bugsmith's recent activity

  1. Comment on I'm going to Thailand next week. Looking for advice on clothing. in ~travel

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    Thanks. A lot of your advice here is the first time I've come across much of it. Particularly the part about speaking against the monarchy and negative reviews. The latter could have really caught...

    Thanks. A lot of your advice here is the first time I've come across much of it. Particularly the part about speaking against the monarchy and negative reviews. The latter could have really caught me out!

    When are you coming?

    Today!

    cosmetics and moisturizers here in Thailand are skin bleaching

    Just, what? This has prompted further research. I didn't know that was a thing.

    Finally, welcome and congratulations to you both! Many happy years and smiles.

    Thank you!

    3 votes

  2. Comment on I'm going to Thailand next week. Looking for advice on clothing. in ~travel

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    A scarf is something I'd never have considered. Thank you!

    A scarf is something I'd never have considered. Thank you!

    2 votes

  3. Comment on I'm going to Thailand next week. Looking for advice on clothing. in ~travel

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    And somehow, I didn't stop to consider I could actually buy some clothes out there. Honestly though, I'd rather avoid going shopping whilst we're there. I don't like shopping at the best of times,...

    There’s also Uniqlo, H&M and decathlon in Bangkok.

    And somehow, I didn't stop to consider I could actually buy some clothes out there. Honestly though, I'd rather avoid going shopping whilst we're there. I don't like shopping at the best of times, let alone whilst on holiday! But this is very handy to know.

    As for clothes, there’s a very slim chance you need long pants except for visiting temples

    This is the only reason I'm packing my linen trousers.

    There’s laundry services all around, you either pay per load and hang dry yourself or you just hand your clothes in and get them back the next day (or that evening)

    Great to know. I've been told it's very difficult to dry clothes for the next day, thanks to the humidity, so planning to do the overnight service where available.

    I would not wear synthetic clothes because from my experience they make me sweat too much.

    I will sweat horrendously either way. If I wear cotton, the clothes will just remain sweat soaked, where the synthetics will dry out at least. I would vastly prefer to wear organic materials, but I think it will be a disaster.

    I really appreciate the advice.

    3 votes

  4. I'm going to Thailand next week. Looking for advice on clothing.

    ~travel Ask (advice)
    I'm very excited to be taking a trip to Thailand with my wife for our honeymoon. I'm going to do some clothes shopping this week and keen to take advice from those who live in or have travelled to...

    I'm very excited to be taking a trip to Thailand with my wife for our honeymoon.

    I'm going to do some clothes shopping this week and keen to take advice from those who live in or have travelled to SEA or specifically Thailand before.

    I'm going for a minimal approach, so I'll be taking as few clothes as possible and having them laundered whilst I'm there.

    For underwear, I'm settled on stocking up on Uniqlo's airism boxers as they're already the most comfortable I've ever owned and I'm certain they'll hold up well to the tropics.

    In that vein, I'm not sure if I should also go for the airism t-shirts, or if there's an obviously better choice. I hear lots of mixed opinions on cotton vs merino vs synthetics. I sweat too much for cotton, and have never got on that well with merino (outside of jumpers/sweaters). Given I'll only be there for a couple of weaks, I'm feeling that synthetics are the way to go. But I'm happy to be convinced otherwise.

    For footwear I'm going to wear my Altra Escalantes. I'm currently training for a marathon and will have to do at least a few runs while I'm out there, so these will serve as my running shoes and for anywhere I might appreciate plain black shoes (or something more supportive than sandals). Otherwise, I'll be living in my Birkenstock arizonas.

    I'll be packing two linen shirts, one linen trousers and then a couple of very lightweight shorts. Again, I'm avoiding cotton with the shorts. I have some ABC WovenAir pull-on shorts from Lululemon that I think will be very comfortable, but I'd be keen for recommendation for another pair or two. I've been told the pacebreakers from Lululemon are great, but not sure if an order from there will arrive on time.

    I'm based in the UK, so any recommendations would ideally before for shops we have here, or international brands like Decathlon, Uniqlo, H&M etc.

    I understand this is all very personal, but I like hearing different preferences.

    18 votes

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

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    Hey, this is pretty cool! I've toyed with making something similar myself, but eventual settled on self-hosting Linkwarden, which fits my needs adequately. But I still yearn for the simplicity of...

    Hey, this is pretty cool!
    I've toyed with making something similar myself, but eventual settled on self-hosting Linkwarden, which fits my needs adequately. But I still yearn for the simplicity of something like yours on occasion.

    1 vote

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

    bugsmith
    Link
    I've been interested in the IndieWeb as a broad topic for a while. More recently, I've become interested in the Micropub standard. The basic concept is that you can have any number of servers that...

    I've been interested in the IndieWeb as a broad topic for a while. More recently, I've become interested in the Micropub standard.

    The basic concept is that you can have any number of servers that follow the standard, and any number of clients. In theory, any client should be able to work with any server.

    You write your blog posts, or other types of content (see microformats), and the server will then integrate with whatever backend it's been setup for to publish your content. A pretty typical backend is writing plain text markdown and then having a static sit generator run to generate your new web page.

    There's plenty of implementations out there, but I've been infatuated with Gleam lately, so I've started writing my own server using that. I'll share the project once it's at the MVP stage.

    Speaking of Gleam, I'm very excited to be attending their first ever annual conference in a couple of weeks, in Bristol. It will be my first time attending a tech conference.

    7 votes

  8. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    I'm really sorry to tell you that the quality of the Cradle series does not hold into the later books of the series. It grows exponentially. You'll rapidly consume the remaining books, soon...

    I'm really sorry to tell you that the quality of the Cradle series does not hold into the later books of the series.

    It grows exponentially. You'll rapidly consume the remaining books, soon finding yourself at the end. And then you'll be empty. Nothing will fill the void. But you will be ok with that.

    Enjoy!

    3 votes

  9. Comment on I'm back in ~talk

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    I feel like I have quality para-social relationships here. Many usernames here have become so familiar that i have built a sense of trust and joy with them, despite never interacting directly much...

    I feel like I have quality para-social relationships here. Many usernames here have become so familiar that i have built a sense of trust and joy with them, despite never interacting directly much with most of them.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on Do you have your invite request email? Post it and let's find out what drives people to want to be a part of Tildes. in ~tildes

    bugsmith
    Link
    Like a few others, I just posted in one of the Reddit recruitment drives during the API debacle. I think I wanted a like-for-like Reddit replacement initially, but quickly found that Tildes is far...

    Like a few others, I just posted in one of the Reddit recruitment drives during the API debacle.

    I think I wanted a like-for-like Reddit replacement initially, but quickly found that Tildes is far more to my taste.

    5 votes

  11. Comment on Why do RSS readers look like email clients? in ~tech

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    I did see that. I will have a play with the search filter and see how well it works.

    I did see that. I will have a play with the search filter and see how well it works.

  12. Comment on Why do RSS readers look like email clients? in ~tech

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    I do something similar. How do you achieve this? I currently have a category called "Discovery", used the same way as yours, but I just manually mark each feed within it to not appear in my main...

    I do something similar. How do you achieve this? I currently have a category called "Discovery", used the same way as yours, but I just manually mark each feed within it to not appear in my main feed. This way I only see feeds of this category by manually opening it. I really wish FreshRSS let me set that by category rather than individual feeds (although not enough to relearn PHP and make a PR myself, apparently!).

    2 votes

  13. Comment on C'mon, professors, assign the hard reading in ~humanities

    bugsmith
    (edited )
    Link
    My son is in secondary school (high school) here in the UK, and I am finding myself surprised at how much reading is assigned to and completed by the pupils. I don't think it's an amount that...

    My son is in secondary school (high school) here in the UK, and I am finding myself surprised at how much reading is assigned to and completed by the pupils. I don't think it's an amount that would shock anyone, but given how much I read of the country's declining reading comprehension, it's something that pleasantly surprised me. This is of course just one anecdotal experience and I don't pretend this is representative of anything wider than my Son's year group at school.

    13 votes

  14. Comment on Gold tops $4,900/oz; silver and platinum extend record‑setting rally in ~finance

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    People have a really warped view of what it means to be rich. And I don't mean "dumb people" or anything derogatory. I think it's a really wide reaching issue. We're constantly fed information...

    People have a really warped view of what it means to be rich. And I don't mean "dumb people" or anything derogatory. I think it's a really wide reaching issue. We're constantly fed information about billionaire CEOs, bankers, old-money families, country leaders and others making up the 0.01% that it disproportionately anchors the line we draw for what we determine to mean by "rich*.

    You're absolutely right. On a global scale or a national scale, having thousands to dump into anything that's not an immediate need or basic comfort you are most certainly rich.

    Consider that a salary of $60,000 (£44,000; €51,000) puts you in the top 1% globally [1].

    $35,000 (£26,000; €30,000) puts you in the top 5%. Think about that. Richer than 95% of people in the world. How can that fall under any other definition than rich?

    Then think about how far that kind of salary goes in the areas you can live and earn them.

    [1] Lots of Americans are in the global 1%. A tenth of their income could transform the world - Sigal Samuel

    2 votes

  15. Comment on Why there's no European Google? in ~tech

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

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    I really want one. But the truth is, I really have no idea what I would print and can therefore not justify the price. I just think they are extremely cool.

    I really want one. But the truth is, I really have no idea what I would print and can therefore not justify the price. I just think they are extremely cool.

    3 votes

  18. Comment on I recently finished the Cradle series by Will Wight and have post series depression. What shall I read next? in ~books

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    I have read the entirety of the Bobiverse series. I adored the first three books and didn't hate the later entries (but felt the quality took a large dip). And Project Hail Mary ranks as one of my...

    I have read the entirety of the Bobiverse series. I adored the first three books and didn't hate the later entries (but felt the quality took a large dip).

    And Project Hail Mary ranks as one of my favourite books of recent years, and my absolute favourite audiobook experience. I'm so excited for the film.

  19. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    bugsmith
    Link
    I've just lost momentum on Satisfactory. As I've previously shared here, it's become my go-to game over the Christmas period. This year I started over fresh as there has been some new content...

    I've just lost momentum on Satisfactory. As I've previously shared here, it's become my go-to game over the Christmas period. This year I started over fresh as there has been some new content released since I last played and made it as far as Phase 4 before the thought of building oil infrastructure gave me enough of a repulsion that I realised it was time to stop playing again.

    I've simultaneously been playing through Coromon, thanks to a recommendation from @Carrow. I've been really enjoying it and have found it to be one of the better entries in the Monster Tamer genre. This one leans perhaps a little too hard on it's Pokémon roots, but I've found the story to be more engaging than most of it's inspiration's entries, and the difficulty feels about right. As far as creature design goes, I think it's fantastic.

    6 votes

  20. Comment on I recently finished the Cradle series by Will Wight and have post series depression. What shall I read next? in ~books

    bugsmith
    Link Parent
    Yes, I would push on. I found the book half-gripped me immediately, but I wasn't fully hooked. Just engaged enough that I knew I wanted to continue reading. But I found the second half of the book...

    Yes, I would push on. I found the book half-gripped me immediately, but I wasn't fully hooked. Just engaged enough that I knew I wanted to continue reading. But I found the second half of the book shined far greater, really grabbed me. The character never stops being somewhat of a Mary Sue, and there are many issues I take with the amount of suspension of disbelief required for that character to have adapted so dramatically. If you can get past that, I think it's a great read.

    The second book is where the story really begins to shine.

    1 vote