That makes sense. It wasn’t coming across in the earlier comments.

Yes, but a clear crystal is a clear crystal.

No, different materials have different refractive indices, even if they’re both “clear crystals.” Maybe the examples given are very close in refractive index, but they still differ, therefore split light differently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_refractive_indices

I’m not saying it’s the entire difference, but it certainly comes into play. It could be that the more “explosive” light example is cut identically, but held slightly askew versus the others.

Point is, it’s not just the cut that impacts the result.

Isn’t it both shape and material? The refractive index of the material is important in determining how much the light bends at the interface.

While I generally agree, I must say that my Ryobi tools are doing just fine after 15ish years of use. Primarily the drill is what’s used, and it’s seen some shit but aside from a little cosmetic issue (rubber peeling off here and there) it’s in great working order. I can afford better now, but I’m happy enough to keep what I’ve got.

I’m just a handy home owner, so it’s not like I’m abusing these things.

Same here. Seems like Google did a pretty good job with the eSIM registration in their app. I’ve swapped phones a number of times with zero issues.

No official, public explanation. We know why…

Well, I’m in the midwest US, so winter can be a bit harsh for walking or biking (though not this year thus far). Most of the time I drive, I’m dragging kids somewhere. It’s inconvenient to walk with them.

I have been walking and or biking when it’s just me, and I don’t need to haul much. I’ve lost a lot of weight recently, so I can actually bike to work in the summer and not be a sweaty mess when I arrive, so that’s a nice change.

We are taking about moving outside the city to have more space, which means not driving will become less possible for almost everything. Today I have groceries, dentist, and doctor within half a mile, and I’ve walked or biked to those places many times.

Bottom line, most of the time I’m either dragging kids around or I’m in a rush. Driving is very convenient, and is hard to change.

I’ve very seriously considered that. Right now, we could probably go down to one car without issue. We have two reasons why I’d like to maintain a second, though. We have young kids, and we are already starting to run them around to different places at the same time. We’re looking to move soon, and the idea is to move outside of town where we have more room. That would make basically every drive longer, which would increase the likelihood of needing a second vehicle.

Either way, an EV should be fine. Depending on cost, I might stick with a small, used ICE this time, because I don’t need much. But I’m not at that point quite yet, so maybe things will change by the time I’m ready.

I was among those worrying about range until I spent 5 minutes thinking about what I actually do on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

We’d still have my wife’s ICE van, we both work from home, and 99% of the time my work-related travel is local (within 5 miles). My wife’s van can pull the camper for our camping trips, or for our longer drives.

I have no good reason not to get an EV for my next car.

Mother-in-law ended up getting COVID last week, so her birthday plans on Christmas Eve were cancelled, plus they couldn’t come to see the kids today. Our hot water heater seems to have a failed thermocouple, so we have no (instant) hot water at the moment.

Nothing is “ruined,” just annoying.

Better option, have a good contract in place.

Obligatory Mike Montiero video “Fuck you, pay me” - https://youtu.be/jVkLVRt6c1U

This was from a while ago. I believe Linus took some time away to try and work on his interpersonal skills. I haven’t seen anything since his hiatus, but hopefully he’s less abusive and more constructive in his messages now.

It’s a long shot, but I hope that they keep the exposure notification framework and work with the CDC/appropriate orgs around the world to make it a generic exposure notification. The technical feature is impressive, and the usefulness (with proper adoption) would be high for the various occasions where other communicable diseases pop up. It seems easy enough to have a generic app to add the various diseases and their incubation/transmission windows to allow others to be notified.

But, because people are whiny fucks, it’ll die and we’ll be in a rush to reimplement it for the next thing that comes up.

Even if it did exist in an ideal state, people would still not use it, because people suck.

I’ve had 5 shots of Moderna now, most recently last week. The first one made me feel miserable for a day. I was having chills, and my entire body was sore. I took several naps that day. The others made me sore and a little tired for a day.

All told, not the worst side effects, but certainly more than a sore arm. And still entirely worth the mild inconvenience.

I would call my first reaction nearly “unplayable.” I was having issues working (remotely even, a desk job), and I just wanted to sleep most of the day. But people react differently. Sounds like you had no issues, so good for you.

Or just don’t connect the TV to the Internet at all.

I hear your annoyance, and I get it, because the “real” question is “How do I stop this from ever happening again on Windows?”

But the bottom line is, no matter what workaround or registry fix is found, nothing stops MS from making changes and popping this crap up yet again in some other obnoxious and shitty way.

If you run Windows, you have to accept some level of this bullshittery.

I’m thankful that my kids fly well, and always have. We flew with them at ~15 months with no issues.

I’ve always heard the complaints about screaming infants and whatnot…but I’ve never seen it. Granted, I don’t fly too often (and less so more recently), but I’ve never had the “classic” kid crying through the entire flight. It just doesn’t happen as often as people think. I’m sure when it does happen that it’s pretty f’n annoying, though.

My washer has a delay timer on it. Is that not a common option?

I also have an option to start a small fan and spin the drum every few minutes, so it keeps wet clothes from getting mildewy. I use that every time, so I don’t have nasty clothes when I inevitably forget to swap stuff into the dryer.

You’re not wrong, but why the hell does a washing machine need to be Internet connected in the first place?

And since the first answer is always “So it can tell me when the cycle is done,” set a frickin timer if it’s that big of a deal.

I agree with pretty much everything here.

My employer is a regional organization, so all our meetings were via Zoom/WebEx/whatever before COVID. Our pivot to remote work was trivial - those that could already had the tools at their disposal (and were likely using them already), those that couldn’t were healthcare providers and had a whole different experience anyway.

I do end up going in once in a while, because it’s only 10 minutes away from home and I already have to drive kids past the office anyway. But once my younger child is in school this fall, I’m not sure how things will change. I won’t have a need to get up early every day, so I might go in less, and possibly work earlier hours.

I’m very surprised that we allowed remote work to continue, but we actually embraced it and made it the standard. We downsized our office space (let the lease expire), and remodeled the space we kept. It’s been good, though it has exposed a lot of issues with our onboarding process. But that’s nothing we can’t work through.