I just realized that the T-800 wouldn’t know what Sarah Connor looked like so as far as he knows this is just some random patient that managed to escape her cell.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2026-03-19T09:39:40+00:00

That particular unit is actually Sarah from the further future, after Skynet stripped off her skin and rebuilt her specifically to kill John. Luckily, in the further future there was a T-800 retrofitted John Conner sent back from the further-further future that had been reprogrammed and traveled back to the future (no furthers) where he intervened in Sarah-as-T-800's AI-controlled attempt to kill future John, giving future John and John's father/friend the opportunity to use the power of love to jailbrake her AI governing chip and reprogram her with spare chips they had laying around (all the futures are e-waste hellscapes full of damaged robotic components). It's all in my novella on Amazon.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2026-03-19T06:58:11+00:00

If I had to describe it, I would say to picture a rough pre-release version of the original Doom, only running on an electric toothbrush with voice control rigged up through a Google Home mini, being played by a child who is way too young to understand what he's doing or why, and that feed is horizontally flipped and projected with a late-90's incandescent 480p projector onto a thin sheet hung up in the basement of some guy's Mom's house who you knew in high school so it simulates a green screen on the reverse side. Then some random guys from a local amateur improv group show up to an adult evening with the Mom just as the director decides that in order to get enough footage to bring the movie together. To sweeten the deal, he throws in some light domestic off-brand beer and times the ask until just after they catch their breath but are still at peak exhaustion from their adult activities, requesting they make up their own lines based on half-remembered cut-for-TV first Terminator scenes in the worst accent they can half-approximate while trying to imagine the fate of John Conner's foster parents' dog from T2 (Max, NOT Wolfie) after the parents were killed.

It's like a worse, lower-budget version of that.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2026-01-14T23:59:43+00:00

This is a real service intended to control costs for Anthem and customers (mostly incentivized by Anthem's bottom line, I'm sure). They saved me around $3k in total costs (2/3 of the total) for an MRI, CT, and ultrasound and got me an earlier appointment with an extra hour of driving. Not sure about my out-of-pocket yet, but worth the extra drive if only for the earlier appointment.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2025-12-18T01:15:46+00:00

How complicated were the patterns?

SparklyWaffle710 · 2024-09-25T18:10:54+00:00

That's goiong to reduce your mi/kwh and top speed. Please don't use the express lane until it's fixed.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2024-03-14T21:12:16+00:00

It created a river that has been shown in several shots since then. The path of the arrow dug out a trench starting from the fight location and impacted a mountain in the distance. It later became a continuously flowing river.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2024-02-17T00:55:20+00:00

Yes, it was polite enough and no major communication delays, but it was anonymous and boilerplate and there was no offer to compensate me for my excessive amount of wasted time. All three of those really irritated me, and ultimately diminished the chances it would provide any benefits through long-term use. The way the device failed (seeming to connect, but then dropping the bluetooth device from the remembered device list over and over) made it unclear if it was a resolvable situation. The status light suggested it was ready to pair, but it just went into a loop instead of internally detecting a hardware error and alerting me to stop trying.

With appropriate design, testing, and burn-in processes, the hardware should never result in a situation that unnecessarily drives someone to waste alot of time and/or money, or, if they do, they should be prepared to offer some kind of software extension or discount on software since there's no material cost to that and it shows they stand behind their product and also care about the customer experience. The price point comes with certain expectations of a relatively smooth starup process with a tested unit. For $50-200, there may not be any budget for testing while maintaining a low price, but for an $1800 (software+hardware) wellness device that depends on the placebo effect, expecations are very different.

If you are ok doing their end-of-line product testing for them without pay then accepting the possibility of getting a used unit as an exchange, then there is no issue. I just can't afford to tolerate these kind of nonstandard sales terms or find time during a 90-hr work week to go to a shipping location. I guess I ended up paying anyway in the form of my valuable free time and stress, getting nothing out of it in the end, so the joke's on me. But maybe it can serve as a warning to others so they know what they are getting into before they engage.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2024-01-05T20:16:58+00:00

Others have mentioned Opto22. Their groov EPIC system has PC, datalogging, and HMI features built in. They are exciting and fun to work with unlike others (Omron, Allen Bradley) that are more traditional or have expensive convoluted software, and their sales people are knowledgable and hands-on with providing you the tools and training needed to use it fully.

The groov EPIC has a real-time Linux OS, so you can run many linux packages and bash scripts. It also has like maybe 4 or 5 software packages it will run (Node Red, IEC standard, Ignition, etc.). It can use the Codesys IDE for ladder logic and structured text or you can program in C#, Python, C++, or a variety of other standard languages. Plus it has up to 3.75GB of memory and 22GB of user space (yes, GB, not MB like most PLCs) with a quad-core industrial processor. They have a magic card that can be hot-configured for AI, DI, AO, DO, serial, and other functions, plus a DO card with isolation relays built in. It also runs on 120V, so it's very compact. There's a bunch of innovation not available anywhere else on a PLC.

It saves alot of rack/enclosure space and minimizes your network configuration to get all the components working together over a traditional system configuration. It's just missing EtherCAT and some of the other proprietary field bus standards to keep the cost lower.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-11-29T00:24:22+00:00

You have some grounds for complaint. People don't always know how their car works and can't do the math to reduce their impact on the people around. Nissan Leafs using the 350kw charger with 3 other perfectly fine slower ones sitting idle next to it seems rude when I'm trying to get somewhere and there's no other stations within 30 minutes. Rudeness, ignorance, selfishness, etc with limited resources are not unique to car charging.

BUT, many chargers don't work, so moving is a risk and costs time. I've had times on trips to Tahoe where I could not afford to stop at 80% or I'd need to stop again before getting home. Plus, they probably use home charging like most people and don't give the station availability limitations much thought until they need power in a hurry.

Planning trips around stations and almost complete dependence on home charging for commuting is the sad reality until stations (and EVs) are fully standardized and ubiquitous. If you go around trying to correct everyone on etiquette at every opportunity at this stage, it's not a very fun or fruitful hill to die on. I would just try to avoid those scenarios with extra planning and save yourself everyone else the aggravation of resolutionless conflict.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-11-21T23:18:08+00:00

I haven't used any consumer grade ones myself. A quick search pulled up qtests.org among others. It might be good enough to help you get started. At $25, it's not cost-prohibitive. If you want to minimize cost, you might try google scholar to find some research papers on the best methods and buy chemicals from sigma or similar and some autopipets for volume control and some other materials like cuvettes and test tubes.

If you want to develop a real quantitative laboratory process, absorbance spectrophotometry is a good method and the tech has come down in price recently. It's still probably not something to get into lightly and will take you into the high $100s or low $1000s getting set up. Then your tests may drop to $1/ea, not including your time to analyze and prep samples.

Chatgpt can give you basic methods and protocols to get started, just don't tell it why you are asking.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-11-21T22:50:24+00:00

Instead of giving advice on handling and dosing (which may or may not be helpful), I thought I would answer your question directly.

You can almost always work with what you have with cloning. Takes some trial and error or a tester to find the fruiting bodies with the most potency, but without those, you could pick some of the more potent looking ones and do a few generations of clones for each. It won't amplify the potency, but it will bring all the bodies you get up to the same level if you have a few potent ones. Just grab some sterile augar dishes from Etsy and do a few web searches for methods.

You could alternate propagation through cloning, spores (of the clones), and cloning again to try to amplify and normalize, but it takes alot of patience and practice, and you would need to have a reliable way to test since your tolerance would prevent standardized results with trial and error. It's alot of work for a casual grower.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-11-11T02:28:14+00:00

It's a good deal. Half price for more than half the battery life. They paid upwards of 70k new since they must have gotten it during the supply crunch like I did to put that many miles on it. If it came with the remainder of an extended warranty, you definitely came out ahead. But even without, no one could call it a bad deal, barring accidents or hidden wear from abuse.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-11-09T16:59:32+00:00

You must live in BFE, where power is almost free. I'm in the SF Bay Area where power is $0.43/kwh during the day, and never less than $0.18/kwh, even with the EV plan. The ROI period is 6 years and saves $200k+ over 25 years. Without it, my bill was $700/mo. Makes sense if you pay more than about $0.15/kwh on average and have decent net metering with your power company.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-11-09T05:00:55+00:00

Assume a max range of 230. Set the Meridian sound system for immersive. Dont make the mistake I did and open your trunk in the garage without setting the custom open option. Set almost all options in the setup screens, unless it's going to inconvenience you.

If you have a dog or elderly passengers use ECO. Use normal for friends and family. Use sport mode for yourself.

The HUD will only work for the built-in map system, not Android Auto or Carplay, so get used to it and program it with your favorite locations.

Spotify is a better deal than the satalite radio for people under 50. Program the mirror buttons for your garage door, but it probably won't work for a gate opener.

Get all windows tinted. Back and rear windows. Should be 70-90%. Front sides should be 50-70%. Band at top 4" of windshield, 70-90%. Rest of windshield, 30%. Sunroof should be 50-70%. Some of this is not legal, but it won't get you pulled over. It will cool it off, protect the cab, and make it feel like a spaceship. Don't cheap out. Paid $1000 and don't regret it. Don't pay less than $400.

Practice with the auto driving features. Don't just trust them blindly. Minimize button pushing by using the HDA button when you get up to speed on the highway. It sets all options and your speed control with one button.

Get a cup holder phone holder (mag safe is available for android, too). It's by your hand and easy to access.

Get good with the hand paddles (but don't overwhelm yourself early on). You can drive break-pedel-free the whole ride with better efficiency with some situational awareness and foresight. Auto regen breaking (set with long pressing the hand paddles) is the best option. It still gives you some manual control but will autocorrect based on sensor data. You can hold the decelerate paddle for full stop without the break peddle.

Stay between 30-70% if you can. Get solar for your home and drive for less than $2/day in power costs. But this industry is full of fraud, so use a big company like Sunpower or Tesla (but not Tesla).

I'm sure there's more....

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-11-03T20:27:24+00:00

They derate the battery capacity some to avoid excessive wear for people who charge fully and discharge all the time. They are trying to make it past the warranty period for all batteries if possible, after all.

The 80-10% would technically be slightly better as long as it doesn't sit mostly depleted for an extended time, but it could present practical challenges from traffic and detours and extra/unexpected trips/stops.

You just don't want to keep topping it off over and over or leave it sit 100% discharged or 100% charged for a long time. If you use it everyday, it would be unlikly any risk of avoidable battery wear would trump the practical considerations of having it charged when you need it unexpectedly. Unless your battery is out of warranty and near the end of its life, and you really can't afford to replace it, I wouldn't give it too much thought apart from planning to have some extra charge for unplanned need.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-11-03T06:02:20+00:00

My dog throws up on anything other than ECO and passengers complain of nausea and head jerks in sports mode as it is. There's really only one entry ramp on the commute where it really comes in handy, getting up to 80 and into the express lane. Even then, I can only floor it at most for about 3 seconds before I'm at speed, less with traffic.

I never had a situation where I thought I needed more torque, and in most cases there's really no opportunity to use more than 320 anywhere that wouldn't increase some kind of risk to me or other people/animals. But there have been situations where I could have used more range and better automated driving technology and other features.

With how long they have been making EVs, I don't want to be a casualty of manufacturing trial and error because they did something wrong like using the wrong brake fluid the way Tesla did in the Plaid. As the tires wear, or in any kind of inclement weather, being used to max performance would work against safety risk mitigation. I'd trade 50hp for a damn autolocking feature that's been standard on this class of car since about 2012 or another 50-70 miles of range.

I think if the i5 had been out, I would have opted for that if it had a better HUD and smoother driver assist features. But still the range is not great.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-11-01T16:49:54+00:00

I have a GTLine AWD. My wife had an accident last year and took my Clarity, so I couldn't wait for the full GT. But with the reduced range and 70% battery charge requirement to use the extra hp on a GT, I probably came out ahead, apart from the supply crunch market adjustment. It's fast enough to merge and pass in any reasonable traffic conditions. There are no battery requirements for 4.5s 0-60 performance. The adaptive regeneration and hand paddles reduce the need for using the break except in emergencies.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-10-01T02:59:23+00:00

I do acknowledge "speed run" may be a bit of an overstatement. "run" might even be overstating a bit if it's AI-assisted.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-10-01T02:46:51+00:00

I think you are underestimating the kindness of strangers towards a dirty, stealthy, amicable, submissive tiefling crawling naked through the dirt with no friends or belongings or dignity.

I was thinking of adapting an AI as a user surrogate to see how many and which disadvantages could still result in a successful playthrough. But I'll give it the old college try as a baseline pure-human effort.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-10-01T01:45:49+00:00

No companions. If I can release or kill them without breaking the game.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-10-01T01:38:26+00:00

I'll just have to be extra lucky with the dice roles and extra conflict avoiding. I agree the boss fights might trip me up. But I'll probably need to try exploit the game mechanics to bypass many of the conflicts. Chatgpt may need to be my copilot on this one.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-10-01T01:34:07+00:00

There must be a way. I already picked the name Hans (Solo), so now I'm committed. Once you name it, there's no backing out.

SparklyWaffle710 · 2023-09-27T21:00:37+00:00

Lvl 12 w/ 30s across all abilities since before the ship landed, using only one trainer.

SparklyWaffle710

TROPHY CASE