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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 26th, 2023

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    • Separate batteries. Using a device for music and a standard phone drains from the same battery. You could carry a power brick, but then you’re carrying two bricks for worse audio.
    • No camera. Certain work assignments won’t allow me to bring a device with a camera into those zones. Or, if I do, the transition process is so intrusive that it’s not worth it.

    Those are the only unique characteristics. You can compensate other differences on a phone like adding an additional DAC and/or amp.



  • I take a very long-winded approach. I try to find a copy of the rules online, and then read through it (which is the first thing I would do if I had gone out to buy the game).

    Then, instead of watching a review, I try to find a play through video to see how it plays out. The video isn’t completely devoid of colorful commentary or random banter, but it does give me a realistic expectation of how long the game truly takes.

    I generally know whether I’d appreciate a game or hate it from reading the rule book. The video just saves me the cycle of buying, trying, and returning if I’m on the fence.










  • In 2016, the first known fatality linked to a self-driving car took place when a Tesla Model S failed to stop and crashed into a semitrailer truck.

    Ah, this one is hard to forget. I remember this one vividly because it sparked all sorts of philosophical discussions around the use of self-driving cars. Hypothetical scenarios like “Between a family of 5 with children, should the car choose to kill the driver to save the family” and the different variations of the trolley problem.

    Determining the responsible party was always a puzzle to me. The current state of auto-pilot requires hands-on attention from the driver, so the accountable party is arguably the driver. But with a fully autonomous vehicle, where the steering wheel isn’t installed, is the car manufacturer accountable for deaths and accidents?



  • I use the Ecowitt moisture sensors for potted plants. Given their size, I wouldn’t recommend using them for your lawn because you have to be sure to not hit them when mowing.

    Automated irrigation systems are reasonably consistent. I moved from my lawnless apartment to a house with a backyard of grass. I left out a few empty containers across the lawn, waited for the first watering cycle, and adjusted the timings based on the distribution.



  • The collector. Mainly because of FOMO.

    There are a handful of times where I pass on “game of the year” level games, whether due to time or money. Months later, when I’m ready to purchase it, I find that it’s out of print already and nobody has it in stock. I’m can only hope that the publishers do another print run and that my memory will remember to check on it in the future.