Cosine Thoughts

So I pulled the trigger and bought a Steam Deck (256GB LCD) while it was on sale for the Black Friday sale. Then I grabbed a 1TB nvme drive and a USB hub. General thoughts? It is a great device. It isn't without issues, but it is definitely a good value buy. Almost too good a value, made all the better by recent hardware price increases. This is no silver bullet. The battery life isn't going to make waves, especially on the LCD model and there are going to be games that you can't play or which don't play well. I also hit a few times where the Deck froze on me for seemingly no reason, though always when launching a game so it never impacted game play. Oh, and I've yet to successfully get the thing to install Docker, but that is not a problem most people care about and there are VM related solutions to that particular issue (I just happen to want it running natively on the device). And that is really the extent of the "bad". And I put bad in quotes because t...

If there is one thing which I think is characteristic of Kyudo, it is that it is a lifelong pursuit. Moreso than perhaps a lot of martial arts. And this is maybe more true abroad than in Japan. I don't know. I certainly don't think it is unique to Kyudo to think "it will take a lifetime to master this". That, I think is common to most martial arts. Rather, I think Kyudo lets that sink in a lot quicker and is almost a core philosophy. I don't think you'll find many beyond shodan or nidan who haven't accepted or internalized this. Growing up, I knew people my age who had black belts in Karate while I was still in high school. I met people with 7th, 8th and 9th-dan in various martial arts, and they are effectively everywhere. Most dojos, for most martial arts have at least one really high ranking member. And many have multiple. It isn't absurd, in most martial arts, to be able to set practical timeframes for achieving certain high ranks or even to be qual...

I'm impressed with Valve. I think they do a good job of not simply releasing a product to meet some arbitrary release cycle. And I think everything unveiled here is interesting, with one notable exception. And it may or may not be the item you're expecting. Though, I will dive into rationale as I go through this. I want to go from my least liked item to my most. So without further ado: #3 - Steam Machine This, for me, is the least exciting announcement. Yes. Valve did wait for more than an incremental improvement over the original Steam Machine and succeeded across numerous categories in this respect. And, I do believe that there is a market for this product. Frankly, this is what I was expected Microsoft to do with XBox; just converge Windows and XBox OS and deliver some standardized PC hardware. Valve's problem here is twofold: This is just a computer. Pricing it as a entry level gaming PC. Being a computer isn't a problem in the traditional sense, but it clashes with...

This past Tuesday I completed my first attempt at Shodan via Video Shinsa. It will still be weeks to months before I hear back on the results. The process, regardless of the outcome, has been enlightening. A few major points: Anxiety is apparently something I struggle with. Practice helps overcome anxiety, to a degree. I'm glad I had this experience, but I think I would prefer to do in person Shinsas in the future. The anxiety may seem like nothing worth pointing out. And for many it may not be. For me, I haven't really experienced it since around grade 10. There was a point where I was stressed about a test, I told myself that stressing wouldn't improve my grade and might actually make it worse. That stuck, and I haven't really been stressed or anxious about anything since. Until now. On top of that, I can't seem to shake it. Even if I identify that I'm panicking in the moment. Even if I know it is no big deal and that the panic isn't helping. I'm not s...

My take on generative AI is really not any different than my take on the current AI landscape in general; people (even otherwise smart ones) are missing the bigger picture. Current high-quality AI models have 2 very important direct factors and one important indirect factor: They are "expensive" They are trained on existing data-sets There are very few top-tier models available at any given point in time 1 - "Expensive" Models To start, I put "expensive" in quotes because they are not only costly in terms of compute power, but also still quite specialized in terms of skill in coming up with new approaches, knowing how best to select training and test data. This is the direct cause of point #3 which is more indirect, but I'll cover why that is important in a bit. The key thing being that training a top-tier model is not something most companies can afford today. Beyond stating that, there isn't much else to cover here. 2 - Trained on Existing Data T...

The latest talking point in the anti-EV world seems to be tire pollution and tire wear. I hate idiots. I really do. I hate people who throw "facts" in my face without researching themselves, refuse to understand the counter arguments or even attempt to understand the premises the arguments they are making are built upon. So, to start. The are 2 premises for this argument. The first is the tire compounds and the second is the combination of the weight and acceleration leading to increased wear. On the topic of tire compounds, this is simultaneously the more legit and the more derpy of the two. Legit because automakers are likely to slap these tires on the cars because they generally make the car perform better. But then derpy because most people just replace their EV tires with whatever is cheapest. People are shit at maintaining vehicles and tires are expensive.  The second argument is bad for a different reason; it assumes all EV drivers will drive like shit heads just becau...

Last week I repaired an LED TV that broke on me after about 7 years. The experience was... confusing. In a good way. First, some context; the TV in question is a Sony Bravia. Sony, in my experience, is really good a making things proprietary and not wanting people to tinker with them. Secondly, people (at least in my experience) do NOT have a tendency to repair TVs. So, there doesn't seem like there should be much resistance to going proprietary in this area and making TVs super difficult to repair. Thirdly, while the landscape has certainly changed, CRT TVs were historically also very dangerous to repair.  Not that the past need necessarily dictate the future. Though it sets a precedent which, once again, should seem appealing for TV manufacturers to continue.  Given all this, I was surprised at how easy the process was. First, there was the broken TV itself. When it broke an LED in the IR sensor bar flashed a certain number of times indicating the rough nature of the problem...

So, we're at the 1 year mark in owning our first all electric vehicle. And I wanted to take some time to break down the math and see how well it worked out. I haven't actually crunched the numbers yet. And while I feel pretty good about the outcomes, only time will tell. So, to start, here are my points of comparison: Last ICE Vehicle -  Hyundai Santa Fe.  Averaged ~9L/100KM Average maintenance costs for us ($600-800/yr) Last Vehicle - Kia Niro PHEV.  Averaged ~6.4L/100KM on trips which exceeded battery range  Plus a tank of gas probably every 3 months in winter for heating (no heat pump on this car).  Typical maintenance costs. ($600-800yr) Current car- Kia Niro EV Averaged 17KWH/100KM (combined winter and summer and highway and city driving) Maintenance during 1st year $0. This year we put about 12K KMs on the car. This included 3 longer trips during the year: 1200KM -> Niagara Falls 2x900KM -> Tire changes Which leaves 9000KM local driving For longer tr...

Odd discovery today. Having a stiff neck provides excellent incentive for good posture during Kyudo. Woke up with a neck so stiff that virtually any movement caused pain. It was amazing how good this made at maintaining my posture through a practice of the Taihai movements in my basement. Can't say I recommend getting a stiff neck on purpose. But if you happen to wake up with one anyway, I can recommend practicing Kyudo while it still hurts.

So, I just took my car in for my first EV maintenance. We're at the 1 year mark and almost 12k km.When we bought the car we got more or less scammed into a package of 10 "battery checks". And, it seems like this is the bulk of the maintenance #1. So, our final cost was $0. That being said, my dealership tried to talk me into a brake maintenance for $270CAD and an air filter changed for $70CAD. The air filter change I can do myself for a fraction of the price. And so I will. The brake service... now here is the fun bit. It includes working the pads and rotors which, because I have an EV and only about 12k KMs on it, are in perfect condition. And the tech says that the caliper pins are bone dry. Honestly, I doubt that they even inspected the pins. But, regardless... they basically tried to charge me $260 before tax to lube up some pins which would take less than 15 minutes. In all honesty... I probably would have paid for both services if they had charged reasonably for the...

Right now my biggest (though certainly not only) issues are the fundamentals. The basics. Posture, speed and form. I know form is a very broad term, but I'm talking about specific forms like my ENSOU, or even TENOUCHI. On the posture front, I'm a software guy. I sit at a desk all day and have developed a bad posture for years. This isn't impossible to overcome. But it is far from trivial. And breaking out of a good posture mid performance can make an otherwise acceptable showing into a bad one. Correcting my posture, similarly, draws attention to its absence prior. On the speed front, this isn't technically a fundamental, but it is an area of focus at the moment. I'm doing video shinsa this year. And apparently I need from my YU at HONZA until my HANARE on my OTOYA to be about 3 minutes. Right now... closer to 4. My pauses between movements tend to be too long. I like to make my pauses pronounced to punctuate the division between one movement and the next. And this ...

So, we're well past my first year. I decided to take the video shinsa for shodan at the end of the year. We also, have a new cohort joining the dojo. Things are getting interesting. This journey has not been at all what I expected. First, I had expected Kyudo to be both more and less introspective. Our dojo focuses more on Taihai, or the ceremonial/performance aspect of the art. And that comes with a lot of concern for harmony and beauty as a group. Making movements up to shai (firing line) in unison as much as possible.  At the same time the focus on the self is infinitely more than I could have anticipated as well. Posture, breathing, form and movements. Everything seems to have a right way of doing it. And none of those "right ways" come naturally. Beyond that there is also etiquette. Even things you might not associate with the practice itself are a part it. And all of these things then also need to be in harmony with everything else. Needless to say, I have a long wa...

Picked up a Pixel Watch 2 because: It was on sale I had Google Store credit Was interested in the experience Total after taxes and shipping was about $75CAD. Pretty good I would say for a brand new smart watch. Concerns I had were largely limited to battery life and how usable the screen was. The PW2 only has the smaller 41mm size and the closest thing I've owned in the past was a Nokia/Withings watch with a lot of the trackers but no smart/touch display. My most consistent thought is that I'm glad I didn't splurge on a PW3 or wait for a PW4. I'm not disappointed in the device or anything. But, it would be pretty hard to be disappointed for the price I paid. I think I would have been disappointed at a higher price point. This is obviously subjective and dependent on a lot of personal factors, but I'll get into that in a bit. First up; I don't use always on display or gestures. I haven't worn a watch in over a year. And, when I did I can't say that I actu...

I've been practicing Kyudo for over a year now. Started in early April of last year officially. This November I'm hoping to attempt for sho-dan. And, I wanted to take some time to reflect on a few things: Why I started and why I continued. General lessons learned. Current progress and goals. As to why I started, I can't say that there is a single, clear answer. I was thinking about joining "something" and I had been somewhat intent on it being some Japanese Martial Art. Aikido was the only thing I had taken which I had remembered enjoying when I was young. I discovered Kyudo through the anime Tsurune , but I had already attempted contacting and joining the dojo in the past and that show was no longer front and centre. Then, I saw that they were sponsoring a local event which made me curious. I checked their Facebook page and they were having intro sessions later in the year. I signed up. Attended. Joined the beginners program. Completed it. Applied to join the reg...

A lot of people are hoping that, since the cancellation, WoT will be picked up by another network. I don't think it will happen. I didn't mind the show and while I have some beef with it, even the quality of the show isn't the reason I don't believe it will be picked up again. This could have been the best received series of all time and no one would touch it now. Why? Because it is an unknown factor now. Basically, WoT is a show based on an existing IP with an existing fanbase. What was completed of the existing TV Series drifted so far from the books that it alienated that fanbase. This is a problem because there is no built-in audience for what comes next. The book fans have no reason to come along because the storyline from the books is no longer recoverable. And, even the TV show fans aren't a guarantee. In fact, they are especially not guaranteed here. Another unique factor here is that WoT was on Prime Video. This is a streaming service many people simply get...