@bluGill@kbin.social cover

bluGill

@bluGill@kbin.social

A programmer with an interest in transit, making music, and building things of all types.

I have dysgraphia which makes writing difficult for me. I hope you can figure out what I mean despite my issues.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

bluGill ,

Sounds like every other party.

bluGill ,

In short he was proven wrong - we do have the regulations already and they got him.

(AI probably needs more regulation)

bluGill ,

Blame everyone. My brother-in-law works for a refinery. They get beat up in the news and by politicians all the time, but when they need something it always happens - even in California. Which shouldn't surprise - people say they want things like clean air until they discover it means gas prices go up (or they can't drive their car at all) and suddenly they don't care are all.

bluGill ,

Why are you blaming the minimum wage worker? It is everybody with a car which is the vast majority of the adult population. Poor, middle class, rich - all of them care about gas prices and scream when they go up.

bluGill ,

People have no options because everyone collectively hasn't created them. Sure a few people vote for transit, bike lanes and the like, but not many. (and the poor are not better than anyone else at this) . There are options - you can move closer to work, get a different job that is closer to where you live, get a bike, carpool, ride transit.... Those all bad options for most people but they exist and so they choose them.

bluGill ,

There is a lot of laws around what a contract can do. you cannot have a contract for murder for example. EULA are the lowest form as the other party doesn't have a choice, particularly if the terms change after the sale. contact a lawyer for the current state, but last I checked they were not well tested, and gnerally considered breakable in court.

bluGill ,

Irrelevant. If you have a business that owns property you should have two divisions for accounting reasons, one that runs the business and one that leases the property to the business. Both sides should be making money. This should just be an accounting trick but you need to watch it, if you can't make money with either side alone that means you don't have a good business.

There are good reasons to own your own real estate, and good reasons to lease. However either way you need to make the accounting numbers work.

bluGill ,

Because someone needs to be enslaved to provide universial health care. If even one person wants to opt out, no matter how wrong their reason you if you allow don't allow it they are enslaved. (note that there have been many different systems of slavery, but even the best still remones choice from someone). as such I prefer other options if they exist.

There are other options and so I oppose universial health care. Do not confuse that with approving of the system we have.

bluGill ,

You are a slave and should opt out of those things.

Your proble is you know what is and cannot imangine what could be.

bluGill ,

Your local bike store should have a nice selection. I use my EV bike all the time and the car I keep for those few trips where the bike doesn't work just sits... You should too. Don't forget to check out the local transit options (and if - as is likely - they are bad demand better)

bluGill ,

That isn't acceptable. One person who for whatever reason is out late (emergency at work, or invited to a party) will be screwed when they can't get back home and tell everyone else.

bluGill ,

I know it is true almost everywhere, but that doesn't make it acceptable. People need to get places, transit is just a tool.

bluGill ,

While you are not wrong, you should always strive to perfection. Running train transit 24x7x365 is low hanging fruit (modern fully automated trains exist - note that the topic here is trains not buses). You do need to do something about maintenance, so I'll let you get by with 30 minute headways overnight, while during the day you should be running every 5 minutes.

bluGill ,

In this case the rails are already there but unused.

That is also several strike against this. Those rails exist but they are all in really bad shape as they were nearly universally used without maintenance until it was no longer feasible. They are also generally in bad areas where there isn't much need for more transport - we already have roads in good shape (to run a bus on). The only thing this has over a bus is you can run them fully automated - which isn't enough IMO.

bluGill ,

It is stupid not to. It doesn't cost much and makes transit so much nicer.

I was awarded my 3 gallon award today for blood donations. ( lemmy.world )

I am truly honored. I hope every blood donation I gave was able to help save a life. I always wonder about how the recipients are doing, and what circumstances led them to need a life saving blood transfusion. The blood bank keeps all of that private for security reasons, of course, along with the name of the donors who donate....

bluGill ,

as someone who cannot, thank you. I depend on people like you to make up for me,

bluGill ,

I faint after (or sometimes while) giving blood. After a couple times they told me thanks for trying, but they don't want to have to deal with that again so please don't. I could probably do a half donation but they don't take those. I used to donate plasma without problem but there is no location to do that near where I live.

bluGill ,

Yes you can. Banks do loans for this kind of thing all the time. They prefer experience though, and so if you don't have that you will need to prove you have enough on the line that you will lose if you don't complete the deal.

Many condos are built by small companies. They build a few every month and it is enough to pay their employees and make a nice living. It is hard to break into this as the banks want to see experience, but it can be done.

bluGill ,

The worst thing you can do is block people because of their leanings. That is how you get echo chambers. Of course many extremeists on both sides need to be blocked, just make sure you block them on your side too.

bluGill ,

With a secret ballot there is no way to know who voted for who. when talking about your vote the ethical thing is to lie.

mpjgregoire , to random
@mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca avatar

It's always interesting when someone whose politics you think you know supports something unexpected: the NRA member who opposes capital punishment, the socialist who favours free trade, the pro-life feminist. How often are beliefs only found in a set because of a historical coalition, not any deeper principle? Do you hold any beliefs at variance with your political in-group?

#politics #coalition

bluGill ,

@laimis

@mpjgregoire I'm not an immigrant, but I too oppose the republican immigration policies despite leaning conservative.

Could blocked magazines no longer appear in Random Post and Random Thread sidebars? ( kbin.social )

A lot of the larger abandoned magazines are just spam pools now. I don't see their posts in my feed, but I don't like that the two sidesbars of random posts and threads are now just spam advertising sidebars. I triedblocking the magazines, but doesn't that prevent the posts from showing in those sidebars....

bluGill ,

Unforcunately the admin\creator of kbin has personal issues and is missing. We need to leave, but that means migrating manually which is annoying. Too bad, there are some good idas here.

Russia threatens Britain with retaliation if involvement in Ukraine war deepens ( www.pbs.org )

Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities and said it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons amid sharply rising tensions over comments by senior Western officials about possibly deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine....

bluGill ,

They hope to scare enough people to get a change. don't let it work.

bluGill ,

I'm not sure if I could get anywhere and back. Woge I own a gun and you have allowed me to get it on a plane, but that day would expire before I get home and now I have a gun that I am taking through airports and customs.

bluGill ,

We need ways to counter them. If nobody counters when they warn about whatever made up junk they have someone else will believe them. I don't know how to country them though - it is harder than you might think. There have been a couple real conspiracies in history and if they accuse you of being in one how do you prove you are not?

bluGill ,

The problem is other platforms exist. not jst social media, but daycare dropoff or coffee shops.

bluGill ,

I wish I knew. So far I haven't seen one that works. It is despirataly needed.

bluGill ,

They don't have to be dug up. The first step is chemistry - Flint was fine with lead pipes until they switch water sources to something with a different composition (ph I think - but there are other factors and we should get expert chemists to speak here not laypeople like us). Anywhere that lead pipes exist we need monitoring to ensure that the water doesn't dissolve lead, once we have that in place the pipes don't leach much lead and we can do a slower replacement when the pipes need to be replaced anyway.

We also have technology to put a plastic liner in existing pipes for much less than digging the pipes up. It doesn't work for all situations, but when it does is a lot cheaper and should be investigated for any pipe that is expected to last a long time.

bluGill ,

We stopped using lead in the 80s - the existing pipes are mostly still there and working just fine. If you are in a building or city built before 1985 assume there is lead in the plumbing someplace and take action. The more important thing you can do is let drinking water run for a minute before drinking (or install a RO drinking water system that will remove lead - regular filters will not - RO is most common of that that will).

With a little care (much of it chemistry - meaning your water department - not much lead will leach from your pipes and you are okay. Okay should not be confused with good, 0 lead is what you want. However it isn't feasible to replace all pipes in a day and so step one is doing as little damage as possible, then we reduce even that.

bluGill ,

A whole house ro filter is evpensive, so I doubt most will install one vs a drinking water system. Most plumbers won't know about a whole house system much less sell one.

unless you live in an area where the water is so bad your showers dosen't get you clean. Then you can get one - but you should have one.

bluGill ,

there is normally nothing wrong with well water. I have lab reports on my current well to prove it.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

🤦🏻‍♀️Marjorie Taylor Greene says she's moving ahead with effort to oust Speaker Johnson

Her plan seems doomed to fail as Democrats said they would help save Johnson.

https://trib.al/69nPMbV

bluGill ,

@housepanther

@GottaLaff Compromise. In return for Mike allowing the Ukraine bill to go through (finally) the democrats agreed to protected Mike from those who were against it. All the democrats plus only a few republicans were enough to sink the last speaker, it is those same handfuls trying the same thing again, but if just a few democrats join with the majority of republicans they can reward Mike for doing something they wanted.

Don't forget too that for a month or so the House was in chaos from lack of a speaker. Thus hurt the democrats too as without a speaker it is hard to get anything they want done.

Finally, by protecting Mike they have future leverage - we helped you, not help us get this other thing we want done.

WTF is going on with the world? Why are there so many manufacturing jobs that require rotating schedules? Are they just trying to destroy your soul and your health? ( sh.itjust.works )

I have been looking for manufacturing, assembly, production positions all over the Midwest. It's absolutely shocking how many of them want you to work rotating shifts....

bluGill ,

People don't want to work 3rd shift - the rest of the world (your family, sports...) all work 1st shift. 2nd shift is only slightly better. It is probably better for your life to work 3rd shift for 1 week of every 3, than 3rd shift constantly - those other 2 weeks you can live semi-normal and thus have friends.
It still sucks, probably the best compromise.

bluGill ,

Bikes need a level of precision manufacturing that means cars and airplanes are just around the corner no matter what alternative history you come up with. If you sent a modern machinist back to 10BC they could maybe make a bike by hand (if they are lucky enough to get a rich sponsor - making a Gingery style lathe by hand is something a modern machinist would be able to figure out it takes a lot of time an materials that are were not cheap), but the cost would be such that the only people who could afford it already have slaves to carry them everywhere. There might be demand for a handful as a novelty for their young sons (sexist world, girls need not apply) but it will soon disappear as those slaves are cheaper than the bike. (it takes a lot of slaves to mine and refine the ore needed to make the bike)

bluGill ,

That would help, but I'm not sure you can make wood and leather belt drive train work well. And without rubber wheels you won't be happy with the ride. Though I guess as a novelty for rich kids who have slaves it would work well enough.

bluGill ,

Modern armies still have infantry despite what the tank and artillery crews say because they are useful.

bluGill ,

Most of them the frame is wood, but the gears, chain, spokes, brake cables, steering, cranks... are all metal. There are a few all wood bikes, but wood doesn't work well for some applications (it is great for the frame) and so I'd expect the all wood bikes to wear out fast.

bluGill ,

Other than the mobile need that same source of energy is needed to turn ore into metal. Refining ore as they did in BC days used a lot of energy - mines were located near forests (ore was more common then the forests and you needed a lot more wood than ore!). Modern refining uses a lot less energy on a per output basis. (It uses a lot more energy now, but produces orders of magnitude more output)

bluGill ,

You can make things more efficient, but there is a reason many factories melting metal work third shift only, and close the factory for maintenance in December - the power company gives them a big discount for using the cheapest power. Even if you get 10x more efficient (which implies you are an expert in these processes - there are only a handful in the world) , that really isn't enough to jump start manufacturing.

Don't forget too that modern life is only possible because a large population means we can specialize a lot. The number of different experts to really make a difference is larger than you would guess: someone to refine iron, but they need someone to create electric, which needs an [steam] engine, which in turns needs a metal alloy expert (not the same as the first person though there is overlap). We are now in a circle as you can't do any step without some other step. It took a long time to bootstrap the process.

If you went back to anytime after 1680 with modern knowledge you could bootstrap a lot of things faster - but that only is possible because the industrial revolution is already starting and so you can make a large strive in one area and it will help others who are already working in some other - both by creating demand for what they are producing and also by creating better inputs to what they are doing. Without lots of other parts of the industrial revolution happening at the same time there just isn't enough parts in play for you to do anything alone.

henrikjernevad , to random
@henrikjernevad@mastodon.social avatar

Why should you unit test? What should you unit test? And how much?

Today's blog post answers these questions and provides some helpful guidelines.

The post is actually a lightly edited extract of a book on unit testing that I started about 10 years ago but never finished. Still, it has aged reasonably well.

https://henko.net/blog/why-write-unit-tests/

#programming #unittesting #testing

bluGill ,

@henrikjernevad Every test you listed there is the type that should be deleted when you are done.

Which is to say you are missing something critical: to ensure when someone in the future makes a change they don't introduce bugs. Any test that will never alert you to a bug in your code by failing should not be kept. (that is about 80% of all tests, but I don't know how to figure out the difference)

bluGill ,

@henrikjernevad I keep almost all tests because I have no clue which will prevent future bugs.

If your goal is to explain then you need a tech writer to help write useful documentation. And of course a process to ensure documentation is kept up to date and useful. tests are better than documentation that is poorly written or out of date, but not as good as well written up to date documentation.

If your goal is things like feel safe (presumably now as if you were worried about a future bug that would go into my reason to keep tests), or get faster feedback, then once you are done you can safely delete them.

bluGill ,

@underlap

@henrikjernevad I would add that TDD should not substitute for good upfront design. TDD will guide some design that you won't think of up front, but TDD often won't guide some decisions until you have a major refactoring to fix it.

I use the example of the classic bowling example where Uncle Bob wrote a score program without a frame object - does it matter that he didn't have a frame object is a question that may be a big deal if you are building a whole bowling alley system (assume millions of lines of code, and special features for coaches...), but that same frame object might get in the way if you were trying to write a novelty bowling game where there are other ways to score other than knocking down pins. Of course for uncle Bob his program had all the features he wanted with no need to add more so what he did works, but it might not be right for a more complex case.

bluGill ,

@henrikjernevad The depends - I have given up on a lot of refactorings because the number of test failures that were not production bugs was too large to sort through (remember there might or might not have been a real production bug in there too)

Ukraine to receive new military aid from US sooner than expected, congressman says during visit to Kyiv ( kyivindependent.com )

The first batch of U.S. military aid will be delivered to Ukraine “sooner than anyone thinks is possible,” after the final approval, Bill Keating, a Massachusetts Democratic congressman, said during a press conference in Kyiv on April 22.

bluGill ,

I would expect the C130s are loaded and in the air on their way to Germany/Poland/[other NATO country in area) and get last minute orders to continue to go to Ukraine if Biden signs this when expected. (if they land as planned they may even need to dump fuel). This is one of those things logistics should do for practice anyway as variations of this could be important in real war situations (preserving the fiction that NATO isn't involved in Ukraine)

Potassium depletion in soil threatens global crop yields ( www.ucl.ac.uk )

Potassium deficiency in agricultural soils is a largely unrecognised but potentially significant threat to global food security if left unaddressed, finds new research involving researchers at UCL, University of Edinburgh and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology....

bluGill ,

Err, yeah. Not a mineral but an element. my mistake

it leaves the field with the food we take off. from there it ends up in landfills and sewer systems. None go back toethe field.

bluGill ,

Farmers do buy fertilizer. The concern is how that fertilizer is produced.

bluGill ,

kbin needs to do a lot here. I'm not sure what is the state of the art now, but kbin isn't following the basics.

bluGill ,

I have to type 4 letters for every spam I see. I'd prefer to check a box (on my phone where typing is annoying this is even more useful) I do this dozens of times per day - it gets annoying fast.

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