Mine would be creating pen and paper ciphers for my made up secret communication needs.
I am learning lockpicking for fun. It helps me relax. I used a practice lock at first, then a cheap real lock. I’ve just learned that my firearms lock…yup, can be picked open in about 10 seconds. Equal parts cool and terrifying. Locks are waaay less secure than people think.
It has the same “internet hacker” stigma so I avoid talking about it.
I miss lockpicking, it’s so cathartic. I used to have a small set of picks and folks near my desk at the office would often try to pop a padlock I kept around when we were bored. I liked how everyone seemed so interested in the ease with which you can pop many locks.
- argv_minus_one ( @argv_minus_one@beehaw.org ) 13•1 year ago
This right here is why electronic locks could be way more secure than mechanical ones, if only their manufacturers would hire well-trained programmers and not boot camp graduates to write the firmware.
If the Lockpicking Lawyer has taught me anything, is that a number of electronic locks tend to be easy to bypass via hardware rather than software
- EremesZorn ( @EremesZorn@beehaw.org ) 3•1 year ago
That’s forbidden knowledge among the mechanics in my union local, lol. One of the shop mechanics at my training center was teaching some of my peers how to pick locks when we had completed our training and were just killing time helping the shop guys out. Had some downtime and he brought out a couple sets and some locks.
Apparently it’s sort of an unspoken tool of the mechanic trade when you work around machinery like that. Never know what you’ll have to get access to and you never know if anyone will have the right key. You’d think the ignition key would suffice to open, say, an access panel or storage cabinet, but some of these machines use a different key entirely for such a thing.
I like learning about random ass hobbies without ever indulging in them.
I watch an ungodly amount of aquarium / terrarium videos, lurk a ton of aquascaping communities. I owned a betta fish in an empty bowl when I was 12 and that’s it. (poor fish)
I read all you could know about book binding fanfiction, never done it.
I read a hundred pages long horse breeding guide for the game black desert online and I have no idea why. I only played the game for a month, spent most of it reading a google doc about horse. I’m not even sure I owned a horse in the game.
Sometimes I try the hobby, for example mini painting, and don’t have the patience for it. But I still watch some random dudes on youtube paint for hours and sometimes they don’t even talk!
No idea why I am like this
I do the same! And you know, I think this is a hobby by itself. It’s also very useful when talking with strangers if they tell you they practice one of the hobbies you’ve binged on. You can ask them more pointed, interesting questions and it makes for great conversations!
Ever been screened for ADHD by any chance? I do this same thing. I call myself a serial hobbyist because I just bounce from one thing to the next. I’m always glad when I lose interest before I spend any money.
Nah, I did well in school and it’s almost impossible to get that diagnosis as a adult around here. I do find the adhd memes relatable tho lol.
Same situation here. Never got diagnosed as a kid because I did well in school. Then going through the process for my own kid, it all clicked.
Everybody finds those memes relatable. Most of those memes are just regular human things.
I also did well in school (have my Masters too!) and I got diagnosed with ADHD at around age 30 (I’m female so that made a difference in people’s expectations of how it presents). Totally no need to pathologize a trait or to pursue a diagnosis even if the traits do fir you, but I did just want to chime in that there are plenty of us who managed to defy the trope of “doesn’t apply themselves”.
For me, I totally do what you do with hobbies! It’s actually why I went into library science - ADHD is my superpower that allows me to be a generalist :P
I spent last night learning about wood pit clay firing techniques and learning about table saw safety. Why? Idk. I have Ehlers Danlos and I’ve had to give up sewing, spinning, etc, so it’s not like I’m going to be out there making slab tables or digging my own clay but… It’s REALLY fun to imagine and learn all about!
I love learning about new hobbies and I so rarely find the hobbiest of… Hobbies! Thanks for sharing :)
I also keep acquiring hobbies and also have ADHD but spend way too much on it all.
My hobby is collecting hobbies. Under my desk at home is a pile of various “projects” most of which I cannot seem to finish.
My whole office is a giant pile of that lol
Barbara Sher (rip) has a great book, Refuse to Choose, that does a great job of reframing ones thinking about bouncing around between projects / hobbies and not “finishing” them.
I know it doesn’t have to be, but that sounds like what world builders or authors do, dive very deep into a topic for research.
I like learning about random ass hobbies without ever indulging in them.
I do this too! I love watching like videos where people make jewelry or phone cases using resin. It requires a ventilated area though and I live in an apartment with no patio so I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to.
I also watch nail polish videos cause nail painting is an amazing artform that is really difficult to do because its painting with material that hardens when exposed to oxygen or UV lighting. It also takes a ton of skill to get really good at it and people use all kinds interesting methods to get different results or looks. But yeah, I don’t have the patience to learn that beyond just painting my own nails and maybe some decals but that’s all I could handle.
I read all you could know about book binding fanfiction, never done it.
Found it hard to parse, and my mind immediately went with “Yeah, of course people have written fanfics about book binding,” foolishly extending rule 34 to cover it. Of course, there might have been that one fanfic about bookbinding.
But yeah, of course people have printed and bookbinded (bookbound[ed]?) fanfics. But for that to have a community? That’s unexpected.
And you know what? It shouldn’t be called rule 34, but rule 69. Would be much easier to remember that way.
Makes me wonder why they (the anons who’ve compiled such lists back in the day) didn’t make that way. Perhaps it’s too obvious of a joke, I guess?
Well I guess you are acquiring knowledge, and that too is a hobby :-)
Recently I’ve been looking at a guy that makes Damascus Steel weapon. Not that I’m gonna buy a sword or an axe anytime soon, nor am I going to make it
Model trains. I don’t bring it up because it’s obscure, but I’ve definitely found there’s a stigma. “Oh he’s the guy who plays with trains”. Screw the haters, I like to relax after work and do a bit of escapism. Eventually I got over it though and talk about it with friends, but it’s not the first thing I bring up either
My dad has been into model trains since before I was born. We built a train layout in the early 2000s when I was in middle school or so. Working on that project helped get me into electronics as we made PCBs for signals and control circuits. Now, 20 some years later, I work in software engineering. My dad wanted to get back into working on the layout and I’m helping him with Arduino programming and Raspberry Pi stuff. He built a stepper motor controller for the turntable and then we built some turnout and light control boards that interface with DCC. We set up JMRI on a Raspberry Pi to drive trains from phones and automate stuff. I also got him into 3D printing and he’s printed a ton of new scenery for the layout after buying his own Ender 3 after using mine quite a bit. We’ve learned various CAD/modeling programs to make 3D prints.
I also finally got to do something I always wanted to do as a kid, which is to drive the trains from a first-person view. We have gone through a bunch of different variations of putting a Raspberry Pi Zero and camera module on an HO scale railcar. We did some different designs. Our latest design uses an SG-90 micro servo to control the camera angle so you can look left and right. I also 3D printed an enclosure for a regulator, battery charger, and battery that takes track power and powers the Pi.
It’s pretty fun to be able to sit on the couch with a phone, watching the view on the TV, and drive the train from the other room including operating turnouts. Haven’t yet tried to drive the trains over the Internet yet but I want to, since I live a state away from my parents where the layout is.
Edit: Here’s a video of the camera car in action! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls-Rg1TlDOA
Very cool! Sounds pretty much like what I have started on mine, I went the full DCC++ route, have an arduino and rpi running the whole layout, with a few other boards helping along the way. At some point I’d love to do full automation of the setup but that’ll be a while. What camera did you use for the rpi and train? I’m running n scale so I’m assuming yours would be larger
We built the layout when DCC was first coming out after going to a train show. We ended up picking up one of Digitrax’s first systems (Empire Builder IIRC, with DB150 base station). That’s still what we use for DCC. I designed a LocoNet to serial adapter (MS100 compatible, but very cheap and simple) in college (2010 ish) and we’re using that to connect it up to a Pi 3 running JMRI. Our layout is HO scale. N scale is probably too small for even a Raspberry Pi Zero with camera module, as the setup barely fits on an HO scale car.
I have set up a DCC++ Ex setup at my house for testing and experiments. Just got a loop of EZ Track on the floor with an Arduino as the base station and another Pi with JMRI that is configured similarly to the real layout.
Here is an early picture of the camera car design with the servo. I’ve since condensed everything on to one car with a custom 3D printed design. I want to publish it eventually but haven’t had time. I even 3D printed trucks with power pickups in my latest design (just had to buy metal wheel sets to put in them). I also made a tiny Python webserver that has buttons for different servo positions so you can easily move the servo from a browser.
https://mastodon.social/@CalcProgrammer1/110456485998532640
For the DCC controlled turnouts, lights, and turntable, I built up an Arduino Nano based DCC decoder from a design I found online and a DCC decoder library that is available in Arduino. Since the layout spans multiple tables, instead of putting a DCC decoder for each table/PCB I just had the one decoder echo the DCC commands as serial messages over a serial bus that spans all the tables. The other boards (turnout controllers, light controllers, and turntable controller) all just have their RX pins wired to the decoder’s TX and can receive commands that way. Turnout controllers are a mix of SG90 micro servo based ones and L293D motor drivers for Tortoise switch machines. Light controllers use transistors to switch 12V outputs on and off to drive bulbs and LEDs. Turntable controller is an EasyDriver based stepper controller with some pre-programmed position offsets for each turntable track (each track position is mapped to a DCC function address).
I’m into model live steam engines, I’ve dreamed about a model live steam setup but never had the room (or funds) for such a build.
I’ve found the Kato setups to be a bit more friendly on the wallet and have great reliability. I’d recommend that, a small oval with a kato starter set
I think of trains as bullets flying on tracks and wheels of steel.
Working on my (private) servers is a hypnotic activity for me. It can be interesting or I can hate it and still want to do it. It can also be relaxing. Last time when I was sick in bed I played around with wireguard VPN configs all day to get a routed VPN for my VPS. I’m going to fix it today because something doesn’t work the way it should.
Also, I learn Japanese. 日本語が大好き！
Messing around with my server is so much fun! I’m always on the lookout for something new to self-host.
I just hosted paperless-ngx some days before. Great thing so far. Also renewed my jellyfin server, it’s kinda slow sadly.
I think, at last count, I had something like 50-60 docker containers running. I’m starting to hit the limit of what my 10-year-old hardware is capable of, so i’ve started saving for an upgrade. Lol.
Learning Greek is (very casually) one of my hobbies I wanted to try, because it has a different alphabet.
I study Vietnamese because it has the same alphabet.
Tôi học tiếng Việt.
“the same alphabet”
Δεν χάνεις κάτι να προσπαθήσεις :)
I’m also interested in learning Chinese for the same reason, I downloaded a good app for basics and have learned a bit but it’s a long long way from anything actually useful.
Foreign Alphabets are also great for obscure math variables. I like to name things よ
That’s true, it makes my everyday math look fancier
Any good ressources you used for the wireguard VPS stuff? Still on my bucket list.
I found this software to fit my purposes: wg-gen
You configure your wireguard stuff on your host and this is just a web ui that can show current peers and generate new ones.
That is useful for more complex configs. I only connect to specific servers and address spaces with the VPN, I also Support ipv6.
For that kind of configuration, I found it necessary to host a DNS server for the network, so that I can access the reverse proxy of my Homeserver.
If you’re only looking to warp your device into a different network, that’s more straight forward. I suggest to take a look at wg-easy if you want a web ui for that scenario.
Also, Caution: Some wireguard containers that use your hosts config love to delete them, so make backups. I’m looking at you, wireguard-ui.
Sorry for the late reply. I just wanted to day Thanks for posting this. I’ll have a look in the next couple of days and see what I can achieve.
Have a good weekend!
I’m having a good one, it’s one of the Selfhosting weekends. Sadly I noticed that the server does not forward clients packages to other clients over the VPN. I’ve tried a static ipv6 route but gave up eventually.
For me it’s coffee. Most people see it as a daily need. When I say my hobby is coffee they always say things like “that’s not a hobby”.
Coffee brings up associations with hot swill at diners. Craft coffee or coffee nerd brings up a barista image, so maybe that’s a good start.
Contributing to OpenStreetMap. I try to bring it up because it would be great to get more contributors to the project, but either I have to explain “It’s Wikipedia, but a map” or they come out with misunderstandings about the project that aren’t worth correcting. E.g not liking the icons used to display points on the map.
I also started this recently, it’s quite a relaxing way to contribute to a very useful project, often in a way that is unique to your local area meaning that your contribution has quite some value despite it’s small size.
Edit: That’s what he said
Do you know if there is a way to force Google to update an area from it? I put my road in on openstreetmap and Google appears to have tried to merge them and made a mess.
A hill I die on is not using Google Maps. I use Openstreetmap on my phone and everything and I’m loving life.
I want delivery drivers to be able to find me though…
Are there that many delivery drivers using Google Maps though? I get the feeling they use some other programme in conjunction with their own knowledge of the area. That said, I’ve met people who’ve lived in this city for like ten years who still use the wayfinder thing on their phone, and some delivery companies these days really skimp on equipment, so I wonder.
No idea, well I have put the data out there, hopefully it actually gets used.
Have you already used the ‘give feedback’ button on Google Maps? I think that’s the limit of what they offer. I’ve heard rumour that adding a business at your address makes it much more findable on Google Maps. But that might be adding misleading information. If Google started using OpenStreetMap data (they probably already do) they would have to attribute the data to the project. The big online shop named after a river has their drivers use OSM maps and they will add your driveway to the map etc themselves sometimes. So your additions to OSM will help you get some deliveries more reliably.
I want to try this. I even downloaded the apps to do it a little while back and opened them, but I realized that I need to do some reading up on it before I start knocking about. I just need to take the time to learn this. I’ve joined the OpenStreetMap community on Lemmy too.
Just in case you did, don’t get started with ‘Vespucci’ it’s aiming to be a tool for people already deep into OpenStreetMap. I’m three years in and it baffles me frequently. StreetComplete is amazing and Every Door and OSM Go! Are very usable. If you’re on iOS, this whole post is irrelevant. I’ve not used those apps.
Thanks! I’m on iOS and found some recommended apps.
Where would I get started? Is there a Portuguese community?
Get started with the ‘edit’ button at OpenStreetMap.org. There is a Portuguese community, but I’m not sure where they are most active https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Portugal
what kind of process do you go through to make a contribution? I could probably be into that.
An easy way is to download StreetComplete an app that breaks down contributions into easy questions about things around you.
I got started by just diving in with the editor at OpenStreetMap.org (Green button top left) and building knowledge using the OSM wiki (which is overwhelming at first)
I’ll take a look, thanks.
Starting and abandoning hobbies.
Abandonned Project this year:
- Get StickBugs
- Server
- Building a mechanical watch
- Trying out Linux (My Linux Journey Journal is 2 page long)
- Photography with Film Stips
- Learning Esperanto
- Learn Korean
- Learn Fighting Games
Technically stopped:
- Audiophily (Didn’t buy anything)
- Keyboard ( Happy I’m satisfied with mine)
- Geocaching (Nothing around me rn)
- Learn Hypnosis (I did it, I can do it, I just don’t go around and train it)
Programming… Maybe not the most quirky, but just doesn’t make for good conversation
At the date…
… Funny thing this reminds me of the time I had to refactor my API to accommodate three whole new call types, you should have seen the json generator code before …
See I think this would be awesome. Finally an interesting conversation
Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. Usually gets an, “oh” and a sideways look
I actually came here to say it USED to be D&D, but now it seems like every time I bring it up it’s followed by a full conversation about either them playing as well, them wanting to play, or questions they’ve always had about the game. It’s a stark difference from what it was just 5 or so years ago.
It’s also hilarious every now and then you’ll get somebody that drank the whole pitcher of 70s anti-D&D koolaide and thinks it’s for devil worshiping or some shit like that…while their favorite movies are Lord of the Rings like that isn’t the same subject matter through a different medium.
OMG. I want a T-shirt that says “I survived the Satanic Panic”
Ugh, jealous. That’s only happened twice for me. To be fair, I’m of an age that I started with BECMI, followed by AD&D. Took a break and picked back up for 5e
Maybe it’s the age group…
Oh, that’s safe. Try being into a more obscure ttrpgs like Mage The Ascension or worse, niche Powered by the Apocalypse games like Legacy.
I can’t even talk about them to people already into ttrpgs.
Or FATE and its numerous incarnations. I feel like I get as far as saying “it’s like DnD except…” before it veers off irrevocably into talking about DnD
Please talk to me about Mage. I’ve only gotten to play it once and really enjoyed it.
I met my wife playing Mage: the Ascension. Truly one in million. I know. Never got to try out M20 though. That should put a rough date on when this happened…
Dang, old school! I only got into WoD in the last few years but it’s been so much fun and I’ve met amazing people through it. Spooky nerds are best nerds.
Pathfinder usually goes alright, but any mention of D&D 5e and all I get is "Ugh D&D 5e is so basic, have you tried ". I’m not judging your TTRPG system taste, don’t judge mine.
Ha! “What the heck is Pathfinder?!”
– everyone I knowIt’s a Mars exploration vehicle!
- most people I know
Geocaching used to be really big but now is pretty low key and niche.
A lot of people I talk to have no clue what it is, and the rest know what it is but have some wildly wrong preconceived notions about it. Stuff like “It’s only for hikers” (no it isn’t) or how the geocaches are only in the woods. I had a friend who literally did not trust me to go geocaching with her because apparently she thought somebody would be waiting at the location of the geocache to murder us. I had to sit her down and show her that a large majority of geocaches are located in bustling cities and on the sides of major roads.
Sucks that a lot of people also just did not understand it. I once told a friend that there’s no monetary reward and they looked at me slackjawed. Like yes you just go find things and then when you find it you have the satisfaction of having found it and shared your find with your friends online. You don’t make money doing it lol.
I used to work with the “king” of geocaching in our area. If a new cache went up, he was always the first to get it. I figured out it was him from comments he had made online, not from talking to him. I often thought about ways I could mess with him, like making a new cache and waiting for him.
Geocaching is something I could get really into and just never did. I don’t know if my current area is too rural now.
I did it In a rural town and the lack of caches was a bit disappointing but as long as you’re in the us, Canada, UK, Australia, or Europe there’s probably an enthusiast in your town who placed a few. I remember my town had 10 caches and 9 of them were placed by 1 person
I’ve actually started 4 months ago! It’s really fun, sadly for the summer I am at my parents house, and there is nothing around, plus I don’t have enough finding to be someone that hides (I think it’s 50 if i’m not wrong)
Technically you don’t have to find any to hide any I don’t think. Pretty sure they just recommend finding like 50 caches so you know what to do when you hide one
Time to change this city
Geocaching makes walks with family fun again. I see new caches popping up in our area, so I never would have guessed that it’s a niche thing.
Hmm, would you happen to have suggestions for smaller containers to use to make caches? I’ve read of like ammo boxes being decent, but that always struck me as working best for more remote spots, or maybe I’ve overestimated their sizes a bit.
(Also this is how I found that there aren’t many geocaching communities across instances to ask this in, lol)
I’ve seen many Bison Tubes sold online, small Tupperware containers that have a locking lid, even peanut butter jars covered in camo tape are somewhat common. The best ones are custom made. Some great ones are 3D printed to fit in (think oversized acorn in a tree). I also enjoy everyday objects that are out of place like a pop up sprinkler head placed in the ground with the log inside. I made one that was a log where I bored out the middle. Those hide a key fake rocks work nicely as well.
most people who do “micro caches” use pill bottles, like when you get a prescription.
geocaching.org also sells cache containers.
In a way, my interest in internet privacy is almost always met with uninterested “ah” IRL. Even when I dont come off as preachy, when I just try to sell it as “watching YT without ads”, people often don’t care.
I speak Esperanto and I am quite active in the movement and write for the Esperanto Wikipedia. In 2011 I had quite a cool trip to an Esperanto Youth Congress in Kijiv. But it’s hard to talk about it because most people see it as a failed project from the early 1900s, not as a modern subculture.
Vi ne estas sola, mi lernis iom da esperanto, sed estas malfacile lerni, cxar gxi sentas sin… senutila?
Saluton, tria esperantisto cxi tie :D Mi bezonas lerni pli, sed me laboris multe
That’s interesting! A few friends of mine and I tried to get a hold of it during the last school year. But we were greatly annoyed that there was no good free/open source resource in our language. Everything that could be good material was basically “Pay for the course” or just buy the book for 50€. That demotivated us quite a bit. I get why you would like to make a buck for your work and yes learning languages in groups is more fun but besides badly formatted vocab sheets there was no resource that was a proper introduction to the language.
That’s not an issue anymore. There is an Duolingo course, tons of Anki vocabulary decks, the app Drops supports Esperanto and the website lernu.net has a pretty good free course to learn Esperanto grammar.
Saluton ! Mi klopodis apreni la lingvon per Duolingo kaj Lernu, sed beaŭrinde mi restis komencanton.
Thoughts on other conlangs, like toki pona and lojban?
I really like the idea of Globasa and Interslavic. I tried learning Toki Pona for one week, but did not stick to it for some reason, maybe some day.
I couldn’t find the name of the story. 99% sure the author is Howard Waldrop. In WW1 a group of soldiers sneak into No Man’s Land and create an underground nation where all men speak Esperanto.
Mi volas konvinki mian edzinon al lerni kun mi. Mi pensas ke se mi povas praktiki kun alian homon, mia gramatiko kaj vortfarado pliboniĝus. Sed ŝi ne volas.
I kill and butcher animals for myself and sometimes friends together with my boyfriend. Mostly pigs, some sheep and goats, poultry. Sometimes injured animals who are too injured or in too much pain.
The idea is to save the stress of transport to animals who are raised in good conditions as part of diversified restorative small-scale agriculture.
The killing and butchering is just one part of a circle of activities around the farm throughout the year, but probably the most unmentionable in any social setting other than among meat fanatics.
I’ve been playing Second Life for almost half of my life. I used to run a blog about it and often spend a few hours every day online chatting with people. Mentioning that I know anything about it inevitably triggers people to either ask “wait that still exists?” or “isn’t that a sex game?”
I have to admit, I am surprised that still exists, and also a little surprised it’s not considered at least a little bit of a sex game (I mean, every MMO has ERPers, but in my head, I pictured Second Life as a bit more common for that kinda thing).
Sex is a thing you can do and it’s part of the world, but it’s as focused on as you make it. You can go your entire SL without having sex or engaging with sexual content if you choose. I know people who are family roleplayers and live their SLs as kids, and people who are just into art, or just into fishing and sailing. Sex is part of my SL but not the entire thing, just like RL.
Honestly that just makes me think of the Daniel from SL videos on it. It seems like a neat game but it’s definitely a little strange how every other person Daniel spoke to had a 9 foot tall biker bro with a 16-pack as their character.
I’ve never heard of Daniel but looking him up, he seems like the sort I’d avoid. A lot of people use SL as wish fulfilment, making their avatars the way their idealized self would look. You can get really creative with an avatar but it’s less common than big burly biker dudes and girls with giant boobs. I mean, I play a femboy half the time, so that probably says something about me.
Knitting - if you find the right audience, you can chat for hours, but it can also lead to blank looks or lots of assumption.
