My wife and I bought a house a few months back and ripped out the carpet from the stairs (don't have before pics …

Wood doesn't really move length-wise with a change in relative humidity, only radially and tangentially:

https://workshopcompanion.com/KnowHow/Design/Nature_of_Wood/2_Wood_Movement/2_Wood_Movement_Images/NOW_2_7_288.jpg

Insignia™ - 39" Class F20 Series LED HD Smart Fire TV Edition TV
Model:NS-39DF310NA21SKU:6400439
$229.99

The stringer—that notched framing member that supports the treads and risers—is typically made of pressure-treated 2x12. Laying it out is the first, and toughest, step in building stairs.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/finehomebuilding.s3.tauntoncloud.com/app/uploads/2020/03/02151835/TohtDeck7_B.jpg

Every Friday I recommend a typeface, write about for what digital appliations it works best, and where to better not use it. Subscribe to the Pimp my Type Newsletter and get them directly to your inbox.

Here is not a bad article from HBR about “unleashing overlooked talent,” and I’ll just direct you to the part that matters before we get into this more deeply:

https://hbr.org/2022/07/unleash-your-organizations-overlooked-talent?ab=hero-subleft-1

WHY does talent get ignored?

• Most managers are busy, with “busy” supposedly meaning “productive” (it does not, truly) and usually “busy” also meaning “I get a lot of email, most of which I could delete, but I don’t delete it so I can complain about the volume of email.” You just say “It’s the busy season!” or “Everything is so crazy right now!” and you’re good. That allows you to not notice talent.

• Everything about white-collar work is tied to tasks. All that matters to most managers is people completing tasks. Tasks tasks tasks. Most places are barely “strategic” whatsoever. When you are largely being judged on tasks, it is nearly impossible to be seen for talent. Your managers can only look at you as “x-amount of deliverables this cycle,” etc.

• Talent actually scares a lot of managers, because it represents someone potentially coming for their perch, and that’s terrifying to them. It’s oddly in the incentive structure of most managers to suppress new talents in the name of personal relevance and income earning potential, even though the company claims to care about “innovation” and “world-shifting ideas.” Funny, no?

• It’s easier and more comfortable to put people in boxes. A security guard is a security guard. He’s not a docent. That’s fucking crazy, Janet. Go get me a burrito for lunch.

A drywall expert reveals some of his best tips and tricks so you can handle the job like a pro.

Bend your blade

You don’t want your blade to be perfectly flat. Bend your blade so it has a slight curve, and mark the concave side so you always know which side is which. Josh will use the convex side to feather out the edge of the joint, and the concave side to float over the joint.

Consistency of yogurt

Butt joints made easy

Drywall sheets have depressed edges that account for the thicknesses of tape and mud. When you cut a sheet, you lose that edge. On a piece of pine, Josh cuts a concave shape on one side with the table saw blade set to two degrees. This helps pull the edges of drywall in, forming a valley for tape and mud. This creates seamless joints between studs.

Staple and Tape your corner bead

Tearaway bead for exposed edges

Whenever drywall meets another surface like stone, brick or paneling, you need a way to neatly finish the edge. Tearaway bead gets you pro results with minimal effort. It attaches just like corner bead, but the compound is applied just up to the back edge. Once it dries, the tearaway strip easily pulls off, leaving a nice, finished edge.

Popular Mechanics ~ 1954

In this article we look at how to generate random dates in SQL Server to build a sample dataset along with code and examples.

SELECT DATEADD(DAY, RAND(CHECKSUM(NEWID()))*(1+DATEDIFF(DAY, @StartDate, @EndDate)),@StartDate) AS 'SalesDate';

CHECKSUM(NEWID()) is the salt for the rand() function

NEWID() generates a random unique ID for a row. Ordering by NEWID() will randomly order query results. Adding a TOP statement will return a finite number of random rows. For example, to get 10 random rows from a table:

SELECT TOP 10 * 
FROM tablename 
WHERE condition
ORDER BY NEWID()

A series of tips including dos and don'ts for better stair tread installations.

Do apply "glue blocks" where possible, on all of your stringers prior to tread installation. Glue blocks are approximately 4-inch blocks. Where possible, these blocks should be installed at every wood-to-wood contact point on the underside of the stair. This helps maintain stability of the riser and the integrity of the stringer, which also helps ensure a solid floor without squeaks.

• Install the risers with a level top edge slightly above the top edge of both the blocking and the stringers.
• Never nail into a block from either a tread or a riser.
• The important thing is to remember to install riser, tread, riser, tread or install the risers first.

Do seal the sides of the tread and riser in closed stair wells.

Don't fasten treads and or risers with only nails or staples. The adhesive is much more important than the fasteners. There will be times when fastening may be limited, so a good adhesive is critical.

• When tech is rugged, it’s a joy to use
• UI shouldn’t focus only on your hands. Use the rest of your body too
• The best UIs have simple, bold visual cues
• Physical UIs can be more intuitive and usable than screens
• Don’t just make it functional. Make it beautiful too

• Staff/Lead Engineer – No direct reports but provides technical leadership and mentorship across an entire team. You work with your team on multiple features and/or projects. You should be proposing technical and infrastructure work for the team to implement. You will be writing much less code than a senior engineer but your influence is across your team, related teams, and possibly areas outside engineering.

https://jvns.ca/blog/brag-documents/

Advocate, Advocate, Advocate!

You have two points where self advocacy should be built into the process:

• 1 on 1s with your manager
• Reviews

ASK

And now we circle back to the beginning. If you want a promotion you need to ask for it. Ask what you need to do to get one. Ask what time frame you should be working towards. You aren’t going to get what your manager doesn’t know you want.

• The softest is the Blackwing Matte, which is comparable to a 4B pencil. The Matte pencil writes with a smooth, dark line that’s great for shading and drawing.
• Pearl, which has a balanced lead: still dark and soft, but with a harder point that stays sharp longer. The Pearl is similar to a 3B or 2B pencil.
• Blackwing 602, the original Blackwing pencil. Ideal for writing, the 602 has a firm lead that’s a little smoother and darker than that of a typical writing pencil. It’s a versatile pencil whose lead is similar to a B or HB.
• NOTE: I don't really like using the 602. It feels waxy and not dark enough and doesn't stay sharp. KAC 2024-10-09
• Natural - the hardest Blackwing pencil with extra-firm lead. This is a great pencil for writing and for drawing fine lines, and is closest to an HB or H pencil.

What do you all add to your refrigerator pickles? Outside of vinegar, sugar, and onions. What do you like to add to give it a more complex flavor?

** 2cups water, 1cup vinegar worked well. KAC 2022-06-30

Quick Dill Pickles

Pickle more than just cucumbers! Some of our favorite vegetables in the Test Kitchen are cauliflower, okra, asparagus, summer squash, and carrots. Makes 12 pickles Total time: 15 minutes + draining and chilling

SPRINKLE:

Kosher or pickling salt

6 Kirby or small cucumbers, trimmed and halved

8 sprigs fresh dill

1 jalapeño, sliced

BOIL:

2 cups water

1 cup distilled white vinegar

1/2 cup slivered onion

6 cloves garlic

4 tsp. kosher salt

1 Tbsp. dill seeds, toasted

2 tsp. black peppercorns

2 tsp. mustard seeds

Sprinkle kosher or pickling salt over cucumbers in a colander; set aside to let drain 20–30 minutes.

Rinse salt from cucumbers and blot dry with paper towels; tightly pack in a clean jar, crock, or glass bowl with dill sprigs and jalapeño.

Boil water, vinegar, onion, garlic, 4 tsp. salt, dill seeds, peppercorns, and mustard seeds in a medium nonreactive saucepan, 5 minutes.

Pour mixture over cucumbers; let cool to room temperature.

Cover container and chill until cold. Refrigerate pickles up to 1 month.

Talk slides, images & code used: https://github.com/dkechag/ImagePHash-Talk

This talk will take you through a novel Perl implementation of perceptual hashes for “similar image” searches. I'll start with the basics, if you don't know what a Discrete Cosine Transform is, you'll find out with a visual demo - no math required (although math is always encouraged!). After DCTs and p-hashing basics, I will go through the implementation’s new features that make it efficient and easy to integrate with our large MySQL-based image database.

At SpareRoom, the world’s largest roommate finding service, we handle tens of millions of images, mostly of customer rooms/properties. When tasked with adding an internal ability for a “similar image” search, I first looked at existing solutions and found out that some did not work as expected, while others were either slow or required changes to our infrastructure (mainly Perl, with the data - including the image index - on a large MySQL database).
In the end, I went with a solution initially based on Image::Hash, but with p-hashes reimplemented to fix collision issues and add speed (over 10x faster than pHash.org’s equivalent DCT-based hash). Then, I added features such as support for mirroring, as well as “index/reduced” hashes, in order to effectively use MySQL indices (and thus easily fit in our existing setup).
After an intro to the theory behind the DCT and perceptual hashes in general, I will discuss the abilites of this implementation and the experiences from developing and using it. The module will be released to CPAN before my talk, although the XS part responsible for the fast DCT calculation has been available for a while as Math::DCT.

https://tprc2022.sched.com/event/10Fn5

A list of new(ish) command line tools

vidir (from moreutils, lets you batch rename/delete files in vim)

Create a new branch (I often name it test_merge) and switch to it.

Frequently asked questions about font redistribution

• We view creating graphic files as being essentially the same as printing from an output device.

Can I make a company logo using the fonts?

Unless you are using an application that is specifically licensed for home, student, or non-commercial use, we do not restrict you from making logos using the Windows-supplied fonts.

When can I use document embedding?

Font files contain flags that indicate if and how they can be embedded within a document file. Applications that support document font embedding look at these flags and determine if and how it may be embedded in a document file, and when they open a document containing embedded fonts, they will also look at these flags to determine if and how a document can be viewed or edited.

https://www.fonts.com/content/microsoft-typography

Create cohesive, consistent, and accessible color palettes