matgessel
Joined 13 years ago
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47
Submissions
11
Member since
Aug 24
Software Engineer in Seattle
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Comment · 2 months ago
I got a Android tablet...I can't recommend it. YT has gotten pretty toxic with the dark patterns. There are the usual interstitial ads, but after you skip and go full screen there's another ad widget in the lower left of the video. You have carefully navigate a popup menu to dismiss it without triggering an ad popup. If you pause or double-tap to -10s the video it restores down and shows an ad on the right side.
The Edge browser for has the best ad-free experience I've found so far on Android. It supports Widevine (DRM videos) and performance is good enough for most videos. I do get an occasional stutter with higher res videos. Firefox supports Widevine, but it didn't last week? Or I just didn't get the popup to "Enable DRM" for some reason. Edge claims to have blocked 15k YT ads in the last week with the built-in AdBlock Plus. It works with uBlock Origin as well (this week anyway).
Comment · 3 years ago
It's difficult to skim the stream of symbols and instantly recognize concepts. Think of a word finding box puzzle in English (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=word+finding+puzzle&iax=images&ia=...). It helps if you add spaces and periods, but I still think kanji make it easier to quickly pick out concepts.
In this video, Yuta compares different ways of writing the same sentence and discusses efforts to eliminate Kanji: "Why Do Japanese Still Use Kanji?" • https://youtu.be/O27TgLW6pCU?t=220
Another analogy: I find the flat enunciation of "voice to text" on my phone a bit difficult to follow. I can understand if I pay attention, but I can't passively listen and multitask like I can with human read text (@see - The Guardian's "The Long Read" podcast).
Comment · 4 years ago
My second favorite tape is Honda's spicy rodent deterrent tape. It's made in Japan with capsaicin. It's not cheap, but much cheaper than an wiring repair at an auto shop*. The lowest price I was able to find seemed be be a dealer in Colorado … until I created an account, went through the order and saw the ~$20 S&H. The best deal including shipping was from the same dealer on eBay — no S&H charge.
https://www.teraokatape.co.jp/english/products/no/no300/data...
Rats chewed through wiring in my car on two occasions. Both occasions were in cold weather and the chewed wires were above shelf-like spots in the engine compartment. One was a transmission solenoid wire and the other was the ignition wire in the main harness above the wheel well. In both cases I was able to self-repair by popping the pins out of the wiring connectors and soldering new leads (pig tails) to the pins. YouTube has several videos explaining the process.
Comment · 4 years ago
Good question. I Last bought a 60 yard roll for $12.50; sold directly by Amazon. Looks like it's about $14 now. Here's the listing: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JX9D6I2/
The listing in the parent comment is for 5 yards.
Comment · 4 years ago
My favorite tape for attenuating bright or annoying LEDs is ruby litho tape (3M Lithographers Tape 616). It passes deep red light and dims bright green and blue LEDs to a faint red. It's perfect for green/amber status lights; the green "OK" is mostly blocked and the amber "Problem" shines through. Removes easily without leaving a mark.
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40068069/
https://www.amazon.com/3M-Lithographers-0-375-width-length/d...
Comment · 4 years ago
> temporary impact on your credit score. Applying for multiple credit cards at once will reduce your score for a few months; if you will be applying for a mortgage, car loan, job, apartment, or other situation that requires a check of your credit, it is a good idea to stop all churning activity as far in advance as possible. Most conservative estimates recommend at least 2 years as "hard pulls" from credit card inquiries will fall off your credit report in 2 years.
> your homeowners insurance rate can be impacted by your churning activity, even though your credit score remains high. Your insurer regular does a soft pull on your credit, and they may increase your rate if there are a lot of new credit lines, even though your overall credit score and utilization may remain in good standing.
Comment · 4 years ago
I have (and use daily) a pair of 13 year old Westone 3’s*. I bought them thinking of using them for a 40 minute walking commute involving freeway underpasses and a noisy sales pit style office.
The commute case didn’t work out because they didn’t seal fully. There was too much noise leakage to hear podcasts. Music wasn’t isolated enough and I didn’t want to turn it up too high and damage my hearing. The audiologist who made the molds had me chew while the mold material was curing in my ear canals and this resulted in a poor seal. A poor seal also means poor bass response. I think the audiologist had me chew to make the molds more comfortable for long hours of use and for snacking at the desk. Hearing aids were his main business and he seemed inexperienced with musician monitors.
I’ve recently discovered that I can apply clear finger nail polish to the inserted portion to “fine tune” the fit. I’m getting a good seal and they’er still comfortable. I mainly use them when working with power tools at home.
For office use there are a couple of caveats: 1) If you have a tight fit, they will be more difficult to insert and remove. This can be a nusiance in a highly-collaborative work environment. Also, people tend to ignore the earpieces and expect you to hear what they’re saying. 2) Chewing is very loud and borderline uncomfortable. This was the case with the original, narrower width as well.
> Can they double as concert earplugs or do I need a second set only for that?
My Westones have removeable cables, so they could be used that way, but there’s a better alternative: you can use the same molds to get relatively inexpensive silicone molds with tuned attenuation "filters". Mine use Etymotic 9, 15, 25 and solid 30 dB filters. The filters reduce frequencies more evenly, allowing more high end through than foam earplugs (except for the solid filters). I have Sensaphonics ER "Custom Musican”[2] plugs and Westone ES49[3], both made from silicone. The Sensaphonics are softer, but I prefer the Westones because they are lower profile, they have little handles for removal, and the firmer silicone is easier to insert/remove.
* Westone seems to have discontinued products for musicians and HiFi
[1] https://www.etymotic.com/hearing-protection-accessories/
[2] https://www.sensaphonics.com/products/erseriesplugs
[3] https://www.westone.com/hearing_health_care/recreational-ear...
Comment · 4 years ago
Comment · 5 years ago
Some ideas for playing a notification sound in a script runtime:
Shell
# system beep; also flashes the screen if you have that enabled in accessibility
osascript -e 'beep'
# play the sound file given by the file system the path
afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Hero.aiff
beep
do shell script "afplay '/System/Library/Sounds/Hero.aiff'"
$.NSBeep()
// search for and play a sound file; the lookup path is defined by macOS
$.NSSound.soundNamed('Glass').playComment · 6 years ago
A little more info for the curious:
Toyota Market Cap: 171.994B
Tesla Market Cap: 205.619B
> Market capitalization, commonly called market cap, is the market value of a publicly traded company's outstanding shares
> Market cap is given by the formula MC = N * P, where MC is the market capitalization, N is the number of shares outstanding, and P is the closing price per share
> A more comprehensive measure is enterprise value (EV), which gives effect to outstanding debt, preferred stock, and other factors
Comment · 7 years ago
Don't know how much of this still applies (2011), but it's a good starting point:
How Browsers Work: Behind the scenes of modern web browsers https://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/internals/howbrowser...