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NotPavlovsDog commented on Ask HN: Most interesting tech you built for just yourself?    · Posted by u/l2silver
wholinator2 · 3 years ago
So did you build the device or research and purchase a personal one? I've been thinking of doing this for probably approaching a decade and been terrified of the potential consequences.

What do you use it for? Just the typical depression type thing or have you experimented with it at all? Super interested

NotPavlovsDog · 3 years ago
1. Built from scratch on protoboard, analog ammeter, lm337, fuses on input and output, tight safety tolerances, multiple fail-safes.

2. I have experimented with cognition and mood modulation with positive personal results. I would prefer not to go over my current area of application since it is outside of the well-tested. Too often personal anecdotes on the internet may be misinterpreted as "proof", dangerous in areas that require a solid scientific approach.

3. Sadly, and the credible scientists have been calling for such research for years, no solid long-term, large-scale studies have been done on TDCS. What has been widely and somewhat better researched is a) application for depression alleviation and b) cognition modulation.

NotPavlovsDog commented on Ask HN: Most interesting tech you built for just yourself?    · Posted by u/l2silver
NotPavlovsDog · 3 years ago
A TDCS device. Trans-cranial Direct Current Stimulation, mostly experimental, somewhat proven for short-term depression and cognition improvement. Motivation was my solution would be simpler and easier to control as well as include triple safety.

I had little trust for the Chinese IC steered devices nor the early US attempters at pop market that refuse to describe even their safety approach.

Pleased with my personal results. Would not openly recommend doing it, because the DIY route as well as adopting TDCS do require that you can competently read medical studies. At least half of those I browsed fail good science test even at first glance.

And then of course the manufacturers and sellers are even worse, such as they are quite good at parroting misquotes of study results for marketing and PR.

Next plan is build an ECG and my own medical ultrasound, although with that one it is probably best to wait for about 5 to 7 years till the new-tech ultrasound generators get to market.

NotPavlovsDog commented on Implant lets those with severe paralysis send texts with just their minds   pcgamer.com/this-implant-... · Posted by u/ohjeez
cma · 3 years ago
Couldn't something pretty close to that be done with eye movement and blinking?
NotPavlovsDog · 3 years ago
There are a variety of Eye Tracking Communication Devices on the market.

I am not listing the manufacturers since most of them are also involved in either/or/and military and marketing applications and I am done supporting surveillance and murder capitalism.

But the eye movement interfacing tech is there and becoming more and more wide-spread. The major players have pilot studies at hospitals and r&d medical facilities across the world.

With the implant the concept is that with further development, it can be used for connection to locomotion etc. The proposed future potential of direct interfacing is larger, so to say.

An exoskeleton with direct input from a fully paralyzed wearer can significantly contribute to rehab, just one scenario.

NotPavlovsDog commented on Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month   independent.co.uk/news/wo... · Posted by u/lando2319
NotPavlovsDog · 3 years ago
If you're paying for insurance in the US you are paying for them. Check out how insurance pools work. Society, even a wild capitalist society, benefits from healthier members.

I'm a former professional athlete and am currently, in my middle age, in better shape than most, including youths in their 20s, with blood tests to prove it.

When I was making weight, it was extremely difficult to find the balance to fine-tune the diet. Those 400 grams for me were just as difficult to shed, while performing to task. And I had a professional team behind me.

Consumerist civilization is obsessed with the magic pill, we agree on that. A pharma subscription for life is not the solution. However, I personally know, and there are people like that commenting in this post, individuals that were unlucky to be born obese. If you are going to take a grand statement position, familiarize yourself with what that does to a hormonal system. And that is only one sub-case of many where obesity is completely outside of an individual's control.

With industrialized food, including sugar, HFC and carbohydrate lobbying corrupting the policy in the US for longer than 70 years, and that is a number simply of convenience, since we have easily accessible records of such industry lobbying, obese individuals are not the cause of the problem.

Having more tools to address obesity is a good thing. Hopefully, one arrow of many towards a systemic approach.

NotPavlovsDog commented on Diabetes drug Mounjaro was available at $25/month, then increased to $1k/month   independent.co.uk/news/wo... · Posted by u/lando2319
NotPavlovsDog · 3 years ago
Tragic to observe the typical Dallas Buyers Club dynamic at play. People are coordinating online and locally and doing border runs for the Mexico-available GLP-1 predecessors.

The Mounjaro patent appears to be until '39, with no generics available at the moment.

As one of the patients states in the article, obesity may very well lead them to diabetes. People will die. And with the shortage affecting current diabetics, they are dying now.

NotPavlovsDog commented on The age of cargo cult Agile must end   jchyip.medium.com/the-age... · Posted by u/cratermoon
NotPavlovsDog · 3 years ago
Agile as a commercial enterprise underwent the unsurprising journey of consultants selling a revolution (if you can't integrate into existing structures, change the structure) to selling the manager's magic pill of convincing salaried individuals to dream about making someone else successful and rich.

The core principles of Agile as an idea drew heavily from cybernetics - systems dependent on discovery and adaptation benefit from effective introspection.

The modern consultant agile business is about making the stakeholders that pay the bills happy. SAFe is one such agile. So don't be surprised about what agile is today. It was always meant to be just that. The people that started it made money and the people selling it now keep making money.

If you want a management system that actually works for an information dependent and/or producing system, nurture an information flow that enables rapid adaptation through introspection and exchange. Except this goes against the core interests of the salaried managerial class in any mature organization.

Good news for founders - disruption is faster and easier in a start-up.

NotPavlovsDog commented on I Tried Ketamine to Treat My Depression. It Was Terrifying   washingtonpost.com/wellne... · Posted by u/andrewl
NotPavlovsDog · 3 years ago
Anecdotes and auto-biographies are the easiest to write, as they require the least research and one is already so familiar with the protagonist.

It will be nice to see ketamine and psychedelics as part of a toolbox professionals can use for treatment. Many current antidepressants cause strong suicidal and homicidal urges. Look at the widely prescribed citalopram disclaimer.

Here's an anecdote: close person to me was crying from how hard they wanted to end it all, as well as delivered urinary tract problems, for life, from one month of citalopram, as per prescription dose.

Or you know, we could discuss somewhat proper research in connection to treatment for depression. The current chemical solutions have so many side-effects that there is a reason medical professionals have been proactively trying and seeking alternative treatment. Ketamine appears very promising.

NotPavlovsDog commented on ChatGPT is a data privacy nightmare   theconversation.com/chatg... · Posted by u/jlpcsl
NotPavlovsDog · 3 years ago
Having your data "on the cloud" is another way of saying giving somebody else complete access to that data.

Even journalists are starting to become aware of the dangers of using clouded voice transcription services, with several sensitive sources compromised through such services.

For the startup founders on HN, if your exit strategy involves potential selling of the venture, be careful with which services you connect to, as you explicitly give permission for data processing and sharing with "select partners". Read the google docs terms as an early exercise. Not having them terms easy to find is by design, by the way.

For those looking at the bigger picture, the traditional capitalist industry shift to the metered / subscription service model,locked in silos, the dream of the internet as pipes, implies that consolidation of control sees lack of user freedom and control as a key feature.

NotPavlovsDog commented on Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam   stephendiehl.com/blog/cry... · Posted by u/cpa
simplotek · 3 years ago
> It must be nice to be able to just state something is thoroughly debunked and not have to give any evidence (...)

That's quite the amusing comment, given the fact that crypto-bros reiterate that crypto is somehow money in spite of if repeatedly failing each and every single trait that makes something a currency.

Now, when someone points out that fact, here we are with a newfound passion for argumentative formalities as if you can make this fact go away by petitioning the ref.

NotPavlovsDog · 3 years ago
Remember crypto-pushers continuously getting outraged at comments noting that crypto is not "an investment"?

A lot less of that going on now, with the current argument being all about "due diligence". Crypto works as an inefficient payments mechanism and a ledger for trusted and equal peers. It somehow did not magically break the fundamental rules of investment nor collective ecosystems.

A transparent anonymous and independent system of transactions is possible, but it is vastly different from the incentives existing in the space now.

NotPavlovsDog commented on My bad habit of hoarding information   andreisurugiu.com/blog/ba... · Posted by u/techn00
NotPavlovsDog · 3 years ago
I've blocked most news websites, in the last decades the only "Big World" news that I really needed were communicated to me by others almost immediately (9/11, oncoming catastrophic storm, lock-downs).

When my current endeavor needs tune-in to a particular news cycle, I've set up simple scraping of top headlines only. These are usually demarked via keywords, headers or other metadata. Sure, there are some services and RSS readers that facilitate the functionality and ease of use. Except I need less user-friendliness, not more.

Having to spend a minute more per news source, as opposed to some copy-pastes or clicks, keeps the need to over-subscribe down. The interests of the media in representing information do not match my own. I have not been able to find analyst materials that do not suffer from politically and emotionally manipulative agendas.

Not letting noise in from the start is the best policy for me.

u/NotPavlovsDog

KarmaCake day683December 20, 2020View Original