drail

joined 7 months ago
[–] drail@fedia.io 6 points 2 months ago

When I was a kid, it was playing card rubberbanded to my chainstay so I could pretend I was riding a motorcycle from the noise

Nowadays, I prefer to just let out wolf whistle. Pierces even the best noise cancelling headphones and busiest traffic noise.

[–] drail@fedia.io 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I had a bad flea infestation after taking in a stray puppy for all of 1 day before I got it to a rescue. I went from noticing one flea to noticing a couple to seeing them everywhere in a manner of days, about a month after the puppy left us our present. It was a pain in the ass and made me hyper paranoid, so I learned how to handle it the proper way.

I agree with what others have said as a first step: Flea Bath and/or nitenpyram to remove the fleas on the kitty, flea preventative to keep them off. Wash all the fabrics and surfaces, especially near your cat's hangout spots, and dry on high heat.

Vacuuming daily is a triple threat at reducing the numbers: Sucks up the eggs/larvare/pupae/adults, the vibration and warmth tricks pupae to emerge (they can be dormant for up to 6 months and their shell acts like velcro, making them hard to remove) which speeds up the cycle and reduces the risk of reinfestation, and cleans up the grime that the larvae feed on before pupating. Just make sure you use a bagged vacuum or seal the vacuum waste somehow before tossing it. If the infestation is minor, keeping up to date on the preventative and regular vacuuming should be enough.

If you find more, especially down the road a few months, it probably means an infestation started under your nose. If you can afford it, a pest control pro is the best solution. If you can't, the best flea killer spray for whole home infestations is Precor 2625. It is a whole home premise spray that kills the fleas at all stages, both on contact and by disrupting their reproductive cycle. You'll want to either kennel your kitty for a day to apply it, as the contact kill chemical can make cats sick, or at the very least quarantine them and do the spray over a couple days away from them. Get a coverall suit, N95 mask, and spray all low surfaces, all fabrics that can't be dried on high heat, under couch cushions, all corners and crevices around the floor and your bed, literally everywhere below knee height and anywhere your cat might like to climb or hide.

The preventative is supposed to last 7 months, slightly longer than the longest normal pupae duration, so that multiple flea generations will be affected. I do recommend a second spray 1 month later, just to be safe, and continue daily vacuuming over the entire premise for at least that first month to expedite the lifecycle as much as possible.

[–] drail@fedia.io 2 points 3 months ago

I use Tidal for listening to music on my phone most of the time, whether wired or wireless. That, plus USB Audio Player Pro for wired listening, gives a pretty good sound quality over my DAC. At home and in my work office I have dedicated DACs and tube amps for driving my cans (Schitt Modi + Littleblack Mk.2 in my office, Schitt Mobius + Feliks Echo 2 at home).

I use the dedicated DAC on mobile for a few reasons:

  1. My phone doesn't have a headphone jack and I have been dissapointed by most USBC-to-3.5mm dongles' build quality, so using a higher quality DAC gets around that.

  2. I also generally prefer a balanced 4.4mm jack over an unbalanced 3.5mm, both for a more solid physical connection and to reduce crosstalk, and my DAC has both 3.5/4.4mm ports.

  3. For wireless. I use IEMs that have a wired connection and the bluetooth adapters/replacement cables are pretty low quality in my experience (low battery capacity, poor sound quality, poor build quality, finnicky connectors, etc.) and a combo bluetooth/wired dac is avoids most of these issues. It also means I can keep the DAC and my phone in different places on my person (great for having my phone on a stand while biking and keeping the DAC in my pocket, or leaving my phone charging while I listen to music in my lab).

[–] drail@fedia.io 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No, the Ifi GoBlu. Great sound quality, great aesthetic, convenient size, garbage battery quality. I have had to send it in 3 times for swelling. Each time, I have buckled down more on making sure I was more careful with charging; using a smart charging or low power USBC AC adapter, then using only low voltage adapters, finally demanding they send me an AC adapter designed for it since they didn't include one.

Such a significant thing to cheap out on with a $200 piece of tech, especially when LiPo batteries are already so cheap. They also refused to send spare batteries as well this last time, which I am more than capable of replacing myself, to save ~3 weeks of time. I have decided that if it happens again, I will just find a comparable size/voltage battery and solder it in myself to spare myself the hassle.

[–] drail@fedia.io 9 points 3 months ago (5 children)

My pocket DAC/Amplifier Combo, works over Bluetooth and wired, built in mic. Allows me to both have great audio quality for music over wired and use my favorite IEMs wirelessly when sound quality isn't my first concern (biking, working in my lab, chores, etc). I used to just use my wired DAC for listening to my phone, but having the flexibility of choice makes life so nice.

I just wish they had used a better battery, I have had to send it in multiple times for battery swelling.

[–] drail@fedia.io 33 points 3 months ago (3 children)

My mom had an inspirational sign in one of her bathrooms that said, "Embrace this moment, for this moment is your life." perfectly matched to her decor. She knew exactly what she was doing.

[–] drail@fedia.io 9 points 3 months ago

I work on a 0nuBB search doing detector R&D, this is spot on, but has 2 extra components. The three elements needed for explaining the asymmetry are:

  1. CP Violation
  2. Lepton or Baryon Number violation
  3. Interactions out of thermal equilibrium

These are the Sakharov conditions for Baryogenesis/Leptogenesis. #1 has been observed via the weak interaction but not in large enough quantities and is not observed via strong interactions, #2 is what proton decay and 0nuBB searches look for, and #3 can be, at least partially, explained by the expansion of the universe as a non-equilibrium interaction.

To get from leptogenesis to baryogenesis requires theretical physics I only barely understand using particles call sphaelerons that convert leptons to baryons.

[–] drail@fedia.io 7 points 3 months ago

I am a huge Kaiju nerd and KB was the only toy store near my family when I was young that stocked all the Godzilla toys. KB was the spot.

[–] drail@fedia.io 6 points 4 months ago

My boss read the first chapter I turned in, decided I know what I am doing, gave me some basic feedback, and has completely checked out since then lol.

[–] drail@fedia.io 58 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I am half way done with mine, which means I only have 3/4 left to write, then I will be 90% done.

[–] drail@fedia.io 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

That is what I keep saying! The team I like should just play amazing basketball every time and then they won't lose! I am waiting for my offer from the Denver coaching staff to bring this kind of advice.

[–] drail@fedia.io 2 points 5 months ago

Good lord, it is a slugfest already. Seeing these teams both be under 50 at the half was not something I expected, but this us a gritty, grimy game

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