mat's recent activity
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Comment on What "one-hit wonder" do you think has a discography worth exploring? in ~music
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Comment on A full body air dryer in ~tech
mat Link Parent30KWh of daytime electricity Is about £15/$20 in the UK right now. Most of that cost is running the drier, not the washing machine. It's not just for environmental reasons I refuse to have a...30KWh of daytime electricity Is about £15/$20 in the UK right now. Most of that cost is running the drier, not the washing machine. It's not just for environmental reasons I refuse to have a tumble drier!
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Comment on A full body air dryer in ~tech
mat Link ParentI knew driers were bad but I didn't know they were that bad. I have lived my entire adult life without a drier and I haven't had a problem drying my clothes. A washing line or clothes airer takes...I knew driers were bad but I didn't know they were that bad. I have lived my entire adult life without a drier and I haven't had a problem drying my clothes. A washing line or clothes airer takes no power.
I wash my towel maybe once a fortnight. Depends a bit on the time of year, I often just hang it outside for a bit instead of washing it. Bit of UV and some moving air works wonders (the "don't wash your denim" crowd do this too)
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Comment on A full body air dryer in ~tech
mat Link ParentThe spec sheet rates it's power draw at 133-2800W, for 3-6 minutes. Don't forget it's heated as well. I'm not sure 133W is enough to move all that much air, considering a small desk fan clocks in...The spec sheet rates it's power draw at 133-2800W, for 3-6 minutes. Don't forget it's heated as well. I'm not sure 133W is enough to move all that much air, considering a small desk fan clocks in at about 30W. Maybe that's OK on a really hot day if you're not very wet.
My towel draws zero power for however long I want to use it for. Drying also takes zero power. I do have to wash it on occasion but I would bet money that as part of a full load of washing, that pulls less power than running this monstrosity a single time.
If you wash your towel after every use and power dry it, it might be less energy intensive to stand in a slow, cold air flow device but who does that?
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Comment on Wireless earphones: a belated review in ~tech
mat Link ParentMy experience is very similar. Almost every pair of wired headphones I've ever owned has failed physically, usually due to the cable getting snagged or a connector wearing out (I say almost...My experience is very similar. Almost every pair of wired headphones I've ever owned has failed physically, usually due to the cable getting snagged or a connector wearing out (I say almost because I still have a pair of Sennheiser HD-something over-ear cans which are over 25 years old and still going strong despite countless hours of DJing gigs, parties and home/work wear).
I've never worn out a pair of wireless headphones/buds. My Sony earbuds lasted five-ish years with no noticeable battery degradation but did recently succumb to an ANC-related issue - I need working ANC for my daily-wear earbuds, otherwise they're still perfectly usable. My Sennheiser over-ear phones are at least eight years old and still going strong. Although they do have a headphone jack if I wanted to use that, but I've long since lost that cable..
My current Bose earbuds claim six hours battery life but I just never wear them for that long in one go. As soon as they're back in their case they're charging, and even just a few minutes of charging seems to add a lot of listening time. If that six hours turned into five or even four or three I'm not sure I'd notice, let alone think it a problem.
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Comment on Children's music suggestions in ~music
mat LinkMy 6 year old likes guitar rock. The Final Countdown is their favourite song, with Eye of the Tiger and Ghost's Satanized coming in second and third. Joan Jett and The Black Hearts has just...My 6 year old likes guitar rock. The Final Countdown is their favourite song, with Eye of the Tiger and Ghost's Satanized coming in second and third. Joan Jett and The Black Hearts has just started getting onto our playlists too. They also enjoy jungle reggae because who doesn't enjoy jungle reggae? I used to sing them to sleep with Cypress Hill as a baby but tbh that's a bit sweary these days.
Kid is learning the drums so anything with good drums also works. Nirvana, White Stripes, Zep, of course, but Bonzo is hardly a beginner's drummer to play along to!
Also Queen. Have yet to find a kid who doesn't like Queen. And the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band who if you haven't heard of them do sound like a kid's band but they're not. They are fun though.
"Children's" music is almost exclusively dreadful. The first Bluey album isn't bad. But mostly neither me nor the kid have ever enjoyed it. Except the soundtrack to CBeebies Daydreams, although that was by Squarepusher so y'know.
Oh no, there is Andy and The Odd Socks, actually. Their TV show is basically The Monkees for the 21st century (and is genuinely funny for adults as well as kids), but the band are legit and their most recent album had tributes to UK Garage, Zep and Rizzle Kicks. We saw them live last year and they were honestly amazing.
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Comment on This to That (glue advice) in ~creative
mat Link ParentI would probably use superglue (aka CA glue) for that. Most epoxies have some amount of flex in them which you really don't want. CA is generally good with most plastics although obviously test...I would probably use superglue (aka CA glue) for that. Most epoxies have some amount of flex in them which you really don't want. CA is generally good with most plastics although obviously test first if you can. It's sandable post curing so you can get very clean joins if that's a requirement. One possible problem is that CA isn't really gap filling, so removing the epoxy to leave a clean joint will be tricky.
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Comment on This to That (glue advice) in ~creative
mat LinkAnother fine, long standing, single subject website: Ian's Shoelace Site Everything you ever wanted to know about both lacing shoes and tying shoelaces, including the far superior but little known...Another fine, long standing, single subject website: Ian's Shoelace Site
Everything you ever wanted to know about both lacing shoes and tying shoelaces, including the far superior but little known "Ian knot"
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Comment on Linux noob question regarding full / partition in ~comp
mat Link ParentYou can resize it. In the unlikely event something goes wrong with the resize, you will probably have to reinstall your system. If you don't resize the partition, you're going to have to reinstall...You can resize it. In the unlikely event something goes wrong with the resize, you will probably have to reinstall your system. If you don't resize the partition, you're going to have to reinstall and recreate your partitions anyway. So you might as well try.
I didn't want to say "resizing is 100% safe and will definitely solve your issue" because that's not entirely true. Resizing partitions does carry some risk of data loss but it's very small. I haven't ever had a problem with ext4, but have with some other filesystems.
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Comment on Linux noob question regarding full / partition in ~comp
mat LinkMy / partition is 50GB and that's been fine for me on a very old and very multipurpose machine with all sorts of crap installed, but I wouldn't go much smaller than that. I'm assuming Mint set you...My / partition is 50GB and that's been fine for me on a very old and very multipurpose machine with all sorts of crap installed, but I wouldn't go much smaller than that.
I'm assuming Mint set you up using ext4, so you can pretty safely resize it if you need to. Gparted is the tool I'd use but there might be a friendlier one out there.
Obviously don't resize partitions containing data you can't afford to lose, but it's a decently safe operation and I've done it plenty of times without an issue. Worst case you have to reinstall but you're probably looking at doing that anyway if / is out of space.
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Comment on What is a business/org that's so terrible no one should use if possible? in ~life
mat Link ParentYup. Every bank I've ever used has been bad, but Santander are the worst. I'm fully prepared to believe stories like mine about every other bank though. It's like energy companies - they all suck...Yup. Every bank I've ever used has been bad, but Santander are the worst. I'm fully prepared to believe stories like mine about every other bank though. It's like energy companies - they all suck but some suck more than others.
What I like about Nationwide is they are a building society rather than a bank. So I will tolerate a certain amount of incompetence in return for that. Occasionally they give me money because profit sharing and so on.
Physical branches have advantages sometimes. Once a year when I need a bag of pound coins or to deposit a cheque or cash.
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Comment on What's a question you could ask to determine if someone is an expert in your line of work? in ~talk
mat Link ParentI'm not a master of it by any means. I did enough to learn how to do it using metals like copper and brass and silver, which took a couple of weeks of trying and failing. But for it to be a skill...I'm not a master of it by any means. I did enough to learn how to do it using metals like copper and brass and silver, which took a couple of weeks of trying and failing. But for it to be a skill worth money to me as someone who mostly makes bespoke wedding rings, I need to learn how to do it with metals like gold and platinum and so on. Which, while being the exact same process in theory, makes it prohibitively expensive to upskill on - I can't afford to junk billets worth hundreds or even thousands of pounds.
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Comment on What is a business/org that's so terrible no one should use if possible? in ~life
mat Link ParentI don't currently have need of a business account but a few years ago I moved all my personal banking to Nationwide and they're the least bad bank I've used so I'd definitely look at them if I...I don't currently have need of a business account but a few years ago I moved all my personal banking to Nationwide and they're the least bad bank I've used so I'd definitely look at them if I needed business banking again.
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Comment on What is a business/org that's so terrible no one should use if possible? in ~life
mat Link ParentThe only reason I know to get everything in writing is that it's not the first time that's happened to me. Nat West once didn't close an account I asked them to close and left a live direct debit...The only reason I know to get everything in writing is that it's not the first time that's happened to me. Nat West once didn't close an account I asked them to close and left a live direct debit on it. When they eventually managed to get in touch with me I was hundreds of pounds overdrawn with even more in bank charges.
Since then, everything in writing, every time.
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Comment on What is a business/org that's so terrible no one should use if possible? in ~life
mat Link ParentThey were not clear on what they actually wanted. In the end I went with the approach of getting increasingly furious in a busy bank and at some point it became less trouble for them to pay the...They were not clear on what they actually wanted. In the end I went with the approach of getting increasingly furious in a busy bank and at some point it became less trouble for them to pay the cheque in than it was to continue having a loud, angry customer holding up the rest of their customers. I don't like doing that but sometimes it does work.
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Comment on What is a business/org that's so terrible no one should use if possible? in ~life
mat LinkSantander bank. Banks are, in my experience, pretty much all awful but Santander takes it to another level. I have many reasons why. Here are just three: They let a fraudulent insurance company...Santander bank. Banks are, in my experience, pretty much all awful but Santander takes it to another level. I have many reasons why. Here are just three:
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They let a fraudulent insurance company set up a direct debit, without my knowledge or permission, and empty our account. We got the money back because.. well, it was their fault. Shit happens, no worries, carry on. Except... this happened for four consecutive months. I was repeatedly told there was nothing they could do. I suggested perhaps disabling direct debits might be a solution but computer says no. Could they require the account holder's permission, maybe? Also no.
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They wouldn't let me pay a cheque into my account. They wanted ID. I had the card for the bank account, my driving license, my passport, several proofs of address including correspondence from Santander, but that wasn't enough (note: I bought a house the same year with less ID than that). The cheque was for £50 and was from HMRC (UK tax office) and on their official paper, watermarked. They couldn't tell me what crime they were stopping me from committing by this.
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After I finally closed my accounts, which took hours of phone calls and several trees worth of paperwork, I started getting paper bank statements in the post. I phoned up to query this and eventually someone admitted that sometimes, when you open an account, they open a matching "shadow" account in case you need more accounts later. Why they can't just open more accounts when you need more accounts, I'm not sure. However, due to me not being a customer any more, I couldn't access "my" account because I'd been deleted from the system and as such couldn't pass their security checks. At that point I put the phone down. Being a business account, it costs a few pounds a month to keep running. As far as I know it's still accruing charges, but I have a letter from Santander confirming I'm no longer a customer and all my accounts are closed so they can get in the fucking sea.
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Comment on What's a question you could ask to determine if someone is an expert in your line of work? in ~talk
mat LinkWhy is silver/copper mokume-gane a bad choice for a wedding ring? Answer When metals that are electropotentially different enough are in contact and in the presence of an electrolyte to allow...Why is silver/copper mokume-gane a bad choice for a wedding ring?
Answer
When metals that are electropotentially different enough are in contact and in the presence of an electrolyte to allow current to flow, galvanic corrosion occurs. Diffusion welding (part of the mokume-gane process) obviously causes contact, and human skin leaks electrolyte in the form of sweat a lot of the time.
So a silver/copper ring which is worn all or most of the time will corrode in a relatively short time - years not months - but a wedding ring symbolises forever and while the seamless melding of two metals into one beautiful form appears perfectly symbolic for a marriage, having that forever dissolve away in just a few years is perhaps not the best symbolic or practical outcome.
Anyway even if you don't work with mokume-gane - and most people don't, as beautiful as it is, that stuff is hard to make - I would consider this expert-level knowledge. You can see with a quick search on Etsy a number of manufacturers who do not have this level of expertise and I feel bad for their customers spending hundreds or even thousands of pounds on a ring which probably won't even outlive their current car, let alone their marriage.
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Comment on What's a question you could ask to determine if someone is an expert in your line of work? in ~talk
mat Link ParentThe Epic of Gilgamesh was written around two thousand years before Aristotle and has been the blueprint for countless tales since. Aristotle probably knew the story. He was famously a pretty...The Epic of Gilgamesh was written around two thousand years before Aristotle and has been the blueprint for countless tales since. Aristotle probably knew the story. He was famously a pretty well-read kinda guy and that would have informed his own writing.
But I reckon plenty of storytellers in the intervening time were well aware of the basic archetypes and structures used in creating an engaging narrative. This was likely true long before anyone figured out how to write stuff down, let alone invented literary theory.
So my answer would be "it's not Campbell's monomyth but it's close to that, and it's as old as people" (where 'people' isn't necessarily limited to homo sapiens)
Although quite a lot of my degree is English Literature so I guess that does make me fairly expert in the field.
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Comment on Of Monsters And Men – Ordinary Creature (2025) in ~music
mat LinkAhhh, it's been too long since I've heard Nanna Hilmarsdóttir's wonderful voice (and y'know the rest of the band are great too, of course) New album coming October.Ahhh, it's been too long since I've heard Nanna Hilmarsdóttir's wonderful voice (and y'know the rest of the band are great too, of course)
New album coming October.
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Comment on Marvel plans to recast the X-Men and (eventually) Tony Stark after ‘Avengers: Secret Wars,’ but ‘reboot is a scary word,’ says Kevin Feige in ~movies
mat Link ParentWait wait wait was that set in the Marvel universe? Because if so I have questions.Chernobyl
Wait wait wait was that set in the Marvel universe? Because if so I have questions.
This is always my answer to this question.
In addition to all their many excellent records (eg: Give The Anarchist a Cigarette, Homophobia and Torturing James Hetfield), they are also the only band I'm aware of who have done a "Reverse Dylan", where they transitioned from large, loud shouty electric-powered punk band to small acoustic folk outfit (but remained just as, if not more so, furiously angry and articulate while they did).
ALSO, they hold the world record for
the longest album title
The boy bands have won, and all the copyists and the tribute bands and the TV talent show producers have won, if we allow our culture to be shaped by mimicry, whether from lack of ideas or from exaggerated respect. You should never try to freeze culture. What you can do is recycle that culture. Take your older brother's hand-me-down jacket and re-style it, re-fashion it to the point where it becomes your own. But don't just regurgitate creative history, or hold art and music and literature as fixed, untouchable and kept under glass. The people who try to 'guard' any particular form of music are, like the copyists and manufactured bands, doing it the worst disservice, because the only thing that you can do to music that will damage it is not change it, not make it your own. Because then it dies, then it's over, then it's done, and the boy bands have won.