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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 2nd, 2023

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  • I would sometimes shake things up and go mostly staff with a sling. The sling is hilariously entertaining on many fronts. It’s not really a big damage weapon, but with called shots life gets fun. Headshots? Yup. Knocking out guards? Indeed. Breaking that vial of potion to release the spell/fog/acid? Bingo.

    Sneaking a ranged weapon into town? Have fun with that heavy crossbow, I’m just wrapping the sling around as a belt. Ammo? Sling stones are fabricated, but any old rock can improvise.

    While the longbow / longsword ranger is just classicly awesome, a sling / (something) is worth giving a try.

    Next up: atlatl barbarian!







  • This kind of tech has been floating around the research world of smart home tech for over a decade now. Various forms of EM deflection and field deviation modeling have been used to be headcount sensors, gesture sensors, and body position modeling. Yup, it’s out there. Normally, it takes multiple antennas in particular positions to work, so it’s still a more controlled space kind of thing than the whole world. That said, it’s possible to do, so head’s up, we’re in for a rough ride going forward on the privacy and monitoring fronts.





  • My university in Germany operates entirely in English. The academic world is very international so it often falls back to English to support the faculty and students. Issues in the community will also be run through the university news routes, so while I’ve been learning German, I’ll also have a big resource with my work community.

    There’s a few places to check for positions. I interviewed in Ireland and Scotland as well (didn’t get the jobs). There’s also Australia and new Zealand hiding out there. Or Canada. Hell, Mexico has a great university system you could look into.

    Your PhD does open new doors. It’s by no means a guarantee of a faculty spot, but it’s valued so you can leverage it.


  • The position is in Germany. It might be out of the frying pan and into the fire given Germany’s right wing rise, but that’s happening across the western nations and we’re all in trouble.

    I don’t have a ton of advice for you. I defended over 10 years ago, so I’m moving straight into a tenured/permanent position as senior faculty. For an ABD, I’m not sure what the landscape looks like these days.

    If you want to make the move, start talking to people. Reach out to people publishing in your field and talk shop. Collaborate with them, talk about the future, and be willing to take a postdoc (or german system W1) position. It’s more ramen and a small bedroom, but it’s one where there’s healthcare and civil rights.

    Academia (and most professions) are all about networks. Talk with people, collaborate, and grow that network. Something will come along.






  • It’s never claimed to be a democracy. It’s not a monolith, either. Some projects have forms of input and/or voting, most don’t because it’s just a few people writing software that they want to write.

    Get over yourself if you think that people working for free should be required to listen to you. Just as in anything else, pay them if you want a guaranteed response.

    Otherwise, recognize that the key element of Open Source is that you have the source code. If a project isn’t doing what you want then fork it and build it yourself. That’s the whole point of this community and philosophy.