RandomUser

@RandomUser@lemmy.world

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RandomUser,

While I’m not adverse to home automation, is this something you need in your life, or just want? I like my perimeter security too be simple and tight, extra complications make the security audit much harder.

Will your insurance stand up to home made remote control unlocking?

To answer your question, place the servo in a suitably large enclosure and practically any adhesive should work, e.g. 3mM command strips or even velcro or double sided sticky. When confident that this is what you want, use a screw.

RandomUser,

Butt your enclosure right up against the lock body, then you reduce shearing forces trying to pull it off the door. Extend the pull bar through your enclosure so you still have a manual override.

RandomUser,

I’ve avoided the conversation entirely. Ever since the pandemic I’ve done my own hair with clippers. Made a good enough job of it, even if I’ve sometimes needed to do a small adjustment the next day.

For a simple style it’s not that difficult if you take your time.

RandomUser,

It’s a long time since I had one that age but we clearly noticed when the kids had an upgrade and behaviour changed. I’d put it down to him enjoying his new capabilities and being to excited to sleep. Don’t think it’s a problem, just roll with it, it’s not as if it’s a toy you can take away!

Have fun, it doesn’t get much easier, but it does get different.

RandomUser,

All the other comments are great advice. As an ex chemist who does quite a bit of code I’ll add:

Do you want code that works, or code that works?! It’s reasonably easy to knock out ugly code that only works once, and that can be just what you need. It takes a little more effort however to make it robust. Think about how it can fail and trap the failures. If you’re sharing code with others, this is even more important a people do ‘interesting’ things.

There’s a lot of temporary code that’s had a very long life in production, this has technical debt… Is it documented? Is it stable? Is it secure? Ideally it should be

Code examples on the first page of Google tend to work ok, but are not generally secure, e.g doing SQL queries instead of using prepared statements. Doesn’t take much extra effort to do it properly and gives you peace of mind. We create sboms for our code now so we can easily check if a component has gained a vulnerability. Doesn’t mean our code is good, but it helps. You don’t really want to be the person who’s code helped let an attacker in.

Any code you write, especially stuff you share will give you a support and maintenance task long term. Pirate for it!

Code sometimes just stops working. - at least I’m my experience. Sacrifice something to the gods and all will be fine.

Finally, you probably know more than you think. You’ve plenty of experience. Most of the time I can do what I need without e.g. classes, but sometimes I’ll intentionally use a technique in a project just to learn it. I can’t learn stuff if I don’t have a use for it.

I’m still learning, so if I’ve got any part of the above wrong, please help me out.

RandomUser,

Yes prime minister is the most accurate documentary about British politics of all time.

RandomUser,

Do you on now anyone who uses disposable vapes? There may be a useful battery in one of those if you can’t find an alternative.

What are some good places to visit in Scotland?

I’m thinking of taking a holiday in Scotland, but frankly, I have no idea what I’d be doing there (nor have I ever been on holiday somewhere else tbh, so I’d love to do some planning beforehand). I really want to enjoy the nature and landscapes there and I’m sure there must be a few not so tourist-y gems I could plan on...

RandomUser,

There’s a lot of Scotland, and don’t underestimate driving times. Argyll is good, but can be rather wet any time of the year. Going around now you should be safe from the midgies. Recommend getting onto some of the islands too, and boat rides are always nice. Kerrera is a lovely little island just by Oban. It has a very atmospheric castle, though the teashop isn’t as good as it was so pack a lunch. If you like a dram, make a tour of some distilleries, each has it’s own character. Argyll has lots of archeology & standing stones if that’s your thing. There are loads of lumpy bits of you like walking too. Pretty much anywhere is good, tourist hotspot are ok, but try to get off the beaten track once in a while.

If you’re driving, and going onto country roads, please please please learn to reverse.

If you’re lucky you may get to spot some wild haggis, but they’re quite rare now. The farmed ones are cute but have a nasty bite so be careful.

Also don’t neglect the borders, loads of history.

It may not sound your thing, but consider geocaching… It takes you to some interesting out of the way places.

Unsure of the make/model, received for Christmas 2022 and was bought from a Camden Market stall in London. Absolutely love the wood/leather look. (lemmy.world)

It’s my first automatic watch. Had been working great until a few months ago, now it seems to struggle to keep a charge and occasionally sticks even when it should still have a charge. Need to find a place to take it in, sadly I’ve now moved from London to Chicago or I’d have just brought it back to the seller.

RandomUser,

I like a cheap watch, I made my two watches using Ali parts and Seiko movements. They look good enough to me and do their job perfectly. If anything goes wrong it won’t break the bank to fix. Imagine scratching a rolex!

RandomUser,

Nice one. I love the 1100 series, always fun picks.

RandomUser,

3 day working week will more likely mean companies cutting staff by 50%. Can’t imagine most people being able to live when only working 3 days.

RandomUser,

It’s in Dubai, right? Simple solution, turn off the Aircon half way through the meeting just to show them what excessive temperature is like.

Don’t let them out until a decision is reached!

Ok, it wouldn’t be constructive, but it’d be good to see all the fossil fuel lobbyists sweating, even if just for an hour.

RandomUser,

Why wasn’t there security on the device? My works devices are password protected and it’s a disciplinary offence if I share passwords or give unauthorized access.

If he gave them the login creds, then he should be penalised .

If he logged in and gave the device to non parliamentary staff, he should also be penalised.

He got caught because it cost money, which is the lesser offence. Cyber security should be more robust for ministers than it is for most companies, but seemingly not.

RandomUser,

Such a shame, only managed to go there once many years ago and never got to go back again. Hopefully they’ll fix the funding problem as it’s a wonderful place.

Fingers crossed for all those affected.

RandomUser,

Have used one for muscular problems in the past with success. The pads have to be in the right place, and the settings right before it works properly, so there may be some experimentation needed.

If it’s running and a pad comes loose you get an ‘exciting’ shock.

Don’t think they can be used permanently.

If it’s muscle spasms, have you checked for electrical problems like a trapped nerve?

Good luck with the pain management.

RandomUser,

I apologise for my country. If it makes any difference, I didn’t vote for the idiots. Sorry.

My mother-in-law lives with us and has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. We've been dealing with it for about a year but things are progressively getting worse. What are options for care?

She gets social security, and we don’t have a lot of money ourselves and are no longer able to be with her 24/7. We are in Maryland, and are scared of what we can do. Will her medicare do anything? Is it too late for something like long term care insurance? We have no idea where to start....

RandomUser,

Not sure if this vid will help you, but it’s real life experience of carrying for someone who has the disease.

youtu.be/jRltbhRO-sY

Apparently other people have said it’s accurate and helps. I’ve no connection other than following the creator for his excellent technical content.

Learning about electronics

Hello! What would be a good way to learn about electronics in terms of creating them? I’m particularly interested in building my own keyboards and other PC peripherals, but I’m not sure what tools I would need, or what’s a good knowledge base if I run into any issues. Any tips and or suggestions?

RandomUser,

Arduino and esp32 are both good places to start. On YouTube look up ralph s bacon I think he is - He does lots of microcontroller stuff, and of course the likes of big clive will teach you all about basic electronic circuits.

If you’re a complete newbie, get a kit and work through the tutorials.

Stuff you’ll need at first is a microcontroller, prototyping breadboard and a few components (should all come in the kit of you go that route). When you have something that works that you want to keep, you can think about a cheap (ish) soldering station and either veroboard, or look into getting your own boards made.

A multimeter will help a lot (cheapish will do) and depending on how deep you get, a bench power supply and an oscilloscope, but you can live without those for a while.

Get good quality solder, and using extra food quality flux changed the game for me. If you are an older person, magnification really helps too!

Get components in 10’s or more as you’ll save a little and it doesn’t matter much if you let out the magic smoke. For hobby stuff, Alix is your friend.

Have fun.

RandomUser,

Update, for what it’s worth.

Over summer, and after getting the place properly watertight the wood gradually straightened out. It’s not perfect but getting there and all bay one of the sills are pretty much acceptable.

I think the problem was that the underside of the wood was more humid than the top side which could dry out.

Lessons are: don’t expose wood to repeated large changes in temp and humidity over a prolonged period. If you do however, be patient, there’s a chance that it will fix itself.

So glad I didn’t panic and replace them.

Learning computer/OS for kids, that teaches command line?

My nephews & nieces aren’t currently allowed much computer access because their parents worry about screen time, inappropriate content and the like. But their mother was sharing concerns with me that they won’t have the basic computer skills and understanding that we learned growing up in the 80s and 90s. Having to make...

RandomUser,

The PI is always a good place to start, but they’re not cheap anymore. You can still do some useful things at the command line (not sure how fun, but a great education), python is there and very accessible. - get a camera and you could do some great things with open CV. Not sure what packages are out there though. Think you’d just have to follow some web tutorials.

As an alternative, have you considered an Arduino kit? Lots of great projects, all very well documented. Playing with LEDs, sensors, motors etc may keep their attention longer than a bash prompt.

RandomUser,

Practice is essential. My game improved when I started buying multiples of the same lock. As LPL said, learn to pick locks, not a lock. A range of tools helps, I have a few different tension wrenches I made out of wiper blade. With basic tools it’s easy and rewarding to make these and they do make life easier. Good tension control is really important as it lets you feel what is happening in the lock. I wouldn’t spend a fortune on picks at the start, your skills are probably weaker than your tools, though having said that, sometimes you do need the right pick for the job. I have an American Lock clone with such a tight keyway I’ve only picked it twice. With a thinner pick it would probably be easy. Bosnian Bill said “if what you are doing doesn’t work, try something else”, so try a different tension wrench or pick, or start on a different pin. It’s easy to keep picking the same lock and thinking you are improving in lock sport. You may have just learned how far to push each pin on that one lock to get an open.

As with everything, practice, practice, practice, oh, and have fun.

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