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<awygle>
is there a semantic difference between a "decoder" and an "encoder"? is a decoder just an encoder from Y to X where an encoder from X to Y already exists?
<awygle>
agreed. that feels insufficient though. the more i think about this the less happy i am with either word. they imply a canonical format which may or may not exist.
<Bike>
they're all (in bijections with) natural numbers. makes you think............
<jn__>
and as a rule of thumb, my feeling is that an encoder usually converts from "wire format" to "processing format", while a decoder goes the other way. (i guess if you want to be pedantic, there is no clear distinction without more context)
<azonenberg>
awygle: yeah i would generally consider both to just be functions with defined domains and ranges
<azonenberg>
which are inverses of each other
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<awygle>
Typing "vim Makefile" and looking at an empty buffer is demoralizing enough that I'm just gonna go to bed
<azonenberg>
Yes, i am bitbanging pre-emphasis on my 100base-TX bitbang driver
<rqou>
wtf
<azonenberg>
I take a LVCMOS33 2 mA driver
<azonenberg>
in series with 16 ohms on the PCB
<azonenberg>
and turn it on for 2 ns when switching from -1 or +1 to the differential-zero state
<azonenberg>
rather than letting the terminator do all the work
<azonenberg>
basically just giving the waveform a little shove
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<azonenberg>
i may actually want to *increase* the 16 ohms, lol
<azonenberg>
the rise time is supposed to be 3-5 ns
<azonenberg>
i have 2.98 from -1 to 0
<rqou>
anyways, clifford and i had a nice chat about various things, but one thing that came up is that it might be useful to have a mailing list or some other not-irc means of communication for various "openfpga-related projects"
<azonenberg>
Got any ideas?
<rqou>
i.e. a "open source eda tooling users group" mailing list on e.g. google groups
<azonenberg>
Makes sense
<azonenberg>
i'd be down for that
<rqou>
because it turns out irc isn't very good for e.g. newbies asking questions
<azonenberg>
i was thinking more just for archival purposes
<azonenberg>
But there's that too
<rqou>
archival?
<azonenberg>
as in, people can google your listserv archives
<azonenberg>
a lot more easily than irc logs
<azonenberg>
in terms of finding what you wanted
<rqou>
you can search the logs too (thanks whitequark!)
<azonenberg>
yes you can, but list archives tend to be more readable ex post facto
<rqou>
that's true
<azonenberg>
i still support the idea, just not for the same reasons
<azonenberg>
(i actually think the instant-reply nature of IRC can be a lot more useful for a noob who has no idea where to start)
<azonenberg>
the alternative is a long, drawn-out email thread that could span dozens of messages and several days before they figure out what they actually need to do
<rqou>
huh, maybe that's because the availability of people on this channel is better than on #yosys
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<gruetzkopf>
that's quite neat
<rqou>
er, what is?
<gruetzkopf>
the state of the 100baseTX bitbang driver
<gruetzkopf>
nearly everyone takes "use a commercial phy" for granted
<azonenberg>
Lol
<rqou>
so azonenberg, when are you going to build your own optics for lulz? :P
<azonenberg>
I think the driver is essentially done, i might tweak the 115 ohm resistor down to 100-110 to try and bring the p-p amplitude from 880 up to 1000 mV
<azonenberg>
but otherwise i'm very happy with it
<rqou>
azonenberg: ethernet over toslink :P
<azonenberg>
i still have to do the 10M side, autonegotiation, and RX
<azonenberg>
rqou: my first SFP will be wifi
<azonenberg>
:p
<rqou>
wait seriously?
<azonenberg>
only half kidding
<azonenberg>
i was thinking of shoving an esp32 + FPGA into a sfp to bridge 1000base-T to 802.11
<azonenberg>
and just have a sma connector coming out of the switch
<rqou>
esp32 is kinda crap
<azonenberg>
Show me a better chipset
<azonenberg>
that's available w/o NDAs and can do >100 Mbps over wifi
<azonenberg>
with onboard ethernet
<azonenberg>
i dont like it, but it looks like the least bad of the bad options
<rqou>
wait, esp32 has onboard ethernet too?
<azonenberg>
it has 10/100 mac, not sure about phy
<azonenberg>
but i can bridge mac to an fpga easily
<rqou>
i didn't know that
<rqou>
anyways, what about ath9k?
<azonenberg>
can you buy them in qty 1 on digikey with a no-nda datasheet?
<azonenberg>
and will it fit in an SFP?
<rqou>
i don't think so unfortunately
<azonenberg>
then it doesnt exist
<azonenberg>
:p
<azonenberg>
I design for parts i can source and use
<rqou>
<troll>BCMxxxxx</troll>
<rqou>
so BCM* is out i assume? :P
<gruetzkopf>
hp didn't even spring for a BCMxxxx 1GE phy for this laptop, and that is how i ended up with a 100M ethernet port..
<gruetzkopf>
and SFP compat on HP switches is a bit weird. mine with every SFP i've tried except for real cisco and fake hp. fake cisco is fine though
<rqou>
i use china-grade fs.com optics, worksforme(tm)
<rqou>
but i also don't use the maximally-enterprisey switches like hp
<gruetzkopf>
i use whatever is on top of the used-SFP bucket
<rqou>
yeah, my switches are all a bit weird
<rqou>
e.g. an LB4M or a meraki device
<rqou>
interestingly, meraki switches have no sfp whitelisting
<rqou>
despite now being under the cisco umbrella
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<azonenberg>
rqou: what host NIC do you use?
<azonenberg>
for fiber
<azonenberg>
and is it 1 or 10g?
<gruetzkopf>
i could simply downgrade my set of hp 26xx and 28xx below introduction of whitelisting..
<rqou>
it's some weird oem version of the intel "x520" (82599ES chip)
<rqou>
the spi flash is too small to put the latest firmware on it
<rqou>
and yes, updating the firmware does fix some slow boot time issue
<rqou>
afaict because uefi is a pile of crap
<sn00n>
yay
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<rqou>
azonenberg: i have a fun bikeshed/request for you
<rqou>
i want gp4par to be made into a libgp4par
<rqou>
so instead of passing in a filename and command-line arguments, i can pass pointers to some in memory data and somehow pass some flags in a struct
<rqou>
and then run the par
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<balrog>
azonenberg: there's a bunch of Cypress stuff that's former-BRCM
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<awygle>
Personally I am against mailing lists. I have too much email in my life already and I strongly prefer synchronous communication for most things.
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<azonenberg>
rqou: that had been the plan from day one
<azonenberg>
we just never got around to the refactoring
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<whitequark>
awygle++
<whitequark>
the UX of a mailing list is atrocious
<whitequark>
if you made a Discourse instance I would use it tho
<rqou>
so, um, i got the OBL save file for new super mario bros loaded
<rqou>
it's cleared up to world 1-3
<cr1901_modern>
Did you implement new super mario bros on FPGA or something :)?
<rqou>
no, just using desmume
<azonenberg>
cr1901_modern: yes
<azonenberg>
that sounds about right
<azonenberg>
(re tweet)
<cr1901_modern>
I figured you'd relate
<azonenberg>
i've wanted her gone for years
<azonenberg>
every time they call me up asking for donations (donations, really? after i paid that much to be a student?)
<azonenberg>
i tell them to call me back after she's gone
<rqou>
"The school has leveraged so much money that it was formally put on notice by the Dept. of Education last year."
<rqou>
is this true?
<azonenberg>
I have no source to confirm that, but i do know that their credit rating for bonds has been downgraded several times
<azonenberg>
and they're now at the lowest credit score that still qualifies them as "investment grade" debt
<azonenberg>
SAJ is great at bringing money into the school, and even better at spending it
<azonenberg>
on things that dont benefit the students whatsoever but look nice on shiny alumni magazine covers and new-student brochures
<azonenberg>
Like a new performing arts center at an engineering school where the science building roof leaks
<azonenberg>
Or a new football stadium for our team that barely qualified for regional competitions
<rqou>
lol
<cr1901_modern>
It's funny... my Uni's football team is actually good, but the name is pretty ridiculous
<rqou>
it must probably suck much more to be UCB administration right now
<rqou>
all the world politics keeps coming here, and there's never money
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<rqou>
offtopic: do i want to start digging into wtf is going on with SFC/SFLC/Eben Moglen, or do I just want to ignore this?
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<shapr>
I'd kind of like a short summary
<pie_>
azonenberg, :|
<pie_>
people keep seeming to forget that higher education institutions actually need the higher education part
<awygle>
I have a UCB regents rant that starts with the obligation in the charter of sports teams to fund themselves (which literally zero do at UCB) but no one actually wants to hear it lol
<awygle>
whitequark: discourse the forum software? Is that what rust uses?
<rqou>
er, i don't know if discourse is a great idea or not
<shapr>
I have a rant where my university spent two million dollars on landscaping, signs, and advertising; while the cs/math building was mostly termites.
<rqou>
afaik discourse is super slow and bloated for a piece of forum software
<rqou>
i guess if you're not hosting it yourself then whatever
<pie_>
i saw something posted at the math department the other day signed by a bunch of profs about various grievances here
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<shapr>
pie_: anything interesting?
<pie_>
not partiiiicularly
<pie_>
but the fact of it at all is interesting in itself i suppose, yknow?
<pie_>
i didnt have anything to take a photo of it with so i dont remember the details
<azonenberg>
shapr: sounds like par for the course
<pie_>
azonenberg, iykwim
<azonenberg>
but at your school, did the president shut down the faculty senate after they dared to hold a vote of no confidence in her?
<shapr>
no, that's impressive
<azonenberg>
or kinda-sorta expel the head of student government after the student senate did the same thing?
<shapr>
Also, I got a professor fired when they were flagrantly rubber stamping our whole class
<whitequark>
awygle: yes
<azonenberg>
tl;dr they needed to take a class the next semester that was full
<whitequark>
rqou: it is kind of slow and bloated
<whitequark>
but it beats using, like, phpbb
<azonenberg>
they leaned on the prof and he refused to sign the overload form (something most profs will do without a second thought)
<whitequark>
which is a pain in the ass to actually, you know, have a conversation in
<cr1901_modern>
Do you base that off of the "php" part alone :)?
<whitequark>
no
<azonenberg>
shapr: she ended up not meeting some milestone for her major and then was forced to drop out because of losing her scholarship
<whitequark>
I've used and administered phpbb forums back in the day
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<shapr>
azonenberg: the president??
<cr1901_modern>
B/c tbh, phpbb was what I was gonna recommend
<pie_>
shapr, i am also confused :P
<whitequark>
cr1901_modern: your choices in software are nearly as vintage as in hardware
<pie_>
in our case they wrote something about the current head of the uni getting his position somehow without council majority approval or something
<whitequark>
next thing you'll suggest moving the source code to RCCS
<shapr>
I just found some CVS files in my ~/src/python
<cr1901_modern>
whitequark: I wouldn't even suggest using CVS, let alone RCCS
<shapr>
buncha code I wrote in the 90s
<mtp>
oh god are we talking about bad software
<cr1901_modern>
And what is par for the course for forum software nowadays? Most of the forums I'm part of are either vbulletin or phpbb
<whitequark>
mtp: do you have a highlight on RCCS?
<mtp>
no
<mtp>
also it's RCS
<whitequark>
erm.
<mtp>
the one before that was SCCS
<whitequark>
sorry they kind of melded in my mind.
<pie_>
im surprised at the new forum software people are using that is utter shit
<mtp>
heh
<pie_>
i dont know what it is
<cr1901_modern>
Oops ._.
<pie_>
but what the fuck it up with the lack of subforums
<mtp>
pie_, forum software is defacto utter shit
<mtp>
there hasn't been a good web-based one
<mtp>
ever
<mtp>
[hot take intesifies]
<whitequark>
i agree with mtp
<whitequark>
i said discourse because it actually lets you meaningfully track discussions without getting notification overload
<whitequark>
it can do weekly summaries, @mentions and other shit like that
<cr1901_modern>
but what the fuck it up with the lack of subforums <-- is this Discourse?
<awygle>
My attitude towards discourse is probably "resignation with a faint distaste". I recognize the need for an asynchronous threaded medium but the fact of it annoys me
<openfpga-github>
[logtools] whitequark closed pull request #4: Force emscripten to wrap lines at 120 chars for now (master...master) https://git.io/vFopr
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<openfpga-github>
[openfpga] whitequark commented on pull request #121 ab2c828: This is a wrong way to use `set(CACHE)`. Why do you need a user-visible switch here anyway? How is ... https://git.io/vFoh1
<awygle>
emscripten made its way onto my "to play with" list last night
<pie_>
its javascript
<pie_>
it will get you
<pie_>
no matter what
<cr1901_modern>
Ever try reading the ECMAScript spec? It's a doozy
<openfpga-github>
[openfpga] rqou commented on pull request #121 ab2c828: The idea was that I did want this to be a user-visible feature switch. The CACHE and FORCE is so that the cmake script can forcefully override the user's choice if the user's choice isn't feasible. This is also done for BUILD_DOC and BUILD_RUST. Is this wrong? https://git.io/vFKe9
<openfpga-github>
[openfpga] whitequark commented on pull request #121 ab2c828: Yes. The variable is not defined at all for non-emscripten builds (it should be defined such that tools are built), which means it won't show up in lists of configuration variables, GUIs, etc.... https://git.io/vFKvh
<awygle>
Okay are asm.js, wasm, and webassembly three things, or two things, or one thing?
<cr1901_modern>
wasm == webassembly I think, and asm.js is separate
<rqou>
yeah, wasm is yet another attempt at a bytecode language for the web (but with support of the browsers and lessons learned from previous attempts like flash/java)
<rqou>
asm.js is a giant hack to define a subset of JavaScript that's a good compiler target that can also be checked and jitted ahead of time
<azonenberg>
Javascript is a giant hack
<azonenberg>
:P
<rqou>
that too
<mtp>
azonenberg, were you the one whom posted on twitter about bit-banging 10/100 ethernet with an FPGA
<awygle>
Redmond is surprisingly immune to most disasters, especially if you live south of the park
<azonenberg>
i havent checked what weather looks like in poulsbo
<awygle>
Of course it has its own, more monetary price.
<azonenberg>
The island is ridiculously pricey
<azonenberg>
average home price here is like $800K
<azonenberg>
there was almost nothing for sale under 500k
<awygle>
Oh? Wouldn't have guessed that
<azonenberg>
lol
<rqou>
still better than the bay
<azonenberg>
this is where all of the rich people who dont want to live in seattle go
<mtp>
azonenberg, MRISWA?
<awygle>
I thought that was Bellevue
<azonenberg>
mtp: ?
<mtp>
sorry, habit of typing place locations in telco CLLI code
<mtp>
mercer island?
<azonenberg>
lol
<azonenberg>
oh
<mtp>
awygle, bellespew is where Microsoft soccer-moms live
<azonenberg>
no, bainbridge
<mtp>
ah ok
<shapr>
Atlanta is reallly affordable compared to all the other tech cities.
<rqou>
afaict Fremont is where all the Bay Area crotchfruit breeders live :P (i live in Fremont)
<mtp>
but then you're in atlanta
<awygle>
Is Atlanta a tech city? I hear Austin for that usually
<shapr>
Yeah, there's a decent amount of tech/startups/etc here.
<awygle>
Silicon Bayou?
<shapr>
and cost of living is roughly one sixth of SF
<rqou>
lol
<awygle>
(Lincoln NE has 'silicon prairie' branding all over)
<shapr>
Atlanta pay is lower than SF, but there's way more leftover after expenses.
<rqou>
but but but you need the hype of MSJHS here in Fremont :P
<awygle>
Best is to work remotely for an SF company
<rqou>
how else will your fancy asian snowflake children get into Stanford? :P :P
<azonenberg>
awygle: lol yes
<shapr>
awygle: some people do that, but I'm a raging extrovert
<azonenberg>
in my case, moving out into kitsap with a seattle salary and going in a couple days a week
<azonenberg>
doing the rest remote
<shapr>
For the most part, I like going into the office.
<azonenberg>
i should be in good shape
<awygle>
Yeah I should have specialized more
<azonenberg>
I'm getting a house with about 300 more square feet and two additional bedrooms from what i'm renting now (although a slightly smaller lot with a shorter driveway)
<azonenberg>
For $700/mo less
<awygle>
Still time I guess
<azonenberg>
than i'm paying now
<azonenberg>
plus since i'll own it, i'll be able to do all kinds of invasive things like putting fiber optics in the walls :p
<awygle>
My parents keep trying to convince me to buy, but they have no idea what the market here is like
<awygle>
Maybe in N years
<azonenberg>
we tried to buy three houses before this one
<rqou>
at least you're picking locations based on your own concerns and not for the school district
<azonenberg>
each time, in the few minutes between we visited the house and we told the realtor we wanted to make an offer
<azonenberg>
somebody else signed a contract
<shapr>
wow
<awygle>
rqou: unfortunately because of how taxes work there are few nice neighborhoods with crappy school districts
<azonenberg>
shapr: yeah
<awygle>
I would happily take that discount otherwise
<azonenberg>
so when we saw a reasonably priced place in a decent neighborhood that looked in good structural condition
<azonenberg>
we jumped on it
<azonenberg>
fully expecting to get snipd again
<azonenberg>
this time, we didnt
<awygle>
I've considered buying land instead of trying to buy a house for that reason
<awygle>
Has its own headaches of course
<shapr>
The hippy/liberal/college prof neighborhood in Atlanta has the best school system, I'd like to live there.
<shapr>
They also have the best capoeira
<azonenberg>
awygle: i considered that too
<rqou>
that sounds like even more headache
<azonenberg>
we looked at a couple of places way out in the boonies with 2+ acres of land, but none were priced affordably
<azonenberg>
the one thing i found that looked good sold before we could grab it
<shapr>
At least it's not San Francisco
<azonenberg>
The place we're getting is a lot closer to a downtown area than i really wanted, but 1/4 acre lot at least provides a little bit of insulation from the neighbors
<awygle>
I have a friend in black diamond who'd probably carve off a few acres for me if I asked. Land in that area seems fairly reasonable in any case.
<azonenberg>
we have a yard, at least
<awygle>
Or did like two years ago
<rqou>
just can't compete with the speculators from China that buy houses with all cash :P
<azonenberg>
rqou: these aren't speculators
<rqou>
oh wow
<azonenberg>
these are people actually looking for places to live
<azonenberg>
there are more people than houses
<azonenberg>
The Seattle area is expanding massively in population
<azonenberg>
and housing isnt keeping up
<awygle>
Yeah Seattle has a decently high residency rate right? Definitely way better than SF
<rqou>
ah, so you guys can get our housing crisis a few years later :P
<rqou>
(says the person whose parents own multiple houses in the bay)
<awygle>
We have enough cranes tho. Somewhat less NIMBY bullshit
<shapr>
rqou: wow, how'd they do that?
<rqou>
having money gets you more money
<shapr>
true that
<azonenberg>
awygle: no, they have THAT problem on bainbridge
<rqou>
welcome to capitalism
<rqou>
also, the other houses aren't in the most expensive parts of the bay, so that helps
<rqou>
as for the first house, my parents got it by buying it well before it became worth $1mil or so :P
<qu1j0t3>
parents are funny that way it's like they're in a whole different era
* qu1j0t3
's parents' first house was $6,000
<awygle>
Where do you get chemicals?
<pie_>
from tears of millenials mostly
<rqou>
me? Amazon mostly :P
<rqou>
although i don't actually have too many chemicals at this point
<awygle>
I want to do some spectroscopy experiments and I need to make some standard solutions
<rqou>
oh, I don't have spectroscopic-grade chemicals
<rqou>
i still haven't gotten around to synthesizing RFNA yet
<rqou>
because i don't want yet another lab meltdown :P
<rqou>
however for RFNA synthesis, I don't want to end up with a large cloud of NO2 that ends up corroding all metal in my room (cough cough whitequark's roommate)
<azonenberg>
just as i was going to run downstairs and fire up the generator it came back
<azonenberg>
But now i have the extension cords all stretched out and ready to go
<azonenberg>
so we should be able to get on backup power in 2-3 minutes if it goes down again
<whitequark>
>RFNA synthesis
<whitequark>
>room
<rqou>
yeah, my housemates have banned further chemistry in the apartment. this is now being done in my parent's garage
<rqou>
or will be done when i finally get around to it
<azonenberg>
lol
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<awygle>
azonenberg: surprised you don't have automatic fail over or something
<azonenberg>
I'm in a rental
<azonenberg>
so i cant do invasive modifications like that
<azonenberg>
Plus my generator is a portable i keep in the garage when not in use
<azonenberg>
I have about 10 mins of UPS coverage, which is barely enough to get things up and running if i don't have the wiring pre-staged
<azonenberg>
if i anticipate power outages early on in a storm i'll usually pre-stretch the extension cords
<azonenberg>
which speeds things up a lot
<azonenberg>
At the new house i'm going to wire up a transfer switch so i wont need extension cords, i can generator-back wall circuits as needed
<azonenberg>
the generator start will still be manual but i'll try and make a little shed-type thing i can keep it in
<azonenberg>
so its kept out of the rain but can still exhaust to the outside
<azonenberg>
and i can just walk out to it, start it, then flip one breaker and be good to go
<azonenberg>
Eventually when budget permits i'll replace that setup with an auto transfer switch and a self-starting generator
<awygle>
Meanwhile I don't even have a ups
<azonenberg>
the other thing i want to do at the new place is extend my UPS battery bank to be good for an hour or so
<azonenberg>
ideally more like 6-8 hours
<rqou>
yeah, i want a much bigger UPS battery bank
<awygle>
I would suffocate in minutes if I ran a generator in my apartment though
<rqou>
but $$$
<azonenberg>
so i can ride out a shorter outage overnight without waking up neighbors with my lawnmower^h^h^hgenerator
<rqou>
meh, who cares about neighbors :P
<rqou>
get rid of neighbors by blowing SO3 at them :P :P
<rqou>
so azonenberg, are you ever planning to install solar panels to also help ride out power failures?
<pie_>
you know youve been too much abstract algebra when special orthogonal group 3
<rqou>
oh wait, you're in the PNW, so you don't ever get any sun
<rqou>
i wonder where there is less sun: London or PNW?
<azonenberg>
rqou: lol
<azonenberg>
no idea, but yeah solar is out of the question around here IMO
<azonenberg>
i'd be fine with a bigger battery bank
<awygle>
Nuclear
<rqou>
trying to earn an eagle scout? :P :P
<awygle>
LFTR
<azonenberg>
awygle: no nukes in my basement tyvm
<azonenberg>
One of my rules for what is/isnt allowed in my lab
<azonenberg>
No high-scrutiny drug precursors (pseudoephedrine, anhydrous ammonia, iodine, etc)
<rqou>
oh, apparently the radioactive boy scout passed away a year ago. RIP
<azonenberg>
rqou: from five different kinds of cancer?
<awygle>
I know a guy who built a fusor, that sounds like a fun project
<azonenberg>
No high explosives (moderate to small quantities of propellants like smokeless powder are OK if properly stored)
<shapr>
that wasn't a healthy hobby
<shapr>
awygle: chad ramey?
<rqou>
no, from alcohol poisoning
<azonenberg>
And no high-energy radioactive materials
<awygle>
shapr: no
<shapr>
Chad Ramey is the guy I know who built a fusor in high school.
<awygle>
My guy also built a fusor in high school but his name is not Chad Ramey
<azonenberg>
Small tritium lamps are OK but nothing crazy
<shapr>
last year he was tuning alsa drivers for dolphin speech, this year he built a robot for exploring under antartic ice
<shapr>
I do kinda wonder how he's putting up instagram pix from Antarctica
<rqou>
oh yeah i have some tritium vials
<rqou>
those are technically illegal in the US
<azonenberg>
I have four legal ones
<rqou>
ah, gunsights
<azonenberg>
Yeah
<azonenberg>
Pistol rear (2) and front (1), plus a rifle scope crosshair
<rqou>
yeah, mine are frivolous trinket things
<rqou>
so illegal
<rqou>
but but azonenberg, if you ban anhydrous ammonia, how will you see the beautiful blue of solvated electrons? (other than by watching it on youtube of course :P )
<azonenberg>
My point was, giant chunks of Pu-239 or Po-210, NRC rules aside
<azonenberg>
are not allowed in my lab :p
<azonenberg>
rqou: if i want to see beautiful blue
<azonenberg>
i'll just mix up some oxygen plasma
<balrog>
[16:33:34] <rqou>oh, apparently the radioactive boy scout passed away a year ago. RIP
<balrog>
[16:33:44] <azonenberg>rqou: from five different kinds of cancer?
<azonenberg>
once i get my vacuum gear set up
<balrog>
IIRC it was alcoholism
<rqou>
yeah, i mentioned that
<balrog>
but I may be wrong
<balrog>
oh nvm then
<awygle>
Th-232! Totally different
<rqou>
that's what wikipedia says
<balrog>
reminds me... Stephen Toulouse (known for being the Xbox Live Chief Enforcer for a while, and doing funny skits on this) recently passed away.... his sister put out a statement https://twitter.com/toulouto/status/928353542607384576
<rqou>
azonenberg: if you ban iodine, how will you repeat nurdrage's pyramethamine synthesis that involves making organoiodides? :P
<rqou>
er wait
<rqou>
nvm, that only requires NaI or KI, not pure iodine
<awygle>
Why in the hell can government offices just hang up on me
<rqou>
azonenberg: what illegal use is iodine used for?
<pie_>
inb4 we should just ban anything elemental
<azonenberg>
rqou: i recall crystalline iodine was used to make... meth i think?
<azonenberg>
either way, i dont need it
<azonenberg>
it might be cool to play with but the risk of someone thinking i'm using it for other things isn't worth the gain
<azonenberg>
if i actually had a process that required it, i'd have to make a judgment based on that
<balrog>
yeah iodine is used to make meth
<balrog>
but it's still widely available in the US
<azonenberg>
sure, but its one more reason for someone to think i'm up to no good
<azonenberg>
the point is to avoid handing someone the rope to hang me with
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<balrog>
for my parents' generation it's something everyone would keep in their medicine cabinet
<azonenberg>
why?
<balrog>
antiseptic
<azonenberg>
i thought the usual antiseptic was povidone iodine or some other complex
<azonenberg>
not the pure purple crystals
<balrog>
Tincture of iodine
<rqou>
ah, so similar to NileRed's recommendation of "i don't think it's a good idea to keep a white powder that can numb you in a bag like this" (was benzocaine btw)
<rqou>
:P
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<balrog>
which Is a mixture of elemental iodine and sodium iodide dissolved in water and alcohol
<rqou>
iirc benzocaine actually does set off some cocaine tests
<azonenberg>
not surprised
<azonenberg>
But yeah, exactly
<rqou>
NileRed also had a pretty hilarious video involving "and then we pour in our totally new and unused bottle of anal lube" (extracting lidocaine)
<azonenberg>
Lol yeah that one is in my queue of things to watch
<rqou>
i don't want to ask what you and your $WIFE get up to :P :P :P
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<azonenberg>
But anyway my point was, certain things (like bags of white powders that numb you) are just not smart to keep around
<azonenberg>
even if you can eventually explain what it's for
<azonenberg>
rqou: :P
<azonenberg>
I did have to tell her to wipe her butt one day
<azonenberg>
The butt-shaped night light was all dusty
<azonenberg>
it looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the day we bought it
<rqou>
l-lewd :P
<azonenberg>
you cant see it as much when it's lit up
<azonenberg>
but when it's off and the sun hits it...
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<whitequark>
iodine is trivialto get anyway
<whitequark>
just like elemental chrlorine and bromine
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<azonenberg>
whitequark: sure, i could make/get it if i wanted
<azonenberg>
the point was more, it can lead to people asking unpleasant questions
<azonenberg>
and if i don't actually need it
<azonenberg>
no point in having it just to be cool
<rqou>
i kinda want bromine just to be cool, but storing it sounds not fun
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<rqou>
i can probably seal it in an ampoule i suppose
<whitequark>
rqou: the only good way to store it
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<whitequark>
you can use it in a bottle with a PE cap surroinded by a strong reducing agent and capped in a second bottle that does not fracture
<whitequark>
you can store it*
<whitequark>
but it will still leak
<whitequark>
slowly
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<mtp>
there was a bromine spill in the chem department when i was in college
<mtp>
that was fun, they totally mishandled it and evacuated campus when they could have just ventilated the lab
<pie_>
heh :/
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<awygle>
azonenberg: lights are flickering like crazy. No outage yet tho