JacobCoffinWrites

JacobCoffinWrites , 12 days ago

I'd never really thought about the fact that museums doing photogrammetry to preserve artifacts could link up with the folks who 3D print their own Warhammer figures, but here we are

JacobCoffinWrites , 16 days ago

Kind of. I'll have to check out their shredder designs. I bought a filistruder for a local makerspace awhile back, because I wanted to be able to reuse my bad 3d prints and supports etc, but wanted it to be available to a wider community since I wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost. Unfortunately, at the time, solutions for shredding/granulating solid prints were few and far between (and expensive to make or buy). And if you can't get the plastic small enough, the extruder on its own isn't terribly useful. I'd very much like to find a decent solution so I can get this going again.

JacobCoffinWrites , 22 days ago

Just wanted to say I really like this idea, especially as mixed with local mesh networks. I agree with the point about storage, and mostly I'm just really looking forward to reading about some of these services, and seeing what this could look like in the future.

Good luck!

JacobCoffinWrites , 1 month ago

Ten years is a long time but I appreciate their ambition

JacobCoffinWrites , 1 month ago

Wait does this work in the US? I can make one right now if so!

JacobCoffinWrites , 1 month ago

Good to know. I looked it up around when I asked and it looks like there's a couple websites in the US you can try to opt out on but one requires a SSN and a fee, so I'm skeptical.

JacobCoffinWrites , 1 month ago

https://imgur.com/user/letscho/favorites/FNk9dOz

JacobCoffinWrites , 1 month ago

This sounds great, I'll have to check it out!

JacobCoffinWrites , 1 month ago

I don't know how fancy that one is but I've pulled at least five working MacBooks from corporate ewaste. All were out of their absurdly-short OS support but Linux Mint (and I'm assuming a bunch of other distros) run great on them. I've handed all of them off since reinstalling but I liked the hardware enough to use one as a writing computer until someone needed it.

JacobCoffinWrites , 2 months ago

I'll see if I can come up with something! And thanks for the heads-up for next week

JacobCoffinWrites , 2 months ago

I never really get this argument - like, yeah life that isn't humans will 100% persist in some form, but I'm kind of attached to the species and configuration of ecosystems we currently have.

JacobCoffinWrites , 2 months ago

Maybe I'm misunderstanding - we could wipe out species until there's nothing left but that bacteria that eats radiation and still reassure ourselves that 'nature' still exists. But I don't think it's what these folks are talking about when they talk about ecology. Is it fallacious to argue for a society that coexists with the biosphere that supports it?

JacobCoffinWrites , 2 months ago

So arguing that species of animals or plants have an intrinsic value and are worth preserving for their own sake is wrong? Or does it have to be couched in their value to humans, maintaining the biosphere that feeds us, air filtration, medicine, or aesthetic value or things like that? Does that apply to other people too? Intrinsic worth vs utility?

I don't think I can agree that we can't have any say about what is good for nature. A lot of people devote their whole lives to identifying systems and patterns in the species around us. They can track numbers, identify habitats, tell when something is thriving, declining, and, with some confidence, gone. Often they can identify why. All the fields of scientific study aside, it's pretty easy at least to identify things we do that are bad for other species. If I buy hundreds of gallons of herbicide and douse some land with it, I don't think the outcome to nature is going to be unknowable, and I think it'd be hard to argue it'll be beneficial. Seems like the inverse must be true - we can identify crucial habitats and protect them, identify the characteristics of good habitats and cultivate them on damaged lands to bring them back. This is testable stuff that's already being done in real life. People devote their lives to conserving habitats.

Sorry if I'm getting side tracked because this is something I'm somewhat involved in. Maybe this is a specific point about a nuance of philosophical discussions I don't know enough about, and not an argument that humans can do whatever they want to their surroundings because the consequences are somehow unknowable or unimportant.

JacobCoffinWrites , 2 months ago

So I sometimes see the argument that humans are part of nature so anything we do is inherently natural when someone's arguing that you should be able to do whatever you want and it's all equivalent as long as it makes you happy. Like clearcutting forests and building walmarts or storing leaking barrels of chemical waste on your land is a human instinct and we're helpless to do otherwise.

I'm not saying that's what you believe, but I think this might be a chance for me to understand this worldview better, and maybe get better at talking to those folks.

To me, the fact that humans are part of nature doesn't seem like a gotcha or an out. I think it's a kind of pointless distinction. We're part of nature, yes, but that doesn't mean that producing Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances is natural, and even if you can slap the label 'natural' on it, that still doesn't mean it's a good idea.

We have a capability for reason and an ability to predict outcomes based on past evidence, which reaches way further out than those of other species. Environmentalists have gotten it wrong plenty of times before, but arguing that their efforts are equivalent to drilling for oil in a coral reef because they're both human behaviors seems disingenuous to me.

Most of the time, what ecologists want is for society to stop changing the habitats that are already there. You say "they’re imposing their own vision of what they believe is natural" but I find it really hard to believe you think there's no way to know if keeping a native forest is more 'natural' than building a shopping mall.

On top of that, most of what we're doing as a species is incredibly new and we're changing so much at once, everywhere. We're completely erasing some habitats, rerouting rivers, introducing entirely new materials/chemicals, changing the weather - when beavers change their habitats, it's still a fairly small local change, and the rest of the biosphere has had thousands of years to adapt and even use it, there are lots of other species ready to move into that changed environment. Maybe someday all the remaining species will be adapted to living in the margins around humanity. But we're going to lose a ton of species (and likely a lot of humans to starvation) on the way there.

So I guess I have two questions: Do you believe other species (anything, plant, animals, insect etc) have any intrinsic value? Do other humans have intrinsic value?

If humans have intrinsic value and nonhumans don't, what's the difference?

JacobCoffinWrites , 2 months ago

My landlord exactly. Dude hires people to spray the yard every year because God forbid ants try to approach the building. I've tried convincing him not to but he wasn't having it. I talked to my neighbor and it turns out the guy used to edge the lawn with scissors. Luckily my neighbor is way more agreeable and we're redoing his lawn more in line with the picture

JacobCoffinWrites , 3 months ago

I see a similar argument from conservative relatives sometimes too. That work is like forced purpose for the nations layabouts. I don't know how common that is - some people will just do nothing I guess, but I think most people have some kind of hobby or interest they'd pursue if they had the time/means. Maybe I'm biased. Most of the folks in my family make and fix things. When they retire, they step up how much they fix/make. I've heard a couple of them say they don't know how they got anything done when they were working all day. Years ago now, when my job had no work for me for a few weeks, I stepped up my oil painting to around eight hours a day. Even now, whenever I get downtime I try to put it to use (my post history is full of those projects). Retired folks are often much more involved in local government, charities, and nonprofits, not because older people are inherently better but because they have the time, and they don't have to focus just on doing profitable things anymore.

I think I might agree a bit on where our individual purpose comes from? And this is wild speculation on my part, just something I've noticed as I try to understand what motivates people who seem to work much differently than I do. It feels like the default around here is to aspire to owning stuff, boats and cars and luxury toys. It seems like the folks who put their ambitions towards charities, helping kids, conserving land, etc, often had something in their life that snagged them and made them care about stuff outside that default. Like, someone makes a ton of money playing sports but uses it to fund youth programs - that person got caught by something outside that default, they found a purpose. Their teammate who just buys a mansion, maybe they never did. I don't know if that makes sense.

JacobCoffinWrites , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

I'm not against currency existing, or people getting paid for their labor. I am against things like medical care being locked away behind a paywall, and the threat of things like homelessness, deprivation of medical care, crushing debt, starvation/freezing, being used to crudgel people into working those unpleasant jobs (often more than one, often with no benefits).

I think in a better society people will still want more than basic survival, and if society needs someone to do unpleasant tasks, it'll still need to make doing those tasks worthwhile.

And to tie it back to the comment I was replying to, I'm skeptical that those unpleasant jobs are enriching the lives of the people doing them, or providing challenges that make them happy when they wouldn't have otherwise been.

JacobCoffinWrites , 3 months ago

That's really interesting to me - Can I ask if you enjoy the work? Or if it gives you a sense of purpose or a sense of being part of something bigger?

Personally, I work at a job I don't really enjoy but which I'm good at, and which gives me enough time to work on the stuff I care about (from creative projects to fixing furniture and computers to give away). My hobbies are cheap but I'm saving to try and conserve land, and I suppose even if most of my money wasn't earmarked for that, I'd still work the job because we need health insurance and money to survive emergencies (although I think I'd do more donations per year rather than saving it for one big project).

I derive most of my sense of purpose from the projects, from helping out in my community, and from the conservation stuff. If the need for work vanished somehow, I'd still work on all that other stuff, I think I'd either focus on it more or I'd take on additional volunteer tasks.

JacobCoffinWrites , 3 months ago

I think for tangible results, I'd very much recommend land conservation groups. When they finish a project, whether it's buying land or working with landowners on easements to keep it undeveloped and open for recreation, at the end you can walk those woods and see the habitats you helped to preserve (and if they maintain trails and educational opportunities there, helping with that can be really satisfying).

On the other hand, helping set up tool libraries and makerspaces, providing capabilities to your community, and teaching people can be a very vivid impact. Even giving things away on your local Buy Nothing -type group can help you meet and help people from your community, and even connect them with each other. I introduced my neighbor to the woman who runs a refuge charity I give computers to (because he was getting rid of warm clothing and furniture) and she realized there's a bunch of state resources he's eligible for (he had to retire a few years back due to a stroke) and she's helping him figure out what he can use. That's small in the grand scheme of things, but it's a legit improvement in his life.

I don't know if that's the kind of activism you had in mind but maybe it'll help.

JacobCoffinWrites , 3 months ago

Had trump lost in 2016 we wouldn't have gotten multiple new conservative Supreme Court justices. But we did and they immediately stripped women's rights back decades. We're already seeing tragic outcomes of that. And because they're lifetime appointments of relatively young zealots, now we get to see what else they can do in the next few critical decades.

Biden also wouldn't have shut down or defunded multiple regulatory agencies, or sold off federal land to corporations.

Like, I get that things could be a lot better in so many ways, that's why I'm here. But we don't have to go out of our way to make them even worse.

JacobCoffinWrites , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

Yeah I read your post and understood you weren't from the US. But fair enough.

Then I guess just rest assured that trump did a bunch of bonus harm to Americans and the environment, in addition to our standard wars and coups.

There's absolutely always room to make things worse. I guess with where I am right now , mentally, I can't understand not wanting to reduce harm.

JacobCoffinWrites , 4 months ago

He was smart enough to get born back when houses and land were cheap after all. You can't put a price on that kind of foresight

JacobCoffinWrites , 4 months ago

On an old raspberry pi 3b, a copy of a blog by one of my favorite writers (the original is long gone and was never archived, I happened to grab a copy with wget when it came back up briefly) so I can read it when I'm on my home network. And a pi hole dns adblocker.

I'm hoping to set up some kind of media system for streaming eventually, but we currently use a PS4 as our media center and it doesn't look like our options for compatibe apps are great.

I'd definitely like to get a local Mealie instance going in the next year

JacobCoffinWrites , 5 months ago

The temptation to mirror tint my rear windshield goes up every time I drive at night

JacobCoffinWrites , 5 months ago

I use that thing a lot, but they usually drive close enough to get the side mirrors too, and generally light up the whole cab. So I spend however long they're behind me hunched forward to keep their brights out of my eyes, waiting for a passing zone. I'm not even a slow driver.

JacobCoffinWrites , 3 months ago

Hey! Sorry to join this thread late, but I'm super glad to see you over here! I never knew why the other community died suddenly (didn't realize it was the instance itself) and I'm really glad you're still around and that there's a new cyberpunk spot to follow the old one

I'll try bringing over some of my previous book recs and maybe a couple panels of art from a rural cyberpunk comic I've been working on. Glad to have this community back

JacobCoffinWrites , 6 months ago

I grew twenty jalapeno peppers in pots in my first year of apartment living, all descended from a pepper I had in my window in college. Any container can be a plant pot as long as you can add drainage holes - I used a lot of milk jugs and soda bottles cut in half, with old takeout trays to catch the drainage water. Soil is cheap (or free if you're not picky about what's in it) and I just watered them with tap water. Ten years later I have fewer peppers but I still have one from that lineage, and my spouse has over two hundred plants in pots scattered through our apartment. We use water from the fish tank as fertilizer, and our main expense is a spritzer of insecticidal soap bought every year or two, and thrift store teacups I drill drainage holes in for some of the succulents. Time and the energy to care for plants are probably the biggest hurdles when you're broke, but money isn't necessarily a huge barrier. I hope that helps.