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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: October 3rd, 2023

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  • Some people like tinkering. Big Clive has a series of videos on Dubai led bulbs. The government mandates that the bulbs be extra efficient and last extra long, so they are built with more filaments driven at a lower current. They run cooler and last longer. You can do a similar thing with American bulbs if you’re handy with a soldering iron.

    Honestly, with how poor many of these things are mass produced, opening them up yourself is practically a personal form of quality control. Whether you modify it or not I bet it’s less likely to die prematurely or burn your house down than those of a regular person who doesn’t open them 🤷‍♂️







  • Random guy here, stumbled onto this thread.

    I can only drink decaf, doctors orders. My wife doesn’t drink more than a cup a day usually, caffeinated.

    We have a breville espresso machine, got it during COVID because we were home so much.

    We made coffee every day, sometimes several times a day. But now that we’re more or less back to normal, we’re not home often enough to use it regularly. Perhaps once a week.

    We still love fancy coffee, just not enough to get up a bit earlier to make it, and take it with us, and then clean the thermos later. Bah.

    So we go through a pound or so every few months. It’s actually a bit annoying because the coffee gets less fresh as the weeks go on.

    As for what coffee we buy? We buy local, there’s a roaster near our house, which always smells amazing when you drive by. Their coffee is fine, quite tasty even, it just all kind of tastes similar, if that makes sense. Even if I go for some fancy flavors, which I’m guilty of doing (in a separate special grinder), they all taste very similar in base flavor. Maybe people like that 🤷‍♂️ it’s fine.

    Our favorite coffee is schuil in Grand rapids Michigan, super tasty, and their flavors are phenomenal (if you like that kind of thing).

    Edit: beans are about $9-11/lb here in Michigan.



  • I’d have to check my logs, but it was something like spring or early summer. Honestly though the solar cycle has a much larger effect on propagation, and right now we’re near solar maximum so things are really hopping. At the beginning of COVID we were just starting to come out of solar minimum.

    I haven’t been super active lately, so I can’t comment on how often you’d be able to make contact. But with some coordination it’s definitely doable. Especially if you get some decent metal in the air.

    You still have US citizenship? You might be able to do your testing in the USA over zoom and use a reciprocal license, though I haven’t looked deeply into it.


  • I had a similar but very different experience. At the beginning of COVID my buddy and I got our ham radio licenses.

    One of my earliest contacts was a guy in Japan, over 6000 miles away! Nothing between us but some wire strung up in a tree, and a couple of radios. Using the ionosphere to bounce our signals around the world.

    So. Stinking. Awesome.

    I’ve been hooked ever since.

    It’s funny because it’s almost the opposite of your story, you were using the amazing new technology and infrastructure to make the trip. These days we take that very infrastructure for granted.

    It’s fun to try doing it with as little infrastructure as possible!


  • Thanks for the recommendation!

    I like the fold concept in theory, though it’s a bit exhausting protecting the screen all the time.

    Being able to set the phone anywhere at an angle to take a picture has come in handy super frequently.

    If this phone was full price though I think I’d be mad. I baby this screen line no tomorrow, and I’m diligent about keeping my pocket free of any dust and lint, let alone dirt or bits.

    I’ve got a tiny scratch in the middle of the fold, and the entire fold area has long tiny cracks forming from folding. I’ve only had this phone for like 7 or 8 months.

    My buddies broke in 30 days of buying it, and he had to fight to get it replaced.

    Again, I like the idea, and I enjoy using it. But there’s still too many pain spots for me to make the jump. It’ll have to get a lot cheaper or a lot more sturdy before I’ll get another.




  • It works! In the pot On the plate

    Not bad! Though I used Bisquick, for better flavor, and for the work involved dirtying bowls and measuring cups I’d rather just use a pan.

    In fact I made extra and made three pan sized pancakes in the time it took to make one big fluffy potcake.

    Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great Idea and it totally works. If I were gonna do it again seriously, I’d get a dedicated pancake mix that uses just water, to maximize the simplicity, which is the goal I think.

    It was fluffy and delicious, though I will say a lot of pancake flavor comes from the crispy edges and the thinness of the cake and you lose some of that with the thick potcake.

    Glad I tried it, thanks to op for the idea!