@ObbieZ@urbanists.social
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

ObbieZ

@ObbieZ@urbanists.social

Lifetime campaigner for social justice, economic fairness and ecological sustainability.

Delegate for Bernie Sanders to 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Evangelist for minimum-impact low-maintenance living. Presented "Transportation Liberation - How to Save Time, Money and Sanity by Not Driving" to the World Car-Free Conference in Portland Oregon in 2008. Local and regional activist for public transit, bicycling, and walkable cities.

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enobacon, (edited ) to random
@enobacon@urbanists.social avatar

What "programming languages from the 90s" are so esoteric that you can't even upgrade your floppy drives SFMTA? What is this platform? He says DOS but there's too much emulation and upgrade paths available for that to make sense. CP/M?

https://mastodon.scot/

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@enobacon DOS and CP/M are not "programming languages", they're operating systems.

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@enobacon A well-designed OS is hardware-agnostic. The API (or whatever it was called then) has functions like "get keystroke" or "get a block from the disk". Interacting with the specific hardware is a function of the BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) of the specific computer, which would leave a hook to the hardware-specific code at a specific address where the OS can find it.

liaizon, to random
@liaizon@wake.st avatar

I have a Morotola (moto g play 2021) phone I have been using for the last 4 months or so with broken screen glass. Would like to fix it without replacing the LCD. Anyone have any tips?

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@liaizon I trust you've already been to ifixit? (https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Motorola_Moto_G_Play_%282021%29)

It looks like the glass and the LCD are hopelessly integrated. And to get to the screen, you have to disassemble the whole thing from the back.

Good luck!

pleaseclap, to random
@pleaseclap@urbanists.social avatar

Honestly the main thing that makes me doubt the CIA killed Kennedy is that they haven't taken shots at Trump; the same security argument applies

But it's probably just because it's just different people at the CIA these days and the new guys are chaos artists who welcome the coming constitutional crisis

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@pleaseclap I've always been a fan of kicking Texas out of the USA... as long as we get to keep Travis County (Austin)

ChrisMcCahill, to random
@ChrisMcCahill@urbanists.social avatar

Apparently a consultant for Michigan DOT found one mile of rail construction produces 400X the GHG emissions as one mile of road. 🤔 Now they're compelled to show the benefits outweigh the impacts.

This is from a webinar hosted by AASHTO's Center for Environmental Excellence.

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@ChrisMcCahill Doesn't make sense.

I wonder, "maybe it's the production of all that steel for the rails?" But highways have rebar and concrete!

Do they back up those numbers?

ObbieZ, to cycling
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

Normally we don't do a Holiday ride, as it's usually too cold and snowy to take the out.

High 40's F in La Crosse today.

With chances of rain the next two days, today is as good a day as any.

ObbieZ, to random
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

Not only will Madison get "a new intercity bus terminal" (WOO-HOO!), but less parking in exchange for more housing.

It's been nearly 20 years since Madison has had a proper bus station. Since then, we've arrived on buses from La Crosse to get dumped onto random street-side locations over the years. In three years we get to arrive at a STATION (with a ROOF and LIGHTS), rather than muddy curbs that are inadequate even as city bus stops.

https://www.cityofmadison.com/news/2023-12-12/state-street-campus-garage-lake-street-side-to-close-for-a-two-year-redevelopment

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

What gives me great joy is to read the whinging of the car-brains on FB, moaning over the loss of their favorite car-storage space.

No city ever became a great city by adding cars to it. Great cities are made by SUBTRACTING cars from them.

ObbieZ, to random
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

I struggle to articulate my feelings on this new war, but this is a starting point:

"...the US '...condemns the unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians'. ...the word “unprovoked” is doing a lot of work here.
"What exactly counts as a provocation? Not the settlers who stormed al-Aqsa mosque. Not the 248 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers this year. One must see such actions as provocations without endorsing further violence.." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/11/israel-palestine-war-biden-zelenskiy

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@kkarhan As I said, I struggle with this.

Hamas is not Palestine (and vice-versa). Atrocities against civilians are evil, whether it be spraying bullets at a rave or blockading an entire population for the actions of their unpopular leaders.

There are evil Palestinians, and there are evil Israelis.

There are good-hearted Palestinians, and there are good-hearted Israelis.

A solution can be found when good-hearted people on both sides tell the evil people in their midst to go to hell.

cdnveggie, to random
@cdnveggie@urbanists.social avatar

WTF Saanich. I have no problem with the raised crosswalk. Great idea. But why doesn't it extend into the car lanes where it could actually save lives?

https://www.vicnews.com/local-news/beyond-parody-saanich-raises-road-to-slow-fast-moving-cyclists-not-drivers-4431270

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@cdnveggie At speeds below 20mph or so, there's no need for a cyclist to slow down for humps like these. I usually sail right over them.

I think rather than doing this by design, I think some contractor f'd up.

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@reneestephen @cdnveggie The "speed humps" in our town are also on a bus route. They were put in to slow down traffic bypassing a busier parallel stroad. They're enough to frustrate motorized traffic, but not high enough to scrape undercarriages (especially for buses).

Four-five humps on a 3/4-mile stretch turned a dangerous raceway into a pleasant neighborhood street.

georgetakei, to random

David Frum sums up the Elon Musk decision to disable Starlink so that Ukraine couldn’t attack Russian vessels with drones:

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@georgetakei David Frum... the same guy who just claimed to NPR that we shouldn't enforce the 14th Amendment because it'll make the MAGAs mad.

rbreich, (edited ) to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

Where else do you follow me on the web?

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@rbreich The bird site has been a no-go zone ever since the day you-know-who's account was re-instated.

I told Elmo "if he's in, then I'm out" and I meant it.

markstos, to climate
@markstos@urbanists.social avatar

Active commuting saves time*, money and CO2.

Taufique, a busy IU graduate student, calculated these annual savings for his past year of active commuting.

Changes in everyday choices can be a win-win! 🚀

@bloomington_in

⏰ * compared to getting the same exercise + also driving.

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@markstos @bloomington_in The "money saved" number is much bigger if one can do without car ownership. By living where a car was unnecessary, we could live w/o a car and saved thousands of $$ per year.

enobacon, to tacticalurbanism
@enobacon@urbanists.social avatar

Amazing stuff in this video of Denver's street designs @activetowns this is what north america's need to be doing, like mini-roundabouts for the price of a speed hump 😍, choke points mid-block on side streets, let's go!!! I particularly love how much they are squeezing these car lanes, if you want to change culture, only give like 3in of slack and engineers can go "🤷 just slow down, it'll fit" 😎

https://youtu.be/HUtI-Fk0yCw

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@enobacon I have a friend in a neighborhood of Seattle where these mini-roundabouts seem to be on every intersection.

georgetakei, to random

If Trump didn’t want his case tried in D.C., he shouldn’t have committed crimes in D.C. See how that works?

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@georgetakei And he says he's innocent, but still wants all of these delays.

Wouldn't an innocent man want a speedy trial to clear his name before the election?

ChrisMcCahill, to madisonwi
@ChrisMcCahill@urbanists.social avatar

"In the past two months, Volvo’s Nova Bus unit has pulled out of the US market and Proterra has filed for bankruptcy." https://twitter.com/NW_Horadam/status/1688869243939352576

An order of 46 electric buses for BRT in is from New Flyer. But this sounds like a sign of industry-wide challenges that agencies will be watching closely.

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@ChrisMcCahill La Crosse has two Proterra buses, added with big fanfare (including a Biden visit) about a year ago.

liaizon, to random
@liaizon@wake.st avatar

I was reading this this thread about how the New York Times butchers all the diacritics from non English languages and I was like this must be fake theres no way they still do this so I looked up a recent article about Vietnam and fucking hell they are still doing this.
Here is an article (unpaywalled) you can look at to verify https://archive.ph/dzV80

via @emptyfortress
https://queer.party/@emptyfortress/110836987033408906

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@liaizon In many languages (Czech is the one with which I'm familiar), removing diacritics changes the letter. An 's' with a hacek over it is a different letter than an s without. Just as ñ and n are different letters in Spanish.

To reframe your analogy, the NYT isn't removing vowels, but it's randomly replacing vowels with different vowels.

pleaseclap, (edited ) to random
@pleaseclap@urbanists.social avatar

Anybody ever ridden/owned a front hub motor ?

I have a BMX bike with 110 spacing in the rear which makes most rear motors out of the question

And I'd like to go say, idk, maybe 30-32-35 mph

And I'm worried about stability at those speeds on a front motor because it's pulling and every bike I've ever ridden pushes you with the rear wheel but maybe I'm over-thinking it

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@pleaseclap 35mph with a front motor sounds like a Really Bad Idea. It's completely counter to a lifetime of motor-memory re bike propulsion and handling.

Also... Have you ever heard of FWD motorcycles? I think if they worked well, they'd exist.

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@pleaseclap Also, with most designs, there's more weight (and more traction) on the rear wheel than there is on the front.

Maybe a front "motor" should be a generator for regenerative braking.

pleaseclap, to random
@pleaseclap@urbanists.social avatar

Not sure how to abuse this just yet but it turns out a lot of that "paywall" crap doesn't remove the text of the article from the DOM

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@pleaseclap You can go into the web inspector to "display:none" on overlays and to expose hidden text.

Recognizing patterns leads to a snippet of javascript to replicate your actions, which can then be put on your bookmark bar.

ObbieZ, to twitter
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

Greetings refugees....

What the cluck took you so long?

danwentzel, to random
@danwentzel@urbanists.social avatar

Jesus Christ's first words to Pat Robertson:

"That's not what I meant!"

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@danwentzel That meeting won't happen. Robertson is going thru an entirely different gate, and it's not a pretty place. No Jesus there.

moritzkraehe, to random

I just went to get groceries. My phone had beeped in the store, so after getting out, I stood on one of the parking spots in the shade to check my messages and reply.

Next time I look up there's a car less than a metre in front of me and the driver is honking his horn at me angrily because how dare I, an entitled bicyclist, occupy the one parking space in the (⅔ empty) parking lot that he wants?!

ObbieZ,
@ObbieZ@urbanists.social avatar

@moritzkraehe Must be the same person I "met" on a train in Dresden 2001 (we were on our way to Berlin from Prague)... She demanded I give her my seat, screaming "platz!", even though the car was 90% empty.

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