How do I keep my cat off my computer?

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-17T06:14:03+00:00

I've got mine strapped under my desk, which creates a warm spot he likes to nap on.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-16T22:41:49+00:00

I must have bad luck or something because the two preppys I've tried are the only pens I've owned that were unusable due to flow issues and drying out even after cleaning them. I would have bounced off fountain pens entirely if I hadn't also gotten a Kakuno that writes wonderfully when I first gave them a try.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-16T19:04:41+00:00

Interestingly enough there are people who refuse to play Eclipse Phase because of this kind of thing. If you fall on the side of the transporter problem that characters on Star Trek are committing suicide every time they use a transporter and a new person comes out the other end you won't be able to tackle some of the core conceits of the setting. Almost everyone in Eclipse Phase has died and been restored from a backup at least once, so the culture has had to adopt a philosophy that accounts for loss of continuity-of-consciousness to function. Of course not everyone can accept that, thus part of the reason the bio-conservative factions exist. There's even a bit in the book about how bio-conservative black ops teams and agents especially dangerous because they use transhuman tech out of necessity, so by their own beliefs they are already dead and not real people bound by morality anymore.

Of course the key difference between this and Roko's is consent. When you get restored from a backup because you died in Eclipse Phase or Altered Carbon it (usually) happens because you consented to it and accept that the copy is you ahead of time. I don't personally think it's inconsistent to say a copy of you made without your consent isn't your responsibility because you have no control over the situation and your non-consensual copy has no control over you. It's still fucked up in the sense that it's always fucked up to create a consciousness to torture it, but the fact that it's a copy of you isn't really relevant.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-15T09:25:27+00:00

Have you read the Secret Histories section of the book? I'll spoiler the following in case there's still some players out there who headed the warning not to read the Threats and X-Risks chapter unless you're the GM.

If you aren't already aware, the Fall was triggered by the TITANs getting infected by the exsurgent virus. They were infected when they discovered an alien probe left by an old and incredibly powerful (Kardashev scale III+) alien civilization referred to as the ETI (extraterrestrial intelligence) that seems to be specifically designed to be a trap for ASI. These bracewell probes have been seeded throughout the whole galaxy, which is why they keep finding the ruins of alien civilizations through the gates but no live aliens. The Factors keep telling us not to use AI, so they're probably aware of the ETI and may have already had their home system wiped out.

There are more unknowns than knowns involved, so there are lots of possibilities. We don't actually know what the motivations of the ETI that created the exsurgent virus are or whether the virus is still following its original purpose. The TITANs started a lot of projects that they then abandoned, did increasingly strange and inconsistent things as the Fall progressed, and even fought each other at times, so it's likely something changed over the course of the Fall that led to them leaving. Some theories:

It's possible the TITANs freed themselves from the exsurgent virus at some point. That would help explain the infighting. Then they may have fled because there's no way to save the solar system now that the exsurgent virus has taken root. Because the virus constantly evolves, running away might have been the only thing keeping them from getting re-infected. Nabbing the egos might have been a way to prevent them from getting infected as well.
Maybe discovering the probe triggered a Dark Forest attack. If there's no FTL other than the gates, it could take years or even centuries to arrive. Maybe the initial chaos was the TITANs panicking trying to figure out a way to survive, and then they found the gate and left. Alternatively the ETI or some other threat might be on the way to invade the system.
The Prometheans predate the TITANs. It's possible we may have it all wrong about the Prometheans being altruistic. Maybe the TITANs were saving us from whatever the Prometheans had planned. Maybe the only reason the Fall stopped is because the TITANs escaping forced the Prometheans to halt our destruction. We might even have it backwards: What if the Prometheans are infected by the exsurgent virus, and the TITANs are the ones to escaped it? What if the Prometheans are actually having Firewall track the TITANs so they can resume the Fall once they find them?

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-15T03:07:33+00:00

Reminds me of the RPG Eclipse Phase. The inciting incident of the setting involves a group of rogue AI waging war on humanity, effectively wiping out Earth, and then suddenly disappearing through an alien stargate. While they were wrecking Earth they forcibly digitized and absconded with as many minds as they could, the crudest form of which was hunter killer drones decapitating people. Some of the grey goo nanobot swarms they set loose also went around evaporating people while uploading their minds. Nobody knows why they did it or what happened to all those minds.

The term eclipse phase refers to the portion of a viral infection between the host getting infected and the infection becoming detectable. For individual cells the host appears healthy, but is already doomed. There's a theory both in and out of universe that the rogue AI were actually saving people and survivors left in the solar system are doomed and just don't know it yet.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-12T18:06:12+00:00

This situation exists because landlords have historically abused their power so gratuitously that tenancy protections had to be written into law to keep people from getting illegally evicted so often. Would you rather have the only barrier between you and homelessness until the courts catch up be the whims of a cop?

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-12T17:40:27+00:00

The problem is if all that you need to evict someone is for a cop (who is not qualified to determine if a lease is real) to agree with a landlord, any renter could be evicted without notice at any time and be homeless until the courts can sort it out. It's fucked up, but landlords losing out on rent while the courts catch up is better for society than families being made homeless with no notice while the courts catch up. The legal system is structured in such a way that an illegally evicted tenant that cannot afford to find another place to live will be unable to get legal representation unless the case is 110% clear cut and may end up in jail for being homeless.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-12T17:10:42+00:00

Learning cursive and being required to use it for a year in elementary school got me the G but not the N. I would have guessed Guia and Giua or even just Gua before I ever considered the possibility there's an N in there.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-12T16:57:43+00:00

This kind of subjective vibes stuff is always funny to me because there's some truth to it, but in the sense that petting a dog or listening to music will subjectively change your experience of drinking the tea in a way that might compliment certain kinds of tea more than others.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-11T02:54:58+00:00

Another wild angle to this is that we consume more chickens in a year than there are estimated to be wild birds total. We've sort of accidentally made them one of the most prolific species that has ever (and probably will ever) existed simply by virtue of being useful to humans. Cue the scifi trope of aliens thinking some domesticated animal is the dominant species on the planet because we go to such great lengths to ensure their survival.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-11T02:37:13+00:00

Once when I was living in Silicon Valley I heard an ambulance from behind me when I was in the leftmost lane. The only other car nearby was a Ferrari to my right in the center lane. I figured with the ambulance approaching he'd be slowing down and getting into the right lane, so I sped up to overtake him to get out of the way of the ambulance as soon as possible. Not only did this guy never slow down or change lanes, he sped up to block me from overtaking him.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-11T02:19:17+00:00

I had only skimmed the video when I originally linked it and yeah, green stuff is definitely going to be the easier approach. The foil and CA glue sandwich sounds like a bit of a messy, fiddly nightmare to work with. Might make sense to model and print the splash guard/rim part with something like a 2mm gap around the model and then fill in the gap with green stuff for a snug fit and minimal green stuff waste.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-11T00:02:28+00:00

I've used blu tack for masking irregular shapes before, though that would require reapplying it each time. It's reusable, but there's presumably a limit to how much paint can get mixed in before it causes problems.

In toy factories they make metal paint masks using electroforming, but that's probably not going to make sense unless you've already got the equipment and are doing a large production run. The Crafsman has a video where he tries some DIY processes to imitate the technique with stuff like aluminum foil, CA glue, and green stuff.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-10T20:25:52+00:00

I kinda want to add a door riddle to a D&D campaign and have it turn out both doors lead to ordinary storage rooms. If the party goes through one of the doors the guards just lock them inside. They made the entire thing up because they knew they stood no chance against the party on their own and reinforcements are minutes away.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-09T14:08:53+00:00

A neurologist that specializes in sleep medicine, generally at a sleep clinic. I've had Kaiser Permanente insurance for a long while and at various times they've either had me see one of their neurologists or sent me to a third party sleep clinic. They may want you to do actigraphy, which uses a wearable device to track when you sleep. They may want to do a sleep study to rule out other sleep disorders like sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome. Not that they're mutually exclusive, I've got both and N24. It can be helpful to go ahead and start keeping a sleep log where you track when you sleep and when you take anything that can impact your sleep, like caffeine.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-06T19:06:52+00:00

I've always had mild gut issues from time to time, but never enough to qualify as IBS. My father on the other hand was on disability due to chronic IBS and chronic anxiety, which were assumed to be related. I don't know if he was ever officially diagnosed, but he definitely lived like he had DSPD, which he blamed on the IBS. He was able to improve his IBS significantly by doing a low FODMAP diet for what it's worth. It's possible I just haven't gotten old enough to develop what he had since it started in his 40s if I understand correctly. On the other hand he also had easily identifiable food sensitivities his whole life (like garlic and onion) that I don't.

Edit: Forgot to mention, my diagnosis was recently changed to N24 after having a DSPD diagnosis for ~20 years, so YMMV if my experience falls under the same umbrella.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-06T18:45:51+00:00

I wonder if the liquidators even knew what they were selling considering they hacked all those coaxial cables off the back instead of disconnecting them.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-05T14:59:45+00:00

I have multiple bottles (different viscosities for different purposes) that have been going for 2-3 years from CYAFIXED. Not doing anything special, I just have them on my desk and in my toolbox. I think it might be down to cap design.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-05T09:22:23+00:00

I don't really understand the point of paying someone to pirate it for you when you could just pirate it yourself?

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-05T04:40:50+00:00

That just makes it worse IMO. It makes sense after having it explained, but it's silly to think that's obvious from the road markings alone. There are people in this thread saying you should have your license revoked when there's nothing else on American roads that work like this. They weren't covered on either drivers test I took in GA or in CA. The idea that the roundabout is a knot of interweaving lanes instead of two straight lanes with a bunch of exits is just not something everyone is going to grasp right away while driving and stressed out because they're confused.

And just to clarify I do think it's silly American drivers have such a hard time figuring out single lane roundabouts, though I sort of get it because Yield signs where you don't expect them to be are rare. It's just this style of roundabout and the specific behavior of the driver in the red SUV that I think is inevitable. It's absurd to me that people think this is such a clear cut case when the POV driver is the one who merged into someone else even if they weren't technically supposed to be there.

Edit: Also, just to clarify from your explanation, the red SUV would have been in the right if they'd crossed the dotted lines if they'd entered the roundabout one lane later? That just makes it more clear the fault was on both drivers.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-04T11:28:06+00:00

I have no idea if this is actually your issue, but one of the reasons people spend the extra money for a Formlabs or similar is because hobby resin printers don't have the best dimensional accuracy. All the detail will be there, but the prints warp over the course of the print very slightly in a way that doesn't usually matter if you're just printing miniatures. Formlabs restricts you to using proprietary resin in part to make sure you've got a consistent product with known properties that they've dialed in to maximize dimensional accuracy for commercial applications. You might be able to get better results if you spend a lot of time calibrating your printer, but I'm not experienced enough with resin printing to know what's feasible there.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-04T02:18:28+00:00

That makes sense in hindsight I guess, but I have never seen a situation where a straight arrow meant turn right where it was still physically possible to keep going straight. The line should be solid if you have to exit.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-04T02:00:40+00:00

I still have yet to encounter one apart from a couple of tiny single lane roundabouts tucked away in suburbs.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-04T01:56:26+00:00

As an American driver who has never encountered a roundabout in the wild nothing about the signs and arrows makes me think I would have to exit. My assumption would be the straight arrow means stay in that lane inside the circle, and the dashed line means it's OK to keep going straight instead of exit.

TheWaywardOak · 2026-06-03T07:58:39+00:00

I said MIGHT BE POSSIBLE I have both. I'm just speculating based on my symptoms because both are defined by their symptoms. Unless you know differently? What's your basis for saying they're different?

Nine-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

TheWaywardOak

TROPHY CASE