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    1. Please recommend analytical, industry-specific blogs and newsletters

      Hey all, I'm looking to expand my stable of long-form, "crunchy" reading material. I'll recommend three. ( I think I found all these through tildes.) Casey Handmer's Blog A blog about the new...

      Hey all, I'm looking to expand my stable of long-form, "crunchy" reading material. I'll recommend three. ( I think I found all these through tildes.)

      Casey Handmer's Blog
      A blog about the new space industry with a specific focus on SpaceX and the industrialization of Mars.

      Construction Physics
      A newsletter that analyses trends and data in the construction industry with a focus on modular construction.

      ACOUP
      Essays about medieval and ancient history as well as their interaction with popular culture, with a focus on methods of production and common people in history.

      Another type of content I've really enjoyed is detailed breakdowns of zero-day vulnerabilities and large software catastrophies.

      14 votes
    2. Tool to open packaging on USB sticks?

      At my job, I'm opening a lot of USB sticks, and I was wondering if there was a particular punch tool or method to opening the packaging around the usb drives outside of the usual rip and tear.

      5 votes
    3. What tips or tricks do you use when researching a topic to find actually useful information?

      Stop me if you've heard this one before: You get an idea for something you'd like to learn more about. (Maybe you have a question, maybe you want to explore a new hobby, or maybe you want to make...

      Stop me if you've heard this one before:

      • You get an idea for something you'd like to learn more about. (Maybe you have a question, maybe you want to explore a new hobby, or maybe you want to make a more informed decision.)
      • You type something into a search engine.
      • You click a result, only to realize that what you're reading is poorly written. It seems rushed, surface-level, and ill-informed. "This doesn't answer my question at all!" you think to yourself.
      • You go back, and try another one, and another one, only to give up and put the idea back in your head.

      I don't think these webpages are written to be useful in the first place. They seem to be written to attract attention to the website for other reasons (ad revenue, affiliate links, to draw attention to a product or service). Regardless of why it's happening, though, I want to find a better way to search.

      The sort of content I'm looking for is written by someone who really cares about the topic. I want to learn from dorks and nerds and passionate people. Once I stumbled across this blog about extra virgin olive oil. The website isn't pretty, and it goes way more in depth than I'll ever need, but I trust the author, and there are some really interesting nuggets of insight on these pages. (e.g. "Another myth debunked: Heating EVOO makes it ‘toxic’")

      Do you have any tips or tricks to more reliably find these sorts of sources (whether online or in-person)?

      15 votes
    4. Need help raising funds for a friend

      @ admin: Sorry if it's not allowed to post these kinds of things, feel free to remove it. I'm normally not someone who would post this kind of stuff to places like this or other sites, as it's...

      @ admin: Sorry if it's not allowed to post these kinds of things, feel free to remove it.

      I'm normally not someone who would post this kind of stuff to places like this or other sites, as it's probably kind of annoying, but l'm honestly starting to get super worried.

      A close friend recently broke her leg & thanks to the fucked up US healthcare system she's got a $1800 bill due on the 11th of October. I set up a fundraiser to try and help, which raised $500 so far, but that's just not enough.
      I'm really worried for her (mental) wellbeing & l am desperately trying to scrape together what l can to help. l think if the bill isn't paid, it wouldn't take long for her to end up homeless, or worse.

      l don't like asking this, but would anyone be able to either donate or share the tweet? Any amount helps.

      l would genuinely appreciate it a lot if you could, and l understand if you can't.

      https://twitter.com/asoftbird/status/1294762351242235904?s=21

      Edit: it's in the tweet, but l should mention she's trans and disabled; becoming homeless already is pretty bad, but given the other circumstances l'm honestly not sure if she'll survive that.
      I have donated her $600 already which is as much as l can miss, l don't know what to do about the bit that's still missing.

      10 votes
    5. Has anyone subscribed to MasterClass?

      The MasterClass adds are very enticing and some of the topics covered are interesting to me. Has anyone held a subscription and, if so, what were the pros and cons? Was it worth it for you?

      11 votes
    6. What’s a safe way to discard a almost full can of lighter fluid that’s way past expiration date?

      Just found in my closet a lighter fluid (butane) can which expired in 2017. I tried charging a lighter with it but I can’t get a flame (it was working before). I don’t suppose it’s going to...

      Just found in my closet a lighter fluid (butane) can which expired in 2017. I tried charging a lighter with it but I can’t get a flame (it was working before). I don’t suppose it’s going to explode but it doesn’t seem reasonable to just throw it in the trash. What should I do?

      6 votes