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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • Depends; I’m a lot older now and deaf (but have tinnitus, yay) in one ear, but I could hear the flyback whine of old TVs. I can hear the odd switching regulator still, but most these days are switching waaaaay above even the best human hearing range.

    50/60Hz buzz should be fairly rare these days except for some high power cases or some really poorly designed electronics.











  • There’s more than this required to build anything that’d be needed to survive in an automotive environment, and considerably more if you are hoping to have an open source/FOSS design that would be accepted as a suitable replacement for something proprietary, although I don’t think that was your aim (but it does sound like OP’s). I’m all for grassroots/homebrew stuff but we’re talking about a thousand kilos+ of steel and plastic being hurled down a road carrying people, in and around other people in similar contraptions. This isn’t something I’d exactly condone throwing a hackerspace’s resources and some Arduinos at.


  • Last year I drove my parent’s car which is equipped with one of these cameras that determine if the driver is distracted or dozing. And I can say for certain that it works.

    I rented two different modern (2015-2016) Mercedes SUVs. They both had systems that detected tired/inattentive driving. I was neither but after several hours on the road both vehicles would alert that it was time to take a break with a nice little coffee icon. I was conversing with a passenger, driving fine, not wandering between lanes/etc… The first time I kind of doubted myself but subsequent notifications both the passenger and myself were agreeing that we had no idea what it was upset about.

    The newer car had another sensor that would get upset if your grip on the steering wheel got too light. That was kind of neat to see how much leeway it’d give you before it got antsy.



  • I just spent the week assembling furniture. IKEA’s instructions and overall build quality have fallen from the last time I did this. The instructions have gotten less detailed (as in, do I use the board that has six holes in pattern A or pattern B? The boards aren’t labeled and the patterns are very similar). Also, the hardware has gotten even cheaper than before. The cams that capture the hidden screw heads have always been fairly easy to strip if you’re not careful and they seem even moreso now. I didn’t have any trouble because I came into the task knowing this, but it was still a bit of a let down.

    The store experience itself was about the same, with less employees milling around which is good for the showroom but bad for the warehouse. Overall the experience was slightly more negative than previously, especially since the prices have jumped for what IKEA offers which is, let’s face it, assemble it yourself junk furniture.