Tag: t_w1r2

micro-conserver mode@operation

Posted on by tiger40490

k_ctbz …  k_X_power_descriptor

I keep this bpost in this blog due to the tags.

I frequently find myself (operating) in micro-conserver mode:

  • When I feel my kids may not become “successful” professionals and therefore, my and grandparents’ assets could become a multi-gen reserve. I instinctively feel a need to conserve that reserve for posterity.
  • mtg .. When I start paying mortgage installments, I would semi-consciously start cutting burn rate. I would enter not only micro-conserver but real conserver mode.
  • job loss .. When I lost my Qz job and associated income stream in 2015, I automatically entered micro-conserver mode
  • when I first went to the U.S. in 2007-2008 and again in early 2017, I entered not only micro-conserver but real conserver mode.
  • when in Giant Suntec I was picking items worth $100 as a gift basket for R.Teo, I didn’t want to buy anything unnecessary.
  • when I had to eat at airport or transit station, I would enter micro-conserver mode.
  • [c] when I was researching aircon nightly cost. Running aircon all night is a luxury.
  • sometimes I (following Grandma) try to save a subway trip.
  • [c=ctbz]

— aggregate saving… how much monthly savings can we achieve? Not confident. $200~1k. On this ground, many people dismiss micro-conserver mode wholesale, but .. 粒粒皆辛苦 is valid advice.

Each micro-conserver decision is usually not too complex for Sys2, and sys1 can often make those decisions. Therefore, I don’t feel “burdensome complexity“. On the other hand, micro-conserver can feel empowering and low-stress.

webcam

Posted on by tiger40490

 

— safe storage of video footage
privacy … sd-card provides privacy. I think cloud also provides privacy.

data loss ..
* gmail and cloud are permanent
* cloud service is commercial .. more reliable
* whatsapp should not remove video content by default, based on my reading

— anxiety and stress .. The biggest anxiety comes from the set-up process. Taking a step back, webcam is a mature product. Procedure is fairly standard and accessible by the lay public.

I can ask a Beijing neighbor or call xiaomi hotline, though I can probably figure out.

I won’t move it to Beijing home becaus when they move out to nursing home, they are likely to forget and lose this webcam. I may try to install it in nursing home, but if not needed there, then … with a sigh of relief I can discard it without guilt.

— low-cost, throwaway device .. Main cost if tcost (esp. set-up). Convenience, reliability, tech support,,,, dwarfs $cost.  So I decided to buy without OT, with a license to discard without guilt. The first purchase will be an experiment, a learning journey. (Situation is similar to wifi router.) This infrastructure is valuable yet complex [learning, troubleshooting,,,]. To deal with the complexity,

  • I need to allocate plenty of time.
  • I need to celebrate every small achievement and progress.
  • Better do the research well in advance

— xiaomi .. is the preferred brand for Beijing home. I shopped around and did my due diligence. I concluded price range is Rmb170 ~ 400. As of Nov 2024, Xiaomi Singapore has only one service centre.

— feature: data archive/storage .. optional but valuable.
I think a 256G SD card is $10 only.

Resolution control?

recording frequency control?

— account+device paring

Each device is paired with eactly one Xiaomi account. Each account has exactly one mobileNum… xxx-1025-xxxx. (AccountNum 2-837383-586 is not used anywhere.)

Update mobileNum? I was told it is not possible. A new mobileNum will need a new account.

Re-login to the xiaomi account requires passwd (se8) or smsOTP.

— set-up

When webcam starts, I think it starts in “unconnected” mode (blinking orange). Then it tries to load the saved connection settings from its builtin memory, and connects to the local wifi SSID.

  1. Factory reset … clears “its memory”. Device speaker (the only I/O) would anounce successful reset.
  2. Init .. Use the MiHome APP to scan on-device QR. Ensure region is mainland China.
  3. Upon successful QR, APP prompts you to first select a stable wifi SSID that webcam will use permanently. If your wifi SSID doesn’t use password, then the APP will not present it as a candidate 🙁 I think this is for data security.
  4. APP then prompts you to connect to a temporary wifi SSID hosted by the webcam. I guess this is the all-important initial paring (bluetooth?) between this hardware and this instance of the APP. I think the APP reminds you to get physically close to the hardware.
  5. Upon successful paring, the device speaker would anounce successful pairing between device and this particular instance of the APP.
  6. Then the APP may prompt you to scan the on-device QR.

##Roti@classify`廉价小货: eg@involution #unclassified #zipper

Posted on by tiger40490

k_classify_objects

eg (earliest): classifying cheap rugs (抹布) in 十一号楼 #610 .. 内卷 without real progress.
eg: organizing (and classifying) stamp collection
eg: organizing (and classifying) old photos
eg: organizing (and classifying) books

— eg: classifying cheap screws / bolts .. too many varieties.. excessive tcost
see bpost on screw tips
bolts and nuts sorting into categories by compatibility … kinda worthwhile.

I paid SGD 14 for a new screw box because I have “intolerance” for visual clutter of dozens of small items like 4 nails spread out across one or more tables. The physical box provides a visual /boundary/.

— eg: classifying cheap clear zipper bags .. Need to improve my system.. reduce the number of categories from 8 to 5? Let’s embrace blurred boundaries..

  1. category: horizontals with aspect ratio > 1.0
  2. category: slender with aspect ratio < 0.5
  3. category: tiny ones
  4. ^^ above types can consider “throw-away”
  5. category: A4 or bigger sizes
  6. category: other rectangles

Priorities are 1) eco and 2) tcost

Q: is the tcost worthwhile (conserver/minimalist) or involution?

I guess the “efficient” family mostly use a few packs of uniform-size bags, and _never_ put a used bag back into a pack, because “rejoin” is no easy habit. Some of them might put used bags into one “misc” group.

If we aim to save cost + environment, we need to differentiate big vs small (less ROTI) zipper bags. I think that’s why my wife reuses big zipper bags. I think the total mass of plastic saved from small zippers is smaller than a few bottle.

Sugg: discard some of the smaller zippers after use, if it saves me time.

— eg: classifying cheap plastic wall plugs .. excessive and unjustified. Let’s reduce the categories.

  1. Put straight plugs together into a Level2 “straight category bag”.. all loose straight ones will go into the Level2 bag
  2. next, huge + tiny go together into a Level2 bag
  3. Misc.. remove the current zipper bags and pour them into the Level1 zipper bag.

— eg: “unclassfied” cheap objects .. an effective category… stress-prevention

  • hook scale .. perhaps dump in the hardware toolbox
  • torchlight .. keep in multiple locations .. meter rooms,

life=short;Spend more@joys, less@commute++

Posted on by tiger40490

k_rmSelf_vs_xpSelf  k_X_focusing_illusion

See also

  • chore^pleasure[def] hours of a day .. more short-term
  • https://tanbinvest.dreamhosters.com/9489/longer-commute-iwt-smaller-home/ .. pointed out that small home size is generally easier to cope with than long commute.

[[Thinking, fast and slow]] also says “The central fact of our existence is that time is the ultimate finite resource.” So for the well-being of our xpSelf, we had better arrange our lives to spend more time with things/people that give us pleasure, and less time with negative things such as commute or doing chores alone.

Profound.

— quality time .. a vague term frequently given to me when I say I spend most weekends in office alone. Actually working in office on weekends (similar to working early mornings or evenings) is Quiet, Productive and sometimes enjoyable. By rescheduling non-trivial workload to those quiet hours, I was able to transform non-quality time to quality time !

(Family quality time? out of scope.) “Personal Quality Time” is a personal assessment. Here is a list of personal assessments at the present moment. For simplicity, I use “binary” assessment.

  • yes: loafing, day-dreaming … definitely non-productive, but can be quality time.
  • yes: good sleep, even at a “wrong” time and wrong place
  • no: time with family at home .. often unproductive and less-then-enjoyable
  • no: study just for a f*** exam… but look at Aunt Genn’s exam experiences in her 40s
  • no: chore alone .. I consider it unproductive, but some people can enjoy it, like gardening

Now, some “items” that are ambiguous, hard to classify, “depends”,,

  • yes: learning piano .. not always enjoyable. Consider grandpa in his late 80s
  • yes: commute .. can be productive and enjoyable, but only if seated. However, Sachin said while standing he could close his eyes and meditate .. unbelievable.

— “weekend renzi trips”… Now I have a less negative (still negative) view. Grandpa said many times that my time was not wasted, but he didn’t explain why. In hindsight, I didn’t like the ROTI, and I sacrificed too much — opportunity cost.

Now I think

  • if I didn’t have important things (opportunity cost) to spend my weekend hours, and
  • if both of us (boy and dad) enjoyed the time together, and
  • if we didn’t spend huge amount of time “having fun”, and
  • if the retrospective evaluation is not extremely negative and regretful.

, then the tcost doesn’t have to matter.

YLD ,DALYs[ disability-adjusted life years] #CAD

Posted on by tiger40490

k_CAD

Before DALY, people used YLLs. DALY introduced YLDs to the picture:

  • YLL [years-of-life-lost, or potential years of life lost due to premature death]
  • YLD [years-lived-with-disability/disease, i.e. equivalent[1] years of Full health lost due to disability / ill-health]

The DALY relies on a universal recognition that the most appropriate measure of the effects of chronic condition is time, both years lost due to premature death and years spent disabled. One DALY represents (the loss of) the “equivalent”[1] of one year of Full health.

[1] weightage of common disabilities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability-adjusted_life_year has a table of “disability weightage” for common disabilities like dementia, amputation, blindness…

eg: CAD may cost me 40Y of “healthy lifespan”. Using a weightage of 0.05, I would lose 0.05*40=2 DALYs.

T2dm (prevalent) feels worse. Total Gastrectomy (rare) feels worse… I won’t dwell on these depressing diseases and weightages.

eg: YY.T may sometimes feel his knee condition will cost him 50 years of “active lifespan”.

DALY was developed to compare life expectancy of two countries. DAYL is a societal measure of the disease burden or disability burden. However, I use DALY for individual assessment.

In 2019, Singaporeans were expected to live up to 74 years in good health, compared to 67 in 1990.

[22]TJ.Lin: comfort zone guarded by int^ext

Posted on by tiger40490

The megaworld title headache, late-2023 parenting headache, CAD, mid-2024 work stress,,, reveal that my current carefree ezlife is precarious indeed. See blogpost on mean time between failures.

CB2022 is a bigger jolt to my comfort zone. External dependency indeed. ZQBX indeed.

This is a heavily adapted email to my friend TJ.Lin, probably early 2023.

You asked
Q1: assuming you are living purely on your savings, and you are not worried about the savings, what is your worry?

I said that indeed I don’t worry about money , over the medium horizon. Yet I do feel my current carefree ezlife is fragile/precarious, possibly transient. The biggest fragile pillar is the MLP job (re CB2022), but deep down, I cherish my wellness + blissful family life more than MLP job or other things, so I have a subconscious attachment. I worry about losing my job, cashflow high ground,,,, less than I worry about losing my health or family. However, if I lose _any_ of these, I am confident that I would survive. Remember I told you about 自强不息? That’s how I will cope, and how I will work my way back to a positive, meaningful life.

You then asked a more fundamental question:
Q2: Is your current comfort zone [comfortable ezlife, bliss, utopia, carefree bubble, harmony, tranquility,,] guarded by external or internal forces?

I said that currently, I rely on external factors and feel overdependent, precarious and insecure. Factors like current job (heating up in 2024), wellness and family harmony (lost in late 2024).

I said that internal locus of control is possible and would be better. It would give me more independence , resilience, and self-reliance. Now I think the internal driving force is zqbx [自强不息]. In reality, a disaster [swan or misstep] is often too big (consider Christopher Reeve), but if your life were to go on, then you would eventually survive and rely on 自强不息. This human will can be more powerful than we could imagine.

The more we think about the external factors esp. the missteps/swans, the more we want to strengthen our shields.

laptop-batt lifespan #overnight

Posted on by tiger40490

— laptop configuration for battery health:
* rapid charge can reduce battery lifespan
* Conservation Mode is “useful to extend the lifespan of your battery when plugged. When this mode is enabled, the battery will only be charged to 55-60%”. In conservation mode, perhpas I can connect my charger all day? Well, I guess it’s good habit to unplug charger once a while.

— depletion .. Contrary to some recommendations, you don’t need to routinely discharge a lithium-ion battery completely and then recharge it to somehow reboot or calibrate it – this is a destructive practice that’s very hard on your battery.  Whether or not it’s a smart idea to perform a complete discharge a couple of times a year remains an unanswered question. There are many types of batteries. I choose to heed the advice from the battery manufacturer.

Almost-depletion .. Generally, the consensus seems to be that letting your battery discharge (without bottoming out — aim for around 20 percent) and then charge it when possible is the best practice.

— overnight .. there was a time when users were advised to refrain from keeping their devices plugged in. Today, however, modern devices are designed to stop charging at 100 percent and thus keeping them plugged in doesn’t impact the battery’s lifespan, according to Battery University.  However, A95 battery became “bloated” due to overnight charging. LED lamp says “avoid overnight” too.

— long term storage (of laptop).. If you’re going to store your laptop for an extended time without using it, then discharge or charge it to 50 percent before putting it away. I think many batteries nowadays are shipped in this condition, and warehoused for months.

blogg→ evaluations →more satisfactionS since2018

Posted on by tiger40490

 

k_rmSelf_vs_xpSelf    k_divorce  k_X_focusing_illusion

Since 2018 I have blogged about these these topics below, and then described the same sentiment to grandpa, some counsellors and a few friends:

  • blessed
  • more satisfied with my current “position”
  • more lucky than my cohort .. carefree ezlife; stealth overtake; not left behind on any front;
  • my English, SG/US 出路, NUS+UChicago branding, wellness, devTill70, stable marriage
  • see bpost “why  I feel lucky about current job”
  • …

Q: why am I more satisfied than my cohort?

One answer: I guess my enhanced sense of satisfaction is directly related to my blogging[including emails, conversations]. As stated in quick self-evaluation@life: CSASS, satisfaction is usually based on an evaluation by the rmSelf. Nowadyas (Since 2017) I evaluate mostly positive /elements/ of my life. Therefore, my satisfaction with my life gets /crystalized/[2] , refined and elevated repeatedly — 量变成质变.

I guess blogging also gives the xpSelf [U-index or hedonimeter] more pleasure, thanks to the uplift of the Focusing_effect, but this effect can also intensity pains.

— divorce .. My blogging on divorce makes me more appreciative, more protective of my marriage. I take it as a bedrock of my good life, and not something to be taken for granted.

— a sweeping life-evaluation is expensive (in terms of time and System2 resources) and rarely comprehensive and in-depth

Analog: Insurance road shows are popular in Singapore exactly because most passersby have not done any comprehensive evaluation of their pff.

Pop psychology esp. the self-help industry [online/newspaper/magazines/talks/workshops, ]  often involves probing, introspective questions, self-questionnaires (and journaling). However, most people are way too busy to dwell on those long-winded, often academic questions. My blogs feature dozens of sweeping evaluations including but not limited to those under t_soulSearch, t_histZoom, t_sharpQ. In 2018 I asked R.Xia some reflective question and he didn’t respond. Later in Mar 2022 I mentioned that in an email to him. Few individuals would evaluate their lives as often as I do.  It’s rare to meet a person like me who spends so much time “evaluating”. There’s no point analyzing but I guess there are some categories — (semi-)retirees, writers/sociologists, students (instructed in school), graduating seniors

minor eg: I found a phrase in a marriage book “Tenacity to work through conflicts”. It invites the question “Are we tenacious?”, part of a sweeping introspective evaluation. The phrase (and the question) requires (sys2) slow thinking, but most people are too busy (in haste) or too lazy, so they either brush it aside or substitute a simpler word like “willpower” or “work hard”, so as to avoid an in-depth evaluation.

— [2] Visible signs of crystallization — a vocabulary, in English and sometimes in Chinese. They serve as visible signs of enhanced satisfaction. My blog (also emails) is a fertile field to cultivate this vocabulary.

I used some of the phrases when discussing with counsellors, family and friends (esp. email). Each time someone responds, even in non-verbal form like a nod, to such a phrase, the phrase becomes more entrenched in my “system”. (However, some phrases get outdated and phased out.). Here are a few examples, half-ranked:

  • zqbx, burn or rot, ROTI
  • no-to-exclub/brank/successC, not left behind, stealth overtaking
  • carefree ezlife, successE
  • harmony, rather than passive acceptance
  • traction and vision
  • healthy longevity and the 3 common excuses
  • LetGo, mellow-up
  • breakaway, wrongPriority,
  • buffers and alternatives .. risk/stress protection .. important to my security and satisfaction
  • livelihood, FullerWealth, brbr
  • accept 碌碌无为 kids, non-academic kids, mediocre kids .. important to my zzcl(知足常乐)
  • — other phrases that contribute to my sense of life satisfaction
  • ctbz[寸土必争],

##portable installer ] windows

Posted on by tiger40490

Across applications, I generally prefer portable versions for one Main_reason. They are easier to install in restricted environments , so the substantial t-investment in learning/exploration generates higher ROTI. Other benefits include

  • easier to install multiple versions
  • easier to uninstall
  • if an installation doesn’t complete, the litter is easier to remove
  • no need to worry about winUp forcing you to reinstall your apps

— file naming .. If the installer creates folder/file names including “USB” or “Portable”, then leave them as is. Now let’s assume that’s not the case.

The install dir will be under ProgramPortable (rather than ProgramUSB), so it’s optional to suffix “USB” to the dir.

The executable name had better end in “USB”. Lastly, Good to rename the visible launcher [shortcuts in StartMenu] with “xxx.USB”, to remind myself that a portable install has been working for a long time.

— chrome .. I would not try the portable for now, since I worry about synching. Main_reason doesn’t apply.
— treeSizeFree ……. has an official zip installer. No installation required 🙂
can’t install a ShellEx but it’s not really necessary 🙂
— Git …….. has a portable install for windows, but it won’t enhance context menu. No _automatic_ entry in start menu.
— notepad++ …. official download site has portable
— wordweb installer has an option to install on USB (satisfies the Main_reason), but the application GUI subsequently shows a dimmed checkbox to start with windows. I can manually start it. Maybe I can even add it to the start-up folder.
(Much) Better than having nothing, given a restricted environment like office.
— beyondCompare ….. portable is officially supported but won’t enhance ShellEx !
— For Opera … the regular download can create a portable installation. It has comparable features as regular Opera, but it can’t use the preserved bookmarks 🙁

If free space is insufficient, the aborted installation can leave behind a litter of 200MB. If you don’t clean it up manually, then in the future you won’t recognize it as litter.

blog|wiki ^ recoll #wpress comment

Posted on by tiger40490

 

See also [18]drawbacks of blog site for keeping notes

For work or learning, “Active scratchpads” can be implemented as a wiki, or as a file in a recoll folder tree.

— wiki/blog (like all web sites) are designed first and foremost as an info display system, so you can keep a page open forever, as one of 20 open browser tabs. If needed, you could start an hour-long edit session, but eventually, you must save and publish.

  • Most of the time every document is in Published mode, not Edit mode as in recoll
  • 🙂 long title and hyperlinks .. powerful features in blog/wiki not recoll
  • 🙂 Version history is comprehensive in wpress, limited in wiki but tricky in recoll

— A recoll is a data storage /system/. The Edit-GUI and Display-GUI are the same thing, not separate as on a web browser. Therefore, we rarely display a recoll file forever because there is a non-trivial risk of unwanted edit [fat-finger], and we don’t know how to roll back.

  • 👎 Instead of hyperlinks, recoll has softlink .. a feature in unix but not windows.
  • 🙂 frequent update .. much easier in recoll. With blog/wiki, we rely on comments (see below)
  • 🙂 A recoll has more flexible content-organization. A wiki tree is kinda similar, but my blog is not. My blog relies on categories (tree) and tags.

Email (including gmail) draft .. also a data storage.

== wpress comments .. Blog is not optimal/efficient for frequent editing of multiple bposts. The wpress discussion [i.e. reader comment] feature offers a quick-n-dirty solution.

To see all comments, wpress admin interface -> left menu -> Comments

— Traditional solution: push_front() as in STL .. add new content at top, then insert a <hr> before existing content.
— fend off outsider comments ..

  • AutomaticallyCloseCommentsOnPostsOlderThan … I put 1Y or 2Y to keep most of my older bposts less complicated when printed
  • .. Presumably, all approved comment continue to show on the bposts.
  • Each bpost has an AllowComment checkbox. Was a problem with a few bposts.
  • anti-spam plugins .. might be helpful
  • Right now, my blogs require visitors to log in. This is one separate, independent layer of defense against unwanted comments.