Random Thoughts II

[wazza]

here's what covid looks like.
person i lived with tested positive on tuesday, so i left work.(7 day iso)
tuesday night i started feeling something.
wednesday morning i had chills, wednesday arvo i had fever, wednesday evening fever broke and i started sweating a little.
thursday morning i felt fine(relatively speaking), slight headache
friday felt 100% back to normal, boss wanted me to take a day 3 RATS so i did and i tested positive (talk about a long tail)
sat still feeling 100%
sun still feeling 100%
mon still feeling 100%
back to work wednesday morning.
found it interesting via my fitbit, the picture below shows my variability tanking and also my fever on the days described above. all my other health metrics correlated with illness, i.e breathing rate increased, resting heart rate went from 54bpm to 60bpm for 48hours then came back to 54bpm. my sleep score decreased significantly, my stress score, etc

anyways, i must be one of the lucky ones(f45!)

[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by MadMax

Not a Commodore 64 or something similar?

$191 for an Amiga 500
$83 for a C64 case/keyboard without the guts in it

I never made them bid! $1 reserve

[StN]

Retro prices are crazy - although I've never paid over $75 for an Apple. In fact most of my primo machines have been gifted by other collectors or lucky bargains.

The Tech Barn in Auckland seemed to be doing a lot of clearance stuff for a while, but I haven't seen them on TM for a while.

But as you have seen, at the other end of the scale are the nutters. Like $1500 for a Simon.

[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by StN

But as you have seen, at the other end of the scale are the nutters. Like $1500 for a Simon.

lol I did see that one. I don't know if it sold, but well done to that seller if it did, and wtf to whoever may have bought it.

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

$191 for an Amiga 500
$83 for a C64 case/keyboard without the guts in it

I never made them bid! $1 reserve

Ahaha I saw that one and subscribed to it.

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by StN

Retro prices are crazy - although I've never paid over $75 for an Apple. In fact most of my primo machines have been gifted by other collectors or lucky bargains.

The Tech Barn in Auckland seemed to be doing a lot of clearance stuff for a while, but I haven't seen them on TM for a while.

But as you have seen, at the other end of the scale are the nutters. Like $1500 for a Simon.

I have to avoid browsing my niche for the sake of my budget. There used to be a good amount of low priced stuff that were actually decent to own, but
everything ramped up with the pandemic. It's probably not bad for the economy, as long as TradeMe are paying fair taxes.

I figure things will settle down again, resellers will oversupply, prices will drop with the steady trickle of novel sellers.

[StN]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

I have to avoid browsing my niche for the sake of my budget.

Same but different - Uranium glass has gone berko. Even the 2nd hand shop finds are few and far between.

[Lightspeed]

I know there are a few sets in Tikipunga somewhere, lolz. Glasswear seemed to be a whole thing, and I remember a few uranium sets.

It honestly killed me, I couldn't think of anything more boring.

Then I mean, I'd love a set now. 😅

[wazza]

resting heart rate is 53bpm
i wonder if i can get it under 50~ goal for the next 6months.

[StN]

Oh man - all this these years I've been paying income protection insurance, when all you need to do is set up a give-a-little page? (And I'm an employee too!)

Scaffolder.

[MadMax]

I feel like everyone is taking on too much workload lately, primarily due to Covid bounce back or constraints. Everyone is stressed and there’s huge flow on effects up and down chains. It even impacts families & home-life.

If your workload isn’t running you off your feet then you’ve got no work due to lack of supply.

I look at my own work and know that I can only do so much — here’s me taking a mental health break if you will posting this comment for example but some people don’t have that skill. Sometimes it’s hard to slow down when you’ll only be playing catch up when you get back to the grinder.

[StN]

Was just on a vid-conf cyber security call with the Lazarus Heist chap, and a user labelled Mish popped up. Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...

[wazza]

i used to spank mish at ra3, true story.

[Cyberbob]

It's a shame there's no ra3 servers anymore, I'd 100% jump on for some of that.
I'd also get spanked, but it'd be fun.

[Cyberbob]

Originally Posted by StN

Retro prices are crazy - although I've never paid over $75 for an Apple..

In 2007, I recall having to get rid of about 50 iMac G3's as we phased them out from a call centre in Wellington that I looked after.

I struggled to give them away. I often wonder if they're retro enough to be worth something now.

[StN]

The only Ivy inspired Mac I have is a Sunflower. Got that for ~$50 and was all prepared to add an Aircard to it when I found it had one. Old enough to be cool, new enough to run OSX and Wifi.

Ultimate barn find would be The Anniversary Mac like Seinfeld had at one point.

[xor]

Originally Posted by StN

Was just on a vid-conf cyber security call with the Lazarus Heist chap, and a user labelled Mish popped up. Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...

If you say 'cyber' three times you magically appear under a hammock where the ghost of John McAfee takes a giant dump on your chest.

also, Quuuuake!

[wazza]

Originally Posted by xor

If you say 'cyber' three times you magically appear under a hammock where the ghost of John McAfee takes a giant dump on your chest.

actual irl lol

[wazza]

Originally Posted by Cyberbob

It's a shame there's no ra3 servers anymore, I'd 100% jump on for some of that.

agree

[StN]

When operation London Bridge is invoked in the UK to deal with Liz, we have a little stipulation.

RNZ stations are instructed not to play punk music, or songs by the band Queen during this period.

[Lightspeed]

Sign of the times:

Supply lines blamed for demise of Ernest Adams' baked treats

[MadMax]

That site used to be home to Glaxo, of GSK.

[DrTiTus]

I spent Matariki making a MIDI controlled digital synthesizer in Verilog.

It's not finished yet, but I have implemented the serial UART -> MIDI decoder, a MIDI state machine (to parse the messages and apply the control changes), a note -> frequency decoder, a digital oscillator (with multiple waveforms), and an ADSR envelope generator. I have to tie the bits together to make a "voice" which will be responsible for managing a single note's lifespan, and then I can extend it to make it polyphonic (multiple notes at once), and eventually multi-timbral (different patches playing at once). A lot of the MIDI controls are not responding, even if the values are being set - so there's no pitch bend or velocity etc, but the MIDI is being handled. Check out that beautiful sine wave, implemented with integers (no sine function in silicon!) It's actually a quadratic approximation per quadrant, but I bet you would never have guessed.


Here's the first sequenced output with no envelopes or filtering - 8 bit waves, phrase from a Giana Sisters tune

Here's MIDI note sweeps for each of the 4 waves, complete with terrible artifacts

Obviously it's pretty shit at this point - no filters, no LFOs, no expression - and it's running as a simulation so I can't plug actual MIDI cables in just yet (and enjoy debugging real life MIDI vs my perfect test bench with clean signals/timing) - but I've had the ideas in my head for so long, it's about time I actually made it. I'm quite proud of the fact it's actually playing music already, even if the output is primitive.

I learned a lot about the MIDI specification [it's a genius spec], synth voicings (keeping track of which notes are active on which channels, and distributing notes across voices), and of course my Verilog workflow has improved, especially when I'm drunk. I also came up with a cool [but probably common] way to compute accurate (within 0.1%) note frequencies using limited silicon, rather than synthesizing exponential functions and multipliers.

[MadMax]

Does anyone else do this? Open YouTube on your mobiles browser instead of the app. Pause the advert that inevitably plays at the start then hit the browsers refresh button and the advert will be skipped.

I found this when tapping the video whilst an ad was playing to try and bring up the full screen button only to find it paused. Still no playback controls so hit refresh and boom advert skipped.

[DrTiTus]

I never use YouTube on a mobile, because ads.

I always use YouTube on a desktop, because no ads.

If you pay for YouTube Red (or whatever its called), you are admitting that you're a fucking idiot that uses idiot devices ( hi my sister that I've already told the solution to )

[wazza]

I've paid for Youtube since it was possible to do so.
The only two(well, three - Google Drive, $3.95/month) online subs I pay for are Youtube Premium and IPTorrents(for UFC(IPTV)).

sad calling me a fucking idiot because i want to support the sites/companies that i actually use. feelings hurt.

i'd hazard a guess that your monthly consumption of alcohol costs more than the above, annually.

[MadMax]

It’s always a laugh when my son’s music teacher fires up YouTube and AN ADVERT SCREAMS OUT AT THE VOLUME SET TO COMPETE WITH AN AMPLIFIED GUITAR

[StN]

Hopefully - tonight, around 21:55, we send it*. To the moon!

* Not ours - it's a NASA cubesat, but we are getting it there. Eventually, after lots and lots of ever increasing orbits.

[Know me.]

I'll be watching too.

[StN]

Bit of a fizzer with no onboard cameras due to telemetry bandwidth requirements - and a night launch. But it went up and around, so that's a good start. Now we wait...

[Ab]

Porn from @brendan_gully on twitter:

[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by wazza

i'd hazard a guess that your monthly consumption of alcohol costs more than the above, annually.

Point taken - thanks for calling me out. Your response convinced me I need to sort my shit out. Seeing you sober was also an inspiration. My zero alcohol license expired earlier this month (3 years has lapsed), so I applied for a normal one yesterday. It's all very timely, and reminds me I have to make a conscious effort to deal with my demons.

Not that it's about the money - it's just about being obnoxious.

[StN]

Originally Posted by Ab

Porn from @brendan_gully on twitter:

That's going straight to the pool^H^H^H^H Wallpaper folder.

Wow - stage sep / meco / 2nd stage startup seems so quick when on camera - that must have been honking by that point given the gap. But when you consider how quickly the specs of light that are starlink etc are travelling in orbit, it makes sense.

[Nothing]

It's a sad day when you make a joke with a fellow Quake player about jeffk and they don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

[wazza]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

Point taken - thanks for calling me out. Your response convinced me I need to sort my shit out. Seeing you sober was also an inspiration. My zero alcohol license expired earlier this month (3 years has lapsed), so I applied for a normal one yesterday. It's all very timely, and reminds me I have to make a conscious effort to deal with my demons.

Not that it's about the money - it's just about being obnoxious.

<3

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Nothing

It's a sad day when you make a joke with a fellow Quake player about jeffk and they don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

Ok xoomer

*crying*

[Ab]

So New South Wales is experiencing the fourth "hundred year flood" since February.

[Lightspeed]

Makes me wonder what the new actual "once in a century" flood looks like.

Or will the scale remain the same, just the frequency change?

[Ab]

nobody wants to be told "this is normal weather now. You just shouldn't live there any more." Governments don't want to hear "responding to climate disasters is going to cost more, every year, for ever."

[Lightspeed]

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be much local discussion or awareness about how specific areas might potentially be impacted by extreme but growingly common weather events.

It seems forward thinking rather than painful experience is going to be the better choice. I can't see it taking many more events like in Europe, before general movements begin to grow public awareness about regional weather threats.

I don't know any people especially aware of the potential extreme weather events they might be at risk of, possible ways to mitigate the risks.

We're complaining about the price of oil when we should be bearing it with grim determination, knowing what approaches.