lemmyman

joined 2 years ago
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California lawmakers introduce legislation to ban law enforcement from wearing face coverings in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I didn't see anything there about seeing through face coverings

Letter tier list. open for peer review. your suggestions will not be considered. in c/[email protected]
Zen state achieved in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Modern problems call for modern koans

The only stat that matters in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Why yes, thank you

Putins my fren in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

Poutin'

How best to open a blueberry? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago

I think he's playing on the saying "act your age, not your shoe size," hinting that he knows it's a silly/childish thing to do, but excusing it because his feet are enormous.

Remote contract work in a different state in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Those are all true, and I'll add one more: many times contractors have specific expertise that warrants higher pay.

The part I can't reconcile basically relates to long-term contracts. I have one client who has been paying me for as much time as I can give them for about four years. On an hourly basis, I probably cost them 80% more than the fully-burdened labor cost of an equivalent W2 hire (including taxes and benefits and overhead). Or in other words, for the ~20-25 hours/week I do work for them, they could have someone working 40 hours a week instead. In this case, your second and third points aren't really a factor, so I'm banking the extra as a "risk premium." They seem happy to pay it.

In a rational and efficient market (myths, I know), they would have hired a full-time W2 person to do the work I've been doing, long ago. And I don't really get why they haven't.

Remote contract work in a different state in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I'm a full-time contractor. One of my clients is based in CA but also has an office in my state. Some random thoughts:

  • Dhork's post looks accurate to me regarding state income tax stuff. As a contractor, I haven't done anything at all in CA - I just get paid by my client and count it as normal revenue that I earn where I live. If you go the contract route, I expect it to be similarly simple for you.
  • Tax-wise, a person who makes money from work other than employment is by definition a sole proprietor. There is nothing to set up, it's just the word used for that the type of entity that earns contracting income that isn't set up as a corporation or LLC. Even if you made an LLC, unless you elect s corp or c corp status, that LLC is a "disregarded entity" as far as the IRS is concerned and tax treatment would be the same as for a sole proprietor.
  • people get worked up about self-employment taxes, but in my case I actually come out ahead because I can dump way more into an individual 401k than I ever could as an employee (employer contribution can be around 18.5% of your profit as a sole prop, on top of the employee deferral). I also run as an s-corp and my state has a PTE tax, both of which let me avoid a bit of federal taxes. But s corp is only relevant if you make like $80k+ from self employment and don't have much other w2 income.
  • submitting bids is a function of your relationship with the client and the norms in your industry. I have two clients where I just have an open-ended contracting agreement (both clients had their own standard agreements and I negotiated small changes in one case) and I bill for however many hours i worked every month on projects that are constantly evolving. My standard though is to submit time-and-materials bids for fixed-scope projects. I keep an eye open for fixed-bid opportunities too but I haven't submitted any fixed bids yet.
  • contracting is not that big of an administrative hassle so don't let that deter you. But do estimate the tax impact and do either make estimated payments or adjust your withholdings at your w2 job to cover them (this one is easier IMO).
  • contractors get a higher hourly rate than employees. Don't undervalue yourself. If you don't have a good benchmark, do some research. I am in engineering services where big companies regularly charge $170-200/hr for my level - I charge a bit below that normally, with a further discount on my long-term open-ended contracts. But the most I've ever made as a w2 was about half that amount, after taking all the tax and benefits stuff into account. I've never fully understood why clients are willing to pay that much, but they are.
Remote contract work in a different state in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Tax-wise, the instant you earn contracting income you are a sole proprietor. There is no additional step required.

Make It Stop in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

This graph appears to show events briefly un happening and it mildly distresses me

The four horsemen of shitty chat apps in c/[email protected]
Literally in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

What are jimmycakes?

Over a decade ago before I had kids, I called our hypothetical firstborn "jimmycakes." Never seen it out in the wild

20
Wall oven selection (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
8 comments fedilink
 

My wall oven went kaput - it had a good run (I think it's original with the house, from 1960. Or at least from the 80s. It has a mechanical timer!). But the heating element melted itself and I'm not really up for trying to find a replacement for that.

So I'm in the market for a new wall oven and seeking input. Key specs:

  • It's a 24" single wall oven. Cutout is 22.5" wide, 28.5" high, and 25" deep.
  • Electric power, 240V/30A circuit
  • I only care about baking and broiling. Steam, air fry, wifi, rotisserie are all zero-to-negative for me.
  • I would prefer physical dials and buttons but that seems uncommon these days
  • I wouldn't want to go much more expensive than the options I've found (see below).

I've found two that seem like a native fit:

  • GE JRS06SKSS
    • The installation manual shows that this needs a cabinet cutout below the unit, which I don't want to do because I have existing drawers there
  • Frigidaire GCWS2438AF
    • This seems to fit my cutout without modification, so I'll probably buy this unless I find something better

Most other 24" models are designed for a shorter ~23" cutout, which is unfortunate because there are some substantially cheaper options (like $500 vs. $1700). For example the Empava EMPV-24WOB14, and some others from Magic Chef, Cosmo, and various other brands I've never heard of. It's maybe possible that I could build a nook above or below the oven, or a trim piece covering the opening. But I'd kind of just rather not.

Any thoughts on my best options here?

Edit to add: I opted to look harder for a replacement heating element, and after a long slog through a lot of appliance parts websites that don't offer many specs for their parts, I finally found a couple options that look like they will work at www.therm-coil.com, where it seems that every heating element they offer is listed with cross-references, dimensions, and terminal style. Like, all the stuff that should be listed on all the other sites but never is.

23
Pneumonia or something (lemmy.world)
 

My oldest kid was out of school a whole week with pneumonia a couple weeks ago. I got very little work done (no work = no $ but that's OK in the short term).

On Friday I got a fever, chills, headache, lots of coughing, and massive massive fatigue. Now getting very little work done again. I'm probably going to be at like 40% typical income for the month. Again, OK in the short term but I got goals and this isn't helping you know?

By Tuesday it was about the same level so I did a "telehealth" visit thing and they said, yeah suck it up and take some robitussin.

Last night I started hearing the sound of rice krispies coming from my throat after a breath. I think that's a pretty tell tale sign of fluid in the lungs.

So today I went to urgent care. They did a chest x ray but the radiologist was out and the doctor found the imaging inconclusive but put me on antibiotics anyway.

Hopefully I will start feeling better in a day or two. This sucks.

26
Why did my PLA crumble after 6 weeks idle in my printer? (lemmy.world)
 

I left a spool of eSun PLA+ beige in my Prusa MK4 with Prusa enclosure, which has sat idle since my last print about 6 weeks ago. The enclosure has a PTFE filament feed tube that runs the filament from the spool to the extruder.

Today I went to change the filament, and it broke apart in several pieces, right at the ends of the ptfe filament feed tube. The filament on the spool itself - within an inch of where it simply separated from the broken bits - I can fold over 180° tight without breaking it. Even the several ~1" lengths of broken bits are similarly ductile.

Ambient humidity is something like 15% (per my filament dryer) to 30% (per my dehumidifier, which is idle because it's winter).

Any idea why this happened? I'm curious about maybe interactions with the PETG parts that the broken pieces were close to (that's the only thing I can come up with, anyway).

5
Benchtop current sense amplifier? (lemmy.world)
 

Anyone have a recommendation for a benchtop current sense amplifier?

Sure, there are current sense breakout boards and whatnot. But what I'd like is a convenient device that I can use to instrument a circuit and then monitor its current with my oscilloscope or logic analyzer (Saleae with analog input) along with other signals in the circuit.

Ideal features might be:

  • Banana jack inputs and outputs
  • Selectable range / sensitivity / sense resistor
  • Isolated measurement, so I can measure high-side or low-side currents without worrying too much about the common connection on my scope
  • Selectable or automatic power source selection, between circuit-powered and externally-powered

I haven't seen anything like this in a few targeted searches, and just wondering if someone has any suggestions I might have missed.

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