First World Problems

[Ymir's blood]

Social Distancing can lead to new dimensions of Casual Friday.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Ymir's blood

Social Distancing can lead to new dimensions of Casual Friday.

Did you mean:

I am not wearing pants.

[specious_reasons]

I purchased a surface dial a while back, and it's not working with my desktop PC any more. It connects just fine to my work laptop and my MacBook. It doesn’t do shit on the MacBook, but it connects.

This may be because I had to switch from wired to wireless. Maybe I'll move the wireless mesh router back into the bedroom and plug it back into the router, but I think that was giving the streaming devices in the living room trouble.

[Limoncello]

The Mor-Man can't figure out how to get our food all in.

[lisarea]

We are having the same problem. There are four of us here, and we're only getting groceries every ten days or so, so we're playing a perpetual game of refrigerator Jenga.

[Limoncello]

Wish I had a little deep freeze chest.

[Miisa]

The last of my pairs of wireless ear buds went kerploey. So I am down to either using wired buds or enormous over-ear bluetooth buns when I go out with the dogs. So tangleparty or sweatfest. Either way, soreness and despair.

[BrotherMan]

This could be part of my isolation diary, except technically I wasn't isolating and it fits more neatlier here.

I went to do my shopping. I figured I'd plan for the future and get something I wouldn't need until a week or so from now. EXCEPT. The pandemicers have somehow taken full advantage of my beneviolence. With the shelves still one third stocked with regular semi-liquid peanutbutter, these mother fudgers have decided to start buying up all of my powdered peanutbutter. Like. Come on, people. The sugary crap you're already eating, of which there is still plenty on the shelves because I can see it RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY OWN EYEBOWLS, is just fine. KEEP YOUR DAMN DIRTY APE HANDS OFF the stuff I used to make my breakfast and lunch halfway tolerable.

Two places were completely out of the stuff I would regularly buy. I had to substitute with another brand and a different quantity. AND I AM NOT HAPPY. NOT. HAPPY. BOB.

(I guess reading now, could have gone in one of the rant thrads too.)

[beyelzu]

Originally Posted by Miisa

The last of my pairs of wireless ear buds went kerploey. So I am down to either using wired buds or enormous over-ear bluetooth buns when I go out with the dogs. So tangleparty or sweatfest. Either way, soreness and despair.

Wired like some sort of preindustrial cromagnon?

These are dark days.

[Miisa]

Originally Posted by beyelzu

Wired like some sort of preindustrial cromagnon?

These are dark days.

YES! It is horrible. I caved and got a relatively cheapish pair of bluetooth ones today, but they are in-ear which I cannot ever get to feel comfortable, and so it went also with these. I fiddle with them constantly. Not ideal.
I have ordered more comfy-looking bud BT ones, but they are taking forever to get delivered.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Miisa

YES! It is horrible. I caved and got a relatively cheapish pair of bluetooth ones today, but they are in-ear which I cannot ever get to feel comfortable, and so it went also with these. I fiddle with them constantly. Not ideal.

The horror

Originally Posted by Miisa

I have ordered more comfy-looking bud BT ones, but they are taking forever to get delivered.

Delivery agencies are just terrible these days.

[SR71]

I ordered a cheap pulse oximeter in case I start feeling respiratory distress. It's comforting to think that an objective measurement of O2 saturation is available because I tend to dither a whole bunch about anything to do with seeking medical attention.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by SR71

cheap pulse oximeter

Surely there's an app for that.

I mean, not sure, but serious question.

[SR71]

Quick, get a patent!

I mean, if you could power a red light source and photodetector and attach them to some sort of clothespin like arrangement, it should be possible...? The O2 part, anyway.

[ceptimus]

Originally Posted by SR71

I ordered a cheap pulse oximeter in case I start feeling respiratory distress. It's comforting to think that an objective measurement of O2 saturation is available because I tend to dither a whole bunch about anything to do with seeking medical attention.

I got the one Andreas Spiess recommended in his YouTube video - the CMS50D+. I ordered it straight after watching his video, and I've had it for a couple of weeks or so now.

#316 Pulse Oximeter test, function, and usage -...

I get a reading of 96 or 97 usually, but no one else has tried it yet for comparison.

[ceptimus]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Surely there's an app for that.

I mean, not sure, but serious question.

Some meters have a Bluetooth link, but Andreas reported that the stand-alone CMS50D+ (which doesn't have Bluetooth) was the best of the cheaper meters he tested. It records to an internal flash memory, with its display turned off, so can record for longer on a set of batteries and (he says) is more reliable than the Bluetooth ones. It's supplied with a USB cable but I've not bothered to connect mine to anything yet - I just clip it on my finger, look at the reading and then switch it off again.

There are some sensors that you can connect to your own microprocessor, but the application requires more processing power than the cheaper, 8-bit, Arduinos can handle.

The actual sensor is just a pair of photo diodes and LED emitters. Two wavelengths of light are used, one red, one blue. Oxygenated and deoxygenated haemoglobin have different absorption spectra, so by looking at the different attenuation of red and blue light, the gadgets can work out an answer. The one I have also displays my pulse rate, with a cute oscilloscope-like graph showing each heartbeat.

[SR71]

I did watch the video, thanks for posting. It was really interesting, especially the trick of working out oxygenation based on absorption spectra and the DC bias trick. I was wondering if it would be feasible to use the phone for photo source/detector power and return analogue data through a USB connection, then do the data processing in the phone. I guess 3.0 is full duplex and earlier is half.

I have almost no understanding of phone architecture or application SW. I think inspection cameras can interface on USB, and they are loosely similar in that they need a light source and then send camera data back to the phone. Phones are already set up to that trick, though, so it's mostly a matter of tapping a different set of hardware into existing ports, I'd imagine.

It wouldn't do much for cost reduction to run a USB dongle, the stand alone capable units are already inexpensive. It would eliminate the need for batteries and make the instrument smaller, at least.

[ceptimus]

For unknown reasons, the video was turned sideways when I converted it from .3GP to .avi for uploading. The oximeter knows which way is up and displays information upright even when it's upside-down. Here, the display should be upside-down compared to the graphic printing - the button was on the left.

Happily, my %SpO2 was 96% here, so it reads the same either way up!

[Miisa]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Delivery agencies are just terrible these days.

Lest you are under the impression I meant the ones at your place, I did not. I have ordered some I hope will be marginally better than my fully wired ones. But obviously not as good as the antique model I have been using for the better part of the 2010's.

[JoeP]

[ImGod]

I'm working from home. In the finished basement. I don't get any light so I'm going from my regular pale to even whiter. However, I'm set up next to the bar so the day goes faster.

I had to travel for work because we're important. I then realized that my highest high speed internet I bought so my wife can work from home is sloooooooooooowwwwwww compared to the work interwebs. We have some super serious bandwidth due to the trading floor. With everyone working from home, hooking up at work before my trip was like driving a formula one car around empty LA highways.

Really, nothing has changed for me since I don't eat out much. I can still shop at all the same stores I shopped at before and when I do people stay away from me. I consider that an improvement.

I still have to travel for work, but I may have to take the corporate jet instead of commercial because of company policy. Oh, woe is me.

There are less meetings and they are done remotely, less people BSing, and less drive time, so I get more done.

There's not breakfast at the hotels I stay in though so I have to drive through somewhere to get bad food in the morning.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by ImGod

I can still shop at all the same stores I shopped at before and when I do people stay away from me. I consider that an improvement.

[Miisa]

A few days ago I got a really cute figure in a Kinder Easter egg and now I have had to get more to try to get more in the same series. So I keep getting useless rubbish toys and nice chocolate galore. Such hardship.

[lisarea]

I have to wear dungarees today because we can't find a 25" diameter manhole cover.

[JoeP]

Ah ....