cynar
@cynar@lemmy.world
- Comment on Belkin is ending support for nearly all its Wemo smart home devices 20 hours ago:
It’s our normal language for referencing each other. “The wife”, “the husband”. I’m sorry if it offended you.
As for the WAF comment, it doesn’t mean she can’t fix it, just that she has no interest in the nitty gritty of how it works. This seems to be a common occurrence with smart homes. It’s FAR more likely the male partner is interested in building it. The female partner tends to only care that it works. (And that their partner is enjoying themselves).
So far this gender stereotype holds up strongly (90%+)
- Comment on Belkin is ending support for nearly all its Wemo smart home devices 22 hours ago:
There’s an open source movement basically solving this sort of problem. I’ve had various smart home things working flawlessly for a decade or more.
The key is twofold. To make sure that support won’t be dropped. Offline functionality is a key indicator of this. Open source firmware is even better.
The 2nd is WAF. Wife acceptance factor. How transparent is it for normal functioning, and does it fail gracefully. E.g. my light switches all work normally. If the network goes down, they fall back to dumb switches. The wife never has to deal with “the lights are broken” while I’m away with work.
- Comment on My world is so much better because of immigrants 1 day ago:
As did the vikings. The long term results were generally an improvement however.
- Comment on My world is so much better because of immigrants 1 day ago:
Looking back at the history of England. We have had wave after wave of immigrants/invaders. Each wave brought a period of tension. That period was followed by a period of innovation.
The new people, with new views means old ideas are re-evaluated. New skill, flavours and modes of thought became part of our culture.
Even our language improved. Part of English’s power is the level of nuance with word choice. A loft of that comes from melding multiple root languages in.
- Comment on Pop it in your calendars 1 day ago:
I’ll check it out, next time I get a chance to fire it up. Unfortunately, I hate the teleport mechanism of vr games. I love hurtling through the water. Unfortunately, that also makes me motion sickness. I’m slowly training myself out of it, but it takes time.
- Comment on Pop it in your calendars 1 day ago:
It was even worse than that.
They were basically given the KSP1 codebase and told to rewrite it to be better. However, KSP1 was still being developed, and they didn’t want to demotivate the KSP1 team. Therefore they were banned from even telling them it existed, let alone ask for help or advice with the existing codebase.
- Comment on Pop it in your calendars 1 day ago:
I want to love it in VR. It’s taking me a long time to train my stomach to accept it however. It gives me SERIOUS motion sickness in VR.
- Comment on Pop it in your calendars 1 day ago:
That phase does end. The various vehicles allowed for exploration without returning to the surface, as do deep sea bases.
At the same time, I fully understand why you feel that way. The crunch is required for the fear to be meaningful, it’s not everybody’s cup of tea.
- Comment on China hits 1 TW solar milestone 2 weeks ago:
They are the largest polluter primarily because we outsourced our polluting manufacturing to them. The politics of that part are a separate issue, but the results need to be factored in. A lot of Chinese pollution is western pollution, outsourced.
They also appear to actually have a coherent plan that seems on track. Could it be a lot better? Of course! It’s still a lot better than a lot of the world is doing.
Please show me somewhere making large scale improvements that aren’t built upon China’s right now.
- Comment on China hits 1 TW solar milestone 2 weeks ago:
Could china be doing more? Yes. Are they doing considerably better than everyone else? Also yes.
Currently china is leading the charge on renewable energy. They are installing more than any developed country, by most measures. They are also flooding the market with solar panels etc. The mass solar adoption happening worldwide is powered by China.
It’s also worth noting they are leading the way in fusion research. I believe they have started/about to start construction of the first viable fusion reactor.
China has a lot of problems, but complaining they should be doing even more on renewables is hypocritical from almost all other countries.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
- Comment on Is flirting redundant? 2 weeks ago:
As an aspie, we still flirt. We just (sometimes) flirt differently.
- Comment on Once it's on the Internet, it stays forever, but only for the things you DON'T want. For the things you DO want, it will be wiped off the face of the Earth by tomorrow. 2 weeks ago:
Data rot is a serious problem.
I suspect that our time period will end up as an information dark age to future historians.
- Comment on How good are amphetamines for brain fog? 4 weeks ago:
It likely won’t help, though it depends on the source of the brain fog. ADHD drugs are aimed particularly at the areas of the brain associated with executive functioning. Under stimulation here can cause brain fog, among other symptoms. Critically, the body’s homeostasis system wants to boost things, but can’t. It doesn’t fight the boost from the drugs, at least in the under stimulated areas.
If the brain fog is sourced elsewhere in the brain then the amphetamines won’t help much. Even worse, a normal Brian will adapt to counter the drugs effect, causing physical addiction. You would need to constantly increase the dose to gain the same effect. That’s the reason ADHD drugs are controlled substances in most countries. People chase the dragon, and end up nuking their brain with too high a dose.
Basically, don’t do it without medical oversight.
- Comment on An alien who sees in the radio part of the light spectrum would probably be blinded by all our wireless communications 4 weeks ago:
Thermal imaging requires specialised organs. The difference between optical and thermal wavelengths is too extreme for a single organ to cover. Long wavelength IR is also quite low resolution for visual purposes.
Snakes have evolved the capability, but it’s not common.
- Comment on Parents sue over son's asthma death days after inhaler price soared without warning 5 weeks ago:
Basically, try and avoid comments that could get the admins in trouble with the police etc. Direct calls to violence, or doxing etc fall into this category. It’s worth noting that it’s a FAR higher barrier than what makes advertisers unhappy.
Luigi is just a name. It could loosely be seen as threatening, but it’s nebulous.
Something like “CEO X will be at Y beach on this date, without much security. It would be an excellent time to blow their brains out, while their family watches.”
Filling in the blanks with legit information, and posting it with intent would be over the line.
- Comment on Is their any evolutionary benefit to the sneezing reflex when looking at a bright light source, or is it just an evolutionary glitch with no purpose? 5 weeks ago:
I always assumed it was a hold over from a rodent-like ancestor. Stick your nose out of a barrow, and you want to clear it to get a good sniff of the environment.
It’s definitely one of those effects that confuses people. If you don’t do it, it seems weird as hell. If you do, it seems weird that some people don’t get it.
- Comment on they come 1 month ago:
I’ve not tried tin foil. The insulation seems to be more robust, and it wants to lie flat. It’s also optimised for IR reflection, tin foil isn’t.
Downside, it’s a near perfect blackout material. I only put them up when it’s going to be ridiculously hot, and only on the sun facing side of the house.
- Comment on they come 1 month ago:
You can get wall insulation that is, effectively a stiff bubble wrap made of milar foil. It’s not even that expensive I cut it to match windows, then used suction cuts to fix it in place.
It’s amazingly effective at keeping heat out. During the 45 degree weather, I barely had to use my air conditioner, to have a comfortable temperature.
- Comment on xkcd #3087: Pascal's Law 1 month ago:
If someone is attempting to drop turds on you, from 20 floors up, you’ve REALLY pissed someone off. That takes dedication and ingenious planning to pull off.
Congratulations on your arch nemesis!
- Comment on xkcd #3087: Pascal's Law 2 months ago:
You joke, but it’s partially true.
I heard about a tall building that had its basement flooded with sewage. It turned out that the plumbers had simplified the drains. Rather than install the random turns every couple of floors, they just used a straight pipe. In effect, turds were falling 20+ floors, to smash into an inspection/access hatch. Eventually the screws sheered off, and everything emptied into the basement instead of the sewer.
- Comment on German experiment gave people a basic monthly income – the effect on their work ethic was surprising 2 months ago:
Let’s say it’s set at $10k/year. To someone on $20k that’s a 50% boost. To someone on 100k, it’s only 10%. At a million a year it’s down to 1%.
If it’s accompanied by a 20% tax, it would significantly rebalance income inequality, and provide a reliable financial buffer for the poor to negotiate from.
- Comment on German experiment gave people a basic monthly income – the effect on their work ethic was surprising 2 months ago:
One of the unspoken benefits of UBI is that it rebalances the power dynamic between employer and employee. When your back’s not against the wall financially, you can negotiate a lot better for a reasonable setup.
People getting a decent living wage via a 3 day week should be the norm, not an exception. I’ve seen several studies where companies went to a 4 day week, for the same pay. Actual productivity went up, not down. It turns out a happy, rested workforce is a lot more than 20% more productive.
- Comment on DIY Rain Catchment System 2 months ago:
Definitely make sure you get a decent one. I had to redo the bands on mine, since it wasn’t water tight (copper nails are great). The charring on the inside does a lot to limit rot. Combined with the aged oak, it’s been quite resistant so far.
I would also recommend sticking a metal spout near the top. Mine is fine until it overfills, then I can get a lot of algae growing on the top bit.
- Comment on DIY Rain Catchment System 2 months ago:
Fyi, an old whiskey barrel make an excellent rain barrel (at least for gardening). A half barrel underneath acts as a stand. They look a lot better than a plastic barrel.
- Comment on China Just Turned Off U.S. Supplies Of Minerals Critical For Defense & Cleantech 2 months ago:
True, but they weren’t really used much as flying cars till later. I might be wrong on exactly when they moved from military to “rich transport to the race track”, however.
- Comment on China Just Turned Off U.S. Supplies Of Minerals Critical For Defense & Cleantech 2 months ago:
We’ve had flying cars since the 70s, they are called helicopters.
The issue with a flying car for general use, is one of maintenance and safety. If an older car breaks down, it causes a tailback. If a flying car breaks down, it could demolish a school. The higher standards required means higher costs. That means rich people only. The rich use helicopters in exactly that manner.
- Comment on Benefits of ADHD medication outweigh health risks, study finds 2 months ago:
It’s like smoking. A 20 year smoker will never be as healthy as they would have been without smoking. But someone who smoked for 20 years, then quit for 10 years will be far better off than a 30 year smoker.
ADHD treatment is effective in adults too. I wasn’t diagnosed until my 30s, and it’s something I’m (very mildly) bitter about not being treated sooner.
The big help is unpacking “maladaptations”. Most of ADHD’s problems aren’t direct, but a domino effect. We adapt to try and cope, but cause other problems. Coping with them cause yet more. The best solution is to nip it in the bus, during childhood. However, unpicking them as an adult is possible. The drugs help MASSIVELY with this, though significant personal effort is also required.
- Comment on China plans world’s first fusion-fission power plant 3 months ago:
This is one of the biggest frustrations with nuclear power. The first power plants had issues (mostly due to them being bomb factory designs). We learnt from that, and designed better ones. They never got built. They were swamped in red tape and delays until they died.
Decades later, China comes in and just asks nicely. The designs work fine. China now leads the way, built on research we left to rot.
It’s also worth noting that there is a big difference between a fusion power plant and a fission one. China is doing active research on it, as is the west. There’s quite a friendly rivalry going on. We have also basically cracked fusion now. We just need to scale it up. The only big problem left is the tokamakite issue. The neutron radiation put off by the reaction transmutes the walls. Using radioactive materials as a buffer is an idea I’ve not heard of. I’m curious about the end products. A big selling point of fusion is the lack of long term waste. Putting a fission reaction in there too might lose that benefit.
- Comment on Two Open Source Projects Combine to 3D Print a Working Replica Key Using a Flipper Zero 3 months ago:
Most locks don’t really keep people out. They just keep honest people honest. At best, they slow an attacker down and/or make it more obvious.
- Comment on Two Open Source Projects Combine to 3D Print a Working Replica Key Using a Flipper Zero 3 months ago:
I fully agree, but most locks aren’t in that state. 95% of the locks you might want to use this technique on would be in a reasonable condition.