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Curious Canid

@ Curious_Canid @lemmy.ca

Posts
22
Comments
738
Joined
3 yr. ago

I am owned by several dogs and cats. I have been playing non-computer roleplaying games for almost five decades. I am interested in all kinds of gadgets, particularly multitools, knives, flashlights, and pens.

  • Best method to DeDRM Kindle books ?

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  • Epubor Ultimate is the only solution I know of that was updated to handle Amazon's change from earlier this year. It's a commercial package, but worth the money. It took them a couple of months to work around the last changes, but they did it. I expect they will continue to do that as needed going forward.

  • My derp looking at a moth.

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  • Dogs can focus on something in a way that humans rarely manage. I respect that.

  • Stephen Miller Claims Simply Calling Trump Authoritarian 'Incites Violence and Terrorism' | Common Dreams

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  • He's not entirely wrong. Calling Trump authoritarian does incite Trump to violence and terrorism.

  • Wisconsin Planned Parenthood to stop abortions even though they’re legal

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  • This is not on Planned Parenthood. It sounds like they're making the right decision, given the insane situation. The federal government is responsible for the problem.

  • Newbie Questions about Antennas

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  • I spent some time with a cheap spectrum analyzer going through different antenna. Most of the ones designed for carry radios were not very good, but there is a limit to how much you can do with something that small. The two that I've had the best luck with are a 17cm whip and a 4.5cm "glue stick" stubby.

    The specific models are available from many different sources, but here is a link for each, to get you started.

    The 17cm Whip is actually a surprisingly good antenna. Unfortunately, I still find it too awkward for everyday use. On the other hand, my wife has no problem with it on the radio in her purse. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1713089150/gizont-915mhz-17cm-whip-antenna-with?crt=1&sts=1

    This 4.5cm "Glue Stick" Stubby antenna is the same one that Heltec ships with their kits. It's small enough to use anywhere. The performance is okay, which is actually pretty good for one that small. I got much worse results with a similar 5cm Stubby. https://muzi.works/products/stubby-antenna?_pos=2&_ss=r

    Be aware that there are often big differences between antennas that appear to be identical. I found cases where the only obvious different was the branding printed on the outside, but where the SWR values weren't even close (1:1.2 vs 1:9 in one case).

    Good luck!

  • Latest Government Accountability Office report concludes that only 8% of ground combat vehicles, and only 20% of ground support vehicles are "mission capable."

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  • Our tax dollars are being spent on corruption, parades, and "cool" special operations.

  • What the fuck is existence? What even is the truth? How does one know their parents are even real, and not just another actor in an IRL "Truman Show". Isn't history just another story?

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  • These are all valid questions and I think a lot of good ways to think about them have been presented.

    I suspect that the reason a lot of people are grappling with this right now has to do with the bizarre social and political environment of the moment. When large portions of the population have chosen to ignore objective reality, and make up their own, you can't help but wonder if it's all just arbitrary. However, there is an answer to that, and the answer is no, it is not. Within our perceptual reality, however it exists, things do behave in consistent ways and can be observed independently of belief. Those who attempt to ignore that do ultimately fail.

    Our lack of knowledge about the underlying nature of our reality does not change the way it behaves for all of us.

  • What's something that, after you had it, you immediately wanted another?

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  • This triggered me. :-}

  • ‘The Worst!’ Martha MacCallum Confronts Trump With Dismal Fox Poll — Prompting Trump Attack on Network

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  • Trump's worst enemy has always been, and continues to be, reality.

  • Are radios such as Meshtastic resistant to spyware like Pegasus/Paragon that governments use to spy on people?

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  • Meshtastic uses end-to-end encryption, without any central authority. There are circumstances under which that encryption can be compromised.

    The strongest thing Meshtastic has going for it right now is obscurity. No one is likely to be looking at it, to say nothing of tracking and decrypting it. You can pretty much guarantee that your cell is being identified if you attend any kind of protest. There's also a good chance that all of its voice and digital traffic is being intercepted and analyzed. Until and unless Meshtastic becomes far more common, it provides a good alternative.

  • Nova Launcher is seemingly shutting down – so here are some alternatives

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  • My only addition to what Meron35 said is that Launchers can provide interfaces that both look and act differently than the built-in launcher. Some of them are radically different from the default, with everything from expanding radial menus to an actual command line. There is not single best solution that suits everyone, so Launchers allow you to decide what experience works best for you.

  • Today I learned about meshtastic, a long range off-grid open-source communication platform

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  • If you want to have communication available at any kind of protest, and you would rather not provide the authorities with your name and address, Meshtastic can be quite useful. In the US, we have reached the point where that can be a serious issue. In other parts of the world it can be a matter of life or death.

  • Today I learned about meshtastic, a long range off-grid open-source communication platform

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  • meshtastic@mander.xyz is the largest, but there are a few. Just go to Communities, select "All", and enter "meshtastic".

  • This is the technology worth trillions of dollars huh

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  • This is the perfect time for LLM-based AI. We are already dealing with a significant population that accepts provable lies as facts, doesn't believe in science. and has no concept of what hypocrisy means. The gross factual errors and invented facts of current AI couldn't possibly fit in better.

  • Nova Launcher is seemingly shutting down – so here are some alternatives

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  • As a long-term Nova user, my biggest problem with replacing it is finding anything that provides similar capabilities. There were reasons why it was so popular for so long. That probably also limited the market for launchers with a similar approach. I can only hope that its decline will cause someone to build something similar.

    Of the available options, Lawnchair seems to be the best, but that doesn't make it a good option. It probably does three-quarters of what I rely on in Nova. That isn't actually a complaint about Lawnchair. It wasn't intended to be a Nova replacement.. It's a good launcher in its own right and I really appreciate that it is also FOSS.

    I guess my point is that people keep saying there are lots of alternatives to Nova. Yes, there are, but there are currently no substitutes.

  • Atlassian goes cloud-only, customers face integration issues

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  • That's the beauty of modern corporate capitalism. The upper tiers of management are shielded from any responsibility by their subordinates. Their subordinates then have a strong incentive to shift the responsibility elsewhere so it doesn't fall on them. Paying someone else to take the responsibility does not actually benefit the company, except may be in the short-term, but it does benefit the people who get to make the decisions about it.

    And if the service provider really screws up, and loses too many contracts, they either sell out to another company just like themselves, make further profit, and go back to doing what they were doing, or they shut down, form a new company, and go back to what they were doing.

    The only people who can be hurt by all of this are the regular employees, who lose their jobs as part of the cycle, and, occasionally, the shareholders, who are never adequately represented by the board. It's a prefect system where bad decisions only affect those who have no part in them.

  • Atlassian goes cloud-only, customers face integration issues

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  • "The Cloud" just means "someone else's sever". A lot of people who should know better just don't get that.

    It's entertaining to take almost any internal memo or external press release and substitute "someone else's server" every time "the cloud" appears. They all suddenly look insane.

  • Trump Says It’s Not His Signature. But Personal Letters Look Similar.

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  • The increasing levels of desperation are amazing.

  • What are your coping mechanisms?

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  • The company of friends, which includes my dogs and cats. Other people, of any species, are comforting and provide something else to focus on.

    I also do a lot of reading these days.

  • There is no good way to answer a request beginning with "do you mind if I......."

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  • I've always found that "DO NOT DO THAT" works pretty well. :-)