u/TaylorHu

Working under the idea that perfect is the enemy of good, what can't your truly do with a good multifunctional cable machine? I think the biggest limitation is that some can be fairly limited in terms of max weight, but that's not a universal constraint, especially with the ones that just take olympic plates. But the advantages are

1. Space effient compared to a rack of dumbells and a full bar and everything else.

2. Very easy to change angles and weight, making supersets and other things more fluid

3. Theoretically safer when working out alone, no need for a spotter or anything

4. Theoretically quieter compared to dropping a loaded barbell or something

I'm sure that there are some movements that are better with dumbbell or barbell, but are we talking about a 5% difference? Assuming you're not training for something specific, like a powerlifting meet, how much does that really matter?

I used to live in the Pacific Northwest and have always relied on Craigslist, but I've been told that's a quick way to just get murdered in Philly. Where is the best place to find rentals in Philly? Thanks!

Kind of my take on Spec Driven Development. And I know I'm not the first person to coin the phrase by any means. Still in the early phase, tweaking it regularly as I use it on a few different side projects, but I think it's at the point where it can be shared and I'd love feedback, brutal honest feedback, on it. Thanks!

https://taylorhuston.me/sdd-skills/

https://github.com/TaylorHuston/sdd-skills

https://taylorhuston.me/2026/07/01/Story-Driven-Development.html

Kind of my take on Spec Driven Development. And I know I'm not the first person to coin the phrase by any means. Still in the early phase, tweaking it regularly as I use it on a few different side projects, but I think it's at the point where it can be shared and I'd love feedback, brutal honest feedback, on it. It's _mostly_ a tool to help keep different LLMs on track, but I also find it really useful for the "I'm working on four different things at once look how productive I am at multitasking oh wait what as I doing for this last" ADHD problem. Thanks!

https://taylorhuston.me/sdd-skills/

https://github.com/TaylorHuston/sdd-skills

https://taylorhuston.me/2026/07/01/Story-Driven-Development.html

In my hometown we used to have one os those steakhouse restaurants where you could throw peanut shells on the floor. Used to go there all the time as a kid. Lot of fond memories there. Then one day a lady slipped on the peanuts, sued the restaurant, and now now more peanuts. Just one greedy person ruined it for everyone.

Anyways some jackass on my ream was caught working two jobs and now we all have 90days to RTO. Don't know why that made me think of the peanut story.

Obviously a broad question with a lot of variability, but it's inspired by an instagram reel I saw. It was a guy taking a video of some exposed electrical wires arcing into the water near a dock. The commentary being "this is why you never swim near docks."

So I was wondering what's the electricity to amount of water to distance from source ratio before it's dangerous? Toaster in a bathtub and you die. Toaster in the ocean and nothing happens.

Why has no one made a more complete doorjamb power tower replacement? Basically combine

this: https://a.co/d/0fMI5gpB and this: https://a.co/d/0cKTiEZV

Doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to engineer? They're both like, 90% of the way there. Due to the limitations of my apartment I don't have space for an actual tower but I also can't drill anything heavy into the walls (old converted factory that literally doesn't have studs, just metal beams and random intervals, it's a whole thing).

Does that exist? I've been googling and poking around Amazon for about an hour, but maybe I'm just not searching the right term(s)?

I'm paying the $200/mo Codex sub, and using the Codex desktop app on my MacBook. I've also installed Hermes.

I run Codex in a top level, meta directory that contains all of my coding projects and my Obsidian vault. So I use it for everything from direct coding tasks to vault cleanup to things like helping me stay on top of keeping my daily journal up to date.

Codex has built in automations now, and I've got that doing things like auto summarizing selected parts of my vault, pulling YouTube transcripts from channels I follow, the same for blogs, etc.

It also has plugins (basically MCPs) for pretty much every third party service I would need.

And I can talk to the instance running on my laptop through the ChatGPT app on my phone.

So, basically, I am struggling to see what Hermes can do that Codex can't? Seriously asking, as I would love to use it, but so far unable to find a good use case.

Peak Design used to have an identity. Really good photography bags. With their flex fold design or whatever they called it. It may not have been for everyone, but it's what set them apart. It was their hook. Their identity.

​

Now they just make... Bags. Sometimes with a generic camera cube insert (that is a separate purchase of course). But bags. Just generic bags. Like every other bag manufacturer. Most of which are overpriced since they don't really have anything unique anymore that sets them apart. The new 40L is kind of cool, at least it's a little different, but of what they've released for a while has been a just overwhelmingly generic bag.

Looking for something just big enough to carry a body and one or two lenses and not much else, and something that won't the be this big, empty awkward floppy thing on my back when I am using my camera. I have a few photographer back backs but they're pretty overkill a lot of the time. I'd prefer a backpack over a sling since I hate the feeling of something on just one shoulder for extended periods of time.

​

Something like the Peak Design 15L zip or the Nomatic Luma maybe, but open to other suggestions.

​

Thanks!

Is anyone using their Huion tablets to edit photos in LrC? I've gone down the rabbit hole of home office/desk setup YouTube videos, photographer setups, all that, but I haven't seen a lot of examples of this. Only people really using them for digital art, drawing, sketching, concept art, etc.

Seems like they would be really nice for photo editing though, make it a lot easier to mask and things. Especially now that they're getting pretty good Adobe RGB coverage.

I was wondering if anyone used a drawing tablet as part of their workflow? Like a Wacom or, more likely, something like a Huion or XP Pen? It seems like it would make retouching and masking and all that a lot easier. But I've went down the rabbit hole of home officd/desk setup videos a lot, constantly rearranging my home office is my ADHD procrastination drug of choice, but I don't think I've ever seen an example of a photographer using one. A few actual digital artists, people who make concept art for video games and things, sure, but never a photographer.

So, is anyone actually using one? And if not, why not?

Hey all,

Considering moving to Philly. Wanted to price out apartments. Back in the West Coast Craigslist is still the best place, but I've heard that in the East Coast you only use that if you want to get robbed and murdered 😅.

Thanks in advance!

Is anyone else surprised we haven't seen more floorplans dedicated to people doing the remote work digital nomad thing? Maybe it's more common in much larger units, but there's very little in the sub 5000lb range (something that you'd comfortably tow with a mid size truck or suv) that seems conducive to that lifestyle. I'm thinking of something that has an actual desk in it, maybe in place of the dining table or the basically unusable for adults bunks in the back. Shouldn't be THAT hard to design I wouldn't think?

I read a lot about how you should have a style when postprocessing. And that's why people (in Lightroom) make presets, so that they can apply their style across all of their photos. But I've never actually gotten that to work for me? I tend to edit each photo/shoot based on what I think looks good at the moment, the mood I'm in, the type of photo it is, etc. An indoor event is going to need different editing than something at the beach. A portrait session in a studio is going to need different editing than an outdoor rally on a cloudy day.

But when I go back and look through my catalog it does jump out at me how different all of my galleries look, and now I am wondering if I should put more effort into developing a more consistent style. Something that I am known for.

So, fellow photographers, do you have a signature style? Or styles, based on the type of shoot? Or do you just edit everything in more of a "vacuum?"

Hey all,

Looking for some advice on finding a studio space. I'm from the West Coast where Craigslist is king, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

I'm a hobbyist photographer and I have a remote job in tech. Getting tired of working out of a spare bedroom. I've always wanted my own industrial style loft creative space. I've done some Googling, checked LoopNet, but not finding much, at least nothing that isn't 5000+ sqft and way out of my price range.

Any suggestions?

I'm watching the Atlassian conference Keynotes, I'm an Atlassian SME in my day job.

They briefly touched on Dia. The thing they demo'd if I understood it correctly, is that Dia can prepare you a daily briefing, your calendar, your to dos from Jira, Slack, etc etc etc. But it does this "automatically." You don't need to connect it to or integrate it any way with any of your apps because it's doing this by actively reading your screen. Your tabs. Your messages. Processing that data and sending it who knows where.

I cannot put into words how much I do not want that. That sounds like a privacy and security nightmare. Especially in a corporate environment. It's like invasivess of your employer installing a key logger dialed up to 11.

Who in their right mind wants this?

Hey all. Just starting on my homelab journey. Wondering what everyone currently recommends for networking gear?

Right now I am just using the “free” router provided by Verizon with my fios sub, but I put Opnsense on my Proxmox server and have all of my homelab stuff behind that. Going to keep the Verizon router for things like my smart tv, Google home devices, guest wifi, etc. Things that I know are going to steal all of the data from me that they can or things that I just don’t care about. For now at least.

But I am wondering what system I should use for networking behind the Opnsense VM? I bought a cheap, off brand managed switch on Amazon but the software is kind of terrible, so thinking of returning it (it was $90 so I guess I got what I paid for). I wanted something with multiple 10gb RJ45 jacks, if possible. I have a Mac Studio and a DGX Spark, both of those have 10gb ports, and I might eventually get one for my Windows desktop as well, so I figured it would make sense to be prepared for that, but consumer switches with more than two 10gb RJ45 jacks seem pretty rare. I would also, eventually, want to get a wireless access point or two on this private network.

Should I piece together parts as needed, or go all in on a system like Ubiquity or Omada? I like the idea of a central place to manage everything, but those systems get expensive quick and seem to have different strengths. Ubiquity looks to have better switches, but worse WAPs, for example. Then there are other recommended brands, like Mikrotik, Qnap, or Tp-Link (which also makes Omada but I don’t think is the same software ecosystem?).

I should also mention that I don't have a server rack or anything, and sound is a concern since I live in a small apartment. So these are all devices that are just sitting on a metal shelving unit in my home office.

Any suggestions would be super helpful!