Journals

Striker11 months ago2023-04-22 09:19:46 UTC 7 comments
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Zinc - This thing that powers our remotes and keeps us away from the flu

In 1746, an inquisitive alchemist called Andreas Marggraf found an elusive metal deep in the heart of the German highlands. He was looking for the famous Philosopher's Stone when he discovered a silvery-blue element he christened "Zinc." Andreas, enchanted by its malleability and corrosion resistance, rapidly understood that zinc has its own distinct magical characteristics. People from all around the world began to harness the potential of zinc as word of his discovery spread. They used it to galvanize iron and steel, preserving their ships and towns from rust, and farmers utilized it to provide crucial nutrients to crops.

The alchemists of the modern age, known as chemists, experimented with Zinc to create innovative batteries that powered the dreams of a new generation. And so, Zinc, the marvelous discovery born of a quest for the Philosopher's Stone, continued to weave its enchanting tale of transformation throughout the world.

From a metallurgical perspective, as a moderately reactive metal, Zinc prefers to avoid solitude, seeking companionship with other elements in compounds and alloys

I think that about describes how I feel after this milestone. Although I always preferred my solitude for reading and satisfying my curiosities, I'm starting to understand better and better the importance of spending time with others. As with anything else in life, it's a balance.

If I am observing enough, there are quite some distinct changes between me from 10 years ago and today. For one, I don't have that lust I used to have - this is a bit ridiculous but it's a notable change. Or perhaps it's a consequence of unrequited love, idk. And on that note, most of my anxiety and panic attacks are gone, probably restored to a more healthy level (I've had serious issues with anxiety during my college years) Maybe this is what growing old means. Less reactivity. There's also some understanding of the world I'm living in and long term plans.

I am more fascinated than ever with the progress of AI, and disturbed equally by how small progress has been in other areas of humanity (political, peace etc.). We are living in interesting times.

Otherwise I'm in good shape and probably healthy for my age. I noted a decrease in the performance of my eyesight, but that was triggered during the pandemic. I really should make an appointment to the optometrist/ophthalmologist for a complete eye exam as this worries me.

In other ways I feel about life in general, I've replayed some Talos Principle recently and had a pleasant surprise. This message sums it up:
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Onwards, dear friends!
Striker1 year ago2022-04-16 10:56:57 UTC 8 comments
Oh yeah, forgot to post here yesterday.

We owe a lot to copper. I mean, virtually all electrical circuitry is made out of it. It's the reason I shocked myself Wednesday when working on a socket, while I thought I switched off the right fuse on the fuse panel. Live and learn - next time I'm, switching off the whole panel. The copper wire was the culprit: it conducted all that electrical potential right through my body. Or maybe, if I'm being rational, me being stupid is the one to blame, not a copper wire. I got a weird vertigo on my left side that day, it was funny.

People use copper tubes for plumbing and sometimes for heating, although plastic ones are more popular nowadays. Not sure what are the advantages and disadvantages as I'm not a plumber.
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Turks have an interesting way to make coffee on heated sand. They use a kind of copper pot that sits on hot sand. Probably not specific only to Turkey, as I imagine this is an excellent way of making coffee on a hot desert day.

Copper is also used for roofing, and in time it oxidizes and get that beautiful teal color.

Anyway, I'm sure copper is an interesting metal to study, I'm just here to bring some cake.

As for me... well, another revolution around the sun, lots of ups and downs, new lessons in life learned, new mental tools acquired, new responsibilities, and maybe a new passion too - I bought myself a Honda Hornet, the 2007 model.
Oh well, we all need some kind of personal therapy.
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Have a nice day everyone!
Striker2 years ago2021-04-15 21:55:02 UTC 7 comments
Riddle me this
A decade ago to time I'd laugh,
it was nickel and a dime stuff.
Today, it's probably worth a nickel,
and my mind less fickle.
I haven't done much for myself or my projects this year. I wanted to go snowboarding more to improve my techniques but March was totally interrupted by me catching Covid19 - and it was surprisingly rough, with night tremors and fever, lack of smell, muscle pain etc. I went once more last week because, against all odds, there is still a lot of snow at high altitudes. I am a bit frustrated because, this being my 2nd season all-time, I believed last year I could improve enough to be confident to go to a bigger resort somewhere in Austria in 2022. Now I'm not sure that'll happen. But I'm investigating a summer alternative that looks like has good transferable skills: mountain-boarding. The problem is that... this would really hurt if you fell anywhere where there isn't grass and soft soil. I can imagine the bruises on asphalt.

I've been trying (well, tbh, a friend of mine keeps pushing me) to improve my guitar skills. I'm expecting a small amp from thomann in a few days (a Joyo Meteor) and an effects pedal. I hope that will boost the fun of learning.

Recently an order of 7 books arrived from UK. I was really excited and couldn't wait to get my hands on them, but knowing myself, this feeling will wear off quickly as I need to force myself implement a discipline of reading and applying knowledge from them regularly. They're mostly technical books.
Hands-On Machine LearningHands-On Machine Learning
Growing Gourmet and Medicinal MushroomsGrowing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms
One of them is Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras & TensorFlow. I've had my eyes on this since the beginning of last year. I could get it digitally, but I thought that this is the kind of stuff you need to really get your nose into (also literally, for some reason I love smelling books :nuts: ). I'm not that hyped about machine learning anymore, as I was a few years ago, but I'd like to understand it better and not break my neck scrolling horizontally through a ton of resources on the interwebs. I hope this will help me.

Another one is Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms. I've watched a JRE podcast with Paul Stamets after seeing randomly a presentation of his. Don't remember how I stumbled upon the guy, but I had some interest for some time in Lion's Mane and recently started drinking mushroom coffee. Yeah it isn't magical or anything, if it has any effects it's very subtle. But anyway, the guy is really interesting and I just absolutely love to hear him talk. He's knowledgeable and, surprisingly, mycology seems to be quite interesting (mushrooms form seemingly intelligent networks). I will try to grow later this year some Lion's Mane at home, and if I succeed maybe other mushrooms as well (legal ones, haha :P, I know what you're thinking).

Speaking of coffee, at some point during winter I watched a lot of videos about making coffee, manual espresso machines etc.
(I reccommend James Hoffmann's YC).
So at some point I decided to buy a coffee syphon to impress my fellow office colleagues. It was the most expensive office impression as of yet. Still, this thing is quite interesting to watch, but I almost never use it as it takes too much time. It's more of a thing to put to work in a social setting, for a coffee ritual etc.
Coffee Syphon - brewing coffee Heisenberg styleCoffee Syphon - brewing coffee Heisenberg style
Hope you'll have an interesting year guys and gals!
P.S. From my timezone's point of view, I should've posted this yesterday (an hour ago) :D.
Striker3 years ago2020-04-19 22:07:20 UTC 3 comments
One of those cryptic journals :P.
Also an update to brag about finally getting a new battle station.

Pic from the testing phase:
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Working beast:
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Striker4 years ago2019-06-23 18:29:03 UTC 17 comments
I'll pay a visit to this city this summer and I'm wondering what to do. I'm not heavily invested in the history of London so I only feel obliged to visit landmarks like the Big Ben or Westminster Abbey because they're so iconic. I'd be more interested in understanding how the celtic-saxons-norse mixed together to create the modern British people. Eh, but that's quite a rabbit hole. I'd also like to see Stonehenge some point in my life, but I don't think this summer I can.
What I definitely am interested in is paying a visit to the National museum of computing, which is in Bletchley. So I want to ask you guys who know the city better and how to travel to other cities, if the following method is the most optimal.
Google maps tells me that it's about 80km away and I can get there in an hour by West Midland Trains or Virgin trains. But I looked to see the price of tickets and... well, maybe I'm not used to these travelling prices yet, that's why I thought I'd ask. It's about 15 pounds a ticket, which makes the roundtrip 30 pounds.
In Romania, the most I've paid for a 100km train ride is about 5-6 pounds (making it the most expensive option). Are there any alternatives? If not, oh well, I won't be doing this everyday :D.
Striker4 years ago2019-04-17 20:05:36 UTC 2 comments
They're all right you.
I almost forgot to post about it.

I have nothing new to report. My life - quite bland. The life of a developer quite hammers you hard into a single spot - I mean, it depends... I sort of have long term goals. I had some moods here and then. Probably I need more sleep. Have many ideas. So little time to implement. When I have time - procrastination takes place. I feel like I lack the enthusiasm I used to have. I feel grateful, although I'd like to feel even more gratitude, for the friends I have.

At the beginning of this year I had some big plans to implement some kind of self-organizing system and possibly use some software to achieve and measure my ideas turned into tasks, turned into projects. Turns out that's a big project also. Or are these just surface motives cloaking the fact that I'm not ready to sacrifice my time for that? Who knows! It's hard to know yourself :nuts:

I'm taking guitar lessons. I'm trying to build a weather station. I'm trying to find a relationship. Turns out I'm too shy and hammered in my patterns to do that. I need massive amounts of courage to get out of the comfort zone.

As I watch other people, I wonder if they put in a lot of effort to get where they are, to have the relationships they have, or it was just chance and they were just riding the waves of destiny?

It's hard to build a life.
Is it worth it?

I hope this doesn't sound depressing or anything. Just some thoughts of mine.
Striker5 years ago2018-09-24 16:53:32 UTC 5 comments
It's basically a small fridge.
What is your latest weird purchase?

[EDIT] It's been on for more than half an hour an nothing really happened, then all of a sudden I hear a small dripping sound and I'm like "oooohhh your first poop!" pats the dehumidifier
[EDIT2] If anyone expected an /r/jokes style post, I'm sorry, but I'm kinda dried-up on jokes right now.
Striker5 years ago2018-04-15 07:48:26 UTC 14 comments
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He is kicked out of the idyllic multi-potentiality land and forced by the unmerciful laws of physics to evolve towards a chosen essence.
All voices scream: you've tasted existence, now you must become, or else!

He'd rather have a third option... though life is interesting and solving the problems of becoming life-giving and life-enhancing seems an impossible yet achievable task. And it waters his mouth and makes him enthusiastic.
Striker6 years ago2018-03-01 20:46:26 UTC 7 comments
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From Romania, with love.
Striker6 years ago2017-05-17 18:38:56 UTC 5 comments
I am the excited owner of a Mazda 3 hatchback, 2006 model.
No seriously, my mouth is stuck in smiling mode.
Striker7 years ago2017-03-22 10:13:11 UTC 7 comments
Hammer, although having a spartanic interface, is still a role model for other level editors through its common sense. And this, after almost 20 years from its conception.

2016 GDC talk
Striker7 years ago2017-03-10 08:57:01 UTC 5 comments
It's gonna make the resonance cascade a real thing. I guarantee it.
The 10 pettaWatt laser facility.
Striker7 years ago2016-10-27 18:04:40 UTC 5 comments
I tried Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in Project Cars and Hover Junkers.
AMA
Striker7 years ago2016-09-24 12:45:25 UTC 4 comments
Have you guys ever dreamed within a dream?

It happened to me this past night. I dreamed that I was piloting a helicopter, then I woke up explaining to someone what an odd dream I had, then I woke up.
This is, I believe, the second time that it occurred to me.

Also as a diverse fact, have you tried googling for top american inventors? Yeah, do that :)).
Striker7 years ago2016-08-30 16:48:18 UTC 6 comments