Terry Poulin

Writing Instruments (future)

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Recently, I’ve made a few additions which are tied to my previous entry on writing instruments. New pens and pencils for the first time in years.

On the pen side, two additions from Fisher: the shuttle style Space Pen and the Bullet. The former, mainly because it’s a little piece of American history. Thus, I was sorely tempted by the AG7, but had to settle on the SH4 since it’s meant for household use not collecting dust. There’s also the fact that I come from the age of the Space Shuttle program rather than the Apollo program. I’d also like to think it should lead to no more “Dang it, why are you out of ink!? It’s only been 15-20 years!” Which is what has left the Zebra F-301s as the last functional pens I had. The latter, because I was looking for a compact pen that’s suitable for pocket carry: for those of us who don’t want to carry a damn pen.

There are times I’m left wanting, like buying coffee at Sprouts Farmer’s Market and typically end up using my phone’s camera as a substitute for a pencil. Because Good Freaking Luck spotting where their pencil ended up! My idea anyway, is the bullet is small enough to toss in a pocket with my comb and AirPods, and forget about until actually needed. The cap creates a decent writing size when stuck on the back, and covered or sans cap, it’s about the size of the little pencils we used to use with a compass and household chores when I was a kid. Except you won’t stab yourself in the leg 😜.

For me, it’s kind of an amusing twist of sorts. The Zebras aren’t expensive, they were probably $3.50 to $4 for the pair when I bought them in the grocery store some years back. At the most! I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them for nearly half that in my lifetime. Presently, the same model is around $6 – $7 on Amazon for a pair. More if you want a 4-pack. The Bullet on the other hand was $30 and it’s for a role where realistically, it can get lost or stolen. When I was a kid, asking my mom for a pair of F-301s was in that category “You better not lose or break the damn thing.” Needless to say, we had a lot of disposable pens and very few refillable ones when I was a child. Suffice it to say, the Fishers are beyond what I’d ever imagined paying for a pen without taking up drawing comics or calligraphy as a hobby.

Yes, I am fundamentally a cheapskate at heart. But, I also learned that if you are going to solve a problem: then solve it so it doesn’t come back again. Realistically, I expect the refillable pens to outlive me, provided that I don’t use them as an emergency crowbar and that cartridges remain available.

Now, enter the one that gives me glee: Uni’s Kuru Toga Elite. This is the first good mechanical pencil I’ve ever bought myself, and the second mechanical pencil I’ve ever had that has any concept of quality. I was able to get one with replacement leads and erasers on sale for the price of the pencil. I’m pretty sure that my younger self would’ve had a stiffy at that. Compared to the SharpWriters I’ve had to make do with, it’s a joy to use. Hell, it even rotates the lead to wear level the tip!

Mechanical pencils are hardly a new thing. They’ve existed for at least two or three hundred years, and the old Eversharps became a thing around the time my grandparents were born. By the time I was a teenager, they weren’t quite the same scale as free pens but still quite common everyday items. As an adult, I generally found mechanical pencils to be ubiquitous. Although the good quality professional grade sort, tend to be far rarer outside of engineering fields. I’d classify the Kuru Toga in that scope.

I’ve always found mechanical pencils a tad fascinating. Partly, because I’ve rarely had the opportunity to use or enjoy writing with them. Since they’re fidget-able like clicking a ballpoint, I was promptly barred from using our scant few mechanicals when I was like 4 years old or something like that. Thus, by the time I was responsible enough to be trusted with such a writing instrument, and you know, could actually write, the only real resource was ye’ ol’ pencil.

If someone had given me one of these Kuru Toga during the peak of my handwriting, i.e., my teens, I would probably have leapt for joy and hoarded the pencil leads.

ありがとう、ユニ。素晴らしい製品を作ってくれました！

Writing Instruments (past)

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When I moved, most if not all of my remaining pencils went bye, bye. The majority of them likely the previous time before that, since I’ve largely been paperless my adult life. In so much as I can without going unduly out of my way, I’ve mostly avoided paper when possible.

Part of this of course owes to computers becoming more prevalent, and part of it towards my teenage self having to compete with my mother’s business for available paper, lol.

Yet, there is always the eventually need to write something, sooner or later.

I’ll also admit that since eliminating cursive script from much of my writing, I actually don’t hate writing. I never hated writing itself. Rather, I hate being forced to deal with papers and forms, which take up lots of space and are a far bigger pain in the arse to search than digital files. The majority of my handwriting in the 21st century is defined by a stylus to a tablet screen. But sometimes one does need instruments to write on actual paper.

Some years ago, I picked up a cheap pair of Zebra F-301s and some Paper Mate SharpWriters. That was enough to ensure that I don’t have to go out and buy a damn pen or pencil for the few occasions a year I actually have to use paper.

What Zebra calls a cheap pen was always that cool space aged pen as far as my childhood self was concerned, and they are actually older than me 😅. They’re not great pens per-se, but the F-301s are plenty sufficient while the ink cartridge lasts. Pardoning my favorite pen from high school, (model unknown) they’ve fit the category of “You’ll do.” There’s also the advantage, that unlike a bushel of Bic/Biro Pens, they might not outlive me for the amount of use I require.

I’d also refill said favorite pen if I ever could figure out how to dismantle it and dig up a refill, but that’s a different problem. It’s just some silvery clad pen that you twist to open and retract that I was gifted around the time I started high school. Sadly though, the only obvious way to open it is the tip’s cowl, and short of squeezing it off with a pryers, it doesn’t twist, so I’ve never been able to open it. The matching mechanical that it came with also opened that way for refilling, although its cowl went missing eons ago.

Given that sharpening pencils was more a necessary evil than a preference growing up, I had figured the cheap-o mechanicals would be sufficient. If nothing else, they’re easier to store than a traditional pencil, since the lead retracts. That’s about the only good thing about them. Side confession: I’ve ordered a box of pencils, partly because I’d like to try sharpening them artist style and partly because I really hate those damned SharpWriters.

I’d say that the SharpWriters are to mechanical pencils what Bic pens are to the disposable pen. Except that feels like it would be insulting Marcel Bich. Say what you will about cheap pens, but I’d say László Bíró and Marcel Bich at least made a positive impact on the problem. In my live, I’ve used plenty of Paper Mates that I don’t hate, even some that I’ve liked, but the SharpWriters are trash in my experience. Literally, I’d rather use a traditional pencil.

But that brings me to the subject of what’s replacing these. For that, I’ll make a separate post, now that I’m done with the rambling 😆

A proposition too far

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Now that even curry roux carries P65 warning labels, I can’t help but think that someone has gone a wee bit too far.

I suppose it’s imaginative enough to consider that spices like turmeric could be grown in soil within range of factories causing run off from lead or other substances, or that such could effect irrigation water—and we should all really care about that sort of thing.

But it seriously feels like we’ve hit the point where companies just put a a Proposition 65 warning on everything, because the effort to prove otherwise in the state of California would be prohibitive. I can easily imagine a Space Balls can of air carrying one…because if the can doesn’t contain something on the list, the air probably does! Oh, someone should totally meme that.

Cardboard, meet your doom!

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The first field test against a non-soft target: destroying some old furniture boxes that have been piling up, waiting for me to grumble-grumble break these down into smaller pieces that will actually fit in my recycling bin.

Now, none of these are particularly challenging targets for a sharp knife. Even a decent dull knife could do the job given enough size/weight, if you don’t care about safety, in which case please go sharpen your shit and learn better. One can also do it with scissors, if you’re truly a glutton for finger and wrist punishment or just want to take an hour for a 5-10 minute job.

Test candidates: the Squid XM, the Praxis, and the Paraframe I.

Results? I’d score them in that order.

The Squid is “Holy crap, are you sure this is a knife?” level affective. I don’t know if its thanks more to whoever designed the blade, or who designed the factory machines sharpening and going them in production. But it’s a clear success. This is what I imagine a katana would be like if you shrunk it down to the size of a finger length. Whether slicing or stabbing, it murders harder grade cardboard like a champion. Perhaps the most expensive (~$60) but worth it.

The Praxis while not quite as impressive, is exactly what I would expect out of a sharp knife. What it doesn’t cut as smoothly as the Squid, the Praxis’s larger, more spade like blade helps work through. It greatly solves the equation where I need more heft or leverage not just cutting efficiency, something that the smaller knives in my collection just can’t offer whether or not they’re good at slicing stuff. That’s especially a negative of my weatherman, where it’s a surprisingly good blade but not a good form factor. The Praxis is also a very comfortable deep carry and decently priced ($50, and I got it for $42).

Using the Paraframe is also what I would expect out of a sharp knife, but its smaller size betrays while I chose the Praxis over a Praxis Mini for my first flipper. Whichever holds its edge better over time, the Paraframe’s smaller size is a handicap. For murdering breaking down things like a coffee table box where the unfolded box is practically a bed size, I would worry about a dull blade that size becoming a liability. But being brand knew, that’s not a problem and it was quite effective. My main complaint is that it’s still very compact to the point that it’s almost a two-hand open, but it’s quite effective. Considering it’s a $35 blade I got for $22, I can’t really complain.

Me thinks the remaining backlog of boxes will disappear quite nicely 😆

Knives old, recent, and new

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Given two new additions, I’m not sure if I’ve inadvertently started a collection or I’m just now well stocked.

The knives on the left are ones I’ve had a long time. The little Wenger used to ride my keychain as a spare, something that I purchased as a replacement for one of my dad’s that unfortunately made a trip to an airport in the 2010s. The smaller Gerber STL became my “Kitchen knife, utility” and letter opener about ten years ago. You can safely say, I’m not a scissors kind of guy. I received the Ozark Trail as a gift from someone at my old job, it rode my belt for quite a few years until becoming my goto for household use. I used to carry a Leatherman Juice S2 multitool as my EDC, but after it disappeared about 3 years back, I went with the green Leatherman T4 as a replacement.

In the middle are two knifes that I bought for Christmas. A larger Gerber STL to replace its little brother, because I always wished that dainty little knife was bigger and it’s held up superbly. The Gerber Paraframe was selected because of how well the little STL 2.0 held up despite being disposable cheap. It was mainly intended to either replace the Ozark as my “Knife, Household Utility” or the Leatherman as my daily pocket knife. Since Christmas, it’s done the latter. Doesn’t really do it for me, but nothing wrong with it either.

The new additions are the two knives on the right side: a Civivi Praxis and a CKRT Squid XM. The Praxis was selected for two reasons: that I really like the larger size of the Ozark Trail, and that I personally find the Paraframe hard to open one handed. Another reason is that I’ve never had a “Flipper.” Having grown up in an age where thumb-nicks, pocket knives like my dad’s Schrade slip-joints, and ye-ol’ Swiss Army Knife were still popular designs, I was always rather content with the newer frame/liner locks, which have probably been around as long as I have. The Squid, I bought because the original model interested me, but like the Gerber’s would just be a bit too small for my hands. The newer assisted model is larger, solving all of those concerns. I’m still tempted to pick up one of the originals, since those are cheap.

Based on initial impressions, these are looking like good additions. They fit the metric where I rather prefer the larger size and solve the qualms that I have about the paraframe. I’m pretty sure the full sized Praxis has the perfect hand grip of the lot, and the Squid is probably the perfect size for me. Neither is as cheap as the others, but still in the realm of buy a new one instead of crying over it. I’ve never believed in crazy-expensive blades, especially ones that may get lost or sacrificed in an emergency.

Ironically of all the existing ones, my favorite all these years has been the Ozark Trail with the tan handle. It’s the one I would be saddened if it were destroyed or damaged. I think they were like $14 a pop when Clay bought them at Wally World, but they were like the best cheap ass find ever. Most went to his folks in the production department, those working more closely with hardware and shipping. I was lucky enough to be included despite being a software engineer, it was a great gift. On one hand, there’s sentimental value. Basically the highest aside from my dad’s, most of which are purely keepsakes now. On the other…it’s just been so damned useful!

When it’s come to needing a knife for odds and ends at home, it’s usually been the first reach for anything outside of cooking. In my apartment, it took up a position on the counter outside my kitchen for quick access. In my current home, I’ve kept it in the hallway near the kitchen, so that it’s always handy when I’ve needed a blade. My only complaint is it’s been so handy for household use since I moved, that I ended up not carrying it anymore. The Leatherman T4 has a much better blade than my old Juice S2 had, but is a jack of all trades and master of none when you really need to cut things.

At this point however, I think I now have enough knives that any of them can be rotated for regular carry. The larger ones, should be suitable for home use as well. When shopping for Christmas, my thinking was either of the new Gerber knives might replace the Ozard for household needs, or at least make a passable one for regular carry since I’ve never really liked the T4. Guess we’ll see how that plays out :).

The great parting between VLC and my TV

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A while back, I did a bunch of video tests when ripping one of my favorite movies didn’t yield the usual results. This was actually, so crappy, that it lead me to reverting to x264/AVC encoding for later rips. Yes, it was that disappointing. But, I think I’ve come to conclusion the problem isn’t with x265–it’s somewhere between VLC and its handling of iOS based platforms.

One thing each of these tests shared was its reference view: my TV downstairs streamed via VLC. And lo-and-behold, it would rear its ugly head again. Recently, two projects for home improvement have come up.

First, is looking for a VLC replacement on iPad. The USB related woes I posted about with iPadOS 26.2 boiled over, causing me to both cease using VLC+USB on my iPad. It’s just so fucking bad. I’m inclined to believe this is either Tahoe or its support for APFS externals, anyway, it’s a road block enough to drop VLC. Something that’s been a staple since my Android -> iPad conversion now quite a few years ago. This lead me to adapting Infuse Pro as a viable replacement candidate. It experiences the same USB problems, and testing points the finger at Apple’s biscuit eating operating system in that regard.

However, that lead towards project number 2: I recently finished watching Picard seasons 2 and 3. Also, one of the few times I’ve used an actual Blu-ray player. After enjoying that, I opted to splurge on Star Trek: The Next Generation while The Complete Series edition Blu-ray set was near its 90 day low price. It’s one of those really-wants but never-gets. Because it’s expensive. Even on a great sale, we’re still talking like $100. I’ve only waited like a decade or so!

Well, watching the first disc or two on Blu-ray player wasn’t so bad. But of course, me being me, the longer term goal remains file server -> stream all the things. Honestly, the box set is a pain to jockey discs around. We’re talking about 6 BDs per season, packed line sardines, and with two or more discs per spindle. Yeah, screw that. It’s also a enough of a slog to rip though, that I created a new HandBrake preset with a modified audio selection scheme to expedite the processing.

So, imagine my surprise when I start to notice artifacting issues–using the same x264 reference. We’re talking wtf is this kind of artifacts. I nearly switched Hide and Q over to disc by the time the Enterprise-D reaches Q’s barrier. That’s circa the first 5 minutes. I wasn’t happy.

This lead to some further testing comparing video playback on my laptop (perfectly fine) and streaming to the Android version of VLC on the younger TV upstairs, perfectly fine. I’d consider choking up the latter to how modern TVs post-process video, but the same can’t be said for my PC monitor, which like many PC monitors doesn’t have those goodies. That testing was also dominated with IINA, basically a Mac version of MPV that isn’t annoying to install. My PC based laptop also had no issues. The only problem was the Apple TV, in VLC.

Deciding to try things a bit more scientifically, I made a reference conversion with x265 (HEVC) and a few encodings with Apple’s Video Toolbox in various H.265 and H.264 mode, to compare to the original x264 reference. I also uploaded the original MakeMKV rip, i.e., the full unadulterated Blu-ray video quality. It too sucked ass and artifiacted when played in the tvOS version of VLC!

Now, that’s where both home improvement projects intersect. Deciding to try Infuse on the Apple TV was going to be an experiment, and the Plex like TMDB integration made it worth installing for later testing. Faced with the issue with my ST: TNG rips, I decided to test this again. It’s there, why not try another data point? I really wanted to try another video player for comparison at this point.

This was followed by shouting and cursing, because it played fine. All fucking versions. As long as I didn’t use VLC to do it!

The outcome of this experiment has also lead to an unexpected shift. Since eliminating VLC from the picture solved the artifacts, I took a closer look at the hardware encoded files. The winner of which was made with one of HandBrake’s built in presets on Mac, which configures a 10-bit H.265 encode at CQ60 in quality mode. Not as high as the Video ToolBox tests I did with Pacific Rim in speed mode, but sufficient that ST: TNG looked good enough across data points to consider worthy of adoption. So, I’ve integrated a variant of the same profile I was using with this in place of x264. I was always a little miffed about the HEVC thing, but I now am pretty sure it just amounts to never use VLC on anything iOS-derived. Sorry, good ol’ x265. But on the flip side, I’ve also changed gears.

Results? Encoding time dropped to an average of about 4¼ minutes from around 20+ minutes per episode, while presenting similar quality and file sizes curtesy of the newer codec. This is a fairly drastic shift, delivering the joys that are +200 fps to encoding times but not having to tank file sizes to maintain the quality. Based on the results for my ST: TNG tests, sans VLC, I’m considering adapting this as my new ‘standard’ for video encoding instead of returning to my x265 reference point or sticking with my older x264 reference point.

Demon Lord of a Small Village: Volume 2

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After a bit more prodding on than originally expected, Volume 2 is finally released. Continuing the tale from shortly after Volume 1‘s epilogue. For a project that began 3 years ago, and has drafts of 7 volumes in various stages of completion, hopefully the third volume will be out with much less of a gap.

Now available on Amazon

In this action-packed continuation of the series, Lucious and Seraphim face new challenges as they fight to protect their homeland from the relentless legions of Lorica. Now as acting village chief, Lucious must rally his friends and even raise the enemy’s fallen to turn the tide. Meanwhile, Seraphim steps up as a key leader in the rebellion, navigating a path towards the fortified city of Nelloran. Joined by refugees and an enterprising lich, our heroes set off to bring Margrave Tiberius to justice, not knowing that the Goddess has far more in store for them.

Will Lucious become the next demon lord or fall at the hands of Lorica? Can their ragtag band of villagers and undead horde triumph over the powerful legions? The fate of Cerulea hangs in the balance as destiny calls. It’s time for the demon lord to rise up and answer his people’s call.

As might be obvious from the synopsis, Volume 2 ramps up the action and is full of much antics by our favorite heroes as they face the next step in their journey.

Why did I never think of that

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As someone who usually does it with a spoon, I have to admit my reaction to seeing Jacques doing a vinaigrette with a jar makes me shout, “Why did I never think of that!”

In fact, this rather makes me wish I had jars in such a size.🤔 My Pyrexes are principally intended for food storage and reheating, so the plastic lids don’t lend themselves to making an emulsion this way. Hmmm….

Simple things with simple objectives

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Feeling so cooped up over the holidays, somehow it makes me feel better to actually get up and out this morning.

Today’s agenda was pretty simple. Get up. Make eggs, onions, peppers, and sausage with coffee. Go get the grocery shopping done for the coming cycle. Now, that’s not asking a lot—certainly a given that I’m having coffee. But for plans made just before bed, combined with my increasingly hermit like nature when it comes to running errands, this makes me feel better.

While I kind of determined as a young man, that I could probably be shut up in a submarine or a space station for years at a time and not go insane without walking through trees and foliage, I’ve also come to recognize that I’m happier when I’m more active. Ironic, for someone as sedimentary as I am.

There’s also one cold, hard fact when it comes to grocery shopping as far as errands go. I enjoy my own cooking 😋

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Coming across “I transcribed hours of interviews offline using this open-source tool” in my news feeds, I can’t help but wish this approach to applied AI was more common in this era of ChatGPT.

There’s plenty of reason to run models in a cloud context, particularly if you want to have truly large or complex models. The more computationally invasive the task, the more a data center starts looking smart—ditto if handling many users. But that doesn’t mean it’s not possible to do useful things with LLMs on commodity hardware.

The catch of course, tends to be the need for a powerful computer by modern standards. PrivateLLM’s quantified models for example, range from models that probably fit on several year old iPhone (15/14 series) to a pimped out Mac Studio.

Considering that many Intel/AMD chipsets over the past decade max out in the 16-64 GB of RAM range, and that you basically need 16 GB in a modern laptop, I think people underestimate the possibilities for squeezing smaller models onto PCs for specialized tasks. Especially when given modern computer hardware. I mostly feel that the drive towards NPUs is marketing snake oil, but to be fair, it’s pretty unlikely that we’re going to start seeing beefier GPUs in the typical computer. As impressive as modern integrated graphics have been compared to when I was young, common designs still fall far short of even laptop dedicated graphics, never mind six pounds of RTX!

Here’s at least, hoping that those fancy ASICs see some useful value rather than being today’s equal of the Transistor Wars. If nothing else, I suppose it helps bring the base of installed RAM a little higher in-between price hikes and push faster CPUs and SoCs down people’s throats.