I am a meteorologist and I know a little about how programming works. I'm going to be 75 this month. My last computer class was the '67-'68 semester of high school.
That being said, AI and I have written some amazing programs to produce beautiful graphics I use on-the-air. And it's all in Python, a language I can read and not write.
The original Taking of Pelham123. I grew up in NYC. I rode the subway to high school (Brooklyn Tech) every day. The movie is technically accurate and pretty close to the technically accurate book.
BTW - a friend 'in the system' explains the twisting action necessary in today's subway cars would make "The Gimmick" worthless.
Hi, I built the client UI for this and... yea, I really wanted to get Firefox working :(
We needed a way to measure voice-to-voice latency from the end-user's perspective, and found Silero voice activity detection (https://github.com/snakers4/silero-vad) to be the most reliable at detecting when the user has stopped speaking, so we can start the timer (and stop it again when audio is received from the bot.)
Silero runs via onnx-runtime (with wasm). Whilst it sort-of-kinda works in Firefox, the VAD seems to misfire more than it should, causing the latency numbers to be somewhat absurd. I really want to get it working though! I'm still trying.
Do you know why there's a difference in the performance of the algorithm in another browser? I would expect that all browsers run the code exactly the same way.
But that's basically complaining that firefox doesn't just blindly adopt whatever google proposes. A lot of the concerns are about security and privacy, the thing that mozilla is praised for doing better than google.
And no, you're not forced to use google. You can make native applications when it's necessary to use privileged interfaces.
You prefer the management of Chromium, which makes billions a year from invading your privacy and force feeding you advertising, while also ruining the internet ecosystem?
Thanks for sharing. I did make some changes that seems to have improved things, although I do still see the occasional misfire. Perhaps good enough to remove that ugly red banner though!
I am a meteorologist and I forecast for Nebraska. Those theories might be wrong, but agriculture has surely changed the weather, especially the summertime dew point. A single acre of corn can sweat 4,000 gallons of water a day. Those circular fields you fly over are around 130 acres each. It is noticably more humid in the summer than before pivot
irrigation was used.
The article talks about only 9% surviving five years. That's probably me. I'm three years out from Whipple Surgery (the only fix in 2019) with no sign of a cancer return. My blood is tested and I get CTscans often enough to know everyone by name.
Because I'm a pancreatic unicorn people come to me all the time (a German camgirl recently approached me on her professional account when her uncle was afflicted).
It's very sad and I often feel survivors guilt because I know how it will end for them. Pancreatic cancer is not a pleasant way to die.
Once it has spread it is fatal 100%. When Alex Trebek said Stage 4, I knew his fate was sealed in spite of his positive vibe. Undoubtedly Alex knows too.
How did I get lucky? I got sick one night -- vomit and poop simultaneously. It had nothing to do with my cancer, but it got me the tests that found it. Once it was found I was on the medical conveyor belt.
I am 69 and I've never experience medical care close to this. The care was proactive. They made the referrals and appointments. I just had to show up.
To have my cancer removed (there is no cure) took around a half dozen small procedures where I was put out and an angioplasty where my cardiologist yelled, "Geoffrey, I'm trying to work" when I asked too many questions about the technology. This was followed by a six hour, two surgeon Whipple Surgery (consider small by Whipple standards), a week in the hospital, sixteen staples holding my belly together (and diabetes now that I only half half a pancreas), chemo, radiation and more chemo.
I currently receive NO TREATMENT for cancer. No one you know is luckier. I am playing on house money.
I am a pancreatic cancer survivor. It is considered incurable in 2019 and I'm here because of a 1930s era surgery called a Whipple procedure. Around 9% survive five years or more -- a number that hasn't really changed.
In a belt plus suspenders move I underwent 2 rounds (six infusions per round) of chemo plus 28 consecutive weekdays of radiation after surgery. All my doctors are amazed at my recovery, a few saying the best they've seen (though it came with diabetes and a different digestive pathway).
Chemo was awful. Mine came with a bag of steroids first to mask the effects for a few days. I scheduled my sessions for Thursday, knowing it wouldn't hit me until Friday night. One Saturday I slept around 20 hours.
However, by the end we had figured out how to minimize the effect of the chemo. I needed my wife who watched me diligently. Cancer is not a one person job! She made sure every time I opened my eyes I stayed hydrated and ate something.
Chemo should have gotten worse. It actually got easier.
My cancer never caused me pain. The treatment... that's another story. I left the hospital with my belly held together by 16 staples.
Trying to help my wife through chemo now, and the staying hydrated and eating something is kicking our butts. Her oncologist believes that her nausea is due to directly to disease progression and it's relentless.
We're now on a regimen of phenergen every 6 hours but that just prevents cyclic nausea from occurring AND it knocks her out to where she's sleeping at least 20 hrs a day. Then when she wakes up she can only eat a little bit or she'll throw it back up. For hydration we finally just got home health giving her a liter twice a week plus a liter at chemo once a week.
She just recently over the past day or two has started to be able to hold a bit more down, but she's essentially got a form of PTSD from throwing up 5-10 times a day for 2-3 months.
Congrats to you on beating it man, especially pancreatic. This stuff really sucks.
You don't have to take anything orally to treat dehydration. A bath or shower can help with hydration at times when she can't stand to take anything orally.
Dehydration isn't always as simple as a lack of fluids. It can also be impacted by a lack of electrolytes and inadequate fat.
So it may help to add salt to the bath. Table salt can be problematic for someone in frail health because of the additives. Sea salt, kosher salt or canning and pickling salt won't have those additives. You can probably find the latter two readily at a local grocery store. Good sea salt can be ordered online.
If fluids and electrolytes are insufficient and you think she may need more fat, this can also be remedied without giving her anything by mouth.
Coconut oil is high in medium chain triglycerides. These can be used directly by the body without being broken down via digestion, so the body can absorb it if it is applied topically (to the skin).
Coconut oil has a long history of being medically recommended by the medical establishment for people with serious gut issues, such as folks being treated for stomach cancer.
Don't overdo it though because it can promote nausea and diarrhea, especially when taken in large quantities. You want to do small amounts regularly so the body can handle it, not start with a tablespoon of oil at a time. That will not go happy places.
Coconut oil is a little on the sweet side, so some people don't like cooking with it because of how it impacts flavor. As an alternative, butter is a decent source of medium chain triglycerides.
Clarifying butter to make ghee can remove elements that some people don't tolerate well. This can be helpful to people in frail health as an alternative to oils they aren't tolerating well while sick.
Hey the coconut oil suggestion is awesome, thank you so much! I'll definitely look at getting some quality oil and adding it to our regimen. I tinkered with MCT oils and whatnot in the past for my own health and have definitely 'greased the chute' by accident lol.
Totally agree on the side effects of dehydration. I could see the cycle happening over the course of a week or two and we'd end up in the ER (8 times in the last four months now). We've finally got her set up with a port and have home health services coming by mondays and fridays with hydration (and labs). Then she gets a bit more during weekly chemo on Weds. We're only a week into it and it is already showing benefit.
Yep. There's a whole protocol that the nursing staff has to do when they 'access' (aka stick) it. Extra disinfectant, both my wife and the nurse wear a mask, then an adhesive cover applied right after the catheter is put in.
The way it was described is that the port doesn't have an immune system, so infection can camp out there. They said that if she got any kind of bacterial infection anywhere they may need to remove it because the infection can spread there and hang out.
That said, she's super stoked to have it (finally). My wife's arm's look like she's the world's worst junkie. Giant bruises up and down both because she's always been hard to get started with standard IVs and they've wrecked the veins in both arms. :/
Yikes! Yes, a port can be a huge improvement over being constantly jabbed and is often spoken of glowingly by patients who finally get them.
(Insert Borg jokes, if that doesn't offend. We made such jokes when I was taking care of a relative with cancer post-surgery with all the drainage tubes and what not. It helped put the kids at ease a bit.)
Humans can't absorb any significant amount of water through the skin in a bath or shower. If the shower raises the bathroom humidity level enough the patient might breathe in a tiny amount of water but it's not enough to matter.
That really doesn't fit with my experience. Granted, I have a condition known to cause very bad aquagenic wrinkling, so I likely absorb water better through the skin than most people. But I know someone who doesn't have the same condition who was able to mitigate dehydration with soaking in a tub when they were too nauseous to take anything orally.
The OP's wife has a port and is currently getting fluids that way. He's expressed zero interest in that portion of my remark. I don't see much point in arguing this.
> You don't have to take anything orally to treat dehydration. A bath or shower can help with hydration at times when she can't stand to take anything orally.
Dehydration isn't always as simple as a lack of fluids. It can also be impacted by a lack of electrolytes and inadequate fat....
Serious question: have you tried marijuana? I always figured if I ever ended up in this kind of situation that would be the first thing I would try to help me eat.
Yep. We just got her a medical card. She’s pretty old school, thinks its all bullshit, tried it once and said it gave her a headache and I haven’t been able to get her to try it again. :/
This is great thank you! Do you recall how you managed dosage with the capsules? Also with vaporizing does she use a dry herb vape or concentrate/oil/pen? I’m nervous about giving her a coughing fit.
Start from good bud. Highest strength / weight ratio.
You can get different sized capsules from GNC or similar stores.
A given raw plant will be similar by weight, but does vary some.
When you bake it, go until it is crunchy dry. Can be an hour, but watch temp. At 250, THC boils off into the air. I used an oven thermometer. Preheat, until you see 235, then put your stuff in there.
I used foil in a shallow pan, and foil to cover it.
Then fine grind when done. I used a good coffee grinder.
You can test what you did by literally dipping your finger into the powder and licking it off. You will get a noticable buzz. That means it will work.
Get one of those little scales. And weigh what you have and make portions.
More in a bit.
Ok, back. Had a kid crisis to manage.
Fill capsules from a portion without packing down. They sell little jigs that hold the capsules for you to just scrape it in.
Close them up, and you have doses.
Then, someone has to take one. They take 30 minutes or so to hit, and can last for hours.
Titrate from there. It is experimental, and best done on days where you have no commits and do not need to go out.
The other simple thing you can do with activated plant material is make simple edibles. No bake cookies, hard candy, etc...
Just toss the powder in and mix well.
A mostly sativa plant is a head effect that leaves a person with energy, will remain awake generally. Indica is more of a body effect, and it is sleepy type.
Mine prefers sativa because after mental adjustment and tolerance, she will still be active. We reserve indica for can't sleep nights.
You can research these things online. I did and learned a ton.
I tended to sample what I made as I do not use the stuff at all, but do want to know what it is capable of. Truth is, a little goes a long way for us not sick or hurting people.
But for sick or hurting people, it takes more. Just know that.
Be careful, be clean, don't judge, try to have fun, be positive. If it works for her, this is a special thing you can do, and it is just nice, human.
Made our lives much better. This stuff is a mood amplifier. If you want it to be good, it tends to be.
Every so often, I will have some and enjoy a meal we cook together, movie, music. Those are nice times we look forward to.
That's so many steps. All I do is put the flowers on parchment paper or any surface in the oven for 30 mins at 245F. There's no need to put it in capsules. It stays fine in a bag for months as long as it's dry enough where you are. I find weaker cannabis is actually nicer for dosing because then it's easy to guage by sight. Just chew up the flowers and swallow. The taste isn't great but it grows on you.
To get started, I'd say eat an amount about the size of a pea then you can eventually find a schedule and dosage that gives desired effects. With more frequent dosing of smaller amounts, (4-6 hrs for me) you can have the benefits while keeping enough tolerance on the mental cloudiness to not get headaches/overwhelmed. There are definitely unique benefits to high-dosage meditative experiences though too.
As someone taking cannabis for breathing difficulties, when I realized I could use such a simple preparation to make it edible, it made life so much easier.
Totally. 245F is bit brave, unless you are near sea level :D
In my experience, people who ask about dosing tend to want a little more than, "looks right." And the capsules travel well.
Also, nausea sufferers avoid the taste. They often need to.
I got a jar labeled for herbal sleep aid supplements. The finished capsules look pretty much the same. It is perfect. She never gets questioned.
What you said is totally valid though.
Great comments on the 4 to 6 hours.
I do not use it medically, but have made a ton of different preparations for others. Worked through all forms too, oil, tinctures of various kinds, powder...
I found it all interesting and fun. Some of that work is no longer legal, but it was when I did it.
Made a few candies for myself and those vacations out in the woods.
Strange times. We can talk about these things more with fewer worries.
Wow this is incredibly helpful, thank you for all the detail...your description alone makes me excited to give this a try.
I've got some pretty good bud from the local dispensary all sealed up and found a source for capsules in town. Will probably give this a go today. Thanks so much!!!!
Leukaemia survivor here... It might be a stupid question and everyone is different, but have you tried fresh fruit and ginger ale?
I went through six months where that was all I could eat/drink. Another patient in the ward suggested ginger ale and it was a surprise (had never drank it before... or since).
Nausea got so bad that even thinking about it (for example when a doctor asked) would trigger throwing up so I get what you mean about PTSD.
Not stupid at all!! For a while apple slices and peanut butter were a staple but she throws that up regularly now. Blueberries are still good if mixed with something, a little watermelon.
Haven’t tried ginger ale, but will pick some up today. She says she doesn’t like it but we’ll give it a shot. Thanks for the suggestion!
A friend of mine had a Whipple procedure but it ruined his quality of life (he couldn't eat almost anything) and he died not long after. He wasn't even into his mid-40's, CMU alumnus and worked on XEmacs.
My father unfortunately passed away from the same cancer. 6 months after the diagnosis, having already done 6/8 chemo infusions. His liver was giving up by then. He also went from nearly 90kg to around 42kg in the end.
It is really a terrible cancer. He didn't have any symptoms until the year before his death. By then it was stage 4 already.
Not the OP but I had Hodgkins Lymphoma and I was like:
"Hi, I noticed I have this weird lump. This is a lymph node right? And those are supposed to swell up if I'm ill but then go away? Well this lump is two weeks old." - no pain, just I had noticed a lump and I knew that mysterious lumps need to be reported for diagnosis.
I'm told that probably the first person who'd seen Hodgkins before went "Oh, Hodgkins" but of course they didn't say so - I spent most of the next week or two worrying I'd wasted their time with nothing. It took maybe a few weeks, including a needle biopsy and blood tests before somebody actually formally told me I definitely had cancer and that they intended to begin fixing that immediately could I come in the next day to begin chemo?
Last year (so almost twenty years after I had Hodgkins) I thought I'd detected a new lump and that I was also experiencing peripheral neuropathy (finger nerves not working as expected) so I went urgently to my GP. Still no pain. The GP felt the lump, said "That's a sweat gland, they do that" and I realised later the neuropathy was from holding my mouse and keyboard in a bad way, it went away when I stopped. They did find a new lump in my neck (in hindsight I can't believe they could see it but I'd never noticed, I guess I really don't look at mirrors) but it wasn't dangerous although they did a bunch of tests just in case because after all I have a history.
A few people with Hodgkins report pain when drinking (alcohol). It's unclear why that happens, but most have no pain until _very late_. If you wait until the lump hurts you're probably going to die. In other cancers it will vary, obviously if there's a lump in an internal organ you can't necessarily feel that, and in some cases by the time you can feel a lump you're screwed even if it doesn't hurt.
Pancreatic cancer often presents with painless jaundice. The cancer causes a mass which presses on the common bile duct (the bile drainage from the liver), preventing it from being excreted.
I am a meteorologist on TV. I work in front of a chroma key wall. I would love to have a simulator like this where I could swap in the background image... well, you get the idea.
This would especially be good for me as I do the weather in Nebraska from a studio I built at home in SoCal. As far as I know I'm the only regularly scheduled TV news anchor to work from home in the US and possibly the world.
Do the people in Nebraska know you’re in California? Is that disclosed or simply not mentioned, hoping nobody catches on?
Do you have any problems with this remote setup like Sinclair has with “Centralcasting” local news from far away? (Graphics and visuals for the wrong station showing up, talent’s obvious lack of knowledge of local events and terminology, etc...)
What happens in the event of a California-centric disaster like an earthquake or wildfire, and you’re not available? Or if there’s a major weather event in Nebraska and you’re not there, or not able to feed into Nebraska because Vyvx/internet goes down or the satellite dish freezes over?
We don't mention it on-the-air, but it's not hidden. You don't want to lie about something like this (or anything, actually). When you're caught you'll pay.
It's difficult to explain but what I do is designed for me. There's a lot I do because I understand both sides of the equation which means my studio isn't a turnkey solution anyone could walk into. You need to be able to understand 'why' when something doesn't work.
That being said, IMHO Sinclair did it the wrong way. The weather unit should be an autonomous production, not dependent on the regular studio being free. My all-in studio cost is around Hyundai money. It removes complexity and allows live production where needed and closer to air always.
I had a trip from SoCal to Milwaukee cancelled because a few guys who robbed a gas station decided to drive the getaway car to Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix -- where my first flight was headed. Random shit happens.
In three years of doing this what you describe hasn't ever happened.
We use the Internet for data. I have fiber to the wall.
Curiosity and persuit of knowledge are what drives many people. I would like to believe that HN is a place where these traits are encouraged and not looked down upon as you seem to do with your comment. If I could down vote your comment I would.
WOW this is a surprise... What a small world! I used to watch you and Dr. Mel on WTNH Ch 8 many years ago when I lived in CT. I still think of you guys every time I'm back in CT and turn on the 11pm news. You are fantastic and always entertaining. I always looked forward to watching you predict whether I'd have school the next day. Thank you for the memories.
The Geoff Fox? You came to my house in Durham when I was a kid and interviewed my mom for some moon landing story. I think we saved a seltzer can you drank for a few months.
I am very unusual in that I'm comfortable on both sides of the camera. What I learned is building a studio is an IT project!
Maybe the most unusual part is, none of this would work unless I could run the show by myself. My TriCaster is programmable with macros which is what I've done. I am my own director while on the air.
Oh -- with a friend I created a map making system which runs on an i5 and produces ~ 40,000 maps a day. Here are some samples I threw together a few months ago. These are 100% produced using FOSS including the map databases and fonts! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/172O4Xl35np8RnbRi07PD...
My last computer class was as a senior in high school, 1967-68 semester. This was BEFORE computers had screens.
Sure -- It's a multistage process making a graphics sandwich. The meteo data is done by GrADS. I render these at full HD resolution-- 1920x1080.
The base map and overlay are both produced in QGIS using the NaturalEarth database. Because GrADS can't read geographical info from graphics they are built by hand and the parameters are entered into GrADS by hand.
Animations are made from still png frames using ffmpeg.
OpenSans is my font.
All of this runs on an i5 with 8Gb of RAM under CentOS7. I make around 40,000 maps a day (one per frame in the animations).
I am 68 years old. My only computer training came 51 years ago. This is all self taught.
I would be thrilled to see some of the code for your map system, if you feel like open sourcing it on Github or the like. Even a verbal description of it would be great. It looks really great!
If you wrote code like mine you wouldn't want it seen. I have borrowed freely from others, especially the College of DuPage whose entire site (except satellites) is on github. Their code is well written and documented.
Not meaning to be rude, it sounds like you're going strong and providing a great service. But if you retire in future do you plan on handing down your code and setup to someone?
Seriously, I was on TV in Connecticut for nearly 30 years. Where I lived was common knowledge. I'd often meet someone whose friend had told them I lived in their neighborhood.
Only once did someone knock on my door just to say hello. Most people are respectful and there are dozens of other clues to where I live since I run a business there.
I've been doing this over 35 years and have seven Emmys. They got someone they shouldn't be able to afford and working from home I could afford to accept it. I'm a pancreatic cancer survivor (Whipple) and this flexibility helps.
I am a professional. My job is to forecast their weather and I am diligent in that pursuit. Windows are overrated.
In response to Lane -- Pancreatic cancer is the worst. It is incurable in 2018! I was very lucky that it was found before it spread.
It was removed in a six hour, two surgeon operation called a Whipple. It was pioneered in the 1930s. Back then they lost about 1/3 on the table. Only about 1/3 of pancreatic patients can receive a Whipple and only about a third of those have my result. Only 9% live beyond five years.
The Whipple is considered the most difficult operation a surgeon can perform. The docs who do this are hospital all-stars.
On day one I told my doctors (with cancer you get an army of doctors) I wanted to aggressively go at it.
I had a catheter port inserted in my chest for IVs (like chemo or with my CTscans). It's been used over thirty times. When I take a blood test it's commonly a dozen vials or more.
My treatment ended around a year and a half ago. I am certifiably cancer free, though my body knows how to make pancreatic cancer and could do it again.
I am missing a few internal parts. Whipple surgery reconnects some parts of the digestive system differently than original factory specs. With half a pancreas I shoot insulin 4-5 times a day (no big deal). My right pinkie will be tapped for blood drops around 1,500 times this year.
I am the luckiest person you will meet today. And, it's a kickass diet. I lost 35 pounds.
Because I am old I am on Medicare. I subscribe to a Medicare Advantage program, which means I limit myself to an HMO's doctors in return for paying less for services. I would think my medical care had to cost over $500,000. I paid ZERO. I do pay for some drugs -- thousands a year -- but my army of doctors were paid by the government.
People shouldn't go broke or need GoFundMe because they get sick. The US needs Medicare for all. Insurance just means we all share the risk for the few that need it.
The fact that we need GoFundMe campaigns for people who get sick or that veterans beg for charity through Wounded Warriors upsets me to no end. A modern, successful democracy should take care of its people.
Wounded Warriors and DAV are not about veterans begging for money. They are parasites stretching the definition of a charity to its limit to rake in as much money for the admin staff as possible (60% overhead). Please don't donate to these crooks.
“Crooks” might be more than supported by this, but they do seem to have grown into a group existing for the well-being of staff as much or more than their intended recipients.
Now they do, as a result of significant negative media coverage from a few years ago when their administrative costs reached as much as 90% of their total donation revenue.
Point me in the right direction. I'd love to do an AMA -- except I'd take questions on the site and answer via YouTube live or something similar. That way I could demo any studio questions live.
Where can I get info on doing one?
Also, sneakily, I have other ideas for where my studio can be used beside traditional outlets, especially since I make a full suite of weather maps. This would give me a chance to explain.
With your setup, Twitch or YouTube Live would work. Take the questions on Reddit or similar beforehand (with an established channel you've got other ways of taking questions, but for a new set up it's a bit trickier).
I think typically they're done on Reddit these days, but I bet you could do this kind of questions post you refer to on HN and then follow up with a link to a video or stream.
I think that's pretty awesome myself. Closest I've been to that kind of setup is back in.. either middle or high school tech class. We had a separate indoor sound-proofed "room" used for a broadcast channel just for school. Cool stuff.
That being said, AI and I have written some amazing programs to produce beautiful graphics I use on-the-air. And it's all in Python, a language I can read and not write.
If I can do this you should be scared.