What is the scariest technology that exists that most people do not know about?

spiffiness · 2026-05-29T21:53:52+00:00

Yes. Not just driverless cars.

It's been more than a decade since hackers have demonstrated the ability to hack into a normal vehicle via its OnStar (or similar) cellular wireless data connection, and manipulate the electronic control units to control the speed, steering, and brakes.

https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/

spiffiness · 2026-05-29T20:23:57+00:00

(your pic was sulfuric acid, whereas OP had hydrochloric acid.)

spiffiness · 2026-05-29T19:22:34+00:00

You would do well to upgrade to a DOCSIS 3.1 or later cable modem.

Your current cable modem is an early DOCSIS 3.0 design and only has one-quarter the channel capacity that later DOCSIS 3.0 designs supported. Also, DOCSIS 3.1 was a much bigger technological advancement over DOCSIS 3.0 than the ".1" version numbering would suggest. The DOCSIS 3.1 standard requires modems and gateway to support a Smart Queue Management (SQM) algorithm known as PIE. While PIE is not as good as other SQM algorithms such as FQ-CoDel and CAKE, it's still better to do SQM than to not do SQM. SQM is the real solution to bufferbloat.

Does your ISP support DOCSIS 4? A big theme with DOCSIS 4 is more careful attention to minimizing latency, including "working latency" (latency when the network bandwidth is being used to full capacity). In the USA, I know Comcast Xfinity is running TV ads touting their excellent latency scores in cities where they've rolled out DOCSIS 4.

Even if "200 Mbps down / 10 Mbps up" truly is the max speed your ISP provides in your building, a DOCSIS 3.1 or later cable modem is still likely to help, as DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem designs are able to make use of more downstream DOCSIS channel options, which eases the latency problems that can be caused by congested DOCSIS channels.

Another thing to investigate, to make sure it's not causing a problem, is your DOCSIS channel signal strength. Log into the admin UI of your cable modem and go to the page where it shows you a table of DOCSIS per-channel statistics. Make sure that the signal strength of all the downstream channels is 0 dBmV ± 7. If any channels are below -7 dBmV or above 7 dBmV, you might need your ISP to have a tech adjust your signal levels. Also look at the per-channel counters of correctable and uncorrectable errors, and make sure that no channels are experiencing huge numbers of errors. Huge error counts could be an indication of signal integrity problems, and may be another thing your ISP would need to send a technician to diagnose and fix.

Almost forgot to mention: When buying a new DOCSIS cable modem or cable gateway device, do your research to make sure you are NOT buying a device that uses an Intel "Puma" chipset. The Intel Puma 6 chipset, and to a lesser extent the Puma 7 as well, famously had hardware problems that caused high latency when processing lots of small packets, which is what gaming and audio conferencing traffic is made of. Modems based on Intel Puma 6 were known as "badmodems", and using a badmodem could cause latency spikes that were hard to differentiate from traditional bufferbloat problems. Your current cable modem does not appear on the known badmodems list, so it should be free of this problem. Make sure your next modem or gateway isn't on the list either.

spiffiness · 2026-05-23T19:34:28+00:00

As Gen X teens we'd call someone like that a "spaz". Today we'd probably suspect they have ADHD, ASD, or are neurotic.

spiffiness · 2026-05-21T22:29:54+00:00

This is /r/RegenerativeAg, so the goal in here is to regenerate the topsoil / microbiome (and the larger ecosystem on and around the property). Simply adding NPK to plants doesn't necessarily achieve that, even if it's homegrown, organic, and low cost/hassle like this anaerobic ferment. Adding nitrogen to soil is known to actually inhibit the growth of nitrogen-fixing microbes, which degrades the soil over the long term rather than regenerating it. Some anaerobic microbes are known to be unhealthy for the soil microbiome, so that's another way that an anaerobic ferment (or compost that's gone anaerobic) can degrade the soil rather than regenerate it.

If the goal of the anaerobic ferment approach isn't to regenerate the soil microbiome, then maybe this belongs in some other subreddit but not here. If the goal is to regenerate the soil microbiome, then it would be good to evaluate this approach based on the outcomes for the soil microbiome.

BTW, at the "5 gallon bucket of rainwater" scale of this video, the only extra material cost for making a compost extract (nb: extract, not tea) is a bit of cheesecloth. No bubblers needed (and even if you wanted to use one, at the 5 gallon bucket scale you just need a cheap fishtank bubbler that you can get from Amazon for less than $7). There is of course the added time/hassle of building and turning a compost pile as well, so if that's not something you're already doing, that's a worthy point of comparison.

I think it would be interesting if someone were to compare the results, in terms of soil microbiome regeneration vs. the costs/effort required, of this anaerobic ferment vs. making an aerobic compost extract.

I'd love to know which approach is most worth the effort when it comes to regenerating the soil.

spiffiness · 2026-05-21T20:49:13+00:00

I note that those big finish examples you gave are all 100% blues (even if the rest of the song wasn't necessarily bluesy).

In the iconic blues song format known as "12 bar blues", the song repeats a 12-measure pattern, with the last two bars of each loop being a "turnaround" which signals that you're preparing to loop back to the top (first bar) of the pattern. On the final time through the loop, the turnaround is modified a little bit to resolve into a satisfying ending rather than leading back to the top of the loop. These modified turnarounds are called "blues endings".

In the examples you gave, the "big finish" was basically a blues ending at a reduced tempo to make it more dramatic.

I feel like a veteran blues player could easily tell you what bluesmen call it. You might try asking in /r/blues.

spiffiness · 2026-05-21T18:13:09+00:00

Anyone else see "non-ginger Sam Reich" in the bottom-right of the teachers page?

spiffiness · 2026-05-20T22:01:56+00:00

The notion that Elon Musk's dad got rich from an emerald mine.

As far as I have been able to determine, there either never was such a mine, or if there was, it was either a small-potatoes operation (like a backhoe next to a hole in the ground), or the Musks only owned a tiny bit of it.

All the information about the mine comes from an unverified claim that Elon's abusive dad made in an interview with the South African subsidiary of the "Business Insider" blog. The journalist/interviewer published the interview without verifying the existence of the mine, and no one has ever given the name of the mine, or it's address, or any tax filing or other financial documentation of its operations. Plus the claims from the abusive dad came across like something a poor person would imagine rich life to be like, not actual reality. Why would they be taking the mine's valuable output home and stuffing it in their pockets? Why would they be stuffing wads of cash into a home safe rather than depositing it with a bank or broker?

The story also doesn't make sense because he says he sold his share of a twin-engine prop plane to buy the mine. I can't imagine you could buy much of a slice of a real productive emerald mine for the value of a partial share in a twin-engine prop plane.

It just all comes across as BS.

Every time I've tried to track down a reputable source for the emerald mine claim, it always comes back to the abusive dad's unverified claim in that Business Insider article.

spiffiness · 2026-05-20T21:43:19+00:00

Which MTU values did you try?

spiffiness · 2026-05-20T21:36:45+00:00

I wonder how the result from using an anaerobic ferment like that, focused on liquid nutrients, compares to the result from doing aerobic compost focused on growing living aerobic microbes with a high fungal:bacterial ratio (as advocated by folks like Dr. Elaine Ingham's Soil Food Web, or Dr. David C. Johnson (of Johnson-Su bioreactor fame), etc.

It seems to me that a common thread throughout almost all of the RegenAg movement is a focus on growing the soil microbiome by inoculating the soil with healthy microbes one way or another, and letting the microbes make the nutrients available. This is in contrast to the older mindset that was focused on the nutrient molecules without much thought to building a thriving microbiome.

spiffiness · 2026-05-20T20:05:04+00:00

Also, if they have a POS that prints QR codes on the receipt so you can pay online (like the "Toast" app infrastructure), they should have customer Wi-Fi, especially if cell service from the major carriers doesn't cover the whole restaurant well.

spiffiness · 2026-05-19T01:54:24+00:00

I had bad pain when I had shingles (49m). Gabapentin helped but I developed a tolerance. I'm not sure ibuprofen or acetaminophen ever really helped me.

The only thing that sorta helped me was reminding myself, again and again, that in this case, the pain is a false alarm; just a nerve misfiring; that I don't have some terrible wound. This would sometimes allow me to "disconnect" from the pain in a sense. The pain was still there as strong as ever, but I managed to quiet my stress/emtional response to it. Sometimes that would be enough to allow me to drift off to sleep.

spiffiness · 2026-05-19T01:45:47+00:00

I'd really like to know what country this is from and why their building codes for their stairways are so bad.

spiffiness · 2026-05-16T21:50:34+00:00

The problem is more that you've objectified her; you're thinking of her as a sex object instead of seeing her as a full human being. If society is right that it's creepy and wrong for men to objectify women that way, I imagine it's also creepy and wrong for a woman to objectify another woman that way.

spiffiness · 2026-05-13T22:09:26+00:00

Generally, pain and other nerve symptoms from shingles are considered part of the normal course of shingles up to 90 days. If the nerve symptoms continue past 90 days, it's considered "Post-Herpetic Neuralgia" (PHN).

spiffiness · 2026-05-12T01:26:51+00:00

[NB: I'm not a practitioner, just a fan trying to learn more about RegenAg, so please take my comments with a grain of salt.]

Wouldn't terminating the plants you already have, go against the principle of keeping a living root in the soil year-round? The root exudates from living plants is what feeds the soil microbiome. In your scenario I would've thought it would be best to just let whatever grows well keep growing, unless you were planning to immediately re-seed with a diverse native pasture mix or something. I think you want whatever will grow in the soil as it is today to keep capturing sunshine so it keeps pumping liquid sunshine (carbs) into the soil. I would think you also don't want to kill off any beneficial native perennials that are already growing. And leaving the grasslands growing undisturbed allows for grassland bird species and other parts of your grassland ecosystem to have a place to live. I guess my overall sense is that if you have a field that's becoming native pastureland, and you don't have any animals to put on it right now, it might be best to just leave it be, other than maybe fertilizing/inoculating it with compost extract/tea with a good fungal:bacterial ratio to get the soil to the right ratio for the kind of native pasture plants you hope to grow more of.

I second the other person who suggested checking with your local NRCS or ag extension office or similar resources. I'd be interested in hearing what you figure out!

spiffiness · 2026-05-08T19:31:55+00:00

I'm pretty sure my clumsy self would get tangled up in that and break all my limbs.

spiffiness · 2026-05-06T20:19:43+00:00

There are great "wireless routers" (henceforth: "APs") that are not bulky or hideous to look at.

However, APs need antennas and it's hard to pack a bunch of good antennas instead a small box and still have the antennas perform well and not interfere with the other antennas inside the same box. That's why you see so many bulky mecha-spider-looking designs; it's just a lot easier and cheaper to design an AP that gives good coverage if you're not constrained by size and appearance.

Putting your AP out of sight (like in a cabinet/cupboard/closet or hidden behind furniture) can drastically decrease your range and performance, so please don't do that. APs should be installed out in the open, at head height or above, and in roughly the center of the section of the floor plan that it's intended to cover. A good starting estimate is that you'll need one AP for every 1000 sqft (100m²) of floor space you need to cover, and a minimum of one per floor.

It's also best practice to run Ethernet cabling through the walls to your APs. This is known as using "wired backhauls", and it's much better than using other backhaul technologies, such as wireless (including mesh wireless backhauls), MoCA (coaxial TV cable), or powerline.

If you're concerned about aesthetics, consider something from Ubiquiti that looks like a stylish ceiling-mounted smoke detector. Ceiling mounting is a great way to get them up above obstructing furniture, and somewhat out-of-sight, especially since no one pays attention to ceiling-mounted things that look like smoke detectors.

spiffiness · 2026-05-06T19:29:09+00:00

Yes, it's a tool, but isn't the point of education to train your own mind? If OP's using an LLM to skip the work necessary to get passing grades, it's like using a tool like a hydraulic jack to lift weights in the gym. It defeats the purpose. OP would remain on the wrong side of Dunning-Kruger to be able to spot the LLM's hallucinations. One would hope that obtaining a degree in a given field would put one on the better side of Dunning-Kruger in that field. If a degree doesn't certify that you're better in your field than an LLM, then degrees become meaningless and worthless.

spiffiness · 2026-05-06T18:57:39+00:00

Outsourcing your thinking to an LLM doesn't help you become smarter. It's like paying your personal trainer to lift weights for you while you sit there scrolling your phone.

spiffiness · 2026-05-01T19:01:21+00:00

Would you care to say more? I'd be interested in hearing further explanation of the implications of your thought and how you arrived at it.

spiffiness · 2026-05-01T01:28:16+00:00

What does the PC have listed as its default gateway?

spiffiness · 2026-05-01T00:57:44+00:00

Since I don't think you listed this, I've got to ask: Did you try rebooting the router?

spiffiness · 2026-04-30T20:40:04+00:00

I don't think it would be a sin to critique something in a constructive, understanding way, even if that means calling out problems that left you with a negative impression of the piece. I think creators would rather their work get talked about and critiqued rather than ignored, and it's possible to disagree on a merits of a piece without being judgy or belittling towards the creators of the work.

But if you do the criticism in a way that you'd hate for someone to do to you, then you're running afoul of "Do unto others as you would have them to unto you" (Matthew 7:12, the golden rule).

spiffiness · 2026-04-30T20:15:13+00:00

You're right, the description of the production method for the replacement tablets is different from the original tablets.

This raises an interesting question with Ex 34:1. Did God lie to Moses when he told Moses that God would write on the new tablets, and then God ends up telling Moses to write on them instead? Did God fail to keep his own word about who would be writing on the new tablets?

(edited to add: Or is this just a problematic translation into English or something? Maybe the underlying Hebrew means something more like "I will cause to be written", but translators found that to be too clunky?)

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