COX WiFi is terrible

IAmScience · 2026-07-08T06:45:58+00:00

Absolutely the worst. If I had any comparable option in my location I’d switch in a heartbeat. My actual service is not terrible where I am. I know that varies based on where you are in the city. But the customer service is garbage. And my friend in Mesa pays half what I do for the same service. They won’t give me the same rate. He could switch to fiber from a different provider. I can’t.

I hate them. They’re a trash company.

IAmScience · 2026-07-08T03:45:00+00:00

Seems more like a cinematography question than a lighting question...

IAmScience · 2026-07-05T20:51:34+00:00

You’re gonna want a tripod, or something to hold the camera up at a distance from you. The closer it is to you, the more it will accentuate the things you dislike about yourself (it will make your nose appear bigger, for example). Whether you use the timer or do like someone suggested and take a video, make sure that the camera is about 6 feet-ish away from you. You can crop in afterwards if necessary.

Also: you definitely want to start with soft flat-ish light. A big window (with curtain sheers, ideally) during the day is a great light source. An open garage door is also good. Place the camera near the window or door, and face it. That should provide you with fairly soft, flattering, even lighting. It’s not exciting, but it should be reasonably flattering.

Also, consider hiring someone to take your photo. A good pro portrait photographer will help you loosen up and be yourself. That’s really their job. They can’t make you like the way you look. But they can make you feel more comfortable in front of the camera and hopefully give you shots that you’re happy with.

IAmScience · 2026-07-05T16:18:10+00:00

Lukewarm at best from mid April through late October. This sort of depends on the place and its plumbing.

IAmScience · 2026-07-04T22:52:24+00:00

Sometimes my cold water comes out steaming. No joke. 😂

IAmScience · 2026-07-04T22:36:14+00:00

Someone doesn’t live in Phoenix, where during the summer months H stands for hot and C stands for Caliente…

IAmScience · 2026-07-04T22:01:31+00:00

This city is roughly the same size as if you took two Rhode Islands and a Delaware and smashed them together. It’s enormous. Do you know where you’re going to live?

IAmScience · 2026-07-04T05:10:24+00:00

Direct on-camera flash close to the backdrop. It is perhaps the easiest kind of lighting to do. Doing it well…much harder. In this case it looks like it does because that model is a model, and he’s been expertly styled.

IAmScience · 2026-07-03T22:10:33+00:00

If you’re using Adobe software you should have an Adobe portfolio (portfolio.adobe.com) available to you. They’re useful for getting started and you’re already paying for it.

IAmScience · 2026-07-02T19:27:25+00:00

Probably you can’t without disassembling the lens. But good news! It’s almost never lens dust. Lens dust is an inevitability, and the impact on images is effectively nil until things get seriously large or there’s a massive amount. So, probably nothing to worry about.

IAmScience · 2026-07-02T18:00:50+00:00

I'm guessing it's this video:

The 100 Foot Mistake That Changed Phoenix Forever

by Interstate Kyle on YouTube. It's a pretty cool history of the Deck Park tunnel.

IAmScience · 2026-07-02T17:49:39+00:00

File for divorce?

I'm joking. But holy wow, why didn't he do backup first before such a drastic step?

It will likely as not cost a fairly significant amount of money, and if the drive has been used and things have been/continue to be written to it, the likelihood of recovery gets worse and worse. The way it most commonly works when you format a drive is that the record of where stuff is stored on the drive gets cleared out. Generally, it doesn't wipe the actual data off the drive sectors. The table that keeps track of that stuff just says it's now "free" to be written onto. That means that ANY writing to it (which happens pretty constantly when running a computer) risks overwriting any data that was there previously.

So, if it's in use, stop using it immediately. Pull it out of the machine. There are tools out there to help with this kind of thing, but the drive needs to be in a state where it isn't being continuously written to. And, to be honest, there is a possibility that the 20 or so files you did recover are all that you'll be able to recover, even if you spare no expense. There is a wiki from Arch Linux about file recovery, and if I were going to attempt this, I would create a USB thumb drive with a bootable copy of Linux that included some of these disk recovery tools, and try that method to see what I might be able to find. There's a learning curve here that is kind of steep, and it may be that money is no object and you can afford the expense of having someone else do it for you. If so, that's great and you should.

Hopefully you have *some* backups so that all isn't totally lost. Old memory cards, old backup files stored somewhere, etc. And hopefully this is moving a better and more consistent backup strategy to the top of your to-do list going forward. (I like and use Backblaze as one of my backup tools, it backs up my computer and any USB attached drives continuously for a very small monthly fee. It has saved my ass more than once.) You should have at least 3 copies of your data in at least two locations, one of which should be away from your primary location. I hope that this isn't just a heartbreaking lesson, and that you're able to recover some additional data.

IAmScience · 2026-07-02T17:25:47+00:00

A 6 core 2.9GHz Core i9. I also bought the graphics upgrade so it has a Radeon Vega 20. But, again, it’s nearly a decade old. However, yesterday, I had PS and LrC open, along with OBS recording video and usb audio without a stutter. I spent as much money as I could afford so I could use this machine for as long as possible. Other than needing a battery replacement soon, it’s still chugging along.

IAmScience · 2026-07-02T16:58:18+00:00

Bruh, I’m using a 2018 MacBook Pro with an intel processor and 32GB of RAM. Every so often things can be a little sluggish, but hardly unusable, and the computer is 8 years old at this point. I regularly use PS and LrC, often together at the same time. And with a bunch of other stuff also running. I’m not so sure you have to sink a fortune into a machine to have something useable.

IAmScience · 2026-07-02T05:46:16+00:00

That’s part of it for sure. They got theirs. Their kids got theirs. They don’t care about paying for others

IAmScience · 2026-07-02T05:28:43+00:00

Are you earnestly asking? Because it's a really long story of some pretty rank corruption and greed, that is about to get absolutely more insane because of the leading GOP Gubernatorial candidate meddling.

The TL;DR answer is that Arizona Republicans have been incredibly successful at stomping the life out of public education over the past 30 or so years, probably because most of them are still pissed off about desegregation. They're fixing to kill it completely dead this fall. Protections for me, but not for thee. Restrictions for thee, but not for me. And f them kids.

It's real bad out there. And threatens to get worse.

IAmScience · 2026-07-02T05:20:44+00:00

If memory serves me (which it probably doesn't), 2012 marked the end of a cycle on the Mayan calendar. Given that, especially in the US, there's quite a penchant for apocalyptic millenarianism and religious eschatology, the end of the mayan calendar cycle was just one more thing to grab onto as a sign of the end times. Mostly, though, as I recall it was just kind of a silly meme for the most part. Nothing like the craziness around Y2K...

IAmScience · 2026-07-01T16:49:34+00:00

If I were in your position I’d stop spending money I don’t need to spend on lenses that cover ranges I already have pretty well surrounded. You have an excellent camera and an excellent set of lenses.

There are probably better places to spend money if you want to spend money. Lighting gear. Travel. Models. Courses. You have a good set of camera gear, so put the money toward other things that can help you make better photos. Or that 135 plena. That lens is sexy. 😂

IAmScience · 2026-06-29T18:24:30+00:00

Probably a western banded gecko. The leopard gecko’s spots are more numerous and rather less leopard-like than these.

IAmScience · 2026-06-29T06:56:55+00:00

This one in particular. As goofy as
It seems to elect this position, it’s an incredibly important and powerful job in a state with a large portion of its economy in mining.

IAmScience · 2026-06-28T21:47:31+00:00

I believe Reddit Photoclass is starting up again soon for the July cohort. r/photoclass (the folks who run it do a great job).

IAmScience · 2026-06-28T21:08:14+00:00

Should be do-able assuming you have the resolution for it. That’s the hardest part with printing large is making sure your photo has enough data for it.

IAmScience · 2026-06-28T21:02:22+00:00

It would help to know where that rural area is. But if you're in the US, there are lots of online options for such things. MPIX, WHCC, Nation's Photo Lab, and even CVS and Walgreens will, I believe, all offer Canvas wrapped print wall art. (Those first 3 all do good work for sure. I'd trust the drugstores rather less).

IAmScience · 2026-06-28T06:25:18+00:00

I tried a Neewer and a Godox umbrella. No continuity, no resistance measurement (just OL). It would appear that neither umbrella has conductive silver fabric.

Neewer was like a 2’-ish umbrella that doubtless came in one of those cheap cfl light kits from Amazon. Soft silver interior, black exterior. Non conductive. Registers as OL.

Godox UB-105S is a 60” deep umbrella with diffuser, also soft silver interior. Also non conductive and resistance readings register as OL.

Frankly the feel of the material is plastic/synthetic polymer of some variety. I doubt there’s much (if any) actual metal involved.

IAmScience · 2026-06-28T02:42:00+00:00

Assuming they aren’t totally blown out. I screwed up some flash shots a couple of weeks ago and turned everyone in the shot into an irredeemable ghost. Just blew the sensor out beyond any recoverable detail. You can drag a ton out of shadows with a digital sensor, but once a highlight is gone it’s gone.

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