l_one's recent activity
-
Comment on Sleep struggles: how do I get better sleep quality? in ~life
-
Comment on Sleep struggles: how do I get better sleep quality? in ~life
l_one (edited )LinkHi. Also ADHD (for me specifically it's AuDHD) and have had sleep consistency issues near all my life. Things to try (in no particular order). Physical exercise on a regular, scheduled basis. You...Hi.
Also ADHD (for me specifically it's AuDHD) and have had sleep consistency issues near all my life.
Things to try (in no particular order).
Physical exercise on a regular, scheduled basis. You DO NOT have to exhaust yourself or push until you feel like crap, thus demotivating yourself and providing reinforcement that 'I don't like doing this'. Physical exercise can help with a lot of things including mood stability and sleep. During the times I've had the motivation to go on 2-3 mile walks on my local trails / parks I feel like it helped me. Edit: oh, and the 'something is better than nothing' principle applies here. Don't 'not do exercise' just because you feel you can't allocate 'enough' time or effort to it. If all you have time for is a 15 minute walk, that 15 minute walk is better than nothing and may later build into something more, jogging or whatever.
Sleep study / CPAP. If you have any issues that interfere with sleep due to snoring / apnea then CPAP can make a significant qualitative difference.
Certain Marijuana products (health and safety disclaimers apply here) - from talking with my father there are gummies he gets from Lume labeled 'Dream' that contain 5mg THC and 10mg CBN - the CBN has been anecdotally attributed to improved sleep quality and ease of getting to sleep / staying asleep. Be aware there are potential contraindications of mixing Marijuana products with certain ADHD meds as both can have the effect of increasing heart rate, and thus increasing blood pressure. This is not exactly an absolute 'you can never do this', more a need to discuss with your provider, assess your cardiac health / heart rate / blood pressure, and also take into account the biological half life of each and that you would (most likely) be taking any ADHD meds in the morning and any Marijuana products (for the purpose of sleep) at night, thus not mixing either of their peak effects due to time separation. I'll actually be discussing this with my provider next time we meet as it's something I'm considering.
Look for / discuss with psych provider or therapist ways of addressing or counterbalancing sources of stress and anxiety as this may help deal with one of the root causes. Yes, I know, easier said than (effectively) done.
If I recall correctly, and human memory is fallible so maybe I'm wrong, resting in bed while awake even if you are failing to sleep still has some utility compared to not lying down at all. Something to consider in terms of 'give up on trying to sleep and get up at X-oclock AM' vs staying in bed.
That's all I can think of at the moment.
-
Comment on A list of independent internet forums in ~tech
l_one Link ParentI can access it. Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.3 / Vivaldi (not updated for a bit due to not wanting Manifest V3). Also just tried FireFox and that worked too. To be specific, I went to the front page...I can access it. Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.3 / Vivaldi (not updated for a bit due to not wanting Manifest V3). Also just tried FireFox and that worked too.
To be specific, I went to the front page and it loaded - I interpreted your statement to mean you could not load the site at all.
What distro / what browser?edit: saw your response to another comment with that, disregard. -
Comment on UBlock Origin got turned off with my most recent Brave browser update. Any alternatives? in ~tech
l_one Link ParentThere is actually a discussion on this topic here - basically they have the general intention to support extensions and also have built-in ad-blocking, but not a lot beyond that just yet. If you...There is actually a discussion on this topic here - basically they have the general intention to support extensions and also have built-in ad-blocking, but not a lot beyond that just yet. If you scroll all the way down you can see the latest entries in that conversation.
-
Comment on UBlock Origin got turned off with my most recent Brave browser update. Any alternatives? in ~tech
l_one Link ParentI'm staring down this path and it sucks - I use Vivaldi and really, really love it. And I've been avoiding updating it for a while now because it would switch away from Manifest V2 and disable...I'm staring down this path and it sucks - I use Vivaldi and really, really love it. And I've been avoiding updating it for a while now because it would switch away from Manifest V2 and disable uBlock Origin.
While there are Firefox variants out there, none that I have found have all the nice quality of life features I've gotten used to in Vivaldi, at least not from what my research indicated. Some have a number of them, but no matter what it seems I'll be losing functionality.
But I can't keep using a browser that's going without updates. That's just asking to get rooted by some automated 0-day.
F'ing Google.
I'm looking forward to when Ladybird has a stable release, but that's not likely to be for over a year, and likely more.
-
Comment on Any obscure songs you'd like to share? in ~music
l_one Link ParentThe Lonely Island!!! They are hilarious. I think the classic 'Like a Boss' is my personal favorite of theirs.The Lonely Island!!!
They are hilarious. I think the classic 'Like a Boss' is my personal favorite of theirs.
-
Comment on Any obscure songs you'd like to share? in ~music
l_one (edited )LinkI have a varied and eclectic mix of preferred music... I'll pull out some of the more obscure stuff. Ok, not all of it is the obscure stuff, but much of it should be. Kai Lentit - I am monitoring...I have a varied and eclectic mix of preferred music... I'll pull out some of the more obscure stuff. Ok, not all of it is the obscure stuff, but much of it should be.
Kai Lentit - I am monitoring the situation - just how many references do YOU recognize?
Do you play Magic: The Gathering? Nerd cred:
Remy - Magic: The Rap
Remy - Supreme Verdict
And the OG Magic rap: Tha Gatherin- "Jace the Mind Sculptor"Would you like to laugh at the moment? Here you go: (may offend Christians, may offend Republicans)
Garfunkel And Oates - The Loophole
Garfunkel And Oates - Both Sides Can LaughDo you enjoy 80's and 90's nostalgia in the form of music videos? Have you heard of GUNSHIP? You are welcome:
Tech Noir - voiced in part by John Carpenter. Yes, really. Why yes, you SHOULD watch it.
Dark All Day - Vampires. Saxophone. Indiana. Blood raining from the sky.
DooM Dance - very reminiscent of 90's Anime.On the more 'normal' music, I have a few artists I know of who I particularly like. I'll try and limit myself to pick one song from each:
Karliene - The Last of the Giants
Geoff Castellucci - Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold
Erutan - The Willow Maid
Malukah - Come Little Children
Jeff Russo - Hugh's Log (from Star Trek: Discovery)Bo Burnham - That Funny Feeling - if you feel like crying. It made me cry. If you have climate anxiety or serious depression maybe let this one go for now.
Rachel Hardy - Running up that Hill - her voice is just..... gentle tingles on my scalp and slight shivering along my back
This last one may be more known??? Honestly I'm not sure, but it's recent and awesome and I wanted to share:
The High Kings - The Irish Roar -
Comment on Do you own/run a business? What is it, where is it, how do you get customers? in ~finance
l_one (edited )LinkI've discussed this a few times prior when it came up - my main income is my home electronics lab and my combination online / in-person sales of (for the most part) lab electronics like...I've discussed this a few times prior when it came up - my main income is my home electronics lab and my combination online / in-person sales of (for the most part) lab electronics like Multimeters and Power Supplies and such.
Earlier in my life I burned out HARD working a rather exploitative contracting job installing cable services for Charter Communications (before they renamed to Spectrum) - there are in-house techs and contract group techs - I was with a contract group. Basically in-house techs have comparatively more 'normal' hours and employee rights, and then the contract groups are used to intermittently pick up the slack.
I suppose I don't need to exhaustively explore that phase of my life, but suffice it to say I worked 80-100 hour weeks with one stretch of 101 days without a single day off and just burned out and quit, never wanting to feel like that again.
...
It took me a while to figure out and work towards what I do now, but I built my home electronics lab, have continually developed and expanded it, and established myself as a seller on eBay at first. Things started out slow, grew gradually.
Now I list stuff on eBay, Facebook Marketplace (I hate Facebook passionately but can't overlook that a LOT of local customers find me through there), and Craigslist.
I buy from auctions, both online and in-person and from so many other sources, inspect / test / clean / repair and refurbish electronics instrumentation of all types: multimeters, power supplies, oscilloscopes, function generators, precision sources and standards, soldering gear, electronic loads and a laundry list of more esoteric / niche gear, as well as physical metrology gear to a lesser extent like micrometers and calipers.
My first eBay sale was my old-version Milwaukee M18 grinder. I had upgraded to the FUEL version and had it lying around, and knew that Milwaukee battery powered tools sold reliably so I listed it for slightly under the average price and it didn't take long to sell. After I had my first sale on my eBay account I was able to start expanding on eBay from there (there is a staged system of expansion for selling on eBay to cut down on people spamming new accounts and scamming people en-masse - I had to gradually list more, have a certain number of items / dollar value sell before I could list more than a total of X dollars worth of stuff or a quantity of Y listings).
I'm based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Not particularly sensitive information since I do in-person sales.
I don't really find customers (and I've never paid for advertising on eBay or Facebook - my analysis is that's set up as an extraction racket where you have to just keep paying more or they cut your exposure off), I just make really, really over the top high quality listings when it comes to the lab gear specifically (comprehensive testing, video explaining product and demonstrating function, sometimes going into the history behind the company that made the device, etc... - and then I package with the same attentiveness to quality. For one guy that bought a multimeter from me he asked for some information on how to use it and I hilariously decided to produce an hour long video exhaustively going over usage and all the functions. That has earned me positive, often really effusive, feedback (if you click on 'Received as seller' and scroll down until you start seeing the longer entries you'll get the idea, especially if you go to the next page of feedback) which helps to show other customers that they can expect to receive quality for what they pay, which has somewhat snowballed for me in a positive way.
Can I live 100% from my business? Conditional yes? I do have one, maybe two other intermittent income sources from people / contract groups I know and have good relationships with - one in telecom survey which is VERY intermittent since I don't take work more than an hour drive from home - I can go a year without something from them popping up - and the other both intermittent and seasonal with most of the jobs for them happening in winter since that's the hardest season on their equipment.
So, everything that I have ever listed on eBay in my primary focus (lab electronics) has sold, sold without a long wait, and for higher than market rates. I think I only have one instrument in that primary-focus of mine still unsold, and it's a part of a system, not a whole device, so not sure how much that counts. Ironically this means my eBay page, for a seller that purports to focus on lab electronics, is largely devoid of lab electronics the vast majority of the time. This is not helped by the fact that for a confluence of reasons I am quite slow to list individual items - partially due to executive dysfunction issues from a combination of past burnout trauma and being AuDHD, partially due to being a perfectionist regarding lab electronics listings and being unwilling to list something if I feel that it is too distant from 'perfection' in either it's condition or in the quality of my listing / testing / documentation, etc...
Now, the lab electronics I look for and sell are the kind of stuff that has a lower bound of around $200 to $300, and a typical upper bound of around the $2K+ mark, so I don't actually need to list stuff / sell stuff all that often to pay the bills and live comfortably, which really helps make all of this work for me in spite of my mental health issues.
What do I like most about it? Free time and personal freedom in general. I work from my home office except for auction pickups and meeting customers for local sales. I probably put in less than 15 hours a month (yes, I did say a month, not a week) of the part of the business I actually consider 'work' and that's enough to keep me going and keep my bills paid with enough after to watch for and buy instruments for testing/repair/resale. I also really, REALLY love talking shop with my customers, especially my local customers, and helping them get into or get further along in their journey with electronics. I enjoy supporting the local electronics community, be it keeping super-cheap basic gear in stock for high school and college students (or just giving them some stuff that needs repair so they have a freebie project to start with that will end up as a useful tool), or getting to meet local business owners and getting a tour of their lab or manufacturing setup. I'm largely an introvert, but do need some socialization, and that gives me one of the types of social interaction that I enjoy most.
What would I do differently? Quit a job that demands a hundred hours a week sooner, and seek mental health services sooner to help me have a happier and more effective life.
What bothers me the most about it? The frankly enormous testing and documentation time investment I can't seem to convince myself I should scale back for each instrument. It triggers my executive dysfunction issues and sometimes ends up as this 'too big a hill to climb' amount of effort that then sends me in to a cycle of demotivation and/or mild depression at not doing what I know I need to get done.
How did I get the idea? I've been an electronics nerd darn near my whole life. Literally since elementary school I would buy broken electronics at yard sales and take them apart - eventually I started fixing some of them. In terms of the idea of taking that and making a business out of it - I think it crystallized during early COVID when I was looking for options that would keep me at home as much as possible.
-
Comment on PC upgrade vs replacement in ~tech
l_one LinkWith the age and specs of the computer it's probably worth looking more at a new(er) computer. I don't recommend buying new. With the DRAM crap going on due to AI it's a terrible time to buy new....With the age and specs of the computer it's probably worth looking more at a new(er) computer.
I don't recommend buying new. With the DRAM crap going on due to AI it's a terrible time to buy new. Similar constraints on new video cards.
I recommend going to eBay, searching by category for PC desktops, and alternate between 'sort by newly listed' and 'sort by ending soonest' with more time on ending soonest.
Link: https://www.ebay.com/b/PC-Desktops-All-In-One-Computers/179/bn_661752
After that? BE PATIENT. Let things go that look like reasonable deals and just... wait for a while watching it. You'll start to get a sense of what things are going for. Also click on 'sold items' to see what things have actually sold for.
The desktop computer secondary market is VERY large, and while you are not likely to get a deal on a CURRENT generation machine, you are likely to get an amazing price on something 3 generations old or a pretty good deal on something 2 generations old, either of which would in general be a fairly large step up from the hardware you are on currently.
...Kind of hesitant to toot my own horn here, but I suppose it might be relevant. I do sell stuff, and while mostly I do lab electronics I get computers sometimes too. I've got a recent-gen Dell micro pc that's been sitting on my shelf for maybe a year now. I think it has a 10th or 11th gen Intel i7 and 16 gigs of DDR4. It had a broken power button which I mostly fixed (the power LED doesn't light up anymore but the button works now).
Could let that go semi-cheap if you wanted, but if you spend time (and it is literally you spending a precious resource - do value your time) watching eBay statistics are very much on your side for getting a fair step up in hardware for a good deal - probably a better deal than I could offer. You can straight-up trade time for money doing that by just waiting and watching.
-
Comment on This planet is...up to something in ~space
l_one LinkI appreciated the reminder of Sagan. Of a viewpoint that retains hope.I appreciated the reminder of Sagan. Of a viewpoint that retains hope.
-
Comment on US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's surveillance of cyclosporiasis in ~health
l_one Link ParentI tried the soup method. It was.... not actively bad. I was hungry at the time which helped of course. I wouldn't call it particularly good, more it was just another way to not waste / still...I tried the soup method. It was.... not actively bad. I was hungry at the time which helped of course. I wouldn't call it particularly good, more it was just another way to not waste / still intake salad greens.
This morning I tried another stir fry (the dill pickle salad again - my last remaining salad), but I cooked a can of garbanzo beans in olive oil on my skillet first, with pepper, ginger, and a little salt - then dumped the salad and everything it comes with into the skillet on top of that. It was definitely better, the seasoned garbanzo beans added a solid protein source + improved the average texture of the dish. If I was planning any variant of this I would not be using a bagged salad of course, but it was definitely better with the seasoned garbanzo beans.
-
Comment on US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's surveillance of cyclosporiasis in ~health
l_one Link ParentNow that is a novel idea to me. I may give that a try, thank you for suggesting this.Now that is a novel idea to me. I may give that a try, thank you for suggesting this.
-
Comment on US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's surveillance of cyclosporiasis in ~health
l_one Link ParentI thought attempting to air fry one of them might have some potential and be worth trying for science, but I lack an air fryer.I thought attempting to air fry one of them might have some potential and be worth trying for science, but I lack an air fryer.
-
Comment on US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's surveillance of cyclosporiasis in ~health
l_one Link ParentYeah. I'm frugal enough (and have ingrained habits from when I was genuinely poor and would never waste food) that I don't want to throw out the salads - thus the sad stir-fry. I'll plan on...Yeah. I'm frugal enough (and have ingrained habits from when I was genuinely poor and would never waste food) that I don't want to throw out the salads - thus the sad stir-fry. I'll plan on something more appropriate for the current situation when I need to restock my veggies for the week. Probably alternate stir fry and some baked mix of broccoli/asparagus with oil/lemon/parmesan/pepper. I've made that last one before and it's yum - but I will miss the minimal-effort dump-salad-into-bowl & ready.
Higher calories due to the oil with fry and bake options (less with bake) but still healthier than just not having veggies.
-
Comment on US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's surveillance of cyclosporiasis in ~health
l_one Link ParentFortunately where I am the tap water is clean. I still run it through a filter pitcher for what I drink and make coffee with, but that's more personal habit rather than necessity here. Icky...Fortunately where I am the tap water is clean. I still run it through a filter pitcher for what I drink and make coffee with, but that's more personal habit rather than necessity here. Icky experience you're describing, I wouldn't want to deal with that... especially if it literally smelled like shit. Ick.
-
Comment on US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's surveillance of cyclosporiasis in ~health
l_one (edited )LinkI've been tracking this and it is such an aggravating and depressing PITA. Pun not intended but coincidentally very appropriate. Oh, and I live in Michigan, the state with the highest documented...I've been tracking this and it is such an aggravating and depressing PITA. Pun not intended but coincidentally very appropriate.
Oh, and I live in Michigan, the state with the highest documented concentration of infections. How nice!
My stepmother who lives with my father an hour north of me got sick with this, they were both eating Dole and Taylor Farms bagged salads (not confirmed as the cause) and I was eating a Taylor Farms bagged salad as part of my breakfast every day - it had been a great help in me improving my diet and lowering daily calorie intake. But bagged salads are one of the highest risk produce products you can get (I believe Raspberries are #1 due to the issue of crevices serving to resist effective washing).
One of the more eclectic YouTubers I watch sometimes, Farm to Taber, did a livestream about this subject yesterday and I caught the tail end of it. She is a small farmer / ex farm worker / crop scientist / former food safety auditor. Pretty informative and helps explain things like why tracking down the cause of the current outbreak is so difficult right now (big parts are a combination of 'do you remember everything you ate for all your meals from the past 2 weeks' and 'surely if we de-fund public health, food safety, federal enforcement of such and more nothing bad will happen, all that money was being wasted!').
I'm considering trying to stir-fry my remaining bagged salads and expect it to look soggy, sad, and wilted. Sigh. I really didn't want to deal with not being able to trust if the food I buy at a major grocery store is safe or not.
Apparently Cyclospora oocysts are incredibly resistant to washing and don't get inactivated / killed / removed with our standard methods like Chlorine rinses. Link to a study comparing various washing methods which cites the methods used, while reasonably to highly effective for other parasites, were drastically less effective for Cyclospora.
The only truly effective prevention method is to not introduce human sewage / human fecal matter into any point of the growing / harvesting / processing chain of our produce. And yes - specifically Human fecal matter. That was fun to learn - it's not that we're missing bird/insect/rabbit/deer poop or whatever - it's human poop. ...yay. Source example FDA.gov: "Cyclosporiasis occurs only in humans, the only known host for C. cayetanensis."
Update: I still had 4 Taylor Farms bagged salads in my fridge. I genuinely enjoy nearly all of their varieties, but I think the Dill & Radish is my favorite. Still want to have vegetables in my diet... with rock bottom expectations and already hungry what with my normal meal cycle disrupted by this and trying to figure out what to eat, I put some olive oil on cast iron and stir-fried my damn salad. Including the dressing, because the dressing has Dill and herbs are a high-risk vector for this. It looks like sadness. It... isn't the worst thing ever I guess... Some of the dressing flavor survived the cooking, and I am hungry. Remains to be seen if I can accept eating my greens like this or if I need to source different options.
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
l_one LinkSo, I had a customer who purchased a function generator from me on eBay and we ended up having a conversation about electronics, in which they mentioned they were also looking for a frequency...So, I had a customer who purchased a function generator from me on eBay and we ended up having a conversation about electronics, in which they mentioned they were also looking for a frequency counter. I had some options, one was priced right for them, but I needed to do some work to refurbish / test it to make it ready to go out the door.
That ended up actually being pretty in-depth and I encountered various issues along the way - and I happened to be filming chunks of it to provide video documentation. Somewhere along the line I decided there was enough in the way of useful detail that I'd make it into a public video for my channel so other people could use it as a reference for the various common / uncommon / seldom known details for the care and maintenance of HPAK (Hewlett Packard / Agilent / Keysight) 531xxA series frequency counters.
-
Comment on No, artificial intelligence is not conscious in ~tech
l_one (edited )Link ParentThis is a fair point of nuance. In my original post I characterized 'the wealthy' as being excited to revive the practice of slavery. If I restate that with less (not none, just less, I'm not...But I don’t think anyone considers this a good outcome and I think making up lies that people want slavery is malicious.
This is a fair point of nuance. In my original post I characterized 'the wealthy' as being excited to revive the practice of slavery.
If I restate that with less (not none, just less, I'm not going to claim I can fully step outside of myself here) personal bias and more objective viewpoint, it would instead be stated as 'the specific subset of those wealthy and powerful who are pushing forward hard in the AI space, but not a generalization of everyone who has wealth' being financially excited over the prospect of filling labor / job roles with AIs that they don't have to directly pay, or contribute towards health insurance, or get sued by for unfair labor practices, or need to allow for them only working 40 hours a week, or having human needs, etc...
In that more nuanced phrasing, slavery is not a desired goal in the first order, but more of a second order side-effect - if and when AI/AGI reaches the point of being conscious / being people.
-
Comment on No, artificial intelligence is not conscious in ~tech
l_one Link ParentLooks like there may have been a misunderstanding. What I was referring to by 'slavery' and 'slaves' is the future potential AI/AGI that advances enough that it achieves consciousness / personhood...Looks like there may have been a misunderstanding.
What I was referring to by 'slavery' and 'slaves' is the future potential AI/AGI that advances enough that it achieves consciousness / personhood - and therefore that 'AI/AGI person' is someone who is being made to perform work without choice or compensation - and therefore a slave. From that we get corporations and wealthy individuals who are pushing forward in the AI space "getting financially excited about the new revolution in being able to own slaves again and have those slaves replace as much of their paid workforce as possible".
I was not referring to slavery in the specific sense of human beings being enslaved.
-
Comment on No, artificial intelligence is not conscious in ~tech
l_one Link ParentAn interesting and horrible perspective is that we are racing towards AGI and the few most wealthy and powerful people in the world are ever so excited about... reinventing slavery. If we create...We're getting closer to creating consciousness than ever before, and if sentience is really the bar for consideration, then these AI labs are horror shows in the making.
An interesting and horrible perspective is that we are racing towards AGI and the few most wealthy and powerful people in the world are ever so excited about... reinventing slavery. If we create AGI, if it has 'consciousness' or 'personhood', then this all just devolves into the rich getting financially excited about the new revolution in being able to own slaves again and have those slaves replace as much of their paid workforce as possible.
Oh damn, how did I miss that?
Good call kaffo!