HarkMahlberg

HarkMahlberg, 5 months ago to random

I have a meme scavenger hunt, a meme bounty if you will. Somewhere out there is this clip from George C. Scott's A Christmas Carol with the "It is Wednesday, my dudes" meme mixed in.

I want it.

HarkMahlberg, 5 months ago to random

#softwaregore

Blocked users who move instances don't stay blocked

Posting to raise awareness of this behavior with kbin. Maybe it's something Ernest can address in the ActivityPub rewrite, maybe it's something that doesn't need to be (or can be) addressed at all....

HarkMahlberg, 6 months ago to linguistics

"a hell of a" ✔️
"an hell of a" ❌
"one hell of a" ✔️

Diplomas for sale, $465: Inside one of Louisiana’s unapproved schools (projects.apnews.com)

Louisiana’s off-the-grid schools are a rapidly growing example of the nation’s continuing fallout from COVID: families disengaging from public school.

HarkMahlberg, 6 months ago to random

A relative told me "you're too young to be so old-fashioned about technology," after I said I don't use AI to code, and seeing that I wasn't wearing a smartwatch. And I would disagree, I don't eschew new technology. I have a new smartphone, I have a new PC I built myself, I have a ton of extensions loaded on my browser, I run a Pihole, I wrote meager updates for my Fediverse instance. I love new technology.

What I don't love is that new technology often comes strapped to the side of a Rent-seeking subscription service. It's got toxic advertising forming a cancerous growth right in plain view. It requires an account and personal data and loads a hundred tracking cookies to share that data with a thousand third parties. And it's all held hostage by the company going bankrupt and turning your tech into a brick.

So yeah, I'm not old-fashioned about new technology, I'm just stubborn and refuse to accept the bloat they come with. There's plenty of new tech that doesn't have that, it just happens to look like the old tech that was perfectly suitable for us.

On Day One of Gaza cease-fire, Hamas and Israel carry out first swap of hostages and prisoners (apnews.com)

On the first day of a four-day Gaza cease-fire agreement, Hamas released 24 hostages abducted by militants from southern Israel seven weeks ago. In return, Israel freed 39 Palestinians from prison on Friday.

HarkMahlberg, 6 months ago to random

I've been trying to expand my musical taste lately. So I found a recommendation for "Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana" by Sheena Ringo. I listen to it on youtube and it sounds awful, even though all the comments praised it. Maybe it's just not my thing...

Then I listened to it in my car, where I had an actual subwoofer. So I found out that the sub is literally required to listen to the album. It's good.

Now I need a subwoofer for my PC...

[News] House passes a stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown (www.nbcnews.com)

The bill now heads to the Senate, which is expected to pass it before Friday's deadline. It would keep the government funded through early next year while Congress debates spending.

HarkMahlberg, 6 months ago to random

I don't like purity tests. Only weak-minded people issue them. In doing so they remove nuance from a discussion.

Don't fall for them.

狂感できない / 八十八ヶ所巡礼 (Can't Go Crazy / 88Kasyo Junrei) (www.youtube.com)

http://88kasyo.com/

HarkMahlberg, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to citiesskylines

#citiesskylines2 I think I figured out how to satisfy low density residential demand in the game. It basically operates on the concept of Induced Demand. Just like adding a lane to a highway incentivizes people to use the highway more, leading to the same congestion problems. If you constantly zone low density residential in an attempt to "chase the demand bar," what you're doing is increasing the supply of houses. Meaning, driving down the COST of housing. Meaning more citizens can afford a house, meaning they buy up that supply, so they demand more... it's a feedback loop, like acquiescing to a child who only ever wants to eat chocolate.

So, counterintuitively, you need to IGNORE their demand. By keeping the supply constant, and with demand increasing, the cost of the housing goes up. This prices out some of your citizens, and so they will begin demanding lower-cost options. Enter, medium density housing. You start with row housing, then medium density, then mixed-use. This doesn't happen fast, let alone instantly, so you kind of have to plan this strategy from the founding of your city. At one point I had a 15k pop with almost exclusive demand for medium density housing.

As your citizens get more educated through college and university levels, they'll be able to afford those suburbs again, and the demand will return. But they'll also be young enough that living "in the big city" will be desirable and they'll start demanding high density apartments close to shops and offices. Beware the Low Rent zoning type! Despite being high density, if your citizens are too well educated and make too much money, they'll abandon these buildings the moment they can afford nicer places. But I guess they're a good stopgap measure between medium density and regular high density.

So Induced Demand is a double edged sword: you want to avoid inducing demand for low density suburbs, and purposely induce demand for higher densities.

RFK Jr. pulls more votes from Trump than Biden in three-way race: Poll (thehill.com)

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears to pull more support from former President Trump than President Biden in a hypothetical general election matchup, according to a new…

Senate confirms top Navy, Air Force picks as Tuberville feud intensifies (www.politico.com)

The move comes as several GOP members confront the Alabama senator over his blanket hold on nominees.

HarkMahlberg, 7 months ago to random

#citiesskylines2 I know the game was basically released unfinished, but I think it's really strange that the only way to tax residential is by education level. I think they tried to equate education level with zoning density? I've noticed that the demand for various densities depends almost entirely on how many students at each education level you have: university students demand high density, college students demand low rent and mixed, high school demands medium density and row houses, etc.

Seems like it would make more sense to tax based on wealth (which the game tracks with Wretched, Poor, Comfortable, Wealthy) and/or the zoning density (Low, Row, Medium, Mixed, Low Rent, High). That would line up with real life a lot better, like income tax and real estate tax respectively.

HarkMahlberg, 7 months ago to random

Is there a word for the feeling you get when you hear something or read something so insanely wrong that it reveals a level of ignorance you didn't think was possible?

[News] Mike Johnson elected House speaker, ending 22 days of GOP stalemate (www.axios.com)

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) won the floor vote for the House speaker gavel on Wednesday, ending the weeks of stalemate and failed nominations that followed the historic ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

HarkMahlberg, 7 months ago to random

If you defend AI against criticism by claiming the critics "just don't understand it," let me know. Thanks!

HarkMahlberg, 7 months ago to random

HarkMahlberg, 7 months ago to random

I finally fell victim to YouTube's anti-adblock system. But if they think that's going to get me to watch their ads, they can shove it up their ass sideways.

I have no problem with going back to the days of watching Red Vs Blue by downloading the fucking WAV files and playing them with Windows Media Player.

Piss into a jar of bleach, Google.

This carpet took years off my life just looking at it.

Like I'm pretty sure this is the color of the blood that Akira Kurosawa used in Ran. It's fucking haunting.

[Folding Ideas] This is Financial Advice (www.youtube.com)

Clickbait Title: if the price is zero then you can buy all the shares...

[News] Dianne Feinstein, longest serving woman in the Senate, has died at 90 (www.npr.org)

Feinstein suddenly became the mayor of San Francisco when two other officials were assassinated. Later she was elected to the U.S. Senate after male senators grilled Anita Hill in public hearings.

HarkMahlberg, 8 months ago to random

Shhhh everyone shut up. Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is on. #npr