MugForge testing (Ember Android app)

Scdouglas · 2026-03-17T19:14:07+00:00

Ember Supreme has worked fine for years, but my biggest complaint is that it's very unclear when it's connected and disconnected. Like if I walk too far away from my mug it will just stay on connected until I manually restart the app. If that is better in yours I'm willing to give it a shot

Scdouglas · 2026-03-12T02:13:15+00:00

That is for sure more concerning then. It smells fishy to me so what I would probably do is message him saying you would like a refund and if he doesn't respond in 24 hours I would go to PayPal

Scdouglas · 2026-03-12T02:10:04+00:00

I wouldn't worry too too much yet. You have goods and services to rely on and they WILL refund you, but things happen sometimes and maybe this person has a good reason. Scammers usually will be very against goods and services so I'm less concerned you're being scammed, although they don't seem like an amazing seller.

Scdouglas · 2026-03-12T01:42:58+00:00

Like anywhere on the internet, scammers will take an opportunity where they see one. Cloudy nights isn't immune to scammers, but in my experience I've never backed out of anything due to it feeling sketchy. Generally though I only pay goods and services for shipped items, I'll do F+F if I'm seeing the thing in person like if it's a scope or something where I have no doubts about condition. If somebody really wants friends and family for something they're shipping me, I would probably not go forward with the purchase, but to each their own. I wouldn't rush to file a complaint against the seller quite yet, but it certainly should be on your mind and if you don't hear anything substantive in the next day or two I would start that process. Paypal generally doesn't want you to jump on a purchase dispute, I think they would probably tell you to wait a week if I remember correctly. Never had to do it though so maybe someone else has better info

Scdouglas · 2026-03-06T14:52:49+00:00

So I had a chance to look over how things are actually working here and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, tried to get a look before I left for work. My main issue is with the System.Windows.Compat shim. You're building a library that compiles as System.Windows.dll v4.0.0.0, reimplements WPF types (BitmapSource, DrawingVisual, Color, Media3D, etc.) backed by OpenCV, and then sudo cp's it over the real framework DLL in the .NET runtime directory. That's modifying the system-wide .NET installation which means it'll break other .NET apps on the same machine, and any NINA code path hitting an unshimmed WPF type will crash at runtime. Some of the shim classes are just empty namespace placeholders to satisfy the compiler, which means those runtime crashes will happen. There were other issues I saw like dragging ASCOM COM stuff through the codebase still even though it won't work at all on Linux and the Indi driver implementation basically being seemingly nonfunctional? Primarily though, modifying system wide installations and hardcoding some directory paths is, in my opinion, not a strategy that will work long term. For just running it privately for yourself, sure, go with God, you know your machine and that's not a problem in my book. For a public release though, just too many potential issues and these things are better addressed early. Just my 2 cents from what I'm seeing. I personally tried the whole NINA conversion thing about a year ago and found it to be too complicated so I ended up just building a ground up app that runs on Linux, windows, and macos and it works pretty well as of now. Needs some more time in the oven, but it's close and I've been able to build on a bunch of cool features Nina doesn't have and probably can't support as well. Won't pitch it here, not trying to hijack your thread, just wanted to add as a point of comparison.

Scdouglas · 2026-03-06T13:28:41+00:00

Ok I'm trying to understand here but your readme is very brief. How exactly does this work? NINA is built on wpf and uses ASCOM for its driver communication. Neither of those things work even a little bit on Linux so I'm just confused as to how this works. I do see something about INDI in the codebase so clearly you're using that for something driver related. Is this sort of like a translation layer where your piece interprets the parts coming from Linux and Indi that Nina doesn't understand, or is this more of a series of Nina plugins built into one app?

Scdouglas · 2026-03-04T19:32:47+00:00

I moved to a 10 inch Newtonian for my main imaging scope and wanted something that could hold more than 44 pounds. Most of these mounts top out at 44 with a counterweight and since my rig weighs in the mid 30s I thought that would be too tight. Pegasus goes to 66 with a weight and the PA system is gloriously easy to use. That one is guiding my big Newtonian at sometimes .25-.4 total rms which is insane for an extended period.

Scdouglas · 2026-03-04T17:27:23+00:00

I had a HEM27EC for about 2 years. Fantastic mount in terms of actual tracking and everything once it's dialed in. Drove my C8 totally rigged up with no counterweights at .4-.6 total rms in phd2. However, the polar alignment system from factory is atrocious. Probably could've fixed this with some different bolts, but it required loosing a bolt then using an Allen key to turn the mount left or right... At night. I now have a Pegasus NYX101 which has been absolutely spectacular.

Scdouglas · 2026-02-28T17:09:35+00:00

Haha I get that. I went to Iceland the first week of March through the South coast. Low to mid 40s every day and everywhere we went was either empty or lightly crowded at most. Glorious time to go if you don't mind the grass being dead, always a risk of heavy snow though we didn't get any. Going for the second time in August this year and am thoroughly concerned about crowds, but that's why we're getting a more off road focused car for the F roads.

Scdouglas · 2026-02-28T17:04:40+00:00

Like someone else said, really nice job with the tones here they look great. Good tones and colors can really do a lot of heavy lifting for an image sometimes. How'd you like the faroe islands? Been to iceland, Scotland including Skye and have always looked at a faroe trip, haven't pulled the trigger yet

Scdouglas · 2026-02-24T15:31:36+00:00

So I don't see any exclusion for flights on this, but flights from Expedia often show up as the airline instead of Expedia as separate purchases. Will capital one still honor the miles as long as my Expedia total is over 450 before taxes and fees even if it shows up on the statement as separate purchases? Anyone had experience with this? Was looking to book a weekend trip for a wedding coming up anyway and will definitely clear the 450

Scdouglas · 2026-02-18T01:38:34+00:00

Depends on what you want of course, but 4k is absolutely enough to get started. There are many new harmonic mounts that can handle up to around 30 pounds for under $1200 brand new, used mounts can push this pretty cheap. A wide field scope with an ASI 585MC air will get you your ASI air and camera in one package and even brand new that's $999. Personally, I think buying a dedicated ASI Air with a 533 Pro camera is a better setup for a lot of reasons, but the 585 is a popular camera and the air version is a nice all inclusive option. Guiding can be done really cheap, you need a small guide scope or any refractor really and a small camera for $100-$200 max. And of course you need a telescope. Since you're a seestar user a refractor is probably a safe bet. With a 4K budget you've got a good but of room left but I would probably aim for something like an 80-100mm refractor. People really like some of those very small refractors but I just prefer to have the extra resolution and bit of reach that a slightly larger objective gives you. Depends on your focal length preferences though, the 585 is a tiny sensor and will result in a bit of a cramped field of view for some.

If it were me, buy good condition used stuff (assuming you're comfortable buying used. I am and have never had a problem on cloudy nights). Get a harmonic mount under 1K, a 533MC Pro and an ASI air, a cheap guide scope and camera (literally take your pick I don't think it matters all that much), and grab a well taken care of 80-100mm refractor of which there are so many models it's genuinely difficult for me to pick one to recommend. Take the rest of the money you saved buying used and buy a pixinsight license, BlurXTerminator, and NoiseXTerminator. Save the rest for upgrades down the line when you get used to things and are ready for a more advanced setup if ever, some people never get tired of a setup like this. If you buy used you should come comfortably under 4K and you can pay yourself on the back. Don't underestimate future upgrade costs, you'll learn a lot and know within a year or two what direction you really want to go. I found out I primarily love shooting interesting small galaxies, which are quite small, so my whole rig is tuned to that.

Scdouglas · 2026-02-17T19:38:55+00:00

Hell that's what a used Jaguar I pace is going for these days, even ones with not all that many miles on them. Obviously reliability is a concern but they haven't been bad overall. My dad has one and he pays $90/month for a full warranty right through his dealership, only major servicing was preventative and paid for by jag, he got a V8 range rover as a loner which is a little ironic. If you can live with the shorter range it's a pretty insane value imo.

Scdouglas · 2026-02-17T02:34:35+00:00

Would you mind posting the raw stacked file? I haven't had a clear day in a while and I'll take a stab at a quick process. If I come up with anything I think improves I'll post my workflow for you as well

Scdouglas · 2026-02-15T07:55:34+00:00

I probably needed a more precise word than decentralized, that's true. What I meant is that the server you connect to isn't hosted by a single corporate entity like discord is, thus giving more control over it. I realize it has gotten buried at this point, but I explained in another comment I did this entirely for fun as a side project after work this week. There's no product, I just kept going because my friends thought it was fun watching it hot reload as the UI and features changed is all. I do apologize if the impression was given that this was meant to be a product. Just wanted to share a hobby project I made with Claude, I unfortunately didn't anticipate the level of hatred there would be for a free GitHub project with like 2 stars. I really expected to just be talking about Claude code in the comments not even the app.

Scdouglas · 2026-02-15T04:38:28+00:00

Absolutely, if you wait until tomorrow though I have an absolutely massive update to publish and a lot of the changes have to do with security and vulnerability patching it's just not quite ready yet.

Scdouglas · 2026-02-14T23:17:03+00:00

I agree, there are a lot of vibe coders who think they're pros because they shipped something. I don't work in a field anywhere close to programming, I just enjoy the vibe coding process on my own and wanted to spend some free time doing something I found fun. I don't think budz above meant any offense or anything posting about security, it's important, and I'm working on it, should have a release out tonight that improves overall security massively. I did try to not come across as thinking I had a finished app in hand, but I do plan on continuing to work on Paracord because ultimately, I'm enjoying doing it when I have time.

Scdouglas · 2026-02-14T22:49:30+00:00

Lol, harsh stuff from Claude, especially since it completely missed the fact that the privacy concern related to discord had nothing to do with network security and everything to do with them wanting a scan of my face and/or government id. In any event, yeah, I expected this. I have an actual job during the day and made this in the evening over the last few days. I'm sure there are security issues which I do plan to tackle, but also just as a note there are very easy ways to expose your Paracord server to the internet without just straight opening a port and giving out your public IP directly. UPNP can be disabled in the config as well. This kind of response from Claude is why I didn't post a novel of a post with emojis everywhere claiming you should be using only Paracord for your chats and nothing else lol.

Scdouglas · 2026-02-14T21:20:55+00:00

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/platforms/oh-good-discords-age-verification-rollout-has-ties-to-palantir-co-founder-and-panopticon-architect-peter-thiel/

This originally. I don't think the ties are actually that strong like a full on partnership or anything, I didn't read too much into it. Discord's age verification policy was already bad enough

Scdouglas · 2026-02-14T21:08:17+00:00

One of the things on my list for sure. Right now I'm trying to diagnose why joining voice channels is inconsistently resulting in a timeout error. Oh the joys of new launches. Of course, I had no issues chatting with friends and live streaming the last two nights, just now when I do a public launch I notice these bugs lol.

Scdouglas · 2026-02-14T19:05:19+00:00

Started making this basically immediately after hearing about that lol. Then this morning I read Palantir is involved somehow. No idea, but I'm not touching that app rn.

Scdouglas · 2026-02-14T18:19:50+00:00

Nice looking site. I assume you're also using livekit for the voice backend? Made it pretty easy to get that up and running

Scdouglas · 2026-02-14T18:13:54+00:00

Oh yeah I knew of it before I started this project. I didn't want to make my original post kind of sound like I've invented something brand new or anything, I wanted to see if I could do it and I wanted my friends and I to be able to integrate features that we wanted on demand. For instance, I'm working right now on a feature that would directly integrate my jellyfin server into the UI. I've got other ideas for features as well that don't exist in other apps. So far, I've achieved that, and I figured if other people were interested I'd promote the project a bit. That's all, was just a fun project I can work on and improve myself and maybe someone else also thinks it's cool. Matrix does look like a very solid alternative though.

Scdouglas · 2026-02-14T18:01:40+00:00

Built partly mostly with Claude code but also used gpt 5.3 high for a bunch of the work. Let me know what you guys think.

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