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278
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • [first time question.jpg]

    "Hypocrisy dwells in the soul," or to use another quote:

    Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) —Walt Whitman

    When last I followed the topic, there is a body of science supporting this. The summary of it is: people like to think of the human brain as being integrated, when it's more of a duct-tape-and-bailing-wire artifact of evolution. Shit got bolted into place over millions of years of evolution. So while things are connected, the parts don't all necessarily work in unison, especially in morally complex situations or when we feel threatened. It all exists to get us laid and propagate our genetic code. All other consideration are secondary from the perspective of DNA.

    And folks, this is why it's critical that we work on ourselves, study philosophy even if only cursorily, and understand interpersonal dynamics, Instead of tearing each other down, we could be investing energy into lifting up each other.

    Edit: formatting. As an aside, how do I get single line breaks in Jerboa/Lemmy? Single CRLFs are ignored.

  • My partner and I are both well into our 50s. When on land, our bed is on the floor, and we snap out of bed. We usually live on our sailboat; getting in and out of our berth is more akin to spelunking than getting out of bed.

    I (think I) understand the point you're trying to make: this shit gets harder with some age. Do I have that correctly?

    I can't emphasize this enough: take care of the hardware. Yoga, Pilates, weight training, cardio, core strength, stretching, attention to posture, etc. I have coworkers and friends 10 to 20 years younger than I with half the mobility, strength, and speed. And I have all kinds of issues from abusing my body in my youth. But some basic care keeps things usable.

    If anyone's curious, here are some good starting points for keeping your mobility or restoring physical capacity lost to age:

    • "Ten Golden Exercises" by Daniel Philpot
    • Mackenzie Method physical therapy — Robin Mackenzie was a serious innovator in PT; "Bob & Brad," the YouTube channel, are Mackenzie Method therapists
    • Yoga with Adrienne YT channel — she has some great starter videos for all kinds of mobility levels
    • any floor method Pilates that doesn't require machines, for example YT channel "Move with Nicole"

    All that is a lot of words to say: the dreaded middle aged decline doesn't have to be inevitable. But you do have to put in the preventative maintenance.

  • I'd cook people flavorful meals, packaged up and ready to grab in the morning. Maybe they'd come home to a dinner spread after a rough day. And then I would infiltrate banking systems and regularly but stochastically credit poor people's accounts with amounts below the revenue departments structuring threshold.

    Finally, I'd find people with test anxiety and coach them through the problems.

  • Not electronic, but definitely a (set of) gadgets: a compact set of tools. Specifically, I carry a Wera Tool Check, but most any multi-tool with bits and adapters will do, e.g. the old Gerber Diesel with the bit set and carrier.

    Regarding useful and reliable, it's Wera, so high quality, and I've saved so much bacon (including my own) with this kit.

  • They were acquired by Opta Group in 2023. Since then, the quality has declined while prices increased. And around the time of their acquisition, they started doing some shady stuff when claiming USB-IF compliance. The cables were blatantly not USB-IF compliant.

    Another example: I personally love my Anker GaN Prime power bricks and 737. Unfortunately, among my friends and peers, I am the exception. The Prime chargers are known for incorrectly reading cable eMarkers and then failing to deliver the correct power. This has so far been an issue for me twice, but was able to be worked around.

  • This is absolutely by design. The corporate raider playbook is well-read. See: Sears, Fluke, DeWalt, Boeing, HP, Intel, Anker, any company purchased by Vista (RIP Smartsheet, we barely knew ye), and so on. Find a brand with an excellent reputation, gut it, strip mine that goodwill, abandon the husk on a golden parachute, and make sure to not be the one holding the bag.

  • The US really needs a replacement, for example a national digital ID based on PKI... you revoke their access to the account, and everything else that uses the account can keep working

    There is already an open standard growing around exactly this concept, Web5 Distributed IDs (DID): https://dev.to/tbdevs/what-is-web5-233o

    Disclosure: I worked on the implementation for an Open Banking company (does that need to be disclosed?

    <shrug>

    I'm including it lest someone think I'm a shill)

  • Okay, I just recorded some h.265 footage with a Pixel 7a. I haven't had a chance to pull the video into Resolve (another Blackmagic product). Using Camera 2 is intuitive* and powerful. Quick, intuitive controls for focus, exposure, and white balance locks. Easy focus and exposure, easy access to the controls I need on the fly. I didn't see a RAW video option, but the gamut looks reasonable enough to be able to apply a LUT and still get the final effect I want. YMMV, however I think this results in video that I can use when I'm shooting in situations where I don't want to use my bigger video camera. This is now my go-to for quick shoots and conditions when I don't want to use the bigger, more expensive cameras.

    So, thanks OP for this post!

    *Gawd, I hate that word for software, but it fits here.

  • Halo effect warning. I own/use some other Blackmagic camera, controls, and software; they're industrial strength. I was irrationally avoiding them for reasons I can't even recall now. Probably some BS "Who are they? They can't possibly be any good." So I'm excited to try this out, but my knee jerk reaction is: FINALLY! Blackmagic's products IMO have so much attention to things pros need, that even if this is only so-so, it could easily evolve into making Android phones a semi-proper video camera competitor to iOS ProRes.

    Yeah, that doesn't really answer your question, but hopefully adds some context to something something cinnamon toast crunch.

  • When was the last time you even tried to live without buying anything built by exploited labor, abusive extraction processes, and run by oligarchs? You can't. It would maybe look like a hunter-gatherer or maybe a primitive pastoral life. It is literally impossible for any of us to be having this discussion in this medium without some of exploitation and/or abuse. There is no moral consumption under capitalism, hell probably even impossible under any globalism.

    So fuck right the fuck off with your sanctimonious bullshit.