💾 Archived View for bbs.geminispace.org › u › stack captured on 2024-03-21 at 17:31:27. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2024-02-05)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My Barefoot Running Days Are Over — I've been running a few kilometers a day barefoot, on a treadmill. I really liked it. But over the last couple of months, my feet started hurting. After consulting with Dr. Internet, I diagnosed the pain as early stages of Plantar Fasciatis. I also found weird bumps on the outside edge of my feet, presumably bone spurs in the making. Yikes. My wise partner made me by a pair of Hokas. They look a little like small boats, but are amazingly comfortable and...
💬 7 comments · Mar 12 · 9 days ago
@norayr, I am sorry if I offended you. As part Armenian born in Georgia during the Soviet days I appreciate your position more than an average american, and do not underestimate Russia. I wish my president would stop provoking them to get reelected, as innocent people pay for that with their lives.
💬 8 comments · Feb 22 · 4 weeks ago
@norayr: I haven't heard anything about Armenia, and you sound like things are not that good (I am assuming you are there...). Georgia, on the other hand, seems to be doing well. I hope Armenia gets a break -- heck, Uzbekistan is now the place to be, apparently! I haven't spent much time there -- when I was little my father used to take me on photo-shoots to out-of-the-way old churches in the middle of nowhere, so I have no idea what it was or is like to live there.
💬 View post · 1 like · Feb 20 · 4 weeks ago
The Problem With Ads in Apps — I was playing around with Duolingo today. I tried it a few years ago, just before the pandemic; it got a lot better. This time around, I didn't feel like an idiot poking at obvious multiple-choice questions. There is a good mix of different actions now, including speaking (which now works well). It is gamified, which is good for this sort of thing. So when I started with a browser, it started showing ads. That is fine as everything else on the web is doing the...
💬 17 comments · Feb 17 · 5 weeks ago
Breaking Another Addiction — Recently I removed the google fit from my phone. I originally installed it to test the accuracy of my partner's watch, and then was strangely unable to remove it. It is embarrassing to admit, as I've been vocal about the evils of google, never use the search engine, avoid social media (except for the gemini kind), and am generally privacy-bound. But I became completely addicted to fit. I've taken up running in the last couple of years, and watching numbers on the...
💬 1 comment · 2 likes · Feb 05 · 6 weeks ago
Flossing Teeth Considered Harmful? — I am not 100% convinced yet, but I think flossing teeth can cause more damage than good. While every dental heath professional will tell you to floss, if you think about it, there are problems. Getting rid of remaining food and bacterial accumulations forming on sugary residues on your teeth is a good thing. However, driving it around with a piece of string can just as easily shove it deeper under the gum and make matters worse. If you have an infected...
💬 9 comments · Feb 02 · 7 weeks ago
Pissing into a jar, installing Linux — The two activities are surprisingly compatible. You can't leave the house. It takes the whole day. It is stinky and sometimes embarrassing. You feel inadequate. I succeeded in installing void on my 'main' machine. I collected not quite 2L of piss. Why am I collecting urine? I am long overdue for a 24-hour test to see what kind of stones my kidneys are making, and hopefully, return to a diet which contains spinach, beats, soy, and tea. I may be better at...
💬 24 comments · 1 like · Jan 23 · 8 weeks ago
A Terrible Restless Night... — I am way out of it today, after yet another disrupted sleep. I've been having trouble sleeping lately -- a new thing for me. My entire life I was a sound sleeper, and could usually wake up when needed before the alarm. Now I seem to wake up at 3AM almost every night, lie awake, listen to audiobooks to distract myself, fall asleep and feel like crap in the morning. Last night was ridiculous. I woke up at just around 3AM with a strong sense of something gone...
💬 6 comments · Jan 22 · 2 months ago
Escape from github — A few years back, when Microsoft took over github, i figured it was time to go. I copied all my repos to gitlab (is it any better? I don't know, it still seems i am the product...), but then I stopped short of deleting my github account. I still felt kind of attached... And then years went by, and I kind of forgot about it. I've even created some private repos for work-in-progress projects, out of habit. But now I am getting messages that I must enable 2FA...
💬 14 comments · 8 likes · Jan 21 · 2 months ago
Hello, Neighbors! — I don't know who had this brilliant idea, but having a door in front of the toilet sure provides adequate ventilation when needed! And sitting on the toilet can be a social activity. P.S. @gritty, I know you will really enjoy this!
💬 1 comment · Jan 13 · 2 months ago
LCD vs. Sledgehammer — The Accident I was climbing out of the bathtub, one hand holding my 10" tablet, the other swinging around vigorously to keep my balance. I placed the tablet onto a 5-gallon bucket of roofing compound that I keep next to the bathtub, but to my dismay, the tablet slipped off the bucket and fell onto a sledgehammer resting next to it. Glass side down, of course. The terrible sound of glass on sledgehammer! For a few seconds I thought the screen was broken: there were weird...
💬 5 comments · Jan 12 · 2 months ago
Yikes! Louis Rossman butchers a Mac on YouTube... — I like Rossman. He's done a lot of good work fighting for the Right to Repair, and his ongoing fight with New York City bureaucracy (even years after he moved to Texas or Florida) is truly amusing (and familiar). And no doubt he is technically very knowlegeable and, usually, good at diagnosing and fixing electronics. He has been very good at disseminating information about Mac repair, something that Apple clearly does not want. But he is...
💬 6 comments · 1 like · Jan 10 · 2 months ago
When you are a nail, everything feels like a hammer...
💬 4 comments · Jan 09 · 2 months ago
Cat adapter for Doggiebags — Last year I wound up with a surplus of dog bags and was looking for biodegradable bags for cat waste. Dog bags were too small to fit the scoop when held open with one hand. It sort of worked with two people - one to stretch the bag open, the other to scoop, but that was too inconvenient and filthy. I 3d-printed a bag holder for doggie bags - shaped such that a loaded scooper just fits the opening, solving this problem. The perimiter of the holder is just right for a...
💬 View post · Jan 07 · 2 months ago
CBDCs are coming, and I am not ready! — There are more rumblings of impending doom, Central Bank Digital Currencies. All assets will be tokenized and placed into a ledger, maintained by your favorite Central Bank. BIS had stated all assets, once tokenized, will carry with them conditional transaction limitations which banks will be able to programmatically impose. So long privacy and financial freedom. I just want cash, please. I've been, single-handedly, trying to bring it back, by paying...
💬 7 comments · 3 likes · Jan 07 · 2 months ago
Ouch! Tooth hurty! Extraction tomorrow! — Giant filling popped out at pandemic onset. Was stable since, with waterpick... Reckoning time is now, abscess and antibiotics..
💬 5 comments · 1 like · Jan 05 · 3 months ago
Electric cars: reprise — [gemini link] Thank you for this and other responses. No cars is better than any cars of any kind -- that is true; public transit, density and sensible city planning are much better. In the meantime, electric cars do offer a reasonable-seeming solution for short suburban commutes with lots of time to recharge, in places where infrastructure is available. But I still think we are fooling ourselves about pollution (unless we are in Norway or some place that does not use...
💬 12 comments · 4 likes · 2023-12-26 · 3 months ago
Toilets: Good, Bad, and Exploding — Americans are obsessed with bathrooms, and my house has four. To be fair, it has (conservatively) 10 bedrooms, so it's not really excessive. I think it was a whorehouse in the early 1900's. One of the toilets, my favorite, had a jet-engine flusher. Sequestered on the top floor and used mainly by me, it was incredibly powerful: nothing was ever unflushed as a blast of water blew through it with tremendous force. It was truly awesome, and I became a butt...
💬 7 comments · 1 like · 2023-12-26 · 3 months ago
A Shopping-Free Christmas — One thing to be grateful for - I've reached an age where I no longer have to worry about Christmas presents. I don't want anything. I have everything I need. My partner feels the same. My kids are old. My house is full of boxes of stocking stuffers of years gone by - unwrapped, hugs exchanged, stuff thrown into a box for me to sort and try to get rid of years later. Happy holidays to all of you.
💬 4 comments · 5 likes · 2023-12-24 · 3 months ago
Running With and Without A Big Dog Today I ran 5K straight. It took me about a half hour -- no records broken. I usually run a bit less in a single run as I don't really want to wear out my knees, but it felt good today, so I kept going. I worked up a sweat by the end of it, but wasn't at all out of breath. I have to crank up the speed again to get more of a workout. I mostly run on a treadmill. For some reason it is much, much harder for me to run IRL -- I don't know if it's dealing...
💬 2 comments · 1 like · 2023-12-22 · 3 months ago
Abandoning FreeBSD; back to Linux — I give up. I gave it a good try, and kind of liked it. But it's just too painful, and I was beginning to feel like may hands were tied behind my back. I especiallly liked the minimalism. Only a handful of processes running (as opposed to hundreds on my xubuntu machine). Fast and clean. But I did not like the constant struggle for simple things. Mounting drives. Editing wpa_supplicant file to connect to wifis, like it's 1999. Everything is like pulling...
💬 7 comments · 2023-12-15 · 3 months ago
Wiring a dimmer turns weird — I finally got around to replacing a dimmer for the classic three pendant lights over the open-plan kitchen/lr counter. These had been dark for months now as I was elsewhere, then procrastinating too much. It ws time. The old Feit dimmer failed in an unforeseen way: the large rocker on/off switch got internally detached and was now just flapping in the breeze, not clicking or doing anything. The unit is sealed with triangular-slot screws. E-waste. I had an...
💬 2 comments �� 2023-12-11 · 3 months ago
Brainfogged... — The last week or or two had been hard... I feel like someone had hit me in the head with a shovel, sans the pain. But I never get headaches, and no exception here. No pain, but a kind of dizziness, and weird visuals - feels like slightly out of focus but not really... Most importantly, my brain is not functioning at capacity. It took me a while to remember the word 'brainfog' when I sat down, and I had to get up and dick around for a while... I've been using my brain daily...
💬 7 comments · 1 like · 2023-12-10 · 3 months ago
I wrote a Lisp... — There are many 'make a lisp' projects resulting in a crippled scheme, using your favorite language. I wanted something that would be super-simple and reasonably performant, bootstrapped in pure assembly, like JonesForth. But there was nothing like that. So I wrote one. Let's call it SmithLisp. It seems as performant as Picolisp, which is pretty good. Unlike Picolisp it has real lexical scope, and real McCarthian Lisp semantics, currying and all. Right now it assembles to...
💬 View post · 4 likes · 2023-11-10 · 4 months ago
Getting Sick of Linux — My pretty minimal installation of Xubuntu, running with dwm (no desktop or related crap) is beginning to feel like a lead weight. It is plenty fast on the old i5 ThinkPad (I've been scaling down - a couple of years I only used i7's), and I have few complaints, really. But I feel like I am drowning. It is running like 200 processes, without me doing anything taxing right now. I have no clue what 95% of these are. Some are downright scary sounding: idle_inject,...
💬 15 comments · 1 like · 2023-10-02 · 6 months ago
Page 1 of 2
