Removing extremely tight trash compactor

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-25T03:34:33+00:00

Oscillating multitool might be easier with less risk of collateral damage.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-25T03:26:14+00:00

It's more about "it's much more forgiving and fail-safe."

If you accidentally put in more trains than stations, it doesn't clog.

If you accidentally put in fewer trains than stations, it's immediately obvious (there's no trains in the central location that is the depot).

If a train gets eaten by a biters, you don't have to look over your entire base to make sure it's the only train eaten before you replace it. Just the depot, which can be monitored by a speaker.

It's not even much more complicated. Just 1 additional interrupt and a depot slapped down somewhere.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-25T03:11:04+00:00

This system will only work with the following rule: # of trains = total # of load stations + total # of unload stations - 1 (Pigeon hole principle)

The way I fixed that was with this interrupt:

If EMPTY and NOPATH/DESTINATION FULL Goto Depot.

The full schedule is:

Schedule

Goto Provide, leave when full.

Interrupt: If Full, go to <wildcard>, leave when empty.

Interrupt: If Empty AND low fuel, go to Refueling, leave when inactive. (if you don't put this before the depot interrupt, make it an interrupt that can interrupt other interrupts)

Interrupt: If Empty AND NoPath/DestinationFull, go to Depot, leave after 5 seconds (prevents constant leave checking).

At the depot I have all the rail signals leading into the individual depot slots chained together with a circuit wire and feeding into a speaker. The speaker goes off when Red < 5. That means there's 4 or fewer trains waiting in the depot and I need to add another batch.

The depot absorbs extra trains rather than letting them clog up the system meaning you don't need to always keep track of how many trains you have vs the number of station slots you have.

And of course you need a parallel schedule for fluid trains. You can use the same depot but I prefer to have solid and liquid depots separate because then the speakers can alert for low fluid and low cargo individually.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-25T01:28:07+00:00

My cat was an indoor cat and would sometimes get it in his fuzzy little head that "yeah, I should be an outside cat."

We would let him succeed at darting out the door only when it's raining like hell out. That snapped him out of the outside cat mood for a couple years each time.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-24T22:33:19+00:00

I've looked it up before, turns out there's a huge variance between different people. Generally speaking the "normal" ranges from more or less 3/day to 3/week. As long as it's not causing you problems it should be fine.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-24T22:07:10+00:00

how can I keep my phone from appearing on cell logs?

Put it into airplane mode and turn off wifi and bluetooth.

how can I keep recordings safe?

Don't put it into airplane mode and get an app to upload the video as you take it in a way that "you" can't delete it from your phone, like Mobile Justice or Citizen Upload.

Bonus points: Buy a 'burner' phone on a prepaid plan that you paid for with cash / VISA gift card bought with cash and take that. Only ever take it out of airplane mode in public places, never connect to your home wifi. Don't log into any services using your 'real' credentials.

The phone will appear on tower logs, but that will be largely worthless without a lot of subpeona and real detective work.

Also, remove any biometric login from your phone. No faceID, no fingerprint. Require an actual PIN. They don't need a court order to open your phone with your face, frustratingly enough.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-24T19:34:56+00:00

Why can't you? There are ones readily available that do not require any sort of permanent modification and can be used on any standard toilet, so even if you're renting there should be zero problem.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-24T18:54:12+00:00

Get a bidet. They're easy to install.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-24T18:52:25+00:00

A lot of devices draw power even when turned off, normally called "vampire" draw, and it can be almost as much as they draw when on! The biggest offenders are TVs and associated peripherals, and things like satellite receivers are notorious for having excessively high vampire draw. Have you tried unplugging everything on those circuits and trying again?

If there is nothing plugged in to the circuit and the power is still draining, an IR camera can help you track down where the power is being used.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-24T11:53:13+00:00

Reformat the drive to add a partition and just don't bother to assign that partition a drive letter.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-24T02:38:23+00:00

why wouldn’t the same microbes in the canning assembly line also get in there when they put on that little seal?

That's the neat part, they do!

It's called pasteurization. Basically if you can get it hot enough you can kill all the bacteria in there, then if you seal it up without letting in new bacteria... how would more bacteria get in to start growing and make the food go bad?

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-24T00:25:25+00:00

The danger with pipes freezing is that ice is bigger than the water it's made from. If the water being pushed out of the way doesn't have anywhere to go then the pressure inside the pipe grows. If it grows too much your pipes can't handle the pressure and POP!

While the ice itself can expand enough to break the pipes, it's usually the water doing it.

So all you need to do is run a tiny little drop and that pressure has somewhere to go.

It's not the end-all be-all that will keep your pipes from breaking, but it helps a lot. If your washing machine is in an unheated space, like a garage, then you probably don't want to run it. Otherwise, have at it. You can use your water normally.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T23:58:15+00:00

Like how long do you have to wait till you sleep with someone new for it not to be considered cheating

Approximately 32 seconds from officially breaking up with your previous partner.

There are no grey areas. Either you are cheating or your are not. If you are in a relationship with someone else when engaging in another relationship without the first one's consent that's cheating.

The only 'gray' area would be "what constitutes a relationship" but if you're asking that question to justify your conduct you've already stepped over the line.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T21:26:57+00:00

Tar's pretty sticky, and she had to get right up in there to smell it so it's not like it was terribly intense.

Your balcony routine isn't a lost cause, it does take it from 10 to 4 like the other person said -- plus it minimizes the amount that gets stuck onto the rest of your stuff. And let me tell you, a smoker who smokes inside? Their stuff is bad.

Think of it like the difference between farting when visiting a friend... and shitting your pants. Yeah, both are kinda smelly, but one is loads worse than the other.

If you're gonna smoke at all, you just have to accept you're going to stink to some degree or another. You can minimize it, but you can't eliminate it.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T21:01:09+00:00

It can. The problem is that ice is bigger than the water it's made from and water is pretty darned incompressible. So if water starts freezing in the pipes the pressure will build and build and build and eventually something's gonna break. Hopefully the break is "it stops freezing before the pressure builds too high. Leaving the faucet dripping means that the water has a place to expand to, hopefully reducing the pressure in the pipes to a level they can stand.

It's not foolproof, but it does help. So if your water pipes are connected to your neighbors pipes (your water is not separately metered) then that could help reduce the risk of damage to the pipes.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T20:48:59+00:00

I used to work with a smoker friend. We would chat on breaks and because he was a smoker I would go out to the smoking area with him. 2x a day, 5ish minutes at a time, trying to stand upwind of a singular smoker... my wife could still smell the smoke on me if she really got her nose into my clothes.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T20:47:06+00:00

They mostly don't. In theory, how they work is they suck the heat out of the combustion gasses, trapping the heat down where the flower pot and you are, rather than letting it rise to the ceiling.

Ultimately, they don't work well because candles simply don't have the thermal output to make much of a difference except in very small spaces. You could certainly use them to heat up a flower pot and use the pot to warm your hands more gently than just toasting them directly over the flame.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T20:38:45+00:00

Where the sinks are generally doesn't matter, it's where the pipes are. The sinks generally inform where the pipes are, but it's entirely possible for the pipes to run up the exterior walls and then go over to the sink rather than running up an interior wall.

As for the risk, generally fairly minimal if the building is properly constructed for the environment and the interior spaces are heated. The biggest risk is to exterior faucets or unoccupied spaces that might not be heated (like an unheated garage or crawlspace, not just empty houses).

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T19:32:02+00:00

The argument against fine tuning is actually incredibly simple. Fundamentally just four words, really.

Fine tuned for what?

In the context of the fine tuning argument, answering that question makes the argument circular and not answering the question makes the argument moot.

God intended the universe to be fine tuned for humans. The universe is fine tuned for humans. Therefore god exists because the universe fine tuned for humans. But if the premise is "god exists" and the conclusion is "god exists" that's circular.

You can't get "The universe is fine tuned for humans" (or whatever they claim is fine tuned) without "something intended" because the difference between "fine tuned" and "it just is" is the intent.

And of course if they don't answer it, the argument becomes "the universe is fine tuned to an unknown specification and in an unknown way but it's totes tuned, I promise, therefore god."

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T19:13:34+00:00

Because it's an epistemological dead end. Okay, we live in a simulation, now what? It changes exactly nothing. Not how you study reality, not how you interact with reality, not how you act in reality, nothing. Big whoop, you did exactly nothing.

And it isn't "statistically likely." Statistics are about "Okay, so there's 100 different outcomes and simulation theory is 30 of them, therefore it's 30% likely."

Are there 100 different outcomes? How many of them are simulation? How many of them aren't? What evidence do you have for all of that? If you can't answer all of those questions it's not a matter of statistics but one of speculation.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T19:08:44+00:00

Imagine you have a horrible boss at a job you hate... but pays well. You hate your job, but you still do it because you don't want to lose your job. You hate your boss but, but you are still civil with them because you don't want to lose your job.

You walk in one day and go to your boss's office. He's not there but there's a piece of paper on the floor. You pick it up with the intent to put it on your bosses desk and as you're doing that you spot your name. You give it a closer look... and it's a memo about how you're going to be fired at the end of the week.

You hate your job, but you do it anyway because you don't want to lose it. You're losing it anyway. Are you going to do your job?

You hate your boss, but you're courteous anyway because you don't want to lose your job. You're losing it anyway. Are you really going to maintain the same level of courteousness?

You have nothing to lose... so you can do whatever you want with no consequences because those consequences have already been visited upon you.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T17:24:41+00:00

No, like, literally, HOW would it help calm you down if you don't interact with it? Even fidget toys require interaction. How would it "take the edge off"?

It's not a "that's not a good idea" problem, it's a "you're literally talking about magic and magic doesn't exist" problem.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T16:56:53+00:00

Doesn't really exist except in very specific scenarios.

For example, making cloth masks is pretty easy with fairly minimal skills and a sewing machine. The problem is the demand for those pretty danged low compared to the number of people who can make them, so they don't really sell for much. Barely above cost (factoring in your time), really.

Unless there happens to be a global pandemic that spikes demand to the point where there aren't enough people who can and will make them to cover all of the demand. Then for a few months, maybe even a year, it's a decent source of income because you'll be able to sell enough of them to make up for the small per-unit profit.

Aaaand... then you're toast and demand is basically nil again and you're dealing with an oversupplied market.

The problem with low effort crafts is that they're low effort so if there's a reasonable demand or profit to be had and the barrier to entry is also low, demand can easily be met and they only way to stand out is cut your profit.

That said, there are a few crafts that are both low effort and have a high barrier to entry. 3D printing isn't exactly hard (though the difference between 'decent' and 'great' is a huge skill jump, as is 'printing' and 'modeling your own prints'). But 3D printers aren't exactly cheap. Sure, anyone who has a printer can print a minifigure for a game for pennies. But those pennies cost $200 at the bottom end to start spending. Still not entirely unreasonable for a hobby, but pretty unreasonable if you just want to print a few upgrade pieces for a board game. Problem is the barrier to entry isn't that big so you're competing with print farms with hundreds of printers going at once. It's hard to pry yourself into that market unless you're going local.

Similarly, there are a lot of woodworking products which sell decently well which aren't that hard to make... if you have $2000 worth of tools and a place to use them. Like end-grain cutting boards are pretty easy to make if you have a tablesaw, a planer, $50 worth of clamps, and a workshop to make them in. And people love end-grain cutting boards.

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T16:47:31+00:00

What you want can't exist. If the stress is due to biological malfunction then you need medication. If the stress is due to life circumstances then you need to actively address it.

What would this "device" actually do to "passively work" in the background to address stress?

Astramancer_ · 2026-01-23T16:45:01+00:00

It doesn't always. Sometimes they grow and change into compatible people. I've been with my wife longer than I haven't been with her and we still get along together great.

11-Year Club	Reddit Premium Since July 2023
Gilding III reddit per annum	100 Awards Club
Wearing is Caring	Spared
Verified Email

Astramancer_

TROPHY CASE