I have 378 hours on…

Calculator, Doom Scroll Edition

I thought Gidget was cute, back when I was like 12…

Interesting.

I saw a couple weeks ago where someone said TACO TOFU…

“Trump Always Chickens Out, Trump Only Fucks Up”

Fun fact:

STRAP ON spelled backwards is NO PARTS

You’re welcome.

We are a result of our own ancestral design.

Think about it for just a few moments. When our ancient ancestors figured out how to make fire, rather than carry it around in a sled thanks to a lightning strike, everything changed…

You want more water? Turn off AI…

It’s done all three, more or less in that very order.

Initially, modern tech was a progressive tool, helping immensely with science, mathematics, and documenting history and literature.

Then it became commonplace, everyone and their grandma has the internet, posting their random brainfarts, cat memes and fails of the day.

Now we’re digressing, people using AI left and right, while simultaneously losing their own critical thinking skills, and also finding it harder and harder to double check anything without running into another AI brick wall.

Yes I realize your question is more about how tech has affected civilization. Technology has always been affecting civilization, so its done all three, evolved us, stagnated (I think peak useful tech and functioning generally happy civilization stagnated around 2014), and has been regressing since.

Given that the average healthy body temperature is ~98.6⁰ F, and humidity on the Gulf Coast tends to be so high you gotta drink the air, I prefer temperatures 85⁰ or lower.

With high temperatures and high humidity, sweat can’t even evaporate, forcing your internal body temperature into unhealthy feverish levels. I’m not a fan of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

I’m also not a fan of freezing temperatures either, but at least people can dress in layers to keep warm when it’s cold.

Save the machine state after you get it booted up and configured. Host+T

How fast does it cook in a vacuum?

The concept of secure boot and the TPM and BitLocker and all that stuff is somewhere between protection against hackers with hands on access to your system, protection against rootkits infecting the boot sector, protecting the average amateur end user from themselves doing something dumb, and keeping you in the Micro$haft ecosystem.

If you’re fairly comfortable that none of these should be a significant risk to you, then I’d say disable it and do whatever you want with your own system without all the headaches.

Funny thing is, in the past 4 years or so, I’ve been using those cookies to my advantage.

As far as Google knows, I’ve been at the same location for the past 4 years. I have other private devices when I’m out and about that have never signed into Google nor had location services activated.

I walk both sides of the fence, just to confuse the system…

Device profiling, user identifiers, processor identifiers…

How is a toddler supposed to learn anything if their memory is erased after a month?

What do you expect? Don’t use AI…

Sigh, unzips…

Before or after he got captured and briefly assimilated into the Borg?

I just dug a bit deeper looking into it, apparently it falls under the category of fake check overpayment scam…

https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-spot-avoid-report-fake-check-scams

The boss was using checks from QuickBooks, but was not using their software. He had one of the employees make him a template spreadsheet to line up the fields on the check for his printer.

Whatever he was doing exactly I’m not 100% sure, but he was definitely cooking the books all the way around.

Also, if you plan to start soldering more regularly, you might want to get some desoldering wick and a desoldering pump, check some tutorials, and practice on some scrap parts first.

I’m no sponsor or shill for these items, just a casual stroll through the bay for suggestions…

https://www.ebay.com/itm/322171797486

https://www.ebay.com/itm/187338588903

https://youtube.com/watch?v=rK38rpUy568

Mechanical keyboard don’t have super thick heavy duty power traces, so basically any cheap $25 dollar 30 watt iron from Lowe’s or other hardware store should do the trick for your needs.

When looking for solder, look for flux core or rosin core solder, practically all electronics grade solder is hollow and has flux/rosin already inside the solder.

For larger projects where you’re dealing with large power traces and/or large wires, you might want to invest in a more professional temperature adjustable soldering station, and additional flux.

What old flux I’ve been using (I admit I haven’t done all that much soldering in years after I quit that job, chemicals aren’t exactly healthy yo)…

NC-559-ASM-TPF(UV)

But hey, if you want some cheap flux, just go cut some bark off of a pine tree and let the sap run for a day or two. The original soldering flux was pine sap.

Good luck fully cleaning that shit off though, pine sap is super sticky…

Use flux, pre-tin your soldering tip and the stuff you’re planning to solder before you actually solder things together, rubbing alcohol and Q-Tips to clean residual flux off afterwards.

Yes that’s an extremely simplified explanation, but for real, cleanliness is of utmost importance. When solder is clean and has flux, it flows almost like mercury when hot.

Also, you don’t want the iron too cold or too hot. I’ve found temperature ranges between 370⁰C to 420⁰C typically best, lower temperature for thin data line traces, higher temps for large ground plane or power traces.