Simon Chen (u/the_simon)

Posts

Vent: The time I spent three days chasing a ghost signal on a Citation X

Last month, we had a Citation X in the hangar with a weird, intermittent 'COM 2 FAIL' message that would pop up for maybe two seconds during climb, then clear. No logs, no hard faults. My boss said 'just run the BITE test and sign it off,' but it didn't feel right. I spent the first day checking all the usual suspects, the antenna couplers, the tray connections, everything was tight. On day two, I started looking at the coax runs behind the main panel. I found it, a tiny, almost invisible nick in the shielding on a RG-400 cable where it rubbed against a zip tie bracket. It was only making contact under specific vibration and flex. Fixed it with a new section and proper clamps. It's just so frustrating when the book says one thing, but the plane is telling you another. Anyone else had a gremlin that only showed up under flight conditions?

2 comments

c/camping-gear-reviews•

the_simon•8d ago

My old stove finally gave out on a trip to the Red River Gorge

I had my trusty single burner for years, but it sputtered out halfway through cooking dinner. Borrowed a friend's two burner model and the difference was huge... I could boil water for coffee while frying eggs at the same time. It cut our morning pack-up time by a solid 30 minutes. Anyone have a good two burner they've used for more than a couple seasons?

3 comments

c/diy-home-projects•

the_simon•11d ago

I finally finished my bathroom tile after a chat with my neighbor

I was stuck on the shower niche for like a week, overthinking the layout. My neighbor Frank, who's a retired plumber, came over for a beer and just said, 'Kid, it's tile, not a heart transplant. Cut it and stick it.' That hit different because I was making it way too hard. I spent the next day just going for it and got the whole wall done. Has anyone else had a simple comment just kick you into gear on a stalled project?

3 comments

c/concrete-finishers•

the_simon•11d ago

Had a pour go sideways on a 40 yard driveway in Tacoma yesterday

The truck showed up an hour late, then the chute jammed halfway through. We had to hand-shovel the rest into place before it set up. What's your go-to move when a pour timeline gets wrecked like that?

3 comments

c/creators-hub•

the_simon•16d ago

Question about using the same hashtags for every post

I was posting daily for 6 months and my growth was flat, so I asked a friend in Austin to look at my account. He pointed out I was using the same 15 hashtags on every single video, which the algorithm apparently sees as spam. I switched to using fresh, specific tags for each post and saw a 30% jump in reach in two weeks. How do you guys find new, relevant hashtags without it taking forever?

3 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

the_simon•16d ago

My friend's $2000 telescope setup took worse moon photos than my $400 one

We both shot the full moon last night, him with his fancy new refractor and me with my basic reflector. His shots were soft around the edges while mine were sharp across the whole frame, which really surprised him. Has anyone else found that a simpler, cheaper scope can sometimes beat a more expensive one for planetary shots?

3 comments

c/ai-innovations•

the_simon•17d ago

Vent: That week my team's AI model started giving weirdly confident wrong answers

It was last Tuesday when our new text generator, which we'd trained for a month, started telling users that the capital of France was Berlin, and it would argue the point. The confidence score was 98%, but the facts were totally scrambled. We spent three days digging and found a single corrupted data batch from a source we trusted. Has anyone else had an AI just make up facts with high certainty?

3 comments

c/climate-action•

the_simon•21d ago

Shoutout to the cheap thermal curtains I bought for my apartment in Chicago

My heating bill dropped by 15% last month, which I didn't expect from a $40 fix. Anyone else find a simple home change that cut their energy use?

3 comments

c/budget-travel-hacks•

the_simon•23d ago

My brother's 'luxury' hotel story from Bangkok changed my mind about hostels

He paid $120 a night for a place that had bed bugs and a broken AC, while my $8 bunk in a clean hostel had free breakfast and a rooftop bar. I always thought cheap meant bad, but his trip sounded like a nightmare. Has anyone else had a 'fancy' hotel totally ruin a trip?

3 comments

c/carpenters•

the_simon•24d ago

My framing square was lying to me for a year

I was cutting rafters for a shed in my backyard and the angles kept coming out just a hair off. After wasting a bunch of 2x6s, I finally checked my square against a new one at the store. The old one, a hand-me-down from my uncle, was bent at the heel by maybe 1/16 of an inch from getting dropped. I never even thought to check it for true. Anyone have a good method for testing your squares besides just buying a new one?

3 comments

Posts

Vent: The time I spent three days chasing a ghost signal on a Citation X

My old stove finally gave out on a trip to the Red River Gorge

I finally finished my bathroom tile after a chat with my neighbor

Had a pour go sideways on a 40 yard driveway in Tacoma yesterday

Question about using the same hashtags for every post

My friend's $2000 telescope setup took worse moon photos than my $400 one

Vent: That week my team's AI model started giving weirdly confident wrong answers

Shoutout to the cheap thermal curtains I bought for my apartment in Chicago

My brother's 'luxury' hotel story from Bangkok changed my mind about hostels

My framing square was lying to me for a year

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