Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
Burnt out, over the hill autistic IT nerd and longtime SSC lurker
User ID: 3219
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
20hr ago
What's the best bang for your buck (in terms of QOL) purchase you've ever made? The cheaper the better.
IDK about best of all time, but my best recent lifestyle upgrade was a Bio-Bidet BB-1000.
I own a pair of Galaxy Buds 3 Pros, purchased at about £130. I think they sound great, the ANC isn't quite as good as the Airpods I bought my brother on his birthday, but it's clearly a cut above my older Buds 2 Pro (Plus?).
For whatever reason, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pros actually weren't quite up to the Galaxy Buds 2 Pros in terms of ANC. They were pretty widely knocked in for worse ANC at low frequency levels compared to the Buds 2 Pro, which was something that kept me from upgrading to them.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
20hr ago
Yeah, as I was reading it I was also surprised to find that, for the most part, it was only advancing a few larger plot threads. Finishing it left me hungrier than usual for the next Dresden files, which really isn't saying that much but still.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
Glad that you're enjoying them! The Dresden files quickly went from decent enough read to one of my all-time favorite series, and I got the first eight books at a cheap price, but Grave Peril was the one that hooked me. They do get darker, but for me, they also get deeper and more poignant as they progress.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
I'm glad to get another fix of Harry Dresden suffering porn.
It definitely delivers the goods, though that'd pretty much be a given after the last book. I was lucky enough to be finishing my last book the day that it came out so I'm fortunate in that particular department!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
Finishing up Twelve Months: Dresden Files Book 18 by Jim Butcher. I expected to be finished with it by now but, fuck, some of its themes just hit too close to home right now for me to be able to devour it in my usual fashion. I'm finding myself having to take breaks and deal with my own feelings frequently, which is probably a good thing, but it also reminds me that despite having more good days than bad, it's going to be A While before I find whatever my latest new Normal is.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
3d ago
All right, it's been a few days since I finished the book and I gotta agree that Mote wouldn't have ever made it past the editors in modern publishing. That said, I have to say that the book is quite well-written and I can easily see why it's such a classic. Yes, there's zeerust, as there is with all aged works, but the CoDominium being the obvious big one is actually pretty impressive to me. Gotta give Niven and Pournelle props for not getting too into the weeds with the science part of their science fiction there.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
3d ago
I can't even count the number of times I've fallen into the trap of reading some post or another that happens to push one of my buttons (which tends to be when the ghosts of old culture wars are invoked via their commonly-accepted memes) and next thing I know I'm hip deep in a, "well, ackshully," reply before I catch myself and hit cancel.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
3d ago
Aaaaaaand, now /u/ThomasdelVasto is Algernop Krieger in my mind's eye. Thanks for that!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
6d ago
Twelve Months: The Dresden Files Book 18 by Jim Butcher, now that it's dropped.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
8d ago
Yeah, that makes sense, Breville just wasn't a Thing back when I was chugging along with a Rancilio Silvia and daydreaming about the one-armed bandit. NGL, said one-armed bandit was hands down one of the best scores that I ever made on an Amazon Warehouse deal back when they were actually deals and it was more common to get stuff that was better than advertised, if not NIB, instead of worse. That said, I did find the imperfection they had talked about by accident one day when I was cleaning it. Still, I regret nothing on that particular purchase!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
8d ago
Ha! As much as some folks in /r/sysadmin would love for IT work to be unionized, that's not happening in my corner of the Earth anytime soon!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
9d ago
Right?! I was ready to pay up to $2k for personal service but 5 seems nutty to me.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
9d ago
Alas, we really need to set up a trust as well as a will, though this would be a decent stopgap for sure!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
9d ago
They definitely live up (and down) to their reputation, I'll say that. The Europiccola is well night unusable IME, it barely had time to pull a shot before its thermal fuse kicked out. The Professional, OTOH, has been a dream in terms of maintaining steam/pressure, but finding the sweet spot in terms of tamp has always been tricksy for me in the sense that there's little wiggle room between a nice shot that requires some, but not too much, force to pull, and a shot that's a little too tightly packed and can't really be pulled at all! As you can imagine, that kind of workout hasn't been kind to the grouphead gaskets...
I can do TIA 586B in my sleep (orange-white orange, green-white blue, blue-white green, brown-white brown), and only get TIA 586A right without looking it up 50% of the time. That's not a good combination.
Okay, funnily enough, while I do have both schemes straight in my head (we had one building that for whatever reason seemed to have constant network issues that we largely solved by going from 586B to 586A, so I got used to the difference pretty quickly as we reworked the wiring) I swear I had 586B as 586A in my head and vice versa until seeing this post and reminding myself that no, we were using A in that clinic and not B. Doh! facepalm
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
9d ago
So, anyone here have any experience with either using an online service like Legal Zoom or Trust and Will the like to create a trust, will, medical directives/POA, etc, or alternately going it alone with DIY? We had an unexpected death in our family several months ago, and as a result it's kinda lit a fire under my ass to actually get something on the books instead of just a vague, soon-ish thought in my head. I decided to check with a local legal group that specializes in this, but their price tag is >$5k, when the online guys are <20% of that. I know most of what goes into these things is boilerplate, but I also know that it's not unheard of for there to be additional trouble with online shops and DIY kits, too, so I'd be interested to hear others' experience with things like this.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
9d ago
Yeah, that analogy checks out. IMAO what they are more than anything is convenient, but said convenience definitely comes with a price tag attached. I think these days that K-cups are over a dollar a pop when coming from a local grocery store, though the warehouse places like Costco, Sam's, BJ's, etc. will get you closer to .50 to .75 per cup, depending on brand, and below that for the house brands. So while the coffee might not be so fresh on the fourth or fifth cup from the good old automatic drip coffee maker, it'll be significantly less expensive.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
9d ago
I've been using a La Pavoni Professional for the last several years, it's not terrible to take apart but I might be a little excessively concerned that I'm going to mess it up trying to pry the gaskets out of the grouphead, even though my rational brain knows it'll be fine. Never tried the Breville but I've heard really good things about them, and especially that dual boiler system.
I don't know a damn thing about hacking a Breville, but I'm curious as to what you'd hack on one. PID would be the obvious first stop, but doesn't the dual boiler have one in both the broiler and the grouphead?
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
9d ago
You're absolutely right, of course, my choices have been inexcusable. I denounce myself!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
9d ago
Cool, the Flair Go is a fascinating little machine, part of me wants to buy one for portable espresso but the other part of me is reminding me that the decision to just go with the flow and take the opportunity to check out the local scene was already made. Thing about an espresso machine in particular is that the pressure required for espresso is going to blow out the gaskets sooner or later, and next thing you know, your espresso is coming out the sides of the portafilter as well as from the portafilter and, well, you're ready to replace the gasket!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
10d ago
I am in awe of your coffee game, fellow Mottizen. I can practically taste the bitter mochaltine flavor from here!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
10d ago
You're not wrong, Walter, but I'm doing a bit here, work with me!
You say that, and I hear you, but believe it or not Starbucks is a significant gateway drug when it comes to the wider realm of craft coffee. And when I'm travelling and there's no good-looking craft coffee in the vicinity of my stay, it's nice when there's a nearby Starbucks and I can get a shot or four of their blonde espresso roast.
Weird, I tend to go with the audiophile reviews, and several different reviewers talked about this issue with the Buds 3 pro, but to each their own.
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