Promonk's recent activity
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Comment on Help me understand the phrase, "Elbows up" in ~society
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Comment on Why do AI company logos look like buttholes? in ~design
Promonk Link ParentTalk about a missed opportunity to use the phrase "sniff test."I say that most of these do not pass the anus litmus test...
Talk about a missed opportunity to use the phrase "sniff test."
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Comment on Help me understand the phrase, "Elbows up" in ~society
Promonk Link ParentUh, not sure there's much to elaborate on. "The regional version of 'y'all' is 'yinz'" pretty much sums it up. I went and did an embarrassingly minute amount of research and got this from...Uh, not sure there's much to elaborate on. "The regional version of 'y'all' is 'yinz'" pretty much sums it up.
I went and did an embarrassingly minute amount of research and got this from Wikipedia:
Yinz is a derivation from the original Scots-Irish forms "Yin(s)" (meaning 'One(s)) and related contractions of you ones, yous ones and ye 'uns, a form of the second-person plural that is commonly heard in Scotland, Ulster and parts of Ireland and Northern England.
That makes a lot of sense, as those are precisely the regions from which a large contingent of British colonial migrants to Appalachia and Western Pennsylvania came. [Edit: My understanding is that] Appalachian "Scots-Irish" is really more an admixture of those regions rather than a particular branch of Scottish Protestant transplants to Northern Ireland it often means everywhere else.
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Comment on Help me understand the phrase, "Elbows up" in ~society
Promonk Link Parent"Pittsburghers" would follow the traditional English formula, but I believe many locals call themselves "Yinzers" after the second-person plural pronoun peculiar to the region."Pittsburghers" would follow the traditional English formula, but I believe many locals call themselves "Yinzers" after the second-person plural pronoun peculiar to the region.
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Comment on Why do AI company logos look like buttholes? in ~design
Promonk Link ParentEven if it doesn't look exactly like an anus, it's certainly strongly suggestive of a sphincter at least. I've done more than my fair share of Internet research on the topic though, so maybe I'm...Even if it doesn't look exactly like an anus, it's certainly strongly suggestive of a sphincter at least.
I've done more than my fair share of Internet research on the topic though, so maybe I'm quicker to finger a stylized chocolate starfish than I ought to be.
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Comment on Steam Deck low battery health (% of original capacity) and formatting in ~games
Promonk Link ParentI found the comment I was thinking of and put a slightly more detailed response there. I had forgotten that you said you were a hobbyist at the top of the post. Over-discharge is probably...I found the comment I was thinking of and put a slightly more detailed response there.
I had forgotten that you said you were a hobbyist at the top of the post. Over-discharge is probably something that nearly every decently competent tech has encountered at some point, so it didn't really make sense for me to assume you were suggesting it.
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Comment on Steam Deck low battery health (% of original capacity) and formatting in ~games
Promonk Link ParentA word of caution: running the battery down in firmware is a bad idea. Part of the reason software shuts down at a percentage of charge is to protect the battery from what's called...A word of caution: running the battery down in firmware is a bad idea.
Part of the reason software shuts down at a percentage of charge is to protect the battery from what's called "over-discharge." Many battery types including lithium-ion actually require some amount of residual charge to remain in order to recharge, so that draining the battery completely dry can actually kill it. It requires specialized equipment to kick start a battery back to a charge where it's functional again, and in my experience, this is always attended by damage to capacity.
You're likely to do more harm than good by aggressively seeking precision in this regard. Yes, that 3% may very well be a complication that throws off the precision of charge estimates, but by focusing too heavily on the 3% you're ignoring the other 97% the device uses to calibrate, and that likely has a much bigger impact on the accuracy of the calibration.
Consumer devices will never have perfect charge remaining estimates because that's simply not a priority in their design. Devices that are designed to accurately estimate remaining battery tend to be single-purpose devices with discharge rates and storage conditions favorable to accurate measurement, such as medical equipment. In those cases battery cycle count and discharge rates are closely monitored because inaccuracy could very well pose life-and-death risks. OEMs of that sort of equipment can rely on the customers' technicians to maintain the equipment properly, and have elaborate warranty schemes devised to enforce proper maintenance regimes. The manufacturers of your VR headset have to account for the probability of some half-braindead doofus to store their gear under an aquarium or some other dumb thing, so they design for a broad range of situations. In other words, they focus on getting close enough in as many scenarios as possible, which inevitably means less precision.
My advice: do a two-cycle calibration using software shutdowns and see how that treats you. You can always do another if you feel it's not good enough, as four cycles isn't really that big of a deal in the lifetime of a Li-ion battery. Killing your battery in an attempt to squeeze a little more precision really isn't the outcome I think you're looking for.
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Comment on Steam Deck low battery health (% of original capacity) and formatting in ~games
Promonk Link ParentApologies. I must have confused you with another commenter.Apologies. I must have confused you with another commenter.
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Comment on Steam Deck low battery health (% of original capacity) and formatting in ~games
Promonk Link ParentThe 3% shutdown is to help preserve the battery from over-discharge as well. Li-ion batteries need a minimum charge to function by virtue of the chemistry involved, which is why I've been arguing...The 3% shutdown is to help preserve the battery from over-discharge as well. Li-ion batteries need a minimum charge to function by virtue of the chemistry involved, which is why I've been arguing against completely draining the battery during calibration. There's usually some circuitry that prevents the user from completely running the battery dry that's opaque to the user, but draining the battery via firmware (BIOS or equivalent, which is what you're recommending) likely isn't covered by that safeguard.
I'd HIGHLY recommend not finding workarounds for the software to drain the battery, as over-discharging a battery can render it inoperable without some method to jump start it again. Even if you have the specialized equipment necessary for a jump start, the capacity can be irretrievably damaged in the process. Trust me, I've had to dispose of literal buckets-full of laptop batteries for this very reason.
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Comment on Steam Deck low battery health (% of original capacity) and formatting in ~games
Promonk Link ParentThat's a technical distinction that most native speakers probably wouldn't recognize–similar to the distinction between "memory" and "storage" in computing–so I wouldn't sweat it if I were you. It...That's a technical distinction that most native speakers probably wouldn't recognize–similar to the distinction between "memory" and "storage" in computing–so I wouldn't sweat it if I were you. It was clear to me from the body of your post what you were talking about.
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Comment on Steam Deck low battery health (% of original capacity) and formatting in ~games
Promonk Link ParentThat's part of why you do two discharge cycles when calibrating. If you do it right, both cycles contribute to the accuracy of the calibration. I'd be leery of over-discharging the battery. It's...That's part of why you do two discharge cycles when calibrating. If you do it right, both cycles contribute to the accuracy of the calibration.
I'd be leery of over-discharging the battery. It's possible to pretty much kill a Li-ion battery dead by running it completely dry. There's no point killing the battery in the process of trying to avoid buying another one.
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Comment on Steam Deck low battery health (% of original capacity) and formatting in ~games
Promonk Link ParentNo, it's not flawed, but I think you might be overestimating the impact it would have. You're much better off taking the slight hit to accuracy to avoid killing your battery by over-discharging...Is my logic somehow flawed?
No, it's not flawed, but I think you might be overestimating the impact it would have. You're much better off taking the slight hit to accuracy to avoid killing your battery by over-discharging it.
No consumer device is ever going to have perfect battery remaining estimates no matter what you do. That just isn't a priority in their designs, and there are too many variables.
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Comment on Steam Deck low battery health (% of original capacity) and formatting in ~games
Promonk Link ParentShutting down at 3% shouldn't be an issue for calibration really, since that's going to be a common feature in future use as well. You don't need or really want to completely discharge the...Shutting down at 3% shouldn't be an issue for calibration really, since that's going to be a common feature in future use as well. You don't need or really want to completely discharge the battery, which can actually damage the capacity depending on the type of battery chemistry involved.
The main thing is to be sure to completely charge it from its shutoff percentage to full without turning it on, and to discharge it to its shutdown percentage without connecting it to power. Those are the conditions that calibrate it. You don't want usage or partial recharge to screw up the system's ability to calculate battery remaining.
To be clear: calibration won't change anything about the battery. It won't start suddenly holding a charge for much longer because you calibrated it as a technician would. All it will really do is allow whatever device it's powering to more accurately estimate the actual remaining charge. That might have modest effects in power management, but more likely it'll just be better at telling you what the actual percentage remaining is.
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Comment on Steam Deck low battery health (% of original capacity) and formatting in ~games
Promonk (edited )LinkEdit: As some of you might know, I've been a professional electronics technician for about a decade now. I don't like pretending to be an authority, but it seems germaine to this conversation, so...Edit: As some of you might know, I've been a professional electronics technician for about a decade now. I don't like pretending to be an authority, but it seems germaine to this conversation, so I thought I'd mention it.
Battery calibration used to be something manufacturers pushed a little more often, but I've rarely seen any mention of it when getting parts shipments for a while now. I think it's partly because it takes a fair amount of time to do correctly, and usually the effects are negligible.
The correct way to calibrate a battery is just a touch more complicated than your description. Ideally it would involve two full charging cycles: you let it discharge until the device shuts itself off, then you let it charge fully without using the device or otherwise letting it discharge in any way. Once at full, you discharge the battery completely again without connecting it to power until the device shuts itself off, then let it fully charge without disturbing it one last time. After that, the battery is calibrated and you can use the device normally.
In my experience, built-in battery health monitoring isn't worth paying much attention to. I've seen too many devices report excellent battery health even though the battery can't hold a charge for more than an hour even after calibration. I get the impression that manufacturers rely too heavily on cycle count rather than discharge rate and calculating the "rocks" (i.e., the percentage of design capacity lost to degradation). They basically have the monitoring count the number of times the battery has discharged the equivalent of a full design capacity, then give a health rating based on an idealized degradation curve.
My hunch is that this is more a technical concern rather than anything to do with RMA; that is, they're more concerned about how much it would cost to put more accurate monitoring componentry in every device than they are about honoring an implied warranty on a battery's design capacity. That kind of sounds cheesy when I put it that way, but it really comes down to the fact that lithium ion batteries are very sensitive to environmental conditions in a way that makes automated health monitoring difficult. They really don't like temperature extremes, and will sometimes have odd reactions to even minor fluctuations in storage temps. Couple that with the fact that accurate health grading requires patient user involvement and it makes sense why reliable health monitoring circuitry is a PitA that OEMs don't want to bother with.
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Comment on Why do domestic prices rise with tariffs? in ~finance
Promonk Link ParentI'd go further: this stub of an explanation is only trying to show that trade is a far more complicated thing than most talking heads like to pretend. It's not even trying to actually explain a...I'd go further: this stub of an explanation is only trying to show that trade is a far more complicated thing than most talking heads like to pretend. It's not even trying to actually explain a real-world scenario, just show how tariffs don't automagically generate new industrial capacity for free. It does that pretty well, IMO.
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Comment on Why do domestic prices rise with tariffs? in ~finance
Promonk Link ParentPrecisely because the 19th and early-20th centuries saw massive concurrent and largely unrelated expansions to industrial capacity. Between electrification, motorization, refrigeration, shipping...... much of the 19th/early 20th century would disagree with you.
Precisely because the 19th and early-20th centuries saw massive concurrent and largely unrelated expansions to industrial capacity. Between electrification, motorization, refrigeration, shipping and a million other factors, taking the explosion of industry in the 19th/20th as anything but an exception to the rule seems a little disingenuous.
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Comment on Hungary withdraws from International Criminal Court during Benjamin Netanyahu visit in ~society
Promonk LinkHe's aware that "semitic" isn't a synonym for "Benjamin Netanyahu," right? I feel like somebody should tell him. It's supremely ironic to me that many of the same folks beating the "criticism of...In November, ICC judges said there were "reasonable grounds" that Netanyahu bore "criminal responsibility" for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas. Netanyahu has condemned the ICC's decision as "antisemitic".
He's aware that "semitic" isn't a synonym for "Benjamin Netanyahu," right? I feel like somebody should tell him.
It's supremely ironic to me that many of the same folks beating the "criticism of Israeli policy is antisemitism" drum were ranting about Jewish space lasers a couple of years ago. That's high-test weapons-grade cognitive dissonance there.
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Comment on What lesser-known alternative would you recommend as a substitute for something more popular? in ~talk
Promonk Link ParentNow there's an interesting question! Does like 70% of the time count as "sometimes"? ;)Sometimes I'm just impulsively contrary.
Now there's an interesting question! Does like 70% of the time count as "sometimes"? ;)
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Comment on What lesser-known alternative would you recommend as a substitute for something more popular? in ~talk
Promonk Link ParentDo you use fabric softener though? Fabric softeners used in laundry behave like liquified wax that coats fabric fibers and lessens their absorbency (dryer sheets are the same thing, but they rely...Do you use fabric softener though? Fabric softeners used in laundry behave like liquified wax that coats fabric fibers and lessens their absorbency (dryer sheets are the same thing, but they rely on heat from dryers to liquify). Terry cloth does degrade over time and use, but you should be able to get a couple good years out of a quality towel with proper handling.
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Comment on US Federal prosecutors to seek death penalty for Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing in ~society
Promonk LinkI'm sure this will smooth over tensions regarding the health insurance megacorps, because nothing rights a wrong quite like another one.I'm sure this will smooth over tensions regarding the health insurance megacorps, because nothing rights a wrong quite like another one.
Western PA is a fun area because it's at a confluence of a few cultural and linguistic regions. My own Scots-Irish ancestry passed through that area in the late-colonial to early-Republic eras, though in their case they actually were descendants of those Scottish Protestants that migrated to Northern Ireland as part of the early English colonial programme. That's where I get my German ancestry from as well (good old-fashioned rapacious American mutt, me). My people were decidedly more of the Midwestern flavor than Appalachian, though.
'Yinz' just derives from that cultural wave more popularly associated with Appalachia, which is why I mentioned it, though I guess I should've been more careful to mark a distinction between the regions.