smores's recent activity

  1. Comment on Looking forward to Apple Container/Containerization tool in macOS 26, an alternative to Docker in ~comp

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    The very first question I ask when a Storyteller user reports that they got a 137 exit code is "What operating system do you use?" immediately followed by "Have you configured your Docker VM to...

    The very first question I ask when a Storyteller user reports that they got a 137 exit code is "What operating system do you use?" immediately followed by "Have you configured your Docker VM to use more than the default 2GB of RAM?"

    I think the dynamic resource allocation is the most interesting part of this for me. It would be really cool to not have to permanently allocate more than half of a computer's memory to Docker just to occasionally run a process in a container that needs a lot of RAM!

    7 votes

  2. Comment on How many valid JSON strings are there? in ~comp

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    Wait, is this true? I don't see the word document anywhere in that spec. I agree that a JSON value can be a primitive, array, or object, but I've mostly seen a JSON "document" referred in the...

    Wait, is this true? I don't see the word document anywhere in that spec. I agree that a JSON value can be a primitive, array, or object, but I've mostly seen a JSON "document" referred in the context of either a document store or a JSON schema document. In both of those cases, a document is specifically an object.

    I wouldn't be surprised if there simply is no commonly accepted definition of JSON document, but I don't think it's uncommon to use it to refer to a JSON-serializable object!

  3. Comment on The perfect lighting in ~life.home_improvement

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    Especially now that we have an infant, the sleep mode is truly amazing. Someone has to get up to make a bottle around 4 or 5am most mornings, and doing so in very dim, very warm lights is...

    Especially now that we have an infant, the sleep mode is truly amazing. Someone has to get up to make a bottle around 4 or 5am most mornings, and doing so in very dim, very warm lights is definitely the only reason everyone is able to go back to sleep for a few more hours afterward!

    1 vote

  4. Comment on I tried to protect my kids from the internet. Here’s what happened. in ~tech

    smores
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    If that standard is implementable on desktop computers, and by arbitrary operating systems (I'm ok with requiring a secure enclave of some kind), I will feel ok about it. I truly cannot find any...

    If that standard is implementable on desktop computers, and by arbitrary operating systems (I'm ok with requiring a secure enclave of some kind), I will feel ok about it. I truly cannot find any information after a cursory search about how mobile wallets work, and I am definitely worried that this will be an "open spec" the way RCS is an "open spec" — publicly documented, but functionally impossible to implement by any entities other than Apple and Google.

    Passkeys, by contrast, had other major contributors (Yubico, 1Password, etc) during their development, and so are actually an open standard, and have been implemented by a number of providers.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on I tried to protect my kids from the internet. Here’s what happened. in ~tech

    smores
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    This is a less bad solution than “every individual company gets a photograph of your goverment ID”, but it has its own downsides. I don't know that much about how mobile operating system wallets...

    This is a less bad solution than “every individual company gets a photograph of your goverment ID”, but it has its own downsides. I don't know that much about how mobile operating system wallets are implemented (I assume it has at least something to do with secure enclaves), but my Android phone is running iodeOS, and so it doesn’t have Google Wallet.

    I’m sure Apple and Google are pretty jazzed about the idea of a future where their devices are essentially required to access necessary internet services, but… I’m not haha.

    11 votes

  6. Comment on I tried to protect my kids from the internet. Here’s what happened. in ~tech

    smores
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    Ok, so, this is very funny to me. Aside from continuous, realtime, biometric monitoring, there is no technical solution that would have prevented this child from accessing the content she wanted...

    She eventually admitted that she’d sneaked into my home office, pulled up the Qustodio website and changed the control settings.

    Ok, so, this is very funny to me. Aside from continuous, realtime, biometric monitoring, there is no technical solution that would have prevented this child from accessing the content she wanted to access, because she had access to her parents’ credentials. This is precisely the problem — even if a company is legally required to verify every user’s age, they will only do so at the time the account is created. Which means that such a requirement will immediately create a thriving black market of age-verified accounts, sold to minors. And then we’re exactly back where we started, except now a bunch of untrustworthy, insecure tech companies have verified records of the real name and address of every single one of their users.

    26 votes

  7. Comment on The perfect lighting in ~life.home_improvement

    smores
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    The switches are all running on watch batteries as well, so basically 0 energy usage. Also, overall we use much less electricity to power our lights, since they're dimmed to 70% when the sun is...

    The switches are all running on watch batteries as well, so basically 0 energy usage. Also, overall we use much less electricity to power our lights, since they're dimmed to 70% when the sun is down! And we're also much better about making sure all of yhe lights are off when we leave the house, since we can easily turn off every light by long pressing the switches at the front and back doors.

    I already have a (pretty energy efficient) server that was running lots of other services — adding home assistant did not measurably affect its energy draw (which is usually around 100W)

    2 votes

  8. Comment on The perfect lighting in ~life.home_improvement

    smores
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    The title is more general than the topic haha, I was being a little dramatic. This is really about my saga to have automated temperature and brightness changes that follow the sunrise and sunset,...

    The title is more general than the topic haha, I was being a little dramatic. This is really about my saga to have automated temperature and brightness changes that follow the sunrise and sunset, and finding the right setup for me and my family. We have almost no lamps in the house — there are very many ceiling lights, and being able to dim these has eliminated a lot of our need for lamps, which is nice.

    I will try to find some time to share some pictures, though! What are you interested in seeing? The switches, or the actual lighting?

    2 votes

  9. Comment on The perfect lighting in ~life.home_improvement

    smores
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    I looked into the Sonoff relays at one point! I think I was concerned that they wouldn't physically fit in some of my switch boxes, which were PACKED. But I probably should have looked a bit...

    I looked into the Sonoff relays at one point! I think I was concerned that they wouldn't physically fit in some of my switch boxes, which were PACKED. But I probably should have looked a bit harder. Ultimately, I think I ended up in a pretty similar place, with an always-on circuit and wireless-only light signalling. Also, my existing switches didn't have any dimming functionality, so I'm happier with the new rotary switches (I also just really like rotary switches).

    It's very nice to hear that other folks have been adaptive-lighting-pilled haha. We're completely bought in, it's hard to imagine going back

    4 votes

  10. Comment on The perfect lighting in ~life.home_improvement

    smores
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    Yeah, the problem I had here was that my Home Assistant instance doesn't have a Zigbee receiver directly — I already had a Hubitat Elevation that does all of my other home automation (their...

    Yeah, the problem I had here was that my Home Assistant instance doesn't have a Zigbee receiver directly — I already had a Hubitat Elevation that does all of my other home automation (their thermostat app is amazing!), so all of my Zigbee devices are available to Home Assistant through the Hubitat integration, which is over HTTP and very slow. This also would not have resolved the internal level issue that I had with the Auroras (I actually don't even know exactly how Hue works around this, I guess they have some API that allows them to update the level that isn't available on the generic Zigbee interface? Or maybe it's only Hubitat that couldn't do this and connecting directly to Home Assistant would have resolved it 🤷).

    I was also under the impression that folks generally didn't recommend having like 30 Hue hulbs directly in your Zigbee network, though it's been a few years since I looked into this and maybe the recommendations have changed

    Also also, yes Philips sucks, and I almost dropped the whole thing when they started requiring that I have an account and sign into it in order to configure my own lights in my own house. If I hadn't already purchased all of the lights and the hub, that probably would have turned me off from the whole product line

    4 votes

  11. Comment on The perfect lighting in ~life.home_improvement

    smores
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    You can configure the center button of the Auroras to cycle different scenes, instead of always turning on to the same scene. I believe that the way that it works is that one press with turn the...

    You can configure the center button of the Auroras to cycle different scenes, instead of always turning on to the same scene. I believe that the way that it works is that one press with turn the lights on, and then another press shortly after will begin cycling scenes, one per additional press.

    But I don't do this haha. Ultimately, I just want the temperature tied to the time of day, so I just wanted the minimal light switch interface that would allow that.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on The Buff Scammer, isolation, and the male loneliness epidemic in ~life.men

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    They will deny it vehemently, but ultimately, they see gayness as a deficit in men. Speculating about a man's gayness is a way for them to feel better than them, to implicitly at their own...

    This kind of surprises me, I would assume that being able to "guess" someone's sexuality would be considered gay in and of itself (did i use that right?), just based on my experience of the gaydar trope in films and TV.

    They will deny it vehemently, but ultimately, they see gayness as a deficit in men. Speculating about a man's gayness is a way for them to feel better than them, to implicitly at their own straightness. This is sort of transparently obvious, because the two times I have dared to push back (I was genuinely very gentle and lighthearted), my dad aggressively insisted that it was fine if the person was gay and he wasn't homophobic. So. You know.

    11 votes

  13. Comment on Has anyone here tried bone conduction headphones? in ~tech

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    If you're looking for an earbud-style headphone that lets you hear the world around you and doesn't actually stick in your ear, I would take a look at the Cleer ARCs! I have the ARC Sport IIs,...

    If you're looking for an earbud-style headphone that lets you hear the world around you and doesn't actually stick in your ear, I would take a look at the Cleer ARCs! I have the ARC Sport IIs, specifically. They have much better sound quality than bone conduction headphones, and they don't "leak" sound as much, either.

    I have a pair of bone conduction headphones for swimming. They're functional enough for listening to audiobooks or podcasts, but they don't actually sound very nice. I would be sad to actually listen to music with them regularly.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on The perfect lighting in ~life.home_improvement

    smores
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    Nice! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions! Yeah, I think hiding the original switches is a must, honestly. Otherwise, folks will absolutely just default to pressing the thing that...

    Nice! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

    Yeah, I think hiding the original switches is a must, honestly. Otherwise, folks will absolutely just default to pressing the thing that looks most familiar, and that won't be your smart switch haha.

    I highly recommend the Lutron Auroras for smart switches. They look very nice, the feelt very high quality, and they work great with Hue. They look and feel much nicer than anything Philips sells, for sure.

    5 votes

  15. Comment on Looking for some cat advice in ~life.pets

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    This definitely all makes sense to me. It read as attention seeking to me, too — one of the nice things about the clicker training for us was that it seemed to fulfill our cats' human engagement...

    So pre-emptive strategies may work best. We're pretty sure it's attention getting not a lack of scratching opportunities (lots of posts/two trees/cardboard scratchers)

    This definitely all makes sense to me. It read as attention seeking to me, too — one of the nice things about the clicker training for us was that it seemed to fulfill our cats' human engagement quota somewhat, even though we weren't physically in contact with them. That was sort of a big deal, because Verona would otherwise insist on being in our laps literally all day long.

    I should also say, we worked with an animal behaviorist when we were trying to integrate our cats and dog, and it was a really, really wonderful experience. I don't know how feasible that sounds to you, but we learned a lot about cat behavior from her!

    Just having the clicker training in general as a strategy may still be helpful, especially if she's clever and likes to use her noggin. I don't know how well you can anticipate when she's going to start getting scratchy, but even if you can't, just being able to spend some time each day training with her may help regulate her mood a bit.

    I can't say for sure it would help though :/ I wish I had more. This kind of thing can be endlessly frustrating — I've definitely felt it myself. I hope you check back in with updates, whether or not things seem to be moving in the right direction!

    2 votes

  16. Comment on Looking for some cat advice in ~life.pets

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    I've never used the RFID feeders, but I have friends that have used them with good results as well, so I second @davek804 on that front. We did have a cat, Verona, that had a terrible stomach, and...

    I've never used the RFID feeders, but I have friends that have used them with good results as well, so I second @davek804 on that front.

    We did have a cat, Verona, that had a terrible stomach, and so she was constantly on various prescription foods. Like Nova, Verona was a bit... excitable about food, and needed ta be fed at least 4 times a day (including the middle of the night) or she would start panicking about starving, and eat herself sick.

    I don't know exactly what food Nova needs to be on, so maybe this isn't an option, but we just put both of our cats on Verona's prescription food. It wasn't actually medicated, though (to be honest, I don't understand why so much specialty pet food requires a prescription, and it drives me a little nuts). It was, of course, more expensive, but it meant that we could keep using our auto feeders and keep the cats (relatively) sane.

    Re: the scratching/aggression, this is maybe a bit of a long shot, but:

    One of the strategies that we tried for getting our cats more comfortable being around our dog was to train them to "touch". Cats, it turns out, are very good at clicker training (as long as the clicker sound isn't frightening to them). You can buy extendable wands with built in clickers, and teach your cat to boop the tip of the wand with their nose, and then reward them with a treat. For Verona (and probably Nova), just using a piece of kibble was often a sufficient treat. Here's one of the "target stick" wands I'm talking about: https://www.amazon.com/CAT-SCHOOL-Training-Kit-Tools/dp/B084NHN1ST. That company actually has a bunch of YouTube videos on how to train cats to do various behaviors with clicker training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjLBG9wsaAo.

    This might help with your partner? I'm extrapolating a bit from dog training, but in general, I imagine that the right strategy here is going to be some operant conditioning: redirect her to a scratching post (or even a couch, anything is better than a leg) with the wand, and reward her for postponing or redirecting the scratch. Maybe even hang some bells around the house so that she feels like she has a way to get your attention? Hopefully, with time, she'll start opting for the non-leg option on her own, because she keeps getting rewarded for it. You may even want to have something scratchable in every room, just so that there's always something to redirect her from. This is the kind of behavior that will take a lot of persistence to modify, but with enough consistency, I suspect you'll be able to do it.

    4 votes

  17. Comment on The perfect lighting in ~life.home_improvement

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    After truly four years of iteration, I finally feel like I landed on the perfect lighting setup for our house. It’s just smart enough for me. As per usual, my actual blog post is probably more...

    After truly four years of iteration, I finally feel like I landed on the perfect lighting setup for our house. It’s just smart enough for me.

    As per usual, my actual blog post is probably more detailed than necessary, but happy to answer any questions if folks have em!

    10 votes

  19. Comment on Salt vs. potassium in ~health

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    I know we're finally starting to go in the right direction here, but I really dream of the day that we have better science on how folks' bodies are able to meet varying nutritional needs when they...

    I work with intuitive eating and after a while I just got used to not salting things.

    I know we're finally starting to go in the right direction here, but I really dream of the day that we have better science on how folks' bodies are able to meet varying nutritional needs when they practice intuitive eating. My wife has always loved a lot of salt on her food, like more than tastes good to me and more than any doctor would recommend, I'm certain. But her blood pressure is all of the way at the bottom of normal, and she fainted often when she was younger.

    Turns out, some people have genetic disorders that result in various kidney issues that ultimately prevent their body from absorbing salts well. She most likely has this — eating saltier foods more regularly and taking daily magnesium supplements have completely changed her life.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on Jimmy Kimmel to return to ABC on Tuesday after show’s controversial suspension in ~tv

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    Donating to Turning Point is an insane stipulation to make. I'm staggered by it. Kirk was a political activist, and Turning Point specifically advocates for conservative political views to be...

    Donating to Turning Point is an insane stipulation to make. I'm staggered by it. Kirk was a political activist, and Turning Point specifically advocates for conservative political views to be taught in American public schools. I feel confident Kimmel would not do such a thing, but goddamn. That's... really something.

    77 votes