mat's recent activity

  1. Comment on The US "Ice Cream Truck Song" is rooted in racism in ~music

    mat
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    This article doesn't mention that RZA wrote a replacement jingle, although I'm not sure if it got adopted much. I hope it did.

    This article doesn't mention that RZA wrote a replacement jingle, although I'm not sure if it got adopted much. I hope it did.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on What does your computer setup look like? in ~tech

    mat
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    I have a Thinkpad T15P. It's getting a little old now but it still does everything I need in a reasonable amount of time. That's really it for things I touch regularly, most of my computing these...

    I have a Thinkpad T15P. It's getting a little old now but it still does everything I need in a reasonable amount of time. That's really it for things I touch regularly, most of my computing these days exists to make my life easier without me being too involved in it.

    I have a RPi 4 which runs Home Assistant. That manages a lot of my house stuff. Heating (including smart trvs in most rooms), solar (the inverter does a fair bit of processing but it reports to home assistant) , car charging, various other devices like the dehumidifier, the heat pump in my wife's outdoor office (complete with mm wave radar to turn off if she leaves the room and forgets to do it manually). I don't like remembering to have to turn stuff on or off..

    There's a RPi Zero which exists entirely to read our shared Google Calendar and display the week's events on a little eink screen. It also runs a webserver for a set of neopixel Christmas lights which get pattern config over http (the lights have a ESP32 microcontroller which I guess makes them a computing device too). I keep meaning to add a feature where I can add reminders to the calendar display over the web or by voice via home assistant. "House, remind me I need to send Kid to school with their Christmas jumper tomorrow"

    I have another RPi Zero which manages the greenhouse. It really just monitors temperature and humidity and runs a fan or heater depending to keep the environment reasonably ideal for whatever my wife is growing this season. The code for that was fun to write because there was a lot of hysteresis to account for, which was obvious in retrospect but did cause quite a lot of issues along the way.

    Handful of other RPi Zeros around in various states of "I'll finish this one day" including a kiln controller (temperature comtrol/ramping); a jukebox; a camera robot and probably a few other things I have forgotten.

    We have an OSMC Vero 4k for providing TV to the TV, although since the TV got smarter and had iPlayer and YouTube and so on built in, we do use that a lot less. Still do some watching of actual files from local storage though.

    I technically own a tablet but I rarely use it and it's almost exclusively used by the kid for various games
    I do play Townscaper occasionally.

    PS5 for gaming on the rare occasions that I have time/energy for that.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on What does your computer setup look like? in ~tech

    mat
    Link Parent
    My Christmas lights are not smart, but they are plugged in to smart plugs. Which means I can have a little Bluetooth button which notifies Home Assistant to turn on each of those smart plugs (with...

    My Christmas lights are not smart, but they are plugged in to smart plugs. Which means I can have a little Bluetooth button which notifies Home Assistant to turn on each of those smart plugs (with a short delay between each one for that dunk dunk dunk "lights powering up" effect). This is partly so I don't have to go around the house flicking switches but mostly so when the kid gets home they can yell "Christmas mode!" and turn it all on..

    I'd recommend looking into Home Assistant if you want to do more automation stuff. It's one of the best open source projects going. Half the smart stuff I buy just shows up in HA without me even doing anything (and the other half only needs a click or two). You can do a LOT just through the gui but if you want more, the templating system is a bit clunky but it is very powerful once you get a handle on it.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on The secret history of risotto – The dish is governed by a set of laws that are rooted in tradition, rich in common sense, and aching to be broken or bent in ~food

    mat
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    The most important "rule" about making risotto - that you need to stir it constantly - is untrue. That's not just me saying it, it's multi-Michelin starred chef Raymond Blanc saying it. Cook...

    The most important "rule" about making risotto - that you need to stir it constantly - is untrue. That's not just me saying it, it's multi-Michelin starred chef Raymond Blanc saying it. Cook stuff, add rice, add stock, stir once every five minutes, done. It's easy.

    Risotto is best made with whatever you have on hand, however you want to make it. I make it about once a week.

    16 votes

  5. Comment on Brazilian judge orders Adele song be pulled globally over plagiarism claim in ~music

  6. Comment on A few questions about replacing our clothes washing machine in ~life

    mat
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    I've never used a washer/drier combo that hasn't been fairly rubbish at both things. Caveat to that is that I haven't used many washer/driers. When I was buying a washer a while ago I asked a...

    I've never used a washer/drier combo that hasn't been fairly rubbish at both things. Caveat to that is that I haven't used many washer/driers.

    When I was buying a washer a while ago I asked a friend who works at a major electronics retailer. According to them, Samsung make the best washing machines by some distance. They're direct drive brushless motors so they're as close to solid state as a moving object gets. Mine was a fairly low-end model and has sailed through the last decade which includes a lot (a LOT) of reusable nappy washing.

    I've never seen a top loading washing machine in person, let alone used one, so I can't comment on that.

    I would get a smart washing machine if I was buying now, but I have a lot of home automation to tie it into and a preference to use power at certain, and variable, times of day or night (which I prefer to automate).

    5 votes

  7. Comment on What’s something that you weren’t supposed to see/hear, but did? in ~talk

    mat
    Link Parent
    He hasn't been doing the long series of Damascus-making stuff for a while now, not since Youtube stopped pushing people to upload daily (which is why we were getting so much filler from so many...

    He hasn't been doing the long series of Damascus-making stuff for a while now, not since Youtube stopped pushing people to upload daily (which is why we were getting so much filler from so many creators a few years back), also there's been less of the very long projects since he shut down the Montana shop and him and Will Stelter went separate ways (on good terms). Will's channel is excellent, he's such a good bladesmith. If I ever create something even a fraction as beautiful as the things he makes I'd be very happy indeed.

    Alec is currently doing a very interesting series about making titanium damascus. Actually getting into some properly hardcore metallurgy on this one, it's very interesting and well worth going back to if you haven't seen his stuff for a while.

    I've never liked Damascus for much, personally. It's showy but I don't really see the point, functionally. 95% of my knives are plain stainless steel because that just works better in almost all situations. San mai is about as far as I'd go but I am not really that much of a blacksmith and would probably buy in pre-made billets for that kind of thing.

    I missed having blacksmithing classes with Alec by only a few months - by the time I had time/money he'd just stopped doing them - but I have met him a couple of times.

    3 votes

  8. Comment on You can now put an expandable, cost-effective solar roof rack on your EV for off-grid charging in ~enviro

    mat
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    Every so often someone re-has this idea and the maths still never really works. If you have a bunch of cash to spend on solar panels it almost always makes more sense to put them on your house,...

    Every so often someone re-has this idea and the maths still never really works. If you have a bunch of cash to spend on solar panels it almost always makes more sense to put them on your house, not your car. 1KW of charging is pretty useless for my relatively small batteried car, it would take almost 30 hours to get a full charge at that speed. That's about five miles per hour (aside: that mph is a meaningful unit to measure EV charging rate pleases me a great deal), which is only in ideal conditions and it is unlikely that ideal is possible for very long at all. The angle of the array is going to be suboptimal almost all of the time, for one thing, and that sort of thing makes quite a difference. So 3mph is probably more likely in summer and even less at other times.

    Meanwhile a roof mounted array running at a better angle and utilising a larger area can be selling power back to the grid which I can later spend on charging my car. Or if I'm home I can dump a few kW into the car directly.

    I don't believe a car mounted 3kW array will ever exist in any kind of actually feasible way. That's a LOT of area to balance on a very small roof. Certainly it wouldn't be something that could be deployed in a car park, not without taking up a bunch of additional spaces.

    Aside from the few relatively niche use cases already mentioned elsewhere, I don't see this taking off particularly.

    5 votes

  9. Comment on What’s something that you weren’t supposed to see/hear, but did? in ~talk

    mat
    Link Parent
    Alec is local to me, and he is the reason I own an anvil. He's exactly the same person in person as he is on his channel. I really don't like Forged in Fire though.

    Alec is local to me, and he is the reason I own an anvil. He's exactly the same person in person as he is on his channel.

    I really don't like Forged in Fire though.

    3 votes

  10. Comment on What long book series is worth its page count? in ~books

    mat
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    So far unmentioned. All sci-fi. The Night's Dawn series by Peter F Hamilton. Space opera but also zombies. 6000+ pages over three (very hefty) books, I think. Hamilton also has some other massive...

    So far unmentioned. All sci-fi.

    The Night's Dawn series by Peter F Hamilton. Space opera but also zombies. 6000+ pages over three (very hefty) books, I think. Hamilton also has some other massive serieses that are worth reading but The Night's Dawn is my favourite.

    Xeelee Sequence by Stephen Baxter. Nine(ish) books which cover... um... kinda of everything. The Destiny's Children series is technically in-universe with Xeelee books but it's also kind of distinct and is well worth reading. Like Hamilton, Baxter has some other serieses that are worth the time if you like his other stuff.

    The Culture by Iain M Banks. The best space opera there is. Not technically a series, but a coherent universe in which various novels are set.

    Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie. Closest author I've found to Banks since his untimely death. The first 1/3 of Ancillary Justice is a bit slow going and could do with some more enthusiastic editing - but it's worth pushing through with because the series gets very good later on.

    Teixcalaan by Arkady Martine. Currently only two books but I believe they are writing more and is worth mentioning because it's so, so good. Gloriously sparkling prose, space opera with a slant towards architecture, city planning and linguistics.

    7 votes

  11. Comment on What chemicals/substances do you keep at home? And what do you do with them? in ~life.home_improvement

    mat
    Link Parent
    Ah, I wasn't clear, sorry. I haven't read a word more about borax than when I made my initial comment. I don't need to. All the information I need to make an informed, evidence-based decision is...

    Ah, I wasn't clear, sorry. I haven't read a word more about borax than when I made my initial comment. I don't need to. All the information I need to make an informed, evidence-based decision is on the SDS that I initially linked to (and I already knew that because I handle borax for work and y'know, COSHH is a thing).

    If you don't have any experience of safety data sheets it might not be immediately obvious but I assure you, it's all there. What I needed time to read more about was laundry detergent so I could say - again, backed by evidence and not vibes - that borax and laundry detergent are not the same level of risk despite some of the safety warnings looking similar.

    utterly negligent for the governments researching the safety of Borax more generally not to have researched whether it was safe to use as a laundry additive given its popularity as a laundry additive.

    Oh, I'm sure someone did do that research. But it's not relevant to put on the current SDS, because on an up to date version of that document it's already a restricted substance. I know a lot of Americans (and Europeans, I'm sure) think that European regulations are 'nannying' but even the ECHA don't go as far as to actually write down "don't put this known toxic substance in your washing machine"!

  12. Comment on What chemicals/substances do you keep at home? And what do you do with them? in ~life.home_improvement

    mat
    Link Parent
    Ah. That's an incorrect assumption I'm afraid, now I've had time to look up some more data sheets (sorry, busy weekend). While you are certainly correct that most washing detergent is rated as an...

    all dangers it shares in common with other products that we know are safe to use as laundry additives

    Ah. That's an incorrect assumption I'm afraid, now I've had time to look up some more data sheets (sorry, busy weekend). While you are certainly correct that most washing detergent is rated as an irritant - although rather lower grade than borax, hence why you're not being advised to wear gloves and respiratory protection when doing a wash. Chlorine bleach is more irritating and it is recommended to wear more protection when handling that, to be fair. Nothing that I could find for sale in a European laundry aisle carries a cat 1B risk for Reproductive Toxicity. Borax does.

    I say again, nothing to do with feelings and everything to do with quantified risk, assessed by people who are much better at doing this than I am. I trust the ECHA. They've probably saved my life several times over the years when it comes to producing safe handling protocols for nastier stuff than borax.

    the safety sheet you linked was about safety working directly with the chemical, not whether it's safe to use as a laundry additive.

    For what it's worth I suspect the reason that the SDS doesn't contain any information about using borax in laundry is that nobody is testing for that. Borax is already REACH restricted - there's no need to find out whether or not it's left on your clothes because why do you have a controlled substance in your laundry cupboard and what the merry jebus is possessing you to put the stuff in your washing machine? I don't know whether rat poison leaves residue on my clothes after washing either, for the exact same reason.

    Maybe the borax does wash out enough to be no danger. Not sure why someone would take that chance though. Hence my original comment calling the practice of doing that "madness". If you want to talk about unscientific feelings based vibey bunk, I might submit that a very solid example of that is adding known toxic chemicals to your washing machine and hoping there are no ill effects.

  13. Comment on Oatly loses right to call its drinks ‘milk’ in landmark UK ruling – lexical dispute with trade body Dairy UK argued slogan ‘Post Milk Generation’ was misleading to consumers in ~food

    mat
    Link Parent
    I wouldn't say insane. I'm sure you're aware milk isn't the most healthy drink (although it's far from the worst) and also that there's an environmental and ethical cost associated with the dairy...

    I wouldn't say insane. I'm sure you're aware milk isn't the most healthy drink (although it's far from the worst) and also that there's an environmental and ethical cost associated with the dairy industry but it's not like you're kicking orphans in the face while burning a pile of old tyres. Also you've tried the non-dairy options - it might be a little crazy to dismiss those things out of hand because "they're not proper milk". But tried and decided they're not for you? That's very sane.

    I like non-dairy milks in some situations. Coconut milk makes amazing hot chocolate. Almond milk custard is incredible. Hazelnut milk on cereal is delicious. In the summer, chilled milkshakes with any nut milks are great. I usually have one or other non-dairy options in the fridge, sometimes several.

    But that said, a cup of tea made with anything other than dairy milk is undrinkable. So I still buy a little bottle of cow juice once a week for the maybe 60ml a day I need for cups of tea.

    I think I'm older than you and most of my peers don't really go near the non-dairy milks, unless they're specifically people with lactose intolerances.

    11 votes

  14. Comment on What’s your “I didn’t know I needed that” item? in ~life

    mat
    Link Parent
    The thing is, I'm a good cook. I can cook rice pretty well almost every time. My rice cooker cooks rice perfectly, every single time with almost zero effort and then holds it in a hot, edible...

    The thing is, I'm a good cook. I can cook rice pretty well almost every time. My rice cooker cooks rice perfectly, every single time with almost zero effort and then holds it in a hot, edible state for as long as I need it to.

    I'm mostly not for single-use kitchen gadgets (although the rice cooker does slow cooking and a few other things but I only ever use it for rice), but a rice cooker is absolutely worth the cost/counter space/etc.

    Obligatory Technology Connections video on the topic

    15 votes

  15. Comment on What chemicals/substances do you keep at home? And what do you do with them? in ~life.home_improvement

    mat
    Link Parent
    This reply is very strange, because my initial comment linked to the SDS for Borax. That sheet contains information about toxicity and other risks, as well as the details of any restrictions under...

    This reply is very strange, because my initial comment linked to the SDS for Borax. That sheet contains information about toxicity and other risks, as well as the details of any restrictions under REACH and other regulations.

    That's not "emotional", Safety Data Sheets are a core part of COSHH protocol. OK, it's been some years since I did COSHH officially, because I'm self employed now so the vibe is a little more chill in that I don't have to fill out and submit risk assessments - but I still practice a robust and entirely non-vibes based approach to material safety.

    You might have read my comment as being baseless unscientific bunk, but the reason I linked that comment to a respectable information source is precisely because it was not that.

  16. Comment on What chemicals/substances do you keep at home? And what do you do with them? in ~life.home_improvement

    mat
    Link Parent
    Oven cleaner is merely slightly corrosive, as is bleach and so on. Chemical burns hurt but they won't affect your fertility. Borax has more far reaching and dangerous effects. See the ECHA...

    Oven cleaner is merely slightly corrosive, as is bleach and so on. Chemical burns hurt but they won't affect your fertility. Borax has more far reaching and dangerous effects. See the ECHA assessment here for more details.

  17. Comment on What chemicals/substances do you keep at home? And what do you do with them? in ~life.home_improvement

    mat
    Link Parent
    But there is evidence. The EU considers borax a dangerous enough substance that it's not on general sale. One can purchase the stuff but not in supermarkets, it requires a specialist supplier....

    But there is evidence. The EU considers borax a dangerous enough substance that it's not on general sale. One can purchase the stuff but not in supermarkets, it requires a specialist supplier. That's why it's different to bleach or oven cleaner. It's not me "fear mongering", the agencies entrusted with the safety of the public have assessed the risks and found them too high for the benefits the substance offwrs. And sure, they could be over reacting, but there is science here.

    Here's the ECHA assessment of borax. It's considerably more dangerous than bleach or detergent. The ECHA/REACH doesn't just list things for funsies.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on What’s your “I didn’t know I needed that” item? in ~life

    mat
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    Link
    Disco ball. I got a 20cm glitter/disco ball last year for jazzing up our campsite at a festival, which it did very well at. When we got home I hung it, sans motor, in the window and now whenever...

    Disco ball. I got a 20cm glitter/disco ball last year for jazzing up our campsite at a festival, which it did very well at. When we got home I hung it, sans motor, in the window and now whenever the sun comes out the whole kitchen lights up with points of light. It's brilliant. I just bought another three for christmas gifts, the smaller ones are very affordable especially if you're buying without motors and spotlights.

    One year someone bought me a pineapple corer and I was a little nonplussed because it's not something I'd buy, single-use gadgets and all that. But it's great! I use it only a few times a year but that's enough to justify the drawer space it takes up.

    11 votes

  19. Comment on What chemicals/substances do you keep at home? And what do you do with them? in ~life.home_improvement

    mat
    Link Parent
    That's a fair point. I don't know what kind of residues borax does (or doesn't) leave. You could well be right. However I think really the issue is that given the choice between a substance which...

    That's a fair point. I don't know what kind of residues borax does (or doesn't) leave. You could well be right.

    However I think really the issue is that given the choice between a substance which is known to be not that safe to handle and is known to be toxic in various circumstances (ie, how you treat the wastewater from your borax-y laundry is important) and something which is not that. Modern laundry detergent is perfectly safe and perfectly good at it's job - so why would you add something that safety agencies say you should be wearing a respirator to handle in powder form?

    I don't add chlorine bleach to my laundry either. That also seems fairly bonkers, although chlorine compounds tend to break down and evaporate off things fairly quickly (hence why bleach is so stinky!), but I have no idea if boron salts do the same. I do occasionally add oxygen bleach to very dirty clothes but that stuff is much safer.

    In the Olde Dayes, detergent and enzyme based laundry products were considerably less effective, so adding harsh and dangerous chemicals perhaps made more sense. But in the 21st century it's not a risk - however small - most people need to take.

  20. Comment on Elevator pitch your favourite book! in ~books

    mat
    Link Parent
    Harrow is pretty tough going at first but it is worth it and does pay off very nicely.

    Harrow is pretty tough going at first but it is worth it and does pay off very nicely.

    2 votes