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I miss HEB sometimes back from when I was a kid. They were trained to bag things “correctly” and was one of the few places that didn’t drive my dad insane. They banned plastic bags here shortly before Covid and I have used self checkout since with the nice big reusable ones that I can fill how I want. They would barely fill one bag and then demand another or start pulling out flimsy paper bags that will tear while trying to get my groceries up the stairs. I would bring 3 and it still ended up with me re-bagging it all and dealing with them saying I didn’t have enough bags.

Fuck you

This is really fascinating! Today I learned.

It works amazing if your throat or sinuses are infected. I have taken 800mg of pills and barely take the edge off. 100-200mg of children’s liquid ibuprofen is complete relief and it tastes good. Once in a while I will get a bad sinus infection that ends up in the back of my throat and the pain is so bad I can’t swallow water. I got the trifecta once that included my ears and I had to get some drops from the doctor.

I have to use hotdog. I have EOE and got a round one stuck in my esophagus for hours once. The hotdog ones break easy. I basically bite it into thirds and can safely take them that way. I could never break the round ones.

It was the SCADA view right? A lot of SCADA software is basically running on top of windows, though you typically would never see the desktop. Ignition at least is cross platform, but that is because the server is Java and Jython. A big part of why things are running on windows is due to OPC, which was traditionally all DOM and .NET. It is basically a standard communications protocol and is what allows your HMI/SCADA to communicate with PLCs. Otherwise, you use proprietary drivers and native PLC specific protocols.

SCADA programming/design is kind of an art and is usually written by an either an overworked engineer or someone who had far too much time on their hands. You basically build screens using specialized software, hook up buttons and UI elements to PLC signals, and pass some signals from the UI to the PLC. They are all heading in the Edge/iot/cloud/web based/techno-babble direction these days…

Ignition, programming software is free!: https://inductiveautomation.com

Some other random ones I have seen or used in the past: https://www.siemens.com/global/en/products/automation/simatic-hmi/wincc-unified.html https://www.aveva.com/en/products/intouch-hmi/ https://www.rockwellautomation.com/en-us/products/software/factorytalk/operationsuite/view.html

I am sorry, but PSL is damn delicious. It didn’t taste right last year and there were even some comments on Twitter about it. Starbucks swore they didn’t change the recipe, but I am convinced they were lying. This year, it tastes like it used to. No more sort of burnt caramel taste. Yay tasty beverage!

Now, go have one! It is ok to like the “trendy” thing. Maybe have them tone down the sweetness. Or find a non-Starbucks version at a local cafe. Or don’t. More for me!

I do the same. I don’t understand why it puzzles some people. They look at me like I put a padlock on it and I have to undo it for them, which is just pulling the end…

I tie a slip knot. That is stupidly easy to do/undo, but apparently I am hated for it.

Yeah, I have Russia and a few other countries blocked on my network. That is a no-go for me personally.

That was the best day ever when it went down a few years ago while I was doing an install of an Amazon site. They have some “test” software that we have to run to validate the system and it was completely down. Still got some things done that day, but it was utterly hilarious to watch all of the Amazon personnel run around in a panic for a few hours. Fucking Prime trucks stuck on the side of the road with no instructions on what to do next. Utterly precious.

I think this view is a little short sighted. I am glad that you don’t seem picky about your peripherals, but they are very important to others. As someone with a disability, if my mouse didn’t work on Linux, I wouldn’t even bother trying. I have spent a lot of money on peripherals and them working in Mac and Windows, but not Linux would be utterly rage inducing. It is irritating enough that I can’t adjust the dpi in Linux, but it is at least usable. I am still salty that every single pair of headphones I own use proprietary codecs that are not supported.

I absolutely do not blame anyone for not using Linux if their peripherals do not work. I get that it is the “fault” of proprietary drivers. Unfortunately, some devices are not popular enough or too difficult for someone in the Linux community to want to work on it. I don’t blame the community either. However, telling someone they can’t use their mouse or keyboard the way it was intended isn’t going to convince anyone to use Linux.

My point is, hardware costs money, is a physical device that you touch for hours at a time, and is configured to make your life easier. Tactile and ergonomic comfort is important. Macros, lights, and dpi settings are important to some people. For me, it is just dpi and smooth scrolling. Not everyone is happy with a cheap mouse and keyboard or wants to throw perfectly functional electronics in the bin.

UL certification can mean different things, depending on the product and type of mark. It also isn’t that expensive to get UL listed as it isn’t like every single item you produce is tested. Each product you design is tested, but not each item you produce.

There are 3/4 types. UL listed, UL recognized, and UL classified. Certified is newer and more stringent.

• Recognized is mostly for machinery and components within machinery. It isn’t terribly difficult to get, but annoying. I have dealt with this type as we design and build electrical panels. Usually you hand the design to a panel builder and they will get it certified before delivery.
• Listed is for products and appliances, and is fully tested for safety. This applies to most consumer electronics.
• Certified Enhanced is also for products, and you can read up on it here: https://www.ul.com/news/qa-uls-enhanced-certification-mark
• Classified is for products and is half ass tested. All it means is that some requirements for UL were tested and passed, but not all.

If a product is Classified by UL, this can mean its testing meets the particular requirements for a single test with a published result, but has nothing to do with all the other tests that may form part of a Standard (i.e., UL 181).

As for pricing for UL listed, it can be just a few grand for a single product. Not much when you are selling thousands. I am sure Classified is even cheaper. I wonder how many of these cheap ass lamps say Classified.

No idea which phone you have, but dbrand does carry a decent amount of models. However, it is mostly limited to Apple, Google, Samsung, and One Plus. It does suck trying to find some things though. I do try to get things directly from the manufacturer website when it makes sense, but sometimes Amazon IS their website.

You have to have a really high AC, which is really easy to get for Shadowheart/Cleric with all the heavy armor and other healer gear available. Add the Blood of Lathander mace, and you are set.

Shadowheart, from Baulders Gate 3

I loved decking her out in BG3. Mobs trying to get her to lose concentration was adorable. She just stood there, with that expression.

Crowdstrike took Debian and Rocky down earlier this year due to a bad update… Linux is not immune.

Everything runs 24/7, but now I am thinking about theoretical power saving modes. Besides any built in power saving whatever (a little clueless), you could always throttle the CPU more. Not sure if it would be worth it without testing with a power meter.

We had a student run server for piracy at my University to get copied textbooks from, but even then we had to sometimes look elsewhere. I often couldn’t afford books and not all professors allowed the cheaper used previous editions.

Science textbooks were the worst with their stupid fucking online code bullshit so we could do homework. They even made it where you could buy just the code, which was something like $70. Still better than 300+, but JFC. Having to spend over $1000 for books that you are only going to use for 10 weeks was nuts.

The last saving grace we had is all textbooks were required to have at least one copy in the library that could not be checked out/removed. You could photocopy the homework pages that way. If your classmates were nice, they would let you borrow theirs to copy any pages too. You could also buy your textbook, copy what you needed, and return it within the return window.