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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • I pushed carts at a big box store for a year in my 20’s. Fucking sucked. In an 8 hour shift you could easily walk 20,000+ steps and walk over 10 miles (GPS verified). And you do it no matter the weather. Pouring rain? Out there. Sweltering heat? Out there. -5F and 6" of snow? Out there.
    This work can be brutal, even for a young healthy person, let alone a 90 year old vet.
    The worst part? I was paid the exact same wage as the cashiers who stayed inside the entire time. About $10/hr on average in 2017.







  • I’m a 3 monitor person as well. 34" ultrawide as my main with two 24" widescreens side-to-side immediately above it. I use it for work and personal use.
    Ultrawide has my main programs for work: internet browsers and job specific programs get about 60% of the real estate on the left, while pdf’s, and other less essential programs go to the right 40% of the screen.
    The top left monitor gets Teams, Excel docs, or auxiliary browsers.
    Top right gets email and media (YouTube, Spotify, etc) or any overfill if I’m dealing with a particularly cluttered job.

    For personal, ultrawide is obviously used for games, movies, etc, while top left has task manager, MSI Afterburner, and Throttlestop (I run a laptop). And the top right has Discord.







  • Sadly, I don’t. I pretty much looked online for a recommended temp for my soldering iron, picked a tip that seemed appropriate, and slowly desoldered it.
    Pro tips: get a tool to hold the circuit board for you. I didn’t have one when I did it and it was a pain the ass. And actually dangerous because you have your fingers working near a very hot piece of metal.
    Also the switches are connected by 3 rather spaced solder points. You’ll have to balance heating all the solder points to keep it soft, and then use a pair of tweezers to slowly wiggle the switch out.
    Putting the new switch in is easier. Just need to make sure you orient it correctly and make sure it isn’t misaligned. Or else it might not click right. Thankfully it’s not hard to line up.





  • The two I’ve used are the one in the image (it’s from Anker, I forget the model) and Logitech’s MX Vertical (they have a second, smaller version if the original is too big). I’ve been maining the Vertical the past 4 years for work and personal use.
    Both have pros and cons:
    Anker is cheaper. ~$35 vs ~$80. Also has a built in slot to put the receiver in when not in use.
    It curves with your hand more than the Vertical.
    Anker uses easily replaceable AAA batteries. Usually lasted me about 3 months before I needed to swap them. I only used it for work though.

    The Vertical can connect to 3 different devices (1 dongle, 2 Bluetooth) whereas Anker is limited to whatever the dongle is connected to.
    The Vertical is made of better feeling materials; like a rubber for extra grip vs hard plastic with the Anker.
    There’s a USB C port to charge its (not easily replaceable) battery.
    Edit: Vertical won’t go to “sleep” like the Anker will. If the Anker isn’t touched for X minutes, it will go to sleep and you’ll have to click one of the switches to wake it. Otherwise moving it won’t move the cursor. Not that huge of an issue, but definitely annoying if you don’t know what’s going on.

    There is a design flaw with the Vertical. Logitech, like with other mice, use the wrong switches in it. The mouse operates at very low voltage and current; lower than what the switches are rated for. This leads to corrosion building up on the metal switches, leading to incomplete/missed clicks, phantom double clicks, or impossible to hold a click.
    I actually had to go into my Vertical, desolder the old switches and replace them with new ones (I think I went with Kale’s light blue switches). I did that in summer '22 and haven’t had any issues since.
    The rubber material is also showing wear and tear where my fingers sit, but that’s just cosmetic.

    I got the Anker one for my mom holiday '22 and she’s been happy with it. It helped the discomfort in her hand.
    Both mice improved the stiffness in my right hand, so either one will get the job done. I will also say that there is a bit of an adjustment period. Surprisingly, changing the angle of your hand kind of throws you off and takes some getting used to. Before my office went remote, my coworkers would avoid using it because it wasn’t easy for them to switch to for just a short period of time.

    Hopefully this info is helpful. I can try answering any questions you have on them, but those are the only two I have experience in.