userexec's recent activity

  1. Comment on AI IT project management in ~tech

    userexec
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    I find that Copilot in coding sometimes helps and sometimes it's just a distraction showing me tab completions I don't want. At work I'd say it's a wash--I save about as much time not typing a...

    I find that Copilot in coding sometimes helps and sometimes it's just a distraction showing me tab completions I don't want. At work I'd say it's a wash--I save about as much time not typing a line I didn't need to as I spend hitting tab on something that's almost correct, but then backing through it and editing while realizing it would have been quicker to just type it myself.

    On some personal projects it's an enormous time-saver, though. One thing I'm working on requires making a large number of quite predictable derivations of a base sentence in a foreign language with some metadata interpolated at predictable points. Doing it by hand would be theoretically simple but incredibly painful and boring. Copilot is great at picking up the pattern such that I need only write the first one and then usually tab-complete all the derivations without editing.

    4 votes
  2. Comment on What makes you chew fire? in ~talk

    userexec
    Link Parent
    I remember seeing the challenge and response, but never saw the actual fight. Guess I didn't miss anything. The camera work is so bad I can barely watch even bits and pieces of it, and the parts I...

    I remember seeing the challenge and response, but never saw the actual fight. Guess I didn't miss anything. The camera work is so bad I can barely watch even bits and pieces of it, and the parts I did see before closing the video so I wouldn't get seasick were so staged-feeling it's almost insulting.

    1 vote
  3. Comment on Nekoweb is a free retro static website hosting service in ~tech

    userexec
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    Well that was fun, I built a quick one for my cat to test it out. It works great and has an extremely simple interface! I could easily see recommending this as a first hosting solution for people...

    Well that was fun, I built a quick one for my cat to test it out. It works great and has an extremely simple interface! I could easily see recommending this as a first hosting solution for people getting started in learning HTML and CSS.

    5 votes
  4. Comment on Nekoweb is a free retro static website hosting service in ~tech

    userexec
    Link Parent
    It doesn't look like there's anything preventing it at least, and it will hopefully encourage people to learn enough CSS to do so.

    It doesn't look like there's anything preventing it at least, and it will hopefully encourage people to learn enough CSS to do so.

    2 votes
  5. Comment on American teachers are missing more school, and there are too few substitutes in ~life

    userexec
    Link Parent
    This was one of many reasons I quit teaching, but was certainly one of the more frustrating ones. There were no consequences. At all. I had a student whose only goal in life seemed to be to...

    and disruptive students actually face consequences

    This was one of many reasons I quit teaching, but was certainly one of the more frustrating ones.

    There were no consequences. At all. I had a student whose only goal in life seemed to be to disrupt lessons. A few days of detention would at least allow the other students to focus for a bit, but he'd come right back. Alternative school? He'd be back in a week. Removed from class by the police? That happened twice in my classroom, though luckily only as a result of things that had happened beforehand. He wasn't gone long though.

    I don't think I ever graded a single thing from him. He refused to participate in the class at all, so I never saw any work or had anything to put on record. His average was a zero.

    But don't worry, he passed and came to my class the next grade level up, too.

    I'm sure many out there would go watch some feel-good teaching movie and enthusiastically blame me for not turning his life around, but I had 149 other students so you can do the math on how much individual attention I could really devote to the issue.

    Either way, certainly one of the most frustrating things. Though the fact I worked basically nonstop from wake to sleep and took stacks of essays home to grade every weekend for about the same money I made flipping burgers as a teenager weren't exactly highlights either.

    41 votes
  6. Comment on If happy people do nothing? in ~talk

    userexec
    Link Parent
    Good point. Also, I feel like there's doing things just based on genuine interest. Sometimes I tinker with electronics, even when I'm not bored, and not out of any sense of dissatisfaction or...

    Good point. Also, I feel like there's doing things just based on genuine interest. Sometimes I tinker with electronics, even when I'm not bored, and not out of any sense of dissatisfaction or avoidance of something--It's just interesting to me. And certainly sometimes I tinker because I'm just bored, or because something broke and I'm trying to avoid paying for repairs, but just doing it for the hell of it because it's enjoyable is totally valid too.

    I suppose that could be framed as doing something in order to avoid boredom, but the two feel distinct in my experience.

    6 votes
  7. Comment on He spent his life building a $1 million stereo. The real cost was unfathomable. in ~music

    userexec
    Link Parent
    This is probably my equivalent to the weirdness quotient. The wilder the font treatment, the wilder the conspiracy theories. Where there isn't rich text editing it's always unnecessary...

    conspiracy theories written in huge bold colorful fonts

    This is probably my equivalent to the weirdness quotient. The wilder the font treatment, the wilder the conspiracy theories. Where there isn't rich text editing it's always unnecessary capitalization. Whenever someone capitalizes random words it always throws up huge red flags for me. In my experience consistent unnecessary capitalization almost always indicates the conversation's about to turn to lizard people.

    1 vote
  8. Comment on How bad are search results? Let's compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT. in ~tech

    userexec
    Link Parent
    Agreed. This comparison just feels off to me. Marginalia ranking high made me curious to go try it, and after a few queries I don't even find it functional compared to Kagi. For example, searching...

    Agreed. This comparison just feels off to me. Marginalia ranking high made me curious to go try it, and after a few queries I don't even find it functional compared to Kagi.

    For example, searching "open source wideband o2 sensor" without quotes on Kagi returns highly relevant blog posts, board designs, products for sale, and github repositories of exactly what I'm looking for. On Marginalia it returns nothing. Even paring the query down to the much more general "wideband o2 sensor" only returns 5 results on Marginalia, none of which are relevant. The first two results are at least vaguely automotive, but results 3-5 are iPhone and Apple Watch reviews.

    I understand Marginalia isn't operating at the same scale as Kagi, and that one search query isn't illustrative of overall performance, but I also feel like that's a pretty mainstream, softball query for me. After reading the article I wasn't expecting it to be a total blowout like that.

    4 votes
  9. Comment on REVR plans to turn your ICE car into a plug-in hybrid for US$3,200 in ~transport

    userexec
    Link Parent
    I think I'm just drawn to this design of using the existing hubs and knuckles because it simplifies the fabrication versus the other hub motors I've seen. It's a nice thought to get hub motors...

    I think I'm just drawn to this design of using the existing hubs and knuckles because it simplifies the fabrication versus the other hub motors I've seen. It's a nice thought to get hub motors without having to redesign parts of the car that seriously affect its safety at speed. Whether it will actually work well or not, we'll see.

    If I were going to do it now I'd probably go with something like Swindon's HPD E series where you're really just worrying about mounting and half shafts, but ya... expensive. Very very expensive. By the time everything was set up the conversion would cost 10x what I paid to buy the car and getting it running nicely in the first place.

    A used Nissan Leaf is absolutely the right way to go at the moment for a reasonably-priced electric car.

    5 votes
  10. Comment on REVR plans to turn your ICE car into a plug-in hybrid for US$3,200 in ~transport

    userexec
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    I would be very interested in something like this, and would be fine with removing the engine entirely. On my old car the only thing that would still need to be turned would be the AC compressor....

    I would be very interested in something like this, and would be fine with removing the engine entirely. On my old car the only thing that would still need to be turned would be the AC compressor. The heater and vacuum pump for the brake booster could likely just be handled electrically, so it would leave a ton of room for battery. Adding in the tire well mounted battery could make for some excellent weight distribution. I doubt they'd target my specific model of Civic anywhere near the beginning, but ten years from now I'd be very open to the idea of converting it to electric.

    8 votes
  11. Comment on Gut check on contractor quote in ~life.home_improvement

    userexec
    Link Parent
    My thoughts exactly on the fireplace insert. If there's already existing electric or gas, adding an appropriate insert is a downright simple job. My parents needed a new gas unit over Thanksgiving...

    My thoughts exactly on the fireplace insert. If there's already existing electric or gas, adding an appropriate insert is a downright simple job. My parents needed a new gas unit over Thanksgiving and it was maybe an hour to swap them with a couple basic hand tools.

    If it's just a bare fireplace, though, then that gets into a whole mess of complexity depending on the home's layout. My house is flat-roofed and doesn't have a crawlspace, and the electrical panel is nowhere near the fireplace. Switching from a gas to an electric fireplace insert and getting a circuit run to it here would be a major operation.

    4 votes
  12. Comment on What did you do this week (and weekend)? in ~talk

    userexec
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    I bought a 1987 Honda Civic wagon last week off some guy for $1000 and have had it up on stands in the garage fixing its many issues. It seemed like junk to him because it made horrible sounds...

    I bought a 1987 Honda Civic wagon last week off some guy for $1000 and have had it up on stands in the garage fixing its many issues. It seemed like junk to him because it made horrible sounds while driving and practically nothing worked right on it, but actually it's practically rust-free and the engine has good compression.

    It has 157k miles on the odometer, but also a dinghy tow kit and damage on its bumper that looks like it got melted from exhaust, so I'm betting a lot of those miles are just from being pulled around on four wheels by an RV. The exterior has a few dings but is overall pretty good, and the interior looks like it's hardly been sat in. Apart from one gouge on the dash it's practically brand new in there.

    The big issue is it had watery gas in the gas tank and got very rotten in there. It couldn't run for long because it would choke on rust in the tank. I've sent the tank off for cleaning and re-lining. Next, it was dumping a ton of fuel into its engine oil, which is likely just the mechanical fuel pump up on the distributor shaft having a leaky diaphragm. I've swapped that out and changed all the lines and filters. Then it had a really loud CV joint and the brakes had a terrible grinding sound, but still worked well. Waiting for new half shafts, pads, and rotors now. I've been going around cleaning electrical connections since many of those are corroded from many years of sitting, but everything's come right back to life once the connections are cleaned.

    I expect it will be a very nice little car with tons of life left in it once its issues are addressed. It's very tiny compared to most things on the road today and only weighs a hair over 2000lbs, but should get upper 30s in gas mileage. I've always wanted a kei car but one wouldn't be all that useful where I live since there are stretches of road at 70mph to get to the places I need to go. This thing isn't much bigger than a kei car and has all that same charm, but should happily do 70. Plus the insurance is a joke at $6/month.

    8 votes
  13. Comment on People who manage small websites, how much does it cost you in time (and finances)? in ~comp

    userexec
    Link Parent
    Ditto on hosting my blog on DigitalOcean. The $5/month tier was enough for me since that's all it's doing, so $60/year in hosting plus $15/year in domain registration.

    Ditto on hosting my blog on DigitalOcean. The $5/month tier was enough for me since that's all it's doing, so $60/year in hosting plus $15/year in domain registration.

  14. Comment on What's the big deal about running a half marathon? in ~life

    userexec
    Link Parent
    I'd just like to add to this that the level of a partner's needs in this area does vary from person to person. It sounds like OP and their partner have different needs regarding the level of...

    I'd just like to add to this that the level of a partner's needs in this area does vary from person to person. It sounds like OP and their partner have different needs regarding the level of involvement and enthusiasm from their partner around their personal efforts. While OP may see their own personal efforts as exclusively personal and not requiring the involvement/approval/participation of their partner, it sounds like this view may not be shared. Really I get the impression that there are two extremes on this spectrum going on here.

    My partner and I certainly respect each other's personal goals and the efforts we put into our non-shared hobbies, but I wouldn't say either of us requires or even desires involvement or enthusiasm from each other about those. We give each other the space to pursue things and respect the efforts, and we've always been perfectly happy with that arrangement.

    To give an example, I've spent years studying Japanese and spend every night before bed in the recliner translating. She has no interest in Japanese, nor would I expect her to. We have shared hobbies, but this isn't one of them. I don't need a cookie from her every time I finish an article, and I don't expect her to enthusiastically tell her friends about my latest progress. She's not into it and that's okay--I don't need someone to validate my intrinsic motivations before I can pursue them; I only require a partner who at least respects the act of pursuit generally. I may tell her about a funny word or something, but I would never badger her to learn with me or seek praise about it, nor would she get gloomy because I'm pouring effort into something that doesn't interest her.

    Different people are different, though. I wouldn't say our way of looking at it is the right way--only that it's the right way for us because it's a match. Since it may not be a match in this post's case, though, I agree with you that there's some introspection to be done here.

    I'd stop short of saying OP is the odd one out here, though: I think their view on this is, if anything, the more common one (and not even as extreme as it usually presents) and people just refuse to see it in themselves. I've been in several relationships where my partner's views on my personal hobbies and efforts were downright discouraging because it wasn't an interest they shared so they didn't "get it" and had no respect for it, but I was expected to be enthusiastic about and supportive of everything they did. Needless to say, that imbalance didn't work out.

    10 votes
  15. Comment on Via: Solving the 100 GB problem in ~games

    userexec
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    Very cool! My only concern here is actually illustrated perfectly by his choice of game in the video. Halo Infinite already has a long section of match loading where you wait forever on an "other...

    Very cool! My only concern here is actually illustrated perfectly by his choice of game in the video. Halo Infinite already has a long section of match loading where you wait forever on an "other players loading" bar. What happens when half the players are using this and you constantly get stuck in a queue with some rando still running a 28k modem and loading this map for the first time? It seems like it would degrade the multiplayer experience by forcing everyone who already has the game downloaded to wait for anyone who didn't. In most games this wouldn't be a problem I suppose, and it solves itself on an individual level over time at least, but I imagine online matchmaking would run into a whole lot more timeouts and need to refill queues a lot more often.

    1 vote
  16. Comment on How native English speakers can stop confusing everyone else in ~humanities.languages

    userexec
    Link Parent
    I can confirm that while my electronic dictionary has the English meaning in question, it has no suggestions or example sentences for how that would be translated in Japanese. I’d be stuck either...

    I can confirm that while my electronic dictionary has the English meaning in question, it has no suggestions or example sentences for how that would be translated in Japanese. I’d be stuck either using miitoboru or getting descriptive about the specific type of meatball, both of which would lose meaning. It does suggest ひえー驚いた for “bugger me,” though, and that’s kind of amusing that there’s an entry for that.

    Edit: Now I’m just laughing that Google Translate comes back with 私をブッガー!

    2 votes
  17. Comment on How native English speakers can stop confusing everyone else in ~humanities.languages

    userexec
    Link Parent
    Idioms and set phrases can make translation to other languages tough. I've found having a dictionary of idioms is essential once you start translating articles and such. Even just common...

    Idioms and set phrases can make translation to other languages tough. I've found having a dictionary of idioms is essential once you start translating articles and such. Even just common collocations like "burnt down" or "under arrest" send me to the dictionary because they're not things you'd literally translate, and it would sound wacky if you did. Thankfully I picked Japanese to learn, and for all it's insane learning curve, one thing it does have is a gigantic market of remarkably advanced, pocketable electronic dictionaries that make looking those up a cinch.

    5 votes
  18. Comment on US Senator calls for Department of Justice action against Philips for keeping CPAP machine complaints secret in ~health

    userexec
    Link
    I put my information in for the recall over 2 years ago now and still haven't received a replacement machine. There is no meaningful support for the process whatsoever. Any calls get redirected to...

    I put my information in for the recall over 2 years ago now and still haven't received a replacement machine. There is no meaningful support for the process whatsoever. Any calls get redirected to a call center that can only see the same information you can already see when you look up your recall confirmation number.

    I bought my machine outright instead of going through a medical supplier. The recall process confirmed it was covered and would be remediated. Once I even got through to someone on the phone who gave me an email and a fax number to submit my prescription so they could get it out of the step where they try to associate your device with a medical supplier. I sent it both ways and never heard anything again.

    At some point earlier in the process I was given the option of them buying out my machine or just continuing to wait for a new one. They offered me like $40. That's about enough to buy a nose piece replacement and a 2-pack of filters, not a whole machine. And since then machines have doubled or tripled in price.

    At this point I highly doubt they'll ever actually complete the recall. Every now and then I get an email from them that they may still need information from me, and it links me to their portal, but I've already provided everything and there's nothing I can actually do in the portal.

  19. Comment on People who turn off their electronics hours before bed... What do you do at night? in ~talk

    userexec
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    I do read but since that's already been said a bunch, here's another idea: I have a stack of articles printed off that I like to translate. I keep a small battery-powered thermal typewriter by the...
    • Exemplary

    I do read but since that's already been said a bunch, here's another idea: I have a stack of articles printed off that I like to translate. I keep a small battery-powered thermal typewriter by the recliner, and I'll just grab articles off the stack and type up translations until I'm too sleepy to continue.

    I use a Sharp PA-1050 for translating to English since it's whisper quiet, small, and easy to use. It has a modest two-line calculator screen for editing, and a 6000-character memory so you can do a whole article in memory and then just print it off after proofreading. I'm going to try upgrading to a slightly larger but still quite similar Casiowriter HW-800JS soon so I can also do some translations into Japanese.

    Either way, it's a quiet, slow hobby that finishes out the day with a puzzle and doesn't require any lit screens. The typewriter part of it is just a personal fascination, and it could just as easily be done with a pencil.

    5 votes
  20. Comment on Are the memes about setting up and troubleshooting printers overblown nowadays? in ~tech

    userexec
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    So an anecdote from my somewhat weird setup where I use a 30-year old HP LaserJet 4 behemoth still: It's never been easier to set up old, common printers. On Linux I didn't even set it up. I just...

    So an anecdote from my somewhat weird setup where I use a 30-year old HP LaserJet 4 behemoth still: It's never been easier to set up old, common printers. On Linux I didn't even set it up. I just plugged in the power and ethernet and by the time I walked back over to my computer it was already good to go. On Windows I just had to tell it "Hey I got a printer" and it handled the rest no sweat. There's no dumb software, no DRM, no intentionally sabotaged ink situation--just a printer so old and so standard that everything immediately knows how to use it.

    Amazingly it still works and prints great with 300k+ sheets on the clock. You can still get full refurbishing kits for them (which I did for when the time comes), and toner is cheap and easy to find.

    I guess if I wanted super fast color or photo printing I'd be out of luck, but just to have a basic workhorse I found printer setup in this century to be exceedingly simple.

    2 votes