IJBMer Updates

lrdgck

OK, I moved my post. ("Moved", more like, but whatevs.)

lrdgck

Random thought: Jews actually don't run Poland. (Poland might have had periods of good governance, but obviously too few and far apart to generalize.) Instead, they let Poland be run by Poles and then watch the show.

glennmagusharvey

it's bandcamp friday today

lrdgck

Does it mean something is given away for free?

glennmagusharvey

It means that bandcamp doesn't take its cut of the money from music purchases made on bandcamp on that day. They've been doing it like once a month every Friday since sometime in 2020, though yesterday was the last Bandcamp Friday that had been officially scheduled so far.

Stormtroper

I feel like I wasted my weekend, but unlike previous times, I didn't spend overly long in something I shouldn't have, I just didn't make good use of it overall.
Life should have a way to get a rundown on what you spent your time on.

lrdgck

I also wasted my time, but I have learned about this man:

In course of his career, Zhang gained a great number of nicknames, most of them derogatory:[27]

• "Dogmeat General":[27][28] Some write that the name was based on his preference for or a Chinese brand of tonic known as "dogmeat".[29] Others state that it derived from his addiction to the high stakes gambling game paijiu, popularly known as "eating dog meat."[14][6][30]
• "Monster"[27]
• "Lanky General"[28]
• "Old Eighty-Six": The origin of this nickname is unclear. According to rumours it either referred to his height or to the length of his penis,[31] which was said to measure up to a pile of 86 Mexican silver dollars when erect.[32][33]
• "Three Don't Knows": Based on Zhang's alleged lack of knowledge about how much money he had, how many soldiers, and how many women in his harem.[32][14]
• "72-Cannon Chang":[34] This nickname might also have been connected to the alleged length of his penis.[35]
• "Chang of Shantung" by the foreign press[1]
• "Great General of Justice and Might": A title he had awarded to himself.[36]
• "The General with three longs legs" by Shanghai's prostitutes in reference to his penis' length.[35]

He loved to boast about the size of his penis, which become part of his legend.[28][33] Zhang was a "well-known womanizer",[40] and kept some 30 to 50 concubines of different nationalities, who were given numbers since he could not remember their names nor speak their language

You tell me to do this,
He tells me to do that.
You're all bastards,
Go fuck your mother.

"Poem about bastards" by Zhang Zongchang[a]

From afar, Mount Tai looks blackish,
Narrow on top and wide at the bottom.
If you flipped it upside down,
It would be narrow at the bottom and wide on top.

"Visiting Mount Tai" by Zhang Zongchang[c]

In summer 1927, a famine struck Shandong particularly hard, and Zhang Zongchang was reported to have gone into a temple of the Dragon King to pray for rain. When this failed to improve the situation, Zhang returned to the temple. In his fury, he slapped the Dragon King's statue several times, and ordered his artillery to shoot into the sky for several hours.[42] He also intended to build a shrine devoted to himself, including a large bronze statue, at Daming Lake. The project was not finished before Zhang's flight from Shandong.[46]

based

glennmagusharvey

Stormtroper wrote: »

I feel like I wasted my weekend, but unlike previous times, I didn't spend overly long in something I shouldn't have, I just didn't make good use of it overall.
Life should have a way to get a rundown on what you spent your time on.

There's a browser plugin I once had which tracked how much time I spent browsing which domains.

Stormtroper

I should probably use one of those addons, though in this case I don't think the problem was internet browsing.
I wonder what's the best way to get rid of time-wasted-anxiety.

glennmagusharvey

I forgot the name of the plugin unfortunately. I think it started with an R.

Unrelated comment:

It's ironic how people malign Bill Gates for trying to "control the world" with laughably implausible conspiracy theory things from microchips in vaccines to whatever other eeeevil agenda they can think up, when they should instead just be complaining about the technical details of the Windows (and for that matter, Mac) OSes and how they are so inordinately dominant over open-source operating systems.

lrdgck

I forgot the name of the plugin unfortunately. I think it started with an R.

I have a feeling though that something like that shouldn't be hard to find by a good googling session, if need be.

It's ironic how people malign Bill Gates for trying to "control the world" with laughably implausible conspiracy theory things from microchips in vaccines to whatever other eeeevil agenda they can think up, when they should instead just be complaining about the technical details of the Windows (and for that matter, Mac) OSes and how they are so inordinately dominant over open-source operating systems.

Yeah, it speaks a lot about these people. About the most sensible involve some sort of vague idea of preparing people for obedience, which is still so out there that there's little to talk of.

Stormtroper

Earlier this month I thought I wouldn't still be employed by June, but this job keeps showing itself to be more resilient than I believed.
On one side, that's more work. On the other side, that's more money.

glennmagusharvey

The manual is, sadly, not titled "How To Program Your Dragon".

lrdgck

On one side, that's more work. On the other side, that's more money.

"A job is the most stupid way of spending your free time." But hey, at least you get money for it.

Stormtroper

I did something I should have done ages ago.
I bought a multimeter!
I can't get the capacitance meter function to work right. I tried out the obvious way with a couple old, malfunctioning capacitors I had around but it always measures 0. I hope it's not damaged (at the very least, the resistance and voltages meters are working fine). There's a "Cx" with lines between the COM and mA input jacks, from a quick Google search that's related to capacitance measurements, but as you can imagine I'm wary of connecting a lead to the current jack if I don't know what I'm doing.
Edit: After an annoying long time looking stuff up I finally found a straight answer dwelling within the pool of knowledge known as Indian YouTubers. Yeah, the smaller current jack is for capacitance, too. I tried some and got reasonable results, though not having a working one at hand I can't tell for certain if the measurements are correct. Also, I skipped a beat when I realized I had tried to measure a nominally 45 μF capacitor (which read 0) using the < 2 μF range, though it seems nothing happened.

lrdgck

From my experience, measuring capacitance was tricky and I also had issues with range. But, you are the official IJBM tech guy. Where do you get capacitors, do you have an electronic shop over there?

Stormtroper

Nopes, I've been stashing them over the years, mostly from air conditioners.

lrdgck

There's a joke that going to an electronics shop is worse than buying rubbers.

"Please, sir, I want a capacitor."

"WHICH ONE? [technical term you never heard of]? [technical term you even more never heard of]? [term that sounds vaguely familiar but you are sure it's deceiving you]?"

"..."

"EH? WHICH ONE IT'S GONNA BE?"

"...sorry, gotta go!"

...yeah, it was a bit hard to translate.

I've been to one of these shops once, don't remember why though, because I was never into the hobby. But yeah, under glass they had like resistors in every combination of colour bars, and other components and cables and whatnot. Not as scary experience as the joke tells you, to be honest, but perhaps they just put on their "watch out, he's not one of us" face and sent me off the soonest they could.

Also, a round of googling tells me there should be one around, not to mention, I'd expect one for a bigger city. (I'm not gonna say more, since that'd imply I can give you directions over internet search from a continent away.) But with a big enough stash, I guess you don't need a shop for that scratch-built custom bitcoin-digger.

glennmagusharvey

That joke sounds like something that can happen anytime you have someone who's a newbie to a field trying to ask something of someone who's an expert but overestimates how much the newbie knows.

lrdgck

I guess it was aimed specifically at electronics enthusiasts. There is an internet forum devoted to electronics that is infamous for its insularity, and making fun of them was part of the culture of the site I got the joke from. (Still an awkward bunch, but not the same kind of awkward.)

glennmagusharvey

Ah.

Stormtroper

Yeh, I could be using a parts supplier, they're not as easily available as one would think. I haven't found the temperature sensor for the fridge that hasn't been functional for over a year ago (granted, I also haven't put too much effort into searching for it).
Anyhows, I tried to check up on the microwave oven that got damaged months ago. I tested the stiffness* of the capacitor but for some reason the multimeter kept reading 1 (I assume that's an error of some kind, it's the same as when the leads are shorted). It does look bulged so that's something, but looking at it it doesn't look like it has anything to do with anything besides the magnetron and its transformer, so I'd expect it to at least turn on.
I measured the fuse's dampening* and it's very high so I assume it's busted, I'll try a new one as soon as I find out where to get it.
* I've been tempted to refer to electrical magnitudes by their analogous mechanical terms.

Stormtroper

Today's my Birthday.

lrdgck

glennmagusharvey

part 1:
part 2:

Stormtroper

Thanks guys.
It was an... eventful day. Maybe I'll talk about it later.

glennmagusharvey

Was it good or bad overall?

Stormtroper

Bad.

glennmagusharvey

lrdgck

Maybe I'll talk about it later.

Only if it makes you feel better. No pressure. (Including any pressure that might have come from being told "no pressure".)