@asmcbain@woof.tech

@asmcbain@woof.tech · 5d ago

The place I sometimes used to get Halloween candy online appears to have gone in on AI self-promotion within their website. 🙁 At least the passion candy shop I also use seems to be safe from that, so I think I know where I'm going.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · 6d ago

Fred Meyer, a hypermarket chain owned by Kroger, seems to be all in on confusing. Discounts don't always show up when scanned at self-checkout, sometimes only after I hit "pay now." (I can still go back and scan more.) Other discounts don't even show up at all because I used my physical loyalty card, like an idiot. _Those_ items required an *e*coupon from their app. I've also seen items with two discounts: one for physical cards, and an extra discount for the app. It's very tiresome.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · 6d ago

Replying to @asmcbain@woof.tech

I've also seen items with two discount prices: one for physical card holders, and an extra discount for those with the app. It's very tiresome.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · 6d ago

Fred Meyer, a grocery chain owned by Kroger, has decided to go all in on being confusing, I guess hoping that'll get them more customers? Discounted items don't always show up as such when scanned at self-checkout. Only after I hit the "pay" button. (I can still go back and scan more.) Some items don't even show up as discounted after that, because I used my physical loyalty card, like an idiot. _Those_ items were only discounted with an *e*coupon. I need to use my app-based loyalty number.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · 6d ago

"What's Tony Hawk up to these days?" Commercials for Ridge wallets, apparently.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 06, 2026

Way too many people love burning down the only planet we have.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 06, 2026

Saw a post go by (about a serious issue) involving Kmart and I was like "What? Kmart's extremely dead. How in the--Oh. Australia. Forgot the brand is somehow still alive down there."

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 05, 2026

Finally tried a full repeating pattern. Unfortunately, I forgot my machine over-rotates for some reason so it overlapped. Probably a factor of it being a rim drive instead of a chuck jaws model, which wasn't an option for my machine (but would totally work; yay stupid product segmentation). I'm tempted to reduce the circumference and not readjust the design. Probably would still have a visible seam, but look better. This took 20 minutes, and I'd have to open a new case, so not right now.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 04, 2026

Replying to @Purple@woof.tech

@Purple@woof.tech Sorry if I came across as a bit snippy before, condensing my thoughts into a single reply.

OS X, as I have no experience with macOS (yet), did try to keep histories per tab. I didn't seem to work right, but I'm guessing because it also never restored my tabs just a single so I always got the combined history.

Here, with Terminal, it can the order of tabs and their names within a window, so I'd think they could assign an internal ID allowing them to restore that, the CWD, and its own history.

If I have more than one window, well, I have no idea how that'd work.

Launching a new window would get the combined history since what else would it have?

At any rate, even if they don't do any of that because of the aforementioned issue, what I don't understand is why hitting up sometimes doesn't return the expected command (typically the last one I ran).

It sometimes does the equivalent of this:

-> up

npm run build -> enter -> up ./myscript blah

When the reality is that the invocation of myscript wasn't even the command before the build call, it was far back in history.

It's like Terminal lost its place in history and ended up somewhere arbitrary. Or, someone realized the commingling might be odd, and it snapped to the place in history this tab would've been. I don't know.

I should note this is just my experience with the PowerShell tabs. I don't know if it affects non-PS tabs.

Either way, it's annoying when it happens and I don't notice.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 04, 2026

Replying to @asmcbain@woof.tech

@Purple@woof.tech Here's someone else noting the up arrow handling in Terminal is weird: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/discussions/18743 This may not be what I'm seeing, since I've noticed this for a while, but it sounds related. Whatever the behavior, it's definitely non-configurable.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 04, 2026

Replying to @asmcbain@woof.tech

@Purple@woof.tech Well, OK, that's kinda incomplete. At minimum, I want what causes the jumping disabled. If I ask it to save my tabs in settings, then it knows if I reopen Terminal it'll have the same tab count and order, and can pair those up with their own histories/settings saved on disk. If I don't, then Terminal will reopen with a single tab and get the expected combined default history. If I open a new window while using one with multiple tabs, that too would get the current combined history.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 03, 2026

Replying to @asmcbain@woof.tech

@Purple@woof.tech It's almost like someone realized the commingling thing was annoying then tried to "fix" it after the fact, which just causes more problems. When the reality is they could save the histories to one commingled messy place to preserve existing behavior, but save separately based on an internal tab ID or object that also holds the CWD in addition to the name. That's what I'd do. They wrote Terminal to be a better CLI app. No reason they can't do better than CMD on purpose.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 03, 2026

Replying to @Purple@woof.tech

@Purple@woof.tech They could fix the commingling as at least OS X, no idea if this changed in macOS, stored history per tab. However, my problem isn't the commingling. It's the inconsistency. I don't understand why hitting the up arrow doesn't always return the last command I ran. There's no reason to arbitrarily jump back in history. It's like someone reading a book closed the book, but then went "wait, I still want to keep reading" and reopened it, but then guessed (wrongly) what page to reopen it to.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 03, 2026

Wasted 15+ minutes because of Microsoft's Terminal. Terminal supports tabs, but while tabs keep their names after close/reopen, they lose their current working directory. Fixable, if tedious. In addition, their histories all get commingled into one list. Sort of. Hitting the up arrow cycles through the mess, but sometimes it doesn't give back the last command run, but an arbitrary one from history. Thus I kept patching the wrong VM and wondering why the one I was looking at didn't update. 😠

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 03, 2026

RE: https://mastodon.social/@glyph/117028608500659615 In my limited personal experience: Haahaaaa, no. It showed just enough usefulness that it's still "full steam ahead!", at least until forced to switch to usage-based billing (from subscriptions) and it's then possible for the cost-benefit analysis to turn sour. Still also being pushed for including AI-powered features (at least it's not a chatbot... yet).

Quoting

Glyph @glyph@mastodon.social

Really wondering if these Thought Leaders who are now — at this late moment, now that the KOSPI is tanking and Nadella is saying that trusting OpenAI will annihilate your business — are coming around to the idea that maybe LLMs aren’t really all *that* useful, will give *any* credit to the people who have been saying it for years

Open quoted post

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 03, 2026

Bought a hook for sitting on doors. Says "fits most doors". Interior doors tend to be 1 3/8", outer doors 1 3/4". So by nature of there generally being more doors inside a building than out, they're they're technically correct. By for my intended usage, this does nothing for me. Guess I'll 3D print my own hook.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 01, 2026

My M310's middle click is broken so when it flakes out I get double clicks or just no click at all. I did look inside the mouse once to repair the wheel harness, and again later for this issue. The harness hadn't rebroken, so maybe I wore out the button? I guess I could figure out kind/size of push button it is and solder in a new one. Part + shipping would be ~$11 (with shipping being 19x the part cost). A new one is ~$23. Does that count as "totaling" the mouse? Disposable gear. 🙁

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Aug 01, 2026

Replying to @Purple@woof.tech

@Purple@woof.tech Before I saw the brand Sharge† on it, I thought maybe it was some odd version of something like https://shop.lomography.com/us/cameras/110-cameras † What a name. I'm sure they meant it like sharks + charge, because sharks are cool, but it just sounds like shit‡ + charge. ‡ or shart?

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @asmcbain@woof.tech

But it is pretty fun that a company that already made plastic crates, including milk crates, probably just added the words "vinyl records" to their product page when they realized a product they already made would hold records, and is non-arguably the cheapest option, at least if done in a set of 4. It's still competitive at a quantity of 1, but not quite so well.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 31, 2026

So I collect vinyl--not for speculation, though I suspect some of my stuff might be worth more than I paid for it--, and own a few 45s now. Mini crates, if they focused on fitting a particular item at all, seem to be made for CDs. 😕 Based on the number of 3D prints I've found, it seems like there's a real market for just scaling down a milk crate, but that'd require having injection mold made, so I can see why it hasn't happened. Plus companies that could might not sell enough to consider it.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 30, 2026

Vintage: $30, the spots on it are probably mold New replica: $50, limited style options

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 30, 2026

Printed what was supposed to be just a shitty bowl for to be a mini dice tray for Roll for the Galaxy (which features smaller dice), but the randomized layer start setting resulted in stringing across the entire interior. (The sides are only 4 lines thick, and walls is set to 2, so there's no interior there.) I changed the settings and am printing another one, but if that's awful too then I guess I'll try sanding it a little.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 30, 2026

I have a Monoprice Mini Delta† from 2019. It was cheap and portable, but it almost never went places. Only printed once away from home. After a part removal incident, I replaced the bed surface with a borosilicate glass circle specifically for this printer I found on Amazon. Anyway, it made an awful noise today during preheat, stopping only after an off/on cycle. I don't print often, but maybe I should consider saving for a better one. † v1; v2 rebadged someone else's work and is different.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 30, 2026

Do they make left handed giant ribbon cutting scissors?

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 30, 2026

I don't know about songs that play endlessly, but if I've listened to something recently enough (and sometimes not even that is a requirement) I can pull it up to play entirely inside my own brain. It can happen without thinking about it, but if I am purposeful I can usually pick the start of a song, but not always ensure it plays all the way to the end, sadly. https://mastodontti.fi/@eekoo/117005102237263484

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 29, 2026

My hobby is a fire hazard. The old wire burnt through at one end, so rather than sort out with the remainder, I got new stuff. Measured, then took a guess of 24 AWG. To test, I made two more "now playing" album holders. They're small, but the long backstop supports a full gatefold without tipping over. 🙂 Works fine. Heats up a bit faster I feel, but also seems to spin up the PSU fan noticeably now. No brake, so all the folds are freehand. I put light notches where I wanted to bend.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 27, 2026

Me: "Oh, yeah, so I'll put the logo-y thing in a circle, then put a banner on top of the bottom there for some text... goddammit, I just reinvented the Sonic splash screen."

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 26, 2026

RE: https://woof.tech/@asmcbain/116983873570157825 Tracking now says the "barcode label" is unreadable, so it might not arrive Monday at this point. If it doesn't arrive at all, then I can't (properly) build a shelf with half the parts.

Quoting

Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech

New shelving arrived... partly. I have parts 2/3 and 3/3. Can't even get started because 1/3 has the poles. 🙃

Open quoted post

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 26, 2026

Replying to @MontgomeryGator@fouroclockfarms.club

@MontgomeryGator@fouroclockfarms.club I don't care enough to sort that out, I figured the comment was linking to someone's reuploaded clip for the part they referenced, but oh well. Media licensing ruins a lot of stuff.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 26, 2026

Clicked through a link to a MythBusters video, and it said it wasn't available in my country. Uhhhh, they were all filmed in the US, the country I currently reside in and am accessing YouTube from? What do you mean, "The uploader has not made this video available in your country"?

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 26, 2026

New shelving arrived... partly. I have parts 2/3 and 3/3. Can't even get started because 1/3 has the poles. 🙃

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 25, 2026

I have a recruiter in my inbox asking about an opportunity with Palantir. I am slightly tempted to just respond back with "I do not desire destroying my social capital by working for Palantir."

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 24, 2026

OpenSCAD whoops. Probably a floating point error, just like everything is, but I put some shapes abutting each other, but not technically overlapping. My mistake, as there's no reason they couldn't for easier unioning, etc. Well, after rendering, slicing, and printing two of those three printed like they were separate shapes. Fixing the issue shaved 10 minutes off my print, which isn't much, but at least the part will be better now.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 23, 2026

Why do Discogs sellers all of a sudden have minimums? I just want the $10 single, I don't need to help you get rid of your unwanted crap at the bottom that you're only asking $5 for and which I'd have to buy two of.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 22, 2026

Air quality outside: Not great
Air quality inside: Faint smell of corn

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 22, 2026

Need to run my laser cutter. Never run cutter without exhaust (extraction) fan. Exhaust fan is 460 CFM (ducted). Air outside is fucked. Wore mask the entire time, now shed air smells like burnt cardboard _and_ wildfire smoke. Lose lose.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 22, 2026

Printing a part I designed to make a CR box†, and realized even if I finish all eight of my corner pieces and other corner side parts, I'm still gonna have to tape the fan to the top of the filters to fix that gap. Waste of print time almost. Though they might make it easier to assemble, I guess. † Wildfire smoke around me is flipping between bad, less bad, bad again... and while my house is fine, I want it for a particular event at a place not my house.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 22, 2026

Given how things are going I booked a repair for my vehicle that would help it run another 10 years. It's looking like I'm gonna need to do that. Then hope we invent portals before then, because I don't like the trend of where vehicles are going (more touch screens, more phoning home, more privacy invasions...)

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 21, 2026

Build build build build Build now pls program file

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 21, 2026

I want a semi-circle.

With OpenSCAD, my choices are

Import a semi-circle vector, then linear_extrude
rotate_extrude a square()†
difference() a cube with a cylinder()

The last option is the least silly, but also not exactly nice either. Would be nice if cylinder accepted a degree param.

† Is it a rectangle? Doesn't matter. They're all square()s to OpenSCAD.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 21, 2026

Replying to @asmcbain@woof.tech

I run a 1" MERV 13 filter on my central air, so unless something bad happens and I need a room cycled faster, this does a decent job of keeping the air clean if it has enough time to run.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 21, 2026

Fun stuff: Designing and 3D printing corners for a CR box. I'm aware there's ones on Thingiverse, etc. They look fine, but why when I can do it myself? 😄 Not so fun stuff: Air around me is currently terrible, and even if it returns to green, could turn again a few days later. My house is reasonably good with the front door taped, but there's a weekly event in a space that has no filtration and likely bad airflow. Thus, building a CR box. Definitely not taking my nice personal filtration unit.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 21, 2026

I got a job posting in my inbox that is offering $1,200,000 - $1,500,000 a year, for a remote full-time front-end dev.

I really do have to wonder if they accidentally added an extra zero.

I can see offering $120,000 - 150,000 for a dev (front, back, or full) but over a million?

Is this for some sort of BBEG? Do I at least get spared when the end arrives or a solid gold healthcare plan?

Anyway, they want 6 years of Angular experience up to the latest and I only have nearly 3 on an old version

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 15, 2026

While waiting for a callback due to a broken website when trying to order a new wire shelving unit, I discovered a company that directed me to their "US site" which consists entirely of a chat-driven page to find and buy their products. Absolute turn-off. Also, they were more expensive than the company I wanted to order from even though it's the same item (same size, manufacturer, etc.)

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 15, 2026

Job location: Remote Description: Candidates must live in one of these 5 counties in California. 🙃

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 14, 2026

I got asked my pronouns over email (totally fine) but this was the suggested set of quick reply buttons. 10:00/10:00/10:00's

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 14, 2026

As I'm now drawing some SVG by hand again (I know, what a madperson!) I am reminded SVG differentiates between absolute and relative path commands by case (uppercase, and lowercase, respectively). 'z' means to complete the path and go home. 'Z' means to complete the path and go home... but classier? 😄

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 14, 2026

LinkedIn company profile: "XX and 7 other alumni work here." ... I don't know any of these people? Like, they're probably at least 10 years younger than me and I wasn't in any classes with them.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 14, 2026

So many healthcare industry job postings... they're all like "5+ years experience in these three to five $verySpecificHealthCareRegsOrPlatforms". Never sure how anyone breaks into that except by being an entry-level hire out of college.

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Alastair McBain

@asmcbain@woof.tech · Jul 13, 2026

Replying to @asmcbain@woof.tech

If there's a next time, I'll try that. 😄 As I wanted some stuff from Home Depot, I asked customer service if they could help and they found what they thought was a bolt cutter, but it turned out to be a gigantic wire stripper! So I got to mash on the shackle with the wire stripper before they gave me a mini hacksaw to finish the job. Around that time they remembered they have a tool rental service, and I should've just asked there. 😅 I did get the lock off without destroying the tool box. 🎉

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Alastair McBain

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