@roadskater@mastodon.social
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

roadskater

@roadskater@mastodon.social

Inline skating the mean streets of NYC since 1993 and still alive to kvetch about it.
Webmaster for some scientists.
Java netCDF dataviz and cartography coder.
Somewhere left of center.
Recovering Idahoan.
Bobcat grad.
Jack Methodist.
Once upon a time RPGer and developer.
Erstwhile alternate history authority.
Miscellanea and erratica.
Born at 319ppm CO2.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Sheril, to books
@Sheril@mastodon.social avatar

Once again, I’m in need of a new book to get lost in & would love recommendations 📚

Some of my favorite genres include science fiction, historical fiction & satire. What are you reading? #books

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@Sheril If by new you mean recent, @annaleen 's The Terraformers has been getting lots of good words. They also have a just published non-fiction book about disinformation that is unfortunately apropos to these times.

lzg, to random
@lzg@mastodon.social avatar

i saw TWO coyotes hanging out together. the best.

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@lzg If you see three, it's an organization.

dangillmor, to random
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

Private equity / hedge fund financial engineers are systematically taking over and wrecking industry after industry -- making everything worse except for the people at the top who rake in vast fortunes they've looted from their prey.

Now they've come for bowling alleys, and the results are completely predictable -- and infuriating.

https://www.levernews.com/meet-the-new-kingpin/

If Democrats truly cared about winning back blue collar voters, they would take loud note of this. But they'd have to wake up first.

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@dangillmor The website is demanding I create a free account to read the article, so nope. But I assume this is the usual ploy of buying up businesses that own their property, separating them from the property via a bad sale-leaseback deal, and then selling the business and watch them eventually go bankrupt?

film_girl, to random
@film_girl@mastodon.social avatar

I’m from Atlanta, so I won’t drink a Pepsi product unless forced. We’re a Coca-Cola family. But Diet Dr. Pepper is the best diet soda that exists. I absolutely drink more Diet Coke ounce for ounce, even tho it is worse, just b/c it’s often on sale more but DP is the real shit. Glad to see it get its due. https://www.wsj.com/business/dr-pepper-soda-sales-92b292c3?st=ty1xr5af1rgj04d&reflink=article_copyURL_share

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@film_girl I can't explain it but Diet Dr. Pepper messes with my head. Is there like a heavier caffeine load than in regular DP?

But after many sad years of not drinking Dr. Pepper at all, I have been pleased that a couple groceries near me are now erratically carrying Dr. Pepper Zero.

So now there's something to occasionally distract me from my Coke Zero habit.

StillIRise1963, to random
@StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

The nerve of charging someone almost $100K a year for college and withholding diplomas for protesting is a motherfucking outrage.

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@StillIRise1963 @heafnerj It's been pointed out (many times!) that Columbia and NYU have become real estate corporations with a side gig in education because of tax exemptions. There's been rumbling about changing the state tax law that would dent that, but IIRC it may also require amending the state constitution.

Would not surprise me if other elites have similar sweetheart arrangements.

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

I had to edit a MS word thing through my new university microsoft account, and holy cow, all the mansplainy suggestions microsoft thrusts in there are like Clippy went and got an MBA and needs to make sure that you know the $60k he paid for it was absolutely definitely worth it.

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@sundogplanets I don't want to be one of those people who continually talk about how much better it was in the old days but the last good MS Word was version 5.1. Released 1993.

stevenbodzin, to random
@stevenbodzin@thepit.social avatar

Today I was again remembering how in the early 90s, after the revival of Earth Day, the success of the Montreal Protocol and the growth of concern over global warming, one cute little thing people did was to take their own cup to the cafe. Most cafes would sell coffee cheaper if you brought a cup.

It was part of a broader conversation about reducing packaging.

It disappeared after the 2000 election, the disgrace of Al Gore, and 9 months later the 9/11 attacks.

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@capntransit @stevenbodzin
I've noticed the Just Salad places are selling re-usable (plastic) bowls and giving a discount if you bring one in. OTOH, seems like it would be a pain to keep in your pack, and you'd definitely want to wash it off immediately after use.

Andres4NY, to random
@Andres4NY@social.ridetrans.it avatar

There's plenty of research out there showing that when you add a protected bike lane, a street becomes safer for ALL road users.

However, I'm not convinced that the traffic calming effect that made it safer actually continues to work if you don't bother to maintain the "protection". I fear it's actually the opposite; without the protection, drivers see just a clear lane and drive faster than they did before (where parked cars used to slow down cars, prior to PBL installation). #SafeStreets

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@Andres4NY It's been a couple years. I should skate east and check out the boulevard. As bad as it can be, it was nice that nice being able to roll where you could least remove the fear of being doored from the mental watchlist.

amcasari, to random
@amcasari@hachyderm.io avatar

Sam Altman may not be able to eat in SF, but Bernie Sanders can waltz in your froyo shop in Vermont and no one blinks an eye.

#Vermont #uspol

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@amcasari Did the scooper just say, "The usual?" to him?

MissingThePt, to random
@MissingThePt@mastodon.social avatar

ChatGPT is a menace, suggesting using glue to keep cheese on a pizza.

Everyone knows you should use staples.

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@MissingThePt Don't forget the gasoline or the snakes.

lzg, to random
@lzg@mastodon.social avatar

it would be really great if what ends up killing this AI hype cycle is that it’s unable to discern what is real and what is a shitpost

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@lzg Somewhere in all this BS is some tech bro preparing his TED Talk about web4 and "trusted web results", and feeling smug about how genius he is. Sigh. I feel sick having just typed that.

lzg, to random
@lzg@mastodon.social avatar

frustrated once again googling what the fuck is a red herring, an idiom that never sticks to my brain no matter how many times i’ve looked it up

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@lzg
Whoever used the phrase on you apparently distracted you from whatever else it was they were saying and didn't want you to actually pay attention to. Win-win.

dangillmor, to random
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

@hiltzikm is one of the consistently best business commentators in daily journalism. Here, he pulls apart the corporate sleaze -- and gross mismanagement -- that pushed Red Lobster into bankruptcy.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-05-21/column-it-wasnt-just-the-endless-shrimp-red-lobsters-corporate-owners-drove-it-into-bankruptcy?utm_source=press.coop

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@dangillmor @hiltzikm I don't think I have ever read about one of these sale-leaseback transactions that worked out well for anyone except for the hedge fund or the private equity fund that made bank screwing the company over.

And didn't I read around 8-10 years ago that the state of New Mexico was thinking of doing something dumb like that with one of the state government buildings?

clive, to random
@clive@saturation.social avatar

“I had a guy come in with his family ... and he did 16 rounds of shrimp scampi. He was there for over two hours on a busy Friday night. They had one of my biggest tables. I just had to watch this man eat plates upon plates of the scampi, which isn’t even served over pasta. It’s shrimp in a garlic-wine butter.

"It was so gross.”

Red Lobster employees tell grim tales of the chain benighted "endless shrimp" deal: https://slate.com/life/2024/05/red-lobster-restaurant-closing-bankrupt-endless-shrimp.html

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@clive ISTR a Simpson's episode from long ago (~25 years?) where the seafood restaurant has an all-you-can-eat deal, and Homer took it on as a challenge. A court case might have resulted.

lzg, to random
@lzg@mastodon.social avatar

finally the org is large enough that there's another Lena at work. let the namespace collision begin!

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@brohrer @lzg Like when I started grade school and there were four Davids in my class. Thankfully, I was not one of them.

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@lzg @brohrer Looking at the Social Security table of most popular baby names, and yep, David was in the top 3 boys' names there for a very long stretch. But I'll bet even the guys named David were glad they weren't named Michael.

jamesthomson, to random
@jamesthomson@mastodon.social avatar

This is oddly satisfying in VR. One of these days I might make an actual game!

A man destroys a wall with a series of dice and other objects fired from his fingertips. This is clearly the killer app for the Vision Pro.

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@jamesthomson @markv Little Brick Out for the 2020s. Just saying.

Andres4NY, to random
@Andres4NY@social.ridetrans.it avatar

12yo: "so can we switch my bedtime later, then? I'm not getting to bed at my [earlier] bedtime anyway."

her: "Privileges are earned. You don't fail at something and then get more privileges because of that."

me: "well.... we are in the US."

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@Andres4NY Someone's aching to get his TV privileges suspended, and it isn't the 12yo.

nixCraft, (edited ) to linux
@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

Poll: #Linux users, do you regret buying a laptop or desktop with an Nvidia card because of drivers and other problems?

roadskater,
@roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

@nixCraft The best part of a poll like this is having no dog in the fight and just watching the e-violence that ensues.

(This toot does not condone animal fighting at all. Get real, you nerds.)

lzg, to random
@lzg@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    roadskater,
    @roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

    @lzg You could tempt somebody's uncle in a dress like that.

    nixCraft, to random
    @nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

    If you're following me for linux or coding advice, you're making a huge mistake 🙃

    roadskater,
    @roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

    @nixCraft Neither of those. Nor humor. Why am I following you? 🤷‍♂️

    sundogplanets, to random
    @sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

    I am talking o a reporter about this in a couple hours: https://regina.ctvnews.ca/from-outer-space-sask-farmers-baffled-after-discovering-strange-wreckage-in-field-1.6880353

    This is about an hour away from my farm, so this'll be a fun conversation, and yet another great opportunity to tell a lot of people about what a huge problem we have with unregulated commercialization of orbit. (Also I just redid my slides for my public talk next week, this is going in!)

    roadskater,
    @roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

    @sundogplanets "… donate to the local skating rink" sounds like a perfectly Canadian request.

    roadskater,
    @roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

    @sundogplanets They should mount whatever else they find in the trophy case at the skating rink.

    flargh, to random
    @flargh@mastodon.social avatar

    the new iPad Pro is very thin and powerful, but is it strong enough to whack tech pundits with dumb opinions upside the head

    roadskater,
    @roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

    @flargh
    Strong enough, yes. But do you really want to pay have the crack in the display fixed afterward?

    Not, a sideways swipe edge-on aiming for the pundit's throat. That might shut 'em up.

    dangillmor, to random
    @dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

    The Dallas Morning News' appointment of a public editor is a great move for that organization.

    https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2024/04/30/heres-how-the-dallas-morning-news-is-investing-in-readers-faith/

    And it highlights the New York Times' arrogant decision to get rid of that post years ago.

    Would it have mattered if they'd kept the position? Maybe not, given the propensities of the most recent top editors.

    But it sure couldn't have hurt.

    roadskater,
    @roadskater@mastodon.social avatar

    @dangillmor Eliminated in 2017 during a wave of cost-cutting. I would not have guess that there had been 6 of them.

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