Activity from Tell Me No Lies
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Tips for living in an Easy-Bake oven
It's peak summer here and the outside temperature is only dropping to around 81°F (27°C) at night. I live in a concrete house on a concrete slab and the kitchen floor is currently about 85°F (29°c). It'll only last a couple more weeks, but in the meantime I'd love to hear people's tips.
General anesthesia: Should I?
I’m scheduled for general anesthesia tomorrow and I made the mistake of looking up information on the web about it. I’m looking for help to decide whether to cancel it or not.
What am I looking at?
I'm sure this makes sense, I'm just wondering how. Taken in Vancouver, BC if that helps.
EPIC indeed
Policies for claiming DNS entry from a vanished owner
My sister’s organization has a domain name that was registered by a now vanished member. The registrar is properly suspicious of this claim and I am gathering information before we go to the next step.
Remind me of a verse, Beowulf edition
Many years ago I came across a small verse in an English translation of Beowulf. For whatever reason it has stuck with me, but despite searching a lot of translations since then I have been unable to locate it again.
Super accurate paper cutter
I'm looking for a paper cutter for thick stock that I can reliably get 0.1mm accuracy out of. I'm currently using this one and it's all over the place, relatively speaking. A4 or larger is a must, but I have limited desk space. Does such a thing exist?
Laurie Anderson is always a few years ahead
Laurie Anderson has been working and playing with a model of her late husband for years. The results, Anderson says, can be hit and miss. “Three-quarters of it is just completely idiotic and stupid. And then maybe 15% is like, ‘Oh?’. And then the rest is pretty interesting. And that’s a pretty good ratio for writing, I think.”
What is the Right Way to provide a customized Google Calendar view?
Our organization has many events each month, and would like to provide a weekly schedule view to our patrons. The event calendar is kept on Google, but their utilitarian interface does not fit our aesthetic at all. How to approach?
Making my own jigsaw puzzle box
I’m making some one-off jigsaw puzzles and I’m trying to box them nicely. In my head I see thin cardboard sheets — one for the top and one for the bottom — I can print on in a standard printer that already have perforated lines for where I would fold/cut them after printing. I can’t seem to find anything out there so I’m checking with the hive mind. Alternative ideas are also welcome.
Rolling backups on Windows, Linux, and Google Drive
I've got a 1Gb file I need to backup every night on a Windows box. I'd like to keep a directory with a rolling backing up of the last ten dailies and the Sunday of the last four weeks. Furthermore I would like to keep this directory in sync on: A local USB drive, a remote Linux server, and a Google Drive. I can patch it together with scripts but a turnkey solution would be better. Suggestions?
Intermixing DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION Schedules
I'm trying to assemble a full set of 4 of these on the cheap. I can find individual volumes online but I'm wondering if I will regret collecting different volumes from different years. If you use these, can you tell me if mixing and matching 2019 Volume 1 with 2021 Volume 3 is going to cause me serious pain?
Panic (911) buttons with no subscription
I’m looking at these little devices, which appear to be very small cellphones with speakerphones that dial 911. Since carriers are required to support 911 regardless of subscription it seems like they would work anywhere with cell coverage. Too good to be true?
Squishing while squinting but only when depressed
I’m Bipolar II and an easy way to know I’m entering a depressive phase is that I (internally) hear a squishing noise in my temples when squinting or closing my eyes tightly. It just last for a second while I’m making the movement, but it happens throughout the whole phase. I never hear it at any other time. Mostly I’m just curious if anyone else experiences this.
Pimp my walker
So my mother just brought home one of these bad boys and other than the obvious racing stripes we’re looking at what accessories would be best. Off the top of my head a cup holder and some sort of collapsable tray (netting?) seem useful. Suggestions from experienced users would be welcome!
Mass drug interaction detector
Drugbank has a nifty drug interaction checker for up to 5 drugs at a time. Unfortunately I need to check for twenty. Does anyone know of a checker that will do that many at once?
Finding the DDS number for books
OCLC will shortly shut off the service that lets us look up DDS numbers for free (and WorldCat requires a subscription to get them). The LoC has not noticeably improved in this regard over the years. We can probably tease them out of various online catalogs, but it would be great to have a single site. Suggestions would be very welcome.
Identify this art style
I asked Midjourney for some retro spaceships and it chose this art style. So far someone has suggested acrylic to match the paint, but the form remains a mystery. Something Victorian perhaps?
Taking hundreds of similar pictures with an iPhone
I would like to expand this gallery, which involves taking pictures of markers that are about ten feet up on walls. I would like my shots to match the gallery, perhaps with even more uniformity of angle and size. I was wondering if anyone has any important tips for the uneducated photographer before I start.
Denying the jury access to the trial transcript
In an article on a recent major trial it was reported that "During deliberations this week, the jury asked a few questions, including a request for the court transcript. That request was denied, with the judge instructing the jury to instead rely on their memory." That seems counterintuitive to me? What would the reasoning be?
Automated chop up of PNG file
I have several PNG files, each with 50 or so small drawings separated by transparent space. I need to split the small drawings into their own files. Right now using Pixelmator I'm selecting each one by hand, cut and pasting them into their own layer, and then mass exporting the layers. There has to be a lazier way. Anyone? [slightly noisy sample file]
Why is digital color matching so difficult?
If I take two digital photos of exactly the same object but with different lighting, matching the colors of the two photos with Photoshop (or in this case Pixelmator) is a difficult, nay impossible, task. I'm sure there are a lot of reasons but I'd like to collect a detailed enumeration of them.
Reliable performance monitoring for Windows
You have failed me for the last time, perfmon. [force chokes perfmon]
Electronics, Arduino, PWM, oh my!
I'm waaaaaay over my head trying to convert one PWM signal to another. More inside.
Gods and Goddesses of Free Will
I'm trying to find a God or Goddess of choices. Janus is close, but he's more about transitions than deciding on one of many possibilities. There are also plenty of wisdom deities out there, but they're about making the right choice as opposed to choosing in general. Any pantheon is fine.
Some Sophistry Required
I’m looking for some arguments that writing video games (particularly small ones for phones) is an activity that is useful to society at large. Particularly I would like to understand the benefits to individuals of having games available. Both references and opinions are welcome.
Help me learn by rote
Some things are best learned by straight memorization, and I pretty much pass out immediately when I sit down to do it. Help me find a way around this block.
Help me learn to photograph jigsaw puzzle pieces
I need to place orphaned jigsaw puzzle pieces into one of the 190 possible puzzles they came from. Getting the full puzzle art is largely handled, what I need now are really good pictures of the pieces.
Attaching a picture to a jigsaw puzzle
I’m replacing missing jigsaw puzzle pieces. I’ve got the chipboard but I’m not sure what sort of paper, glue, and finish I should be using for the picture layer to make it both durable and to have the correct luster on its surface. Paper artists, suggestions?
Very simple HTML editor
I've been updating a simple web page with vi for years but I'd like to switch to a simple WYSIWYG that ideally will also scp the resulting page to its final destination. Free is good. Suggestions?
Laser cutting and engraving software for the Mac
I use Simplify 3D to convert STLs to gcode for my 3D printer. Now I need an app for laser cutting. I'll need to massage the gcode regardless so anything that can generate basic paths from a drawing will do. Any favorites?
Simple-minded medical professional to layperson translator
I'm a big fan of the accuracy of medical language but there are times when a naive translation would be a helpful orientation before reading the actual document.
Chinese writers and Western physicists
I’ve been following the Chinese TV series based on The Three Body Problem and have been very surprised how many historical Western physicists appear in it. In fact there do not appear to be any historical Chinese scientists presented from the era of Newton through Einstein.
Laser safety goggle recommendations
I'll be working with a home-built laser cutter and the potential for wacky mishaps makes me think this isn't the time to skimp on safety equipment. What would be the industry standard to work with a 450 nm laser?
Complete yearly weather data
I can find plenty of sites that list the average yearly rainfall in, for example Mérida, Mexico. What I can’t find is the actual data that was used to arrive at the average. I’m looking for a site with charts (or hopefully data files) that have the rainfall by year for the last 10-50 years. Can someone with better Google skills help me out?
Splitting an MP3 file by content
I've got an MP3 file with a lot of small clips of audio each separated by 1 second of complete silence. I'd like to split the file into one file for each clip.
Salt the corners, smudge the air, and ______ the pool
There are plenty of tips out there for using a pool for spiritual cleansings but I'm having trouble finding anything about cleansing the pool itself. Does anyone know of rituals for helping a swimming pool back to a more spiritually neutral state?
The Police, Synchronicity II lyric question
For the verse "Another industrial ugly morning /
The factory belches filth into the sky /
He walks unhindered through the picket lines today, /
He doesn't think to wonder why". Well, *I'm* now wondering why. Speculation is welcome, but something definitive is preferred.
The spiritual brothers of Grijpstra & De Gier
My father and I are big fans of Janwillem van de Wetering's Amsterdam Detective series, particularly of the relationships between the three leads and the zen-like way that the stories unfold. Wondering if anyone knows of a similar book or set of books out there.
Helping an older person back from the edge
An older member of our community suffered a painful and embarrassing incident last year and has since turned to the bottle. Is there anything we can do to help?
Math based Scrabble/Upwords game for iOS
A friend and I have pretty much played ourselves out on Scrabble/Upwords word-based games and are looking for a new game to take their place. Numbers based games would be welcome, but in general something with massive replay-value where each game takes a few days would be ideal. Suggestions?
Apnea and Ativan
I've been using a CPAP machine for 25 years with no issue, but last week I had a really nasty (unrelated) bout of insomnia and I'm now feeling claustrophobic when wearing my mask. To get past the insomnia required 1mg of Ativan and I'd just as soon be done with it if the insomnia hadn't been so bad. To complicate matters it's not clear that I'm getting good sleep with the Ativan. It feels like I'm not wearing the mask anyway. Any ideas would be quite welcome.
How to identify this cluster of universes?
I've got a story brewing that includes interdimensional travel and I'm trying to identify groups of universes whose physical constants are close enough that people from one will survive in the others. The obvious approach would be to give a selection of constants to a certain precision for each universe but that's sort of ungainly. Ideas?
Attaching electrical wiring to a sliding window
I have something attached to my sliding glass window that uses DC power from a wall transformer. I'd like to install the wiring in a way that is unobtrusive and preferably provides power continuously no matter what position the window is in. I'm not seeing a lot of solutions out there but I may not know the magic keywords. I can sort of do it myself, but I'm looking for something polished. Ideas? Keywords?
Should I eat it: shipped sausage edition
I just picked up a cooler full of sausage 48 hours after it was shipped. It was packed with dry ice, and the packages at the bottom of the cooler were nicely frozen. However, the second to the top layer was only partially frozen and the top layer was basically defrosted.
They come in packages of 4 and are vacuum sealed. I think I'm okay with the refreezing the second layer but I'm pondering whether to toss the first layer. Thoughts?
Need a standardized web-accessible flash card list format
I'd like to produce an app that lets you run through your flash card deck in a particular way. Neither Anki nor Quizlet make it easy to import their decks and I'm looking for ideas. My fallback is the first two (or maybe more) columns of a Google spreadsheet. Is anyone aware of a standardized format I could use instead?
Looking for highrise hotel overlooking a busy harbor
I've got a week to kill and I'd like to do it sitting in a hotel room and watching the ships come and go. Cost is an issue -- flying there and back (starting in Mexico City) plus the cost of the hotel -- but other than that and a preference for staying out of the snow the world is open. Suggestions?
Looking for a small library newsletter mailer
I'm setting up the mass mailer for a 3000 person email list that belongs to a small library. Email goes out about twice a week. There's no way they can handle a sendy server of their own and the Easysendy evaluation has gone disastrously. Mailchimp seems to be the default here but the cost is prohibitive. How do you handle newsletters for your small, poor, technologically challenged organization?
Recent experiences with Alibaba
My purchase attempt through Alibaba has stalled with Alibaba rejecting my PayPal and displaying that the credit card I gave them as an alternative was declined despite the fact that the credit card company has no record of them trying it. Had I not done business through Alibaba in the past I would be walking away right now, but I’m willing to give them a little leeway. Is Alibaba still a reliable broker?
Best way to remove a 1" stumbling block for the mobility impaired
I've got a 1" rise between the porch and house that is just made to trip over/annoy people in wheelchairs. Obviously I can build a small ramp but before I do I thought I'd see if people who are currently dealing with mobility issues had any thoughts on best practices.