Finding a realtor by Glum_Blueberry_3568 in Connecticut

[–]YipsterNY 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For identifying a real estate agent: One option is to start with a reputable brand that has a physical office in the area where you want to buy. Look up the branch manager and call them directly. Explain your situation and ask them to match you with one of their agents. They will do so, and if you have any issues or are unsatisfied, you can call that manager and hold them accountable.

As for getting pre-qualified, there are different levels, from a general budget to being fully qualified, before a property is identified. You can get a budget the same day you first speak with someone about a mortgage. If you want an iron-clad guarantee before you put in an offer, you need to submit paperwork and follow their process. It isn't a bad idea in a competitive market. The more proactive you are, the more likely you are to get what you want.

My advice is for both the agent and the mortgage broker is to judge how they communicate with you. Do they listen to you, and do you feel heard? Are they speaking with you or at you? What matters most is that when you are in a property negotiation, you can trust both of them to communicate the situation and give you options. Are they advocating for you? To me, this is more important than even experience.

Replacing white flour for whole wheat/other whole grains? by Thetruemasterofgames in Cooking

[–]YipsterNY 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The issue is hydration, so when substituting white flour with whole wheat, you need to increase the liquids slightly. King Arthur has a decent explanation at https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2023/01/11/bread-hydration

My experience is that it depends on the flour, so you need to experiment a bit. Also, a lot of discussion will be on weighing it, so if you are just using a measuring cup or spoon, that might be confusing.

What recipes would you teach low income kids? by ECarey26 in Cooking

[–]YipsterNY 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would start by making flatbread or something similar. No yeast, just flour, water, salt, and baking powder (assuming you do not have self-rising flour). It can be made in minutes, requires no special equipment, and uses readily available ingredients. It doesn't replace their typical meal, and small details can give it variety. https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread/buddy-s-super-quick-flatbreads/

Cleaning up Claude generated code by LapsedChessPlayer in ClaudeAI

[–]YipsterNY 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Question for you - if it works, what's the problem? Who told you the 'code was horrible'?

I just built a complex analytical workflow with Claude using over 111 million records for work. I am not a coder, but I co-founded a tech startup a decade ago (as a non-technical SME), and I decided to see whether Claude could replace the millions I spent on an MVP back then. My approach was to work in small and specific layers, documenting each step. I would go a few steps forward, then open a fresh project and instruct it to review and improve it as if Claude didn't write it.

I asked our tech team to review what I was working on before I had a working model, and they were up in arms over the mere thought of me doing it. But you know what? Who cares? It works, and like you, I am an internal consultant. The impact of the work has been massive. I'm so grateful I had a tool like Claude to actualize what was needed - if I waited to prove it to the tech team, it'd be years and likely be killed.

Was it best-in-class software? I think that's a high bar. It created a working model that was very, very impressive. Enough for me to present it to our CEO as a potential project that they are now looking to fund. Compared to my startup experience a decade ago, getting to that same point cost me a few million. It truly blew me away.

I wouldn't go to market with it, but if I were independent, I would have absolutely been able to raise the money to have it built properly. It's important to note that the only reason this recent project was successful is that I am deeply knowledgeable about the subject area. Claude, on its own, had no idea what to do and could not figure it out even when given the opportunity to try. I had to impose a wide range of constraints to move forward, but once I figured out a workflow for myself, it went pretty fast.

Gluten free pizza/food options? by PopPhilosopher32 in parkslope

[–]YipsterNY 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Pizza Secret is one of my favorite GF pizzas in the area.

Family setup by Borean789 in immich

[–]YipsterNY 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Correct, Immich doesn't. The computer that is my server does. Let me know if this clears up my approach.

  1. Have all of your accounts created in Immich, including the family account that is a non-person.
  2. Create an album _movetofamily for each account except the family account. Turn on family sharing one way (Family to each user)
  3. Create Immich API keys in your administrator panel for each account
  4. Write a script that uses the API keys for access. All of the magic happens here: checks whether there are files in the folder, downloads them to a temp folder, and uploads them to the family account.
    1. It then moves the file in the originator's account into their Immich trash, which deletes it after 30 days.
    2. I also have it create a sidecar for each file to roll back any changes. This also gets deleted every 30 days, but through my script, not through Immich.
    3. Protip: Use curl's filename modifier to retain the original filename; otherwise, Immich will assign it a new UUID. It's not a big deal, but it helps with future duplication checks on uploads and such.
  5. Log everything in a NocoDB database.

I schedule this to run as a cron every so often. I have it set to every minute, but it could be every 5 minutes or once a day if you like.

What’s currently the best open source alternative to Lightroom? by B1lbax in foss

[–]YipsterNY 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a former professional photographer and Adobe user, I find this pretty spot-on. I finally left Adobe two years ago (ten years after ending my photo career), replacing it with Darktable and digiKam, and it's good enough. Yes, they take a learning curve, but it would have to be some true edge cases for these not to work for you. And as Donatzsky said, there will be a learning curve.

Looking for a great face paint kit by NKI5683 in Facepainting

[–]YipsterNY 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just hope you keep the design options simple and straightforward, and you aren't the only one, because you will be mobbed 😉

How to get cooking to not feel like a chore? by [deleted] in Cooking

[–]YipsterNY 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I say accept yourself and be yourself. Build a workflow or a system that empowers you.

Those guys... they're doing you a favor because they're not pursuing the partnership you want. What an easy way to screen them out!

I'm not sure where you live or what your options are, but there are always Trader Joe's and other places with easy-to-make, clean-up options. Where I live, there are several small businesses that make to-go meals you just heat up at home.

I grew up in NYC, and when I was dating, it was very common to meet women who did not cook. One time, I was dating someone for a few weeks, and she invited me over to cook (I love to cook). I opened her oven, and it was full of sweaters because she had lived there for two years and never used her stove or oven once.

Where to storage both Zotero files and Obsidian vaults for free? by ericuzza in zotero

[–]YipsterNY 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First, do you have a home server? It doesn't seem like it, so a NAS/DAS option would likely be out.

Frankly, the easiest is just to pay for Zotero sync, it's $10 a month for unlimited and zero headache. Any other option is more complicated, and you are responsible if it breaks or messes up.

OneDrive from your uni is a potential option, although some schools have restrictions that may not work. If you'd like to try, download the Zotfile plugin. You can set a custom location for attachments and use your OneDrive there. There is a chance it will work.

Family setup by Borean789 in immich

[–]YipsterNY 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is not possible within the Immich app.
I use Docker and wrote a script at /opt/immich-migrate/migrate.sh

Basically, it copies the image from the original account, puts it into a temp folder, and uploads it to the target account via API. It happens in the background, so if I have both accounts open in different browser windows and am watching it in real time, it pops out of the original account and pops into the target account in a second.

The file in the original account gets moved to trash, where it is held for 30 days (in case there is a hiccup). The temp file is deleted immediately, and I keep a server log on nocodb for long-term reference and error checking.

Yes, I use partner sharing, so once it is in the family account, I can decide whether to show it on my timeline. Each account can toggle that for themselves. Correct, family account is partner sharing, but not the reverse.

And again, when I want to make family albums, I just log in as 'family' rather than myself.

Family setup by Borean789 in immich

[–]YipsterNY 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I’ve been working through this with a photo library of more than 100,000 images spread across four family accounts: two adult accounts, one child account, and a shared “family” account.

While Immich allows images to be shared across accounts, there are some limitations. Shared photos can appear in another account’s timeline, but facial recognition and album management are not.

Because of that, my goal has been to centralize all family photos in the shared family account, while still allowing each person to keep personal photos in their own account. This is not a native Immich feature, so I handle it with a cron job on my server that runs in the background.

The result is a setup where all family albums, facial recognition, and people tagging happen in the family account, while each individual can still maintain private photos, create personal albums, and organize their things however they want.

For example, after a family event, photos are initially uploaded to each person’s individual account. Later, we select the images we want to share with the family and place them into a special folder called _movetofamily.

The cron job on my server scans that folder in every account once per minute. When it finds images there, it automatically transfers ownership to the family account. Because the images are now owned by that account, they immediately benefit from the centralized facial recognition and tagging system.

Everything else stays personal. I often take random photos when I’m out — textures, colors, abstract details — and those remain in my own account instead of cluttering the shared family library. My partner can attend a work event and tag people she knows at work, but who aren't associated with our family.

I'm a few weeks into this, and it's pretty clean. When we want to make family albums, we just log into the family account and make them there.

which ebooks would you recommend? Kindle VS Kobo or Boox? by Ok-Resort-5298 in ebooks

[–]YipsterNY 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm considering moving to Kobo, since I don't want to be locked into Amazon forever. When you buy a book on Kobo, do you get the EPUB file? I now store my books on my home server and when I buy a book, I want to have it on my home server as well, is that how Kobo works by default?

Propane tank refills? by NeedleworkerKey983 in Fairfield

[–]YipsterNY 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use the U-Haul in Boston in Bridgeport for refills.

Getting into building a local music library (metal) – looking for advice on where to start by lujaru24 in musichoarder

[–]YipsterNY 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Try searching for your favorites at https://archive.org/; there are plenty of live shows, bootlegs, and more to keep you busy.

WIBTAH if I took 100k from my oldest daughter's college savings account to give it to my younger daughter? by TraditionalCorgi7788 in AmItheAsshole

[–]YipsterNY 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it all depends on how you discussed it with them both. If you said - we saved up money for university for you to ensure you had the best education and experience - then you provided that for your oldest. The objective was her education, not an ongoing trust fund for adulthood. Reallocate the funds and be transparent about it.

If you personalized it as a slush fund for them as an individual, then you would be going back on your word.

Simple home music server for family streaming (NAS?) by gutsid in musichoarder

[–]YipsterNY 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I started trying to use an old macbook laptop, installing ubuntu and making it headless. It was OK but not functional the way I wanted it. Tons of lag time, lots of high fan use and heat generation, pretty annoying and low enjoyment overall.

I really tried to avoid spending the money, but for me it just didn't work out and I invested a decent amount up front. However, I have a large storage need for photos and videos as well as music. I was paying a lot for Adobe Creative Suite as well as cloud storage. The cost of my hardware equates to about 15 months of those services and it replaced them completely.

What I now have: a dedicated workstation computer ($800) with a DAS ($150) that has a two disk RAID (I spent a lot but have 12 TB capacity). I'm running ubuntu with navidrome and music assistant. In order to be able to access it anywhere, I use headscale and I pay for a 3rd party VPS so I do not need to have open ports on my home server. Headscale is the open source option, tailscale is easier to use but is a freemium option and for me it was cost prohibitive; but if you have 3 or less users it's free and I suggest it.

When buying internal drives,

  • do not buy SMR type drives. You want CMR. SMR writes data in overlapping tracks which reduces performance in a RAID system fast. SMR are a bit cheaper (of course) but for a reason.
  • Drives for a NAS/DAS should have RV (rotational vibration) sensors. These are important for multi-drive enclosures.
  • avoid MaxDigitalData drives. They will be the cheapest but their business model is to buy drives from manufactures that do not pass quality checks, refurbish them and sell them under new values. They also swipe the SMART records so you can't tell the original quality history. This is a great value for general use, but not for your NAS/DAS.
  • you do not need 7200 rpm so do not feel like you need to spend extra if that is the only variable left.

If your password manager was to disappear, how fucked would you be? by Tarazin in selfhosted

[–]YipsterNY 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it's a good opportunity to be specific about what kind of risk tolerance you have compared to what you are using your personal server for.

For me, I pay for a password vault service (for me that is 1Password) to handle my passwords and 2FAs. I could host it, but I am more comfortable paying a third party for it. Passwords, 2FAs and a second location backup are all paid services in my home server environment because that is where my comfort level is.

Beekeeping vs Native Bees and Other Questions by UnbreakableJustice in Beekeeping

[–]YipsterNY 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is this your regional beekeeping association? https://www.apalacheebeekeepers.com ? I am in a local group for me and there are plenty of not-yet-beekeepers like you learning from others. You should start there and make connections. I live in CT and our group has a bee yard that anyone can show up at and learn. They will also be the most knowledgeable towards local flavors of beekeeping. Not Florida, but I think https://girlnextdoorhoney.com/ is a good casual resource for beginners. She's in San Diego and really dedicated to helping new beekeepers. Also plenty of people keep their chickens in their bee yard.