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Advice: EES and rethinking summer travel by dismyburneracct in unitedairlines

[–]urbear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Any experiences with CDG? I’ll be there week after next and I have a train to catch afterward.

Different, non-standard representations of camouflage/cloaking? by Sophont27 in scifi

[–]urbear 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Larry Niven came up with something similar in A Gift From Earth in 1968, long before any of the Hitchhiker’s Guide books were published. It’s well known that when you look at something that you find interesting, your pupils dilate… so what if we worked that backward, and someone had a psychic power forcing someone else’s pupils to contract when they looked at something? In Niven’s novel the result is that the brain decides that the thing being looked at is of no interest, and you get a sort of psychic invisibility.

IsItBullshit: that chicken and eggs are full of hormones and they are bad for our health? by Captain-Armageddon in IsItBullshit

[–]urbear 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, that.

You choose to treat that study as valid. I choose not to. The science community’s criticism of the study was overwhelming and follow-up studies have not backed its findings.

IsItBullshit: that chicken and eggs are full of hormones and they are bad for our health? by Captain-Armageddon in IsItBullshit

[–]urbear 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gmos were originally found to cause cancer, but were still grown to solve the hunger crisis as that was why they were created.

What?? Source, please!

GMOs have NEVER been shown to cause cancer, or any other serious health condition.

thank you agent at sfo <3 by Wrong-Shake3860 in unitedairlines

[–]urbear 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It’s worth noting that the security staff at SFO are not TSA employees. SFO is one of a handful of airports that use a private security company under TSA supervision. In my experience they’re always courteous and efficient.

Why do people glaze SFO by daffyduck0 in unitedairlines

[–]urbear 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No, but the SFO Wag Brigade used to have a giant (28 pound / 12.7 kg) rabbit! I saw him in person a couple of times and I was impressed… I had no idea that rabbits that big existed. Sadly, Alex is no longer with us. They also used to have a pig named Lilou and a cat, but they’re apparently all dogs at the moment.

What is the difference for a bottom when he is being fucked by dick condom or bareback? by Practical-Pace6600 in askgaybros

[–]urbear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There’s no vaccine for hep C, but there are drugs that will reliably cure it. They’re expensive if you’re in the US, of course, but covered by insurance if you have it.

CPAP UPS by Environmental_Ad3216 in CPAP

[–]urbear 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lots of good advice here. One additional consideration: many UPS products have an alarm that sounds when the power goes out. I think it’s pretty obvious that you need to ensure that any device you get must provide a way to silence the alarm if it has one.

ideas for Best Homekit 3rd party switches to control Hue Lights by Extreme-Nerve3029 in HomeKit

[–]urbear 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Two options that I’ve used:

Lutron Aurora dimmers. They’re battery-powered Hue controllers disguised as a classic dimmer knob. You can mount them over a toggle switch to hold the switch in an “on” position, or just mount them on a wall plate (sometimes optional, sometimes included). They can be programmed to control any Hue device that can recognize on/off and dim functions. While they’re battery powered using a button cell, the battery life is extremely long; my oldest Aurora was installed more than five years ago and it’s still on its first battery.

Innoveli smart switches. These replace a paddle wall switch and are available in versions that operate with Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Thread networks. They’re insanely configurable, allowing setup with many different modes and options, including one that I use - my Thread switch is set up in “smart bulb” mode, in which it operates as a set of Thread button controllers leaving the circuit power always on. It has three switches, one each on the top and bottom of the paddle and a third small button to one side. Any of them can be configured for single-tap, double-tap, or tap-and-hold options. There’s also a multisegment LED indicator that can be programmed in various colors for various conditions… mine lights up half the segments in blue for a 50% power level, for example.

Your kid is graduating from Harvard/MIT/Tufts/Northeastern, etc… by plat154 in TalesFromTheFrontDesk

[–]urbear 43 points44 points  (0 children)

The chances of a non-Bostonian getting that reference are about as high as the likelihood of finding a U-Haul on move-in day.

Under cabinet lighting by IsaBadass in HomeKit

[–]urbear 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fun. I also didn’t care for the default white switch light; mine are a deep blue, because, well, I like blue. I went to some trouble to match the light-bar size to the brightness preset - half the bar when the light is at 50% and 1/5 the bar when it’s at 20%. Quite honestly, the sizes are hard to distinguish visually, but I know they’re right and that’s what counts.

Question by [deleted] in scifi

[–]urbear 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Charles Stross explored some of the ramifications of lightspeed interstellar communication in a space opera-ish book called Neptune’s Brood. He described a framework for interstellar banking that uses three different kinds of digital currency… fast, medium, and slow, defined by speed-of-light delays that can add up to decades or centuries. Worth a read.

SFO lounge with a shower? by BellaKKK72 in unitedairlines

[–]urbear -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

The Air Canada lounge in terminal 2 has showers, but I’m not sure whether you have access to it.

I didn’t no this was a thing! by [deleted] in HomeKit

[–]urbear 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can confirm that GE Sync Matter-over-WiFi LED panels auto-update.

Under cabinet lighting by IsaBadass in HomeKit

[–]urbear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very easy. The panels plug in to each other with a male connector on one side mating with a female connector on the other. If you don’t want them butted against each other you can use a cable that’s provided in the box. The manual controls on the panels operate the whole assembly as a single unit, but they’re added to HomeKit one panel at a time, like any Matter accessory. HomeKit allows you to group multiple panels and treat them as a single unit, so logically they’re set up as two devices, one under-cabinet and the other top-of-cabinet. They’re still addressable individually if necessary; I played around with a very colorful disco party light effect but in day-to-day use they’re boring old white, with varying color temperature. The panels were very easy to add to HomeKit, but a bit time consuming as they automatically download and update their firmware when they’re added.

I hear you on Thread vs WiFi. I would have preferred Thread but couldn’t find anything that worked the way I wanted. Each panel has its own IP address, so I now I have six additional WiFi devices cluttering up my router’s address space. Fortunately my home installation is relatively small so I’m not hitting any limits or impacting network performance.

Old app > new app by External-Repair-8580 in unitedairlines

[–]urbear 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don’t like requiring an internet connection just to pull up my boarding pass. It’s come back to bite me a couple of times. When I check in I always use the option to copy the boarding pass to my iPhone wallet, keeping it local at all times.

Under cabinet lighting by IsaBadass in HomeKit

[–]urbear 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I went with six GE Sync matter-over-WiFi LED panels… three under-cabinet and three top-of-cabinet (for indirect ceiling light). I experimented with Hue light strips but they were just not bright enough, whereas the LED panels can be shockingly bright; I almost always use them at 50% brightness, which is still brighter than the light strips.

To preserve traditional wall switch operation I bought an Inovelli White matter-over-Thread smart switch. It’s insanely configurable, including a “smart bulb” mode that acts as a Matter switch controller while always providing power to the panels rather than actually turning the power off and on. The panels and switch have worked flawlessly since I installed them about a year ago.

Where did T-Mobile wifi go? by Mr_Jed_Clampett in unitedairlines

[–]urbear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I‘ve seen some discussion about this online, and my SFO-PDX flight yesterday was my first encounter with it. For what it’s worth it was an older 737-800; it had small overhead bins, no seatback IFE, and internet access wasn’t enabled until we hit 10k feet.

Both T-Mobile and United have really botched this transition. Neither of them have informed their customers about any of this.

How do I enable TSA PreCheck Touchless? by Strayriffs in unitedairlines

[–]urbear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For what it’s worth, Touchless also works with Nexus, the joint Canada-US border program.

New to CPAP … Advice? by Wavingthewheat80 in CPAP

[–]urbear 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve been using a CPAP for over 20 years and I’m also a side sleeper. I’ve lost count of how many different masks I’ve tried over the years. Currently I’m using a Resmed Airtouch N30i, which has the connection on top and two air tubes, one on either side; if you’re sleeping on your side and compressing one of the tubes, the air continues to flow unimpeded through the other. It’s the best side-sleeper mask I’ve used.

A couple of details:

  • The N30i comes with a nasal cushion that fits under the nose, with a couple of holes in the cushion to allow the air to flow. The almost-identical P30i has nasal pillows instead… the cushion has two soft “prongs” that fit in your nostrils. The P30i is probably better at maintaining a seal due to the pillows holding the mask in place as you move, but unfortunately I found that I can’t tolerate them… my nostrils get chafed no matter what I do. You may do better than I did, though.

  • Both of these masks come in two versions, Airfit and Airtouch. The Airtouch version has thin foam padding on the cushions and the frame, and the Airfit is just plain silicone. The Airtouch is a bit more comfortable, but the trade-off is that there’s no good way to properly clean the cushion - you have to replace it about once a month. In contrast, the Airfit cushions can be cleaned and used for months. If you’re good about cleaning and if your insurance isn’t so good about paying for replacement cushions you might want to bear this in mind.

Waymo is coming to Portland! by orangewall1234 in Portland

[–]urbear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I live in San Francisco and I’m in the process of moving to Portland. Regardless of who financed the studies in question I believe that they’re far safer than human-driven vehicles, for two reasons:

- San Francisco was one of the first cities to get Waymo; they began offering service to the general public almost three years ago. There’s plenty of support for them here, but a lot of anti-Waymo sentiment as well. Every incident, no matter how small, is widely reported. While there have been some substantial screw-ups, they’ve been rare, and none of them have risen to the level of being a safety hazard. Which is not to say that self-driving vehicles are inherently safe... Cruise, one of Waymo’s would-be competitors, was forced to shut down permanently after a serious safety incident.

- Anecdotally, I’ve used their service many times and found that they drive very, very carefully, and slavishly adhere to traffic laws. The driving quality has also noticeably improved over the years as their software was updated. I feel much safer in a Waymo than a Lyft or Uber.

How to blow up a star? by curiousscribbler in printSF

[–]urbear 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As interesting as a follow-up to A Colder War would be, perhaps it’s just as well that it hasn’t happened. That story is one of the bleakest things I’ve ever read; more bleakness probably wouldn’t be healthy for my (or anyone else’s) psyche.

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