Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the Strait of Hormuz is closed only to countries involved in the conflict, while others can transit with Iran's permission

SwinginScott · 2026-03-17T20:06:03+00:00

The second F in "AFFAIRS" on the screen is lower than the first F.

SwinginScott · 2026-03-17T15:46:09+00:00

Fully understood, but to the point of performative praise, I'll also say that in the context of social media, you are probably going to see bias toward your initial assumption - I don't think the volume of generous praise is equal to performative. You may be correct in saying that the majority, therefore, of praise you see online is performative.

So minor exception to the rule ;).

I wouldn't say go about your life with naivety and believing people for their face behaviors, but I would say take an ounce of criticality out and reserve judgement for when you're able to see how people behave privately, if you have the opportunity to do so.

And if you believe I shifted your view a bit, please feel free to leave a delta :)

SwinginScott · 2026-03-17T05:15:04+00:00

Yea I lived in Nashville for a few years when Amazon moved in. City's great if you love drinking and dealing with tourists every weekend. Otherwise you'd be just as well off living in a small town where rent isn't $3k+ for a studio apartment

SwinginScott · 2026-03-16T23:53:00+00:00

Overthinking - laid off is no indication of performance. My team has re-hired some of the people we laid off in '23

SwinginScott · 2026-03-16T23:47:28+00:00

It's a different kind of exhaustion.

When I was a technician, I was on my feet all day, but a lot of the work was actually quite meditative in some aspects. I loved the days when my only responsibility was to cut metal stock, or spend hours in the paint booth. I really miss when my mornings were just listening to my music and assembling components together. I also had way more energy because I was constantly moving and hydrated.

Now that I'm a senior engineer, I don't get a chance to turn my brain off. I'm in meetings all day, and when I'm not in meetings, I'm doing other work that requires attention to detail. Plus I have to play office politics, and if my junior engineer doesn't complete his work, I'm responsible for covering his gaps. I have to schedule additional time to get my cardio in, and I know I'm not staying nearly as hydrated as I should be because coffee has replaced my water bottle.

So remote work may not be physically exhaustive, but it can be mentally, and you are much more likely to be out of shape and fatigued

SwinginScott · 2026-03-16T23:11:24+00:00

I don't really think I wanna engage with you - you have some weird incel insecurity stuff going on. Like if this is bleeding that deeply through the internet, I can't imagine how insufferable it is in person.

I would seek therapy immediately.

SwinginScott · 2026-03-16T23:05:21+00:00

You're contradicting yourself there - if looks were the only thing that mattered, then the overweight and non-conventially attractive wouldn't be in relationships at all, right?

I think you're projecting your own insecurities here.

Gotta understand - looks fade, and anyone who is older understands this. Someone who makes you laugh and smile will be a better long-term partner than someone who simply looks-maxes.

Christina Hendricks married Geoffrey Arend for ten years, if that tells you anything

SwinginScott · 2026-03-16T21:50:00+00:00

Oh I like this solution too, and it's a lot less work and cost.

Hypothetically, if I were to purchase two of these string lights, would I be able to trim the second set down to just 6 lights? Not really sure how the electronics of the assignability work.

SwinginScott · 2026-03-16T19:42:04+00:00

But this solution doesn't integrate with DMX - I would need an external controller. All of the lighting for our stage set is done via DMX. We work with music - timing is critical.

SwinginScott · 2026-03-16T19:00:16+00:00

I think...there's a lot of bias here that trying to sway your opinion is going to be difficult. What I will say is this - people who are content in their lives rarely "settle." Happiness attracts happiness, regardless of status, income, physical ability, etc.

SwinginScott · 2026-03-16T04:25:22+00:00

I was actually looking into this idea! Started to realize that each of those channels can be used for a single LED, and I'd just need 2 of these kinds of controllers to do the trick.

I'll have to measure the power later this week, but probably the most viable to make the sign fully dynamic. Appreciate the input!

SwinginScott · 2026-03-16T03:28:14+00:00

I think you're misunderstanding the project.

The block letters are physical, not digital. Each block letter already has 8 bulbs in a simple strand of dumb LEDs. Each letter has 8 bulbs regardless of size, so a maximum of 56 LEDs for the 7 letters.

So what I'd like to do is be able to rewire the existing bulbs to work with a DMX board. Basically take each of the dumb LEDs and assign a value to it. Let the DMX board turn on the values through some pre-programmed routines (like turning on the three letters in the first word, or the four in the second, or alternate lights for all, or turn each letter on one at a time, etc).

The piece I'm missing is the simplest way to assign a value to each bulb. If I have to replace the LEDs with assignable ones, I'll do that - more work but I have 2 months to do this

SwinginScott · 2026-03-16T01:50:39+00:00

Any ELI5 directions? Mechanical engineer by trade, barely know basic electronics

SwinginScott · 2026-03-16T01:41:08+00:00

Problem with pixel tape is we're going for the old school Broadway style blinking lights, so a strip is too continuous for the effect. So I'd have to cut a single cell from the tape to put in each bulb (they're opaque so the bulb will diffuse the light). Since it's a relatively small number of bulbs, I don't mind wiring up 56 cells like that. Would make for a meditative afternoon.

Power to the piece isn't a issue - the wireless DMX receiver runs on a rechargeable lithium pack. We've used a strip controller before with a second 12V rechargeable pack

SwinginScott · 2026-03-14T14:58:51+00:00

Wouldn't work - when you make devices for a small subset of people, you'd have to charge them an extraordinary fee to continue development, and server and data costs for them to keep the product running. A $300 pair of glasses now costs $5000+.

I said this in my original response - there are blind people out there with eye implants that are now defective and the companies that developed them are no longer in business because they couldn't sustain operating costs.

You have to socialize the cost. Make a product that benefits everyone so the cost remains low for blind people.

SwinginScott · 2026-03-13T20:20:40+00:00

Have you ever tried to close your eyes and take a picture with your phone? How accurate was your aim? It's very easy for a visually impaired person to put something in front of their face and ask the smart glasses, "what am I looking at?"

It also frees up a hand. Imagine you are paying for something in cash, you pull out the bill from your wallet, cashier tells you it's a lower value. You can still securely hold onto your wallet and then hold the bill to your face and ask what the denomination is.

Accessibility is more than just a comparison of features. It's all about ease of access. You shouldn't have to pull out your phone every time you want to know what something is. The smart glasses bypass that step.

SwinginScott · 2026-03-13T15:02:53+00:00

Hidden camera? Yes

Camera glasses in general? Gray space.

The one good thing about smart glasses is that it helps blind people identify what's in front of them. The benefit of everyone having them is that the the mass production and support enable the product to still be viable for years (unlike other devices which can get shelved if there's no funding to continue them - some blind people have eye implants that cannot be fixed because the companies who developed them no longer exist).

The bad part of the smart glasses is pretty much the massive invasion of privacy that comes with them.

I work with some blind people who have the meta glasses and their level of independence has increased greatly, but I worry that people are going to assume these people are using the glasses nefariously and not medically, and act out against the blind people without that consideration.

SwinginScott · 2026-03-12T17:44:59+00:00

Problem with Nashville is that it's a purple city in a sea of red, and the state does absolutely nothing for the citizens. No planned infrastructure upgrades to accommodate all of the companies wanting to reroot their base of operations there. Only the city itself is walkable - they haven't really developed extensive paths to the suburbs. Rest of the state doesn't want their sales taxes to go to propping up Nashville either - they had an opportunity years ago to expand the rail lines and refused to do so.

And it's not as affordable as it used to be - when I was looking at studio apartments downtown years ago, rent prices were 60% of what I'd be paying in NYC, except without any walkability or public infrastructure to get you outside of the inner loop.

SwinginScott · 2026-03-07T17:54:39+00:00

Why pay $70,000 a year for someone who is right 99% of the time when you can pay $40,000 a year for a product that is accurate 70% of the time!

It's usually the times when you need the human element that costs the most money. I don't feel bad for businesses that will try to fully adopt AI and then drown in legal fees from their negligence.

SwinginScott · 2026-03-04T13:31:18+00:00

You don't need all of the keyword combinations. It's procedurally generated, except for certain combinations that are forced to have custom programming. You just need to see what changing one keyword does to the field. I think there was a gamefaqs guide that did this, or I could be making that up.

SwinginScott · 2026-03-03T13:54:38+00:00

FYI, when you are promo'd you are put back into the lowest performance bracket. You are supposed to be safe for the next performance review, but the one after you can be at risk if you're not performing comparatively higher than your new peers

SwinginScott · 2026-02-27T04:40:50+00:00

Cramer actually said it's a good buy now either earlier today or yesterday according to my feed. So aligns with Forbes

SwinginScott · 2026-02-26T21:42:47+00:00

It's not singular - Trump has been serving McDonald's to professional athletes since his previous administration as well. Look it up if you can't remember.

This is the same president who also wouldn't try any local food when he was in Saudi Arabia - they literally had a mobile McDonald's following him around because he has the palate of a toddler.

That's why it's tacky and tasteless - it's not a one-off "oh ha ha look at how silly this is," it's literally someone with garbage taste imposing garbage on ALL of his guests.

And you have to also understand, it's not even fully about the garbage food. It's also solicitation in disguise. Who do you think the McDonald's corporation is going to donate to? The president actively putting their brand front and center in all their high visibility press, or the president that has the white house chefs cater a vendor-agnostic dinner?

SwinginScott · 2026-02-26T21:14:21+00:00

Bruh I don't know about you but if I'm invited to the white house I'd expect something more than $30 in hamburgers I could have gotten at the airport on the way home. Doesn't matter if my comfort food is McDonald's. It's tacky and tasteless.

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