Weldawadyathink's recent activity
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Comment on There’s no such thing as a fake feather in ~hobbies
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There’s no such thing as a fake feather
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Comment on UK Conservative party would ban under-16s from social media in ~society
Weldawadyathink Link ParentEvery iPhone since 2014 has had a Secure Enclave. The Android market is much more fragmented, and I am less familiar with it. But I think Google pay requires a secure element. So any phone that...Every iPhone since 2014 has had a Secure Enclave. The Android market is much more fragmented, and I am less familiar with it. But I think Google pay requires a secure element. So any phone that supports Google pay should have a secure element.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Weldawadyathink Link ParentPreviously I was using supabase free tier. I also experimented with neon for a bit. Both are managed services. I fully expect that I could make it work if I wanted to, and I have for the past 6...Previously I was using supabase free tier. I also experimented with neon for a bit. Both are managed services. I fully expect that I could make it work if I wanted to, and I have for the past 6 months, but now I want it to just work. And now I don’t have to manage things like point in time recovery.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Weldawadyathink LinkWith planet scale announcing they have $5/month Postgres databases, I am moving audiobookcovers to planet scale. In many ways this is a downgrade; my current setup uses the oracle ampere free...With planet scale announcing they have $5/month Postgres databases, I am moving audiobookcovers to planet scale. In many ways this is a downgrade; my current setup uses the oracle ampere free tier, so 4 arm cores and 200gb data. But I have learned that I really don’t want to admin a database. Audiobookcovers went down for like a week last fall (hey, I was very busy) because of a database issue. My pgbouncer had a certificate from letsencrypt, and I had set up auto renewal, but it still somehow expired. Turns out that pgbouncer doesn’t automatically load a new cert file from disk. I had to set certbot to kill and restart pgbouncer. It’s those little things that I just don’t want to deal with. I did a ton of research to make sure I set it up perfectly, and it still broke. I just want it to work, and I’ll throw some cash at planetscale to make it happen.
This causes me some headache with my dev/prod database setup. On my own server, I could set it up as its own database on the same Postgres server. Planetscale doesn’t support multiple databases, at least not without paying per database. So I am refactoring my setup to use different schemas for dev and prod instead of different databases.
I was using flyway for migrations. It was functional, but I didn’t really like it. I just had to try to get it working again, but I decided it was more work than it’s worth. So I did some research into other systems. I found pgschema, which seems really cool. Instead of maintaining and running a series of migrations, you just maintain a single sql file that describes your desired database state. It compares the schema to the desired state, and makes the minimal modifications to get to that state. It seems really well done, and can work with the same file against multiple schemas, so it is perfect for my use case.
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Comment on How to practically liquidate lots of little things of moderate value in ~finance
Weldawadyathink LinkEBay is probably still the best bet. I have only sold a handful of things, and eBay reputation has never seemingly been a problem. eBay also makes it incredibly simple to sell things. They will...EBay is probably still the best bet. I have only sold a handful of things, and eBay reputation has never seemingly been a problem. eBay also makes it incredibly simple to sell things. They will find similar items to fill out most of the details of the listing, notify you when it sells, and help you purchase postage directly in the app. For me, it has always been USPS postage, so all I have to do is pack it and ship it.
eBay made their buyer protections really good. This can be bad for sellers, but it does mean that buyers don’t really care about profile reputation anymore.
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Comment on What private companies are you happy doing business with? in ~talk
Weldawadyathink Link ParentI love Costco too, but it is publicly tradedI love Costco too, but it is publicly traded
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Comment on What private companies are you happy doing business with? in ~talk
Weldawadyathink Link ParentThe repairability issue is one point that I won’t ever try to defend Apple on. It’s just bad. And the worst part is that other manufacturers just seem to follow Apple in this. If I didn’t like...The repairability issue is one point that I won’t ever try to defend Apple on. It’s just bad. And the worst part is that other manufacturers just seem to follow Apple in this. If I didn’t like macOS as much as I do, the only laptop I would ever buy is a framework.
I will say that Apple has made some interesting advancements in iPhone repairability. This is right after they made them extremely unrepairable, but they are nonetheless advancements. For example, I believe the iPhone 13 was the first glass sandwich style device that could be opened from both sides. Previous iterations could only be opened from the front or back, making replacement of one slab of glass incredibly difficult. All phones, including androids, had to choose to make a screen replacement easy or a back glass replacement easy. iPhone has both be easy. I don’t know if this advancement has been copied by Android manufacturers yet.
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Comment on What private companies are you happy doing business with? in ~talk
Weldawadyathink Link ParentI switched to apple after using and loving Android for years. I switched in 2020. The App Store might have slightly less adware and malicious products, but not by much. There are numerous apps...I switched to apple after using and loving Android for years. I switched in 2020. The App Store might have slightly less adware and malicious products, but not by much. There are numerous apps that try to trick kids into purchasing a $10/week subscription to a shitty mobile game with their parents credit card. It takes so little searching to find an app that explicitly breaks apples listed rules on the App Store. Apples incentive to remove them is nearly zero, since they make 30% of those ridiculous subscription fees. This misaligned incentives also shows in other products like them destroying the usability of the apple TV apps to sell their subscription service.
With regard to iPhones being good products, I stand by this. Are they the best deal you can find? Nope. But are they a good value? Yes. Don’t forget that Apple devices get software support for far longer than any Android devices on the market. Google keeps promising longer support, but doesn’t actually support they devices they already have sold. When I switched to the iPhone, I switched from the Galaxy s10e to the iPhone 6s+. The iPhone was far older, but had consistently better day to day performance than the 1 year old Samsung. When I had bought the s10e, the contemporary iPhone was the 11, which is still supported. The s10e is definitely not.
As for Macs being a good value, I stand by that too. Before Apple silicon happened, I comparison shopped Mac laptops to the equivalent pc laptops. If you actually got similar specs, the pc laptops were within $100 difference of the macs (with some of the PCs being more expensive). People view macs as a poor value because they don’t serve the low cost market with new devices. But if you actually compare them correctly, they are quite reasonably priced. And everything changed when the Apple silicon attacked. If you haven’t used one, it’s hard to convey just how good Apple silicon is. They are super powerful, and still manage to sip battery life. The only thing close is the snapdragon windows laptops, but Apple silicon still runs laps around those chips. The base model Mac mini is pretty much the best value computer money can buy right now.
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Comment on What private companies are you happy doing business with? in ~talk
Weldawadyathink Link ParentI think things turn out best when the incentives for shareholders can be aligned with the incentives for consumers. You can see this pretty clearly with certain companies like Apple, which was...I think things turn out best when the incentives for shareholders can be aligned with the incentives for consumers. You can see this pretty clearly with certain companies like Apple, which was mentioned in the now deleted comment.
For their hardware, especially lower end hardware, Apple’s incentives align well with customers. iPhones come out every year with decent improvements and are a fantastic value, especially when you consider the support length. The lower priced Macintoshes are some of the best computers you can buy.
But for things like services, in particular the App Store 30% fee, Apple’s incentives are the opposite of what is good for the consumer. That is how we get all the anticompetitive decisions that Apple makes, and their malicious compliance to the EU DMA.
Ultimately the incentives for a private and public company are identical, it’s just that public company incentives are stronger.
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Comment on What private companies are you happy doing business with? in ~talk
Weldawadyathink LinkI think it’s worth saying that being a private company is not a panacea. I used to work for The Wonderful Company. Despite the name, they were not wonderful. They were far from the worst company I...I think it’s worth saying that being a private company is not a panacea. I used to work for The Wonderful Company. Despite the name, they were not wonderful. They were far from the worst company I have worked with, but definitely not wonderful. It was privately owned by Stuart and Linda Resnick.
Here is a good example. It’s an employee owned cooperative, not private, but it is a similar idea. It’s called Oliver’s Market, and it’s the best damn grocery store I have ever been to. Some locals complain that it’s too expensive, but I don’t think it actually is. If you buy quality food from other grocery stores, Oliver’s actually ends up being cheaper. It’s just that Oliver’s doesn’t stock the bottom of the barrel crap that you probably shouldn’t be buying anyway. All around a fantastic company.
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Comment on Mac advice for a long time Windows user in ~tech
Weldawadyathink Link ParentI believe all of those have an equivalent, but I don’t know exactly what they are. In general just swap cmd for ctrl. Shift while moving the cursor makes a selection just like on windows....I believe all of those have an equivalent, but I don’t know exactly what they are. In general just swap cmd for ctrl. Shift while moving the cursor makes a selection just like on windows. Cmd+left/right arrow moves to the beginning/end of a line. I don’t have a keyboard with home and end to try, but I think they are similar to windows.
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Comment on Doppi, the nicest player for your music files in ~tech
Weldawadyathink Link ParentI do sometimes. In particular for flighty. If you haven’t used it, it is a fantastic app for tracking plane flights. Well worth the pro subscription in my opinion. However, I only fly very rarely....I do sometimes. In particular for flighty. If you haven’t used it, it is a fantastic app for tracking plane flights. Well worth the pro subscription in my opinion. However, I only fly very rarely. The lifetime unlock is $300. If I flew frequently, I would get that in a heartbeat. They have a pay as you go weekly subscription for $5/week. I just get it and immediately cancel so I have pro for when I actually have flights.
I will also use it as an extended trial. For example albums, which is my favorite front end for Apple Music. I can’t see the prices anymore, but I originally bought a 1 year subscription to see if I would actually use it, and then bought a lifetime.
I love having the flexibility.
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Comment on Mac advice for a long time Windows user in ~tech
Weldawadyathink Link ParentIt probably isn’t worth enough to matter, but stock macOS isn’t actually posix compliant. Apple changes a lot when testing for posix compliance. Most of it doesn’t actually matter, but if you are...It probably isn’t worth enough to matter, but stock macOS isn’t actually posix compliant. Apple changes a lot when testing for posix compliance. Most of it doesn’t actually matter, but if you are frequently using uucp for some reason, it could.
By the way, you can install the gnu utils using homebrew and add them to PATH. That gives you a nearly identical experience to Linux.
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Comment on Mac advice for a long time Windows user in ~tech
Weldawadyathink LinkThe old ctrl is dead! Long live cmd! So macOS is a very interesting operating system. It has caught me hook line and sinker, because I don’t think there is anything else quite like it. A lot of...The old
ctrlis dead! Long livecmd!So macOS is a very interesting operating system. It has caught me hook line and sinker, because I don’t think there is anything else quite like it. A lot of the concepts in it are older than windows itself (for example, try clicking and holding on a menu bar item, moving the mouse to one of the selections, then release the mouse. That was the only way to interact with the menu bar on the original Macintosh from 1984, and still exists to this day). Many people say that macOS is confusing and unintuitive. I disagree. I think the ubiquity of windows and its stupid idiosyncrasies has trained everyone to use windows, and when they try to use macOS, it is intuitive, but doesn’t match the windows paradigm. But windows is so ingrained in the general population that they think windows = intuitive. My recommendation is to be ready to forget what you know about computing and learn a new paradigm.
With all Apple products, it is often best to follow apple’s intended path. macOS is no exception, but macOS is also incredibly customizable, unlike apple’s other operating system. You should learn the intended systems and give them a chance, and be ready to carefully decide what you will customize. For example, I like the dock to be hidden, and I have some defaults write commands that make the dock show up much quicker than default when I mouse to the bottom.
I’ll post some more things as I think of them.
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Comment on Has anyone else intentionally lowered their phone's screen's saturation? in ~tech
Weldawadyathink Link ParentI just set this up last night. So far I think I like it. I have it do partial greyscale, so I see colors, just a bit desaturated. You can automate this fully with iOS shortcuts.I just set this up last night. So far I think I like it. I have it do partial greyscale, so I see colors, just a bit desaturated. You can automate this fully with iOS shortcuts.
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Comment on How do you report an entire topic? in ~tildes
Weldawadyathink LinkThe reporting mechanism just pings @deimos. He is an actual human, and nothing happens automatically. I have reported the top comment of certain threads that aren’t problematic yet, but are...The reporting mechanism just pings @deimos. He is an actual human, and nothing happens automatically. I have reported the top comment of certain threads that aren’t problematic yet, but are starting to get out of hand. The particular comment itself wasn’t bad, but it let Deimos know to keep an eye on it.
The best current way to report a topic is just to report one of the comments and explain your reasoning. This doesn’t help if there aren’t any comments on it yet though.
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Comment on What's something you're "in too deep" on? in ~talk
Weldawadyathink Link ParentIt’s funny that guys brag about pain tolerance. I’m trained as a first responder, and one of the questions we ask about is pain, including severity. It is always taught that women will grade the...It’s funny that guys brag about pain tolerance. I’m trained as a first responder, and one of the questions we ask about is pain, including severity. It is always taught that women will grade the same pain at a lower severity (1-2 lower on a 1-10 scale) than men do. So the medical establishment knows guys are full of themselves even if other people don’t.
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Comment on Does the way you tie a sheet bend matter? in ~hobbies
Weldawadyathink LinkTL;DW: For similar sized rope, doesn’t really matter. For different sized rope, a properly tied sheet bend seems a bit better. But it’s still a terrible knot by nearly all metrics.TL;DW: For similar sized rope, doesn’t really matter. For different sized rope, a properly tied sheet bend seems a bit better. But it’s still a terrible knot by nearly all metrics.
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Does the way you tie a sheet bend matter?
10 votes
(I wasn’t sure what group was best, please move it if there is a better group)
Okay this video was actually mind blowing. I absolutely thought that cheap feathers were fake. I remember having feathers that would be a continuous surface and then split when abused. I always thought it was plastic links breaking, not some actual microstructure of real feathers.