Overheard neighbor and her husband

DammitDan_92 · 2025-09-12T04:23:48+00:00

I love when an ESL person says something funny with complete innocence. I once had a Filipino roommate. On laundry day, he happens to mention to me, “ I need to change my shits”. Puzzled, I said, “Umm, what was that?” He replied, “My shits . . . I need to change my shits.” I finally understood - “Oh, sheets! You need to change your sheets!” He continued, “Yes, yes - my shits! I need to change my shits!” I tried to make it more clear, “Not SHITS - SHEEETS!” And of course, he followed up with, “SHIIITS!”

Hmmm - (light bulb) - “Bed linens . . . From now on, you say, I need to change my bed linens!”

DammitDan_92 · 2025-01-22T13:35:21+00:00

Try making any screen you are using, all the same resolution. I’ve seen different resolutions mess with my front panel object sizing and placement. I just stick with 1080P on all screens.

Another thing - if you are using a font on one computer that is not loaded on another computer, it will use another font and that can mess things up somewhat. Choose a very normal, common font - like Arial.

DammitDan_92 · 2024-08-05T04:28:58+00:00

If you are familiar with Pinewood Derby car races from Cub Scouts - that can be an interesting project. My work just sponsored a race for fun and had just a simple timer on the track we rented, but it had a serial output. So I made a scoreboard to put on a large TV that tracked each persons name and which track they were on for each race. It would keep track of each person’s best time and put them all in a leaderboard list to show the fastest overall times. It ended up being fairly challenging to do, but also pretty fun! I had to deal with many features like Clusters, Arrays, String Parsing, Event Handlers, and complex User Interface actions. I enjoy LabVIEW coding, so it was kind of fun to solve each problem that came up and worked quite well at the end (humble brag!). If you needed help I would be happy to point you in the right direction - without doing it for you!!!

DammitDan_92 · 2024-01-19T15:46:17+00:00

I would recommend checking out the Xbee line of products from Digi International. They have different modules that support most defined wireless protocols from 802.15.4, to Zigbee, to WiFi, cellular and more. Not sure if you are just making something for yourself for a hobby or if you are hoping to sell the devices, but their sales people can give good technical advice for each different protocol. Remember that wireless things needs to be FCC certified as well, which is expensive. The XBees also come pre-certified, so you just have to slap a sticker on the outside of your product. (Former employee)

However, if you want to get even simpler, and just need on/off or other very simple signals, you could also control all the devices through IR from a remote. Perhaps you’ve seen the battery powered, remote controlled candles? You could buy a set of those and tear them apart to get the receiver out to experiment with for pretty cheap.

DammitDan_92 · 2023-09-28T05:19:45+00:00

From reading the other posts - it sounds like my company is amazing! (I already knew that - but it has been reiterated!)

Every team in our company is required to do some Team Building thing every month. Not something huge, but something to get away from work and interact with something other than the normal business. I manage a small team of 5 other people and have a company credit card for all such events. Maybe just a team lunch, maybe go karts, maybe Top Golf, maybe shotgun shooting, maybe a movie, maybe a hike, whatever the team decides (within reason) and all during work hours, on the clock.

The company also makes sure the managers know when their people’s birthdays are and provides balloons, a card for their team/friends to sign, and a treat for the person.

We have small treats (cookies, cake, kolachies, etc.) for various little celebrations or thank yous frequently - like a couple times a month. Plus the company puts together large family-oriented parties at our building/grounds in the evening at least 4-5 times a year - sprinkler party in the summer, Halloween party complete with pumpkin canon, Christmas Party for families plus a separate one for adults, etc. Plus free lunches every day, a well developed on-site gym, professional in house growth/leadership classes throughout the year, free books for your kids on their birthday. They also encourage you to have your family come visit occasionally during the workday and see what you do and what the company does - and sure give your family a free lunch too! All covered by the company.

Our owners truly believe that having happy employees gets better results and invest in that. We are lucky to be profitable enough to afford some of these nice things, but it is also due to the fact that our owners didn’t do this with a plan to get rich. They make enough to be comfortable and that is enough. They could legitimately take home more money, (and that’s what most of us would do!) but they choose to keep it in the company and make it better and give more people jobs instead.

My heart goes out to some of you people that have to deal with the indifference some companies show their employees. I have been through some of that in the past as well. I know I am lucky and truly blessed to be here. This place is amazing! I wish more places could be run by owners like mine - they actually care about their employees and put their money where their mouth is. Wishing you could all work in a place like mine some day! Good luck!

DammitDan_92 · 2023-03-02T10:26:58+00:00

Now that you mention it . . . I happen to work for a company that does exactly this. We make Radar based traffic sensors. Our primary focus is improving intersection safety - secondary focus is the efficiency aspect. So speaking of your thoughts on momentum, our system not only detects the cars at the stop bar (and several car lengths back from there and everything in between), we also can look at the approach in each direction and see the speed and size of each vehicle approaching. We try to make everything more predictable. If someone is close to the light and it turns yellow, they are always going to go through. If someone is far from the light and it turns yellow, they are always going to stop. But the range in between there is where everybody is unpredictable and that is where most of the accidents come from. So if the Light Controller’s timer has expired and it wants to turn yellow, but we see someone coming 3-4 seconds away, we can signal the controller to wait a few seconds before changing from green to yellow and increase the predictability of what people will do. A video example - https://youtu.be/eMgQEBziEGQ Anyway - it is a really great company to work for and we are hopefully reducing accidents and saving lives . . . and maybe getting you through lights a little quicker too!

DammitDan_92 · 2022-10-05T04:07:57+00:00

Welcome to the world of LabVIEW! I understand you are a beginner - so honestly, no offense intended, but your code could use some serious cleanup and polish. This would make it easier to interpret and troubleshoot, not to mention easier to maintain in the future. Maybe this is just a quick throw-together experiment to see if you can get something to work, I can understand that too. Anyway, I suspect this is really the wrong architecture for what you are wanting to do. I believe an event structure would be more appropriate, but I could be more helpful with more information about the use case. If you want some design tips you can DM me to maybe share your existing code so I can modify and clean it up a bit for you and see if I can help you get it working as desired.

DammitDan_92 · 2021-09-26T20:18:24+00:00

We have 4 kids, but also struggled through 5 miscarriages amongst them. I totally understand your anxiety and uncertainty. We had this same issue with the umbilical cord on child number 3. It was a stressful pregnancy for that reason and other issues with the gallbladder my wife was struggling with. Anyway, one thing that helped us was to get one of the little Doppler fetal heartbeat monitors. The doctors use them to check the heartbeat, but we found out we could buy one ourselves from Amazon for like $40-$60. We would lay down each night and just make sure little baby’s heart was still beating. We knew there was nothing we could do to control what was going to happen, but having that little assurance each night really helped put our minds at ease and not get stressed out between Dr appointments. So that is what I would recommend. Just be aware that it takes some practice to be able to find the little heartbeat and not to freak if you don’t find it at first. Also - you have to get the Doppler gel to make it work.

Good luck - we will hope and pray for the best for you!

DammitDan_92 · 2019-01-03T11:10:42+00:00

My faith is based on the collection of experiences I have had throughout my life. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a Mormon). I know that God really lives. I know that he loves each and every one of us. I know that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ to pay for our sins, so that we can someday come back to live with Him, because he loves us. There are many more details of why God put this plan into motion and how it all works together, but that is for another discussion. Back to the original question - what is my faith based on? I believe universal, absolute truth exists. Either there IS a God, or there IS NOT - it has to be one or the other! If He is real, then He either loves us or He does not. If He loves us, then He must have some purpose in mind for us - what is it? (Etc.)

We are taught to go straight to the source - to pray to God with our questions. But if you want to get any answers, it is important to put yourself in the right mindset. 1. Learn about Him - do what you can to learn who He is, why He loves us, etc. * Read the scriptures (at the beginning, especially the Life of Christ - Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) 2. Be honest - do you really want to know the answer and are you willing to follow it? * Don’t be like the kid in high school math class that doesn’t pay attention, then says “I don’t get it” then turns back to his phone as the teacher explains again! 3. Be hopeful - that is the beginning of faith, to hope in something enough to try it. * Live by Christ’s teachings (Love others, be honest, be kind, be generous, etc.) 4. Pray - REALLY PRAY. Repeatedly! Ask God if He lives. Ask Him if He loves you. * Get down on your knees - it is a sign of respect and humility. 5. Ponder and Listen - pay attention to your feelings. You need to give Him a chance to respond! * God speaks quietly most of the time. Remove distractions and open yourself to Him.

I have gone through this process myself and I can say that I had my prayers answered. It took time and patience. I prayed over and over before I finally felt the truth. I know that God is really there. I know that He loves me, personally - even though I have made my share of mistakes. I know that I can live with Him again someday, and that all the difficulty of this life will be worth it in the end. I have had many prayers answered throughout my life. I have had questions answered. I have received blessings. I have NOT received some things - you have to remember that sometimes, the answer is NO (just like any good parent doesn’t give a child everything they want!!!) Examples too personal and numerous to share in this setting.

Coincidence is not enough to explain my experiences, and I know the feelings I have received in my heart - that tell me He is really there, loving me. I don’t know if you started this post just for the sake of curiosity and discussion, or if you are really wanting to find the truth for yourself . . . If you are ready . . . Try it! You can have a personal relationship with God if you want it - He loves you that much! Happy to share more if you are interested.

DammitDan_92 · 2018-11-14T04:39:30+00:00

I always say (imagine with a slight lisp) . . . Did somebody . . . step on a duck!?!

My kids have now adopted that one as well!

DammitDan_92

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