I don’t hate it. It’s technically interesting.

But I do see a lot of people applying it to things that really don’t need it. I think a lot of people saw Bitcoin and decided “I’m going to go make something that uses blockchains”. That’s a solution-in-search-of-a-problem, whereas you probably want to start with a problem and then look for technology that solves the problem.

I don’t think that blockchains are a very practical solution for all that many problems.

IIRC from /r/Europe discussion, propane is also not uncommon as a fuel in Turkey.

kagis

Yeah:

https://auto-gas.net/mediaroom/turkey-leads-autogas-consumption-in-europe/

Turkey leads Autogas consumption in Europe, while ranks second in the world. 80% of all LPG consumed throughout the country is used as Autogas. In addition, Turkey is the only country that has more LPG vehicles more than gasoline-powered vehicles.

In Turkey, the number of LPG vehicles in operation is close to 5 million.

Ah, that’d do it then. Thanks.

My understanding from past reading is that there’s a history of diesel trucks pulling off emissions control hardware to increase their MPG somewhat, so they save money on fuel. First ran into it when reading about the practice in Europe, but also happens here in North America.

I don’t know whether it’s possible to tweak the computer-controlled system to achieve a similar effect, but it’d make sense.

kagis

It sounds like he would have the authority to require in-office work.

https://www.opm.gov/frequently-asked-questions/telework-faq/remote-work/

Does an employee have a right to engage in remote work?

No. Remote work is not a universal employee benefit or an employee right.

Can a manager deny a request for remote work?

Yes. Because of the policy and potential costs implications of remote work arrangements, agencies should evaluate and consider such requests (especially those submitted primarily for the convenience of the employee), on a case-by-case basis, highlighting the cost effectiveness and business benefits to the agency or organization.

Can a manager terminate an existing remote work arrangement?

Yes. An agency may determine that a remote work arrangement no longer meets the business needs of the organization or that the arrangement negatively impacts the employee’s performance. However, terminating a remote work arrangement, particularly if the employee resides outside the local commuting area of the agency worksite, may require additional considerations. If the decision is made to terminate the remote work arrangement for business reasons, there may be costs implications for the agency to consider.

That being said, my guess is that at least some federal employees probably pretty much have to work outside of the office, just because of the nature of the job – like, it may be travel-intensive. I guess they could end work-from-home stuff.

If you’re interested in home automation, I think that there’s a reasonable argument for running it on separate hardware. Not much by way of hardware requirements, but you don’t want to take it down, especially if it’s doing things like lighting control.

Same sort of idea for some data-logging systems, like weather stations or ADS-B receivers.

Other than that, though, I’d probably avoid running an extra system just because I have hardware. More power usage, heat, and maintenance.

EDIT: Maybe hook it up to a power management device, if you don’t have that set up, so that you can power-cycle your other hardware remotely.

I mean, some of those EOLed nearly a decade ago.

You can argue over what a reasonable EOL is, but all hardware is going to EOL at some point, and at that point, it isn’t going to keep getting updates.

Throw enough money at a vendor, and I’m sure that you can get extended support contracts that will keep it going for however long people are willing to keep chucking money at a vendor – some businesses pay for support on truly ancient hardware – but this is a consumer broadband router. It’s unlikely to make a lot of sense to do so on this – the hardware isn’t worth much, nor is it going to be terribly expensive to replace, and especially if you’re using the wireless functionality, you probably want support for newer WiFi standards anyway that updated hardware will bring.

I do think that there’s maybe a good argument that EOLing hardware should be handled in a better way. Like, maybe hardware should ship with an EOL sticker, so that someone can glance at hardware and see if it’s “expired”. Or maybe network hardware should have some sort of way of reporting EOL in response to a network query, so that someone can audit a network for EOLed hardware.

But EOLing hardware is gonna happen.

The price of lumber never really went back to where it was before covid.

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/lumber

The price in at the start of 2020 was ~$377.55 per thousand board feet.

https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

$377.55 in January 2020 is $460.34 in July 2024 dollars.

The price of lumber in July 2024 was $423.27.

So it’s gotten back down to and fallen below pre-COVID-19 prices in real terms.

It does look like the price has risen from July 2024 to November 2024, so it’s presently higher, but it has not stayed above pre-COVID prices since the end of COVID-19.

now that i got used to the arkfeld combinations, going directly to low (hold) or boost (double press) is a must for me

I can’t deal with the Anduril 2 firmware’s “advanced UI mode” mentally without a manual in front of me. I feel like it might be more workable if there were more buttons or some kind of additional indicators or something. It’s just too much overloading of one button for functionality for me.

https://ivanthinking.net/thoughts/anduril2-manual/

But, yeah, I do like the simple UI mode with the brightness adjustment. Is it essential? No, but it lets you both have a bright light and a light that doesn’t blind you and is battery-friendly, and I think that it’s legitimately handy to have that.

Sure, it’d cost a bit more to put, say, three buttons on the thing. But you’re getting a flashlight with firmware in the first place. I mean, what do two more buttons run, a couple bucks?

which of course doesn’t then require you to pay monthly to actually use the stupid thing.

I think the idea here is that the businesses can lay off some of their in-house IT staff and pay Microsoft a lesser amount instead; the in-house IT staff does get paid monthly.

I sometimes think that maybe as a society we’d be better off relaxing nudity taboos or something.

The Bible wasn’t encouraging it, just saying that it happened.

Genesis 19:30-38:

Lot and His Daughters

30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”

33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab[a]; he is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi[b]; he is the father of the Ammonites[c] of today.

EDIT: I’d also add that it looks like the Ammonites and the Moabites were enemies of the Israelites. Probably research material out there on this, but I imagine that this is sort of politically badmouthing the enemy.

• Nederland, America

• America, Netherlands

• Nederland, Netherlands

• America, America

You don’t sail directly upwind; sailboats can’t do that. You sail at an angle to the wind.

EDIT:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacking_(sailing)

Sails are limited in how close to the direction of the wind they can power a sailing craft. The area towards the wind defining those limits is called the “no-sail zone”. To travel towards a destination that is within the no-sail zone, a craft must perform a series of zig-zag maneuvers in that direction, maintaining a course to the right or the left that allows the sail(s) to generate power. Each such course is a “tack”. The act of transitioning from one tack to the other is called “tacking” or “coming about”. Sailing on a series of courses that are close to the craft’s windward limitation (close-hauled) is called “beating to windward”.

The Link device is designed to be a compact, fanless, and easy-to-use cloud PC for your local monitors and peripherals. It’s meant to be the ideal companion to Microsoft’s Windows 365 service, which lets businesses transition employees over to virtual machines that exist in the cloud and can be streamed securely to multiple devices.

It sounds like it’s part of a broader strategy to have companies outsource their IT to Microsoft.

What I can’t figure out is who is giving all these guys a shit-ton of ERA.

I guess maybe they’re stripping knocked-out tanks of any remaining ERA.

Throughout our topic analysis, we find that tankies are particularly vocal about major geopolitical events (Fig. 4 and 5). They are especially focused on issues such as Chinese and North Korean politics, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. They also show a keen interest in topics related to communism, fascism, and Stalin. However, when it comes to everyday societal challenges that are usually points of interest for the left wing—like policing, climate change, healthcare, housing, and workers’ rights—tankies seem less engaged.

This pattern reveals a striking insight: tankies appear to be deeply invested in state-driven political events, often at the expense of grassroots societal issues. This underscores a distinct divergence in the priorities and discourse of left-wing extremists and the wider far-left community.

Now do an analysis of comment times to see which timezone they are likely living in and which country’s holidays they sync up with.

This statement from police also kinda sounds like suicide:

https://globalnews.ca/news/10871561/halifax-walmart-death-no-foul-play/

In a Monday update, Halifax Regional Police (HRP) said investigators had met with the family to share the findings, and that the family has asked for privacy.

A police spokesperson declined an on-camera interview on Monday but in a video statement, Const. Martin Cromwell said while the department understands the public’s interest in the case, “there are questions that may never have answers.”

Cromwell also reminded people to be “mindful of the damage public speculation can cause.”

“This woman’s loved ones are grieving,” he said.

Maybe if you intentionally ODed on enough drugs to keep yourself completely out, regardless of pain, and were just using the oven to ensure that the job gets done. Even so.

That seems like a horrendous way to commit suicide.