sqew's recent activity

  1. Thoughts on making one's own dry mixes?

    ~food Ask (advice)
    A general thought that came from a more specific one I had the other day: I've been trying to make sure I eat breakfast by making overnight oats, but it can be a pain on tired nights to get it set...

    A general thought that came from a more specific one I had the other day: I've been trying to make sure I eat breakfast by making overnight oats, but it can be a pain on tired nights to get it set up.

    Are there any gotchas with making your own mixes of dry goods? I feel like I know enough to scare myself with things like "oh well that might not be shelf-stable when mixed since xyz pathogen from it grows well when provided with abc".

    At the moment, I'm just imagining prepping like a weeks worth of oats, chia seeds, raisins, etc. so that I can dump milk in each night, which seems like it would be totally fine.

    10 votes

  3. Comment on Anyone have baking pan recommendations? in ~food

    sqew
    Link Parent
    Yeah, my current ones are cheapies for sure, bottom of the barrel at Target, and getting rusty around the edges. Don't mind having those as beater pans, but I can afford to get something slightly...

    Yeah, my current ones are cheapies for sure, bottom of the barrel at Target, and getting rusty around the edges. Don't mind having those as beater pans, but I can afford to get something slightly nicer that'll work better and last longer.

    @aphoenix, thanks for the recommendation on Nordic Ware, I'd heard of them and had a general perception that they were quite good. Will definitely check them out.

    1 vote

  4. Anyone have baking pan recommendations?

    ~food Ask (recommendations)
    Long story short, I’ve gotten very tired of buying junky pans that start getting rusty, etc. really quickly. At the moment, I’m trying to find some good metal pans for baking things like brownies...

    Long story short, I’ve gotten very tired of buying junky pans that start getting rusty, etc. really quickly.

    At the moment, I’m trying to find some good metal pans for baking things like brownies and focaccia, so probably 8x8 and/or 9x13.

    Anyone have any good brand recommendations?

    7 votes

  6. Comment on There was a flawless space mission on Thursday — it wasn’t SpaceX in ~space

    sqew
    Link
    Another article from ArsTechnica with a little more information on the launch, if anyone would like to read it. Congrats to the folks at Arianespace on a good launch!

    Another article from ArsTechnica with a little more information on the launch, if anyone would like to read it.

    Congrats to the folks at Arianespace on a good launch!

    13 votes

  7. Comment on AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT reviews and launch in ~games

    sqew
    Link Parent
    You can get pretty great monitors for not too much these days, too. I picked up a 27” 1440p IPS 144hz monitor from Acer a few years ago for ~$200, and its current version seems to be around that...

    You can get pretty great monitors for not too much these days, too. I picked up a 27” 1440p IPS 144hz monitor from Acer a few years ago for ~$200, and its current version seems to be around that price still.

    1 vote

  8. Comment on AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT reviews and launch in ~games

    sqew
    Link Parent
    I’m also still running a GTX 970! Thinking about getting one of these or something last gen from AMD, but these prices sting compared to the MSRPs in the 970’s era…

    I’m also still running a GTX 970! Thinking about getting one of these or something last gen from AMD, but these prices sting compared to the MSRPs in the 970’s era…

    1 vote

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

    sqew
    Link
    I've been slowly getting more and more interested in radio stuff and SDRs, so after putting together a dual FlightAware/FlightRadar24 ADS-B collection station in December, I've been playing with...

    I've been slowly getting more and more interested in radio stuff and SDRs, so after putting together a dual FlightAware/FlightRadar24 ADS-B collection station in December, I've been playing with making my own custom antennas. It's surprisingly simple to get something that performs reasonably well.

    I don't have a very good view of the sky from where I live, so it's been really interesting playing with some cheap Amazon/Aliexpress antennas and the ones that I've built for myself. Currently have a nanoVNA-H4 on order from Aliexpress to start being able to look at the performance of what I'm building in real numbers rather than just "how many aircraft/messages can I receive?". If anyone else is interested, I'd be happy to write up a little more about what I've been doing and why it's been fun for me!

    3 votes

  10. Comment on Soldering irons/stations - Buy once, cry once advice needed in ~hobbies

    sqew
    Link Parent
    I'm slowly filling all of the spare space in my apartment with random electronics/computer/radio stuff... I also wish I had a garage for tinkering!

    I'm slowly filling all of the spare space in my apartment with random electronics/computer/radio stuff... I also wish I had a garage for tinkering!

    2 votes

  11. Comment on California fire facts in ~enviro

    sqew
    Link Parent
    I guess my thought there was just that Newsom is a politician and will naturally view things like "responding to criticism" from a political place. Basically, I'm sure there are things that the...

    I guess my thought there was just that Newsom is a politician and will naturally view things like "responding to criticism" from a political place.

    Basically, I'm sure there are things that the city, county, and state could have done to make a disaster like this less likely or more manageable, but I'm annoyed by the rush from people who have things to gain from calling local and state leaders incompetent or malicious to do so, especially when they lie or distort the truth.

    3 votes

  12. Comment on California fire facts in ~enviro

    sqew
    Link
    Obviously Gavin Newsom and his team have political motivations for posting this as well, but I just wanted to share it. I've been so, so disappointed in some of my friends and coworkers over the...

    Obviously Gavin Newsom and his team have political motivations for posting this as well, but I just wanted to share it. I've been so, so disappointed in some of my friends and coworkers over the last few days as I've listened to them spout off things about "California doesn't manage its forests" or "how'd they mismanage things to run out of fire hydrant water".

    This is all so terribly sad for the people affected, and I think it's pretty clear that LAFD, LA County FD, CalFire, and all of the agencies across the country that have rushed resources to help want to protect people as best they can and put out each fire as soon as possible.

    Not sure what else to say other than that I'm sad that all of this misfortune and misery is being used to try to score political points when the people on the ground at the water agencies, fire departments, etc. are just doing the best they can.

    29 votes

  14. Comment on Lithium and alkaline AA batteries tested by Project farm in ~science

    sqew
    Link Parent
    I think the killer feature of the lithium batteries for me might be the "no leaking and corroding everything". I've lost far too many good flashlights, etc., to alkaline battery leaks over the...

    I think the killer feature of the lithium batteries for me might be the "no leaking and corroding everything". I've lost far too many good flashlights, etc., to alkaline battery leaks over the years despite my best efforts to remember to remove the batteries for storage.

    15 votes

  15. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    sqew
    Link
    I’ve been seeing Mozilla mention their “FakeSpot” browser extension, and I gave it a try to combat this. Seemed like it did a decent job, although it was kinda freaky for me that it was adding...

    I’ve been seeing Mozilla mention their “FakeSpot” browser extension, and I gave it a try to combat this. Seemed like it did a decent job, although it was kinda freaky for me that it was adding elements to sites like Amazon, even if they were just to explain the reviews on an item.

    11 votes

  16. Books or other good content on software design?

    ~comp Text 108 words
    Wondering if anyone has any good books or other content to recommend on software design. I feel like when I start out on a new project I always get stuck in a rut of trying to design something...

    Wondering if anyone has any good books or other content to recommend on software design. I feel like when I start out on a new project I always get stuck in a rut of trying to design something good, then end up with an awful design anyways. On the other hand, I've been around professors and more experienced software engineers who seem to effortlessly come up with simple, powerful architectures and interfaces.

    While I know that reading a book or two won't get me the experience I need to improve, it does seem like that might be a good jump-start. Anyone have any suggestions for me? Thanks!

    9 votes

  17. Comment on Share your personal dotfile treats and Unix tool recommendations in ~comp

    sqew
    Link
    Meta comment because I read every post like this I see but rarely end up actually learning any of the tools: How do people handle scenarios like SSHing into a machine that you don't have...

    Meta comment because I read every post like this I see but rarely end up actually learning any of the tools:

    How do people handle scenarios like SSHing into a machine that you don't have configuration control over? For me, even just the lack of my .ssh/config file on remote machines breaks my muscle memory and annoys me.

    I've wanted to build out a nice (n)vim/tmux configuration for a while, since the context switch between VS Code on my local machine and vim for little edits on remote machines is a pain, but it seems like it'll be a hassle to bring my configs along with me to every machine I touch.

    3 votes

  18. Comment on Soil compositions for succulents? in ~hobbies

    sqew
    Link Parent
    I'm glad to know about needing to fertilize a little more if I go for something coarser and increase the drainage speed. Not sure I would've realized that. I'll definitely look into smaller pots,...

    I'm glad to know about needing to fertilize a little more if I go for something coarser and increase the drainage speed. Not sure I would've realized that.

    I'll definitely look into smaller pots, too. I've started over the last few weeks to move my fastest growing plants into my larger pots and keep the smaller ones in my smaller pots to help them to get to that point of being root bound. Mine have definitely seemed happy when they can fill up the whole pot with their roots.

    Given the lighting conditions where I live, I think I'm going to have to just get all of mine a better grow light. I got an underpowered basic one to nurse them through the last two winters, and it seemed to work well for that, but they're definitely still not getting enough light with the windows that I have available to me.

    Thanks for all the advice!

    1 vote

  19. Comment on Soil compositions for succulents? in ~hobbies

    sqew
    Link Parent
    Thanks for the tip on the diatomaceous earth! I'll definitely check that out. I usually decide to water them when the leaves are starting to either be visibly parched or get softer. Typically...

    Thanks for the tip on the diatomaceous earth! I'll definitely check that out.

    I usually decide to water them when the leaves are starting to either be visibly parched or get softer. Typically every 2-4w. I've got a mix of ceramic and terracotta pots (rot does seem to have been more common in the ceramic ones...), and I do let the pots sit without their drip trays for a while before I put the plants back in their usual spot.

    It's actually been really interesting learning about how the roots die and rot - I've been doing plenty of research on it recently since the one plant that started to rot that I couldn't save was my very first succulent ever. On previous run-ins with rot, I'd guessed that it was disease somehow, but it's fascinating to learn that it's just the roots drowning essentially.

    Having read everything people have said here, I think my plan is to slow down watering even more, slowly switch to terracotta across the board, and try to get to a coarser, more inorganic soil mix.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Soil compositions for succulents? in ~hobbies

    sqew
    Link Parent
    I definitely used too fine of sand in this recent mix I came up with... I'll have to remedy that when I get a chance!

    I definitely used too fine of sand in this recent mix I came up with... I'll have to remedy that when I get a chance!

    2 votes