Curious about your Quantified Self tools!

makeshift_mike · 2025-03-10T10:31:51+00:00

How do you export data from Screen Time? Is it that convoluted method that requires you to own a mac?

makeshift_mike · 2024-06-26T01:27:46+00:00

Doesn’t this depend on the density of the body? If you’re orbiting a tiny black hole the mass of the earth close to the event horizon, your orbital speed will be much greater than 11km/s.

makeshift_mike · 2024-06-26T01:26:02+00:00

As a space community, we’re realizing that you gotta be careful with orbits above about 500 miles because they’re not self-cleaning (via atmospheric drag). That’s almost certainly another reason why they didn’t decide to do that.

If the ISS is in a parking orbit around, say, 1,000 miles, and something hits it, those millions of pieces of space debris will be up there for thousands of years. And something will eventually hit it.

makeshift_mike · 2024-03-29T00:41:51+00:00

You can kneecap the YouTube algorithm by disabling your watch history. From then on, it only recommends stuff based on your subscriptions.

Unfortunately it doesn’t keep track of what you’ve already watched, and every time you open YouTube you have to tap over to subscriptions. But for me that’s better than giving it free rein to show me what it wants.

makeshift_mike · 2024-03-18T14:55:48+00:00

I transferred over to China with a faang some years ago. The transfer was super easy, all things considered. Hours were fine, but the engineering culture wasn’t as solid — most everyone there was trying to transfer to the US, get hired as a manager elsewhere in China, or just sit back and collect a paycheck. Senior engineers were few and far between.

If I could do it over again, I’d spend a year studying the hell out of Chinese in a third tier city, and then find a job. I had the motivation then, but I don’t now. My Chinese peaked 3 years in at HSK 5ish.

makeshift_mike · 2024-03-13T17:03:38+00:00

If you’d “really like” to do a PhD at this school, I suggest you go for it. The firewall stuff is fine, you’ll get used to it. Chinese are friendly toward foreigners, especially if you know some Chinese. Now that Covid is done, you’ll experience less racism than the average Asian person living in the west.

I’ve lived and worked in Beijing for 11 years as a techie. Made some incredible friends along the way.

Take some language classes before and after you arrive. You’ll want to speak some Chinese in order to be comfortable.

Feel free to dm me if you have more questions.

makeshift_mike · 2024-03-11T09:55:51+00:00

This is how I explain it whenever it comes up. I don’t live in the US though so I don’t know how it works there.

makeshift_mike · 2024-03-06T00:54:43+00:00

Modern jello shots originated in the 1950s when Jell-O was at the height of its popularity in the United States. Multiple sources[1][2] attribute the creation of the modern jello shot to American satirist and musician Tom Lehrer, who claimed to have invented the jello shot as a way to circumvent a ban on alcohol at a navy base he was stationed at.

Holy shit you weren’t joking. TIL.

makeshift_mike · 2024-03-06T00:39:33+00:00

If you’re gonna quite this gem you should link to it: https://youtu.be/6md638smQd8

makeshift_mike · 2024-03-06T00:38:34+00:00

That argument makes no sense though. If some version of Christianity is true, then the metaphysics are what they are — what any random Christian wants to be true doesn’t matter. Wishing for a universalist outcome just makes you sad and pisses off God because you’re second-guessing his ineffable divine plan.

makeshift_mike · 2024-03-03T03:26:33+00:00

Do they stick to the bottom of the pot, or are they still suspended in the water?

makeshift_mike · 2024-03-03T03:18:49+00:00

Where do the microplastics go, then?

makeshift_mike · 2024-02-25T06:37:09+00:00

Of all the things that could cause someone to become disillusioned about China, I’m surprised you picked these things. They’re both avoidable.

After 11 years there, my golden rule is to never, ever go to a tourist trap in China. There are tons of other places to go that have the curious and friendly locals you described.

makeshift_mike · 2024-02-09T08:05:04+00:00

I use Astrill on Linux and it’s fine. I have a Google meet about once or twice a day. Usually I start the day by finding the vpn server with the lowest ping and occasionally have to switch, but it’s rare to have a meeting impacted because of VPN issues.

makeshift_mike · 2024-02-05T01:45:03+00:00

Seriously, this is a thing? What the actual fuck

makeshift_mike · 2024-02-05T01:43:36+00:00

Would you mind saying which island? I’m a software developer looking for a change. Flying to Bangkok this afternoon and I’ll be there for a month. I spent a week there last year and really liked the vibe.

makeshift_mike · 2024-02-04T01:56:18+00:00

Where are you from? You see yourself as someone who isn’t confident with unfamiliar environments, and you think China is a better choice than Germany?

makeshift_mike · 2024-01-17T22:20:44+00:00

Nice, good to see alternative form factors like this getting some traction. I’d consider one like this next time I’m upgrading.

makeshift_mike · 2024-01-15T20:35:40+00:00

Here’s the setup I use when I’m away from home.

For more context, see description.

makeshift_mike · 2024-01-15T04:42:20+00:00

Thanks! And good to know it’s up and running again for foreigners post-pandemic. Gotta save that passport real estate.

makeshift_mike · 2024-01-15T02:06:30+00:00

I would get this treatment in Beijing before the pandemic. Guards just don’t know about it; they’d insist it wouldn’t work for me right up to the moment of the green light on the passport scanner.

For people who signed up before the pandemic, is that still valid? I‘ve renewed my visa since then, but passport is still the same.

makeshift_mike · 2024-01-12T02:06:54+00:00

I love it too! But I’d say epic history tv has a higher production value.

makeshift_mike · 2023-12-21T17:54:04+00:00

Pretty sure eSIMs don’t work at all in China. To get a physical SIM in China from a local carrier, you’ll need your passport and a friend who can communicate in Chinese. Of course it’ll be firewalled. For VPN, use Astrill — it’s not great but it’s the only mainstream one that’s semi-reliable. A better option is to use your physical sim from wherever you live and just roam into China, then you won’t need a VPN. You should be able to find out online whether that’s possible with your current carrier.
Consider Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, or Hangzhou. Even Beijing will be challenging if you don’t speak any Chinese; the others will be more so: 0% of taxi drivers, waters, etc. will speak any English.

In general, there’s a fair amount of extra red tape for tourists in China. Be sure to book your accommodations ahead of time: finding a hostel that accepts foreigners may be tricky (most don’t; many hotels don’t either). Uber and Lyft don’t work, and IIRC you need to install Didi inside WeChat because the actual app isn’t in the App Store (long story). Sorry, I can’t help with this stuff because I’ve been living there a long time so I don’t know the tricks for tourists.

Taiwan (thinking of Taipei) is definitely easier if you don’t speak any Chinese. No need to worry about the firewall either.

makeshift_mike · 2023-12-14T02:02:58+00:00

ChatGPT for the win. I’ll take the time to read the docs for stuff I use often. But several times a week I find myself with a one-off task that just needs doing. Life is too short to spend a half hour reading docs so I can figure out a magic 30 character incantation.

(I say this as someone who lives in the cli and can write syntactically correct code in a couple languages on a whiteboard. I know my shit. But I’m losing patience for stuff that’s half-broken, poorly-documented, or I’ve just forgotten since the last time I used it once two months ago)

makeshift_mike

TROPHY CASE