I used to use ChatGPT and Copilot, but then I stopped because they sucked too bad to justify the price. I spun up an Ollama instance on my server but I almost never use that either because it sucks really bad. I integrated it into my Home Assistant instance and it sucks so bad that when I ask it to simply turn off a light, it only succeeds about 1 in 5 times.

Everything else can be looked up on Google

I think that there actually is value to rote and memorization. Adding more knowledge to your head expands the possibilities for what thoughts you’re able to have in a way that outsourcing to Google never could. My best example is GPS navigation vs mental mapping. A while ago, I stopped using GPS during my drives, instead spending some time to look over the map and memorize the directions before I set out. Since I started doing this, I have a much clearer mental map of the places I drive through. I can use my mental map to plan efficient outings, since I have a good idea of what places are close together and when/how to take alternate routes to avoid traffic.

The other problem with leaving things to Google is that it makes you less self-reliant and diminishes your ability to unplug from the internet and think and act in the real world. Sure you can use Google Translate, but actually learning a foreign language allows you to participate in conversations, appreciate jokes, and see the world through the lens of the relationships baked into another language (e.g. you see sparks and fireworks as “fire-flowers” because you know the words hibana and hanabi).

Also, analogies and examples form an important underpinning for critical thinking. And the best way to seed a student’s mind with examples is to make them read a lot.

Logarithmic scales are notorious for hiding spikes.

My wife loves beef but if she ever stopped eating it, I would call her my Alpha Gal

I bought 96 gigs of DDR3 for my server in December 2022. It cost $118.76; less than $1.24 per gig.

It’s certainly odd but my wife doesn’t mind it because she just makes me operate it 😅

Finally got sick of the FireTV so I plugged a mini PC into a dumb TV. It’s kinda sad to have to use a keyboard instead of a controller, but it was a minor tradeoff for a much better experience.

I’ve got two.

A lab freezer’s seal broke in the middle of a humid Michigan summer, so everything got encased in frost. In the process of chipping away the frost, the ink on many of the labels rubbed away, so we essentially had a bunch of mystery flasks. One such flask had a septum that was stuck really tight. When I yanked it out, the recoil caused some of the mystery liquid to splash onto my mesh shoe. Within a couple minutes, my foot started stinging. We later identified the contents to be acetyl chloride, so it was probably reacting with my foot sweat to make acetic acid and hydrochloric acid. I took my shoe and sock off and rinsed my foot in the lab sink.

I was putting sodium hydride into an empty round bottom and a good bit of it got stuck to the ground glass in the neck. Genius that I am, I turned a nitrogen line on with low flow thinking I could blow it into the flask. I didn’t realize that the nitrogen had to go somewhere and the only place it could go is back out, blowing NaH all over my face. There was very much safety-glasses-unless-there’s-an-inspection culture at my old university, but I was never more thankful that I made it a personal rule to wear splash goggles. Would not have liked for the moisture on my eyes to bubble off.

I uninstalled Tik Tok almost 2 years ago and have heavily restricted my other social media usage since. Programming.dev (and the extended Lemmyverse) is the biggest cheat I permit myself. I do still waste more time scrolling than I want, but through it, I’ve been exposed to things that I feel make my life richer. And it is a lot less soul-crushing than commercial platforms that are jam packed with AI slop and are designed to be addicting.

That said, with I no longer have a way to keep up with trends and my main source of news is my wife, who is still plugged into TikTok. And honestly, I think I’m better off that way. I have way more time to read (and engage in other long-form content) and spend with my kids. I’m exposed to way less propaganda and outrage content. Looking back on days with 9+ hours spent on TikTok, it feels like I was part of a hive mind. I like being an individual again.

After reading a bunch of books about our relationship with technology, I concluded it’s probably best that I greatly reduce my reliance on my phone. A big part of how I accomplish that is just by using my laptop for things that I can’t cut out entirely, like banking, email, web browsing, etc.

Most of the time, my phone’s browser is disabled. It keeps me from using my phone too much. I understand not everyone is in a position where they can do that though.

I really don’t know what it’s like in China because I’ve never been there. I know some people who are from China but they’ve never really talked about anything other than visiting their families. All I hear comes from the US propaganda machine, so I can’t really have an informed opinion. This is probably how it should be for like 95% of Americans. We don’t need to have an opinion about everything ffs.

Probably be best friends with my kids and hang out with them all day long. So nothing really different.

I use Minimalist Phone Launcher with network access disabled. I know there are libre alternatives out there, but I didn’t like them as much, and I desperately needed a digital detox.

Having kids makes a big difference. It’s very useful to be able to shut off all the lights in the common areas and turn off the lights in their bedroom when they fall asleep. It’s also nice to be able to push a button to start a song on the speaker for musical routines (like cleaning up breakfast to Blue Danube or running to bed to Night Comes from Pikmin).

We also have a TON of lamps, and their switches are not always easily accessible (especially because our house is a perpetual mess).

The smart lock is because my wife always used to ask me if I locked the door after I got into bed, and I never remembered because ADHD.

Aegis works perfectly. My university used Duo and then Okta, and both worked. I was unable to get Authy to work, though.

I mean, it’s better than trying to scale it to a fraction of the slowest thing that exists…

Beat me to it!

She independently discovered it haha. I sit her down on the couch next to me while I’m working, and she constantly flops over. It drives me nuts! I would let her just do her thing, but she’s got pretty bad reflux and even just a minute or two of tummy time within like 2 hours of having a bottle will make her ralph.

The other day, I had to get up for a minute or two, and I left her on the couch. My better judgment kicked in and I pushed an ottoman next to the couch to block the space she usually tries to launch into. This is what I came back to see:

I checked out Lapce and I like it a lot, but I can’t really live without my Jupyter Notebook extension 😕