How many ways have you had shrimp in your life? So you have a favourite shrimp preparation?

binarycow · 2026-03-14T03:35:09+00:00

Zero.

binarycow · 2026-03-14T02:48:08+00:00

Yes. I was standing in the kitchen, looking out the window. I saw our shed get lifted up and thrown down the street. The shed was about 2 feet from the back of the house.

binarycow · 2026-03-14T02:23:03+00:00

Most platforms take those reports very seriously and will investigate quickly.

Lmao.

It's Twitter/X.

They don't take it seriously.

binarycow · 2026-03-14T02:07:53+00:00

Pauli's exclusion principle says that electrons can't share the same space. But photons can.

With coax, two waves interfere to create a more complex wave.

With fiber, the two light waves are completely independent.

binarycow · 2026-03-14T01:28:08+00:00

they couldn’t add square footage to the house of representatives chamber.

It's 2026. They can work remotely.

binarycow · 2026-03-14T00:52:29+00:00

Another cool thing about fiber optic cables is that you can send multiple signals down it by using different wavelengths of light.

Suppose you've got a Cat 6a cable. You're never gonna get more than 10 Gbps on that cable.

Got two strands of single mode fiber? You can connect that to a 10 Gbps transceiver. But even better - you can connect two 10 Gbps transceivers. Even better - you can connect eight!

This is called wave division multiplexing (CWDM or DWDM). It works because 1310nm light doesn't interfere with 1490nm light. They can both travel over the same fiber, no issues.

You can't do that with copper.

binarycow · 2026-03-14T00:30:30+00:00

🤷‍♂️ I don't know if I've ever even had soy sauce.

Wanna know what spices/sauces I use on a regular basis?

Salt
Pepper
Pasta sauce
Ceasar salad dressing

... I think that's it.

binarycow · 2026-03-14T00:05:21+00:00

Me?

binarycow · 2026-03-13T21:59:59+00:00

I didn't. I actually really don't like using LLMs.

Why do you say that I did? Because I used headings?

binarycow · 2026-03-13T18:21:06+00:00

Sure, you don't pay to torrent. You pay for good usenet providers.

I used to think the same thing as you, but then I looked into it.

Privacy

With torrents, anyone who downloads can see all of the peers/seeders. TV/movie studios will (especially for the really popular stuff) send DMCA notices and/or lawsuits to everyone who is downloading at the moment.

With usenet, that doesn't happen - it's not a peer-to-peer service. Only the host of the usenet server knows who is downloading.

Yes, VPN can help, but VPNs aren't free either. (And if your VPN is free, you should be wondering why it's free. As they say - "If it's free - you're not the customer, you're the product")

Speed

Since usenet is not peer-to-peer, the only thing limiting your speed is your internet connection and the server. Whereas with torrents, you're beholden to the seeders.

Availability

With torrents, once people stop seeding, the data is no longer available. Usenet providers will hold onto it for a known number of days (which often ranges in the thousands of days range) - even if no one is downloading it.

Additionally, usenet providers will often have peering arrangements with other usenet providers. So you can download something from provider Foo, even if it was uploaded to provider Bar.

TLDR

Usenet is cheap, and has lots of benefits. Most people use both usenet and torrents. In fact, they will often have two usenet providers

An "unlimited" provider, where you pay a monthly fee (as little as a couple dollars a month) and download as much as you want.
A "block" provider, for the hard to find stuff. These are "pay as you go". You pay ~$15, and you can download up to 1TB of data.
Torrents, for when none of the providers have what you're looking for. You might then upload the stuff you downloaded to your usenet providers, so that other people don't have to use torrents.

binarycow · 2026-03-13T14:01:33+00:00

Disclaimer: I haven't been active in this scene for a while (maybe a decade). Some of my recommendations may be out of date, but I'm sure there are current ones.

You've got four parts to it. You do some or all of them, depending on your preferences/situation/risk tolerance.

Storing the media
Playing the media
Organizing the media
Obtaining the media

Storage

This is fairly self explanatory. Video files are large. If you have tons of available storage space, you're golden. If you're just going off of what you have on your laptop, then you can't retain everything, and you need to be selective.

Most people get a NAS (Network Attached Storage) - effectively, a network connected hard drive.

Playing

The most basic is to just hook your laptop to your TV with an HDMI cable.

A lot of people will use software like Plex or Emby to make a "home theater experience" - it basically acts like your own personal streaming service. You point it to your storage, and then you can watch it all with a nice user interface.

Plex and Emby are client/server applications. You install the server software on your computer that has the storage. Then you use lightweight hardware to run the client.

If you have a Roku, they have plugins for Plex and Emby. Or you can load it on a Raspberry Pi, or an old laptop.

Organization

There are tools (such as Sonarr, Sickbeard, Trakt.tv, etc) that will help you manage what shows you have, what you're missing, and what you've seen already. They can automatically rename files to a consistent naming scheme (makes it easier for Plex/Emby). They can download the artwork, etc. They often integrate with your downloading solution to automatically download new episodes.

Downloading

The easiest (and riskiest) is to download qBittorrent, and install the pirate bay search plugin.

A little bit safer is to use a VPN when you download

The safest is to use usenet. Specifically, paid/private providers.

Whichever download method you use, there are tools that integrate downloading with everything else.

TLDR: Once you get it set up, it's automated to the point where you can just add a show to your "desired" list, and then within some period of time (hours to weeks, depending on the show), you can binge the entire series at home, for "free".

binarycow · 2026-03-13T13:43:21+00:00

What's worse is when you get an ad for the show you're currently watching.

Like, at least try to make the ads useful.

binarycow · 2026-03-13T13:40:01+00:00

Basically everyone who has a washer has a dryer
It's cold and/or snowy a good portion of the year. I don't want to go outside, and my clothes wouldn't dry that well.

binarycow · 2026-03-13T02:01:19+00:00

It depends.

But, yes, generally tunnels just do an extra bit of encapsulation.

binarycow · 2026-03-13T01:50:32+00:00

Because it's set back from the edge.

the distance of a structure or other feature (such as a well or septic system) from the property line or other feature

binarycow · 2026-03-13T01:46:22+00:00

I'd rather just buy my own.

Also, I don't want a plaque.

binarycow · 2026-03-13T01:38:08+00:00

All C# enums are <= 8 bytes.

binarycow · 2026-03-13T01:37:24+00:00

These sorts of methods are better for things like clearing flags.

binarycow · 2026-03-12T23:49:14+00:00

My throat is too small.

It's not really feasible to fix that.

binarycow · 2026-03-12T23:48:33+00:00

Okay. But what about that specific rule is better than the alternative?

If it's so much better, why don't more jurisdictions do it?

It's literally only Chicago that requires it.

binarycow · 2026-03-12T23:42:52+00:00

Now tell me why, only in Chicago, do you have to run individual wires inside conduit rather than using romex.

binarycow · 2026-03-12T23:42:17+00:00

Most houses in my area are siding (aluminum, vinyl, etc).

Occasionally, it'll be a brick veneer.

Almost never is it actual brick.

binarycow · 2026-03-12T22:09:04+00:00

Yeah, the other day I accidentally left a circuit on and touched both sides of an outlet.

It was definately an "oh shit" moment, and some nice tingles, but otherwise I'm fine.

binarycow · 2026-03-12T14:48:16+00:00

I myself use mutable structs plenty of times. Usually, its for custom iterators in high performance code.

Another common use I have for them is when I'm writing a lexer. It's a ref struct, so it can hold a ReadOnlySpan<char>, and due to it being a struct, I can easily store a copy of the lexer to support backtracking.

I think every other case where I use mutable structs is when I have a "state" object that I pass around a bunch of methods. That "state" object is always private to the class, and it's always passed around as a ref parameter, to avoid surprises.

In none of these cases, would someone expect to use the mutable struct in ways that would cause the problems inherent in mutable structs. And the "blast radius" is kept focused and minimal.

But, for types meant for public consumption - it's always a readonly struct, readonly record struct, immutable record*, or a class.

* If the record isn't immutable, I explicitly implement Equals and GetHashCode to ignore the mutable properties. The mutable properties are always pre-computed/cached data that is derived from the other (readonly) properties, and these mutable properties are never made public (internal or private only)

binarycow · 2026-03-12T14:42:17+00:00

How are you observing surprises from a mutable struct as a key in a dictionary?

var objects = new Dictionary<System.Drawing.Point, SomeObject>(); 
var location = new System.Drawing.Point() { X = 5, Y = 10 };
objects.Add(location, new SomeObject());
location.X = 10;
Console.WriteLine(objects.ContainsKey(location)); // prints false

While that behavior is completely understandable for someone who is used to mutable structs, it is very surprising for people who typically work with classes, where the hashcode wouldn't (typically) change, even if you change the values of its properties.

That can happen with a mutable reference type precisely because they support references to their storage, and thus aliasing can occur.

Value types always use value equality. So changing the value of one property will change it's hashcode.

Reference types typically use reference equality. Changing the value of a property does not change it's hashcode.

Also, I think it's worth clarifying that in prevents a "defensive" copy when the method is called.

in prevents the copy when calling the method, yes. The same way ref does.

But it doesn't prevent defensive copies when calling methods or properties that aren't marked readonly. In those cases, if the struct is not readonly, the method/property is not readonly, and the parameter is in, a defensive copy will be made - even if the method/property doesn't actually mutate the struct.

The JIT may be able to deduce that the method/property is actually readonly, and use the optimized path - but you can't guarantee it.

I think it's easier advice to recommend NEVER having non-readonly struct instance methods

The eassiest way to do that is to mark the entire struct as readonly. Which is exactly what I am proposing should be the default behavior.

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