RandomUser

Any modern chemists around? It's many years since i left the chemical lab. I was taught to rinse my pH electrode in demin/distilled water between measurments. Some suppliers are now telling me that you should use normal town/tap water as demin depletes the membrane.

While I see the argument, it goes against everything I've known. I'm also not sure that with the short rinse time it shouldn't make any technical difference for routine measurements.

Any recommendations and even better, references would be really helpful.

I think I posted my /successful/ diagnosis on here a few weeks ago. Subsequent to that I received a copy letter to my GP and a letter I could give to my employer r.e. adjustments etc. This triggered a full and frank exchange of views, which finally resolved to the offer that if I wrote the employer letter, he would look at it and sign it. A result I think. I intentionally kept it short - one page, quick to read. Made it relatively bland with only the necessary information as it'll be on my file. I also mentioned some of the benefits of autism in the workforce. (The original letter sent out to everyone he diagnosed basically said 'don't employ this person they will make life hard.'

As this is a potentially powerful tool (should I choose to deploy it) I'd appreciate any builds / suggestions before sending it off to be signed.

To Whom it may concern,

Re.: Autism Diagnosis

I would like to kindly inform you that further to a formal psychiatric evaluation I have performed on on , was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The diagnosis has been established using the DSM-5 criteria and included pre-assessment questionnaires as well as a clinical assessment lasting one hour, consisting of history taking and mental state examination.

Autism is a lifelong condition which can affect an individual in a variety of ways and cause some difficulties in daily life, particularly with communication and social interaction. Autistic people can have many significant strengths not limited to enhanced creativity, problem solving and analytical skills, systematizing, focus and lateral thinking. These strengths can provide great benefits to an employer who is willing to make suitable accommodations to the autistic person’s needs.

What accommodations are you likely to need to make? Every autistic person is different, and their needs can be context and task specific. For example, environmental factors, such as lighting and noise can have a greater effect on an autistic person than on someone who is neurotypical. As noted above, their communication style may be different to what you would expect. The best way to find out what accommodations should be made is to have an open discussion with the individual. Often only minor changes are needed.

Autism carries protection under the equality act 2010 and a diagnosis is classed as ‘special category data’ under GDPR it is therefore subject to a higher level of protection. The autistic person may not want their diagnosis shared widely within your organisation, alternatively they may want to be fully open with it. Please discuss this with them.

More information can be found on the National Autistic Society website: www.autism.org.uk

Kindest regards, etc.

Well, I've just joined the cool kids, having being formally diagnosed this week. - Not that anyone was surprised. I think I aced the test.

The psych asked at the end how I felt about the diagnosis, and honestly I don't know. I'm not sure I feel anything, maybe it's because I've strongly suspected for many years. - is this normal?

So now what? Not sure if I should tell work, there seem to be pros and cons to it. Being technical my work is already pretty accommodating. Family already knew, and socially there isn't a problem, as I don't do social.

It all seems a bit anticlimactic, but at least I I'll have a letter that says I'm not neuroboring.

This will be my first attempt at Graphene, and my first android phone for many years, so I'm rusty on how phones are out of the box.

The install instructions tell me to enable OEM unlocking on the phone. - Do I need to go through the android setup process first to get to this menu? - Or is there a way to escape this setup step? - If I don't have to, I don't really want to download everything onto the phone, just to change one setting and then wipe it.

Supplementary question... My current provider (GiffGaff [UK]) has a sim card. Is it better to convert that to an esim in android before installing Graphene, or to do it once the OS is installed? (GiffGaff do the conversion via their app.)

I want to store a battery powered device long term (decades) as a reference article, it will never be switched on or charged again. The problem is that it contains a small LiPo battery that will be very hard to remove.

Is there likely to be any significant risk I need to worry about? Once depleted will the battery be relatively inert?

Do self build watches get the love in here?

This is my second build, I wanted a more relaxed every day watch with good readability as my eyesight is starting to go. I also fancied a bronze case and will let the patina form naturally. Any scratches, marks or dings will, I think, add character.

Inside is a Seiko nh36 to give me some options later if decide I need day/date.

Thought I'd made a mistake with the white hands but now really like them. It's nothing special or expensive but it meets my needs perfectly.

Apologies if this is the wrong community.

I have a house renovation project ongoing. Before winter I fitted European oak internal windowsills which over winter have badly warped (cupped and bowed). I'll have to replace them so would be grateful of any advice as to how to stop new ones doing the same.

We were told that the wood was dried, and it was sanded and given several coats of Danish oil prior to fitting. I think they were glued in place with PU adhesive, but I didn't do that but so am not sure.

The winter was relatively hard with dramatic changes of humidity and temperature in the unheated house, if that would have an effect. One window sill was not fitted but was left in the house all the time. It's still in perfect condition. The sills are approximately 20mm thick and 200mm deep. The warping is in the order of 5-10mm.

Any advice as to what went wrong or how to prevent it happening again would be much appreciated as it's heartbreaking seeing that much oak being spoilt.

Project was to display tide information (time and height) on an LED panel. Fingers crossed the image loads!

OK, it's not an Arduino as such, it's an ESP32, but I programmed it on the arduino IDE. I get the time from an NTP time server and tide data from an API. A bit of messing around with daylight savings times and I display the next four tides on the Hub75 LED matrix. Date and clock is shown on the other side. Every 24 hours I pull new data down and sync the clock.

The good: It works as planned.

The bad: API keys and wifi creds are all hard coded so will need a firmware update if either change. Don't think I have sufficient pins left to allow me to read from an SD card.

The ugly: The wiring behind it is not beautiful. The code could do with a review and tidy. - Maybe even a bit of error handling wouldn't go amiss. Red and Blue are a bit jarring so close together and the blue is a bit swamped , especially when the brightness is turned down.

I may make an enclosure to keep it all together and keep the dust off and add a pir sensor to turn the display off when there's no movement. Or I may get bored and dismantle it!

I bought a slate clock as a restoration project but didn't spot at the time that it had been painted black.

Any advice on how to remove the paint without causing damage? Will commercial paint stepper do the job?

While not quite Arduino, I have an ESP32 (Arduino IDE) project to pull tide data via API and show it on a HUB75 led matrix. I've got most of the parts working separately but not quite got them all together yet. What is everyone else doing?