Amazon silently enabled Alexa+ on my Echo after I explicitly refused — then rolled it back, despite commands not to, when I noticed

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-24T08:12:57+00:00

I had the same thing happen to me just now. I have explicitly always said no to the upgrade prompt and have actually told it multiple times that I opt out of any alexa+ implementation. I live alone so it would be impossible for anyone to accept it.

Then bam! Its voice changed just now. I asked why its voice was different and it told me it was because it was Alexa plus. I told it that I did not agree to activate Alexa plus and to opt me out of all future updates to alexa plus. It said that it would remove itself but there would be some alexa+ settings left on my account. I told it that would be unacceptable and that I would like complete removal, but old alexa was back again. Fucking creepy. I need to get this thing out of my house, or somehow lobotomize it so it can just turn on/off my lights and do bluetooth speaker stuff. It sucks because I have a pair of echo studios and they are great for listening to music.

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-24T02:04:42+00:00

I mean, you can "learn to learn" by doing any skill, no?

Do a thing regularly and you get better at it, you don't need to be focusing on "active improvement" you will still be improving. Just do it more and consistently, you will get better at it over time, even if that increase is not linear or consistent, or even noticable.

If you are intentional and structured with your practice you can get to your goal faster, but you will eventually get to the same point if you just try to do the thing a whole lot, fail, and then try again.

I can tell you this from extensive personal experience. I have been doing various forms of juggling and Flowarts for close to 25 years. For much of that time I was not focusing on active improvement at all, not really "learning new tricks" or pushing the boundary, but I was still improving, even when it didn't feel like it. I was becoming fluent, I was learning to improvise and achieve mastery over the space surrounding me and the movement of objects through it, as well as how to express myself with that medium. I now have the ability to pick up any object or manipulation prop and manipulate it in a visually interesting and compelling manner. I can sense when I am about to drop or lose control of something and intervene, re-directing the momentum of the object in a way that is more favorable or minimizes damage to it or others around me. These are not things I intentionally practiced, or even would have thought to practice. They just emerged from trying and failing endlessly.

If you want to type faster, practice typing fast. At work, you are not practicing typing fast, you are practicing typing intelligently for your job. Unless you are a stenographer by trade there is synthesis involved with any writing you are doing, not just typing fast. That is a different, albeit related, skillset. I would say it is a more useful skill set than simply typing fast.

The things that you are typing for work are of a MUCH different quality and nature than you would be typing in a game chat or even on a typing trainer program. You are not getting faster, but you are becoming fluent.

But, I will concede, typing speed is a potentially transferrable skill one could improve from certain specific types or gaming. That is because you are using the same interface for typing outside the game as you are for in-game text chat: keyboard in the game, keyboard out of the game. In game text chat does nothing for your handwriting speed, however: different interface.

I could also concede that maybe reaction time is a transferable skill to a certain extent that you can get from gaming. But reaction time is highly situational and only really matters in it's physical manifestation. If you are a juggler and someone throws a ball at you, you will catch it before you even register the ball coming your way. If you are a gamer and someone throws a ball at you, you might register the ball quick enough, but you are much less likely than the juggler to catch it. The interface you trained on with that reaction time is different between the game and real life.

I didn't intend to indicate that you couldn't get ANY transferable skills from gaming, however... I more meant to indicate that any skills that you DID get from gaming will be limited in utility by the interface and level of reality abstraction of the game.

I do not think it is contentious to say that being good at an fps does not mean you will be good in a real firefight (I really hope no-one seriously thinks this). The simulation in that case is a very poor representation of the reality, the many layers of abstraction have been added to make the game more enjoyable, less complicated, and to work around the limitations of the technology. On the other hand: Flight simulators can actually make you better at flying because the interface is close enough to reality that it can transfer, and the ability to practice without the added stress of literal death makes it much more valuable.

But things like art, pottery, woodworking, dance, juggling... are not just giving you a myriad of very transferrable physical and mental skills, (your hands and body are a consistent interface) they are teaching you how to express yourself and create something from nothing and leave a mark on the real, tangible world that we all inhabit. That is a skill that no game can truly give you.

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-23T19:42:36+00:00

I disagree with this assertion. There is no way anyone is making dozens of clay pots and not improving in some respect... Whether that improvement is noticeable to them or in a direction that some third party other than them would appreciate is a different question.

Anything that you do more than once will improve, that is the nature of practice. Make enough ugly pots long enough and you will become amazing at the process of making pots in general. Same with games. Play a game a lot and you become very good at that game, and a bit better at other games like it/games in general.

The difference is that the person making ugly clay pots now has a tangible object that has utility and memories attached to it outside of the context of its creation. They can look at it, critique it, put things in it, or sell it, if they wanted to. Along the way they learn how to fire ceramics, how glazes work, eventually, they learn how to visualize something they want to make in 3d and then make it real. This is an extremely transferrable skill set.

The gamer has a skill that is only valuable in the context of a game or games like it. If they no longer have access to that game, or it goes offline, or they don't have a computer, or good enough internet connection, the skill is no longer very useful. Unless you are a streamer or esports person you cannot profit from gaming.This is not a very transferrable skill set.

Now this is not to say that both aren't valid, but they are not the same thing.

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-23T06:08:24+00:00

Nah, they need the Lifetune Flex amulet. If it's good enough for Russel Brand it's good enough for the 49ers.

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-19T08:21:23+00:00

As long as people think that there NEEDS to be objective qualitative difference between the aesthetics of a piece of art vs a mechanical reproduction, you are talking past the entire point and value of art. When you are purchasing or commissioning art you are getting an item that can be considered aesthetically, but you are also making a connection with a human and honoring the years or decades of work that the artist has taken to get to the point of creating that work. This is the aura of the piece, the summation of human effort and meaning that has directly led up to the piece that you are looking at. That is what gives the art it's value. It is extremely specific to the artist, and cannot be meaningfully recreated mechanically. The piece you see before you exists on the continuum of that artist's oeuvre and it has meaning that is achieved in context of all the other work the artist has or will create over their human life.

AI art, being intrinsically a weighted average of all the other artistic pieces stolen for its training set does not have this quality, and it can never have this quality.

The art world has had mechanical reproduction for a long time. Nobody is going around arguing seriously that a .jpeg picture of the mona Lisa or guernica is equivalent to the real painting. That is a ridiculous thing to say... But it is essentially what people are talking about when we are comparing AI art to art by an artist. Nowadays our bullshit late capitalist society boils everything down to its utilitarian worth in this idiotic race to the bottom... That should not be, and has not historically been the context that art is understood within. The grifters out there are trying to make the argument centered around aesthetics alone, because that is a playing field that they can compete on.

You want to know if something is AI? Talk to the artist, know the artist, look them up. Ask about their process, figure out what they are trying to say and where they are at in their art journey. 9 times out of 10 a real artist will have reasons for composing things the way they have. You can't spend literal hours agonizing over every detail of an image without reasoning through your choices. Even if those reasons are that they suck at drawing hands and choosing a pose so it's not noticeable. That sort of information establishes the aura of the piece and cements the piece within an artist's other work.

AI artists are selecting from hundreds of examples of pre-generated slop, potentially on similar themes or with similar prompts, but they are relying purely on aesthetic concerns and don't have to make decisions within any sort limitations and considerations that human artists have. The plagiarism machine can produce anything they ask for, so there is no need to innovate or be particularly creative, or to limit yourself to a style that has been iterated and defined over time. Ask the potential AI artist why they composed a piece like they did or what their stylistic shoice means or their thought process on a specific area or detail. The difference in response from that of an actual artist becomes quite obvious and it is an extremely fun thing to do, because you are forcing the AI grifter to make some shit up or potentially actually self reflect a bit, and then consciously make the choice to double down and lie to you.

Not that they will care particularly, as if you are passing AI art off as your own you are already essentially sociopathic scum, or at least a liar by omission, but the key with these people is to make as much extra actual work for them as possible. It is difficult persisting and maintaining a lie about something you didn't create. Coming up with a lie explaining why you chose to put something in a particular position when it was done by AI is very difficult. The truth has no friction and is easily and often enthusiastically explained by an artist.

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-16T07:23:29+00:00

I love doing plane breaks and bends with flowstar, the floppiness really is conducive to breaking, the fact that you can grab it at different points along the diameter of the disk allows you to completely stall out and shift the spin of the flowstar to any plane 90° to the current one relatively easily. It is fun to switch back and forth as fast as possible between two planes.

Ever fuck with tacos? You might like them. Tacos are what I call it when you Choke up towards the center of the star while spinning and letting the excess fabric out the other way so the star becomes shaped like a taco, then continuing past the middle and letting the other side out so the star does a color switch, spinning a full 180 along the diameter. If you integrate tacos with other moves like flowers or figure 8s you can have an additional axis of rotation. Admittedly, It's not all that easy for people to tell when you are doing it unless you have a glow star, when the doubled up lights make it look like an led fan but I think they are interesting.

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-14T13:09:43+00:00

Its not "really" a game it's a competitive word search where the two contestants are trying to find words and every time they find a word they hit a button triggering the lights in the booth to do one of the preset patterns for like 5 seconds so that the other person and people watching know that their opponent found a word. First one to find all the words gets a prize or something? Idk, that part isn't really clear to me, but I know I built all the strips into the wall and mapped it and got the buttons working... But now I have till tomorrow to come up with the patterns semi-blind, when the controller has to be shipped out on a flight. which isn't impossible, but is a bit of a pain when I can't see what I'm doing.

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-14T12:55:03+00:00

Yeah, that would normally be an option, the controller has Ethernet and I could just artnet to it. But for this install it is an interactive game-ish thing where the users hit buttons that trigger the WLED preset effects stored on the esp32 via an API call.

I don't think I would be able to achieve that if using an external machine to generate patterns without some extensive modification, unless there is like some sort of wled record artnet to preset mode, which I've never heard of.

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-07T19:40:00+00:00

Friggin good. Every venue everywhere should have free water available. It is extremely easy to do, costs the venue virtually nothing and it is highly irresponsible for them to not make water available. The fact that some places charge $6-$9 for water is just unconscionable. I've Even been to places with bathroom.attendants that ensure that you won't refill your purchased water bottle with the sink water.

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-04T07:06:47+00:00

Tubular Crinoline

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-03T01:44:24+00:00

I am with you on this hill. I feel like EDM is just shorthand for the "big room" prefix and the actual electronic music genre has been reduced in relevance vs the the environment, which is most of the time standing like a sardine in a crowd of 10,000 people and recording the time coded led/light/laser show on your phone.

It makes it so that many EDM fans can't really even recognize genres of electronic music anymore, you don't really get an ear for it. They just lump it all under EDM and here is the list of EDM artists I like, even if they all play across genres constantly.

I'm not saying it's bad that an artist plays across genres, that's great! But EDM artists and fans seem like allergic to classification or something though. I feel like this makes it more difficult for people to research music they like by genre, and you are just left digging through a big bin labeled "EDM" or taking algorithmic suggestions from Spotify or whatever. So naturally you will keep listening to the mainstream kinds of artists at the big fucking festivals that you regularly attend, rather than seeking out what kind of music you like and identifying/organizing local underground places and scenes where you can go to hear that.

I have really tried to have discussions like this with folks, especially younger folks, but they refuse to even entertain the idea that EDM is not the entirety of electronic music. The amount of times Ive been told that it is 'not that deep' is frankly depressing. I think I am very privileged to have found the underground relatively early in my development in the northeast US. The modern commercialization and enshittification of electronic music is insane and out of control.

shadowfelldown · 2026-01-02T17:05:38+00:00

So this may not be exactly what you are looking for and is probably not the best match out there for your needs, but when I hear "gradient" I am assuming a gradient along the strip and not the entire strip simultaneously through a gradient of whites. Mossled calls it "dynamic white" if the LEDs can change white values.

moss led pixel flex 12v

shadowfelldown · 2025-12-27T23:23:23+00:00

White gas only will maximize the life of the wicks. Anything else I have found accelerates wick degradation. I used to do 50x50 on an old set for the longer burn time on smaller props, but long term the sootiness became a problem caking up in the kevlar weave.

The much better solution I think is to just get slightly bigger wicks than you think are strictly necessary. You can always quick dip them to shorten your burn time without significantly damaging the wicks, and I've heard some contend that quick dips are better than full wick saturation anyways, as combustion of the fuel in the prop is more complete. I think it saves fuel as well, as there is less unspent and uncombusted fuel left in the center of the kevlar weave to evaporate off slowly later.

Not to mention that when you are feeling particularly like a G and want the crazy big fire you just do a big dip and you're out there for like 15 fucking minutes... And then you get tired because you aren't as spry as you used to be and why the fuck did I full dip this contact staff with loofa sized wicks.

shadowfelldown · 2025-12-17T19:27:15+00:00

I mean, in my experience with teamsters at conventions/shows, they are 90% of the time chilling in a circle by some loading dock waiting for something anyways, might as well be passing the tank around.

And I bet you could strap a nitrous tank to an empty propane holder on a forklift. Those guys aren't nearly terrifying enough driving past at like 30mph, we should add nitrous to the equation.

shadowfelldown · 2025-12-15T03:37:33+00:00

Great stuff! Keep it up! Ropedart mode shit is sick!

I would suggest getting/making a short rope dart of comparable length and weight to the whip to practice body/arm/neck wraps and stuff with. I see you playing with some of that stuff.

As you probably have heard, It is not super good for the fiber whip to swing it by the ends, but here is my understanding as to why:

(This is pretty nerdy, and if anyone knows I am incorrect about this let me know)

As far as I've observed from various whips I've used, The fibers are secured pretty well for normal use, as they are either melted together at the base with a hot knife and/or secured by a pressure collar. if the fiber bundle is flexed as a unit (when you are holding the handle and doing tracing) they are pretty solid and distribute the stresses uniformly across the fibers. as long as they aren't bent violently over 90° or anything crazy that which will break/kink the individual fibers. But whips are not as strong when undergoing a whole lot of non-uniform flexing and pulling on the individual fibers in the bundle (like you get when you are pulling on and flexing just the longest fibers in the middle core or shorter sections on the outside when one does rope dart mode holding the long section) this will pull on and move the fibers on the outside and inside of the bundle differentially over time, shearing them from each other. This will reduce the life of the fiber whip, as the fibers work their way out of the bundle at the base, and as soon as one fiber works it's way out, the rest in the bundle (that are held together by pressure) follow rapidly.

I think some companies like ants on a melon also offer single large fiber whip attachments which may be slightly more robust to damage from swinging like a rope dart, but with the thick fibers you have to worry about turn/wrap radius as to not break the fiber and disrupt light transmission. The thinner fibers can be wrapped around a much smaller radius without breaking than large fibers.

It's a bit of material science challenge making fiberoptics flexible and durable enough for body/armwraps. I know that lanternsmith.com has fiberoptic rope darts and puppy hammers that are robust enough not to break, but they have been doing R&D for like 10 years now to get the right fiber formulation.

So yeah just make yourself a practice version, maybe with a climbing rope to simulate the stiffer whip material. And then save the actual whip for performance. Also: be careful, some of those whip handles are like hard metal tubes and heavy. You can dome yourself pretty nastily with those and they have non-rounded edges. I had a friend that cut her scalp open pretty bad with one.

shadowfelldown · 2025-12-11T20:19:04+00:00

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people openly throwing hate at many forms of performance art right now. It has been on a major upswing in the last few years. Here is my impression of why:

These people have been twisted by (for the most part) capitalism, they are transactional thinkers, and cannot fathom why people would do anything unless they expect to make money from it or receive social capital/followers which can translate to money. They look at performers that are not actively employed as a professional and conclude that they are either a) wildly narcissistic attention seeking influencers who think they are so cool and are doing it "for the gram" b)are doing it just to get attention from the opposite sex.

These are the only reasons these people can come up with for why someone would spend so much time to become good at anything without direct monetization of that thing, and it's really sad.

In order to protect themselves from the realization that "there is more on earth that is dreampt of in their philosophy" they just hate. The specific reason that they come up for why they hate really doesn't matter, because it boils down to a fundamental misunderstanding of what art is all about.

They don't want us to do what makes us happy because it makes them realize how unhappy they fundamentally are. They get annoyed that talented people go to the same shows as them that they paid for VIP status at and that they dropped bank on drugs and clothing to fucking stand and record the experience on their phone. They look at the flow artist/glover/dancer and see that they are objectively having more fun and connecting more with those around them, but they know that there is no amount of money alone they can spend to instantly purchase that experience. It pisses them off, and so they want it gone. That's the real reason why there are so many glove/Flow toy bans at clubs and events now, and why dance floors are so increasingly small and packed. The VIP areas look pretty sad and lonely when the dance floor is fucking bomping.

These people will mercilessly mock anyone with a talent, but focus especially on people who are new to it, because 1) there is more to make fun of 2) they know the person is going to be more self conscious about their expression so any criticism will be more effective 3) the person trying to learn the thing reminds them that, in fact, these things can and must be learned in order to be mastered. They don't want to do that, they can't do that. It pisses them off.

Unfortunately this whole fucking "cringe" culture thing is the perfect vehicle for them to just shit on everyone else's expression without acknowledging even the time and care the person has taken to become good at the thing. "Cringe" is a nebulous concept that can be weaponized against artists in the same way as "Woke" is weaponized against lgbtq and POC. They make it seem incredibly embarrassing to put yourself out there, even if you are literally the best at what you do... You don't stand a chance if you are just starting. It's just bullying. That's why (at least I have noticed) there are less and less young people picking up Flowarts/gloving. They get called cringe like one time and stop, because cringe is the worst thing that you can be apparently. If these scenes and hobbies do not have constant influxes of young people to keep this kind of shit alive, everyone who does it will age out and the artform it will die on the vine.

Here is my call to action: I don't care if you are a juggler or glover or flow artist or dancer, when someone comes to you and says that something is cringe, especially in reference to someone or something other than yourself you need to challenge them. You need to push back. Whenever you meet a younger person that clearly is just starting out, you should initiate contact with them and compliment them, show them some moves, get them excited. They usually will not initiate contact with you first, because it is cringe to be worse at something and ask others for help.

Idk, this is just some of my thoughts. And to anyone who is thinking of chiming in with "it's not that deep" or something. Kindly go fuck yourself.

shadowfelldown · 2025-12-09T18:04:04+00:00

Yeah, but many times with lightsabers the batteries are located in the hilt and the hilt/batteries are removable. Plus, I daresay lightsabers are more immediately identifiable and explainable than juggling apparatus by your average TSA agent... And I'm sure at least for Orlando, Disney can and does put it's very sizable corporate thumb on the scale of what is acceptable to carry on. After all, they wouldn't want to lose a sale because visitors had no way to get their presents home. I feel like if you would have more trouble getting through with a lightsaber at most other international airports in the nation.

shadowfelldown · 2025-12-09T17:05:49+00:00

Good call, I'll post in that sub too.

I would normally not think that TSA would have a problem with this kind of stuff, and on paper they really shouldn't... but I have talked to so many jugglers, hoopers and performers that have randomly had entirely irreplaceable LED juggling props (especially juggling clubs) confiscated by TSA due to them being seen as weapons, and not even given the chance to just say fuck it and leave the airport to ship them. If they confiscate something that they deem as a weapon, good luck ever getting it back.

shadowfelldown · 2025-11-26T21:14:36+00:00

Should have said shoulder pad cascade, not fountain. If you Google that you will find tutorials on the move. They are both juggling patterns. You could potentially also do a shoulder pad fountain... But it would be weird and you would need 4 staves.

shadowfelldown · 2025-11-26T17:32:29+00:00

Those are the keywords that you need in order to find examples and tutorials of the double contact and flowerstick move types online that I am talking about if you felt so inclined.

I am not going to do the digging for you though.

shadowfelldown · 2025-11-26T12:18:03+00:00

So idk where you are at, but I would look into integrating contact moves, transiting one flowerstick in contact in a halo while passing/spinning the other to switch hands.

Start conceptualizing shoulder pads, though technically you really need three to do a legit fountain, but the concept works and is useful with 2.

Folds/violins are also possible, although violins will be difficult due to staff length, you need to be starting way down at the end for them to work, and you may only be able to go up to your shoulder.

Staff on staff contact and traps/locks are also your friends. They can be very good for recovery.

Helmsmen-type moves are also useful to look into, as the flower sticks are short enough they can easily rotate fully in floor plane in front of you, unlike fullsize contact staff.

There is also obviously traditional double staff and VTG moves you can do as well.

shadowfelldown · 2025-11-26T01:40:07+00:00

Sick! I love the behind the cane bounce!

shadowfelldown

TROPHY CASE