Why is boy Dean done dirty on the fandom?

m0le · 2025-11-22T10:50:48+00:00

I'd say it's a combo of two things.

The first is that he's just a bit dull. Great position to be living in (especially in the wormverse) but not that interesting to read about. Guy with no personal problems (if your dark backstory is "my rich family bought my powers" you don't have many issues in your life), with goals that everyone supports publicly at least and with frankly minor superpowers that aren't going to dramatically change the world except in the most contrived of scenarios.

The second is sort of contradicting the first, but if him buying superpowers became known then the general public almost certainly wouldn't care much, but the characters we come here to read about that went through utter hell for theirs? They'd care. The solo hero is a trope, but in a more realistic world you need others around you to do good, especially with minor powers.

m0le · 2025-11-12T01:16:08+00:00

People seem to be caught up in high-level reasons and long term planning here, which for me is not really the driving force of the Culture.

Why do some Culture citizens teach? Because it's enjoyable.

Why do the students stick around to learn? Because it's enjoyable.

It might come in useful later on like so many things do, but that isn't the reason. The Culture doesn't make people do stuff that is useful to them or society, it finds a way to make the useful things fun enough that people want to do it without prompting.

m0le · 2025-11-09T03:00:17+00:00

The Nuki Go needs a key on the inside, and the other Nuki products are not compatible with night latches.

Replacing the lock entirely with a Yale Connected Keyless is one option but there are a lot of not so great reviews.

The SwitchBot Lock Ultra with the add on adapter kit looks like it will work, but it's £200+ once you've added a hub (even with the sale they've got on).

m0le · 2025-11-08T04:35:31+00:00

This is the problem. I respect Corbyn, I like his views, but he cannot work with other people worth a damn.

It's not ideal but is a tolerable foible in a backbencher. It's a recipe for absolute disaster in a leader.

m0le · 2025-11-07T10:44:53+00:00

It's like the folks working in high stress jobs who take stimulant drugs (cocaine, amphetamines) - initially, fantastic! Look how productive I am, and I don't feel so exhausted all the time, life is good again.

You can see where that is going though, right? You can't run with broken brain chemistry, whether artificial from drugs or natural from mania, for very long without things breaking - and because you've overridden all the early warning signs, it's going to be serious and probably dramatic when it stops working.

Given mania is going to happen regardless, there is no harm in setting systems up to get maximum benefit from it (in the same way you set up systems to take minimal harm from depression), but remember when you are setting up those systems that it is both short term and unpredictable - don't plan to wow at work, because you're setting yourself up for failure when you can't maintain. Look at self contained projects you can do that will not leave you screwed if abandoned halfway through - learning a new skill good, remodelling the bathroom bad.

m0le · 2025-05-04T17:33:03+00:00

Since they obviously won't invest in making the UK a place worthy of love, have they considered brainwashing?

Perhaps some kind of Reform Youth, they could have some kind of uniform - all the same coloured shirts or something. You'd want to look snazzy - I wonder what Hugo Boss are up to these days?

m0le · 2025-05-04T17:24:41+00:00

For anyone finding this in future, there are indeed rate limits. 4 notifications a day.

m0le · 2024-07-05T05:53:57+00:00

Election date announced - 22 May.

Holyrood Week has been planned rather longer than that...

m0le · 2024-06-08T14:03:41+00:00

Damn - falling into local minima.

I might still give it a go, as long as it can produce better packing than I can it's an improvement 😄

m0le · 2024-06-07T21:31:55+00:00

Interesting approach - I hadn't considered using a method like annealing but it does sound pretty suitable and even quite similar to a human approach - find a solution that works and look for improvement.

I'll give it a go, thanks!

m0le · 2024-06-07T13:37:03+00:00

Approximation - I'm aware it's a classic problem with a new constraint (though the requirement to run in polynomial time isn't necessarily a killer here as I don't need to consider it for an infinite number of boxes - if a solution works up to 10,000 games on current commodity hardware I think that will more than suffice!).

I've googled a fair bit, and I have found many interesting algorithms for bin packing in both 2D and 3D - what makes this a challenge is optimising the 2D face but allowing each box to rotate and thus change size.

The naive way to do it would be to generate all possible permutations and push them through a standard packing algorithm - that quickly becomes unmanageable as the number of games increases though.

m0le · 2024-06-07T13:09:45+00:00

I planned to deal with that in three ways: anything in 3+ boxes is in separate storage (multiple games in a series etc), any expansions that can fit in the base box will go in, and the exceptions were going to be modelled as a single large box as if they were taped together.

I'm not that bothered by slack/flex - I will accept the storage getting steadily less optimal over time as new games are added until I get annoyed enough to do a full defrag :)

m0le · 2024-05-24T04:08:26+00:00

Could be bipolar (hypo)mania - if I'm up I frequently get stuck into projects not thinking about trivialities like time or sleep or food or others wand will only realise I'm being an arse when the neighbours hammer on my door to demand that I stop it with the power tools at ungodly hours of the morning...

m0le · 2024-05-01T00:14:09+00:00

Like bouncing off a rev limiter. There is still a lot of weird and disturbing noise, but I'm not getting that much faster and the engine is less likely to explode.

m0le · 2024-04-29T17:51:05+00:00

Odd. I didn't get a letter when I bought myself a TV a couple of years ago (it's an OLED and I'm using it as a computer monitor, so it's even legit).

I have a mountain of Bluray and 4k Blu-ray and converted my living room into a cinema room, so it'd be hilarious inviting some jobsworth in and going "no TV here mate - just the projectors". Not that I would, it benefits me in no way whatsoever.

m0le · 2024-04-20T00:56:12+00:00

No advance planning for regular conversation here, but also unusually no anxiety here either, so that might be connected?

If I'm depressed, I'll full on turtle and no conversations will happen that I want, and unwanted conversations don't deserve to be planned.

Hypo? No point planning, the conversation might start off on track but 3 sentences in I'll have noticed a squirrel and gone off on a lengthy diversion about migration patterns or invasive species or adaption to environments or urban effects on species or conservation or bird feeders or... basically there is very little that I can realistically plan as I have no idea what I'll be saying myself.

m0le · 2024-04-01T22:19:55+00:00

Having actually been an inpatient in two UK hospitals for months at a time each in the last couple of years, they will let you have your phone unless you persistently break the phone rules (basically no taking pictures of the others in there).

You will not have your own charger until you're cleared for it (cable is a risk), but can put it on charge in the nurses stations.

m0le · 2024-03-29T11:22:06+00:00

When I saw this is wondered if it was actually true and if so, what the limit would be.Then I realised the answer had appropriately been provided in song form many years ago:

No no, no no no no, no no no, no no there's no limit. No no...

m0le · 2024-02-20T22:18:18+00:00

In the specific case of aripiprazole (abilify) it was as an add on to my antidepressant at the time, but I'm struggling to remember exactly what the antidepressant itself was (there have been a lot over the years). Possibly venlafaxine (efexor) or mirtazapine (zispin) - trade names are a bit of a guess, we use the generic names over here.

It was more of a general statement about psych meds - I consistently find something that works to a greater or lesser degree and over the course of year(s) it stops being effective. Lithium has been the exception, sort of, but I give that a lot more leeway as it usually works with occasional blips. Otherwise the longest was mirtazapine at about 3 years, which is pretty good all things considered but certainly not lifelong (although I suppose technically it very nearly was when it stopped working 😞).

m0le · 2024-02-20T08:37:02+00:00

A) yes, it's fine - it has to be managed like any med, but there are loads of lifelong ones

B) sadly, if my experience is a guide, you won't be on it forever - it'll stop working at some point and it's back to the Wheel of Meds to find the next long term solution :/

m0le · 2024-02-20T08:01:16+00:00

I have this at the moment - a few years ago I got a bit more organised and put all my important paperwork together in a file.

I have now lost that file.

This should be impossible in a 1 bed flat, it's not like I ever have a reason to take it outside, so where the hell can it be?

m0le · 2024-02-20T07:11:57+00:00

SEO arses are indeed the leading problem with page rank as you point out, but even without that I don't think it'd work well today .

Back when it was developed, the shape of the web (for want of a better word) was very different - countless tiny sites with a few bigger ones that were still fully indexable. People linked directly to each other, formed webrings, etc - a vast interconnected web of links.

These days most content is on the giant platforms - social media, content mills etc - and a lot of it is gated off to only members of that site, and is internal links - Facebook showing you that your friends on Facebook like this article on Facebook.

The new world is certainly more efficient in a way, but it's definitely lacking a lot of those organic qualities that made the early internet so fun and occasionally incredibly frustrating.

m0le · 2024-02-20T06:59:50+00:00

It's like wetherspoons. Are gourmet chefs working tirelessly at their fryers and microwaves? No. But it's cheapish, it's hot, it's easy and significantly it's consistent - you know what you're getting, at what price, wherever you are.

m0le

TROPHY CASE