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We changed DNS for all devices to use OpenDNS familyshield [0] for starters. It's a passive way to throttle some of the worst of the worst out there.

Of course setting some limits on how much / how often helps a bit, and frank discussions about what too much of an addictive thing does to you.

Our youngest is developmentally delayed and will absolutely ignore any guidelines and follow the path of least resistance / most enticement, so their bedroom connection runs through a proxy running Squid [1] where I've whitelisted school and certain entertainment (that took a bit of time running Telerik Fiddler[2] to gather the many domains necessary for the whitelist)

Spotify was a bit of a problem, again with our youngest who went straight for the podcasts with the most adult content, which Spotify gleefully recommended the first moment we turned the service on. Could never find a way to turn podcasts off - never wanted them.

We run our own Emby[3] server that everyone has access to with curated music tv and movies (and also have the usual streaming video services, but those are reserved for common areas).

Looked at other options like walled garden family services (e.g. Amazon Kindle Fires with subscription), but there seems to only be content ranging up to ~12 year old tastes.

[0] https://support.opendns.com/hc/en-us/articles/228006487-Fami... [1] http://www.squid-cache.org/ [2] https://www.telerik.com/fiddler [3] https://emby.media/

This is remarkable stuff.

Suggestion: A hotkey (in or out of the virtual computer) that allows you to reset to the default orientation without having to reload the page. On a laptop with only a touchpad, I'm fighting with the controls a bit.

CSS Tips 5 years ago

I'd love to see a "Can-I-use" browser extension when looking at articles like this.

Occasionally a project requires IE 10/11 support (state government work) and it's such a shame to get excited about an impossible CSS approach.

I tried clubhouse.io after seeing your note, and a few minutes into the demo (which was impressive) the site died (which was less impressive).

And now "Unable to log in. We were unable to parse the server response. This could be a networking issue, so please try again later."

Trying Kitemaker now and hoping the HN hug of death isn't approaching. First impressions: I appreciate the keyboard-shortcut-first UI.

Audacity 3.0 5 years ago

I'm happy to hear about the new file format. The prior "piles of files" were a problem when saving to folders watched by Dropbox / OneDrive.

Thanks Audacity, for an excellent tool!

On a longer timeframe, PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) / PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) models[0] are common, and I run into them frequently in non-profit social/community work. The "Do" part of the cycle is frequently misunderstood, it's more of a test.

I've found PDSA to be challenging with developers, with a tendency to want to short-circuit the process and leap intuitively to the "solution" at the end of the cycle. Talented, experienced, and ignorant all end up looking like P-A-P-A (or just AAAA with a spectacular thud at the end when things finally hit the fan).

The author "recommended a process of “deductive destruction”: paying attention to your own assumptions and biases, then finding fundamental mental models to replace them." -- going to borrow a few ideas from the article and try a different approach for a few of our Mavericks...

[0] https://asq.org/quality-resources/pdca-cycle

Maybe I'm the outlier here, but with the pandemic came a significant cultural shift, reducing office politics, and it's been something of a productivity renaissance for my organization.

Communication has downshifted to a few mandatory team and all-staff gatherings, one on ones with direct reports, and that's about it. We handle things through email and Teams for urgent matters. Overall, management has been light touch, trust but verify, and staff are given flexibility to set "project hours" to avoid interruptions.

Frank communication about what works, what doesn't, and setting realistic agendas (from the meeting level up to the epic projects) has been very helpful.

Per the website FAQ [0]: Q: "Can I see a demo of Webiny in action?"

A: "We don't host a public demo at this time. You're welcome to install it yourself, or book a call with us and we'll prepare a demo for you."

Investing the time to install it ourselves or book a demo just to see the framework in action adds a lot of friction.

You might want to considering moving the 7 minute Webiny overview to a more prominent place - I didn't see the thumbnail under your navigation's Product menu until after hunting through numerous other pages, poking through getting started tutorials, and even ending up on your documentation page.

[0] https://www.webiny.com/pricing

Fresh fruit and veg prices have practically quadrupled in the last 10 years here (Florida). Beef is significantly up.

On the other hand, chicken is ridiculously inexpensive. For under $7, a tray of 8 oversized chicken thighs. Following a Keto regimen for a bit over a year now, I'm very keen on trying a different approach to high-protein, low-carb intake.

The novel proteins the article discusses (mung beans, potatoes, fava beans, chickpeas, lentils, oats, lupine, and faba) give me a wider array to try, but I can see how difficult plant-based meat pricing will be when the crops are so much more expensive than the corn/wheat/soy tri-fecta.

What keeps the novel crops pricing so high? (looks like 15 to 160 times higher than corn/wheat/soy at the extremes)

Labor?

"The Inspiration4 crew will receive commercial astronaut training by SpaceX on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft, orbital mechanics, operating in microgravity, zero gravity, and other forms of stress testing. They will go through emergency preparedness training, spacesuit and spacecraft ingress and egress exercises, as well as partial and full mission simulations"

I would give my

looks at limbs, then looks around

... PS5 ...

to be one of the chosen astronauts.

Hunched over a bitter + savory hotpot in Nanning, China was both dizzying and delicious. A tour-de-force of sinus-clearing, palate-disorienting goodness.

Boiling roiling fungus and grasses (lemon, bamboo, some things entirely new)

A wordless meal, punctuated by satisfied sighs and appreciative noises

Plates of piled high greens. Mystery broth, mystery guests.

The live entertainment: torchlit, rhythmic caterwauling over a PA

Following up: 50 minutes in chat and 5 rounds of back and forth like a used car dealership before they would agree to cancel.

Adobe: "Have 3 months free!"

Me: "We are no longer using these licenses."

Adobe: "But you are on the hook for a year. We have reset all of your licenses to have the same annual renewal date, regardless of when you purchased them."

Me: "We are no longer using these licenses. Free months are just a tactic in hopes that we miss the cancellation window and are forced to pay for another year."

Adobe: "We highly recommend that you accept our generous 3 months free offer."

Me: "That sounds a little ominous. Please cancel the licenses, effective immediately."

This is paraphrased, but follows the essential conversation. Adobe, you disappoint me.

As I write this, I am attempting to reduce the number of licenses allocated in the Adobe admin portal.

After hunting through the site, it appears easy to add, but impossible to remove licenses without going through sales support (instant response with a human), who then transfer you to the "Cancellation Team" which are remarkably hard to find online and have not replied to previous attempts at cancellation.

This is my third try, and the wait has been ridiculous. After finally being connected to a member of their cancellation team, they are "reviewing my request" and 1-2 minutes (please stand by) has turned into 15+

This experience has been so bad (on top of many others), that I'm strongly considering moving our entire org to open source tools (aside from InDesign for the publications group, which our partners require).

Show HN: I built an online interactive course that helps you learn vim* faster

*You have a small typo in your title: should be spelled "emacs" ;)

Kidding aside, the course is fun, nice work.

Per other comments in the thread, if you want to integrate vim muscle memory and browsers, check out the Vimium extension for Chrome (granted, I've overwritten the defaults with emacs, but the idea has still been helpful and minimized mouse use).