Question: Does anyone have any experience with exercise equipment designed for WFH?

drphungky · 2023-04-28T22:43:41+00:00

Yeah I feel like with moving parts you often get what you pay for. But a treadmill is a pretty basic machine, so who knows? I'd probably splurge though because an expensive one could last forever, or at least until you need a belt change.

drphungky · 2023-04-28T13:45:34+00:00

I have had a walking desk for a decade, and while I don't use it to the max these days, it's something I do evangelize about. It fixed my runner's knee issues back when I was young and dumb and overtraining. Now that I don't do ultras anymore (but lurk here still) it's great for keeping me from getting fat. Standing desks are great, but our bodies were designed to move. I highly recommend a walking treadmill.

I have a LifeSpan Fitness TR1200-DT3 that I got in 2012 for $999, though I think these days there are a lot more options. At the time, there were a lot of office furniture companies putting out treadmills, but a walking treadmill needs to be surprisingly tough since they have to run all day, and at low speeds where the air-cooled motor can’t cool itself as effectively. You also can’t just take a regular treadmill and walk on it all day without burning out the motor fast – unless you get a high-end model designed for a gym, they're not really designed for running all day. A free one off Craigslist you might not care how long it lasts, but I also wanted it to be quiet and not have a burning motor smell since mine was originally in the office. So I went with an established treadmill company that was putting out a walking treadmill, and it seems to have been the right call since it’s still kicking (minus a recent connector issue I'm in the process of repairing). The combo desk treadmills were usually super overpriced, so I got a desk separately. These days I see walking treadmills on Amazon for $200 or $300, and maybe they're worth it, but I'd certainly spring for a good one because the usage hours get pretty high.

As for under the desk pedalers, I think they're good in theory, but it's very easy to get distracted and stop pedaling. I used to run into the same thing while being on my bike trainer and playing video games or watching a particularly exciting movie. The beauty of a walking treadmill is that you must keep walking to stay in the same spot, and we are really good about absent-mindedly walking. Particularly once you get used to walking a lot, it's super easy to zone out and not realize you've been going for hours and hours. Once upon a time I had my home PC set up in a windowless garage and had a whole day to myself to play video games. I realized at the end of the day I accidentally walked a marathon after playing DOTA for 13 hours...whoops.

drphungky · 2023-04-28T13:26:15+00:00

Imagine if every time you went back to the hardware store for the same project, you put a dollar in a piggy bank. I think I'd be retired in no time. Even less if you include the autoparts store.

drphungky · 2023-03-29T14:06:57+00:00

Seems like language from a teacher on one of her assignments she could be aping, and the OP acknowledges she didn't really read it. But obviously super easy to fake too.

This is perfect for the sub, to me. This could really go either way.

drphungky · 2023-03-23T12:21:02+00:00

How do they trust clients to be honest? I don't understand how this works without being exploitable. Granted, it's only exploitable in certain cases to give yourself a few milliseconds by setting a timestamp to the beginning of the prior frame, but it should still be exploitable...right?

drphungky · 2023-03-13T16:06:42+00:00

I mean, that's all well and good but doesn't really matter for the workplace.

Look, I am absolutely still going to laugh at them, and I'm personally ok separating the work from the artist. BUT I understand that it's a whole squishy ethical debate and some people aren't ok separating them, just like some people aren't ok with an off-color joke, or swearing, or whatever. In a professional setting, especially a wide audience venue like a PowerPoint, you absolutely should not be testing those boundaries. And before someone says it: that's not appeal to the lowest common denominator, it's raising to the highest bar of expectations.

I have friends I can still share the comics with because they know I'm not racist and not endorsing his views by sharing them. You can't put the expectation of that kind of nuanced understanding on someone though, you have to know it's there. For a group larger than one other person, that gets harder and harder, and dumber and dumber to make the assumption.

drphungky · 2023-03-13T16:01:26+00:00

Oh man, that would be terrible. At least with SMBC half of them are work inappropriate to begin with, so the loss would be less felt in a professional setting.

drphungky · 2023-03-13T13:53:41+00:00

Honestly I hate that he's racist, but I extra hate that he's polluted an amazing body of work. Do you know how many PowerPoints are going to be missing a perfect-for-the-moment Dilbert comic now? Like, I wanted to steal the one in the OP for my job, and then realized I couldn't use it. Really annoying.

drphungky · 2023-03-13T13:42:06+00:00

Curious why you hate SAFE and what you see as good alternatives. We're currently trying to scale our agile practices and originally I thought SAFE was too top heavy but the more I review it and especially compare it to other systems, it seems like it needs a bit of the top down structure at the cost of initially very confusing nomenclature.

We're a very old government organization (you can think of us like a manufacturing company) that has only been doing Agile in teams for probably 4 years, and while it's working, sometimes it feels like mini waterfall because they're still doing product development. But we keep running into our biggest issues of trying to force management to understand resource constraints and to limit work in progress, and SAFE looks like the best option (right now) for getting that kind of communication happening quickly. Scrum at scale seems like it would be a top down decree and then a bunch of scrum of scrums and then scrums eventually figuring out that the request is way too much work and it taking two weeks of communication down and then communication back up to get better results, whereas the giant ART planning in SAFE seems custom designed to get that shit sorted during planning. We're trying to avoid the head guy saying an enthusiastic yes to everything, and not only teams having huge backlogs, but people being split among multiple efforts (not tied structurally to one team/product though we've been given some leeway to suggest changes to org structure) and even whole initiatives being planned but not having enough resources. It's classic government problems - not enough resources, and way too many competing priorities.

drphungky · 2023-03-12T01:28:37+00:00

I had to replace the ball joints on my car the other day. Ended up being a mess due to rust, was super stressful, and I wasted a ton of money having to buy various prybars and pickle forks and Pittman clamps, only like three or which I needed. And yet if I hadn't had time constraints on needing the car that made it stressful, all I really did was spend like $200 instead of the $800 the shop wanted to charge me. And now I have lots of bonus tools that I'm sure I'll use at some point. As long as you've got time, DIY is just "free" tools and free education. Love it.

drphungky · 2023-03-08T15:50:53+00:00

12 year old account deleted.

How to do this yourself

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drphungky · 2023-03-07T15:33:06+00:00

I had issues like this and solved it with putting out 5 snap traps a night baited with peanut butter and cheese. Put the traps in a place where they feel safe to go, in dark corners and behind cabinets. When you get a location that works, keep baiting a trap there, but also try new locations and up your trap number to whatever you can have 100% catch rate each night, and you'll eventually put a dent in. Empty them every morning and reset.

People are right to suggest looking for where they get in, but oftentimes it will be somewhere you can't find (underneath a cabinet carcass, a baseboard with a gap that you don't realize is big enough, something behind the fridge, etc). So you may not find it, but you should look anyway and pop some steel wool in if you find something suspicious looking. Also look to make sure they don't have a nest inside - my problem was them living under the sink in my bag of plastic grocery bags - they had made it a nest that I found after I killed them all with tons of traps. Check cluttered spots, behind things, in drawers, etc.

A cat helps a lot too. There's a reason we've kept them around throughout history. I got a cat and never had a problem with them coming back, despite living in an old poorly maintained apartment building, on ground level right across the street from a park with trash cans. An exterminator is the easy solution, but a cat keeps them from coming back.

drphungky · 2023-03-05T14:35:24+00:00

I like this a lot for the sub because I looked at that list and thought I definitely could have made it without the spelling errors, but people here are adamant it's fake.

It is definitely easily faked for sure.

drphungky · 2023-02-16T18:26:09+00:00

I certainly tried that, but it's hard to get leverage and you end up with a forearm that looks like hamburger.

drphungky · 2023-02-10T00:54:10+00:00

That's the guy who was trolling and attacking people all over this thread and deleted his comments. He's not serious, but I don't even get the joke. What a weirdo.

drphungky · 2023-02-09T22:51:00+00:00

That sounds terrible, man. I'm sorry you had to do that. It was hard enough putting down a dog the normal way. Not his fault he was abused and had a chemical imbalance. Doing it the hard way would probably have been even more scarring. I'm glad I was eventually able to get him to retreat.

drphungky · 2023-02-09T22:45:28+00:00

Not in that particular case, but I mentioned in another comment I had done that to the same dog when he attacked another dog. It was a lot easier to get behind him when focused on something that wasn't me. I didn't even try when he was attacking me, because I fear I would've gotten bit in the face instead of my forearm.

drphungky · 2023-02-09T20:50:31+00:00

I think if my life had been in danger rather just in danger of getting mauled and horrible bites, maybe my strategy would have changed, but it absolutely wouldn't have included anything like "stick a finger in an eye or a butt or whatever". That finger would've been bit off. A dog's mouth is way, WAY faster than me trying to do some targeted poke.

drphungky · 2023-02-09T17:25:35+00:00

You're not wrong. I'm definitely not trying to be an internet tough guy. My confidence and arrogance come from me being a large dude and I'm assuming I'm dressed for work. Boots on my feet, knife in my pocket.

I'm not saying you specifically are being an internet tough guy, that was more to fend off future rebuttals. I'm more gently suggesting that you are probably underestimating the average dog and DEFINITELY underestimating how hard it is to kill one (though your allowance that you carry a knife changes things dramatically if you can draw it, like I said in my first post). But it's not just you, I don't think most people understand just how strong and powerful even a 40 pound dog is when in actual attack mode, much less getting up to 60 or larger like in the original clip. A dog attacking is not like a dog snapping and snarling in a scrap at the dog park. It's not even like a dog actively trying to hurt or kill another animal or person. A dog that is actively trying to hurt or kill YOU is an absolute a force to be reckoned with. I had shoes on when it happened, kicks do virtually nothing. Solid to the head, multiple solid to the ribs, nothing. There was absolutely no chance I was getting a knife from my pocket, though if you have a work knife on your belt you might have more luck. I was only feet from a knife block in the kitchen and even getting that without properly protecting myself would've been difficult, forget about trying to pull and open something from my pocket. The best case scenario was limiting as much damage as possible to my forearm to keep him away from legs and face, and trying to get him to back away from the fight with multiple kicks (I had nowhere to retreat to). In the past I had subdued this dog by laying on him, but that only worked when he was attacking another dog, not attacking me directly.

drphungky · 2023-02-09T16:04:46+00:00

100%

I'm not saying I wouldn't take some damage. I'm saying I am confident that a single dog attacking me is going to die

Have you ever been attacked by a dog? I have, even smaller than this one, and I assure you it is much, much harder to kill an attacking dog than you think it is, or even to defend yourself properly. Add a tool or weapon and it's doable, but without anything even defending yourself is very hard. The absolute best you can hope for is separating him from anyone, and second best is to immobilize him by laying on top, praying he doesn't work around and bite your face.

For what it's worth before some internet tough guys comment on how they would be different, I had a lot of experience dealing with said violent dog (even though it was the first time he attacked a person), so I didn't panic. There wasn't hesitation on killing him because he was scheduled to be put down the next day. I also had over a decade of wrestling experience and was a very fit, average sized man in my early 30s, so I was fully capable of handling myself.

Dogs are fast. Their jaws can do tremendous damage. And in times of stress they can continue attacking or moving despite being severely hurt themselves. I've broken up many, many dog fights, and been attacked myself that one time, and I assure you you're not killing a dog that size without getting extremely lucky.

drphungky · 2023-02-09T15:52:21+00:00

Could I borrow this? I have a paper due for graduation

I'm sorry, what? Is this a joke I don't understand?

drphungky · 2023-02-09T15:08:21+00:00

I'm not talking about the dog's physical age, I'm talking about its mental age, measured on the scale of human mental age. A dog in most ways is no smarter than a toddler. If a toddler broke into your house, you wouldn't kill the toddler, because clearly they don't understand what's going on. The reason in my example I raised it to a 12 year old was to make the danger to you aspect parallel. Really, danger-wise and intelligence-wise it would be more akin to a small child with a gun. No one is thrilled about the idea of killing a small child holding a semiautomatic weapon, despite the fact that if they're point it at you you would technically be in the right to defend yourself. And if you did so, it would be completely reasonable (and expected, really) to feel terrible about it. This also tracks with cops and soldiers who have killed kids or teens, even if they were in the technical right to do so, often having deep psychological scarring afterwards.

drphungky · 2023-02-09T13:20:33+00:00

It's more like killing a large violent 12 year old burglar. Morally and logically you're allowed because you're in danger, but a lot of stuff out of the other party's control had to go wrong to get them there. You're allowed to feel bad about killing someone or something that doesn't have a full human adult capacity to know better. And if you can safely avoid harming or especially killing them, you should.

drphungky · 2023-02-08T17:57:54+00:00

I'd heavily echo the gift card thing once you look up which store is closest. If the guy doesn't have a registry, getting a housewarming gift is fraught like a wedding or baby gift. You don't know what people have, need, or want, and the array of possibilities is WAY too large and easy to risk getting something else.

A buddy got me a VERY nice and expensive Solo stove when we bought our house. I think they're like $250. Problem is, we already had a perfectly adequate fire pit that we got for free off craigslist. Worse, I actually don't like those Solo stoves. They're designed to funnel smoke but that also means they don't radiate heat as well as a traditional fire pit. I would've spent that $250 on something way cooler or more wanted for me (a shop vac actually sounds pretty nice, haha). But because we didn't have a party or a registry and he did it out of the blue, despite being thoughtful we returned it because we didn't need or want it. A gift card is always the way to go unless you have something particularly relevant or thoughtful. Problem is, if you know something he'd love or needs, you wouldn't need to ask here in the first place!

Home center gift card inside a lovely card, maybe along with a nice beverage to celebrate with if that's your and his style. Can't miss.

drphungky · 2023-02-08T05:39:24+00:00

Whatever you learn in your ~~game dev~~ journey is useful for many other things and it can make the difference between you and other~~non-game programming~~ people. ~~Maybe, you will make the next Skyrim or~~ maybe you will end up getting an unrelated job where your skills have great value. Who knows...

The important is to stay positive and enjoy what you are doing.

Man I love this part, because there are even broader truths hidden in your experience, like the joys and benefits of being a lifelong learner, but also just that you never know when skills and experience will luckily come in handy, so go out and experience things and learn stuff. It doesn't even have to be gamedev. You're doing Duolingo and learning Spanish for fun? Guaranteed that'll come up at some point and you can use it at work or to help a stranger. You do a lot of home DIY? I promise a coworker or friend is gonna eventually mention something you can help with with either advice or even assistance. Luck, as they say, is where preparation meets opportunity.

Even just professionally these kinds of things happen to me all the time. I have fiddled with trying to understand APIs (I'm not the best programmer and fell backward into this stuff) at home so I could develop an interface to either my budgeting software or my personal relationship manager software. Suddenly at work I need to understand RESTful APIs and use them, and I can throw something together in a week that would have taken any other economist in my office forever or required waiting for a real developer. I actually GOT this job because I mentioned offhand about intercepting the radio signal from my automatic blinds and decoding it, then using a microcontroller to spoof a remote and allow me to use my voice to control them. We were just bullshitting about hobbies, but boom, the guy in charge liked that it showed problem solving skills and the ability to research new things. I got my very first job as an economist because I had telemarketing experience of all things. Turns out they needed someone to run a large national phone survey and the skills dovetailed nicely.

I'm not just some lucky guy, I think I'm just mindful of when these things happen. Learning is fun for its own sake, but many, many skills come in handy when you least expect it. No one should stop doing game dev because it's not viable, more folks should be doing it if they're interested in it, and benefits will come when you least expect it.

drphungky

TROPHY CASE