But if this is what it takes for someone to generously share so much information with us for free then I really don’t care if I have to wait a couple extra seconds for a page load or if a tab takes up 600MB of RAM. I know this thinking makes the web purists angry, but the majority of people who visit these sites to learn aren’t going to be impeded or even bothered. Even on my older iPhone on non-5G cellular it loads in a couple of seconds.
Not everyone has a fast device also.
On the network side it makes ~650 requests.
That's an exceptionally resource hungry way to load the content.
A few years back Notion was excellent modulo a few small UX things that could be improved.
Now those small things still haven’t been improved but there’s way more clutter worsening the UX notably over time.
Hit the back button whenever a page says JS is required, unless you want to read it badly enough to wait for it.
The web is much better that way.
Also, the costs are deceptive, even with used or Chinese parts: I estimate $10k USD for a usable molecular bio lab, including equipment and reagents.
I don’t have a full bio lab but I do have a lot of various lab equipment and do things at home that aren’t typical hobbyist projects. I haven’t found this to be a problem at all.
I also don’t mentally segregate the world into “normies”, which honestly helps a lot. In my experience people who develop a chip on their shoulder about their geek hobbies and start describing other people as “normies” bring a lot of these problems upon themselves. It helps a lot to just talk to people like peers and also know when people just aren’t interested in talking about your certain hobbies.
Whether its being used in the condescending version or the self-deprecating version is beside the point. When you go into social situations sizing people up as “normie” or not the preconceived ideas about the other people become an obstacle for communication.
Not everyone is in an environment where they can rationally explain their non-standard hobbies to their neighbours without judgment and no amount of treating a person like Mrs. Smith as a peer is going to stop her from spreading the kinds of rumours that result in a police investigation into them.
Unfortunately some people live in environments where others are just itching to recreate the Salem witch trials.
I'm sure some people do live in modern-day Salem equivalents, but I bet a lot more people think they do.
If you do this in a poor neighborhood that's had a problem with meth houses, you'll, either get the police kicking down your door, or you'll get the methheads breaking in and stealing your equipment.
Trying to compare what happens in the AU vs US might not work out well.
Not some imagined scenario with a nosey neighbor seeing you shuffle lab equipment into the garage under cover of darkness. That’s a scenario hatched out of watching TV shows.
Regardless, it doesn’t matter that much if the one nosey neighbor starts spreading rumors. Unlike the movies and TV, the rest of your neighbors already know that the nosey neighbor is prone to fits of imagination, speculation, and prejudice. Nothing comes of it. Go on with your life.
Whereas the more people just happen to see stuff that’s unfamiliar to them, the more they imagine movie tropes to explain it. Sneakiness and a “you wouldn’t get it” attitude just code you as obnoxious, and color their assumptions accordingly…
I really underestimated the cost
Want to know how to secure your computer? In the wrong hands, that gives somebody information on how to break into insecure computers.
Want to know how to slice an onion properly and safely? Oh, so now you want to teach people how to efficiently use knives, the most ancient of offensive weapons?
I guess you want to teach your children how to play nice with other kids and have a healthy school environment? Well, some people are going to use that knowledge to understand how to emotionally abuse children. You're a monster.
/s
Focus on motivations and safeguards of the attack vectors, not limiting the spread of knowledge.
We should have already made super-seeds that you can plant in concrete and grow all the tomatoes you'll need in a month with a single LED. Why be dependent on Big Ag or imports from Chile for tasteless nutritionless environment-poisoned overpriced veg if you could grow it in a closet? Saves water, saves power, saves the environment, tastes better, better for you, cheaper. We just need a lot of bio nerds (and a few billion $) to develop it.
Also, I find this goal equally as dystopian as big ag is currently. Just plant a garden and tend it
We're working on a free Home Assistant plugin that let's you define your sensors and outputs, then choose a plant (see link below, or climate of a specific location) and hopefully take most of the heavy lifting from there.
I have gardened, but personally I'm tired of it. And a garden is often impractical; takes a bunch of land, water, nutrients, requires enough sun, etc, besides the expenses, and the time and effort. I live on an acre of land and I still don't get enough sun because of where I live, and my soil is shit. I can grow things but it's quite hard and yields are pitiful.
I'm not a botanist but my understanding is that a combination of bio-engineering and growth hacks (ex. pumping co2 into grow tents, optimizing light, nutrients, hydroponics, etc) can have substantial yield improvement. It's not that cheap or scalable, though. My theory is that, for about the same money as heirloom tomatoes, you could get good yields, better flavor, have a smaller environmental impact, and avoid all the gardening limitations I mentioned. But I think bioengineering could maximize the yield more than current methods (especially if pests weren't a concern, ex. a climate-controlled grow closet)
The other issue you mentioned also killed 50%+ of vertical farming startups: you need a diverse living ecosystem. You need a living soil crawling with organisms of all sizes (check Arbico Organics, Jim's Worms and others), the whole thing needs to be balanced, otherwise it's hard to grow in the first place and/or a single unpredicted "intruder" will wipe out your entire operation (Bowery Farms and plenty of others from what I understand).
As a gardener, I would for sure suffer if all I could do is grow plants in a closet.
Gardens are a truly valuable treasure. Grow wherever you possibly can, but please don't ever take away the sunshine.
mensetmanusman•6mo ago