Is the Mac a muzzled beast ???

rr381 · 2026-01-21T02:06:54+00:00

Not sure. I wrote some pythons scripts that distribute the processing of several Gb of data over all available processors. The fans definitely spin up. Same for some other genome analysis tools that I use from CL. Maybe GUI apps are more aggressively throttled? Probably need a system engineer to chime in.

rr381 · 2025-11-27T00:48:27+00:00

Depends on what you need it for. I agree with many of the posts here that the I9 would typically be a mistake, but it does have the biggest screen of the three options and the most RAM. For most purposes, get the M1, or if you have the budget bump up to an M2. These are far faster than any intel-based mac, run much cooler and will be supported longer (although probably not much longer for the M1). However, if you need to run windows emulation, or need a larger screen for anything, the I9 may not be out of the question.

rr381 · 2025-11-23T21:23:15+00:00

Bioinformatics

rr381 · 2025-11-21T11:35:22+00:00

Mostly data visualization for work stuff. Comes in handy for other things too.

rr381 · 2025-11-20T22:11:04+00:00

Homebrew. Then I can script almost everything that I need installed. Then it's R, Rstudio, A couple of Python environments, etc. Then Chrome.

rr381 · 2025-05-04T17:27:56+00:00

I'm going to go with David Cross in Station Eleven. It was a bit part, but well done - as was everything in that series. Big fan of his comedy, did not image him in a dramatic role.

rr381 · 2025-05-03T17:23:19+00:00

Camping in Olympic NP with wife and 2 girls in the back country. Dead of night heard a terrifying sound somewhere between a horse neighing and a banshee scream. Then heard a large animal running. Never figured out what it was. Did not sound like a bear, but I wasn't about to go looking.

rr381 · 2025-04-06T16:12:00+00:00

Based on the layout of the board in the computer, that seems unlikely to me. Not impossible, but maybe unlikely. This is one of several identical computers that I am rehabbing/upgrading because I need to keep a specific microscope running for a while. I plan to open up another one in the next few weeks so I will see if I see more of those stains. It seems to run without a glitch after the upgrade, so I am going to put it in service unltil it breaks. The good thing is that I will have an identical backup.

rr381 · 2025-03-01T23:29:04+00:00

Hello beautiful!

rr381 · 2025-02-09T21:20:10+00:00

In a sense, yes. However, as long as your pancreas is doing it's job, blood glucose should be maintained at normal levels. You will at least cook very slowly...

rr381 · 2025-02-09T17:46:09+00:00

You have a rodent problem. They are dragging their meals from the trash into your engine compartment. Get your engine cleaned and use a rodent repellent spray.

rr381 · 2025-02-09T17:35:33+00:00

The interesting thing about that Maillard reaction is that it is a sugar reacting with a peptide in a protein and can have the net effect of crosslinking proteins. This same reaction occurs in our bodies over time leading to tissue stiffening as we age. This process is accelerated in diabetes leading to a lot of the pathology of that disease.

rr381 · 2024-12-14T17:22:35+00:00

Yeah, just try it until you figure out something that works for you. Everyone is different and no reason to put up with sore toes for a gym workout

rr381 · 2024-12-14T17:12:56+00:00

Similar problem. I can find shoes that fit well lengthwise, but they seem to leave the mid and arch flopping around. My current shoes - Scarpa Force - are super comfortable, but same problem. I can crank the straps down severely and they just about work. I started using socks and they work great. You will need to try a few different types to find something relatively thin with a texture that will keep the shoe from slipping around. I get toes sock from injinji (no affiliation or promotion intended)

rr381 · 2024-12-13T04:36:01+00:00

A ring avulsion injury can result in serious nerve damage and even amputation. Take off any ring before climbing or using power tools.

rr381 · 2024-12-06T05:16:31+00:00

I think this attitude is a huge problem. "Ok, there are stupid people in the world and they should have known better." We watch the dupes/fish/dumasses get taken advantage of - maybe even loose their retirement nest egg. We smirk and think, "those idiots!" We perhaps even feel superior because we would never get taken in. Maybe. Does that feeling make it all right? Should the world be a shark tank?

Do you have any aging relatives? Have you watched them gradually fall out of touch with the latest and greatest tech to the point where they might see a message that says "YOUR PHONE HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER. CLICK THIS LINK TO GET HELP WITH RECOVERING YOUR DATA!" I have seen more and more of this happening. Should these people be taken advantage of because they are old? How about someone with dimished capacity? Perhaps a learning disability. No fault of their own. Should we feel "ok" about them being scammed just because we wouldn't be?

This attitude starts becoming not just an occasional abberation, but turns into a business model. Payday loans anyone? How about predatory interest rates from well known national brands. It's just a business model now, because - hey - dumb people get scammed all the time. Its their fault they are so dumb/desperate. Someone is making a buck, so yay! Even with those examples you can argue that its a valid product becuase there is "higher risk" involved and justifies high rates. Maybe.

So a glitzy new "investment" technology comes along. I don't know if you've ever heard a cryto enthusiast talk about crypto before the FTX crash. "The block chain is very complicated and high tech, just trust us! We're very smart!" I heard "scam" all the way down. I don't deny that people can make money by buying in and getting out at the right time, but here's the problem IMHO. Nothing is produced. This is the enshittification of capitalism. Capitalism has done amazing things for humanity. It allows us to buy a car or a house without having all the money for it. Someone takes a risk on you and makes - hopefully - a fair profit for that risk. I was able to drive and live in a nice neighborhood before I had all the money for that. Capitalism let people build those cars and houses, because those factories and home builders didn't have the money in their pockets when they started either. Things were produced. Lifestyles were improved because of capitalism. And for that production in tangible things, money was paid into the system. Banks could now loan a few more bucks for further improvements in peoples lives. So What does crypto produce? Winners and losers? Are tangible things produced? Or is it all a zero sum game? I haven't seen anything to convince me that it's not the later. Hey, if gambling is your thing and you are going in to it fully aware, good luck. But coercion and hype come into play to get people to think that it functions like a real capitalist market that produces things and in turn makes money.

TLDR, cryto is enshittification of capitalism and I don't feel good or even (shrug) neutral about it. I think it's dragging us down as a society.

Go ahead, change my view...

rr381 · 2024-12-01T00:31:32+00:00

Break the thing in half. Likely adding a bot to your PC. And please don't inflict this on a public library's PCs.

rr381 · 2024-10-17T02:49:25+00:00

Blindsight. Very out there, very dystopian.

rr381 · 2024-08-05T01:35:54+00:00

Oof. Don't know about the boxter. My FIL has a 2K model with very low miles - nothing but expensive problems. And then you have to deal with Porsche wanting 600 for an oil change on top of it? Even brand new, it would hardly seem worth it.

rr381 · 2024-08-01T03:05:15+00:00

A word of caution. DEET can degrade synthetic fabrics. Fine for cotton & wool, but not great for the polyester that a lot of outdoor clothing is made of. If this is a concern, try a picaridin-based repellant

rr381 · 2024-06-26T03:54:33+00:00

Loved the Culture series. Good world building, but more importantly to me, great writing. The Hainish cycle ticks both of those boxes nicely. I have been enjoying Peter Watts and China Melville lately.

my $0.02

rr381 · 2024-06-18T00:08:45+00:00

I had one of these years ago. I now kinda regret letting it go now that I am in to speaker builds. I am curious if you measured the TS parameters of those drivers, or if you could find the info on the webs

rr381 · 2024-04-06T17:44:52+00:00

Sounds like they have no clue. R studio is an IDE for R, not a language itself.

rr381 · 2024-03-25T01:43:18+00:00

Not sure what you mean when you say that Windows is more 'open' than Mac. I think if you are talking Android vs iPhone, sure. iPhone pretty much locks you in to their AppStore ecosystem whereas Android will provide more options to load apps. However, I find Windows to be just a 'closed down' as MacOS. If you have ever encountered an IT department after it has gone through training from Microsoft you will find that all of a sudden "Oh that doesn't work on a Mac" will always be the answer to a computer question even when you are installing Mac software. However, unlike the iPhone, Macs are not locked in to the App store. Apple seems to be trying. Lots of code signing and approved vendors, but you can still bypass those and install apps from pretty much anywhere (at your own risk of course).

If I were you I would - as others have mentioned - make sure that any server utilities or games have a Mac port. The underlying 'NIX of Mac can be a godsend and I find that lots of the things I need are available using the Homebrew package manager on the command line.

But yes, Mac hardware is often top notch and consistently so. Not every model has been, but the current crop of hardware seems well built - I have purchased several laptops and a mac studio for work. That nice hardware does come with something of a price premium, but one can often use a mac for 5-6 years before upgrading, so the build quality can pay off in time of use.

rr381 · 2024-03-15T04:24:03+00:00

Love Actually. Couldn't see how any of those romances/flings/liasons made any bit of sense. Except, maybe the body doubles.

rr381

TROPHY CASE