bluGill

@bluGill@fedia.io

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨There's No Reason to Buy a New Phone Anymore⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Since 2015 I have only upgraded my phone because the previous one broke, and I didn't notice any difference. I had the first android, and it was slow enough that whatever I replaced it with (I don't remember what) was better because of the speed. Getting waterproof (resistant, but proof for practical purposes) was a big win. Only other time an upgraded helped was when the camera lens was so scratched that pictures improved. Every phone upgrade has been because the last one broke and so had to be replaced. My current phone is 4 years old and still works fine.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come when paying cash for gas, it is not like a coke machine where you can insert your money? And when it hits that limit it clicks off?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  As others said if you go inside they can do this. I've seen plus that take cash, but that was one station in the 1980s and it was a weird kiosk that I've never seen elsewhere.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How would I go about turning this into a power-generating wind turbine.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Hook a small motor to it. Small is key, a bike light is too big. Those toy 'stomper' trucks that run on a single AA battery is about all I would hope for. Of you want useful power you need longer blades and less of them. These are designed to turn fast with very little wind without going to fast in big winds. It should be fun and you learn, but of you want useful it is a waste of time. You're choice of goals.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Air Compressor Regulator⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  You turn the regular down because the springs are compressed when they are up high and they will eventually fatigue and wear out. Realistically they probably will last longer than the compressor itself so I'm not sure if it matters or not.

  As for the setting, that depends on the tools. If you are just inflating tires, it doesn't matter how high you go. Go when high is good because that puts more air in the line when start. Some tools particularly paint sprayers need lower pressure, so you need to turn the regulator down. For a typical home compressor, everything else can handle the max pressure. There are high power industrial compressors or things they use to fill scuba tanks that put much more pressure and then you need a regulator to turn down to a safe pressure for the tool if you are using them, but odds are you aren't.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨is there any language that doesn't have four basic directions?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don't know that culture, but in general those are questions they learn not to say. Perhaps they point to a place "there" and that is enough.

  When translating from a gendered language to English (which doesn't grammatically require a gender for everything) I often has to guess was gender important or not - sometimes this is not obvious.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is the world more volatile now or is it just the abundance of news?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I doubt there is a single year in human history (including before writing) where somebody in your village has not in some form made the claim or asked the question. There is always some old person reminiscing about how much better the past was, and young people who hear of bad news and wonder if maybe the past was better since they only hear about really really bad things in stories not the day to day bad but not enough to tell around the fire.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What’s a reasonable tip for a barber? (America)⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
  0. Barbers do no get tips. Hair stylists do get tipped though, all your big chains are stylists.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why don't politicians during a hearing let the person they are questioning actually answer questions and speak?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Fair enough, but the other comments reveal many people who think the democrats do act in good faith the majority of the time. That is also implied by the accusation of republicans, instead of politicians.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why don't politicians during a hearing let the person they are questioning actually answer questions and speak?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If you think it is mostly republicans then you are not honest in your evaluation of who is doing what why. Confront your bias.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just got arrested for a supposed DWI even though I blew a 0.0000000. Don't cops need to read your Miranda rights to you? I asked for a blood or hair follicle test and I was denied. WTH is happening?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I assume in the USA? Not all countries have Miranda or right to remain silent laws. In some you are required to talk.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just got arrested for a supposed DWI even though I blew a 0.0000000. Don't cops need to read your Miranda rights to you? I asked for a blood or hair follicle test and I was denied. WTH is happening?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If you get their badge number you can really make them mad when your lawyer hits them for unlawful detention. They can stop you but it needs to be fast. Talk to a lawyer for details in your state.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Centrist Democrats Rebuke Party’s Left Wing: ‘We Are Capitalist, Not Socialist’⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Marx is one of a long string of 'experts' that don't value work that isn't obviously the result of working with hands. Mind work is very important

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Centrist Democrats Rebuke Party’s Left Wing: ‘We Are Capitalist, Not Socialist’⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They should claim to be liberals. Capitalism is a statement that Marx invented because he knew it was a losing battle to be against the freedom of classical liberalism. Since them capitalism has been made useful in economics in the same way spherical cows are useful in physics. However capitalism as most countries practice it is a result of liberalism not a goal in itself.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Could heating oil subsidies be reduced or replaced with subsidies for installing electric heating and houses.?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If a single person working alone can install them in a weekend - which happens all the time - a pro who has experience in doing this often should be able to do it for $1000 or less. It is a lot of labor but not more than $4000 worth. At least not the normal case.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Could heating oil subsidies be reduced or replaced with subsidies for installing electric heating and houses.?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The other thing we need to do is investigate why they charge so much to install heat pumps. I can buy a mini-split for around $1500 (depending on size), but they will charge me $4500 to install it - which seems unreasonable for the labor.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Could heating oil subsidies be reduced or replaced with subsidies for installing electric heating and houses.?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Almost, but the temperature difference is generally much greater in winter than summer meaning there is more demand for energy in winter. Also solar (and sometimes hydro) power is less effective in winter. Both factors mean that a grid that can handle summer might not be able to handle winter heat.

  Remember, the above are factors. Your local grid's exact energy mix matters here, some will have no problems.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Could heating oil subsidies be reduced or replaced with subsidies for installing electric heating and houses.?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not just size, location. The best heat pumps stop working at around -20. Where I live it gets colder than that for a few days every couple years so I must have secondary heating.

  The common heat pump in the US is only good to 25. There is no reason for this, but I don't know how to fix it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Republican Party used to be very big on smaller government. What caused them to turn into the party of big government over reach? When did it happen?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It was a minority that got some power over marketing. They have always voted small government when Democrats have the president office, and even more strongly when the Democrats also have congress. As soon as they get enough power to do anything they are big government.

  Though I will grant slightly less big government than Democrats in the past. It isn't clear now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Once lunar colonies are established, would they attempt to break away? What would independent lunar republics look like?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The moon is too close and I don't think it will ever be self sustaining. Any attempt to rebel and they get starved out. The more likely thing is they defect to some other country that starts supplying them. (This is still highly unlikely). I don't think people will live on the moon long enough to try that - they may spend a year there and someone will have a baby there, but they will all go home to earth.

  Mars could potentially support a self sustaining outpost large enough to rebel. Mars is also far enough away that it wouldn't be worth attacking. They will likely be let go as soon as they are self sustaining because earth will be bored by then and glad to not support them. Unlike the moon, going back home is a long trip so people will try to avoid it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Once lunar colonies are established, would they attempt to break away? What would independent lunar republics look like?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I'm most amused to discover they had two computers total on the moon. Almost as amusing as 1930s sicfi where computers were humans

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I would guess that the tattooer had no clue. That is incompetence better explains this than malice

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is the hate against Pit Bulls? Everyone I've met are super friendly like my BC. Or are they the new Doberman for this cycle?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The type of people who want a dog to bite are going to be getting something like the size of a pitbull. A much smaller dog and a human can easily fight it off, they can do some damage, but not as much as the people who want a dog to bite would like their dogs to give. A larger dog and the owners wouldn't be able to control if the dog would attack the owners, so they won't accept that.

  That is why, in general, (understand there are exceptions). Big dogs tend to be very friendly. Because any big dog that's not friendly, the owner is going to put it down before it kills someone. Thus big dogs are bred to be friendly. A Pitbull is about the largest dog that you could breed to be unfriendly without risking harm to yourself.

  Again, this does not say anything about any particular dog breed. It says something about the type of people who would have a mean dog.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are the SMS limits orders of magnitude smaller than data limits bandwidth-wise?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Because it is a budget plan. They are buying 2,000,000 SMS messages per month because 25 years ago with g1 and g2 protocols it made sense to sell them that way, and then trying to divide that between their 10,000 customers without running out. Similar for voice and data, they buy so much and divide between all customers.

  Contracts could be sold a different way. However nobody wants to because the big companies want an option for budget minded people to get a little money out of them, while still giving them bad enough service that they all but the cheapest will run to the "big boys" with the unlimited plans. The budget companies need something they can sell that is cheaper than the "big boys", realistically they have exactly the same product and so somebody needs to introduce some artificial limit someplace to make it work.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Keychron k6, and a separate phone stand. That is a full size (60%) mechanical keyboard connected with bluetooth. I have and use others (see the other replies) when I need max portability and a quick comment. However a real keyboard beats anything you can do on a touchscreen. I recommend you get one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I used thumbkey for a couple months. I could use it, but it was never fast. YMMV

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I read somewhere a while back that most or at least half of California wildfires are cause by faulty electrical company equipment. Is this true? And how come no one has ever reported it?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Many of those forests need to burn regularly. Check with a qualified forester for your area but often the forest needs to burn so who cares.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I read somewhere a while back that most or at least half of California wildfires are cause by faulty electrical company equipment. Is this true? And how come no one has ever reported it?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Many of those forests need to burn regularly. Check with a qualified forester for your area but often the forest needs to burn so who cares.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Because high price is what makes them exclusive and so they compete on high price. Then they give everybody a scholarship - something else they can compete on - which with a little math gives you the real price.

  A friend of mine is department head of a local private university. He says that they have consistently found nobody chooses a university for the low price. Meanwhile some choose against a school because if the cost is too low "you must get what you pay for". If you get admitted to that school you automatically get a 40% scholarship - which is to say they don't even want 40% of the money they are charging, but marketing insists they need to charge at least that much. Most students are getting other financial aid above the automatic scholarship as well, only the rich pay the real maximum price. Students who care about costs are looking at what scholarships the school offers them, which is to say everybody knows the sticker price is a lie and they ask about the real costs.

  Until people start rejecting the system it won't change. You alone are not enough. So let this be advice to you: don't look at the sticker price. Ask someone to give you a the price after all scholarships apply. It will likely be much more affordable. Though do take your time to understand the fine print, otherwise you could find the scholarship doesn't apply to you after you have the bills and so must take a large loan to pay them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Most people don't care about the color. For whatever reason the factory started making them in red so that is what people bought. Other colors exist if you look for them, but there is rarely reason to look. People just grab something cheap and move on without thinking. If the red was sold out they would grab the blue.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  You never go to parties where there are more people than storage space for cups? Americans often do this. Often at a park. We can get this in a 100 pack for the cost of of 4 real glass cups.