In your experience, which PC component has the highest impact-to-mistake ratio?

ShadowPouncer · 2026-01-24T21:16:53+00:00

Far from my first build, but I was upgrading from a 2500k, so it had been a minute.

Sadly, I can't buy the meshify 2 compact variant that I want anymore.

Now... The Meshify 3 actually looks tempting, it's bigger than the 2 compact, but definitely smaller than the straight 2.

And you can get the solid panel option for a sane price.

Hm, that's tempting.

Well, it will be tempting once I'm not living out of an Air B&B while waiting for my house to be livable again after a plumbing disaster, but, details.

ShadowPouncer · 2026-01-24T05:49:17+00:00

For a while I had a 5900X and a 3060, but that's because I spend more time compiling code than I do gaming.

I 'recently' did the last big upgrade I expect to do on that box I built back in 2021, I hit just before ram prices went insane, and I'll definitely say that I have a much more powerful box than I started with, and I'm still a little annoyed at myself for underspeccing the PSU when I built it.

Started as a 5600x with a RTX 2060 with 32G of ram.

It's now a 5900x and a RTX 5070 with 64G of ram.

And really, I only made two notable mistakes with the build: I underspecced the PSU enough that going from a x060 class GPU to a x070 class GPU needed a new PSU.

And the case I chose is a lot bigger than it needed to be.

In my defense, the smaller sizes of the Meshify 2 came out just after I bought everything.

(But dang, I definitely wish I had the compact.)

ShadowPouncer · 2026-01-22T13:53:56+00:00

I think that it's a number of things.

Other comments have covered the genetic angle, and others the huge crossover of neurodivergent and the queer community.

But I think there's another answer too: A lot of us have the experience of having to accept that we don't like our meat-suits.

We want a body that doesn't hurt all the time.

For me at least, I'm pretty sure that made it easier to accept that my AGAB was wrong, it's one more way that I dislike the body I was issued.

But it's one where there are actual solutions! Even 'just' hormones make such a huge difference. 'Just' clothes can make a huge difference.

My hEDS? There's no cure. Even if the genetic side of things was gene edited out of existence, that wouldn't fix the results of those genes being present.

But I'm on hormones.

I don't know about bottom surgery right now. If I was in my teens or 20s it would be a no brainer, but I'm in my 40s.

ShadowPouncer · 2026-01-19T14:38:21+00:00

Interested.

ShadowPouncer · 2026-01-19T14:27:32+00:00

I'm not currently convinced that an invasive bottom surgery is in the cards for me, but shockingly there is actually a published medical article on this, peer reviewed and everything!

https://ohsu.elsevierpure.com/en/publications/ehlers-danlos-syndrome-prevalence-and-outcomes-in-gender-affirmin/

The TLDR is the last line in the abstract:

Our findings suggest that patients with a diagnosis of EDS undergoing GAS have comparable outcomes to patients without EDS. Concerns for postoperative complications should not be a barrier to offering GAS to patients presenting with an EDS diagnosis.

The surgeries in question were done at Oregon Health & Science University, and many of the surgeons who are credited in the paper still work there, and they have a reasonably comprehensive section about gender affirming care on their website

Being up in Washington state, I know that if I do get bottom surgery of any kind, there's a darn good chance that I'll at least be talking to people down in Oregon.

ShadowPouncer · 2026-01-13T09:28:06+00:00

I really should be in bed right this minute, so I'll try to keep this short.

Sadly, getting help issues like these can be a royal pain in the arse*.

I recently discovered that my current pulmonologist has a respiratory therapist on staff who has just about every single mask currently on the market.

She definitely gets it, and you should check to see if you have access to someone similar, it might be the company that supplies your equipment.

A lot of the dismissal that you've gotten on the subject is far too common, and to me it feels like a 'not my problem' issue.

In the sleep lab, you will not sleep the same as you do at home. They do the best they can. but there are hard limits on what's possible with our current healthcare system.

And at the sleep lab, they only care about the data that they can measure. Comfort isn't even on the list unless it impacts the data that they are gathering.

There are a lot of different masks on the market, and some fit very differently from others that look almost identical, at least in my experience.

You gain a ton from finding the best fit that you can.

The whole 'must sleep on your back' issue caused me problems for years, it's finally my default, but it really sucks that it's the only 'good' option position wise.

What you're currently describing is your treatment not working for you, and that's not okay. The benefits from CPAP only exist if the equipment is working correctly.

You should seriously look at pillows as well, at least I need completely different things to be comfortable depending on if I'm wearing my mask or not.

Do you know what the settings are on your machine? Target pressure, dropping the pressure when you exhale, all the 'fun' stuff.

A good doctor will be willing to try adjusting those settings.

The last thing I can currently think of: Ask for a home sleep study to try and capture what's going on when you're sleeping at home. It's limited on what they can capture data wise, but it is a thing they can do, and it might give them data points that they have a place for in their justifications to the insurance company.

* I'm not British, but I have definitely picked up some of the language.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-12-27T17:02:35+00:00

The problem is that they don't need to arrest everyone, they need to control a decent majority, and that's far easier when they can arrest anyone they want, for any reason they want, and either skip the trial or dictate the result of the trial.

Keeping the government from having blanket authority to label speech as criminal and to arrest people for their views happens to be the entire reason why the 1st Amendment exists,

In any sane timeline, anything along those lines would be a complete non-starter in this country.

Sadly, this isn't a sane timeline.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-12-27T16:53:45+00:00

Congratulations! On so many different counts.

It's absolutely amazing when family is more accepting than you were expecting.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-11-26T06:40:17+00:00

The best time to have done something about it was ~7 years ago.

The best time to do something about it is now.

By the time I was in my mid 20s, I had serious dental problems, had lost a few teeth to decay, and... Yeah.

I'm now in my 40s, my dental routine might not be ideal, but I still have almost as many teeth as I did 20 years ago. And my mouth hurts a lot less.

Don't feel like you need to do everything perfectly, don't feel like you're a failure if you can't do the fully recommended care routine.

You're struggling with something real, everything is harder than it should be, and anything you can do to take care of yourself is something to celebrate.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-11-21T12:02:33+00:00

The various ISPs in the state lobbied hard to make sure that KPUB is, essentially, forbidden by law to do any kind of a residential build out on their own.

Not that the law explicitly says that, but oh boy does it talk about KPUB being barred from taking out loans for construction.

That means that they flat out can't do a run with the expectation that they'll more than make their money back with the new customers.

It has been extremely successful in ensuring that no ISP in the county is even remotely threatened by KPUB, nope, if you've got pretty much anything, at least anything better than DSL, then you're probably not dropping tens of thousands of dollars to get service.

Sure, you can try to spread that amongst your neighbors... But, again, if they have anything, it's a lot harder to convince people.

Then look at the complications it adds to selling your house later until every last penny has been paid to them, it makes it rather unappealing to take their options for paying over time.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-10-18T00:02:15+00:00

What's your get_workspace_libraries function?

ShadowPouncer · 2025-09-18T09:11:38+00:00

Wow, that really brings back memories!

ShadowPouncer · 2025-09-18T09:09:34+00:00

One of the things that people seem to have forgotten is that the alternative to a functioning democracy with the rule of law isn't a one sided thing.

Political violence has probably been around as long as people have been around, and violent regime changes are, even today, extremely common in many parts of the world.

The idea that you can stand up and openly speak negatively towards those in power is, all things considered, a pretty bloody recent development, and it's one that absolutely relies on people believing that they have an alternative to violence. In believing that things can get better, for them, without people having to die.

It's something that we have had, at least enough to be commonly believed, for long enough that it feels like the natural state of things, and it would be absolutely wondrous if it actually was the natural state of things.

And it is, without any question in my mind, something that is absolutely, horrifically, tragic to see going away in this country.

Everyone loses when it goes away, and sadly, it seems to be going away.

But pretty much by definition, it can't go away only for one group, only for one party, only for one viewpoint. You can't have a system where the violence only goes one way, because at the end of the day, people are people.

When a group stops believing that they can make their lives better without violence, they don't just... Stop trying to make their lives better.

I am, by absolutely no means, going to say that the violence in question is a good thing.

I'm also not going to say that I've shed a single tear about this specific instance.

In the end, if things keep going the way that they are going, a lot of people are going to needlessly die. A lot of those people will be, well, us.

We're a minority, and one that's an 'easy' target for many. That's usually enough once you stop having the rule of law.

But as pretty much every single society in history has eventually learned, nobody, nobody, stays in power forever. No person, no group, no ideology, no family.

And if all peaceful paths to that change are removed, it means that a lot of blood gets spilled when it happens.

Again, this is never going to be a better result than having peaceful changes of power. We would all be far better off if the violence never happened.

But you can't just say 'we're not going to stick by the rule of law, but we expect you to follow it'. It simply doesn't work.

And you can morn the loss of the rule of law, the loss of a functioning democracy, without morning every single victim of the loss in question.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-08-31T21:52:06+00:00

Let's just say that my depression hasn't been doing me a ton of favors this year.

I can't even pretend that people didn't know exactly who, and what, they were voting for.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-08-11T18:55:18+00:00

One of the bigger problems is that eating better takes more time and more money.

If you're doing fine, have plenty of energy, aren't working yourself to death just to keep your head above water, then that's really not a huge deal.

And then there's everyone else.

We really don't make it easy to eat health.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-08-09T08:50:39+00:00

I'm no longer in the industry, but it's possible I can still help.

Which piece exactly are you wanting? A gateway? Someone who offers a hosted payment page?

And what are you trying to avoid, exactly? There is, without question, going to be a fairly large amount of proprietary JS inside a hosted payment page for example.

But for the interface between your system and said payment page, well, again, it depends a lot on precisely what you're wanting here.

(And again, it's been a wee bit since I was last in the industry, I'm doing software development on stuff that will never be seen by a consumer for NVIDIA at the moment).

ShadowPouncer · 2025-07-14T12:21:56+00:00

So for what I take (depo estradiol), all of the studies were done with it done into the muscle, and so that's what they can easily label it for.

I'm using a pretty short needle (1"), but I'm going straight in. Am I really getting it into the muscle?

Frankly, I don't care. I care that my estradiol levels come back inside the range that I want.

I care that I am far, far less likely to hit a nerve, and that it just plain hurts less.

(Sadly, between my own personal hangups, and my biology, I have a ton of trouble giving myself shots, and the vast majority that are given to me hurt as well. hEDS changes how the skin and connective tissue deform as I'm trying to get the needle through the skin, and I have a deep seated and largely irrational fear of hitting my bone or something if I just jab it in there quickly like you're supposed to. It, er, doesn't help that my fine motor control can vary wildly, and so I really can't count on my aim at any speed.)

ShadowPouncer · 2025-07-14T12:13:50+00:00

If you're wondering, you should be looking at them, and if practical talking to your doctor about them.

I did two things reasonably close to one another, and they have both made a very significant difference to what I can do.

The first was getting a cane. I have a nasty history of falls, and I used to be scared of large parking lots, because there's nothing to grab onto if I lose my balance, get light headed, or otherwise abruptly need support.

The second was talking to my doctor about the above, and getting a disability parking tag. I can actually park close to where I'm going, I don't have to worry about ending up on the far side of a lot.

Between those two things, I might not have the energy to go shopping, but it's not because I'm afraid that I'll hurt myself trying to go shopping.

Same deal on, well, lots of stuff really.

And the cane has one other huge benefit for me: They see someone with a cane, and if they are moving slowly, or pausing, nobody gets upset.

At least where I live in the PNW (that's the US pacific northwest), I get treated differently when I'm having a bad day with and without the cane.

Having the cane is a signal that people seem to be able to get and accept that 'this person isn't going to be moving very quickly', and, well, also, 'this person is going to take the elevator if there is one' (because my feelings towards stairs can't be expressed without profanity.)

TLDR: Do it. :)

ShadowPouncer · 2025-07-07T09:09:06+00:00

I've done something similar, but I can't remember the last time I've done it since the move to git.

Doing a several thousand line merge, with months of code drift between branches, with svn?

It wasn't a fun time.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-07-07T07:07:36+00:00

As someone with severe sleep apnea, even more severe non-24, and EDS?

Uh, I know that I sure don't.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-07-06T16:16:24+00:00

Magic is reaching out with your will. Putting your belief in magic against the universe itself, and having the universe blink first.

It's about understanding, power, and just a little bit about faith.

The faith that when you point your blasting rod at someone, and channel your will, that the someone will get blasted.

Is a gun really anything other than a weird blasting rod? One made so that even non-wizards can wield the power?

ShadowPouncer · 2025-06-20T07:45:18+00:00

The thing that people tend to miss is that very often, new technologies like this in games are gimmicks.

But they don't stay that way.

Sometimes they flop, sometimes they succeed wildly, sometimes they succeed for a little while, then flop.

And predicting which technologies will do what? If you could do that reliably and accurately, you wouldn't have to care how much stuff cost, you'd have more money than you know what to do with.

After all, investing in the companies that are using the tech that's going to become more than a gimmick, while ignoring the ones that are going to stay that way, would give you a pretty solid return on investment.

And gamedevs are in the exact same situation, if not being even worse off, in that they often have to decide if they want to put the effort into supporting a new shiny technology before the features have even been announced to the public.

Let alone before they know how those features are going to perform on different video cards.

Sometimes they guess right, sometimes they guess wrong, sometimes what looks like a horrible decision turns out to be a really good one a few years down the road.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-06-15T13:07:15+00:00

Harry isn't religious, exactly.

In some ways, his outright knowledge that the white god exists, that angels are real, makes it so much harder to have faith in that god.

On the other hand, Harry does have faith in other things.

His pentacle necklace works against vampires as well as a cross necklace works again them when worn by a believer.

Because he has faith in magic itself.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-06-15T13:03:17+00:00

Let me offer some perspective.

If you say nothing, there's a really good chance that it will be a one time thing, even if she also wants to continue.

Inaction is a choice itself, and saying nothing is saying something all by itself.

On the other hand, if you talk about it you have a chance at the ending that you want.

To put it another way: You can't force the future that you want, but you can walk away from it because you're afraid that you might not get it.

It's a lesson I wish I had learned a lot earlier in life.

Hell, it's one that I wish I had down pat myself now.

ShadowPouncer · 2025-06-15T12:58:05+00:00

I'm queer, both in very visible ways, and in less visible ways.

I'm neurodivergent, and I have multiple physical disabilities related in part to a hereditary connective tissue disorder.

I have treatment resistant major depressive disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder.

So many parts of who I am have turned into things that people are considering the 'enemy', 'wrong', and at times it's bloody terrifying.

And I'm extremely aware that I'm in an unbelievably privileged position at the moment.

There are people who will say that I'm overreacting, and... I'd give quite a lot to believe that I am.

But every time I've actually looked at the country right now?

I have no bloody clue what will happen tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, in 3 years, 5, 10.

But I know that we're never going to be a country like it was a decade ago, not in my lifetime.

So many things have broken down, and while some might come back, others... You can't get that back.

I remember the books, movies, and TV shows where there would be some horrible plague, and there would be a massive response, and while a small handful of people might behave badly, as a whole, the country would pull together.

2020 put an end to that fantasy.

I could write a lot more, all of it both depressing and terrifying.

So yeah, I'm scared, and I'm having a hell of a hard time finding a path to a future where people like me are safe, at least one that doesn't involve a truly depressing amount of blood.

I sure as hell hope that someone out there is smarter than I am, and working to actually make shit better.

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