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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • It’s always hard to decipher poor English, but that does seem possible. If you have a multimeter, plugging the socket into a cable would at least allow you to verify the ground and +5v easily. The data etc pins should be doable too, by using a USB A to C cable, and doing a continuity check to the pins inside the USB A side, which would be easy to look up reliably.

    As far as swapping the wires around in the plug, that’s one of the easiest plugs to do it with. If you do need to, you’ll be able to.



  • The fact that phones haven’t been able to to this easily/natively/what have you is wild. Similarly, the fact that you can’t use old tablets as external monitors without, in my experience of quite a few, significantly buggy software that’s got significant lag in the best of times, is pretty wild. Sure, the technical hurdles aren’t small, but damn.

    I’ve got a reasonably high end newish tablet (Galaxy S7+) that I can use miracast to use wirelessly as an extra PC monitor. It works quite well… if I’m near to a high quality new router. But can I just plug the tablet in and use it as a monitor with my laptop? Not remotely well.

    It’s been a year or two, maybe I should check for new software again.




  • If it was a one time thing, some tape and string, I’d just hover it and they’d snip it.

    If this was something I wanted to do frequently, there are fairly cheap attachments that you can drop things with, which would be more fun, and I wouldn’t have to worry about the person snipping the string tugging it and causing danger to themselves and/or the drone.

    They’re a battery, little servo to move a pin, and usually a photosensitive trigger, and you can drop things by turning the auxiliary/landing light on or off.

    Here’s the first Amazon result for that type of device it’s $37 and has a max payload of 500 grams.


  • I actually own and use drones for these things:
    Scouting out roads/hiking-biking trails/camping spots/photog raphy spots. The drone has saved a good bit of time, and kept me from going down some real nasty roads for no payoff or just regular roads that dead end somewhere that has no view, or already has someone parked at. Similarly my ebike is also helpful for scouting out roads to see if it’s worth taking the van down. Yes, I’m conscious of drone laws and how obnoxious they are, I do my best to minimize noise and am careful about not bothering people, people deserve to hear nature in nature.

    Figuring out if I have to clean the gutters again.
    Make friends.
    One time I used it as a birds eye view with VR(ish) goggles for fun. It was fun, it was awful.
    Take pictures of a friend’s van’s solar installation for insurance purposes.

    Things I do that aren’t weird:
    Take aerial photography/videography.
    Fly around and have fun.

    I may use a drone for the following, but have yet to:
    Get a different view to see if I’m gonna run the van into tree limbs, rocks, etc.
    Fly a cup of sugar to a neighbor who would like to borrow some.
    Have an outdoor “ceiling” light.

    If you have any questions, ask away.



  • I did that once, albeit walking, not driving, and the drone had no auto flight programming. It was really hard to do anything more than walking on flat ground. Bumpy ground, difficult. Try to grab something on a shelf, difficult. This was a few years back, so tech is better, having auto follow would free up some brain power, but it’d still be real rough.

    There’s a video of a bunch of soccer players trying to play using VR and a camera above the field, it’s got some funny moments.



  • Bigger pockets should be the norm, 100%, but it only solves half the problem.

    Hand size is a big thing too. I’d take a smaller screen if it fit my hand better. I don’t want a pop socket, I don’t want to to have to use two hands, and I don’t want to drop my phone.

    I have fairly average man sized hands and I’m not clumsy. I probably dropped my Galaxy S4/5 about 1-2 times per year. When I got a bigger phone, it became a couple times a month, and it’s uncomfortable. Currently, because I don’t want the bulk of a pop socket, but want the one hand grip benefits, I cut two slits in my case and added a loop of kite repair tape that, when I need, I slide a finger though.

    I shouldn’t need to do that because my phone is so big I cat reach the whole screen without 2 hands.




  • I don’t have a source for this (and frankly I could be misremembering, or this was a slightly different thing): but I seem to recall reading a long comment about how reddit has said they’ll make those things available, but all the mods trying to contact them have been received no communication at all regarding how things will be implemented, when they’ll be implemented, given (and been heard) or received any feedback, etc. Just complete silence. Similarly, reddit said it’d implement accessibility tools years? ago and then just silence.

    If I’m remembering that right, and even if I’m not, given Reddit’s hostile attitude regarding all of this… that actually panning out the way the particle paints is still quite questionable.

    I hope I’m wrong though.