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I've been using a web site for #soroban practice that generates exercise sheets. They offer a service where they'll send you a worksheet by email on a scheduled basis, and I finally signed up for that. When I did, I was presented with a captcha. I normally despise these, but I think I'll let this one slide.






How do I know I'm getting old (and boring). I literally got excited about a new pill organizer.


As useful as GnuCash is, I wish it had a TUI. There's really no reason for it not to.


weird shower thought/rant about abacuses

A while ago on a whim, I did a somewhat deep dive into the abacus. I thought it would be interesting to learn about a device that is sometimes credited as an ancestor of the modern computer.

I've come to be of the opinion that it's not really a fair comparison though. An abacus is not a computer... at least not a full-fledged computer. It doesn't compute anything. Your brain does that. I think it is fair however to compare it to memory, though.

An abacus is essentially an array of memory cells. Instead of storing bytes, it stores digits, but that's a trivial distinction. You even have to allocate those memory cells to accommodate the structure of the data you are operating on, just like you would with the memory in a computer.

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in reply to drhoopoe

weird shower thought/rant about abacuses
@drhoopoe I've had a very similar thought. I didn't know it had a formal name.


I hate that modern ICs aren't hand-solderable. I mean, I get why that is, but I still hate it.

Edit: typo



Can anyone recommend a #RasPi alternative for #embedded #electronics projects? There's the #Arduino, which is nice, but sometimes you need something with a little more oomph.

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in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

esp32 and esp8266, the latter is cheaper and would work fine for most of your needs.


My mother-in-law overestimates my command of the Spanish language (though knowing French is admittedly helpful).

She claims that I understand 80% of what I hear. It's closer to 30%, but I can piece a lot together through context.

Shannon Prickett reshared this.



I love that every single time we order cat food, we get a tracking number after it's arrived.


Why does @Nextcloud πŸ“±β˜οΈπŸ’»'s web app work better than the actual official Android APK for editing files? That's kind of bonkers.




pH: medication

Just took my first dose of metformin. The only thing I had on hand to take it with was Coke

This was not well planned out. I'm clearly off to a great start.

Shannon Prickett reshared this.



Great. The pharmacy's changed suppliers for one of my meds, and now I have two pills that look very similar. I can no longer tell them apart at a glance.


I'm sometimes envious of people's cool custom mechanical keyboards, but I need a full 104 key layout. I feel cramped on anything else.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

If I don't have a numpad, I feel like I'm missing a finger or two. The odd location of Backspace/Delete on my System76 keyboard also still messes me up when typing in the dark, even though I've been using it for nearly a year (I think).
in reply to Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.

@Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. The machine I use as a daily driver is a laptop. Most of the time it sits on a stand with a peripheral keyboard for exactly this reason.


In the world of computers, no matter what tool you use, someone will hate it and tell you you're an idiot for using it.

Don't worry about those people. Use the tool that works you.

(This advice probably extends beyond computers.)

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in reply to Adam Hunt

@Adam Hunt I was on Ubuntu for years simply because it was popular (the very reason many hate it).

When I finally switched, I went to Debian for similar reasons.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

I run mint on my nearly antique daily driver desktop (this one) and manjaro on my way more modern laptop.. My servers run whatever I want .. mix of unix and proxmox..



mh: adhd
Had my first appointment with my new family doctor. Apparently, he's not fond of $adhd_medication, but he refilled the prescription anyway. Hopefully this isn't going to become a problem.


Well, the filter I set for the string "vance" just got triggered by the word "advanced". Guess I've gotta re-think that one...




Trying to remember the formula to calculate sin (in radians). I remember it was an infinite sum of increasingly small fractions that would eventually iterate closer and closer to the answer.

It bothers me more that I never understood why the formula worked. If I did, I could just work it out myself (like the quadratic equation).

in reply to John Best

@John Best Based also on another response, I'm inclined to answer yes.

Now I just need to make my brain understand why it works. I'm sure I'll be able to if I just have a chance to sit down and think about it. I'm already 90% there, I think.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

-x^(3) /3!+x^5 /5!-x^7 /7!+x^9 /9!+…
nth term is (-1)^(n-1) x^(2n-1)/(2n-1)!
It’s valid no matter how large x is (i.e. it has an infinite radius of convergence).


meta, Friendica, CWs
I love that #Friendica gives me the option to automatically collapse (effectively CW-ing) all of a specific account's posts if I feel they underuse them. It's better than unfollowing, gives me the ability to choose whether or not I have the mental bandwidth to engage at a given time, and doesn't require them to share my opinions on what should/shouldn't be CW'd.

Darcy Casselman reshared this.



more culty Mormon stuff

So when I was mormon and got my endowment, I was given temple garments (special underwear) that I was instructed to wear day and night. I was also told never to show them to anyone (especially non-members).

At the time, I was a convert to the church living at home with my non-mormon family. Once a week, I used to smuggle them down to the laundry room to wash them without anyone seeing them.

I was eventually told by a priesthood leader that this was unnecessary, but still...

#NotACult #ExMormon #apostake

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

more culty Mormon stuff

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in reply to Shae Erisson

more culty Mormon stuff
@Shae Erisson Sorry, I meant that keeping them hidden from my family was optional. I just wasn't to put them on display.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

more culty Mormon stuff

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in reply to Mx. Luna Corbden

more culty Mormon stuff

@Mx. Luna Corbden Bishop Roulette strikes again!

But yeah. The temple worker who gave me my garments laid down the law.



The trouble with making satirical posts is that it's not always obvious that they're satire. I'm learning that it's often better just not to.

(Or maybe I just suck at satire. I don't know.)



culty (Mormon) stuff

A while ago my old temple clothing turned up. Just had an interesting conversation with Katy that made me realize something I hadn't before.

There's a specific bag that the church sells to put your temple clothing in. As far as I know, there's no rule saying you have to use it, but a lot of mormons do. I never really thought about it, but it's totally a dog whistle/status symbol. To an outsider, it's just a pretty ordinary (cheap looking) bag. To a mormon who's had their endowment, it screams "I'm worthy to go to the temple."

#NotACult #exmormon #apostake

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

culty (Mormon) stuff

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Finally getting around to writing a UI for my password manager that sucks less.


Due to poor planning on my part, I'm going to run out of coffee before more discretionary funding becomes available.

Boo.

Unknown parent

Jonathan Lamothe

@Todd on :mastodon: ain I'll survive. I'm not out quite yet, and I can switch to tea for a few days.

At least all the essentials are covered.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Looks like I had just enough to mix up another pitcher of cold brew. I'll probably have enough after all.



The fun part about having a partner who's just starting to get into anime is explaining what "fan service" is.

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in reply to Shae Erisson

@shapr
Unexpectedly? One of the first things I learned was that my parents wouldn't let me watch the cartoons my older brothers watched.

That reason was explicit lewdness and graphic violent views of the world. Pretty sure when I got to violate those rules, my first intro was Akira. Not a huge fan of fan service, I'm in for the bleak apocalyptic stories.

in reply to Shae Erisson

@shapr
If anyone hasn't seen Red Line yet, you're missing out terribly. Even if a racing anime sounds boring, don't skip it.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

@TanekRune
Next question, how do I get subtitles for media that doesn't already include them?
I have much to learn!
in reply to Shae Erisson

@Shae Erisson @TanekRune I've found that most media already has subtitles, bit there's always opensubtitles.org

Unfortunately, the subtitle files often need a little tweaking to get the synchronization right.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

@shapr

What they said. I'm quite technologically repressed due to being addicted mostly to the chatroom side of the internet, unfortunately.

For anyone looking into Redline, Tubi had it free for a while and either the subtitled or dubbed versions seemed great for voice acting.




medical

Well, booked my first appointment with the new doctor today. Haven't had my records transferred because I don't have $200 just sitting around for the digitization fee at the moment. Hopefully he'll be willing to renew my #ADHD meds using the previous prescripiton bottles as sufficient evidence of their necessity. I really don't want to jump through those hoops again.

It's not like I'll die without them or anything, but my life will get a lot harder.

#ADHD
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

medical

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in reply to Shae Erisson

medical

@Shae Erisson I do plan to eventually pay the fee to have the records transferred. That should help quite a bit. It's just that the supply of meds won't hold out that long.

I should've gotten my act together sooner to take care of this, but you know... ADHD. πŸ™ƒ




Tried the whole green/blue test that people have been talking about. Problem was that it kept giving me colours that were neither. I couldn't answer the questions.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

For me, turquoise is green.

You should answer the questions as if those where your only two color words, so that any color they can possibly show you is either "green" or "blue".

But, *of course* most of the colors they showed me I would *actually* describe as "cyan", a common color from my CGA roots.



I just put a loaf of #sourdough bread that I've been working on all day in the oven. Just realized that I forgot the salt.

I've made this mistake once before. It'll still be edible, but damn it makes me angry with myself.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Were it not for the mistake, this might've been the best loaf I've made so far. The starter really seems to be maturing well.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

I do that - I’ve taken to weighing out the salt at the same time as the other ingredients and putting it in cup on top of the bowl while the flour autolyses. That means I HAVE to move it before kneading. That _generally_ works…

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