Yeah, it got to me no problem, thankfully, so customs apparently didn’t care enough to bother with me, but the “oh god they opened and retaped it” feeling was harsh for a few seconds until I confirmed it was JUST the outer box they mucked with.
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Can confirm from the days of soul sucking cashier work
If a card has a chip, that’s encoded somehow on the mag stripe, as a security thing? Even though the stripe is still able to be skimmed either way 
(I’d guess it has to do with how EMV chips have been incentivized and there are downsides to using mag stripe from a teller / “reader company I can’t remember the word for currently”
If you try such a card, it will fail and tell you to insert chip… only once the chip has failed to read your chip x amount of times, does the reader say it’s sick of your shit and tell you to swipe the mag stripe
I’ll add this, European cards are only 95% compatible sometimes, do to some readers not requiring pins and most of the European cards I came across the customer told me required a pin from the bank side
Which fucks everything up usually
It’s actually the other way around… the magnetic data is stored in “tracks” like a tape… like an 8 track tape from the 70s… or a 2 track tape cassette… technology builds on itself… so the magstripe on the card has tracks like a tape cassette… and track 1 and track 2 contain the payment data… and the chip has “files” on it which just spit out the same goddamn track data… this even applies to contactless… you issue specific commands to access track data files and pull the data off contactlessly… totally ridiculous but that’s how it works. There are some security things bolted on but honestly the chip side is still very simple.
The payment processor and issuers agree on requirements for the security protocols like need to enter a PIN and is the mag stripe data respected… and the terminal decides to accept track data via magstripe data reader or contact chip or contactless… it’s all dependent on what the issuer wants… but for the most part they all tend to go with a basic security template across the board… so it appears that the security options are global or standardized when they aren’t… but anyway… just some notes on the peculiarities of payment systems
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I simply meant,
If you walked up to a random reader and swipe the mag stripe, the reader immediately knows there’s a chip in your card and would prefer you use the EMV chip
I assume “EMV chip? Y/N “is in the mag stripe data somewhere somehow
Not how it’s in there, and the reader uses this to prompt the customer to not use the mag stripe
Otherwise it knows there’s a chip by other means
Back to titan installs real quick, I just found out that my dad actually has access to injectable lidocaine. Should I see if he can get some for a digital block or something or should I just use the gel?
Gel seems simple and easier but injection may work better?
Do the gel for science (it’s also safer).
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Gel is seldom effective for fingertips.
Gel acts on the outer layer first and the nerves you’ll be concerned on a finger install are much deeper.
That said, you can achieve total numbness with gel on a finger, but you’ll need to crank up exposure time a lot, which crosses into unsafe levels.
I’ve done experiments in the past.
Could only achieve “almost” full numbness after over 6 hours of keeping the gel there.
Which is toxic for you.
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Recommended time from dt is about 2-3 hrs if I remember right. So I’mma plan for that, partially for science, partially for simplicity.
Worst comes to worse, would it be a bad idea to try the gel for the recommended 2-3 hrs and if it’s not numb then do the injection as well or is that not good?
Is the issue the time, the quantity, or how slowly it’s absorbed / how long it’s then numb for? Also was this testing with the DT 10% gel?
Bear with me. will reply all with some empiric data I have. XD
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That would not be great, because there is a safety limit of how much Lidocaine you should let your body absorb before it can have bad adverse effects to your health.
Now…
That limit is about how much will end up in your system, no matter where it got absorbed.
So, for the fingertip’s inneficiency of the gel:
The main issue is about where it’s absorbed, actually.
The lidocaine gel will get absorbed by the external layers of skin first.
Then, only when the outer skin layer is satturated, the middle layer will begin to get numb…
Then after saturation, the inner layer… etc, etc, etc…
For a flex install on the arm, for instance, most of the nerve endings you want to numb are on the skin.
This makes the gel a very good medium! You numb only what you need and go for it!
Now… on a fingertip… the nerve endings you want to numb are everywhere!
So you need not only a lot more time for the gel to reach there, if it does, but you’re also absorbing an insane amount of Lidocaine for no actual use at all, because it’s just over-saturating an area you don’t need to.
This excess will also go on your system, so you could reach a toxic level of exposure to Lidocaine before the region you really want numbed down to feel it’s full effects.
This would really help you get to that critical level of exposure.
Because as mentioned earlier… your finger not feeling numb does not mean you haven’t absorbed the Lido. it just means that you haven’t absorbed it where you wanted.
If you want to go through this approach, then I recomend either to give it a day between wiping out the gel and applying the injectable lido.
Or calculate to make sure that even adding both the amount in the gel and on the injectable, you will still be under the safe limits.
Yes.
I kinda got experimenty while waiting for the Titan to arrive and had some DT gel from previous orders.
I used clingfilm to wrap gel on my finger for over 6 consecutive hours.
Experimented with a stitch removal scalpel.
I reached full numbness on the outside of the skin. But also got a really clammy skin there (sign of Lido’s side effects building up).
I could feel already, but numbed down, even before reaching the “muscle layer”. When got to that, I could feel some tinges of pain anyway.
For the next 2 days I had episodes of the fingertip feeling suddenly numb for a brief while every now and then. but pain was still present. (Sign of Lido overdose).
Now I am completely fine.
The second reason for this experiment is that I wanted to have something sore in one of the potential placements of the titan so I would know how often I applied pressure on that area on my day to day life. 
That said… the gel for about 4 hours should be enough to let you get over the titan install, if you grit your teeth enough! 
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Interesting lesson there. Hopefully some other installs get posted with numbing performance of the ~3 ±1 hr gel so I can determine weather I want to go with that or injection.
My titan got $135.56 (506zł) custom duty…
Hmmmm, thanks for the info. Now I’m wondering about asking about a custom batch of gel with DMSO added to aid absorption speed / depth - biohack.me had some experiments using it iirc.
Are you sure that it wasn’t the effect of the epi? I’m almost wondering if its worth also trying a gel with the same strength lido but no epi. (I live near a compounding chemist). Any other changes you might suggest should I get a batch made?
Some people have done it without any anesthetic (topical or injectable) … but I wouldn’t 
. This is kinda making me seriously consider getting a surgeon to install my magnet, since they can use a nerve block. Especially since I tend to nearly pass out with just xSeries installs.
Ouch, I don’t think the value was even marked on the package. They must have looked it up 
Yup, they asked me for proof of payment and what’s inside the package…
I am sure that Clammy skin is a side effect of Lido.
I am not sure that in this particular case it was not caused by the presence of epi.
(hope these 2 statements together make sense)
My knowledge about PM is mostly empiric.
As in I read lots about the things I’ll put into me, and I note my experiments…
But I wouldn’t feel I’m capable of advising about what can happen if you start mixing compounds.
Excited to hear about your experiment, though! 
Wouldn’t recomend though!
I usually avoid anesthetics when doing risky stuff on myself because not having a good angle to see, nor having the second hand to feel it, I depend on pain to tell me if I’m doing something wrong. 
Ouch!! 
I feel for you. 
Better than in Brazil, where once they charged me $900 in customs for the Oculus rift DevKit v1, which costed less than $90 in total. 
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I wouldn’t mess with DMSO man… honestly… it’s used by drug addicts and by vets on animals nobody gives a shit about killing… but what DMSO can do to your body and cells once inside you isn’t great. I also seriously doubt it will have any significant effect on lidocane absorption rate or totality.
I was just about to write that… DMSO can deliver pretty much anything that you happen to have on the surface of your skin almost directly into your bloodstream/interstitial fluid. That includes soaps and antiseptics that you would presumably use before the procedure. Let’s not even mention the things technical-grade DMSO is usually contaminated with…
I mean, on its own it’s considered relatively non-toxic (less so then ethanol, if given orally). There were some funky cases with it though. Also consider that it is a Schedule 4 drug in Australia.