John BS @johnabs@qoto.org

Y'all ever heard of Zulip? I just saw it on hackernews and I think I'm going to recommend it to my advisor that we use for our research group, especially since it's free for researchers! Sometimes it pays to get paid way less than what you could generate in the free market 😂

https://zulip.com/case-studies/lean/

As someone with a moderate fear of heights, Elden Ring is seriously making me anxious XD

@Pat @zpartacoos @namark

Thanks for your advice everyone! My wife and I finally got a bit of a break to regroup and think out a new strategy we'll be trying once our puppy gets back from our in-laws this weekend. She's having a blast with their 5 kids, and we think something that really excites her and tires her out is meeting new people, which we'll try to incorporate into her routine!

She already learned fetch which helps with her activity needs, and after spending some time with their boys she was just tuckered out. Worst case scenario, she seems like a great fit for their family, since they have so many hands on deck to keep her occupied, but we're going to do our best to provide an awesome home for this dog and play it by ear with my in-laws too!

So I won a teaching award from my university, and I'm really happy about it. I always tried really hard in my previous program to teach well, but rarely got recognition aside from my students. I'm so glad my efforts were noticed and even awarded this time. It's a huge boost, and I'm super grateful 😁

I am in the unfortunate position of needing to consider rehoming my puppy if nothing else works, and I'm hoping something will, because I'll be heartbroken if I have to give her up.

She is eating up every moment of my time with severe (what seems to be) separation anxiety which means I've barely gotten any work done at all. I'm exhausted, and so is my wife, who already has attentional issues, and the lack of sleep has just made functioning at all with such a demanding pup so much harder.

We're at the end of our rope here, and as much as I absolutely adore this dog, I'm not sure my wife and I can provide what she needs, whatever it is. If anyone else here has struggled with something similar and has advice, please let me know. We're desperate.

So my puppy loves Debussy and other classical music and saxophone jazz. She calms right down and just falls asleep in my lap with it on! You know what they say: "like daddy like daughter" XD

Oh! One more thing, for those of you with insomnia, sensory issues to noise while sleeping (or a tired puppy who can't ignore sounds yet) I HEAVILY recommend brownian noise + human heartbeat noises. I'm not sure whatever coma I arose from this morning, but I haven't slept better in bloody ages.

There's a free app on FDroid that provides this, called Noice.

So I spoke a bit too early yesterday, as she peed on herself while she was asleep somewhere between 8-11pm lmao. Fortunately, she really likes being bathed for some reason, and she slept for a full 8 hours last night, so I'll take it 😂

Puppy is getting better at not pooping/peeing all over herself and requiring a 30-50 minute bath, blow-dry, brush session due to a strict diet of pureed pumpkin today. Solid poops, and only ~3-4 instead of 8+ liquid ones yesterday. #winning

Also DAP hormone is a God-send, as it seriously helps her calm down completely in her crate and stay asleep, rather than screaming for 20 minutes then not sleeping for an hour until she starts screaming again. I just need to find a diffuser that doesn't need to be replaced every 6 months and I'll buy it immediately in the hopes it finally breaks the bad screaming habit for good. (we hotboxed her with this lotion and it worked decently lol)

Pro tip: if you get a small puppy, get some sort of smart camera strictly dedicated to monitoring them during crate training. It helps ease your mind if they're crying, and considering she's had 2 poo explosions so far due to an upset belly, helps you check to make sure if they are crying "legitimately" to go outside or just because they dont like being by themselves for any number of femtoseconds.

Also, a floor steamer/general purpose steam cleaner is an absolute must for sanitizing after blowouts. (Honestly, just get the latter with a floor attachment, steam cleaning is incredibly bloody efficient).

Floofer tax:

Oh my goodness, I have an adorable new puppy, but crate training is breaking my heart as she's crying right now because she is so desparate for human attention CONSTANTLY. Thank God my wife is good at this part

Professor wants us to solve 57 difficult homework questions in a week that he's not even going to grade, but we'll get a 0 if we don't do them...consider this course dropped lmao

I've had chronic pain issues for a while, but now they're in my temples.

Here's hoping that eating healthier, fasting, and exercise will help with both issues; I'm sick of feeling ill with no available explanation. 🤞

If you've got 12 minutes, please check this out. This is shocking and horrible that Tech giants don't only monopolize data, but are starting to monopolize water as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo7V4PPHijs

I was wrong about the mic q.q It's great as an audio sink, but not so much as a source on linux. Looks like I need to return yet another one 😖

I heavily recommend the Elgato Wave 3 microphone; just grabbed one and it way outclasses my old Yeti (and a Yeti replacement I tried recently). Great quality, no hissing, and it's pretty smart.

I'm honestly blown away by how fast computers can do their thing. I computed 2009! on my crappy old Thinkpad in Julia and it just cranked it out like it was nothing, less than a second. Absolutely incredible, considering the result is on the order of 10^5776.

Graham's number though? That may take a while 😂

@zpartacoos Just posted a long-form comment on Louis Rossman's channel to help him defend right to repair, if you (or anyone else who sees this) has anything to add that I've missed, go give his latest video a quick watch and see if you can help, we NEED right to repair to get through.

Hi Louis,

I'm a bit of an armchair logician, so I'd like to see if I can help with defending right to repair and you from these clearly disingenuous/uninformed critics. Unfortunately, the 4th amendment has been being turned into Swiss cheese for a while now. So convincing government officials (who honestly don't care about property rights, as evidence by recent legal precedent) to care without inspiring a large enough group of people to pressure them is, well...unlikely. Convincing individuals is likely even more difficult, as many of them "don't know how bad things really are".

One of your strongest attacks should be how this will impact the economy of the areas in which this is passed:

1. Thriving small businesses are critical for a healthy middle class, which has been consistently eroded in recent years. Right to repair will increase 3rd party repair, and the number of small businesses. Competition will drive down repair prices for consumers, create jobs, and **create more taxable revenue in the process** (the only thing these guys care about). Overall a win/win/win for everyone but the tech behemoths, who aren't losing much in the process.

2. The right to repair property in general is one of the clear markers of "true" ownership. If you own something, but are being prevented from repairing it yourself, then you really only own it for as long as the manufacturer allowed you to through their planned obsolescence. In this way, the manufacturer forces further consumption, which we know is worse for consumers, and the environment. By forcing the manufacturer to supply repair parts, we increase the life of our devices, which is better for my wallet, and overall less wasteful. Contrary to popular belief, nobody needs the newest iPhone to prevent themselves from going into Apple withdrawals. Longer device lifetime can ONLY benefit the consumer in the long term.

3. The current implicit "right to repair" (really just basic property rights) respects the property owner's right to repair their home, car, papers, land, and more. By extending this to devices, it only further protects the rights of individuals, who do not have the power to fight large companies without a class-action suit, which honestly provides little restitution to the individuals, as the lawyers take a large cut, and the remainder of the settlement is divided among (typically) thousands of participants. Honestly, we need to bolster property rights in this country, and I'm hoping right to repair is the catalyst for starting that change (look up Institute for Justice on YouTube if you want to get more informed about this garbage).

Your primary defensive arguments should be trying to reason by analogy to other property that we actually do have the right to repair (though again, this is becoming increasingly limited by private entities like HOAs etc. which is just ridiculous):

1. Many people choose not to change their oil, rotate their tires, or maintain their vehicle outside of taking it to a certified repair shop; however, that doesn't mean that allowing car manufacturers to have a monopoly on repairing their vehicle, and preventing oil from being sold to people who want to change their oil themselves, is a good thing for car owners. Clearly the owners will try to up-sell you either on "better" oil, unnecessary part replacements, or even telling you "the whole car is broken, we can't fix it" and forcing you to buy a new one because YOU CAN'T GET A SECOND OPINION SANS CONFLICT OF INTEREST WITHOUT 3RD PARTY REPAIR (thought I should emphasize that point). Same thing for devices.

2. Computers and other electronic tools are even more ubiquitous (and arguably more important to people's lives) than automobiles, so why would the right to repair only impact automobiles, when it should more realistically apply to devices which can literally contain the keys to your entire life, identity, memories, and more. The economic impact of not being able to repair a phone or a computer is WAY bigger than not being able to repair a car, as any car that is similar to yours can be a functional replacement. Your devices likely have unique data that is irreplaceable. Thus, in terms of lost work, diminished productivity, and the need to recover key information like passwords, ssh-keys, photos, documents, programs, etc., sub-optimal device repair is currently a huge drain on the productivity of our economy by preventing the affected individual from working at full capacity.

(rant time)
Honestly it's just common sense that people who own something should be able to do whatever they want to with it, and the companies that produce these devices should be supporting the consumer's purchase and allowing them to fix it when needed, rather than bleeding the consumers dry like bloated ticks. I hope you manage get this passed Louis, these massive, unaccountable companies are a blight on society that's masked by emotionally manipulative marketing, and I hope we finally start winning back some rights to own our stuff that we purchased with our hard earned money, rather than being treated like serfs living on Apple(et. al)'s land.

Good luck!