This is an odd one. The only whole house shut off is on the city side of my meter and the person from public works I talked to said only the city could operate it and if it were to break while I operated it I could be held financially liable....
you ever encounter a schmuk holding on to some ancient piece of software (usually through some bankruptcy acq), licensing it out prolly making $100/yr instead of releasing to the community?...
It feels similar to that old guy with all the classic cars rotting in the back 40 who refuses to sell at any sane price. Not analogous, exactly, but it’s the same feeling of frustration.
I mean there are studies linking various brain stuff with gut microbiome. It’s actually a thing backed by actual science. I didn’t read the blog though so I don’t know what they said in context and…well I kind of don’t care.
President Biden on Monday said that all Americans must speak up because diversity is being attacked, remarks he made while marking 60 years of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law....
Would be nice if he would state the obvious: that the GOP has embraced white supremacy (for the last 50 years), now very much overtly, and its leaders regularly incite violence and espouse intolerance and that the solution isn’t to compromise with them or appease them but to beat them back (politically) into the shadows.
I couldn’t read #1 due to the paywall but #2 is a damned interesting read and I highly recommend others take the few minutes to do so.
Though I knew some of it already—like Ford’s antisemitism, the partnering of corporations with fascist governments, the number of Russians who died on the eastern front^1—I was not previously aware of the degree and breadth of involvement of US corporations and the rich and powerful or their exploitation of pow and concentration camp labor in germany. Fucking hell.
Appreciate the sources and will add #2 to my thought processes and read the others when I get time.
Somewhat related, I found interesting Kendi’s assertion that capitalism and slavery were inextricably (or maybe intrinsically) linked from the beginning in the colonies that became the USA. That exploitation of blacks was interwoven into the economies, particularly the south. No doubt you’re well aware but other readers may find this an interesting bit to chew on. Capitalism is fundamentally about exploiting natural and human resources. I maintain that if it were legal, corporations would happily revert to slavery if it were legal again — as evidenced in #2 with GM making use of free concentration camp labor.
All that said, I think it is disingenuous to generalize the claim that communism is the bulwark against fascism without acknowledging how many Stalin put to death. So fascism was defeated, concentration camps closed and their prisoners freed. What was the bulwark against Stalin’s purges? To contrast the USSR with Nazi Germany and throwing about the term totalitarian with no mention of the type of power Stalin held, I mean, come on. While it does not detract from the ease with which liberal democracy can and has devolved into fascism, it very much calls into question the general conclusions stated about communism as some ideal.
Fascism is a manifestation of human nature. Not all humans but a percentage that are more tribalistic, lacking empathy, preferring social hierarchy to egalitarianism, more prone to fear of the other due to isolation and ignorance. It is a natural evolution of conservatism. But authoritarianism, a key piece of fascism, is always a problem because too many humans have a bent to that power structure.
My thoughts on all this are always forming and evolving. But that’s where my head is at right now.
I agree, and that is why the right-wing has sought to brainwash and isolate its followers, as any good cult does, to make intercession much more difficult, to prevent its faithful from questioning their errant beliefs.
Yeah the search has gone to shit. I’ve been using Duck Duck Go but I guess that is Bing based?
Also been trying out Kagi. The format is unsettling at first but it is nice to see the results I am looking for at the top instead of a bunch of bullshit ads / sponsored results and whatever along with crappy results below the fold.
As a former customer this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.
Our neighborhood and its twisted pair is 50 years old. I had DSL from the moment it first became available, and over time they upgraded the speeds. I have been WFH since 2006.
During that time I had had multiple cases of DSL going down and in many cases a new modem cured it.
But suddenly, during the Pandemic, the modem started losing its link 1-5 times a day every day. Totally unacceptable. I called multiple times. They came out multiple times. They weren’t able to find a problem on their end even after multiple visits and we had eliminated the problem being on my end.
It’s like nobody had any ownership of the issue or any sense of duty to proactively troubleshoot the problem to resolution. They almost treated every call as an isolated momentary issue despite having the prior info and me relaying it. They would just come out, do a line test, and when everything looked ok, they would shrug and leave. And the problems would continue as before.
Perhaps it was an intermittent hardware fault in the CO. Perhaps it was just old copper they were unwilling to spend any money on upgrading. I found I wasn’t alone. A few others had the same issue in the neighborhood too.
I’m on brand new fiber now with a different provider and reliability is orders of magnitude better as one might expect.
So true! Even two diy raised beds ended up costing quite a bit. Lumber is not cheap. Neither was garden soil. Buying perennial plants costs a freaking fortune. I am going to try for seeds for next year. Plus some bulbs. For vegetables, I need to learn how to grow tomatoes from seed. Of course that requires grow lights and such.
Not op, but ours is a Lelit Elizabeth dual boiler. Not cheap but I expect it to last like our Gaggia Espresso Deluxe did, about 15 years. I could’ve gotten away with a single boiler, truth be told but the ability to preinfuse (in a somewhat proper way) depends on it. Non negotiable was the PID temp control. Timed shots is nice to have.
But really I could’ve spent more on the grinder and less on the machine. The grinder I first got wasn’t up to the task of espresso. Didn’t have the range of settings and the grind quality was subpar. Had to get one a year later (grr) and settled on the Eureka Mignon Silencio. The flavor profile is so much clearer (this was obvious from the first shot I made with it) due to grind quality and it has stepless adjustment. So I can dial in the shot pretty well. Timed grind is nice too.
But damn what a lot of money for all this. Still worth it. It’s not much over 10-15 y. And it pays for itself quickly. I can have an espresso drink every day that is far better than many places offer and it costs significantly less even for the super expensive, fancy beans.
Lol I feel ya. I ended up making and selling electronics kits to fund the hobby somewhat.
I have been using cheap vintage oscilloscopes the whole time.
Not sure what they go for now but $100 for a 20MHz scope and $200 for a 100MHz was what it was several years ago. Cheapest I got off a buddy for $40. I am still using that one.
Sometimes I fix broken ones and sell them. One time I got one that they thought was broken but turned out it was just the basic settings. I like trying different ones so I have gone through a dozen or so by now.
Now* that I think about it, o-scopes are a whole other hobby lol.
Anyway. Yeah by the time you get the test gear and enough sensors and microcontrollers and whatever it adds up.
Right now I’m working on a power supply design for a 50W class D stereo. Found out big toroidal transformers are not cheap. Oof. And enclosures big enough (especially if labeled “amplifier” or “stereo”) are ridiculously spendy.
Yeah it seems ridiculous now that I’ve deconverted and can finally look at this critically from the outside. It would be like raising a kid by leaving them a letter. If the god existed surely they would have the bright idea to drop some updated material every few decades and maybe make the occasional clarifying announcement to humanity.
Having a collection of religious texts, physically recorded by human hands, that provide information about the religion is a feature consistent with any religion that has a human-fabricated deity. Coincidentally, it is also a feature of every major religion. 🤔
Absolutely agree. I am certain ifwe’re real and appeared in person and spouted half the stuff attributed to him in the gospel they would call him “woke” too.
There are some differences in the details of each denominations beliefs enough to mark some Christians as not real Christians. If only God could just make an announcement over the PA to clear things up…
Related: How many denominations only allow their own denomination to take Communion?
The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s criminal election interference case shut down a bid by the former president to set his trial more than two-and-a-half years away....
Yeah. Right there with ya. It’s genuinely horrifying (to sane people) what a few decades of mind rotting propaganda from right wing media can accomplish.
But seriously, March is going to be epic indeed if the trial dates remain unchanged. May have to resub to some of the news outlets I dropped this year so I can get multiple news sources for each fascinating development.
Hundreds of people gathered Sunday at prayer vigils and in church, in frustration and exhaustion, to mourn yet another racist attack in America: this one the killing of three Black people in Florida at the hands of a white, 21-year-old man who authorities say left behind white supremacist ramblings that read like “the diary of...
"We are not going to let people be targeted based on their race.”
(Except by elected leaders and the laws they pass. Also they’ll be targeting people based on gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, party affiliation, or anything they determine to be “woke” or “socialist”)
This sounds familiar. That was like 03 right? I think I was running Linux on an old Thinkpad 760 as a dirt cheap pentest platform. I think it was redhat maybe. I had Mandrake (Mandriva) on a Pentium mmx and Yellowdog on a Power Mac (7600 maybe). And a home net. And dialup lol.
I still have the Thinkpad around here somewhere… I should boot that old boat anchor up again for nostalgia’s sake.
In many parts of Europe, it’s common for workers to take off weeks at a time, especially during the summer. Envious Americans say it’s time for the U.S. to follow suit....
But we undergo a great deal of brainwashing. Unions are demonized, billionaires lionized, puritanical (insane) work ethic lauded, anything less than that vilified, etc.
Attempts at unionization are aggressively subverted and crushed by large corpos.
And most people are given just enough to not want to risk it all to get a bit more.
It will be a while, yet, before US culture shifts enough that more people side with unions, join unions, and build critical mass. Although, younger generations seem to be more aware of the anti-labor BS more than my gen (x) was at a similar age.
Same. I vaguely recall something about these two de evolving into catfish with legs (a prior meme post is the only reason I remember anything) and… I am going to guess they made legged catfish babies or something. But I could be completely wrong. I hope someone fills us in.
Barbara Sher (rip) has a great book, Refuse to Choose, that does a great job of reframing ones thinking about bouncing around between projects / hobbies and not “finishing” them.
Those sound like amazing projects. How did you go about digitizing the pen strokes? Onboard IMU or something else?
I don’t even know what a braile keyboard looks like. But that sounds really interesting.
The shawl sounds so cool. Where does one get yak hair(?) for spinning? I’ve never tried spinning. Sounds like another rabbit hole to jump into :)
There really is way too much that’s interesting and not enough time for it all. Or people curious enough to share it with. Ah well.
My favorite fountain pen will sound boring but the journey was fun. After a few years of trying many many pens (I have like 50-60) over the last year I’ve settled in on the humble Parker 45.
I like a form factor with stepless section (Sheaffer Balance, Parker 51, etc) and the slim pens from the 60s (like Montblanc 221 / 32 / etc) is my jam. For whatever reason I am able to do my best handwriting with the 45. I also like that they’re such an advanced design, easy to clean, and that they’re so plentiful and low cost, and come in so many different colors. They’re durable and reliable (on airplanes and everywhere else). And they work well with my go to work in, Quink Black. But also are not too picky about ink and are easily tuned to write wetter or drier. So I can use my other favorite inks like Lamy Pacific blue, Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo, Kobe Sannomiya Panse, or Diamine Purple Dream (I really ought to get a bottle of that stuff… But I have too many bottles already). Unfortunately my favorite purple, Diamine Damson, is way too dry for anything but absolute gusher pens (prior favorite pen Pelikan 140 is perfect).
Nice Unix sticker pack for 1$ with free shipping. (www.stickermule.com)
Many may already know this offer from Sticker Mule, but you can get basic Unix swag really cheaply to stick on a laptop or water bottle....
I apparently don't have a whole house water shut off I can use.
This is an odd one. The only whole house shut off is on the city side of my meter and the person from public works I talked to said only the city could operate it and if it were to break while I operated it I could be held financially liable....
best cheap laptop with a usb c input?
just need it for school so nothing fancy
all but abandonedware (moist.catsweat.com)
you ever encounter a schmuk holding on to some ancient piece of software (usually through some bankruptcy acq), licensing it out prolly making $100/yr instead of releasing to the community?...
Drag shows are protected by 1st Amendment, performers tell federal judge (www.texastribune.org)
Lady with a Fan - Gustav Klimt (1918) (upload.wikimedia.org)
from Wikipedia - Painted in 1917, the uncommissioned piece depicting an unidentified woman was on an easel in his studio when he died in 1918.
FBI announces it has dismantled global network of hacked computers used in major fraud scheme (www.cnn.com)
The elites are lying about the danger! (startrek.website)
Can you drive a manual transmission?
And where are you from? And how old? Not “do you” but just if you know how....
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Biden says it’s time for Americans to ‘speak up’ because ‘diversity’s being attacked’ (thehill.com)
President Biden on Monday said that all Americans must speak up because diversity is being attacked, remarks he made while marking 60 years of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law....
The end of the Googleverse (www.theverge.com)
CenturyLink left 86-year-old woman with no Internet service for a month (arstechnica.com)
What is your "inexpensive" hobby that turned out to be expensive/ you gradually invested lots of money into?
Edit: so it turns out that every hobby can be expensive if you do it long enough....
This bathtub looks dangerously low. (lemm.ee)
Cool retro house (with a dead tree inside): www.zillow.com/homes/…/3468002_zpid/?
Pope says 'backward' US conservatives replaced faith with ideology (www.euronews.com)
Pope Francis condemned the “very strong, organised, reactionary attitude” in the US church and said Catholic doctrine allows for change over time....
Judge rejects Trump bid to push federal election trial to 2026 (www.cnbc.com)
The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s criminal election interference case shut down a bid by the former president to set his trial more than two-and-a-half years away....
Florida Governor Ron Desantis booed at vigil as hundreds mourn more racist killings (apnews.com)
Hundreds of people gathered Sunday at prayer vigils and in church, in frustration and exhaustion, to mourn yet another racist attack in America: this one the killing of three Black people in Florida at the hands of a white, 21-year-old man who authorities say left behind white supremacist ramblings that read like “the diary of...
Linux 6.5 has landed (www.theregister.com)
Lwaxana is both the reason I'm glad I'm gay and the reason I'm sad I'm gay (startrek.website)
Troi in the background smiling in the bottom panel just makes it so much better....
66% of Americans want European-style vacation policies, like being OOO for the entire month of August (www.cnbc.com)
In many parts of Europe, it’s common for workers to take off weeks at a time, especially during the summer. Envious Americans say it’s time for the U.S. to follow suit....
Trollvintr - Tove Jansson (1957) (i.pinimg.com)
Yesterday my son asked me to name a country without an R
and I yelled no way.
Good Ol Ectoplasm Bev (startrek.website)
The Chandrayaan-3 mission has successfully landed on the Moon’s south pole (www.theverge.com)
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Hookworms successfully prevent type 2 diabetes in human trial (newatlas.com)
What a horrible day to have eyes (startrek.website)
Top tier medical advice. (feddit.uk)
What is a hobby you enjoy, but seems too quirky or obscure to bring up in most conversations?
Mine would be creating pen and paper ciphers for my made up secret communication needs.