frettchen · HackerTrans

The mall guys and some of those I saw guarding places in more expensive neighborhoods may have been police, I'm admittedly not 100% not sure - but the building I worked in employed private security with rifles (it was a Tata Consultancy office a little ways outside of Hyderabad, maybe 20 minutes or so from Ramoji Film City, for whatever it is worth).

frettchen

5 lat temudiscuss

I've wanted one of the jets ever since I went over there - as soon as I'm out of an apartment, I'm putting them on any and every toilet in my home.

I always kept some TP around, though, even when I was in places with the jets - but for the reason you mention the towel: it's handy to dry off with.

Well, and for sticking on shaving nicks or blowing your nose.

frettchen

5 lat temudiscuss

"Watchmen and policemen are heavily, scarily equipped."

This one amused me, as an American who has been to India (though not Pune, so maybe the area was different in this sense), because while I don't remember what police carried (though I saw a fair number), I remember being shocked by the number of security guards I cam across (mostly in front of office buildings and when entering malls) who were carrying rifles (they looked a bit like AK47s/AKMs, though I don't know for sure if they were), whereas most security I've encountered in the US carries sidearms at most, and often no firearms at all.

frettchen

5 lat temudiscuss

The article and comments together are great, because all at once I have a newfound respect for the complexity of bowling (from the cores to the oil patterns) and yet am bolstered in the feeling that there is something inherently casual about it, mostly because - and I cannot get over this - I had never even considered the possibility of _scented balls_.

That seems like a weird joke, and yet many of these highly engineered and fairly expensive balls seem to not only be scented, but, for some, to come in a choice of scents (matching their colours to some degree).

frettchen

5 lat temudiscuss

"People [...] are less likely to become infected with the coronavirus if they have relatively high levels of virus-blocking antibodies..."

This seems self-evident, really - 'virus-blockers help block the virus' hardly seems newsworthy. IF they'd worked out the 'threshold of protection' mentioned at the end, that might be more interesting, but this article seems like it should be a footnote in that larger piece (when it comes) rather than something worth reporting on its own.

frettchen

5 lat temudiscuss

I think what really hurts, for me, is that this has become the general tone from Mozilla - whether the changes are ones I'd agree with or not.

I remember back when the Spread Firefox campaign was still around - at the time, Firefox and Mozilla in general felt grassroots, fun, and human. Like a club anyone could join and that anyone would want their friends, family, coworkers, and even strangers or people they didn't like to get in on: an all-in-this-together effort for a better internet.

Anymore, Mozilla feels more and more corporate, more like a company - even as Google Chrome (and the many browsers built from Chromium) eats away more and of their market share and they move toward being "the little guy" again - and less and less like a group of people.

I think what I really miss is having a browser that made me care about it beyond just wanting alternatives.

frettchen

5 lat temudiscuss

To throw on what others have said, if you've got a vehicle and drive at all frequently, it is fairly easy and inexpensive to install a CB radio in your vehicle.

I've got one in my Subaru Legacy I stuck up by the driver's seat, down to the left of the steering wheel. The radio itself is a Uniden PRO520XL (around $50) with a TRAM 703-HC antenna (about $20) that's on my trunk via a magnetic base. The antenna cord goes into the drunk (under the rain seal - no modification needed) and runs along the inside of the car tucked under the flooring. No tools needed, just tuck it all in until it's out of the way.

The radio itself is just screwed into a blank spot my knees don't hit with the included screws (just needed to pre-drill the holes). Ground wire is wrenched down under a bolt to the vehicles frame, and the power comes from the in-cabin fuse box (for mine that was closest, right next to the steering wheel) using a fuse tap (which lets you go under an existing fuse, so no permanent wiring or soldering needed), which I got a pack of 4 of for around $8.

All in all, about $80 to get it all together and other than two small screw holes, it can all come out like it was never there if needed.

I would reccomend getting an SWR meter (around $50 for the Workman brand one I got), which you can use to calibrate your antenna so you get better reception - it makes a major difference.

On the road, it's great in heavy traffic and rush-hour, as you can often pick up (and join in, though some are more open to this than others) trucker chatter, either to pass the time or as a pre-Waze-style method of knowing where the jams, cops, accidents, and so forth are so you can avoid them as needed. As LinuxBender said, channels 17 and 19 seem to be the usual trucker channels - some places will use both, some cities will focus on one (the Cincinnati area, for example, generally seems to be all on 19).

I've never run into the "people playing with voice modification and trash talking" busterarm mentioned in his comment, but the truckers are often VERY colourful in their language and topics - I would reccomend picking up some of the more common slang they use (I used to do tech support for trucking dealerships and garages, and years ago my dad drove a box truck, so I knew a reasonable amount already when I started) as it lets you get a lot more out of CB, since they're really still the primary people on it, at least in the US.

My radio also came with and output port for hooking a PA to it (i.e. in the hood like some police cars have), and while I've tested it with a cheap Pyle trumpet style speaker, I don't currently have that hooked up because I can't quite work out a good way to run the wire for it from the cabin to the engine compartment (though there are plenty of spots inside the hood I can zip-tie in the speaker, which I've seen people have pretty solid success with) - not exactly related to CB itself, but a fun thing if you want to add function to the radio, I suppose.

frettchen

5 lat temudiscuss

The author notes that SQL has been around since, roughly, 1974 - but MultiValue Query Language/ENGLISH has been around since the the 60s. The choice is clear. /s

frettchen

5 lat temudiscuss

Still the case in Kroger's in the US - there's a few home brands: Private Selection (higher-end) Simple Truth (organic and "natural" products) Kroger (main home brand) Pssst (discount/low-end brand)

frettchen

5 lat temudiscuss

I think a large potion of the attention might be for aesthetic reasons - Nova N 176 is interesting, but the artwork throughout Voynich makes it much more interesting to look through for people "just looking."

Nova isn't ugly, but for a non-linguist, there's less to see.

frettchen

5 lat temudiscuss

I miss when stores in malls and the like would have weird contraptions of that sort (mobiles, pendulums, ball/marble race tracks, etc.) to catch your eye.

frettchen

5 lat temudiscuss

> Raspberry Pi is at the heart of this AI–powered, automated sorting machine that is capable of recognising and sorting any LEGO brick.

> ...wirelessly sends to a more powerful computer able to run the neural network that classifies the parts.

"The heart" may be a strong term - the eyes and hands, maybe, but the brain, at least, appears to be separate.

Still a very cool project.

frettchen

6 lat temudiscuss

I've been using Mailfance (https://mailfence.com/) for around two years now and been very happy with them - the interface isn't the most beautiful thing ever, but it is simple to use and it works, and the pricing is reasonable (from free to 25,00€ a month depending on storage space needed).

I use my own domain and I do still have a separate Gmail account that I mostly use for newsletters, promotions, coupons, and other "semi-wanted spam" to keep things clean in my inbox.

Mailfence is in Belgium, so they're outside of the main Five Eyes but are still in a cooperating area and part of the Fourteen Eyes, which may matter depending on your precise personal privacy/risk levels, but for general personal privacy it's plenty for my use case.

frettchen

6 lat temudiscuss

I think the issue isn't emissions in that case but a "amount of land space necessary for landfills for traditional plastic" vs. "amount of land space necessary for plant growth for bioplastic."

If the bioplastic growth land takes up more space by a certain amount than is used to dispose of regular plastic, that's presents its own set of issues.

frettchen

6 lat temudiscuss

I can't speak for those who got it for free with your code, but if didn't have the code, I'd have been pretty upset to pay fifteen dollars for a desktop app only to find a tab in it letting me know that to access "premium features" I'd need to sign up (and presumably pay again/more) online.

frettchen

6 lat temudiscuss

About 6:55 in I think he gets a little scratch.

frettchen

6 lat temudiscuss

I immediately envisioned an Ender's Game scenario where someone, somewhere is playing Euro Truck Simulator 2030 and, unbeknownst to them, is actually driving a real truck and making real deliveries.

I know that wouldn't quite work since absent the military academy aspect they might do things in game we wouldn't want done in real life (i.e. driving headlong into traffic because you missed your last delivery window and so are starting over), but the idea I like.