial equity payout. And, finally, lucky to have a base salary that I feel guilty about at times when I think about how bad income inequality is. I could go on, but I've gone on way too much already. :)

    Meanwhile, my wife's son grew up with a professor as his father and is now a professor himself, married to a professor, and they're barely scraping by and I'm helping them out financially since the cost of living is so high in the city where they live and I want them to be able to provide the best for my grandson. He could easily leave the academic world and make an obscene amount of money because professors in his field are heavily recruited by AI and finance companies, offering $1M+ salaries, but he doesn't want to do it and I don't blame him.

    So, I, who barely made it through school at a state university make a very comfortable salary doing very fulfilling and meaningful work, and he barely scrapes by after starting graduate level classes at one of the best universities in the USA (~5% acceptance rate) right out of high school since he'd already finished all of the undergraduate classes at the state university during his high school years, graduated with the highest grades in his graduating class, then other top schools for his PhD (~3% acceptance rate) and post-doc work.

    7 votes

  8. Comment on Elon Musk on tomatoes in ~food

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    Well, true, but he wasn't born with his current level of wealth.

    Well, true, but he wasn't born with his current level of wealth.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on What lesser-known sci-fi reads do you recommend? in ~books

    NomadicCoder
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    My son recently introduced me to the Bobiverse novels, I was surprised to have never heard of them. I’m currently nearing the end of book 1 and enjoyed it more than I expected to. If I had to...

    My son recently introduced me to the Bobiverse novels, I was surprised to have never heard of them. I’m currently nearing the end of book 1 and enjoyed it more than I expected to.

    If I had to describe it, I’d describe it as reading like a hybrid of Andy Weir and Cory Doctorow.

    8 votes

  10. Comment on Vermont's largest energy source is now a virtual power plant in ~enviro

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    Ah, sorry. Read that quickly on mobile and thought that part about former resident was outside of the quote.

    Ah, sorry. Read that quickly on mobile and thought that part about former resident was outside of the quote.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Vermont's largest energy source is now a virtual power plant in ~enviro

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    Thank you, yes it was. It seems that I don’t qualify for that amazing price for multiple reasons.

    Thank you, yes it was. It seems that I don’t qualify for that amazing price for multiple reasons.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Vermont's largest energy source is now a virtual power plant in ~enviro

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    Thanks for highlighting the power wall portion, I already participate in their program allowing them to turn off my EV charger in exchange for cheaper rates while charging, which they do...

    Thanks for highlighting the power wall portion, I already participate in their program allowing them to turn off my EV charger in exchange for cheaper rates while charging, which they do semi-regularly, more often than I expected, but not enough to be a problem. I’m surprised how cheap the power wall rental is, I’ll have to look into it, but I suspect that does not include the installation costs. What was the process like for getting it installed?

    5 votes

  13. Comment on How often are you eating plant based meals? in ~food

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    Well, I'll be camping in some of the national parks in QC in a few weeks, but that's not close enough to come steal some of your cucumbers, and US customs isn't too happy with taking produce...

    Well, I'll be camping in some of the national parks in QC in a few weeks, but that's not close enough to come steal some of your cucumbers, and US customs isn't too happy with taking produce across the border, so I guess I can't help you with your surplus. :)

    Our winters routinely hit -20C and now and then as low as -30C -- I do recall a -50C windchill one day (not sure what the actual temperature was), that was a crazy one. While yours are colder, there's a certain point where I think we can all agree that it's cold. :) We get a few months where it never exceeds 0C and there's a period where -15C starts to feel like a warm and comfortable. :)

    ...alas, the bugs come back every year.

  14. Comment on Elon Musk on tomatoes in ~food

    NomadicCoder
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    I’m fascinated by the fact that such a complete and utter moron, continually proving himself to be such, managed to become so rich. Immediately after the idiotic statement about tomatoes, proving...

    I’m fascinated by the fact that such a complete and utter moron, continually proving himself to be such, managed to become so rich.

    Immediately after the idiotic statement about tomatoes, proving that he’s never eaten a homegrown tomato, he then says that the solution to AI induced unemployment is going to be universal high income, as if that greedy MF would ever share a penny that he didn’t have to.

    19 votes

  15. Comment on How often are you eating plant based meals? in ~food

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    We got lucky -- the house we moved into has a huge patch of cinnabar chanterelles (Cantharellus cinnabarinus) growing in the front yard, we collect a large bowl of them every week or so every...

    We got lucky -- the house we moved into has a huge patch of cinnabar chanterelles (Cantharellus cinnabarinus) growing in the front yard, we collect a large bowl of them every week or so every summer without even having to go look for them. :)

    1 vote

  16. Comment on How often are you eating plant based meals? in ~food

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    Wow, you must live much further north (or significantly further south) of me, or way up in the mountains. I live in USDA zone 5, which already has a very short growing season, but three months is...

    Too bad our growing season is literally three months :/

    Wow, you must live much further north (or significantly further south) of me, or way up in the mountains. I live in USDA zone 5, which already has a very short growing season, but three months is very short!

    ...but I'm jealous of your cucumbers... I struggle with those for some reason -- we have a huge garden and our cucumbers are always a struggle, which is unfortunate as we love making lactofermented (brine) pickles. We have had a horrible struggle with cucumber beetles the last few years -- I go out every morning with tweezers and pick them out of the flowers, which keeps their population somewhat in check, but I still find a dozen every day (it goes in phases, when they hatch I'll find even more, then I'll have them knocked down to 1 or 2 per day until the next hatching).

  17. Comment on How often are you eating plant based meals? in ~food

    NomadicCoder
    Link Parent
    Mushroom foraging isn't nearly as scary as most people think. There are a handful of varieties that are very good to eat and very safe with no dangerous lookalikes. For example, the chanterelles...

    Mushroom foraging isn't nearly as scary as most people think. There are a handful of varieties that are very good to eat and very safe with no dangerous lookalikes. For example, the chanterelles (Cantharellus genus) that I mentioned in my original post -- some field guides will point to Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca as a lookalike, and it is at first glance, but even the slightest bit of paying attention and they're so obviously different that there's no risk of confusing them, and even if you do it won't kill you or even make you seriously sick, some people do eat it, but it's not recommended. Some field guides will point to Omphalotus olearius, or the Jack-o-Lantern mushroom, which is worse, but again, you'd have to be extremely unobservant to confuse them and even if you did you're very unlikely to die and at most you'd spend the day on the toilet expelling from both sides. :) Not a great day, but again you'd have to be really really careless to make that mistake.

    There are some that are much more likely to be dangerous and/or difficult to tell apart, requiring spore prints to tell apart, or worse, a microscope, but I just don't bother eating those no matter how "choice" some people say they are. Stick to a small handful of easy and safe varieties and you can enjoy foraging them.

    I'm not sure where you are, but my wife grew up foraging with her family as a child in Russia and so far everything she knew from there completely translates to living in North America, on both coasts -- I've double and triple checked her knowledge against many field guides and while there were times she said she wouldn't eat something that was safe, she never once said something was safe that wasn't. That said, she still has me double-check every single mushroom that we have collected, we lay them all out of the table and I go through them one by one to double check; discarding anything that gives me even a slight moment of hesitation.

    As for foraging other things, yeah, we do... we made dandelion jelly last year, where we used to live we knew a huge patch of huckleberries (oh, how I miss those!) from which we made jams, pies, and even wine. Another plant where we used to live was manzanita, which also makes a really amazing wine (I've never met anybody else who even knew that manzanita was edible), and also a tasty infusion that tastes like spiced apple cider. I frequently forage stinging nettle, which you can use to make tea or cook it and it's like spinach but with a richer flavor (and many more nutrients than spinach). Thimble berries, blueberries, blackberries, etc.... sorrel, wood nettle, various edible flowers, etc... for example, when I'm camping I like to go and collect a salad to eat. :)

    7 votes

  18. Comment on How often are you eating plant based meals? in ~food

    NomadicCoder
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    I've not intentionally eaten meat in about 20 years. I do monitor and supplement iron, B12, and creatine to compensate as those are much harder to get with a strictly vegetarian diet. During the...

    I've not intentionally eaten meat in about 20 years. I do monitor and supplement iron, B12, and creatine to compensate as those are much harder to get with a strictly vegetarian diet.

    During the summers, the vast majority of my food comes from either my garden or is foraged.

    For example, I just finished a meal consisting of foraged chanterelle mushrooms and a salad entirely grown in my garden (lettuce, tomato, shallots, chives, dill, etc)

    9 votes

  19. Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in to use old.reddit.com in ~tech

    NomadicCoder
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    There are a few niche and local subreddits that I’ve found hard to replace, otherwise I’m done with it — and my account is older than a substantial portion of the user-base (before subreddits...

    There are a few niche and local subreddits that I’ve found hard to replace, otherwise I’m done with it — and my account is older than a substantial portion of the user-base (before subreddits existed). Sucks to see how quickly they’ve enshitified it.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on Is it time to include pronouns? in ~tildes

    NomadicCoder
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    I find avatars useful to recognize the user and feel like I’m getting to know them over time — I don’t tend to read usernames. I find that I feel more connected to other users on forums that have...

    I find avatars useful to recognize the user and feel like I’m getting to know them over time — I don’t tend to read usernames. I find that I feel more connected to other users on forums that have them. That said, I’d want very minimal avatars, nothing flashy or large.

    5 votes