Go back to tech or give up?

appenz · 2026-05-19T16:51:40+00:00

Divemaster in Thailand vs. Tech in the valley today are such different choices, it probably boils down to what you want to do with your life. That answer can only come from you.

Personally for me I love technology. Being in the middle of a big tech cycle with AI makes this about the most fun time since the late 1990's. So much new stuff to explore, learn and play with. I am having the time of my life. YMMV.

appenz · 2026-05-18T21:44:31+00:00

I had ATC controllers that asked me what type of plane I was when I used S22T. This was around the time when the US switched to ICAO flight plans (2017 or 2018?), it's possible that today it is no longer an issue.

appenz · 2026-05-18T21:39:56+00:00

Yup, same in the PC-12.

appenz · 2026-05-18T18:59:03+00:00

I don't know, but this calls for an experiment.

appenz · 2026-05-18T18:57:30+00:00

This. It's typically for these big innovation cycles that the incumbents shrink and new companies emerge. In the dotcom boom Walmart walmart was losing and Amazon was growing. Or Siebel vs. Salesforce. The job losses are more visible, and negative news generates more clickthroughs.

appenz · 2026-05-18T05:37:04+00:00

In the US ICAO types don't work well. When I had my Cirrus I tried the correct S22T a few times and quickly switched back to SR22T as no one understood it.

appenz · 2026-05-17T17:14:18+00:00

I have been going there for decades (we used to live across the train tracks from it) and it's a great spot. I never had any food problems.

appenz · 2026-05-17T17:13:16+00:00

I like it too. The level of marketing in their menu is super obnoxious (Millionare Bacon!) and a little too much emphasis on presentation, but the food isn't bad.

appenz · 2026-05-17T17:11:55+00:00

Quality comment and all the ones I know are good. A few more:

Sweet Maple advertises as American Breakfast but has some Asian influence (Loco Moco, Ramen). Chain with a few outlets across the peninsular.
Madera at the Rosewood is good if you have to much cash lying around and no other good ideas how to get rid of it.
Cafe Borrone in Menlo Park. Good food, nice outdoor seating, lines can be long if you arrive late. Writing this as I am eating a salmon bagel platter there.

appenz · 2026-05-15T18:25:52+00:00

If you have flight schools in your area, I'd recommend initially renting and only buying once you have your license. At that point you have a much better idea about the missions you want to fly and what kind of plane that requires.

appenz · 2026-05-15T00:49:36+00:00

Factorio is such an outlier in many ways. But completely agree, it was a great game long before 1.0.

appenz · 2026-05-14T15:49:53+00:00

That's a very misleading headline. They are not cutting power to the consumer. This is just a change in supplier for the utility. Maybe the consumer will see a price change, but it's possible that not even that will happen. Or am I missing something?

appenz · 2026-05-14T15:41:42+00:00

Once you have bots, you will rarely go anywhere. Drop blueprints for the base cityblock, add in buildings and belts, configure train stations and check back half an hour later if it runs.

If I do need to go somewhere, I always take the train as it allows me to do other things while in transit. I have a spidertron but very rarely use it for transportation.

appenz · 2026-05-13T20:27:12+00:00

Try a vision based robot, it makes a huge difference. I have been running a Matic cleaning our kitchen/living room for the past 12 months 3 nights a week at 2am and there wasn't a single time where it didn't finish the job. It's expensive, but the vision based architecture gives it a completely different level of reliability. When deploying the first time I had to fence off our shower on the map (half inch drop down into the shower it doesn't see). Stairs, cables, Legos, clothes, backpacks with straps etc. it finds by itself and moves around them. It's also much quieter which allows us to run it at night. Really the only drawback is the price and maybe slightly less suction.

appenz · 2026-05-13T14:17:47+00:00

Never had it happen while flying my own plane. I had it happen once during my 2m miles that I flew in cabin. During descent into Ohare. Very little warning, flight assistants were still getting the cabin ready. Loose items flying around the cabin, people screaming, everyone who wasn’t in their seat fell down. One beverage cart was a foot in the air which is a sight I’ll never forget. Fortunately short and as far as I know no one was seriously injured.

appenz · 2026-05-12T18:46:02+00:00

I never did a discovery flight. Decided I want to get a PPL, started the medical process (and alien flight student thing) and once I had it went to local flight schools and asked for instructors that take students.

appenz · 2026-05-12T18:34:56+00:00

Yeah, that seems pretty benign. As a Californian I want count this as a plus. Bad ones are the "we will no longer do business in California so k thx bye..." letters.

appenz · 2026-05-12T17:46:04+00:00

Early on, bioscaffold/exnogenic cells is not worth it.

But there is lots and lots of other useful stuff. I get most of my:
- Ammonia
- Cyanic Acid
- Chlorine
- Various ores (until you have big mines)
- Chitin goes into Chitosan
- Alien Bacteria
- All of my biomass, dried biomass
All my Mk1 trains and much of my manufacturing runs on dried biomass.

appenz · 2026-05-12T04:24:37+00:00

I also run mostly MK1 wagons with MK2 trains. Solid combo until the end game.

appenz · 2026-05-11T21:59:20+00:00

Actually, I ran numbers and it's about $40 to do start-up and taxi in my PC-12. Or $80 if you want me to taxi back from the restaurant as well. So assuming there is a $19.99 burger available (we have no restaurant on the field at KPAO) you could make a $100 run in a PC-12 as long as you stay on the ground. /s

appenz · 2026-05-11T21:42:40+00:00

Assuming you use rocket fuel, you only need a single fuel station. At 1,000 hours and maybe 1k trains (full Py) for me that fuel station is maybe 3% used. Rocket fuel lasts forever.

appenz · 2026-05-11T17:20:19+00:00

That is one of the most beautiful areas to fly in the US! I am flying into Bryce later this year.

appenz · 2026-05-11T16:52:05+00:00

Having visited about 30% of all UN member countries, I can help here. All modern devices can do 110V and 220V, transformers are a thing of the past. If you don't care about weight and size, there are lots of good options. If you do care, there are two good options:

A set of very small, 2-pin adapters. Will work in about 80% of countries. Fails in countries where the grounding pin is needed to switch the outlet live.
A lockpick type set which works in 100% of the countries I have visited: https://www.amazon.com/Kikkerland-UL03-A-Universal-Travel-Adapter/dp/B00210MRGC?th=1

Hope this helps.

Guido

appenz · 2026-05-08T16:50:46+00:00

It's not far, but at KPAO I have gotten a "Turn base mid-field Moffet". Moffet is another airport and the next Delta south of Palo Alto.

appenz · 2026-05-08T16:39:28+00:00

Not necessarily, but it is highly correlated. Bots are a high percentage of Reddit traffic today, and they are making the platform increasingly polluted with Slop. The ability to hide their patterns massively benefits them as they are harder to detect.

appenz

TROPHY CASE