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jubilationtcornpone @sh.itjust.works
Posts 32
Comments 774
ISPs seeking government handouts try to avoid offering low-cost broadband
  • AT&T has a copper wire connected to my house but they refuse to offer me any service at all because they "dOnT oFfEr DsL aNyMoRe." Shitty DSL is shitty DSL but it's better than nothing. At least I have access to Cable but ai knows plenty of people who don't. That shit should be illegal.

  • 77% Of Employees Report AI Has Increased Workloads And Hampered Productivity, Study Finds
  • I've thought for a long time that there are a ton of legitimate business problems out there that could be solved with software. Not with AI. AI isn't necessary, or even helpful, in most of these situations. The problem is that creatibg meaningful solutions requires the people who write the checks to actually understand some of these problems. I can count on one hand the number of business executives that I've met who were actually capable of that.

  • For people which companies made return to the office mandatory, how did it go?
  • Interesting article. The author cited a study by Stanford claiming that 100% remote work resulted in a small drop in productivity. I'm curious as to how they would determine that. My [annecdotal] experience has been that orgs that are fully in person are completely inept at measuring productivity. Remote work just shines a giant spotlight on existing broken processes.

    I would say the same about "culture". Good culture is highly intentional and dragging a bunch of people into the office for cheap pizza is not "good culture." In my experience, whether everyone is remote or in person does impact the culture, but that impact is dramatically outweighed by the effort -- or lack thereof -- by leadership to foster good culture.

  • Natural Submissiveness
  • I've been a Presbyterian/Episcopalian most of my adult life. Most Mainline Protestant churches allow women to serve in all capacities.

    But, I was raised Baptist and even the suggestion that a woman could teach an adult Sunday school class would be enough to make their heads explode.

  • Make it stop.
  • Cashier: "You can leave a tip if you want."

    "Angel" by Sarah MacLachlan plays softly in the background

    Me: Quickly smashes "No Tip" with my cane while muttering about "success not bein' measured by the size o' yer bank account".

    Launchpad McQuack fires up the chopper outside

  • Too many checkmarks
  • I'll have you know my inbox is completely clean. Because I spent part of a day this week cleaning up six months worth of emails. Because I was procrastinating doing something I wanted to do less than clean up my inbox.

  • Flower on one of the water lilies in our fish pond

    2

    "Daily Pay" Is Just Another Way to Keep You Living Paycheck to Paycheck

    I've seen several big chains, mostly gas stations and fast food, advertising "daily pay". If you are worried about how you're going to make it until your next paycheck, whether it's tomorrow or next month, or you have no savings to cover any sort of emergency, then you live paycheck-to-paycheck.

    Don't be fooled. "Daily Pay" is just a shitty attempt at avoiding paying better wages by giving you your shitty wages faster. It's designed to benefit the company, not you.

    Edit: If you don't get to hold on to your pay check long enough to earn interest on any of it, then getting paid daily is not benefiting you.

    15
    Possum Lodge Skunk Works @sh.itjust.works jubilationtcornpone @sh.itjust.works

    The Mean Green Grass Eating Machine (Version 1)

    That was my first attempt at electrifying a gas mower. I used a 2 HP induction motor attached to a mount designed to be a drop in replacement for the engine. The first version used the frame from a Troy Bilt front wheel drive mower. This one only had a single speed transmission and couldn't handle the added weight from the motor. I think I used it for one season before replacing it with Version 2.

    0
    Possum Lodge Skunk Works @sh.itjust.works jubilationtcornpone @sh.itjust.works

    The Mean Green Grass Eating Machine (Version 2)

    If you want to buy a new lawn mower, you can go down to your local big box retailer and find that most of the available options are probably battery electric mowers.

    But, not that many years ago, electric mowers kinda sucked. The few choices you had were all corded but more importantly, they were cheaply built and lacked power. They also had none of the features of gas mowers, like being self propelled. After wearing out two of them within a couple years I thought, "This is cannot be that hard. I bet I can build a better electric mower."

    A rotary lawn mower is pretty basic. Engine spins blade, blade cuts grass. That's pretty much it. If you wanted to "electrify" a gas mower, you would need a motor that could supply sufficient torque and keep the blade speed within the right range.

    I picked up a 2 HP induction motor and mounted it on a frame which would basically serve as a drop-in replacement for the engine. I also built a switch which connected to the dead-man switch/engine brake bar, allowing the motor to be turned on and off.

    I quickly learned the importance of selecting the right mower to convert. My first attempt was a Troy Bilt front wheel drive, which did not work well. Electric motors are heavy and the induction motor was substantially heavier than the engine it was replacing. The front wheel drive mechanism was not designed to handle the extra weight and it made navigating difficult.

    My next attempt was with a John Deere rear wheel drive. That one was a winner. I ended up building a really solid electric mower that performs nearly on par with a gas mower. The only downside is that it requires a heavy extension cord due to the power draw but once you get used to the cord it's not that bad.

    I used this thing for probably 8 years without any problems and no maintenance besides sharpening the blade and greasing the bearings about once a year. I replaced it with a cordless mower last summer but I'm not getting rid of it. It's in my shop getting a badly needed rebuild and a safety upgrade (adding an electric brake). It'll be back on the job, at least part time, whenever I get a chance to put it back together.

    More photos in the comments.

    0

    Corporate America is Just Office Space in Real Life

    32
    Home Improvement @lemmy.world jubilationtcornpone @sh.itjust.works

    Sewer Vent Through Middle of Standing Seam

    Recently had a new standing seam metal roof installed. Roofers could talk the talk but I was not impressed with the quality of work overall. My main complaint is that they installed the roof so that most of the sewer vents go right through the middle of a seam. The boots are clearly not designed to accommodate this and they've succeeded in creating more work for me in the future; which is what I was trying to to avoid by spending the extra money to upgrade to metal. The boots are going to leak. In fact, they already have.

    I was pretty pissed about this initially and told the owner of the roofing company that if they had bothered to tell me this was going to happen, I would have moved the damned vent pipes myself if they weren't going to. The right fix would be to replace the panels and move the vent pipes but I have a feeling getting them to do that is going to be difficult if not impossible.

    Is there a boot that's designed for this kind of install or a better way of sealing these? Or, am I going to be stuck checking and resealing them every couple of years?

    10
    Home Improvement @lemmy.world jubilationtcornpone @sh.itjust.works

    Chimney Gaps

    Edit: Resolved. Decorative brick is actually a chase and doesn't need to be completely filled in. Thanks to @[email protected] for advice on rebuilding the crown.

    I have a double sided wood burning brick fireplace which is honestly just a big collection of code violations. It was converted to propane shortly after -- I'm assuming -- the people who built the house 50 years ago discovered that it smoked badly in the house. I fixed all the major issues with the firebox and smoke chamber and converted it back to wood burning this past winter.

    I had a new steel cap fabricated to replace the old brick and concrete cap, which I removed. During this process, I discovered that the brick is basically just a facade. There are huge gaps on either side of the flues which are encased in 4" cinder blocks. My understanding of fire code (at least in the US) for masonry fireplaces is that the material surrounding the flue is not permitted to have any gaps in it. NFPA says all gaps in the brick should be filled with mortar. However, I'm not sure what to do with a gap this large. I'm not sure if filling it with mortar or concrete is an option. I've considered installing a steel flue liner but those are expensive and there are two flues. I'm also concerned about steel liners changing the draft characteristics since the chimney is on the short side.

    If money were no object, I would tear this thing out and put a more efficient steel insert in but that is cost prohibitive.

    Anyone have any experience fixing something like this?

    14

    Extra Thick Bread Slice

    Found a piece of bread in a store bought loaf that didn't get sliced properly.

    22
    Home Improvement @lemmy.world jubilationtcornpone @sh.itjust.works

    Home Ownership is Just One Persons Fight Against Water

    Had a nice little foundation leak during the last rain storm. Installed a drain line last fall to divert two downspouts and front walkway run off away from the house which helped a lot. Front walkway and a big retaining wall next to it ultimately need to be removed and reinstalled with proper grading and drainage. That's going to be a huge and expensive project so for now I'm just replacing all the worn out concrete sealant and hoping for the best.

    27

    Lake Mead/Hoover Dam

    Took this picture from the top of Hoover Dam about 6 years ago.

    9

    Every Damned Time

    7

    He's Not What I Expected

    3

    Self Host Pen Testing

    Anyone have any good external pen testing tools that you've used on your self hosted setup? Mine is pretty secure overall but I would like to be able to scan the WAN for vulnerabilities or misconfigurations just to make sure I haven't missed anything.

    11

    Poor Poor Pitiful Me

    23

    NFC Championship

    Well shit. I was really hoping Detroit would go all the way. And that's something I never would have expected to say.

    2

    Variable Position Damper Control

    I have to preface by saying that this isn't really related to Home Assistant. I can't find a more generic home automation community on Lemmy and I figured someone here might have some experience with this so I hope is post is allowed.

    I have a large masonry fireplace that I'm fixing some issues with. It has a fresh air intake that I'm venting outside the house. Code says the air intake also has to have a damper which can be closed to prevent the fire from burning out of control.

    I'm planning to use a 24 volt power open/power close damper. I want to be able to modulate it with a wall control where it can be set in increments somewhere between 0% and 100% open. I'm sure I could engineer a creative solution but I wanted to see if anyone else had a simpler way of accomplishing this first.

    6

    Neurodiversity In The Workplace

    I appreciate the fact that some employers recognize that some of their employees struggle with cognitive disorders. But, asking someone with ADHD to click through a very boring presentation about neurodiversity is almost peak irony. Not to mention, trying to distill such complex disorders down to one sentence is practically guaranteed to fail.

    Props for trying I guess.

    24

    No More Medication Breaks for Me

    I've been taking 70 mg Vyvanse for years. It generally works well. Although there are occasional days where I feel like maybe it's not quite as effective as it should be. That probably has more to do with outside stressors and diet than anything. By this point I've built up some tolerance to it. I know a lot of other people try to take breaks from their stimulus occasionally to try to help with the tolerance.

    Well, I've learned that that is not for me. I tried taking breaks two Saturdays in a row and holy shit, the anvil-on-chest anxiety is more than I can take. Feelings of dread that I have not felt in years come bubbling right back to the surface.

    This is something that I have, in the past, tried to explain to parents who are apprehensive about putting their kids on stimulants. For me, the worst part about ADHD isn't the poor short-term memory, it isn't the inattentiveness, It isn't even the "inner restlessness". It's the emotional dysregulation. The fact that it makes me feel anxious and depressed all the time and I can't just shrug it off. It's like a dark cloud hanging over you and no matter how much you wish it would go away, it never does. And, if you don't want your kid to kill themselves or develop substance abuse issues, then you need to try to help them get a handle on it while you can.

    It took me 28 years and becoming a borderline alcoholic to get the help that I needed. I guess if I didn't get anything else out of my experiment, I got a reminder to not take what I have for granted. Getting my meds dialed in dramatically improved my quality of life.

    10

    In Honor of American Thanksgiving

    7

    Milling Cedar Log

    Ripping a board that I milled from a cedar I recently cut down. Made the initial cuts with a chainsaw and used the Craftsman to straighten it out. There are honestly better tools for this but it's a one time project I'm working with what I've got.

    3