HN user

matgessel

48 karma

Software Engineer in Seattle

Posts0
Comments10
View on HN
No posts found.

It's difficult to skim the stream of symbols and instantly recognize concepts. Think of a word finding box puzzle in English (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=word+finding+puzzle&iax=images&ia=...). It helps if you add spaces and periods, but I still think kanji make it easier to quickly pick out concepts.

In this video, Yuta compares different ways of writing the same sentence and discusses efforts to eliminate Kanji: "Why Do Japanese Still Use Kanji?" • https://youtu.be/O27TgLW6pCU?t=220

Another analogy: I find the flat enunciation of "voice to text" on my phone a bit difficult to follow. I can understand if I pay attention, but I can't passively listen and multitask like I can with human read text (@see - The Guardian's "The Long Read" podcast).

My second favorite tape is Honda's spicy rodent deterrent tape. It's made in Japan with capsaicin. It's not cheap, but much cheaper than an wiring repair at an auto shop*. The lowest price I was able to find seemed be be a dealer in Colorado … until I created an account, went through the order and saw the ~$20 S&H. The best deal including shipping was from the same dealer on eBay — no S&H charge.

https://www.teraokatape.co.jp/english/products/no/no300/data...

Rats chewed through wiring in my car on two occasions. Both occasions were in cold weather and the chewed wires were above shelf-like spots in the engine compartment. One was a transmission solenoid wire and the other was the ignition wire in the main harness above the wheel well. In both cases I was able to self-repair by popping the pins out of the wiring connectors and soldering new leads (pig tails) to the pins. YouTube has several videos explaining the process.

temporary impact on your credit score. Applying for multiple credit cards at once will reduce your score for a few months; if you will be applying for a mortgage, car loan, job, apartment, or other situation that requires a check of your credit, it is a good idea to stop all churning activity as far in advance as possible. Most conservative estimates recommend at least 2 years as "hard pulls" from credit card inquiries will fall off your credit report in 2 years.

your homeowners insurance rate can be impacted by your churning activity, even though your credit score remains high. Your insurer regular does a soft pull on your credit, and they may increase your rate if there are a lot of new credit lines, even though your overall credit score and utilization may remain in good standing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/wiki/index

I have (and use daily) a pair of 13 year old Westone 3’s*. I bought them thinking of using them for a 40 minute walking commute involving freeway underpasses and a noisy sales pit style office.

The commute case didn’t work out because they didn’t seal fully. There was too much noise leakage to hear podcasts. Music wasn’t isolated enough and I didn’t want to turn it up too high and damage my hearing. The audiologist who made the molds had me chew while the mold material was curing in my ear canals and this resulted in a poor seal. A poor seal also means poor bass response. I think the audiologist had me chew to make the molds more comfortable for long hours of use and for snacking at the desk. Hearing aids were his main business and he seemed inexperienced with musician monitors.

I’ve recently discovered that I can apply clear finger nail polish to the inserted portion to “fine tune” the fit. I’m getting a good seal and they’er still comfortable. I mainly use them when working with power tools at home.

For office use there are a couple of caveats: 1) If you have a tight fit, they will be more difficult to insert and remove. This can be a nusiance in a highly-collaborative work environment. Also, people tend to ignore the earpieces and expect you to hear what they’re saying. 2) Chewing is very loud and borderline uncomfortable. This was the case with the original, narrower width as well.

Can they double as concert earplugs or do I need a second set only for that?

My Westones have removeable cables, so they could be used that way, but there’s a better alternative: you can use the same molds to get relatively inexpensive silicone molds with tuned attenuation "filters". Mine use Etymotic 9, 15, 25 and solid 30 dB filters. The filters reduce frequencies more evenly, allowing more high end through than foam earplugs (except for the solid filters). I have Sensaphonics ER "Custom Musican”[2] plugs and Westone ES49[3], both made from silicone. The Sensaphonics are softer, but I prefer the Westones because they are lower profile, they have little handles for removal, and the firmer silicone is easier to insert/remove.

* Westone seems to have discontinued products for musicians and HiFi

[1] https://www.etymotic.com/hearing-protection-accessories/

[2] https://www.sensaphonics.com/products/erseriesplugs

[3] https://www.westone.com/hearing_health_care/recreational-ear...

Some ideas for playing a notification sound in a script runtime:

Shell

  # system beep; also flashes the screen if you have that enabled in accessibility
  osascript -e 'beep'
  
  # play the sound file given by the file system the path
  afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Hero.aiff
AppleScript
  beep
  
  do shell script "afplay '/System/Library/Sounds/Hero.aiff'"
  
JXA + Cocoa API
  $.NSBeep()
  
  // search for and play a sound file; the lookup path is defined by macOS
  $.NSSound.soundNamed('Glass').play

A little more info for the curious:

Toyota Market Cap: 171.994B

Tesla Market Cap: 205.619B

Market capitalization, commonly called market cap, is the market value of a publicly traded company's outstanding shares

Market cap is given by the formula MC = N * P, where MC is the market capitalization, N is the number of shares outstanding, and P is the closing price per share

A more comprehensive measure is enterprise value (EV), which gives effect to outstanding debt, preferred stock, and other factors

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_capitalization