Weldawadyathink's recent activity

  1. Comment on How do you keep your home smelling nice? in ~life.home_improvement

    Weldawadyathink
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    For the cat litter, if you want a bit less waste, check out CatGenie. It’s a fully automatic litter box, but unlike other “automatic” boxes, this one actually disposes of all the waste by flushing...

    For the cat litter, if you want a bit less waste, check out CatGenie. It’s a fully automatic litter box, but unlike other “automatic” boxes, this one actually disposes of all the waste by flushing it down the drain. It’s also dang expensive, but I can attest to the quality and reliability. We finally had to replace our model a few months ago, but the previous one lasted something like 10-15 years. Their support is also quite good.

    4 votes
  2. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    That’s the one! Thanks for linking it. I only found Theo recently. In some of his longer videos, he starts to ramble and they loose focus, but he has lots of good information in there. I use them...

    That’s the one! Thanks for linking it. I only found Theo recently. In some of his longer videos, he starts to ramble and they loose focus, but he has lots of good information in there. I use them as background noise while I am coding, and tune in when something sounds interesting.

    1 vote
  3. Comment on Mundane Musings Monday in ~talk

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    When chatgpt first came out, OpenAI talked about how people would give chatgpt a bullet point list and have it write out a long email to send to their coworkers. Then the recipient would put the...

    When chatgpt first came out, OpenAI talked about how people would give chatgpt a bullet point list and have it write out a long email to send to their coworkers. Then the recipient would put the same email back into chatgpt to get the bullet points. This feels exactly like that. Just like you I hate what it has become, but there is not much you or I can do.

    5 votes
  4. Comment on Mundane Musings Monday in ~talk

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    I used ChatGPT 4 “I need you to write a cover letter for a job position. Here is my resume: // copy and paste of my resume Here is the job posting: // copy and paste of the job post” Then for...

    I used ChatGPT 4

    “I need you to write a cover letter for a job position. Here is my resume:

    // copy and paste of my resume

    Here is the job posting:

    // copy and paste of the job post”

    Then for subsequent letters I prompted in the same chat

    “Create a cover letter for this position:

    // job description”

    It was really quite simple. I also have given chatgpt a bio of myself in the custom instructions, so I think it made use of that info as well. The result was a set of pretty nice cover letters considering I put about 2 minutes of “work” into them. This style of writing is pretty formal and doesn’t change much with authorial “voice” but it still managed to capture my voice well enough. I am a pretty decent writer when I put my mind to it, and the chatgpt letter is pretty close to what I would have written if I had taken the time.

    8 votes
  5. Comment on Mundane Musings Monday in ~talk

    Weldawadyathink
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    I have been job hunting the past few months, so much of my thinking has been about how stupid the entire process is. Are cover letters actually valuable to anyone? They seem entirely like a waste...

    I have been job hunting the past few months, so much of my thinking has been about how stupid the entire process is.

    Are cover letters actually valuable to anyone? They seem entirely like a waste of time to me. So for most of the past few months, I wouldn't send a cover letter on applications. If I really thought I was a good fit and liked the place, I would include a cover letter. But most of the time not. I have received absolutely no positive contacts about any of my applications in months. Last friday, I send out a handful more, but this time I had chatgpt write a cover letter. I made a few edits, but mostly used them unchanged. They were full of absolute nonsense. But I got a call from one of these applications today and have a phone interview for monday. I just don't get why they are useful, but apparently they are.

    I am pretty fed up with job hunting right now.

    15 votes
  6. Comment on The more I use Linux, the more I hate every distro in ~tech

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    Go to office.com and find the link to install office. I currently use local office apps with an office 365 account. It is absolutely possible.

    Go to office.com and find the link to install office. I currently use local office apps with an office 365 account. It is absolutely possible.

    4 votes
  7. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    Weldawadyathink
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    I have still been working on taskrabbit. I can’t remember if I posted about it here before. It’s a plugin to Commerce7, a POS that is common in the wine industry to provide automatic notifications...

    I have still been working on taskrabbit. I can’t remember if I posted about it here before. It’s a plugin to Commerce7, a POS that is common in the wine industry to provide automatic notifications and tasks for problematic orders. I was building it first with Vue, since that is what I was familiar with from audiobookcovers.com and audiobookshelf.

    I watched a video from Theo the other day about how react was not made for the web. It is designed to be a more general purpose rendering and template engine, and react-dom is what is used to render to the web. That video also highlights a bunch of cool projects like react-pdf, react-email, a react framework to render mp4 video, and a react framework to render to three.js, which is basically OpenGL bindings for JavaScript.

    This planted a seed that I couldn’t quite shake. I really would like the ability to create pdfs and emails programmatically, so react seemed like a skill I should learn eventually. Not to mention that the job market for react is much better.

    In creating taskrabbit, I had a few false starts around components and styling. Commerce7 provides a react component library so your app can match their styles. I tried a few plugins to use react components in Vue, but I couldn’t get any to work. I resigned myself to building my own similar components in Vue, matching the styles using the web inspector. It worked well enough, but it wasn’t perfect.

    I had that seed planted for wanting to learn react, and I had an issue that react seemed to solve. The only issue was I had already built a bunch of the taskrabbit front end in Vue. Despite that, I started playing with react, and now I have rebuilt taskrabbit in react to the same level of functionality as it was in Vue (still not finished though).

    I have a confession to make: I think I like react better than Vue. Vue seemed much more simple than react at first, which is why I started with it. But now that I have used both with some level of competency, I like how react handles things better. I don’t really have any specifics to put into words, but react just feels better to me.

    1 vote
  8. Comment on Recommend a nonfiction book accessible to outsiders that makes your interest seem awesome in ~books

    Weldawadyathink
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    This only somewhat fits the "your interest" requirement, but I will suggest it anyway. The Introvert Advantage: How Quiet People Can Thrive in an Extrovert World by Marti Olsen Laney Psy.D. If you...

    This only somewhat fits the "your interest" requirement, but I will suggest it anyway.

    The Introvert Advantage: How Quiet People Can Thrive in an Extrovert World by Marti Olsen Laney Psy.D.

    If you think you might be an introvert, read this book. If you think you know someone who might be an introvert, read this book. If you just want to have more understanding for 1/3 of the human population, read this book. If you have a coworker or subordinate that might be an introvert, please oh please read this book.

    I think introversion is extremely misunderstood. The biggest misconception is that liking to socialize means you must be an extrovert and not liking social activity means you must be an introvert. A close second is that being shy means you are an introvert. An extrovert can be shy, and an introvert can be outgoing. In fact, most of the shy people you have interacted with were likely extroverts. I have met people that claim to be introverts, even though I am almost positive they are not.

    Laney describes introversion much better than I could, so I will let the book stand for itself, but if you harbor any of the above misconceptions, please read this book.

    3 votes
  9. Comment on Tiny little mobile feature request: dot indicator in ~tildes

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    What addons do you have? Are you definitely logged in? I can confirm safari on iOS has an indicator.

    What addons do you have? Are you definitely logged in? I can confirm safari on iOS has an indicator.

    4 votes
  10. Comment on AT&T widespread cell phone outage in US in ~tech

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    I can’t say I am an expert, so take this with a grain of salt. Early voip standards compress and cut off the audio in the exact same way a telephone exchange does. So it’s more that VoIP sounds as...

    I can’t say I am an expert, so take this with a grain of salt.

    Early voip standards compress and cut off the audio in the exact same way a telephone exchange does. So it’s more that VoIP sounds as bad as POTS. But there are newer standards that can be better. Specifically VoLTE. Originally when LTE was deployed, it was data only. Phone calls and sms had to use entirely different radios to use the older phone standards. This is somewhat related to the old issue of smartphones not being able to use cellular data while in a phone call. VoLTE was an add on to LTE to address these. It’s effectively VoIP that goes over LTE, and I think WiFi calling uses the same setup. VoLTE in particular (not all VoIP) supports HD Voice. HD Voice gives more bandwidth to the audio in a call when everyone on the call can support it. That is why some people in this thread mention really good audio quality with cell calls and certain phones. With 5g, sms and something resembling VoLTE is built right into the spec. That is one of the reasons most carriers are pushing customers to 5g phones. With LTE, the carrier had to put LTE, 3g, and sometimes 2g antennas on the same towers and make them coexist in the frequencies they use. 2g is already dead for almost all carriers, but 3g and LTE have coexisted for all of the life of LTE because not all phones support VoLTE. Once customers start switching to 5g phones, 3g and LTE radios can be replaced completely with 5g. That is the real benefit of 5g, along with a bunch of other optimizations that improve the sharing of spectrum. Companies are selling 5g with the super fast millimeter wave. That stuff is awesome, but the real benefit is better sharing with more devices.

    Sorry that kinda turned into a sales pitch for 5g somehow. I just find it interesting to talk about this stuff.

    2 votes
  11. Comment on AT&T widespread cell phone outage in US in ~tech

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    Most of what people consider “landline” are actually voip. The customer modem handles the voip to landline conversion. The old style landline is called POTS (plain old telephone service). Getting...

    Most of what people consider “landline” are actually voip. The customer modem handles the voip to landline conversion. The old style landline is called POTS (plain old telephone service). Getting a POTS line seems incredibly difficult. Based on a quick bit of kagiing, I found a few articles from 2022 talking about FCC rules that allow carriers to decommission POTS lines. One article claims that existing lines for businesses are being charged $1000/month, and new lines going for $1300/month. If you are in the US, I highly doubt any non business actually has a POTS line.

    I have worked for a business that has a POTS line for emergency use. I can tell you from experience that it sounds more terrible than any phone I have ever used. That may have just been a bad line, but I don’t think so.

    7 votes
  12. Comment on A US drugmaker’s feud with the DEA is exacerbating the ADHD meds crisis in ~health.mental

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    I am using Straterra (generic). It also has hypertension as a possible side effect, so I don’t know if it will work for you, but it’s worth asking. I actually did have some high blood pressure...

    I am using Straterra (generic). It also has hypertension as a possible side effect, so I don’t know if it will work for you, but it’s worth asking. I actually did have some high blood pressure issues in the first few months on straterra. I addressed it with daily exercise, most often running. Exercise is even a very good treatment of ADHD directly, not to mention the other benefits. But I know first hand how difficult it can be to find the motivation.

    When I was dealing with my blood pressure issues, my psychiatrist mentioned another drug, clonodine. It’s normally a drug for high blood pressure, but it is also used off label for ADHD. I haven’t used it myself, but it might be worth asking your doctor about it.

    7 votes
  13. Comment on A US drugmaker’s feud with the DEA is exacerbating the ADHD meds crisis in ~health.mental

    Weldawadyathink
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    Thanks for posting this. It was a good read. I was thrust into the world of ADHD medication when I got my diagnosis in July last year. Everything in this article, and everything about the shortage...

    Thanks for posting this. It was a good read.

    I was thrust into the world of ADHD medication when I got my diagnosis in July last year. Everything in this article, and everything about the shortage is so hard to read. I am so thankful that a non-stimulant has been successful for me. I can get 90 day prescriptions with refills for a year without an issue.

    From everything I have seem, it seems like, despite their claims to the contrary, the DEA is trying to limit the supply as much as possible. Not allowing a manufacturer to make drugs because some employee forgot to write "cancelled" after they crossed out an order is bullshit. Yes, those types of issues should be addressed, but the DEA should be doing everything in it's power to get the manufacturer into compliance, not shut them down.

    I think ADHD has been underdiagnosed for decades, but to give the benefit of the doubt, lets assume that there is an epidemic of false diagnoses right now. How should we address this? We should address it with regulations on the prescription of drugs, not the filling of that prescription. Once someone has a valid prescription, it should be simple to get the drug. Remember, this is being used to treat a disorder that reduces executive function. If we require people to jump through hoops, or drive hours, or visit 20 different pharmacies just to find their medication, it will do significant harm to those people. Even if this disorder didn't cause executive function issues, I think those requirements are insane. Imagine if we required cancer patients to take road trips to every pharmacy in the county just to find chemotherapy drugs? The fact is that some medical professional thinks these people need this medication. So why is our government trying to prevent that person from getting the medication? Does the DEA know psychiatry better than the literal trained psychiatrists?

    This is bullshit. The DEA needs to get back in their lane and stop meddling. Their goal needs to be to allow manufacturers to comply with laws while producing medication, not to reduce the supply of medication.

    31 votes
  14. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    Weldawadyathink
    Link
    I can't remember if I said this, but I got my website audiobookcovers.com to a completed state. I don't think I will ever stop working on it, but I am satisfied with it right now, and I am not...

    I can't remember if I said this, but I got my website audiobookcovers.com to a completed state. I don't think I will ever stop working on it, but I am satisfied with it right now, and I am not actively working on it. The final stack is a handful of microservices and a postgres database hosted on the smallest hetzner virtual server.

    My next project is hopefully something I can make some money with. Commerce7 is a common point of sale in the wine industry. It has powerful APIs and an app ecosystem. I am hoping to create a set of tools to sell to wineries that improve and extend Commerce7 in some way. If there are possible legal or address issues with an order, Commerce7 will mark it as "quarantined". These orders have to be manually addressed by an employee before they can be sent for fulfillment. Someone has to manually check for these orders. If one gets missed, the customer will not get their wine. This leads to the customer calling months later and being rightfully pissed.

    Commerce7 has a thing called "tasks". They can be assigned to a specific employee with a due date. That employee will get email notifications and a message on the POS website until they address the order. I built an api that consumes C7 webhooks for every order that is created and checks if it is quarantined. If it is, it uses the API to create a task assigned to a specific user. I build a very janky version of this over a year ago using powerautomate to receive the webhooks. My new version is much more robust and flexible.

    I tried building it on aws lambda and rds postgres, but that ended up being a much too heavyweight solution. I will admit I don't know enough about AWS yet to really administer it. I rebuilt it using cloudflare pages, workers, and D1. I cannot believe how powerful and flexible cloudflare workers are. As long as you are doing something that works within it's limitations, I would much rather work with workers than any other platform. As a tip for anyone getting into the cloudflare stack: deploy your workers as cloudflare pages, even if you are not doing static site hosting on that worker. The pages version of workers seems newer, and is more powerful. It handles file based routing without you having to roll your own router or try and find one that works with workers.

    In this process, I also found the itty selection of node packages which are absolutely spectacular. I used itty-router for a bit before I switched to pages' built in routing, and itty-fetcher is everything I want out of axios with a much lighter package and worker compatibility.

    It has been a fun process, and I am hoping it can be a success financially. With how cheap cloudflare workers and D1 is, it will only cost $5 to run even with a large number of wineries using it. If I can create a handful of these types of services that are similarly cheap to run, and get a handful of wineries subscribing, I can hopefully turn this side gig somewhat profitable.

    4 votes
  15. Comment on Using work OSX machine while travelling in ~comp

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    I don’t know about a guide, but it’s pretty straightforward. Boot the Mac into recovery mode (I think you hold the power button, Google should tell you for sure). Then open disk utility and create...

    I don’t know about a guide, but it’s pretty straightforward. Boot the Mac into recovery mode (I think you hold the power button, Google should tell you for sure). Then open disk utility and create a new apfs volume called whatever you want. Then recovery mode has an option to reinstall macOS. Select that and have it install onto your new volume. You can pick what OS you want to boot into at startup (I think you hold down the power button again, if you have issues search Google for “change macOS startup disk” or similar).

    As a side note, apfs volumes are like partitions but only take up whatever storage they are actually using. You don’t have to choose how much space to allocate to each disk.

    1 vote
  16. Comment on Using work OSX machine while travelling in ~comp

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    Why not dual boot macOS? You can create a new APFS volume and reinstall macOS on it. macOS security is pretty good. A device provisioning profile (if one exists) can reinstall itself to a new...

    Why not dual boot macOS? You can create a new APFS volume and reinstall macOS on it. macOS security is pretty good. A device provisioning profile (if one exists) can reinstall itself to a new macOS image, but macOS will tell you about it. Most likely there isn’t one, and you are good to go. Also you can easily delete that volume once you get back from the trip if you want.

    5 votes
  17. Comment on Who makes money when AI reads the internet for us? in ~tech

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    I would highly recommend Kagi search for dealing with those SEO articles. It can contain all the listicle style articles together so they don’t look like normal results, or remove them entirely....

    I would highly recommend Kagi search for dealing with those SEO articles. It can contain all the listicle style articles together so they don’t look like normal results, or remove them entirely. It doesn’t get everything but it helps immensely. Then you can also change the priority of each domain in all your searches. As soon as you find one of those websites, you can block it from searches entirely. It has made using the internet much more pleasant for me.

    5 votes
  18. Comment on Help: Dual sim mobile phone replacement in ~tech

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    All recent iPhones are also dual sim. If it has a sim slot, you get one physical and one eSIM. If it doesn’t have a sim slot, you get dual eSIM.

    All recent iPhones are also dual sim. If it has a sim slot, you get one physical and one eSIM. If it doesn’t have a sim slot, you get dual eSIM.

    5 votes
  19. Comment on UBC student flies to school from Calgary (because Vancouver is that unaffordable to live in) in ~life

    Weldawadyathink
    Link Parent
    I am guessing he just chooses his classes such that he only goes in 2 times a week. I am at a 2 year college right now, so I can’t comment on a 4 year, but it is quite easy to get a schedule that...

    I am guessing he just chooses his classes such that he only goes in 2 times a week. I am at a 2 year college right now, so I can’t comment on a 4 year, but it is quite easy to get a schedule that is full time and 2 days a week. And that’s without considering online classes.

    7 votes
  20. Comment on Tips for Docker security on a NAS? in ~tech

    Weldawadyathink
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    Be wary of passing docker.sock to a container. For various reasons, docker.sock always gives complete root access to the host system, no matter how locked down you make it. In fact, allowing users...

    Be wary of passing docker.sock to a container. For various reasons, docker.sock always gives complete root access to the host system, no matter how locked down you make it. In fact, allowing users to run docker without sudo gives the same complete root access bypassing sudo entirely. That being said I setup most of my servers to either default login to root or allow docker without root for the convenience.

    6 votes