punkwalrus

@punkwalrus@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"You'll end up in a van down by the river" if you do drugs, don't go to college, etc. advice never includes the warning: "Don't suffer major Depression that gives you complete apathy for existence."⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  One of my best friends lost her place of living when her boyfriend of 4 years said the relationship had actually ended in his head 2 years previously, but he needed the rent. But then he found a new girlfriend to grift from, “opened the relationship,” and they edged my friend out. I am still mad they did that to her; she was so heartbroken and damaged from that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do residential skyscrapers always seem to include balconies that never get used?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I find them too windy and noisy half the time. They are also wet half the time, either from condensation or recent rain.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Since cats don't pant like dogs how do they release trapped heat?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Cats can pant, I have seen it happen in times of extreme stress, and is often a bad sign. Like dogs, cats may pant if they are anxious or overheated. Strenuous exercise may be another reason, especially after a huge fight. Once your cat has had a chance to rest, calm down and cool down, this sort of painting should subside. However, even this type of panting is much more rarely seen in cats than in dogs. So, if you’re not 100% positive about why your cat is panting, it’s best to bring her to the vet.

  A side note, however, I misread this as “since cat’s don’t like pants like dogs,” and wanted to point out that dogs also do not like to wear pants, before my anti-dyslexia medicine kicked in.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I just want to make cookies :(⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  One revolution I have realized in baking is the recent trend to start talking about weight and not volume in recipes for certain dry ingredients like flour. Three cups of fluffy sifted flour is a lot less flour than three cups of densely packed flour. Same with brown sugar, or wondering if you need a “flat teaspoon” vs. a “heaping teaspoon” of something.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Morphing spray-on gel gives buildings long-lasting wildfire protection⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  When eventually washed off, the aerogel is handily broken down by soil microbes.

  I am not going to claim to be an expert on any of this BUT that wording sounds suspiciously like bullshit. Maybe it’s not, but it’s one of those phrases that sounds like when vitamin companies claim that more B12 has shown to fix whatever ails you. Or “our plastic is environmentally friendly: 100% recyclable, and breaks down into teeny micro-particles over time, and gets absorbed by the sea life like ordinary sand…”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That explains why it’s so hot outside.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tech CEOs are backtracking on RTO mandates—now, just 3% want workers in the office full-time⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I have had two tech jobs like that, even before COVID, starting in 2016. The first time, it was a company that outgrew their workspace. They put us in ‘rent-an-office’ spaces for a bit, and then my boss started working from home a few days a week. Then he allowed me to. We moved to a new office, but it was always empty in my section. That was fine, too, but the commute was terrible, so I started doing 2 days a week, then once a week, then a few times a month. I rarely saw my other coworkers in person, and nobody said anything aloud.

  The next job started because of COVID, and when they started doing RTO, they also wanted to do “hot desking” (no assigned seating) and open office plans, and I was not having that. I was not going to work in a “cafeteria” like setting. So I got contracted work and have worked from home 100% for several years now. Nobody has office space, and we work all over the world to collaborate. I get paid very well.

  I hope i never had to go back to an office. I reach retirement age in about 15 years, and I am hoping to make it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Not to mom shame...⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Someone did a study at MIT about tin foil hats, and found that not only do they not screen radio interference, in some cases, can actually magnify them.

  Conclusion: The helmets amplify frequency bands that coincide with those allocated to the US government between 1.2 Ghz and 1.4 Ghz. According to the FCC, These bands are supposedly reserved for ‘‘radio location’’ (ie, GPS), and other communications with satellites (see, for example, [3]). The 2.6 Ghz band coincides with mobile phone technology. Though not affiliated by government, these bands are at the hands of multinational corporations. It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I can see that being very possible. You see this when taxes are levied to “improve something” and then that money doesn’t go to that something in a directly helpful way. And then the budget that is the main staple of survivability of that something is kept static because of the “new influx.”

  For example, say that you have a toll road increase to help the infrastructure of your roads. Say your Annual Budget for Transportation is $50mil for 2021. In 2022, you requested $60mil. You decide to implement tolls in new ways and increase tolls in other ways (like fines, mileage taxes, and so on) to make up that shortfall. This brings in an additional $10mil, let’s say, in 2022. The revenue is forwarded to 2023. But in 2023, you actually need $80mil because of the two years of shortfalls where it stayed at $50mil, yet costs continued to increase. That $10mil from 2022 now puts you $10 mil behind in 2023. The fact that the previous budget needed steady increases were ignored because “well, we’ll just make things more expensive to make up 2022’s shortfalls of the $60mil request.”

  That’s IF that $10mil isn’t siphoned for other things. Fresh money brings fresh ways to spend it. Grifters via backroom contracts to “fix roads” that go over budget with nothing to show for it. So these new fees and increases actually made things worse due to no oversight.

  So yeah, I could totally see UBI being siphoned off by similar things.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: Indeed and other job sites are saturated with scams⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Not just LinkedIn profiles: there was a case out here near DC a while ago where a well known company leased out their function space for training meetings. Using a compromised company account, a set of scammers set up some fake recruitment profiles, leased out the meeting space for “software training,” and did some “mass hiring” where 30 individuals had their credentials scanned and duplicated. The effect was someone from the recruiting company was contacting you, you had a face-to-face where you got offered an in-person, you showed up to their offices, and got a “job offer pending a background check,” with a date of hire in official-looking emails. You sent in your SSN, copies of your passport and driver’s licence, and after a few weeks, they tell you to show up for orientation. Only, the day these people showed up, the company was confused and had never heard of you. The people you supposedly spoke to had never heard of you. And your identity was stolen, and huge loans and charges started showing up in your credit report.

  Yikes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨text don't call⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I was for about 15 years post high school, but her life was rough and I was always the one initiating contact, so we drifted apart. I hope she okay. Smart woman, gifted arist, terrible parents.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨text don't call⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  When I was 19, I had friends from high school who were still younger, and one of them was my friend Julie who had helicopter parents (she would have been 17-18). I was doing security at an event where the radio headsets we had were super-shitty, and the guy running security was a dumpster fire on his own. Julie’s parents forbid her from going to the event, and grounded her to her room. Then her dad called the hotel where the event was being held, was told Julie had “run away” to this event, and that I was somehow responsible. Given she was a minor, the event runners were understandably concerned, although they were frustrated that Julie’s dad was unable to describe her in a way that was useful: “Asian, wearing black, or a tee-shirt, or something. Ask Punkie where she is.” So they contacted the head of security to find me on my rounds to see if I knew what this crazy man was talking about. The head of security said “okay” and did nothing.

  At some point, the head of security was fired for a variety of reasons, and this increased the level of miscommunication. Meanwhile, Julie’s dad was calling every few hours, demanding to know where his daughter was. And soon there was a concerted effort to find me, which was complicated because of the communication issues. By the time someone found me and the connection was made, my response of, “I have no idea, Julie said her dad forbid her coming here,” was not what they wanted to hear, and met with skepticism “You’re not hiding her, are you? Like she ran away with you in some tryst? She’s 17 and you’re 19, that could have legal ramifications!” No. We’re platonic friends, I don’t know where she is. if I tried to bonk the poor woman, she’d clobber me.

  Meanwhile, Julie’s dad finds Julie in her bedroom, right where he left her. Julie later told me that she was ignoring her dad calling for her, and didn’t “come downstairs” like he demanded because she assumed it was a trap to get her punished for leaving her bedroom while she was grounded. So naturally, her dad assumed she wasn’t in the house. Because he called for her and she didn’t answer.

  Poor Julie. Her parents were crazy-nuts.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It’s Surprisingly Easy to Live Without an Amazon Prime Subscription⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I hate to be honest, but I used Amazon Prime a lot because:

  1. I cannot drive. Thus, getting to the store is difficult.
  2. I must bring in 3-4 items a week, so yeah, I save on shipping.
  3. Auto-subscriptions save a little.
  4. I have priced a lot of stuff over the years, and while Amazon is not always the best, the convenience is impressive.
  5. They have, multiple times, been incredibly helpful with customer service. Like above and beyond.
  6. COVID and nobody masks around here. I have an autoimmune condition, so it’s important that I not leave unless it’s a medical appointment or similar need.
  7. They just have stuff I can’t find anywhere. Yes, as some have said, caveat emptor, but that’s true for all the stores.

  I also save a shit ton of money. When I used to browse Walmart or Target, I used to buy a lot of shit I didn’t need. I don’t get as distracted with focused buying. I also order from Aliexpress if I can wait 30 days, and I have only been ripped off three times in several years, for a total of maybe $35.

  I’m not saying my way is better, and certainly not if it’s better for you, but it’s been a godsend to the house-bound.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can you survive on pickles alone, for a while?⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hah! It’s so true.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can you survive on pickles alone, for a while?⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, it really reminds me of that famous GreenTest about pickles Image

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what has worked for you to stop getting angry thinking about people who hurt you?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I rarely get angry at anyone, which, sadly, means I didn’t gain the skills to deal with it very well. Thus, if someone DOES make me angry, it can linger for YEARS. The record so far is some 50 years with my parents’ abuse, followed by a few friends’ betrayal as a teen (separate incidents). I have about half a dozen incidents where I have been seriously fucked over by people I trusted, and hate my continued anger over it more than I hate the event itself.

  I found, however, patience has its own reward. If you’re the type of person who really fucks me over, and it’s definitely not my fault, eventually your behavior will fuck yourself in other ways. I don’t “get revenge” like some cartoon, but years later, I’ll find out, “Yeah, that asshole? After her did that thing to you that took you years to get over, his super-special kid went to jail, his wife left him, his business tanked, and last anyone heard, he’s living with him mom (whom he despised) in his 50s with zero prospects for his future.” If you fucked me over, but it’s partially or wholly my fault, then, well, I deserved it. Sometimes I make mistakes, like screw someone’s lie over by revealing a secret I didn’t know was a secret. I try super super super hard not to do that, even if I hate their guts, or the lie needs to be told for some esoteric moral bullshit (like cheating on his wife I didn’t know he had). But I try to keep my nose clean. I try not to gossip when I can help it. This also helps to know “I did my best, given what I knew.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Era of American Computer Magazines Has Drawn to a Close⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  When I used to run a book store in the 80s, two magazines were the largest (and 99% ads): bridal magazines and Computer Shopper.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Chairs for the lazy⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Having seen these in a demo, they have weight triggers to prevent that. Also in or demo, one got stuck on a power cord, the other on a electrical plate in the floor.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I am dumb. What would cops want with my prescription information? I’ll probably understand if someone gives me examples of how this could be used against me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨To prevent mashed potatoes from being gummy, boil the potatoes whole.⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Nope, came here to post the same.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Most legible scottish person⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I got all of that except “shag ye x,” because it sounds like “shah (fuck) you x,” where “x” is the subject that is a bit vague. Like, “I’m trying to shag you, love?” or “Fuck your ex,” as in, the lady person you broke up with?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cloud engineer gets 2 years for wiping ex-employer’s code repos⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Inserted ‘taunts’ in the code, including references to “grok”

  Uh. OK.

  I mean, I understand the Heinlein word, but what does that have to do with his motivation?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨it always interesting when multi billion dollar company's costing system is a 63 tab excel 97 spreadsheet at it's core...⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Worked for a company in 1998 that had all the employee data on an excel spreadsheet: everything from emergency contacts to date of last paycheck. All of HR. And “for security” it was stored on a floppy disk. One single disk. Which was put back in the safe every close of business. One day, the disk got corrupted. The “backup” was an end-of-year printout, but any changes since then were gone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do people understand each other?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My wife stayed in a rural town near Shichigahama for a week. Nobody spoke English except a few students. But the citizens did speak Japanese louder and slower, showing that’s a universal trait. It actually helped, as my wife knew SOME Japanese.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Air: Where did that bring you? Back to me.⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I am not a gamer so my fans only spin up when the vents clog with dust or I am doing some high end rendering. I’d never do water cooling because a leak could kill everything. I have lived through floods.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do some people "read lips"?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Similar for me: when my hearing started to go in my 30s, the doctor said “you already know how to lip read.” I didn’t believe him until he showed me “am I saying ‘top’ or ‘cup’?” and if he had his mouth covered, I couldn’t tell which one he was saying.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Backlash over fake female speakers shuts down developer conference⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This reminds me of some Ohio Christian university advertising racial diversity in all their media, and some guy exposed them as having exactly three non-white students, all whom turned out to be shills from another country who were technically employees.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How to stop thinking about an interaction from my past?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I grew up with pretentiousness like this. Lot of upper middle class twits who wanted to be upper class. I used to get their goat with a kind of backhand kindness.

  “You know about ABC?” Where ABC is a question about a topic he claims to be an expert in.

  “If you don’t know how to ABC, you aren’t very educated.”

  “Ah, I see you don’t know either.”

  “I never SAID that! But I have neither the time nor patience to explain it to you.”

  “Let me ask around, and we can find the answer together.”

  “I KNOW the answer!!!”

  “Not well enough to explain it, though. But that’s okay, we can learn that to. Let’s ask this guy. Hey, my colleague and I were wondering if you could explain ABC…”

  Oh my god, this makes their pompousness positively FUME with rage.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do guys that tip cam models hundreds of dollars week after week think that model actually likes them?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, they may like the attention and validation it brings. I knew someone who was asexual that had a lot of dotcom money. He loved to go to Vegas and gamble. He knew the house was stacked against him. He knew that the girls who sat on his lap only liked him for his money. He still loved the attention he got when he tipped big. I saw him tip a waiter $200 on a $150 meal. He LOVED it. And why?

  “I used to be poor. I was a nobody. Now I make people happy with my money, and I feel good about myself.”

  Can’t beat that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A good deal of IT work, too⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is so true. That’s why there’s no shame in using Google or Duckduckgo or even Chatgpt. You have to know enough to phrase the right question, know how to filter the right answer, and then use it.

  I can Google a Chinese dictionary, but that won’t make me fluent in Chinese.