Lag bolts are more like a big wood screw, what you call coach bolts seem to be what we call carriage bolts

I’m not sure if the wire gauge thing is right, unless you’re talking about a different system than I’m familiar with, because with wire gauge smaller number=bigger wire, and with screw sizes smaller number=smaller screw

Also just my 2¢ on “machine screw” vs “bolt” as a casual tinkerer with various things held together by different types of threaded fasteners.

Generally speaking if it’s got a hex head or nut that I’m using a wrench to tighten, it’s a bolt

If it’s got some sort of hole (or God forbid a slot) that I’m going to use some sort of a driver (for the purposes of this, an Allen “wrench” is a driver) to tighten, it’s a screw.

And of course everything gets really murky when we start talking about things like sheet metal screws, lag bolts/screws, masonry screws, etc.

Just an FYI if you’re not familiar with American screw sizes, calling this a 10-32 equivalent is probably going to confuse come people.

The naming convention used for screws in America includes the shank diameter and the pitch of the thread in threads per inch (TPI)

So a 10-32 in a #10 diameter screw with 32 threads per inch

Below about ¼ inch diameter, the American system usually uses that numbered system, a #10 screw is .190 inches or roughly 3/16

For larger diameter screws they usually just use the nearest fractional equivalent instead of the screw number, so a ¼-20 is roughly ¼ inch (actually .242in/ or #14) diameter and has 20 TPI

Most sizes have a standard coarse and fine thread, for #10 32TPI is the fine thread, and 20TPI is the coarse thread

Little back-of-the-envelope math that I’m not super confident in, this would be something like a 10-16 screw. You might want to rename it or add a note to that effect, or maybe call it something like a #10 extra coarse thread.

Yeah, security updates are a big sticking point for me too.

That’s another reason I’m not rushing out to buy one. If they actually stick to their 5 year plan, that’s pretty solid, but that’s a big unknown right now.

And with almost anything there’s some 1st generation bugs that will probably need to be worked out. If they stick around for a couple years and keep up with their updates I’ll give them a little more consideration.

Also we’re now starting to see some brands come out with color e-ink devices, I wouldn’t mind one of these with a color e-ink screen.

So maybe I’ll be getting a minimal phone 2 or 3.

I haven’t personally played around with rooting and custom ROMs and such in honestly probably a decade, but an unlockable bootloader would be nice, even if I don’t necessarily see myself using that feature at this point in my life.

And not for nothing, since a flagship smartphone can pretty easily cost $1000+ these days, $500-ish for this phone sounds oddly reasonable. Not that it’s got flagship specs, but for something that’s filling a specific niche with some (for many) desirable features, that’s not a bad price IMO.

Or, you know, the device we’re discussing

E readers don’t generally make calls, texts, do navigation, or fit comfortably in the zippered hip pockets of my hiking pack

I’m kind of considering getting one, probably as a second phone to swap my sim card into for occasional use

The e ink is a big draw for me, as is the physical keyboard, not to mention the headphone jack and expandable storage.

With the e-ink comes good battery life, they’re claiming potentially 4 days from what I can see. I like the idea of that for travel, where I might be spending long hours on a bus, train, plane, car, walking around town all day, maybe even camping somewhere where it may not always be convenient to charge my phone.

E-ink is also easier to read in direct sunlight without a glare, as someone with a lot of outdoor hobbies that appeals to me. (Although for the same reason I do also wish it had a higher IP rating, and maybe an impact resistance rating as well)

I dont tend to play a lot of games or watch movies on my phone to begin with, so I’m not so much interested in that aspect of it encouraging mindfulness, but for people who do struggle with that temptation to spend too much time on tiktok forget hooked on stupid games, I can see this helping them to kick that habit since e ink isn’t really great for those kinds of uses, while not needing to totally unplug from the more utilitarian uses for a smartphone like navigation, different messaging apps, email, 2 factor authenticator apps, etc.

I’m not rushing out to buy one, but I might consider grabbing one if I get a good deal somewhere, or if it has some staying power I might consider picking up the next gen version of it.

I was recently reading some Wikipedia article on my phone and when I was scrolling I accidentally hit a button to edit it and was greeted by a message that my IP was banned from editing for the next 10 months.

I haven’t even attempted to edit Wikipedia in probably 20 years. Admittedly last time I did I was probably about 14 years old, and it may have been some juvenile vandalism, but somehow I don’t think that they managed to trace me from a computer in my high school library to my current cell phone, or that anything I did warranted a 21 year ban

So obviously it’s because phones using cellular Internet go through IP addresses only slightly less often than most people breathe.

It feels like that sort of IP ban really isn’t particularly useful. The vandals probably aren’t usually on that address and most of the time it’s getting used by random people who probably don’t even think about editing Wikipedia.

I remember seeing a comment somewhere wishing they would reboot Xena, but lamenting that they would probably make it “too woke” if they did

I don’t think there’s much they could do to make Xena more “woke” if they tried.

The very short version is

After the Iranian Hostage Crisis, the US placed an arms embargo on Iran so they legally couldn’t sell arms to Iran

Reagan wanted to fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, however Congress had prevented him from directly funding them so they had to find some way of doing that off the books.

So since Iran wanted to buy weapons, they sold them some weapons so they could turn around and use that money to fund the Contras and circumvent Congress.

They also tried to justify it because they were hoping Iran would influence Hezbollah to release hostages they had taken in Lebanon (which kind of worked, the hostages were released, but Hezbollah pretty much immediately took more hostages, so not really)

This glosses over a lot of details of course.

I mean, it probably takes about as long for me to remove the seats from the van as it does for me to find a broom and sweep out the truck bed to make sure my mattress doesn’t get dirty because I’ve been using my truck as a truck, so six of one, half dozen of the other.

And truck bed or roof rack I’m anal about securing my loads, so I’m gonna spend a few minutes fucking with ratchet straps either way, box springs are light so unless you’re really short it’s pretty trivial to get them on a roof rack.

Plus you get the benefit of being able to carry more passengers when you need to. Haven’t found a pickup yet that will seat 7 or 8 people.

Probably not in a minivan, but I’ve personally loaded pallets into cargo vans with a forklift

I’ve moved many a mattress in my parent’s minivan. With the seats folded down or removed and a bit of an angle and/or squishing in a bit you can usually fit a queen, maybe even a king depending on the mattress and van. Box springs are harder, but often still doable, and in a pinch can be easily strapped to a roof rack.

They also have a '93 ranger with the 7ft bed, still chose to use the van for mattresses as often as not, to need to strap anything down or cover them if there’s rain in the forecast.

I did a road trip with my wife a few years back and borrowed their Sedona, took out the back seats, threw a “queen” sized air mattress (I’m pretty sure it was a little undersized from a real mattress, but still pretty close) and the mattress was a little squished on the sides but otherwise fit pretty comfortably in the back, we slept in the van for about a week moving between different campsites.

Know what mattresses don’t fit comfortably in? The 5.5ft beds a lot of pickup trucks have these days.

It’s complicated.

In most of the US except for a handful of states, you can legally own a silencer, there’s a couple extra hoops to jump through, but nothing too dramatic. Most law abiding gun owners in the US could probably get their hands on one legally if they cared enough to do so.

In other parts of the world, laws are kind of all over the place ranging from totally unregulated to totally illegal. I haven’t done a deep dive on this myself, so this is all 2nd or 3rd+ hand hearsay so take it for what it’s worth, but I’m told that some places regard them as almost a safety (hearing protection) or courtesy thing so you’re not making too much racket with your guns.

If I can pull it apart a little more, it comes from the Greek “Phobos” which is usually translated as fear, but there’s a bit more to it than that.

The Greek god Phobos was the god of fear and panic*

Panic is a bit deeper than just plain old fear, it’s a state where your fear is so intense that you’re not acting rationally, you’re in fight-or-flight mode, you’re not thinking through your actions, you’re basically running on adrenaline and instincts, and not necessarily good instincts.

A phobia is that sort of irrational fear. It’s panic.

I’m a tiny bit afraid of heights (really it’s a fear of falling from a high place, but I’m splitting enough hairs here already,) I don’t have a phobia of heights. I can approach my fear rationally and overcome it, and even enjoy experiences in high places (I love roller coasters, I’m a hiker and love standing on top of a mountain, etc.) I just have to sort of calm myself down a little and tell myself I’m gonna be ok as long as I pay a little extra attention to what I’m doing. That little bit of fear actually makes it more exciting and enjoyable in its own weird way. If I had a phobia of heights, there’s no way in hell I’d be getting onto a roller coaster or going up a tall mountain, even the thought of it might set me off, maybe I’d run away from whoever suggested it, or I’d curl up in a ball hyperventilating, if my friends grabbed me by the arm and tried to drag me onto a trail I might start throwing punches.

To let my nerd flag fly a bit, the “Litany Against Fear” from Dune comes to mind.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

That’s about not letting your fear turn into panic. To face the things you don’t know and don’t understand with a level head instead of going off half-cocked in fight or flight mode.

That’s where homophobia fits in. It’s not rational, there’s no good, logical reason for them to dislike gay people, and they’re not approaching it with a clear head. They take this non-issue that they don’t understand, and panic about it, they let it consume a ridiculous amount of their (usually very limited to begin with) mental capacity, leaving no room for them to approach it rationally. They can’t flee from it, because how do you flee from normal people who are all around you, so that leaves them with fight, because their panic doesn’t leave any room in their minds to just accept that gay people don’t actually pose any threat to any of the things they’re worried about.

Similarly, you get the gay/trans panic “defense” that some people try (unfortunately sometimes successfully) in court to avoid the consequences of their actions, basically claiming that they reason they assaulted or killed a gay person was because they thought they were being hit on by them and they panicked.

With terms like hydrophobic materials, we’re kind of anthropomorphizing them a bit. A hydrophobic person is afraid of water. Rabies was known as hydrophobia because people and animals infected with it often had an aversion to water, they’d be thirsty, but one of the symptoms is difficulty swallowing, so when presented with water they’d panic because they wanted to drink but also knew if they tried to they might drown. When it came time to slap a label on materials that won’t interact with water, they just repurposed the existing word “hydrophobic” instead of creating a new term.

*the word “panic” itself is actually derived from the god Pan, a god of things like shepherds, nature, music, and having lots of sex. Overall a pretty chill dude as far as Greek gods go, seems like kind of a weird choice to name panic after, so where did that come from? Well Pan liked to take naps in the afternoon. And if something disturbed his nap he’d give a loud, startled shout, which scared all the sheep away. That sort of sudden fear became known as “panikos.” You can kind of think of panic as people acting like startled sheep, “sheeple” if you will.

I’m no electrician, I don’t run a lot of cable, I’m just a maybe-slightly-more-competent-than-average DIY homeowner type

Personally though, I like having cables run through conduits when possible for the ease of running them. I’m not particularly worried about water or mice or anything, it’s just a lot easier to just drop a cable down a pipe or suck a string through them with a plastic bag and shop vac than to try to fish them through the walls, especially anything I might want to upgrade at some point down the line when a new standard comes out like Ethernet or HDMI.

Ketchup has kind of an interesting history

The term ketchup/catsup (or various other spellings) first appeared in about the 1600s, but tomato ketchup didn’t really catch on until about 200-300 years later. Before then it was used to refer to a variety of different sauces/condiments. Mushroom ketchup was a fairly popular one, some were based on fish sauces (you could maybe make an argument that Worcestershire sauce is a type of ketchup) etc.

The general consensus is that it was sort of the result Europeans attempting to recreate various Asian sauces without really knowing what was in them or having access to the right ingredients (for example trying to make something like soy sauce without soy beans)

For the record, the butterball boneless turkey roasts also include a gravy starter.

I buy a fair number of them when I find a good deal, I have a meat slicer and make most of my own lunch meats and they’re really convenient for that. Even with the added weight from the gravy which I also don’t use, they’d probably still be a money saver if I could keep myself from loading the sandwich up with extra meat.

I’ve been trying to figure out a good alternative, I may try at some point just cramming some turkey breasts into some meat netting and seeing how well it holds together.

If you genuinely believe that, you are either living in some kind of serious tech nerd bubble, or you have no idea what replacing the OS means and you’re talking about doing software updates, tweaking settings, and installing apps.

The vast majority of smartphone users probably don’t even realize you can replace the OS, and if they do they probably don’t see the need.

For desktops and laptops, around 71% of them are running windows, somehow I doubt people are buying Linux or Mac laptops just to turn around and install windows on them. Then around 16% of them are running MacOS, and I doubt that any significant number of those are hackintoshes. A fair amount of the remaining 13% or so are probably people who have installed their own OS, but not all, some of them are using ChromeOS, I don’t hear much about people deciding to make their own Chromebook, and some people are buying an off-the-shelf Linux device.

My dad has a '93 ranger, the modern rangers are almost the size of the f150s of that era, and you can’t even get them like a 7ft bed like he has.

The 4 cylinder manages almost 20mpg which isn’t too shabby even by modern truck standards. If I could get pretty much the exact same truck with a modern engine, maybe a hybrid, it would be a no-brainer.

4wd would be nice too, his is RWD, and that thing doesn’t like rain, snow, loose gravel, pretty much anything but dry asphalt when you don’t have any weight in the bed.

We’ve gotten plenty of use out of that truck, we’re not towing or hauling anything heavy, but we’ve moved a lot of furniture with it, picked up some small loads of bulky lumber and such from the hardware store, hauled camping gear for a bunch of kids back when I was in scouts, etc. I don’t need anything bigger.

I’m kind of crossing my fingers that the maverick adds a mid gate to extend that tiny bed a bit. That would basically check all of the boxes I’m looking for. Ideally that would still be my 2nd vehicle in addition to a small EV for most of my daily commuting but I’d get enough use out of a truck like that to be worth it if I could afford and had parking space for a second car.