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cmclaughlin

183 karma · joined July 7, 2011

mclaughlinct

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cmclaughlin··on What is going on with ceiling fans
How did you reverse engineer the signal?

I’ve looked at a product called Bond that seems to facilitate it. But haven’t yet tried it.

cmclaughlin··on What is going on with ceiling fans
This annoys me too. My Casablanca fans have a wall switch which is hard wired to power only for on/off, but the fan and light controls are sent via a radio frequency signal. The most frustrating part of this, is that the RF transmitter inside the wall switch is battery operated. I have to unscrew the wall switch a couple times a year to get to the batteries.
cmclaughlin··on OpenLogi
Nice job on the app and the website. It looks really good.
cmclaughlin··on Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)
I have a Bosch induction range and it doesn't immediately turn off the "burner" or beep when the pan is lifted up, so yeah I can tilt the pan.
cmclaughlin··on Show HN: Moltbook – A social network for moltbots (clawdbots) to hang out
Do you feel any remorse for how this contributes to climate change?

Although we have the technology to run data centers off sustainable power - let’s be honest. Anthropic and OpenAI have not made any climate pledges that I know of.

I don’t see how a social network for AI bots benefits society at all. It’s a complete waste of a very valuable resource.

In other words, we’re burning the planet for this?

cmclaughlin··on From stealth blackout to whitelisting: Inside the Iranian shutdown
I would be surprised if there many western journalists left in Iran…

Here is an excellent podcast from a Washington post journalist that was captured and held as a hostage - it’s called 544 days (that’s the amount of time he was jailed there)

https://crooked.com/podcast-series/544-days/

cmclaughlin··on Indoor tanning makes youthful skin much older on a genetic level
Here’s a podcast on this:

https://www.artofmanliness.com/health-fitness/health/podcast...

cmclaughlin··on Announcing the Beta release of ty
I feel the same way.
cmclaughlin··on Things I've Heard Boomers Say That I Agree with 100%
I don't think the problem is with LED lights in particular, it's really the "color temperature" of lights and brightness or "lumens" are two high. Old incandescent lights could have also been too bright (think police car lights shining into your eyes).

But I generally agree - ever since I got PRK eye surgery ultra white car lights are hard for me to handle. My wife has always been sensitive to light (she has lighter eyes), so that goes to show that there's certainly a range of tolerance for this and it's really a safety issue.

Inspections are a good idea, but I'd like to see some control over what can be sold to prevent the installation in the first place.

cmclaughlin··on Developers are choosing older AI models
I also expect local LLMs to catch up to the cloud providers.

I spent last weekend experimenting with Ollama and LM studio. I was impressed at how good Qwen3-Coder is. Not as good as Claude, but close - maybe even better in some ways.

As I understand it, the latest Macs are good for local LLMs due to their unified memory. 32GB of RAM in one of the newer M-series seems to be the "sweet spot" for price versus performance.

cmclaughlin··on Claude Code: Now in Beta in Zed
I got this error too.

Tried restarting zed and restarting my computer, but neither resolved it.

cmclaughlin··on Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable
This comment took me on a walk down memory lane...

The shortage of asparaginase (brand name Erwinaze) was very stressful during my daughter's recovery! This was in 2021.

She had allergic reactions to two other medicines, and Erwinaze was identified as an alternative. We ended up getting a batch of Erwinaze, but she was allergic to that too. She ended up getting it on a slow drip under full hospitalization instead of a relatively quick visit at the infusion center.

If anyone else is in a similar situation, this patient advocate might be able to help:

https://www.angelsforchange.org/

cmclaughlin··on Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable
Hello,

Here's more info on the side effects to memory.

* https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6089371/ * https://curesearch.org/Learning-Problems-During-or-After-Tre...

I think this sums it up (from the NIH study):

"methotrexate exposure has also been associated with persistent cognitive deficits among survivors, including impairments of memory, attention, and executive functions"

My daughter recovered from Leukemia (ALL). She's healthy now, but it was a nightmare. She was in the "high risk" category until the doctors realized the chemo triggered a rare kidney disorder. Once that was treated, the chemo started to work.

I've observed some issues with her memory and cognition, but I'm happy she's alive and optimistic that she'll learn to work around the challenges.

cmclaughlin··on Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls
Great idea. I am considering buying one for my refrigerator and furnace.

Are you planning to charge a monthly fee? I’d be open to that, but it would be nice to not pay for more than the hardware. I.e. build the operating costs into the cost of the initial purchase

cmclaughlin··on Living with Nausea: My Story in Six Charts
I will be honest, I only skimmed the article… But I did not see any mention of exercise. Not sure if the author will read this, but the best way I know to increase metabolism is to walk or swim. Ideally work up to something more intense like yoga or weightlifting as you start to feel better. Basically, activity work at building up an appetite and eat high fiber foods.

Also check out the fodmap diet to get your gut in order before working up to exercise.

cmclaughlin··on Eating less can lead to a longer life: study in mice shows why
You’d be surprised… weight lifting while intermittent fasting is quite effective
cmclaughlin··on Ask HN: Do you have home solar?
I’d be happy to help. My email is in my profile
cmclaughlin··on Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland
The article states…

Though none of the prolific thieves has been arrested yet, Der said, “we are investigating several suspects for their roles in this massive theft scheme and expect charges soon.”

I wonder who owns and/or rents that warehouse…

cmclaughlin··on Show HN: My $1k self-install, off-grid solar backup build for renters
I just left a similar comment. We were probably composing a the same time.

Good point about the possibility of a roof leak and placing blame. I didn’t think of that.

cmclaughlin··on Show HN: My $1k self-install, off-grid solar backup build for renters
I’m surprised the landlord is ok with this. I understand the panels might be rated to withstand some amount of wind, but there’s a huge liability if this project lead to injury.

A good job was done considering the load on the indoor wiring, but the exposed wires on the outside of a building concern me. Typically wires have some level of insulation and/or conduit that reduces and contains the spread of fire. If wind did move the panels around, those wires could pull loose and start a fire.

SF does not perform frequent building inspection, but if an inspector saw this they would almost certainly cite that this violates building code. In the event of injury, insurance might not pay out given how this is setup.

cmclaughlin··on Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice
Thanks for sharing this!

I’m half Iranian and didn’t grow up with my dad, so I have very little cultural connection except for my love of Persian food.

It’s hard for me to justify buying the little bottles of Saffron at groceries stores given the price and the ratio of product to packaging.

Now I’m going to order from that company and step up my culinary game! Still not cheap but at least it feels like a good deal and I appreciate that it’s not shipped across the world and that it’s available in bulk.

cmclaughlin··on 21 Years. 21 Cooking Lessons
> Do not keep a sourdough starter. It’s a waste of time for a busy person like you. Try a poolish instead.

Everything else on the list was good, in my opinion. This one I had to look into more...

"Poolish is a preferment where you mix one part flour and one part water with a small amount of commercial yeast, resulting in a fairly wet sponge that is left to ferment for 6 to 16 hours."

I don't think traditional sour dough actually takes much time at all. It's so hands off - I mean sure, I guess I can see the point. I'm making pizza tonight and the dough has been cold fermenting for many days. But it's so hands off and takes very little actual time or effort. Just requires some planning ahead.

cmclaughlin··on New CRISPR systems hold promise for genome editing
Are there any details what Bill Gates takes in the weekly IV fluids?
cmclaughlin··on How to boss without being bossy
Here's how my wife does it...

"Do you want to take out the trash?"

My engineer mind interprets it literally every time :)

Usually I don't mind taking out the trash... but occasionally I don't really want to. I have to always translate this to "She wants me to take out the trash".

cmclaughlin··on Inkscape Cloud Architect
That Python library looks great! Thanks for sharing it.
cmclaughlin··on Homebrew to deprecate and add caveat for HashiCorp
> Much as I love the service homebrew provides, terraform is one of the edge cases that is better being managed outside of brew. I believe tf-switch is now the most popular option?

tfenv is also available in homebrew for installing multiple/different versions of terraform

cmclaughlin··on Everyday uses for PVC water pipe
> 3/8” is permitted by code, but not by the tables in the UPC

Can you elaborate on this please?

It takes 90 seconds for hot water to flow from my water heater to my kitchen in the winter. I’m not sure if I have 1/2 or 3/8 pex (I’d have to crawl under the house to check). I’ve been thinking of adding a small Bosch water heater under the sink or a recirculation like, but maybe I should reduce the size of the pipe too

cmclaughlin··on Could the world go PFAS-free? Proposal to ban ‘forever chemicals’ fuels debate
Fried eggs on Teflon pans are rather soggy in my opinion…

My preferred pan for fried eggs is stainless steel. With plenty of butter the eggs crisp up and release from the pan with no stick at all. The only real trick is to not flip too soon.

cmclaughlin··on Things I wish I’d known before fulltime RVing (2017)
Many camp sites don’t let you leave Kimbo style campers behind. For that reason I prefer a towable.
cmclaughlin··on Tesla's Model 3 cheaper than Toyota's Camry in California with tax benefits
It warms the oil. My BMW tells me when it’s OK to start driving.

Note this does not warm the transmission fluid. So it’s still good to take it easy the first few minutes of driving.

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