Viewing profile — Saigonautica

Not especially (I don't live in the USA though). I do wonder if I could automate the expression of uncontroversial opinions in the public sphere though. For example things about mo…

Nice. I tried to submit a project on the former. However CloudFlare seems to be blocking me from submitting the form. This is a common issue for all of us in Viet Nam though, not s…

After moving to Asia, it did seem that fewer of my colleagues remarked on my choice of SMT for everything. I hadn't really thought about it until now! Custom PCBs are even cheaper …

I mean, it caused me to emigrate to a growth economy. If I stayed in the West, I don't think I would have been OK.

I hear you. I worked as a consultant for a company where the CEO one day, they just started using AI chat for everything. Every question you asked, they just forwarded it. Same thi…

I find this argument fascinating overall! I don't really use YouTube, but when ads play on random videos and it irritates me, I just close my eyes, the simplest version of content-…

When I first visited Asia 13 years ago, this is the feeling I got too. It's wonderful and intoxicating and new. It spoke to me so strongly, that I immigrated and started my first b…

I'm trying to make an RF lightning detector small enough to trivially add to my motorbike. I live in Viet Nam, and driving through bad storms this time of year is pretty miserable,…

While I realize I'm not entitled to read this website, I'd like to report it seems to be geoblocking me in Viet Nam. I get a 403 Forbidden. I was totally ready to consider blocking…

Oh, I loved working on this problem years back. My strategy was simulate my possible next guesses against all possible codes, then pick the option that had the highest number of po…

An ESP32 module suitable for hobby use is about 4$ here in Viet Nam. You can get the "raw" ones for maybe 0.50$ less. We're near China, so electronic component price is usually hig…

I can't help but imagine this is just a USB flash drive.

A while back I saw an RF lightning detector on HN ( https://techlib.com/electronics/lightningnew.htm ) I redesigned it to be much smaller and cheaper (surface-mount), made it an Io…

That reminds me of one. I had a PC that would fail to boot the first time every day. Second and subsequent times were fine, until the next day. When it stopped happening in the spr…

Oh, this brings back memories. I agree, the Japanese-grown rice in Japan is definitely different than the imported stuff. I used to buy the rice grown in Fukushima prefecture becau…

I built a hardware server monitor with LED display based on the ESP8266. I needed 8 fewer things to think about in the morning. If you want, you can build one yourself, I released …

As a courtesy, I used to check in on client servers every morning to alert them if services were down. Eventually it became a chore, so I made some hardware server status boards th…

I agree wholeheartedly! I like to use the TM1640 and RGB LEDs. It's cheap, works well, requires a minimum of external components, and can convey a fair amount of information. It ca…

I have a mildly entertaining story for you! We have something just a little like this in Viet Nam. It's designed as a public good that lets you look up businesses by their tax ID. …

Oh, it's quite OK! I haven't used it myself, but my wife has. We don't often head out the way it goes. It's really great for tourists though, it does a good job of connecting one o…

I live in a developing Asian country so the numbers and brands in the equation are a bit different. Anyway: 1. Good midrange Japanese cooking knives. I got one on a steep discount,…

I was thinking something similar, but much earlier along this timeline: what if the consultants that work for lobby groups that propose certain bills already use AI to write propos…

In Ho Chi Minh City (and probably Vietnam in general but not 100% sure). Our commercial district is very concentrated. The busses in general are some form of public-private partner…

I know someone in this space. The insurance forms are processed first-pass with AI or ML (I forget which). Then the remainder are processed by humans in Viet Nam. This is not for t…

Yeah, that's a good point. A colleague did offer to help, and then donate the results to some schools. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to just say yes!