@bluGill@kbin.social cover

bluGill

@bluGill@kbin.social

A programmer with an interest in transit, making music, and building things of all types.

I have dysgraphia which makes writing difficult for me. I hope you can figure out what I mean despite my issues.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

bluGill ,

In short he was proven wrong - we do have the regulations already and they got him.

(AI probably needs more regulation)

bluGill ,

Blame everyone. My brother-in-law works for a refinery. They get beat up in the news and by politicians all the time, but when they need something it always happens - even in California. Which shouldn't surprise - people say they want things like clean air until they discover it means gas prices go up (or they can't drive their car at all) and suddenly they don't care are all.

nixCraft , to Random stuff
@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

Do you remember Netscape? Did you ever use it as your default browser? 🤔

bluGill ,

@nixCraft Back then I used lynx by default. I miss those text only days, I should see if they still work - pictures, sound, and videos make most websites worse.

bluGill ,

where I like salt gets the body before the engine goes. I have 220k on one and it is starting to rust through.

bluGill ,

Town and counry minivan.

enobacon , to Random stuff
@enobacon@urbanists.social avatar

Why does every webcam need to have a 270° fisheye lens? You just want your face in the picture, not the entire room.

bluGill ,

@enobacon Because someone out there is in a confrere room trying to get all the faces around the table into the picture.

Though I don't see why any faces need to be in the picture in the first place. In most cases faces are not useful to see.

US says cyberattacks against water supplies are rising, and utilities need to do more to stop them ( apnews.com )

Cyberattacks against water utilities across the country are becoming more frequent and more severe, the Environmental Protection Agency warned Monday as it issued an enforcement alert urging water systems to take immediate actions to protect the nation’s drinking water....

bluGill ,

They cannot legally do that in most areas. So long as you pay your actually bills they have to serve you. If you contest the bills and then never pay when the real bill is given they can disconnect you, but so long as you pay up they have to serve you. Where I live even if they disconnect you they have to reconnect you every winter.

Note that if you contest bills that are correct they can sue you. It isn't worth their time if it is just you (they would spend a million dollars in legal fees to get $1000), but if people start contesting legitimate bills they will start making examples of the loudest people. Pay your legitimate bills without complaint is the best advice here. Contest if they actually are wrong, this can happen, but it isn't common.

If you cannot pay your utility bills contact your utility - they are programs in place for the poor and they will guide you to them (they want their money, they don't care where it comes from)

bluGill ,

Society will not collapse. If it does odds are you won't survive what caused the collapse in the first place. (if you are a prepper make sure your neighbors know how to access you stash - both so that it doesn't go to waste if you can't get to it and because even if you can get to it you will need whatever neighbors survive to rebuild society)

However there are a lot of disasters that are much more likely that society collapse that are worth being prepared for.

bluGill , (edited )

I can pay my bill online. That means there is a connection between the systems. They need to add up all the water everyone in my neighborhood uses compared to how much they pumped into my neighborhood - if there is a difference there is a leak someplace. While each link only needs to be connected to the next, eventually there is a system that is connected to the internet, and so the whole cannot be air gaped. Not to mention the internet is a really easy place to connect everything to.

Also, it is really nice if you work at the utility to be able to control the pumps and valved scattered all over the city without having to physically go to each one. Or better yet automatic control - which is only possible if all the systems are connected - see above about one of those systems leading to my bill and so must be connected.

Air gap is useful for a few military systems. Everything else (including most military systems) are better off networked. However we do need to protect the network better.

bluGill ,

They did - but it was a lot more work - (and often mistakes were made) and that means costs were higher. Or more likely they didn't do the work as often and so it was a lot longer before they discovered problems.

bluGill ,

Right, I'm saying the big one isn't coming - and even if it comes you won't survive so what is the point.

bluGill ,

Irrelevant. If you have a business that owns property you should have two divisions for accounting reasons, one that runs the business and one that leases the property to the business. Both sides should be making money. This should just be an accounting trick but you need to watch it, if you can't make money with either side alone that means you don't have a good business.

There are good reasons to own your own real estate, and good reasons to lease. However either way you need to make the accounting numbers work.

bluGill ,

Which is perfectly fine to do.

bluGill ,

Red Lobster was already dead, they just hadn't held the funeral yet.

bluGill ,

If you have ate vegetables as most have had them they are gross.

bluGill ,

Because someone needs to be enslaved to provide universial health care. If even one person wants to opt out, no matter how wrong their reason you if you allow don't allow it they are enslaved. (note that there have been many different systems of slavery, but even the best still remones choice from someone). as such I prefer other options if they exist.

There are other options and so I oppose universial health care. Do not confuse that with approving of the system we have.

bluGill ,

You are a slave and should opt out of those things.

Your proble is you know what is and cannot imangine what could be.

Alon , to Random stuff
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

TIL Uncle Tom was based on a real slave who managed to escape the plantation, made it to Canada, opened a sawmill, and repeatedly traveled back to the US to free more than 100 slaves. His name was Josiah Henson and he was treated as a hero of abolitionism by some black Americans, who criticized Harriet Beecher Stowe for not sharing her considerable profit from writing the book with him.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-josiah-henson-real-inspiration-uncle-toms-cabin-180969094/

bluGill ,

@Alon the book was written to start the civil war. Yet it treats slavery nicer than most corrent accounts.

bluGill ,

Your local bike store should have a nice selection. I use my EV bike all the time and the car I keep for those few trips where the bike doesn't work just sits... You should too. Don't forget to check out the local transit options (and if - as is likely - they are bad demand better)

bluGill ,

There are lots of ways to hide guns. One person who is a legal gun owner who doesn't approve of the law can hide them for his friends. Do not assume Illinois is united on this, enough voters are to pass a law, but gun owners consider this a tyranny of the majority and are sticking together

In a lot of rural areas where guns are most common the police don't approve of the law. They won't ask for a warrant in the first place. If someone else asks for one they will give plenty of warning to the person to be searched - or they will just take the warrant and throw it away without searching. If forced to search they will ignore you moving guns past the front door when they knock, then when the door opens find no guns in plane sight in the front room and leave.

bluGill ,

Guns are designed to kill deer, ducks, and other animals that I want to kill. That they can kill humans is not intentional.

That argument isn't much different from the argument that cars are for getting around and that they can kill is not intentional. If you care about death, then by every metric you need to ban cars first.

bluGill ,

That isn't acceptable. One person who for whatever reason is out late (emergency at work, or invited to a party) will be screwed when they can't get back home and tell everyone else.

bluGill ,

I know it is true almost everywhere, but that doesn't make it acceptable. People need to get places, transit is just a tool.

bluGill ,

While you are not wrong, you should always strive to perfection. Running train transit 24x7x365 is low hanging fruit (modern fully automated trains exist - note that the topic here is trains not buses). You do need to do something about maintenance, so I'll let you get by with 30 minute headways overnight, while during the day you should be running every 5 minutes.

bluGill ,

In this case the rails are already there but unused.

That is also several strike against this. Those rails exist but they are all in really bad shape as they were nearly universally used without maintenance until it was no longer feasible. They are also generally in bad areas where there isn't much need for more transport - we already have roads in good shape (to run a bus on). The only thing this has over a bus is you can run them fully automated - which isn't enough IMO.

bluGill ,

It is stupid not to. It doesn't cost much and makes transit so much nicer.

Fewer people in the US plan to buy EVs this year, study shows ( www.reuters.com )

The number of buyers in the U.S. considering an electric vehicle purchase in 2024 has fallen from a year ago due to a shortage of affordable cars, inadequate charging infrastructure and ignorance about EV benefits, a study by J.D. Power, opens new tab has shown....

bluGill ,

I've wanted one for many years - but so far there is still no EV minivan for sale, and that is what my family needs right now.

bluGill ,

If you can't get to work during a cold snap than either you are not charging your battery (that is your stupid fault), or live a lot farther from work than the average person and really need to move anyway.

DrTCombs , to Random stuff
@DrTCombs@transportation.social avatar

Look. I know I'm cynical, but I'm just not comfortable using my credit card to pledge money to a private company that will then coerce my child to run laps around a gym while calling it a "Fun Run" in order to increase the amount of money said company 'gives' back to my child's school.

But I'm trying to keep an open mind.

Anyone out here ever heard of a company called "My Booster" or maybe "Boosterthon" (it's unclear)?

bluGill ,

@DrTCombs We do, but it is "for the kids" so we can always find ways to scam people out of more money no matter how much you give.

bluGill ,

Which is true only in the rare case you only have one office that everyone is in. As soom as you don't have everyone in the same room teams is better. So once you have more than 50 people

bluGill ,

Yes you can. Banks do loans for this kind of thing all the time. They prefer experience though, and so if you don't have that you will need to prove you have enough on the line that you will lose if you don't complete the deal.

Many condos are built by small companies. They build a few every month and it is enough to pay their employees and make a nice living. It is hard to break into this as the banks want to see experience, but it can be done.

FTC bans most noncompete agreements between employers and workers ( www.npr.org )

The FTC estimates about 30 million people, or one in five American workers, from minimum wage earners to CEOs, are bound by noncompetes. It says the policy change could lead to increased wages totaling nearly $300 billion per year by encouraging people to swap jobs freely.

bluGill ,

While they have been around forever, courts tend to take kindly to the argument that you need to be able to earn a living doing what you are an expert in, and so unless very narrow they tend to be struck down. You need a good lawyer though to get far in court which often makes the fight not worth it.

bluGill ,

The worst thing you can do is block people because of their leanings. That is how you get echo chambers. Of course many extremeists on both sides need to be blocked, just make sure you block them on your side too.

capntransit , to Random stuff
@capntransit@urbanists.social avatar

RT @kevinrbing They’re not. They just stall safety projects over and over again. They’re spending $23k for something in house staff in JC or elsewhere could do on their own. While they “study” people are gonna die.

https://hudsoncountyview.com/hudson-county-oks-measure-to-evaluate-pedestrian-protection-for-14th-st-viaduct/

bluGill ,

@capntransit someone needs to track studies to see what percent are implemented.

histoftech , to Random stuff
@histoftech@mastodon.social avatar

“At Microsoft, the share of senior employees as a portion of the company’s overall workforce declined more than 5 percentage points after the return-to-office mandate took effect, the researchers found. At Apple, the decline was 4 percentage points, while at SpaceX — the only company of the three to require workers to be fully in-person — the share of senior employees dropped 15 percentage points.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/05/12/rto-microsoft-apple-spacex/

bluGill ,

@histoftech come to the office. But don't ask to go to the office in india enen though that is where the people I need to collaborate with are.

augieray , to Random stuff
@augieray@mastodon.social avatar

Taking a short Mastodon break. I'm tired of the culture of criticism here. Unlike Twitter, on Mastodon, it comes from those on the left who attack liberals for not meeting their purity tests. I've been attacked for wanting to help defeat Trump by those who don't like a Biden policy; for COVID-safe dining outside with heaters because that harms the environment; for traveling masked because some immunocompromised feel they can't. Stop attacking others; start being the change you want in the world.

bluGill ,

@augieray try lemmy for a bit if you want to see how bad the left can get in their echo chambers.

jasonkoebler , to Random stuff
@jasonkoebler@mastodon.social avatar

Scoop: Solar storm is causing farmers' tractor GPS systems to go haywire. Many have shut down planting altogether during a critical period. A Deere dealer said accuracy is "extremely compromised"

https://www.404media.co/solar-storm-knocks-out-tractor-gps-systems-during-peak-planting-season/

bluGill ,

@hyc

@jasonkoebler rtk for civiliens hes been that accurate for several decades. However it has always needed a lot of correction to get there and that means the recivers are thousands of dollars end need a monthly subscription (or a second reciver, the subscription is generally cheaper)

bluGill ,

All humans act in what they think is there self-interest. Nothing to do with any political leaning.

bluGill ,

As much as the claim all conservetives only act in their best interest.

bluGill ,

If I'm the only conservetive you know then your circle has a serious lack of diversity.

bluGill ,

With a secret ballot there is no way to know who voted for who. when talking about your vote the ethical thing is to lie.

talon , to Random stuff
@talon@dragonscave.space avatar

Hey if Sonos can just up and screw their UI then I can just up and decide to never use them for future speakers. Time to check the resale value of this garbage in case they can't fix the UI accessibility like yesterday.

bluGill ,

@x0

@talon @simon @jscholes Accessible UI is hard. Cross platform is hard. You can combine the two - but that is exponentially harder. Of course doing an app for each platform is also hard, and making each accessible is exponentially hard as well (but it is easier to punt on some "lesser" platform)

bluGill ,

@zersiax

@talon Not that I'm aware of. There are a few half attempts but all need more developer love.

Alon , to Random stuff
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

On the one hand, Hamas turns out to have offered to deliver dead bodies to Israel in lieu of living hostages, and that's why Israel is restarting talks but not accepting its offer.

On the other hand, in Barak Ravid's reporting at least, the biggest concerns that Israeli negotiators have are not about the dead hostages but about Hamas's demand for a stage-two withdrawal from Gaza.

bluGill ,

@BenRossTransit

@Alon Hamas doesn't have any intent to give a permanent cease fire. They might take a couple months off to regroup and probably won't send fighters for a few years, but you can bet they will start sending their shells on regular attacks just like they did before. There is a reason Isreal developed Iron Dome - and there is no reason to think Hamas will change.

As such I don't really think a cease fire is worth much unless it is used to evacuate non-Hamas humans out of the middle east. Note that I see no reason to think the non-Hamas should/would leave their friends, family, and homes behind; nor do I know where they would/could go. I'm simply stating if they don't agree then the cease fire is worthless, while if they would agree and move it would save innocent lives and thus have some value.

mpjgregoire , to Non Political Twitter
@mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca avatar

It's always interesting when someone whose politics you think you know supports something unexpected: the NRA member who opposes capital punishment, the socialist who favours free trade, the pro-life feminist. How often are beliefs only found in a set because of a historical coalition, not any deeper principle? Do you hold any beliefs at variance with your political in-group?

bluGill ,

@laimis

@mpjgregoire I'm not an immigrant, but I too oppose the republican immigration policies despite leaning conservative.

enobacon , to Random stuff
@enobacon@urbanists.social avatar

our network could be like this but we spent all of the money building between parking lots so we can die of and , broke and alone

bluGill ,

@enobacon That is not a transport network. It is a trail to nowhere. Real transport networks get you places and that means there are stores, houses, business, schools. And lots of branches/intersections to get to them. They also have a lot of people on them because a lot of people are using them.

bluGill ,

@enobacon Not until reminded. Not sure if it is how kbin works, or firefox, but looking at alt text is annoying enough that I would assume nobody looks at it.

Could blocked magazines no longer appear in Random Post and Random Thread sidebars? ( kbin.social )

A lot of the larger abandoned magazines are just spam pools now. I don't see their posts in my feed, but I don't like that the two sidesbars of random posts and threads are now just spam advertising sidebars. I triedblocking the magazines, but doesn't that prevent the posts from showing in those sidebars....

/kbin logotype
ALT
bluGill ,

Unforcunately the admin\creator of kbin has personal issues and is missing. We need to leave, but that means migrating manually which is annoying. Too bad, there are some good idas here.

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