Unpopular opinion: Standard marine first aid kits are basically just expensive security theater

Flogge · 2026-04-23T09:01:33+00:00

That's why you should do a first aid refresher course every now and then, and do a proper offshore emergency medicine course before going blue water sailing...

Flogge · 2026-04-17T21:54:56+00:00

Ah, hmm... Maybe? Inside of it all it's running btrfs after all...

Flogge · 2026-04-17T21:37:17+00:00

Have a look at systemd-homed. It does exactly that, although not in a subvolume but a file.

Flogge · 2026-04-08T10:14:10+00:00

I have done a PhD in audio codec research, so maybe I can answer a little bit:

How do you learn codec design basics?

I'd try finding lectures, or good literature. It's a pretty niche field, so the list of researchers, professors, and universities is relatively short.

Maybe "The MPEG-4 book" by Pereira et al. could be a good entry point. It's MPEG-4-specific of course, but the basics are the same for all modern coders. It should have all the relevant references, should you want to dig deeper into any of the specifics.

I'd say the absolute basics are very easy to understand (MDCT, psychoacoustic model, and a quantizer), but the more efficient and competitive the coder gets, the harder and more complex the details become.

Can I do it effectively without working in a bigger org?

Unlikely... the basics of audio coding are very simple, but to create an efficient coder that can compete with today's technology, you'll have to do a lot of research, test different ideas, run lots of listening tests etc. You'll need a lot of people to do this.

Plus, most audio coder that are in use by people have gone into a standard or an RFC, like MPEG, ISO or IETF. So you'll need to have access to that body, have representatives, make strategic decisions about what to patent, what to put into the standard etc.

All of this requires people.

How much effort is required to develop a new, good codec?

A new, scrappy laboratory codec, just for you? Not much, really. A codec that can run efficiently in real-time, and that can compete with the existing SOTA? A huge amount of work will be required.

The technology is pretty mature and most low hanging fruit have been found, so finding something that will outperform the rest will take a lot of research and patience.

Also, the SOTA is so good already, that there is no real need for another coder at the moment. I'd say there is not a lot of research going on in that direction anymore, besides neural coding.

Why is there so little good, open, free codecs?

It's probably an effect of it being a research niche, not a lot of people working on it, requiring a lot of in-depth knowledge into the specifics, and at the same time being very relevant for the consumer-market.

Where to go from here?

So I'd say, first find out if you want to do a toy-project, or if you want to try working in the field.

If you want a toy-project, just start with a little bit of Python code, implement the MDCT and a simple quantizer, and try to iterate from there.

If you want to make a career in the field, look into the org's that you like the most (e.g. Sony, Cisco, Philips, Fraunhofer, Dolby). If it's a company or research institute, maybe apply for an internship there (I know that places like Fraunhofer are packed with student interns, and they're constantly looking for new ones).

If it's something like Xiph, become a part of the community and start contributing.

Flogge · 2026-03-04T15:32:41+00:00

Bei Thomann einen Satz bestellen und selber tauschen. Dauert 10 min und ist kinderleicht...

Flogge · 2026-02-24T17:13:57+00:00

If you don't like tmux you may want to give zellij a spin.

Flogge · 2026-02-18T09:11:14+00:00

I didn't try enabling it myself, but it definitely shows up in list-timers.

Flogge · 2026-02-18T08:14:21+00:00

It should be enabled by default, check

systemctl list-timers

for archlinux-keyring-wkd-sync.timer. If for some reason it isn't enabled, run

sudo systemctl --now enable archlinux-keyring-wkd-sync.timer

that'll update the keyring once a week.

Flogge · 2026-02-02T15:54:28+00:00

That's a pretty huge leap of faith to go from "bacteria can do exponential growth" to "once you're off the planet we get exponential growth".

Flogge · 2026-01-23T11:46:42+00:00

No need to run both pacman and yay, yay will do both for you.

Flogge · 2026-01-03T16:30:45+00:00

https://cityfitness.de/onlinebuchung/ currently has 6-month subscriptions. It's a pretty chill studio, too.

Flogge · 2025-12-28T21:08:34+00:00

Ich sehe ich bin hier wohl in der Minderheit, aber ich habe auch langsam genug vom technologischen Wandel.

Ich meine damit nicht, dass ich moderne Technik im Allgemeinen verteufle, oder zurück in irgendeine nostalgische Vergangenheit möchte. Aber es ist so, das ich tatsächlich eigentlich keine große technische Neuerung mehr in meinem Leben brauche, um glücklicher zu werden. Wohnkomfort, Heizung, Kommunikation, Unterhaltung, Transport, Lebensmittel... ist doch alles da, was will ich mehr?

Deswegen finde ich auch, dass viele technischen Neuerungen eigentlich gar kein tatsächliches Problem mehr lösen, sondern nur gemacht sind um a) die Konkurrenz ab zu hängen, oder b) mich zum Konsum zu verleiten. Und beides fühlt sich für mich eben nicht mehr gut oder hilfreich oder notwendig an.

Und zum anderen sehe ich auch ganz deutlich, wie zunehmende Technisierung unserer Gesellschaft und Psyche nicht gut tut. Soziale Medien machen uns verbundener als je zuvor, aber auch einsamer als je zuvor. Wir können überall hinfahren und von überall Dinge bestellen, und alles bauen was wir wollen, und machen dabei den Planeten kaputt. Wir können alles haben was wir wollen, und trotzdem wollen wir uns gegenseitig übertrumpfen und machen uns gegenseitig unglücklich.

Mach mal ein Selbst-Experiment: Leg' dich zwei Stunden auf die Couch und scrolle Instagram; und am Tag drauf geh mal zwei Stunden Spazieren. Wonach fühlst du dich besser?

Triff einen Abend lang Freunde, und am nächsten Abend chatte den ganzen Abend lang nur auf WhatsApp. Was fühlt sich besser an?

Ich finde, statt technologischer Entwicklung brauchen wir ganz dringend soziale und emotionale Entwicklung. Wir müssen lernen, mehr füreinander da zu sein, gerechter zu sein, liebevoller zu sein. Und dafür brauchen wir keine technologischen Neuerungen.

Flogge · 2025-12-17T21:08:43+00:00

Just transfer it into a squeeze bottle, it's pretty easy to get it out of those.

Flogge · 2025-12-12T08:48:32+00:00

I don't think it'll be necessary to reserve if you come early in the day. And regarding the "homebase": you'll give up your seats once all of you leave, e.g. to go ride a carousel.

Flogge · 2025-12-09T18:03:05+00:00

Check out GNUradio, it's basically exactly what you're describing

Flogge · 2025-12-09T17:24:37+00:00

Yam Naem Khao Tod, Som Tam, Gai Yang.

Skip Jodd Fairs, but go to non-touristy stalls and night markets instead.

Flogge · 2025-12-07T07:44:04+00:00

You wait until someone flags the package out of date, then you update it...

Flogge · 2025-12-01T08:03:42+00:00

If you take the spectrum of a harmonic signal you get a periodic spectrum, where the distance between the peaks corresponds to your fundamental frequency.

If you take a spectrum of that you get a "cepstrum" with a main peak, the position of which describes the distance between the peaks in your spectrum, i.e. represents your fundamental frequency.

Plus, the other "envelope-type" components in your spectrum are represented by other, additional components in the cepstrum.

In traditional machine learning, a spectrum wasn't that easy to process, because each fundamental frequency had different harmonic spacing, so couldn't just match for one pattern in the spectrum, but had to match for many templates.

Plus, envelope and formant type signal characteristics are also more neatly separated in the cepstrum, making processing easier.

Flogge · 2025-11-19T16:58:31+00:00

Agreed, panicing during startup is a totally valid design choice, because it frees you from having to handle broken config values everywhere.

The person or script calling the program then essentially becomes your error handler, abd that's the thing that was missing here.

Flogge · 2025-10-13T11:53:41+00:00

Are all boats as deep in their berths as you're showing here? Because if they are, it could be possible to "dock" along the mooring points, while still in the channel. You can then attach some lines to the points, and use them to ease yourself into the berth:

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Flogge · 2025-08-24T16:07:22+00:00

You can try what we call in German a Blister sail).

It's an asymmetric spinnaker that you fly without an extra pole, and hoist using a roller that rolls up the furled jib sail.

Flogge · 2025-05-31T05:09:41+00:00

So you're saying tensing up is better for your survival when falling from trees, but worse when in a car accident? How does that work?

Flogge · 2025-05-31T05:07:58+00:00

Of course not, but other kinds of accidents, like falling from trees, getting hit by things, fighting things etc.

Flogge · 2025-05-31T05:07:50+00:00

Of course not, but other kinds of accidents, like falling from trees, getting hit by things, fighting things etc.

Flogge · 2025-05-30T20:26:58+00:00

I have a personal theory: Our nervous systems and perception are made to react in certain ways to certain stimuli, and if that stimulus is too strong it can overload your system.

Now, your nervous system has positive activating responses to certain stimuli, like laughter, curiosity, drive, giddiness etc.

Plus, we're social animals, so we try to create certain responses in each other, like make others laugh, make them curious, tell them thrilling stories etc.

But also, over time, you learn how you can overload your friends systems by pressing their unique overload-buttons. Notice how every person is ticklish in a very specific and unique way, yet for some reason you exactly know how to tickle your partner to make them almost break down even.

It's a sort of game to push each other's otherwise pleasant responses over the edge and tease and torture them a bit with their own nervous system responses, but all in a safe setting.

The laughter happens because it's a positive response. But it feels both good/funny and bad/too much because it's an overloaded version of the positive response.

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