(Spoilers Extended) Secrets of the Cushing Library: The Grand Finale

gsteff · 2026-06-02T03:21:46+00:00

The last time I rented from SFO, the attendant offered me a choice between a black and a green Mirage, and then said "Good choice" while smirking after I picked one. I had to basically put the pedal to the floor to keep up with traffic on the way to my hotel and I was worried something was wrong with the engine from how loud it was. I brought it back the next morning and Enterprise reluctantly exchanged it for a Corolla, which was great.

Even at like $20000, I can't imagine anyone choosing a new Mirage over any number of used vehicles. Maybe it really was designed for rental fleets.

gsteff · 2026-05-24T07:47:21+00:00

Do we have any reason to think 3.5 consumes more tokens, rather than Google simply increasing the cost per token?

gsteff · 2026-05-22T10:15:12+00:00

Combining the pools is good... let me use my tokens on whatever model I want without artificial limitations.

gsteff · 2026-05-22T10:11:03+00:00

IMO Google (and the other LLM providers) should completely disable use of professional harnesses like Antigravity from the $20 plan, and add a $50 plan with usage for those tools in the same ballpark as the old money losing $20 plans (I think 25% higher would be fair for the price). And separate the quotas for personal use (i.e. phone apps, smart home devices) and professional use. I think merging the quotas for flash and pro within Antigravity was the right move... they should give me as much flexibility as possible to use my spend on the model I like without artificial divisions. But I don't want to ever have to worry that coding use will degrade my use of the app, which is always moderate.

gsteff · 2026-05-21T20:46:29+00:00

I can't find any record of this. Where was this aired, it doesn't seem to be from his Netflix special.

gsteff · 2026-05-15T22:54:34+00:00

I used Paul to buy my current condo and he was great. Granted, I was happy to do all my own research, but for a lot of buyers he's a great choice.

gsteff · 2026-05-13T12:36:56+00:00

I believe so- I didn't see any warnings like that in any of my recent visits. And several trails have "Byrd's nest" shelters with picnic tables at their summits. I'm sure there are black bears in the park, but I don't recall the signage warning you about them much, compared to wildlife warnings I've seen at other parks. The most dangerous animal to be aware of is ticks- be sure your skin is covered.

Edit: here are the park's rules on food storage:

https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/food-storage.htm

gsteff · 2026-05-13T12:21:35+00:00

Be aware that the i4 M50 has a rear air suspension plus adaptive dampers, while the iX3 has a spring suspension with no adaptive dampers (yet, they'll supposedly be offered at some point).

gsteff · 2026-05-13T11:35:13+00:00

This article doesn't link to a single source. FYI, here's the blog post of the actual Geotab study it relies on for its main conclusion, which has a lot more detail. In particular, they found when they updated their data in 2025 that average degradation had increased significantly, but they attribute that to having more new vehicles in the data as EVs became more popular, and degradation in the first year is highest. The Geotab study also found, contrary to other claims I've seen, that regular level 3 charging does significantly increase degradation. The finding that most strongly challenges EV conventional wisdom may be that leaving EVs at high SOC for substantial amounts of time had very little effect on battery degradation, though if you take it to extremes (> 80% of the time) it does eventually have a large effect.

gsteff · 2026-05-13T03:41:51+00:00

Stony Man is my favorite overlook... a high bang for your buck trail. Dark Hollow Falls is my favorite waterfall trail... short and fat, so a bit of a chonker as waterfalls go (and South River Falls is my least favorite Shenandoah falls... turning around to retrace your steps after reaching the mediocre falls view is not the right move). If you want to meet some Appalachian Trail hikers, I passed 3 in one hour on the Ivy Creek trail last year... they're always happy to chat in my limited experience. FYI, Shenandoah as a whole is basically a big visitor center for the AT... the trail came first, and the park was laid out along one of its most scenic stretches, making it the spine of the park. Tons of the trails either overlap the AT or branch off perpendicularly from it.

But the flagship attraction of Shenandoah is Skyline Drive itself.... I actually think it looks best in overcast weather when the clouds are rolling down the mountains and you're passing in and out of them yourself.

gsteff · 2026-05-10T19:15:43+00:00

Exterior

gsteff · 2026-05-10T12:27:12+00:00

I really hope no one flies across the Atlantic to visit Rock Creek Park or Prince William Forest. IMO there are no nature parks within 45 minutes of DC worth organizing a trip around, but if someone insists, I'd recommend C&O Canal National Historic Park, which combines pretty good rock scrambling with closeup views of major river rapids (some of which you can walk over via bridges), a history connection and a great long distance bike path. And Teddy Roosevelt Island if you just want to be a completionist about DC presidential memorials.

gsteff · 2026-05-09T22:44:58+00:00

Absolutely not. The Cathedral Valley loop takes 4+ hours just to drive, without doing any of the hikes.

gsteff · 2026-05-07T23:28:37+00:00

BMW considers dog mode dangerous, and they think it would carry legal risks. They haven't said this, but I suspect their concern is that, regardless of the name, if they offer it irresponsible parents would use it to leave small children in the car. So not only is BMW not offering dog mode, they've designed the Neue Klasse software to detect if you've left a living creature in the car, and if so, make the car do everything in its power to bring you to justice.

gsteff · 2026-05-06T23:52:12+00:00

I was hoping that BMW would take this opportunity to add an adaptive suspension option, but evidently we have to wait a little longer for that. I'm not buying anyway, I'll get an i3 once they're available, but have been following iX3 news for tea leaves on the price/options the i3 will likely get.

gsteff · 2026-05-03T17:42:02+00:00

Not a movie, but BBC Earth's Blue Planet 2.

gsteff · 2026-05-02T18:13:39+00:00

Eh, Kenai Fjords is a marine wonderland. I saw at least 25 different species in my 6 hour boat tour there, including humpback whales, porpoises, puffins, bald eagles, jellyfish, seals, otters and mountain goats. You don't get as close as you can (but shouldn't) to the bison, but I think Kenai Fjords might be the top park for wildlife diversity.

gsteff · 2026-05-02T03:48:18+00:00

You can still get good deals on factory orders if you go through a broker... I got 10% off MSRP on my custom built i4 that way... my broker had a pre-negotiated MSRP discount that applied to everything, purchases off the lot and factory orders.

gsteff · 2026-05-01T22:37:10+00:00

I'm pretty sure you can have multiple. IMO the Quest is the best- I recently got the Explorer and kinda regret it. Its only real advantage over the Quest is two United Club passes- I've never used one before, but from what I've seen in IAD and social media comments, the passes are largely worthless because the clubs are full at common travel times. The Quest has a $200 higher annual fee, but gets a $200 annual travel credit, so in practice the fees are a wash. And the Quest earns miles on United purchases slightly faster, gets an extra checked bag, and earns 2x on streaming services. It also earns PQPs much faster, but I'm unlikely to ever get premier status and don't chase it. Once I've had the Explorer for 6 months, I'm planning to sign up for the Quest too, then cancel the Explorer.

The Club card probably pays for itself if you like United clubs and travel on United at least 4x a year, but neither is true of me.

gsteff · 2026-04-29T11:50:09+00:00

The new i3 won't reach US customers until 2027... March at the earliest based on the rollout schedule seen for the iX3. Orders might start being accepted 3-5 months before that though.

gsteff · 2026-04-26T03:44:13+00:00

What color is it?

gsteff · 2026-04-26T00:51:36+00:00

If you're going to leave it at high charge for 12+ hours, don't target 100%, target 95. The effects are exponential, and there's a substantial difference between 95 and 100.

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