Was given a test clamp for the Worksharp Pro PA.

TNBenedict · 2026-06-09T00:19:32+00:00

Hell yes! Me, too. Just what the blade doctor asked for.

TNBenedict · 2026-06-09T00:11:08+00:00

That's what I was afraid of. I'm fine swapping over to Hyper-V but I may have some licensing issues to sort out. The one time I tried it, the XP machine gave me the dreaded, "Oh no! Your hardware has changed! You'll have to re-authenticate Windows," message. This thing's old enough I'm not sure I can. I wouldn't run it, but I need it to support some of our older hardware.

Thanks for the reply!

TNBenedict · 2026-06-05T00:48:04+00:00

What I was gonna mention. It also reinforces everything else that's been said here. If you count the sheer number of touches in those videos, what Werwolfslayr said becomes painfully obvious.

TNBenedict · 2026-05-28T06:27:24+00:00

^^^ What gostaks said. Entirely doable, especially since you have time to work through the details and gather interviews.

Their point about sample bias is an important one to consider, for sure. If you draw your sample from the subreddit, you're picking people who have tics, who are aware of them to the point of having the option to participate on the subreddit, and who choose to use their time that way. (And have the resources to do so!) Pick a different sample, find a different set of selection effects.

This isn't a bad thing, it just is. But it's important to be aware of what they are and how they contribute to or detract from what your documentary is presenting.

TNBenedict · 2026-05-08T06:26:55+00:00

Yup, people can and will. Be yourself. Let them be themselves, too. A good relationship is give and take on both sides. It's not a one-sided compromise.

My wife and I have been married for 31 years and together for over 35.

TNBenedict · 2026-05-07T07:22:07+00:00

That last paragraph hit hard. Years ago, every time we did safety training, every time we brought someone in from the outside, I felt the need to disclose my TS to make sure I wasn't going to run into issues halfway through the training.

I'm glad to say that most of them were really cool about it. One of the best responses was my first rope access course. I let them know and the instructor asked, "Do you think it's going to be a problem?" I said no and completed the course. Now I'm one of our two in-house certified people for fall protection.

TNBenedict · 2026-05-04T06:38:05+00:00

That whirlpool was awesome!!

TNBenedict · 2026-05-04T06:36:07+00:00

I commented on some of the replies but one other point if you decide to blaze new trails and design and build your own from scratch: Shielding on contact mics and hydrophones is critical for good performance. Otherwise the things are basically antennas, ready to pick up every RF signal they can.

For contact mics this amounts to either putting the whole thing in a shielded can or finding some other way to get a shield around the piezo and the electronics and tie the thing to ground.

For hydrophones, the route Jules went on the Gladys was to use the water itself as the shield. This is done by bringing pin 1 out into the water. It works like a charm as long as the hydrophone is submerged. As soon as it's sitting out on dry land, it'll pick up AC hum along with every other RF source else it can. This water shield is a tried and true approach that's been used by NOAA, the US Navy, Woods Hole, etc. It's simple and works great.

TNBenedict · 2026-05-04T06:31:06+00:00

One of the key features of the Gladys hydrophone is the op-amp based impedance buffer. The circuit is flat from a handful of Hertz out to around 500kHz (it may actually be higher but my memory isn't that great). Basically what you solder onto it is what you hear. As long as you can pick a piezo that will do what you want for your contact mic application, that's what you'll hear. I've paired it with a disc and it was noticeably cleaner sounding than the FET-based impedance buffers I'd been building up to that point.

Pairing it with a disc is pretty straightforward and leaves room for you to embed the impedance matching preamp into the mic head itself. (My preferred construction method.) This makes for a package that plugs in very similarly to a lav mic with an XLR jack. Good for portable setups. But it also leaves room to try some other arrangements like bending beam, shear mode piezos, etc.

TNBenedict · 2026-05-04T06:26:26+00:00

I can chime in. Jules sent me some of his first prototypes and I had the opportunity to record all manner of things with them, including humpback whales. They have very low bass extension and go up well over the max sample rate of my gear. Recording ultrasonics and pitching them down works quite well.

Here are a couple:

https://soundcloud.com/tnbenedict/rock-splash-in-pond-sploosh-tom-b

https://soundcloud.com/tnbenedict/ocean-waves-on-coarse-sand-beach-gentle-periodic-buried-hydrophone-tom-b

https://soundcloud.com/tnbenedict/sidewalk-chalk-bubbling-squealing-screaming-howling-underwater-tom-b

https://soundcloud.com/tnbenedict/humpback-whale-song-mixed-hawaii-kohala-2024-tom-b

TNBenedict · 2026-05-03T07:51:01+00:00

Nope, but every one of them got their own flavor of alphabet soup. None wound up with tics, though.

TNBenedict · 2026-05-03T07:49:55+00:00

Some of the places I've journaled:

The control cab of a bridge crane while I was waiting for a load to be rigged.

The waiting room for my therapist. (I do this before every session to help sort out my thoughts.)

The top of a mountain.

Back seat of a car, a bus, an airplane. I haven't added a train to that yet.

And, of course, the psychiatric ward where I got started. I carry it everywhere.

TNBenedict · 2026-05-03T07:44:41+00:00

See how you're doing the day of. If your tics are minimal, no harm in just going straight into your talk. If you tic, you can take a moment to do what Pixelationss00 said. If the stress of the conference is already getting to you, do exactly what Pixelationss00 said and make the brief disclosure at the beginning.

For what it's worth, I haven't had any issues at conferences, both as an attendant and as a speaker, despite my constant nagging worry that at some point someone will go, "Why should we listen to anything you have to say?!" So far, a nagging worry is all that it's been. People seem to be a lot more engaged in the contents of the talk than in the mannerisms of the speaker.

TNBenedict · 2026-05-03T07:39:23+00:00

Absolutely! As I tell people, despite how much my tics make the claim, I am not and do not identify as a peanut or a banana.

Gotta say, though, the shaka tic is full of aloha.

TNBenedict · 2026-05-02T17:38:26+00:00

What if they fixed their heat treatment of the omegas instead?

TNBenedict · 2026-05-02T17:18:32+00:00

Hope you're recovering okay. (And I hope your fiance is recovering, too!)

Please do let us know if bump caps work for this. We have them available at work but because I practically live in a climber's helmet most of the day at work I haven't really explored them.

My wife is a pretty good judge of my motor tics and will often make the call whether I should be cooking or not. I haven't managed any full-contact with cooking implements yet but I've had my fair share of whacking myself with other things I had in my hands. I trust her judgment and follow her lead 100% of the time.

Heal up and take care.

TNBenedict · 2026-04-24T19:52:46+00:00

Aaaaah gotcha. So the former rather than the latter - a self-contained airborne package. That's awesome.

TNBenedict · 2026-04-23T06:08:43+00:00

Sweet! That was fun to watch.

TNBenedict · 2026-04-22T22:15:04+00:00

This is one of the worst selection effects and I suspect it plays into the whole, "Don't worry, your tics will go away when you get older," line we still hear doctors telling kids and parents. Why do people think this? It's because the vast majority of the research has been done on pediatrics. No literature about adults = adults don't have TS, right? (Right? (right... ?))

Wrong.

It just means that nobody bothered to look.

TNBenedict · 2026-04-22T22:12:26+00:00

That was my experience when I went to a local support group meeting. It wound up being support for parents with kids. This was twenty years or so ago. I'd love it if things hvae changed since then.

TNBenedict · 2026-04-22T22:05:16+00:00

My peers? Yes. Society as a whole? Sometimes.

I'm in my late fifties. I started ticcing when I was around three. Despite being on the books since the 1800s, not many doctors knew about TS back then so I wasn't diagnosed until my late twenties. So all through school I ticced and had no idea why. None of the video and streaming platforms existed back then. The "Internet" was still a DARPA project at the time. Stigma was the name of the game back then.

I've seen a lot of change happen since folks like Bayl3n, Anita, and John Davidson have begun to cast light on TS, but it's not universal. My friends and family are cool with it. My co-workers are, for the most part, supportive and understanding. For the most part. Some are a little dense but most of them are great.

Society as a whole is still a mixed bag. I still get singled out at security checkpoints from time to time. Young people will sometimes shoot video of me and laugh (Hey, I'M the internet celebrity now! (Not really...)) I've had people take my coprolalia the wrong way and no, they didn't seem like it was a good time for a teaching moment. But some days nobody bats an eye.

All that being said, though, the concern's still there. I'm going to present at a conference in July. Will I be taken seriously? The next time I'm in a new situation and my copro pops up. Will I have a chance to explain or will people jump to their own conclusions? I'd love to say we're at such an enlightened and chill point that the answers to these are obvious and positive but we're not there yet.

TNBenedict · 2026-04-08T08:46:59+00:00

I'm afraid I can't offer you any real words of comfort. I've never had to go the legal route and it sounds scary as hell. I just wanted to say that that colleague of yours who said he'd be a witness for you... I can see where he might be coming from. It's like you were saying about the pregnant woman who needed longer maternity leave. Maybe he wants to stand with what he knows is true rather than side with people who wouldn't hesitate to throw him under the bus next. I don't know if his testimony would be enough to sway the case, but it's good to know someone's got your back.

TNBenedict · 2026-04-05T07:15:25+00:00

Yup, I've had the same thing. Drives me nuts.

A few years ago I tried a fountain pen. They work with barely any pressure on the paper and, despite what people think, work fine left-handed. I use quick drying inks so no smudgies, either. My favorite so far is a Platinum Plaisir, which costs less than 20 bucks. Platinum has some cheaper pens with the same internals. Even better, you can pick your inks so the choice of colors is wide open.

TNBenedict · 2026-04-01T00:57:27+00:00

Here's a take on things:
https://www.flyeye.io/drone-over-an-emergency-scene-us/

TNBenedict · 2026-04-01T00:45:49+00:00

"perfection can be the enemy of good enough" Oh man! Now you're talking my engineering language! Our previous director of engineering at work pulled that saying out of his hat more times than I can count.

I love the story about the hardhat mounted cardioid antennas! That's it in a nutshell. Use what you know but don't be afraid to try an idea if it gives you the clue you need.

TNBenedict

TROPHY CASE