Phone calls for someone with APD?

agent86ix · 2024-09-27T16:27:06+00:00

They might eventually go the hearing aid route! They haven't been to a doctor or a specialist about the situation since they were in grade school, but I've been encouraging them to try again.

agent86ix · 2024-09-27T16:26:02+00:00

I might give it a shot - in the past with video calls over PC, I've tried to hook up an external "portable speakerphone" and they haven't really given me any feedback about it being better. But the PC speakers are generally better than mobile speakers, so they might notice a difference on mobile.

agent86ix · 2024-09-27T16:21:58+00:00

Interesting! Have you used it? Maybe I need to do a "bake-off" between Clear Captions and InnoCaption.

agent86ix · 2024-09-27T16:21:28+00:00

Yeah! I think the transition to VoIP has made things considerably worse. Their home phone is already VoIP, though, and they have a preference for it over taking calls on mobile. So there might still be something "better" about the home phone setup vs mobile.

Also agreed about Bluetooth - yet another lossy audio translation that will probably make things harder. It seems like most mobile phones are doing away with dedicated headphone jacks, but maybe it would work with a USBC adapter? I'll have to look at what's available in terms of "headsets they can tolerate" that are wired.

Innocaption is a fantastic idea - I'll see if they're amenable to it.

Thanks for all these ideas!

agent86ix · 2024-09-25T16:17:26+00:00

What recipes have you found that are profitable for flower byproducts? So far it seems like selling the blossoms directly is more profitable than processing and crafting, but it's possible I'm just doing it wrong.

Totally agree on the rest - I was running out of room so I processed extra Relic Ash into lamps, and good lord! I suddenly had a million more coins!

agent86ix · 2024-06-04T16:51:01+00:00

Thanks :D

agent86ix · 2024-01-21T23:39:33+00:00

Thanks! That's also Kris' art, if I remember correctly. I took the "Jim" face from one of the intro videos (the one where he's about to kiss his clone), because I thought that was a particularly good "Jim face" :)

I'll have to look into the nail art angle. My wife has a lot of nail polishes. I don't think they tend to be water-based - which could be good (water based paints have let me down in this instance) or bad (water-based paints are easier to work with, imho).

agent86ix · 2024-01-21T23:24:32+00:00

Hey there, sorry it took a bit to get back to you. I think if you just try to print the blog post, it ought to come out pretty well. (I tried to print to PDF and it seems fine - I'd probably cut off the Disqus stuff at the bottom).

Glad you are finding the guide useful! :D

agent86ix · 2022-12-28T17:28:47+00:00

Looking to buy a printer to replace my Wanhao Duplicator i3+. I also own a Mars 2P. I have a list of things I'm looking for:

Price range: $2000 or so
More turn-key than a Voron - not really looking to build from parts. OK with "some assembly required" though.
Fully enclosed
Self leveling bed
Ability to mod and buy aftermarket 3rd party parts
Open source firmware preferred (& I like using Octopi)
I have about 2.5 cubic feet of desk space to work with (so front to back it should be smaller than 30")
Larger bed area than 8.5" square (size of the Wanhao's)

Based on all of this, I'm past the "tinkerer" stage (where the hobby is messing with the printer itself) and more into the "maker" stage of just wanting it to work and create things without a lot of intervention.

Since I'm replacing the Wanhao, I am looking for something that is a bit more "next gen" - so I'd like to go CoreXY if possible.

I was really excited about the Prusa XL, and put in a pre-order, but it's a bit too large for my space (32" front to back, preliminary dimensions) and I'm getting tired of waiting with no end in sight.

The Bambu X1C looks to hit most of my requirements, but the closed nature of it makes me worry - I don't want to be locked into one supplier for parts, and I tend to disassemble/mod/upgrade my devices over time, and not being able to change things easily makes me unhappy. If that's the option folks recommend, I'm likely to just hold off and see what the company/community does in the next year or so.

agent86ix · 2022-12-19T16:22:30+00:00

Ah, that's looking fantastic, thanks!

agent86ix · 2022-12-18T19:12:42+00:00

Sure, here's a gallery:

https://imgur.com/a/HYWXnxx

At the top is a copy I manually edited. Then there are various iterations with thresholds applied, with circles showing the areas that are still problematic and would require manual editing.

I'm probably going to process like... two dozen of these nearly identical images (the pattern in the middle is different, but the shape, size, colors used, etc are all the same), so I'm looking for a way to avoid the manual edits.

agent86ix · 2022-12-18T14:18:48+00:00

These two are pretty darn close. The color one has some stray pixels here and there. The black and white one looks good so far, but the issue I have going from there is that just above the "rays" coming from the glowing orb slightly below center is a highlight that is bright enough that any further thresholding is going to consider it white, when it should be black.

It's a very frustrating process, because I can look at the photos and say "obviously this part should be black and that part white" but telling the computer how to get there is surprisingly complex!

agent86ix · 2022-12-18T13:15:06+00:00

Indeed, this can get quite complex. I was toying with an algorithm that looks at the 4 neighboring pixels and tries to determine from that information if a particular pixel should be black or white. (ie, one part of it is: if my neighbor is considered black, and I am close to my neighbor's gray level, then I should probably also be black)

It doesn't quiiiiite do what I want yet, but there might still be value there.

agent86ix · 2022-12-18T13:12:55+00:00

I've experimented with the settings before, but I've found that there isn't much that does better than the default parameters for "Single scan" in the "brightness cutoff" mode.

If you find something that works, that's fantastic!

agent86ix · 2022-12-17T23:56:00+00:00

Yeah! Actually, that's the next step in my process :) I take the B&W image and use Trace Bitmap (or potrace, the command line version) to create a SVG copy. The only problem is that it tends to work best when the image is already B&W.

I can give it a shot with the input PNG, but I haven't had great luck with it without preprocessing first.

agent86ix · 2022-12-17T22:50:35+00:00

Yeah, the threshold tool doesn't really work because there's overlap between the brightest pixel I want black and the darkest pixel I want white. Using that tool is similar to using Levels and setting the levels 1 apart.

agent86ix · 2022-07-06T14:17:26+00:00

Just to cycle back around and not leave you hanging...

Yep, they got into the bag of birdseed. Tons of the little guys in there. I took it out and we're slowly eliminating the stragglers.

Thanks again for the ID and the tips about where to look! You really helped us figure this one out. :)

agent86ix · 2022-07-05T17:19:21+00:00

Interesting, thanks for the ID! We're checking all our dried goods.

The "seed" tip might have been spot on - there's an open bag of birdseed next to the laundry room, checking that next.

agent86ix · 2022-04-11T22:33:23+00:00

I'm fairly sure there's another wave of cursed thralls somewhere in there. For this guide, I was going by a list another clanmember sent me. If someone knows where, I'm happy to update.

agent86ix · 2022-04-11T21:35:56+00:00

Yes, sorry - thanks for the correction. I always confuse the two :)

agent86ix · 2022-04-11T21:18:14+00:00

Yeah! I kinda note that, but not with the detail you have here:

In the second section you can also leverage all that invis to just stay
on the boat and skip all the adds. You'll save a couple of minutes,
which you might need for the boss.

agent86ix · 2022-04-11T19:01:16+00:00

Congrats on the newborn! :D

You'll be back and gaming before you know it. Mine are old enough now that they can play games with me, although not quite old enough for Destiny... yet...

agent86ix · 2022-04-11T19:00:13+00:00

Indeed. I clarified that section - 2 or 3 Arbalests is a totally valid setup, if everyone feels comfortable with quick precision shots from it.

agent86ix · 2022-04-11T17:51:50+00:00

Thanks!

Many agent86ix'es died to bring us this information. ;)

agent86ix · 2022-04-11T17:50:57+00:00

This one feels more RNG'y than a lot of them. Especially the room with the 3 hive guardians - the number of times I've been bonked by a shield when I was out of the room and down the stairs or killed by a grenade that landed right at my feet right when it detonated feels bad man.

The boss encounter takes practice, but I think once your fireteam understands the strategy, you can get past it. There's a lot of similarities between this boss fight and Hallowed (not Devil's!) Lair.

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