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What did you do today?

IntoxicatedPuma

Customizer of Titles
SFFn Staff
Feb 26, 2016
992
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Not to go back to the Japanese home maid assistant thing but........I showed the video to my girlfriend (chinese girl obsessed with Japan) and her reaction was "wow that's pretty neat. It's kind of like a pet but it can do things."

I pointed out the girl wearing a maid outfit and telling the guy how much she misses him all day long, but that seems normal to her and doesn't see how it could cause any problems. I think I'm gonna get one and see how long she tolerates it.
 

EdZ

Virtual Realist
May 11, 2015
1,578
2,107
I pointed out the girl wearing a maid outfit and telling the guy how much she misses him all day long, but that seems normal to her and doesn't see how it could cause any problems. I think I'm gonna get one and see how long she tolerates it.
I wonder if it does multi-user customisation: appearing as an avatar of you when you're out, and as an avatar of her when she's out.
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,784
and that brief sensation where normal acuity feels like bionic super-vision.

I got my eyes checked the other day and they told me that my vision has actually improved slightly in one eye. I've heard of some people actually gaining 20/20 vision as the lenses in their eye changes shape as they age, so here's hoping :)

I pointed out the girl wearing a maid outfit and telling the guy how much she misses him all day long, but that seems normal to her and doesn't see how it could cause any problems. I think I'm gonna get one and see how long she tolerates it.

I imagine after a while the novelty will wear off and the limited functionality will become an annoyance. In the coming years as the software gets more sophisticated though, I'll be curious how commonplace AI companions like that will become.

I wonder if it does multi-user customisation: appearing as an avatar of you when you're out, and as an avatar of her when she's out.

The bigger question is if the avatar of him is still wearing the maid outfit XD
 
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EdZ

Virtual Realist
May 11, 2015
1,578
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I got my eyes checked the other day and they told me that my vision has actually improved slightly in one eye. I've heard of some people actually gaining 20/20 vision as the lenses in their eye changes shape as they age, so here's hoping :)
Contact lenses/glasses are just a stopgap for a year or two to confirm my prescription is stable (hadn't had my eyes tested for quite some time prior to learning I needed correction) before getting laser correction. Probably LASIK but considering PRK even with the longer recovery time due to lower incidents of low-light artefacts, though I need to look for more recent literature to see if that is now a solved issue. My issue is mainly astigmatism, so very little chance of it improving over time.
 

ElinaNguyen

Trash Compacter
Aug 27, 2016
36
89

I'm still testing the new cpu....
 

Soul_Est

SFF Guru
SFFn Staff
Feb 12, 2016
1,536
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I have just finished my last exam in Real Analysis and am eating lunch right now. I'm not so optimistic about my exams these past few days, and the longer I am in school the more I feel picking a major in Computer Science was a poor decision I made without thinking.

I absolutely love maths and computers, but the deeper I go into these courses I grow more tired and more frustrated at my own attempts to learn. The difficulty just ramps up harder and harder, I never get a good foothold on the material, and I'm just lost in claiming I love the subject but dreading every time that claim is put to the test.

What's more frustrating is knowing that, should I do poorly, I've burned the money and time of all those supporting me. This is not a feeling I want to carry home for the holidays, and I'm almost wanting to stay here than go home.

I found myself in a very similar place at the end of my first year in college. I was studying Computer Science and taking a lot of mathematics and physics courses, as well as programming. I loved mathematics in high school, and was very good at it - I was one question shy of a perfect SAT score - and I had done a fair amount of web development and scripting as well, in my free time. I figured that I'd do well with more of the same, and that I'd enjoy being a software developer once I graduated.

It took me that whole first year to realize that I'd fall out of love with all of these things were I expected to do them for 40+ hours a week, every week, as my career. I was already falling out of love with them as a student! Some things weren't challenging at all, some things were far too challenging given how dry I thought they were, and almost everything I did was so hypothetical and rudimentary and disconnected from anything else. It felt meaningless, I felt as if what I was learning and what I could do at that point didn't really matter all that much. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.

So I sat down and thought about why I enjoyed what I did, when I did, and I realized that while I did find fun in development and mathematics as a hobby, it wasn't my passion. Indeed, what made me excited about all those programming projects I did as a hobby wasn't the programming itself, but rather the operational outcome of the things I created.

---

As an example - during my sophomore year, my school collaborated with a security camera company called AXIS Communications, whereby the company provided free hardware and guidance in order to entice students to create apps for their fledgling "smart camera" app platform. I was encouraged by a few professors to participate in the collaboration, but I wasn't at all interested (especially since I had never done computer-vision-related work, and knew it to be complicated and really hard to do)... Until I realized that I could use the camera and some software projects/libraries to build a solution to a big problem I had - namely, that of folks not signing in when entering a radio studio that I ran.

Over the course of six weeks or so, I ended up building a facial detection/tracking solution that would create a visitor log and send alerts when it didn't recognize someone. It was an alpha program, and I never got around to refining or finishing it, but it was really exhilarating to have an insight, prototype the solution, and then install it and actually begin using it. I was eventually invited to demo the project at a conference, and the whole collaboration was ultimately really fulfilling.

Here's the thing, though - the actual coding experience wasn't fun at all! Coding, debugging, coding some more, debugging even more issues, debugging hardware issues, trolling Stack Exchange to figure out why the heck these exceptions were thrown when compiling to ARM... it was an experience that led to many restless nights, GrubHub orders and head-desk moments. Those middle four weeks sucked, plainly put.

However, I'm so thankful I did that project, because it made it abundantly clear what to me what I did and didn't enjoy. Grinding to convert caffeine into code wasn't fun at all, but identifying a problem and knowing how technology can fix it was. As was working with users, giving feedback to AXIS, prototyping solutions, thinking about interfaces... I was studying to become an engineer who sometimes works with people, when in reality I wanted to work with people and sometimes engineer.

For me, technology isn't the thing; it's the thing that gets us to the thing. I love technology as a tool that can be leveraged to improve lives. But just as a carpenter wouldn't fancy forging their tools themselves, my focus is in building the businesses and ideas and solutions and environments and infrastructure that technology make possible. Where I am most invested in is the intersection of technology and humanity.

---

All of this to say that while I understand full well how you must be feeling right now, I'd encourage you to give yourself the experiences and perspective to better understand what kind of work is the greatest source of joy for you. It might take a lot of hard work to get there, but once you know, you know.

Exactly! I haven't taken any tech related courses for college (only core classes) but I figured out in middle school/high school that I had no desire to program or do serious web development. It helps that I hate math. I do, however, love looking for a solution to a problem, not matter what technology it might involve. Same with increasing process efficiency. I often wish there was a troubleshooter job (although that is what I unofficially do at work lol).

This has been my experience as well. In high school programming classes (final two years), the one thing I loved about learning programming was understanding the language to the extent that I could solve a problem with it. I did not enjoy the code, test, and debug cycle as much as solving the issue. At that point, I had given up on Industrial Design due to depression, frustration, and soul-crushing school. I then went on to taking Computer Engineering twice in post-secondary (I was a stubborn idiot) despite my passion being Industrial Design as I did not have the marks or sketching skills at the time. Despite the detour, I learned much along the way, made connections with other people that I otherwise would not have, and made some close friends. Things may not turn out how you want but you should learn from them anyway. Try applying the scientific method and draw up a set of observations and conclusions and see you find. ;)

Back on topic: Went around with a Kill-a-watt getting power readings on various things at work.. large coffee pot uses 1055W max, 1053W on start up. Looking at generator loads and solar arrays and examining power draw is mildly interesting.

Yes it is. It also makes you question exactly what you need, and if you do, if you can keep it fully powered off until you actually need it (no vampiric power draw).
 
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IntoxicatedPuma

Customizer of Titles
SFFn Staff
Feb 26, 2016
992
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I'm still testing the new cpu....

4.2GHz seems low for that VCore, my Pentium G3258 can hit 4.5GHz around that voltage. Have you had time yet to see how far it can go ?

I got mine stable at 1.187v @ 4.2ghz but needed 1.285v to get 4.6ghz - and when I changed the RAM to Kingston Savage 2400mhz DDR3 (1.5v) then I needed bump it up to 1.320v before I could get a stable 4.6ghz. This was on an Asus B85M-Gamer motherboard (i think might be China only) So not sure what effect RAM voltage has on it...
 
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ElinaNguyen

Trash Compacter
Aug 27, 2016
36
89
4.2GHz seems low for that VCore, my Pentium G3258 can hit 4.5GHz around that voltage. Have you had time yet to see how far it can go ?
Only i can revealed that it can beat the i5-6400, i can't reveal anymore cuz NDA, sorry for the inconvenience.
P/s: i7-xxxxK can hit @5.0 without water cooling and stable, LOL


Are you a hardware reviewer?
Yea, that's right.

 
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confusis

John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
SFF Network
SFF Workshop
SFFn Staff
Jun 19, 2015
4,346
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Bought 2 new (used) tyres for my car (Toyo DBR tyres) and paid for a puncture repair on one of my other tyres.. :|
 

ricochet

SFF AFFLICTED
Oct 20, 2016
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Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,957
4,957
Only i can revealed that it can beat the i5-6400, i can't reveal anymore cuz NDA, sorry for the inconvenience.
P/s: i7-xxxxK can hit @5.0 without water cooling and stable, LOL
Nice, be sure to share the results when you're done, I'd love to see what the i3 is capable of !

I got mine stable at 1.187v @ 4.2ghz but needed 1.285v to get 4.6ghz - and when I changed the RAM to Kingston Savage 2400mhz DDR3 (1.5v) then I needed bump it up to 1.320v before I could get a stable 4.6ghz. This was on an Asus B85M-Gamer motherboard (i think might be China only) So not sure what effect RAM voltage has on it...
I'm not sure the power for the RAM comes from the CPU, you could try with upping the input voltage to the CPU to see if that helps.

Bought 2 new (used) tyres for my car (Toyo DBR tyres) and paid for a puncture repair on one of my other tyres.. :|
I repaired a tyre yesterday along with my dad, he has the necessary tools:



 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,957
4,957
Talking about repairing car issues, the battery on my MR-2 is dead, it won't keep a charge. Apparently freezing weather has found our little country and the lack of me using the car regularly in the winter means I get the chance to invest in a new battery.