notslow

WiFi Halow is a longer range protocol (still probably not long enough). But something like this can get people connected: https://openmanet.net

Heh, this would have been super helpful last summer as were nearing completion on the construction of our new home. We have an elliptical arch in our front portico that the carpenter was having trouble getting right...

Machine Learning Mastery (https://machinelearningmastery.com) provides code examples for many of the popular models. For me, seeing and writing code has been helpful in understanding how things work and makes it easier to put new developments in context.

Highly unlikely. 802.11x lives in the 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz ranges which are outside of the stated range of the tinySA mentioned in the article. Occasionally radios will work outside of the stated range with a bit of hacking, but 950MHz to 2.4GHz is pretty far. Software-defined radios (SDRs) like the HackRF One or BladeRF cover the 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz frequency ranges, but at a higher cost. [edit: clarify the frequencies of the HackRF and BladeRF]

[edit2: Apparently the tinySA Ultra can cover the higher frequencies in certain configurations]

Same. 8-o

I recognize urine mycotoxin tests are potentially controversial, but these tests were very diagnostically significant for us and our mold journey. The mycotoxins that were off the charts in our tests matched the mold that was eventually found in our house (after multiple mold inspectors missed it).

This area is definitely more "gray" than implied by your comment. I have tremendous respect for Shoemaker, but there are some gaps in that paper that did not appear to address how our practitioner used those tests for us. Many of the studies mentioned in the meta-review focus on the presence or absence of mycotoxins not the measured amount. Also, our practitioner used the test "backwards" compared to procedure outlines in the review paper. Our practitioner used the test before we had any evidence that we lived in a water-damaged building, whereas the paper is specifically focused on determining cause of illness after exposure to a water-damaged building.

You need to find a functional health practitioner, and be willing to try many different practitioners. It took us several tries to find a practitioner who was willing to test for mold. If you aren't familiar, functional practitioners focus on the root cause of medical issues rather than just symptoms. We found success with a functional nurse practitioner, though they capped out and we have moved on.

There are two tests we do periodically: https://realtimelab.com https://mosaicdx.com/test/mycotox-profile/

You may be able to find ways to get the tests directly (not through a health practitioner) if that ends up being the path you need. They are not cheap and not typically covered by insurance, but we found being mysteriously ill was way more expensive in the long run than paying for tests. May your path to healing be a straight one!

I don't know of anything, but will buy if one exists. Closest thing that is out there are Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) detectors, some of the expensive ones detect particles as small as mold but the IAQ detectors can't tell you that it is mold, only that particulates of a certain size are present.

If you are concerned about mold being a cause, there are couple of urine tests for mycotoxins that were super helpful for us understanding the mysterious illness in our family.

This! One of the best solutions to prevent mold is to improve energy efficiency. There are an increasing number of grant programs and Housing improvement initiatives available, but still those improvements are out of reach for a lot of people. We live in the Southeast US which is incredibly humid and so many houses have issues.

I know, seems crazy from the outside looking in, but nothing was particularly outrageously priced (and we did get several estimates from all sorts of people). To be fair, it wasn't just the foundation. Because of the mold in the basement the rest of the house also became contaminated and needed to be remediated (and my family is now super sensitive). I will also note that this during COVID so prices were somewhat higher than they are now. Believe me we did not set out to tear down our house, but that ended up being the best way to address the issues with the old house.

Afaik mold is only a big topic because of lawyers seeing a nice liability and the media a spooky story.

Unfortunately, mold is also a growing health concern for a sizable portion of the population. My family got severely ill from a moldy house, and it is taking us years to fully recover. The longer we have been aware the more and more folks we find are dealing with something similar.

The EPA Guide is a great start, but in our experience lacks some situational nuance that might increase its helpfulness. Each person reacts differently mold, some folks are just more sensitive than others. There are no federal standards for mold, either for allowable amounts in your home or guidelines for construction. So depending on your health response you may in fact need to go crazy tearing apart your house to hunt for mold.

After talking with ~30 different mold remediators, inspectors, remodeling contractors, etc. We got ~30 different responses for possible causes for mold in our our home. Ultimately, the cost to fix the true sources of mold in our home (due the sources being related to construction practices around the foundation) was equivalent to new construction. We ended up tearing down the moldy house. We're hoping to move into our new house late next spring!

I have a Ph.D. and am not in academia. The higher degree opens up opportunities for challenging positions, but you will probably need to show basic SWE capabilities also

I agree completely with this SWEs who understand data are extremely valuable. It sounds like you have enough hobby experience combined with your current work to get a SWE position. But, like other commenters have mentioned finish your degree first! Having a degree, any degree will open more doors for you.

I use Notable[1] and SparkleShare[2] to automatically sync notes with git. [1] https://notable.app [2] https://www.sparkleshare.org

Fastmail +1 . I have had an active Fastmail account for at least 20 years. It provides the perfect amount of features for me, without the creepiness.

I have a Dygma Raise. Love that it is split with a normal (not ortholinear) layout. Still getting used to the layers.

https://dygma.com

I'm not a mathematician, but I found Spivak's book on the linked page to be very accessible. They've started a company as well.

https://conexus.com/

I have always enjoyed this light-hearted "formal" analysis of the hardest languages https://people.cs.umass.edu/~rsnbrg/hardest.pdf

OpnSense is a true open fork of pfSense. https://opnsense.org

(not affiliated, just friends with the OpnSense team)

This was exactly my experience as well. I needed an non-JVM streaming platform. Differential Dataflow seemed like a possible fit, but I wasn't able to unlock the magic. Most likely a product maturity issue (docs, examples, defined use cases, etc.) than a technical one.

Causal inference is only helpful is fields where an intervention is needed (like social science, medicine, etc.), which limits its applicability somewhat. Sure, ML is only correlation, but for most problems correlation is all you need.

You may want to consider testing your apartment for endotoxins (or just moving if possible). Endotoxins come from the cell walls of gram-negative bacteria for which the most common source is sewer leaks. Endotoxins are toxic and can cause a range of symptoms. Unfortunately, our house tested high for those as well.

Wow, yes. All of that. That is basically our story.

No, the symptoms haven't gone away yet, but we are improving. We moved out of our house 6 months ago. Other folks we talked to that have dealt with mold have taken 1 year or more to get back to some semblance of normal

Mold illness is nasty. Each of the three of us experienced different symptoms. Some of our symptoms included increased food sensitivities, brain fog and neurological symptoms, mood swings, random muscle aches ("knots"), occasional random sharp pains, redness and/or swelling of hands or feet. None of those were particularly consistent but did reoccur over time.

After trying lots of other things, we finally got tested for mycotoxins, a mold byproduct, and after that test we started testing our house and discovered mold there. Neil Nathan's book "Toxic" was super-helpful in teasing out the many confusing and overlapping symptoms associated with many chronic illnesses.

We recently learned that the chronic illness in our family was due to long-term toxic mold exposure. Here's what we have learned over the last 10+ years:

1) Learn to advocate for yourself. One wise doctor told us "we're all just guessing". I don't know exactly what you are dealing with, but do your own research and seek out health practitioners that are on the leading edge of that community. 2) Learn your "dose". Every body is unique and has its own limits. There is no "normal" with chronic illness 3) Trust your gut. Remember that the struggle is real. There are a lot of doubters, questioners, and "helpful" people. You know what is best for your body. 4) Seek out a community of faith/meditation/prayer/therapy/etc. Dealing with Chronic illness is often more mental than physical.