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Severe thunderstorm warning. I wonder if we'll lose power again.


Wouldn't it be nice if Universal Serial Bus were actually universal?


Been thinking about getting into #locksport for a while. I finally picked up a basic pick and a cheap lock from the dollar store (under the assumption that it would be relatively easy to pick). Strangely enough, when I insert the tension bar, the barrel spins without resistance or disengaging the lock.

I know I'm a total newb, but everything I've researched up to this point says this shouldn't be possible. What witchcraft is this?

reshared this

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

that's probably not a pin and tumbler lock - the cheapest locks are warded and you can open them by pushing a button on the inside basically

Like somebody else said, Master 140 is one of the better ones to learn on

I list recommendations here, but the links might be out of date: skullsecurity.org/2019/how-do-…

in reply to Ron Bowes

@Ron Bowes Yeah, looking at the key and thinking about it for a moment causes me to realize how it wouldn't be able to work in a pin and tumbler lock.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

I will second the opinion that you probably picked up a warded lock. They don't have a core like a pin tumbler lock. The keyway will spin freely.
This entry was edited (1 day ago)


Picked up a crochet kit from the dollar store. We've never done crochet, but the kit purported to contain all the necessary materials (it does not) and instructions. The instructions are very hard to follow. There seem to be important steps missing.

At this point, I'm going to consult outside sources if necessary, but I'm going to figure this out on principle alone if nothing else.

Spite can be a hell of a motivator.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

if this is one of the animal kits from Dollarama, there are mistakes in the instructions. I had great difficulties with the one I bought. There are YT videos with the corrections to make the kit work out. May the spite carry you through.


When Katy and I do groceries, we'll often try a store brand we've never used before if it's cheaper. If we don't like it, we'll usually end up finishing it and just making a mental note not to get it again because I hate wasting food and we're in a position where we have to be very intentional about our cash flow situation.

This relish we just got though... we've decided to make an exception and just yeet it into the sun. It's just not worth punishing ourselves over it.

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Question for the #CasioCult:

I'm looking to maybe replace my watch. I currently have an F-91W. I mostly like it but I have two specific complaints:
1) It lacks a timer.
2) The backlight kinda sucks.

I'm looking for recommencations on a new watch. These are my requirements:
1) Resolves the above issues.
2) Must be cheap.
3) Bonus points if I can set more than one alarm.

Also, it doesn't specifically need to be a Casio.

Edit: additional bonus points if I can re-use the strap I got for my F-91W

SnazzyGumball reshared this.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

I also really like the Casio W-800H. It doesn't come with a countdown timer or 5 alarms like the F-201. But it's modifiable for both. I bought 3 of them back during the pandemic for $12.50 each for me & our boys.

youtube.com/watch?v=oOP5MXS3gV…



Coffee is a stimulant, but only until the cup is empty, then it's a depressant.


Cleaning my #FountainPens today. I don't know why, but I frequently have a hell of a time getting all the ink cleaned out of my Jinhao 10. I wish I weren't such a perfectionist sometimes.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Every time I would take the part of the pen that the converter plugs into out of the ultrasonic cleaner, a little bit of (still quite dark) ink would would drip out.

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. It turns out that this part is so narrow that the surface tension of the water was causing an air bubble to get trapped inside, preventing the feed from being properly cleaned. I solved it by manually injecting some soapy water with a syringe inside to blow the air bubble out and it cleaned right out afterward.

Still, that's two hours of my life I'm not gonna get back.




One of the more obnoxious parts of the #ADHD experience: the amount of cold toast I eat because I put bread in the toaster and promptly forget that it exists.
#ADHD

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in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

You need a visual or auditory breadcrumb to keep yourself aware of it.
in reply to VulcanTourist

@VulcanTourist Yeah, the trouble is that I have so many different reminders for so many different things that sometimes just the cues themselves can be overwhelming. 🫠
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

That can happen, too. How much can attention be subdivided before it collapses entirely?
in reply to VulcanTourist

@VulcanTourist I've kinda settled on a system that sorta kinda works most of the time...ish.

I've been off ADHD meds for a while though, so that makes things more difficult.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

They should make toasters out of pyrex, so you never lose sight of the toast.


Wait, I thought #GrandSumo was an annual thing. It's going on right now?
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Yeah, I've been watching on
twitch.tv/midnightsumo
for a couple years now, and it's a serious distraction. Mostly I show up for the last 4 hours each day, but sometimes watch lower-division which are fun.
#sumo
#sumo


mild inconsequential annoyance
Am I the only one who's annoyed by the fact that it has become common parlance to use the words internet and Wi-Fi interchangably?
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mild inconsequential annoyance

I find it annoying to. It isn't too common that the distinction becomes important, but still!

I guess it's kinda like internet vs. web

in reply to calvin 🛋️

mild inconsequential annoyance
@calvin 🛋️ The first time I heard this substitution used, it confused me. Someone was talking about their Wi-Fi bill, and I thought, "wait, that's a bill?"
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mild inconsequential annoyance

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You know, it's weird. When you think about it, a book store or library is basically a giant nexus to an incomprehensible number of other worlds. This should really fill people with more awe than it generally does.

AdiposeOverclocked reshared this.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

those are the places where I recharge my brain.
Sometimes I rest by my bookshelves at home too.



religion: mormonism
The thing about being in the Mormon church for 12 years is that bits of it stay lodged in your brain forever despite your best efforts. I just caught myself humming a hymn, ironically enough while making my morning coffee. That just feels... wrong.
#ExMormon #apostake


I'm in that weird zone where I'm hungry, but not hungry enough to overcome my laziness and actually cook something.
in reply to Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.

@Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. I've trirled doing meal prep to varying results. I'll eventually just get hungry enough to overcome it.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

I'd rather eat out all the time, or at least do takeaway, but cooking at home + meal prep was the only way I could get my sodium intake down to reasonable levels.

(My BP stubbornly remains high, tho.)

These days I continue it because the closest restartant (that isn't a food truck or also a convenience store) is a 15 minute drive away, I think.



Server's been unstable lately. I'm not sure if it's a spike in bot traffic or a DDoS. I'll have to look into it and take measures accordingly.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

So I think at least a part of my problem is the browser on my tablet. This problem only seems to happen when I'm using that. I'm still going to take measures to keep Meta/Amazon/Bytedance's bots from crawling my server because they're all over the access logs and they're certainly not helping matters. Also, they have absolutely no reason to be doing this at all.



So, I watched this YouTube video on the origin of the concept of imaginary numbers. While the content was fascinating and presumably well-researched, my brain couldn't stop looking at the abacus prominently displayed on the guy's desk. It was upside down for the whole video.



I keep wanting to resurrect my homemade 8-bit CPU project (heavily inspired by Ben Eater's breadbord computer). One of the changes I want to make is to have a variable speed clock module that you have to manually turn a crank to run. The faster you crank, the higher the clock speed.

Is this practical? Not in the slightest. It would be really cool though.



Dear grocery store I was just at:

If you want to play the game of making fake "security scan" announcements over your PA system, it might add to their credibility if they didn't sound like they were made by a professional voice actor in a recording studio.

Just sayin'.




Instacart gripe

So my partner and I do Instacart to help make ends meet. We have supposedly opted out of heavy orders,* and yet we were assigned an order with three cases (40 x 500mL) of water. That's 60kg (assuming negligible packaging weight).

This begs the question: what exactly is their threshold for what is considered a "heavy order"?

* because they don't pay anywhere near enough for us to destroy our bodies like that.

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Dumb #org-mode question:

Is there a way to tell #emacs to generate an agenda view for the current buffer only? Bonus points if the said buffer is not in org-agenda-files.

Edit: Got it.


Pressing < in the agenda dispatcher should do this

Laurent Gatto reshared this.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Per the help doc for org-agenda

"If the current buffer is in Org mode and visiting a file, you can also
first press ‘<’ once to indicate that the agenda should be temporarily
(until the next use of ‘SPC o a’) restricted to the current file.
Pressing ‘<’ twice means to restrict to the current subtree or region
(if active).
"

In other words, execute org-agenda then press "<" before the command you want to run against the agenda.

This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)
in reply to a world without cars

Question for you - how did you highlight "org-agenda-files" like that in your post?
in reply to a world without cars

@a world without cars I have a markdown plugin on my Friendica server. I just put it between backticks like this: `org-agenda-files`.

This wouldn't work on Mastodon though.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

oh interesting. It rendered properly for me on Mastodon but not when I write it that way.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

you could do something like this

```
(defun my/file-agenda ()
(interactive)
(when-let ((org-agenda-files (list (buffer-file-name (current-buffer)))))
(org-agenda)))
```




We can make biodegradable plastic that dissolves in salt water using natto.

Me: That's pretty cool. Should have some environmental benefits.

It needs to be treated with palm oil.

Me: Oh.



Did anyone else in the #KWAwesome area who is with Freedom Mobile notice a data outage today? It seems fine now but I'm curious.


Making the bed feels a little pointless when you have a cat who insists on immediately messing it up again as soon as you finish.



I am officially an old person* now.

* I have a supply of Werther's on my person at all times.

reshared this

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Ha! If it's not Worthers, it's those strawberry gel filled hard candy things that nobody knows where they come from. 🤣

Or butterscotch disks. Those are good too.



Lately, things around the apartment have been failing in ways I didn't even know could happen. I had to pick up a new shower head because the old one exploded while I was in the shower yesterday (clocking me in the head in the process).

I'm beginning to think this apartment has it in for me.

Shannon Prickett reshared this.



Got another spambot requesting registration on my server. This was the masterpiece they included in their request:

Hello, I’m excited to join this community. I value respectful, meaningful conversations and aim to contribute positively. My interests include [briefly list relevant topics or hobbies], and I’m looking forward to connecting with like-minded people here. Thank you for your time in reviewing my application.


With #3DPrinting being so accessible and #PCB manufacturing being reasonably inexpensive, I wonder how much I'm underestimating how difficult it would be to design and build a fully #FOSS #game console. I'm thinking something reminiscent of the #NES; I'm not trying to compete with modern consoles.

Kevin Karhan reshared this.

in reply to Digit

@Digit At the moment, I'm very broke and my executive function sucks since I'm off ADHD meds, so it'll probably take forever for me to finish, but It's something I want to do.

It does look like someone's beaten me to it, but I'm not trying to be the first, just to enjoy the challenge.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Yup. Several have.

And indeed. It's the adventure, the learning, the creating, more than the having.

(and yeah, I hear ya on the executive functioning fails... I've never yet had medication for my ADHD (not even officially diagnosed), this place is a mess... and yet, when the idea struck, and I followed the inspiration, the whim, at the start of this month, much to my astonishment, I made a fin, from zero to proof of concept, in less than a week, and development continues... ks392457.kimsufi.com/drnw/fin.… | codeberg.org/Digit/fin/ | youtu.be/dhJaNQi8400 😮 ... So it happens when it happens. #ADHD -> #VAST 😁 )




TIL that a glasses case that I've owned for over two years folds down flat. That would've been handy to know sooner.


mh: anxiety

I have an appointment that I have to keep today. I'm sure it's purely bureaucratic red tape but it's been kicking my anxiety into high gear again.

I miss having literally any stress tolerance at all.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mh: anxiety
It was in fact bureaucratic red tape. That said, my spoons have been completely depleted for the day.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mh: anxiety

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in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mh: anxiety

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Hey Fedi, I could use some help with this one. I'm in over my head.

We have an #Insignia portable #WashingMachine (model: NS-TWM16WH9). The agitator has suddenly stopped, well, agitating. It makes a buzzing sound as though the motor is being engaged, but no motion. A quick internet search identified a slipped belt as a plausible culprit, but I found what appears to be the belt at the botton of the machine, and it seems perfectly fine, though I don't know if it's perhaps the one that spins the drum (which is working fine).

It doesn't throw an error code, or give any other indication that the computer is even aware there is a problem.

Any ideas what else the issue could be? At the moment, I have it sitting unplugged as I don't know if there's a big ass capacitor in there, storing a charge waiting to strike me down when I go prodding, and to be honest, I'm decidedly in over my head on this one. At least it soesn't seem to require security bits though.

I'm sure it's out of warranty and we can't afford to replace. Any suggestions would be welcome. Boosts appreciated.

#AskFedi #RightToRepair

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in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

I never saw a washing with 2 belts (but I'm not saying the don't exist) so if the best is fine I'd look for exhausted brushes on the motor, which are two pieces of graphite that wears down and eventually have to be replaced. #repaircafe

m.youtube.com/watch?v=MNInJd7j…

This entry was edited (1 month ago)

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