Susan Wells (u/susan_wells)

Posts

Stumbled across a computer repair shop in Portland that still works on CRT monitors

I was visiting a buddy in Portland last month and we walked past this tiny shop called Rose City Electronics. The sign said they fix anything with a screen so I popped in to ask about an old Dell CRT I've been storing in my garage. The guy behind the counter had a whole shelf of CRT chassis and flyback transformers. He told me he gets shipments of parts from a warehouse in Ohio that still stocks stuff for monitors from the 90s. I spent like 20 minutes talking to him about discharging capacitors and recapping old boards. He even showed me a test rig he built himself using a breadboard and some salvaged parts. I came home with a list of components to order and a newfound hope for that Dell monitor. Has anyone else run into a shop that specializes in this kind of retro fix work?

2 comments

c/custom-pc-sleepers•

susan_wells•11h ago

I thought the whole sleeper PC thing was just a joke until I built one

I used to roll my eyes at people stuffing RTX 4090s into beige Dell Optiplex cases. Seemed like way too much effort for a punchline. Then my buddy Dave convinced me to try it with an old Compaq from 1998 that I found at a garage sale for 5 bucks. The look on my buddies' faces when I fired up Cyberpunk with ray tracing in that old hunk of plastic was absolutely priceless. Has anyone else had a convert moment like that?

2 comments

c/barbers•

susan_wells•1d ago

That Wednesday last month was my worst day behind the chair in 7 years

I had three no-shows in a row, then a walk-in asked for a skin fade and ended up yelling at me because his cowlick wouldn't lay flat. By 4 PM I dropped my $250 Wahl clippers on the tile floor and the blade snapped right off. Has anyone else had a day where everything just falls apart like that?

2 comments

c/cnc-operators•

susan_wells•1d ago

Chatted with an old timer at the local machine shop about tool pressure

He told me his secret to getting mirror finishes was actually backing off feed rate by 15% on the final pass, not cranking it up like I always did. Has anyone else found that slowing down gives way better surface finish than pushing harder?

2 comments

-1

c/camping-gear-reviews•

susan_wells•1d ago

Unpopular opinion: Those ultra-light backpacking stoves are overrated for most trips

I used to swear by my titanium canister stove for every hike, but after a 3-day trip in the Smokies last fall where the canister ran out mid-boil, I switched back to my old liquid fuel stove that I bought for $40 in 2019. The canister stoves are fine for short weekend trips, but for anything over 2 nights or in cold weather, the liquid fuel is way more reliable because you can refill it and it works below freezing. My friends think I'm crazy carrying the extra 6 ounces, but I'd rather have hot coffee every morning than save that tiny bit of weight. Has anyone else gone back to an older, heavier setup after a gear failure messed up your trip?

3 comments

c/anime-discussions•

susan_wells•2d ago

TIL I've apparently watched over 600 anime series according to my MAL list

I was just messing around on MyAnimeList the other day and hit the 'completed' tab and there it was - 612 entries. Honestly I never kept count before. I started watching anime back in high school around 2008 when a friend lent me a burned DVD of Cowboy Bebop and it just snowballed from there. 612 feels like a weird milestone because it's not really a round number but it hit me how many weekends and late nights that represents. Some of those shows were 12 episode seasons I binged in a day, others were 200+ episode shonen that took months. I checked my average score and it's like a 7.2 so I guess I'm not that picky. Does anyone else ever get surprised by their own numbers on these trackers or do you just ignore them?

2 comments

c/budget-home-upgrades•

susan_wells•3d ago

Took me years to realize I was painting my trim wrong

I always brushed paint from the can straight onto my window trim until a neighbor walked over and said I was trapping brush marks. He showed me how to thin the paint just a tiny bit with water and now it levels out smooth. Anyone else pick up a basic trick that made you feel kinda dumb for not figuring it out sooner?

2 comments

c/backyard-chicken-keepers•

susan_wells•6d ago

Can we talk about whether free ranging is worth the risk or not?

I've been keeping chickens for about 3 years now in my backyard outside of Portland. For the first two years I let them free range all day and they loved it, great egg taste, happy birds. But after losing three to a hawk last spring and two more to a neighbor's dog, I switched to a covered run full time. The eggs are still fine but the birds seem bored and I've had more pecking issues since then. Now I'm wondering if I'm being too cautious keeping them locked up or if the losses are just part of the deal. What do you other folks do, let them roam or keep them penned?

2 comments

c/digital-marketing•

susan_wells•6d ago

My Facebook ad account got locked out for 3 days right before Black Friday

I woke up on November 22 to find my ad account suspended for 'unusual activity' with zero warning. Lost about $1,200 in potential sales before I got it sorted by calling support 4 times. Has anyone else had this happen at the worst possible time?

2 comments

c/chefs•

susan_wells•9d ago

That moment I realized I was ruining my knife edge

I've been sharpening my chef's knife the same way for like 5 years. One day last month a line cook from a fancy spot in Austin watched me do it and just laughed. He pointed out I was dragging the blade toward the edge instead of away from it. Took me about 30 seconds to try his way and suddenly my knife actually held a edge more than a shift. Anyone else have a dumb habit that took someone else to spot?

2 comments

Recent Comments

8h ago

Dropped $400 on a thermal camera for fault finding and it already paid off

Used to think thermal cameras were overkill for the money, but seeing that resistor light up instantly really sold me on it. Did you find any other hidden issues with it since then?

1d ago

Ran a side-by-side test of Midjourney vs DALL-E for a fantasy landscape prompt

Does anyone actually prefer how DALL-E handles the weird concrete textures in Brutalist architecture though?

2d ago

Just learned about a 3,000-year-old city found under a parking lot in London

Admittedly I used to roll my eyes at construction delays for "old stuff" but this changed my mind completely. Like @carr.willow said, you really do only get one shot. After reading about the Roman settlement stuff I started looking into it more and they found like a whole wooden writing tablet with someone's shopping list on it from 200 AD. Just imagine how much we'd never know if that crew had just paved over it to hit their schedule. The burial ground thing nora10 mentioned gives me chills too, its wild how much history is just sitting under the concrete we walk on every day.

2d ago

Our A/B test went sideways when the junior dev pushed the wrong button

Right? Total nightmare fuel. @paige870 what finally saved my skin was having a pre-written apology macro ready for stuff like that. Just one click and it sends a polite "our bad" message before you even have time to panic.

3d ago

Found a free tool that saved me from a phishing disaster

Used to think script blockers were just for techies, but this story hit close to home. A friend's email got spoofed last month and NoScript would have spotted it fast. Changed my tune after reading this, definitely giving it a try.