Useless Conversation

[schild]

I don't understand why Kanye's handlers let him talk.

Ever.

Absolutely one of the dumbest people I've ever heard speak.

[WayAbvPar]

Why do think he would ever allow anyone near him that didn't let him do exactly what he wants at all times?

Now I am wondering if narcissism can be terminal. God I hope so. Or him and his utterly useless wife will create a narcissism singularity and destroy the universe.

[HaemishM]

Now I am wondering if narcissism can be terminal. God I hope so. Or him and his utterly useless wife will create a narcissism singularity and destroy the universe.

If it hasn't happened already, I'm leaning towards that being proof that narcissism is not only NOT terminal, it's self-perpetuating.

[HaemishM]

I am also seriously considering the idea that all IT geeks not working for nuclear power plants, banks or NASA but who also insist I use their pet VPN to connect to their goddamn website - these guys should all be fired into the sun.

[Ironwood]

insist I use their pet VPN to connect to their goddamn website

 

[Merusk]

Refusal to host on the cloud, maybe? Forcing Haem to VPN in via whatever client they're using to get at the webserver to deploy/ update things.

[rattran]

Bank turned us down on the mortgage, the amount is too small, and not enough proof of income. hooray for self-employment 

Now I get to repeat ad nauseum. This will be a fun couple weeks I suspect.

[Chimpy]

Refusal to host on the cloud, maybe? Forcing Haem to VPN in via whatever client they're using to get at the webserver to deploy/ update things.

If it is to configure things on the server you can be damn right you aren't going to get into my webserver without being on my network. That is like Internet security 101 shit right there.

[Ironwood]

Ahhhhh, webserver, not website.  Fair enough.

[Merusk]

Refusal to host on the cloud, maybe? Forcing Haem to VPN in via whatever client they're using to get at the webserver to deploy/ update things.

If it is to configure things on the server you can be damn right you aren't going to get into my webserver without being on my network. That is like Internet security 101 shit right there.

Yeah, I'm not saying I disagree with that. Only trying to puzzle it out for Ironwood.

[HaemishM]

Refusal to host on the cloud, maybe? Forcing Haem to VPN in via whatever client they're using to get at the webserver to deploy/ update things.

This. GODDAMN does this shit make me stabby.

[Yegolev]

I guess you could drive into the office?

[HaemishM]

Look, I've worked on web sites for 20 fucking years. I've FTPed into sites of all stripes from government to banks to podunk mom and pops. I realize that Internet security is a thing. I do not, however, think that I should have to install a different goddamn VPN client for every different fucking client I have because some IT geek is torked up about the security of his site that has less than 2,000 hits per month. I'm even stabbier when I'm not even actually allowed to FTP things, only edit things on their Wordpress site and yet STILL have to connect to a VPN to do it. IP restrict access to the noodly parts if you must but VPNs are just a pain the ass.

Also, fuck ISP's who force you to use a VPN client to connect for FTP but then won't bother to update their shit to use new VPN clients when the one they were using gets discontinued, then get all "OOPSIE" when Windows 10 breaks the old, discontinued shit.

Or in other words, FUCK VPN's.

[Selby]

Or in other words, FUCK VPN's.

I'm kind of on this same boat too for all of the reasons listed.  It's a royal pain when you don't have a dedicated team to rolling out software and ensuring everything is updated properly.  My work is one of the few places that do it right, but they have a large team working on it as the system has to handle thousands of users and be extremely secure.

[Hawkbit]

The Internet: Converting web devs to Sith since 1993.

[Yegolev]

I thought VPN client updates simply didn't exist, since every company I've dealt with would change brands before updating anything.  I've also had to use various ones but somehow never felt like I was going to rupture an eyeball over it.  Then again, I'm a zen-ass motherfucker.

[HaemishM]

Picture me as Big Boy in the scene with your avatar and the VPN's as Andre 3000.

[Rendakor]

I've made plenty of terrible decisions in my life.  That might not be consolation.

I haven't considered landlordery (it's a word now) but I have thought very much about mini-storage.

I spent several years of my life working at a software company that made accounting/management software for mini storage places.  And now because of that, know way more about that weird ass industry than I thought I ever would.  Ask me anything!   

The incidental knowledge bit is kind of fun. I, for instance, have learned that guys who build airplanes and rockets get really excited about aluminum alloys. It's like double Christmas.

Also, that watching shit break is surprisingly fun even if there's 45 minutes of math before and after a video of something undergoing 'catastrophic failure'.

And also that listening to FAA guys detail the root causes of famous aircraft accidents is horribly terrifying. (One of those "Oh, half the plane just peeled away mid-flight sucking shit out of the plane" things? Caused by a guy with an knife cutting off some sticker or decal. He gouged the aluminum skin, just a bit. Started a crack that grew and nobody saw it.).

I've basically come to realize that cracks tend to grow really slowly, up until a magic point where they suddenly grow super-fast (like "blink and you'll miss it") and metal shatters like glass.

The last bit there is 100% true, and something I've had to explain to a number of welders, fabricators, etc. when I fail their shit for a 1/16" crack.

[Lantyssa]

They probably want you on the VPN because it's behind the firewall and they don't want to open a hole just to let someone use FTP?

[Yegolev]

Ideally, all the important things are behind the firewall.

[Salamok]

I don't understand why Kanye's handlers let him talk.

Ever.

Absolutely one of the dumbest people I've ever heard speak.

We need Trump to lose by a narrow enough margin so it encourages him to run in 2020, then get Kanye to run cause I really want to see that debate.

[Yegolev]

Not sure where to ask this.

Son is probably going to be assigned Nikola Tesla for a "science" performance.  We want to supply him with some Teslaish displays.  The latest idea my wife has is to rig up a small fluorescent light with a knife switch, for that old time feel.  As with most of Tesla's inventions, this will be dangerous, so I wanted to ask the intelligentsia if there was anything fluorescent or visibly-similar which would run on less-deadly batteries instead of 120V AC.

I don't think Tesla invented the Jacob's Ladder but my wife already ordered the kit, so that's happening.

[Trippy]

He did invent the plasma lamp, though.

[Viin]

You can probably find a small "tube" of LEDs that looks like a florescent tube, and would only need some AAA's to run. The trick would be mounting it in a way that makes it look like part of a lamp or some such.

[Merusk]

Faugh... If you're going Tesla you do the earthquake machine or you go home.

Do it, Yeg. Mock the Brevard faultline. You know you want to.

[Samwise]

You can probably find a small "tube" of LEDs that looks like a florescent tube, and would only need some AAA's to run. The trick would be mounting it in a way that makes it look like part of a lamp or some such.

+1, there are plenty of low-voltage lighting options.  

None of them are going to have dramatic lightning arcs and sparks because you get those things by having voltage so high that it jumps across the air, and if it's high enough to jump across the air it'll also jump across you.    Might be a necessary sacrifice in the name of safety.

Speaking of safety and high voltages, I recently purchased a 10kV neon sign transformer that I'm going to try to make Lichtenburg figures with (putting high voltage across something until it burns, leaving cool patterns that show the flow of electricity).  I bet that'd make a great science project if you weren't worried about electrocuting someone.   

[Merusk]

I saw a vid of someone etching guitar bodies with one of those recently. It was pretty damn awesome.

[Samwise]

I'll share my results, assuming I don't fuck up and zap myself into cardiac arrest.  My thousand dollar idea is to make coasters and sell them at a craft fair or something.  I think a $1 piece of wood with lightning burns on it would sell for $30 pretty easily.

[Merusk]

Maybe not $30 but you ARE in Cali. You could easily get $15-$20 for a set of 4 around here.

[Lantyssa]

Re-enact the Prestige.

[Selby]

Speaking of safety and high voltages, I recently purchased a 10kV neon sign transformer that I'm going to try to make Lichtenburg figures with (putting high voltage across something until it burns, leaving cool patterns that show the flow of electricity).

No way, this is actually a thing?  We do this at work all the time when something fails drastically (usually through corona) and usually just throw the resulting piece of "art" in the trash.  Who would have thought someone would actually want to do it on purpose...

I do have an old tetrode that will light up a room that I need to get around to making a lamp out of one of these days...

[Merusk]

Speaking of safety and high voltages, I recently purchased a 10kV neon sign transformer that I'm going to try to make Lichtenburg figures with (putting high voltage across something until it burns, leaving cool patterns that show the flow of electricity).

No way, this is actually a thing?  We do this at work all the time when something fails drastically (usually through corona) and usually just throw the resulting piece of "art" in the trash.  Who would have thought someone would actually want to do it on purpose...

I do have an old tetrode that will light up a room that I need to get around to making a lamp out of one of these days...

\

It IS and you should totally steal them and sell them on etsy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuG1oNRQnyI
https://vimeo.com/60814695

Then google "fractal wood burning."

Like all things, you just need the right buzzwords to turn the mundane into dollars. In this case "fractal" vs "just burnt"   

[Morat20]

I give up. Going to see my podiatrist. I have no idea what's wrong with my shins, but fuck it. Time to call in experts.

I have tried new shoes, I have tried rest, I have tried everything. About all that's left other than "weirdly fucked up shins" is I did sorta add onto my workout last month (but just twice!) and I was taking rather high doses of NSAID's at the time, so it's possible I somehow really overdid it and am now suffering some weird blowback that just doesn't hurt 95% of the time.

I'd think shin splits would feel...different. I'm kinda worried it's something awful like compartment syndrome (yay for "We'll have to cut your fucking leg open if you want to exercise, and also your doctor wants you to exercise, let me get my knife") but maybe I overdid it about a month back and a week off wasn't enough. (Or I should be taping or wearing those weird compression things or whatever).

It's like the outside shin muscles just...cramp...after jogging a certain distance. I can stretch it out and walk, the pain goes away. I start to jog? Same distance, right back. No pain later. No pain the next morning. Just slightly stiff and sore muscles. Not stabbing pains.

Seriously, it's like the muscle just knots up. Weirdest damn thing. Last time I encountered this pain it was worn shoes, but new ones have not helped. (Yes, proper shoes for my gait, body size, and stride). Then again, if I hurt it with crap shoes it's probably still sore.

Fuck if I know. My body is betraying me. I'm jogging to feel better, not to randomly curse on a treadmill as the stupid cramps occur.

And what pisses me off the MOST was I'd finally settled into a good routine! 3 miles (in 40 minutes) three times a week. I was aiming to push my average speed up to 5 mph and to morph to running the full 40 minutes. I'm losing weight, I'm feeling better, and my stupid legs betray me.

[Cyrrex]

Jogging.  Is.  The.  Worst.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but aren't you overweight?  Jogging is something most people should avoid, and if you have weight issues that is 100% the case.  That it might be causing you problems is no great mystery.

Things better than jogging: walking and sprinting and everything else in the gym that does not involve jogging.

So, that out of the way, one way to treat the cramping symptoms is to become more flexible.  I don't mean doing your 5 minute warmup stretching (which is generally a waste of time anyway), I mean that you need to set aside time to work on becoming stupidly flexible.  I have started to have cramping issues in my calves since my back injury a year ago, and the only thing that seems to mitigate it is when I work on my flexibility. I am not sure the problem will every go away completely, but even after a few days of serious stretching I notice quite an improvement.

[apocrypha]

Morat, what you're describing is absolutely shin splints. No need to worry further than that. They will probably go away as you do it more but it might take a while, like, months.

But Cyrrex is right, jogging is a terrible idea for pretty much everyone. The only exception is if you can run on grass 100% of the time. Proper grass, not astroturf. And even then there's 1000s of things that are better for you than jogging.

Have you considered swimming? It's incredibly good at getting you generally fitter with a very low chance of also causing you injury at the same time. Particularly good if you're overweight at all.