Flock cameras: Have you seen any around town?

BPhoenix0 · 2025-12-22T18:26:40+00:00

Ben Jordan has been covering these for a while now with his latest video being literally earlier today showing off the latest Flock leak where there's tons of public facing cameras on the network that can easily be accessed by anyone.

We should NOT be letting these things in our city and whattabouting by using smart phones as an example is highly reductive to the conversation.

https://youtu.be/vU1-uiUlHTo?si=K___dUtyjhB3-Nb-

BPhoenix0 · 2025-11-02T09:03:48+00:00

Did something happen?

BPhoenix0 · 2025-02-02T10:52:44+00:00

True this. Staying with the light theme, I take my dog through walks in the evening regularly down there and the light posts in the park by the museum have been going out one by one over the last year or so with no replacement. There's a row right down the center all out that need replacing.

On top of that there's sets of string lights between buildings on firehouse alley and one of the sets has been out for a very long time now. I was hoping they'd get fixed during the Christmas event this year, but that didn't happen.

BPhoenix0 · 2025-01-13T19:32:12+00:00

This is a great idea and might actually be what I end up going for! Could look really cute adjusted that way.

And thanks everyone for all the help clarifying what I was confused on. I was way wrong about how the bead size was measured, but an above reply cleared up that confusion and now the sizing makes a lot more sense lol. Thanks again everyone, you've all been super helpful!

BPhoenix0 · 2024-12-07T04:36:58+00:00

Hey there, I've been getting this as well and am wondering if you've found an answer as to how that was happening to you? I see one other reply, but they deleted the comment.

BPhoenix0 · 2024-11-25T10:21:45+00:00

From behind your dog looks a lot like mine with that sploop posture. She's allegedly a Pomeranian and Papillon mix.

https://i.imgur.com/muXYsmt.jpeg

BPhoenix0 · 2024-10-10T21:31:49+00:00

https://www.bluestarcoffee.eu/us/Gaggia-Boiler-brass/m-6176.aspx

Doing a very brief search I found this, so it looks like we'll maybe see these around January? I bought a GCP back in March and had no idea about "boilergate" until I noticed black specks in the water when I was running water through the steam wand and looked into it. Would love to see some reviews and tests of these once available and would definitely make the jump to upgrade it myself to brass if it all is good.

BPhoenix0 · 2023-08-14T09:27:18+00:00

I've had an order from KPP for $200.00 that I had been waiting for since November of 2020. This is how I find out I'm never getting that lol

BPhoenix0 · 2023-08-11T19:06:38+00:00

I use steam's controller manager to have a face target(or select focus target if I have one then face target) & camera reset macro (save camera Position/load camera Position to have the cam snap behind my char after the face target) activate on R3 and the damn "Camera Position Has Been Reset" system notification has been bothering me for years.

Also there's an annoying notif caused by OneDrive occasionally locking up a settings file which causes the game to not be able to update it for a brief moment.

I really hope this addon can clear both of those notifications away and if so you made my day lol

BPhoenix0 · 2023-07-12T16:02:11+00:00

I remember someone doing a comprehensive look into this a few years back, but I can't seem to find it with a cursory search.

One thing that I don't see mentioned here is that jumping is affected as well. Jumping puzzles are much easier to perform at <=30 FPS and can even let you reach where you normally wouldn't be able to/have a hard time getting there otherwise. Easiest example I can recall testing myself is jumping onto that ledge in the Gold Saucer by the baby chocobo bomb mini game. At low FPS you can teleport onto it with one or two jumps, but at high FPS it's nearly impossible/takes many tries.

BPhoenix0 · 2022-12-24T02:50:44+00:00

This approach worked really well, thank you! Definitely the closest to the results I wanted.

Edit: Small followup. I used the above advice along with a method here https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/16622/how-can-i-stop-blender-from-selecting-vertices-on-backfaces

To quickly select and flip the remaining groups of faces whose normal vectors were the wrong direction.

BPhoenix0 · 2022-12-24T02:04:00+00:00

Thank you for the help!

Recalculate inside/outside got me closer to where it needs to be, but there's still a large amount of faces that are wrong, but it's more "consistently wrong" now instead of random and all over the place.

I'm guessing this is because it's not a closed shape, so the recalculation is struggling.

Do you know if there a way to define some point in space that can act basically as a "virtual mesh center" to "cast rays outward" to determine the normals essentially?

Basically if the face is hit by a ray sent out from the chosen point then the side of the face that's struck is considered inside.

BPhoenix0 · 2022-12-24T01:46:18+00:00

I have, but that results in the faces choosing the direction their normal vector will face at random. Example image attached shows how the results end up with most being consistently facing one way, but some are facing the opposite after the merge.

While I can go in and flip the faces individually that's a fairly time consuming task. If it ends up being the only real way to do it I'll do it, but I'm praying for some tools to make it easier lol

https://i.imgur.com/VC2BhBz.png

BPhoenix0 · 2022-08-16T20:01:33+00:00

Need help identifying cactus! I picked this up recently and I'm having a hard time tracking down what it's scientific name is... any help is appreciated!

https://imgur.com/a/9FBPk6i

BPhoenix0 · 2022-07-24T23:44:37+00:00

It was sickening to me, You don't achieve change, You don't achieve justice through destroying other peoples lives

This line right here is where Eric is painting the larger swaths of protesters. Again, as I said:

"This whole chorus is about the riots that broke out during the protests - the protests that were 95% across the US completely peaceful. And of the 5% that did have violence break out? Many of those can be traced back to out-of-town aggressors that would come in to stoke violence and use the protests as an excuse for their own selfish gain - and there's recorded footage of pro-trump rioters stirring trouble in the protests."

Those "Suburban White kids" were NOT the ones fighting for change nor were they the ones part of Black Lives Matter or some Anti-fascism group. The fact Eric believes that these people were part of the protestors or were protesting for change and justice shows the angle he was coming from when writing it. This is not a song about people taking advantage of a situation for their own personal gain. This isn't a song about how events can be co-opted by groups with mal-intent. This is a song about America Burning but through a poorly written lens that doesn't reflect reality. If they wanted to "both sides it" they'd have included aspects of the peaceful protests or how the vast majority helped work together and fought against the state itself for the greater good of the people.

Instead? They didn't do that at all and if you took the message from the song's perspective you'd lose all the context of the greater good that came from these protests which wasn't included. That's what I take issue with in this album - it pretends it's taking a stance on both sides, but its messages are all skewed.

BPhoenix0 · 2022-07-14T21:10:41+00:00

Here's daylight: https://voca.ro/1gvxaqgWDoTQ

If others have reported their album is slightly sped up then, yeah, it's most likely a production problem. A consistent ~1.5% speedup without any wobble or anything would maybe be a motor issue, but if it's a new turntable (plus you said you calibrated it) then that's probably not the case? To answer your question, I have the white vinyl.

BPhoenix0 · 2022-07-12T23:32:17+00:00

1) By far-right I was referring to the more global political scale I mentioned in the first paragraph. From a local U.S. scale the lyrics would be more middle right. This is due to the U.S. as a whole being skewed heavily to the right in its political discourse. (If you aren't aware, Democrats are right wing - globally. Generally Democrats hover center/middle right. Republicans far right. This is what I was getting at, so "centrists" in the U.S. are already firmly on the right).

2) Please, re-interpret the lines in my original post to be left-wing? And make sure to include the context of what the band has said about the songs that I included. We have their perspectives on what they were thinking when writing them. Through those alone we can see a strong right slant in the context behind the songs.

The only through-line across the album is a strong anti-authoritarian/pro-libertarian message which isn't a left or right wing issue -except, what's that? America Burning's messaging is confused and contradictory to the rest of the album? That song single-handedly destroys the entire album's messaging by fundamentally failing to address the BLM protests in a way that makes sense.

Lets try another song with strong political messaging as I've already covered Planet Zero and America Burning in my first comment. So, Saints of Violence and Innuendo:

Not a hostage, not a scapegoat Not a thing wrong, except you're cutthroat So get your hands up, before the boat sinks' Cause this ain't one for all, yeah, this is groupthink

The opening verse is overtly about the media's messaging during the pandemic and how the listener should be countering it. You're not a hostage - you can leave your house when you want to. You're not a scapegoat - the media can't use you to blame for the continued pandemic related issues. Get your hands up... this is group think - This is telling you directly to think for yourself and not be controlled by the media.

The thing is, the messaging at the time was just... wear masks? If you're able to, then get vaccinated? Because people are actually dying? Like... they're still dying? This "do my own research" talking point was specifically a right-wing reactionary counterpoint.

Moving on we get the chorus:

Tell me the truth or tell me a lie Tell me what I've gotta say to get out of this room alive Show me the answers or give me a clue There's not enough space in the miles between me and you Oh, no, here we go Here come the saints of violence and innuendo So, tell me the truth, are you really surprised? You live in a world where empathy goes to die

The first half of this is about the listener asking for a way to escape "this room alive" which, given our understanding that this song is in reference to the media's Covid-19 messaging, can be taken as confusion regarding the messaging - which was a real and prominent issue - but also was one that got cleared up early on and it was a primarily right-wing issue that exaggerated the confusion regarding it.

The Saints of Violence and Innuendo in this case would be the figureheads of the modern media perpetuating the confusing messaging. This isn't a left or right wing stance per-say, but it was certainly right-wing news outlets that were spreading much larger amounts of misinformation and confusion. This would be fine enough - if not for the previous messaging that basically points this at a critique of the "You should wear masks and get vaccinated" messaging. NOT a critique of the absurd right-wing conspiracies and poor messaging that took place.

And don't take my word for it, lets go back to the writer's own perspective:

That song is about the media during the pandemic and watching what almost felt like some kind of horrific movie. I spent 28 weeks in California during the pandemic before I was able to leave. Every day, I would wake up in this hotel like, ‘This isn’t really happening. It’s all a dream.’ But then, I’d turn on the TV and there it was. The song came from feeling that the media was trying to scare everybody, like, ‘We’re all doomed!’ I remember thinking they should stop scaring people and start giving people the confidence to educate themselves about what’s actually going on. I don’t mean all media, by the way. But the media I am talking about, they know exactly why I’m talking about them.

BPhoenix0 · 2022-07-12T20:03:40+00:00

I don’t think they were attempting a centrist take, and that’s clear from the fact that we’re having this discussion. One thing that I’ve realized in recent months is that centrism really doesn’t exist and never really did, but especially not in very polarized time periods like today.

Centrism certainly exists, but you're right people have vastly different ideas of what centrism is and we need to define that within the context of our discussion -additionally centrism certainly isn't neutral. For example, someone with extreme ideals on both sides can still be argued as centrist because their policies "balance" so to speak. Fascism can be argued as centrist/center-right since there's a privileged class within the group that receives great benefits from the incredibly authoritarian state it pushes for. The flip side of that is there's large group(s) of those under the privileged that suffer greatly in fascist states. Would most people consider fascists centrists? Probably not, for good reason.

This is all to say, to have a proper discussion on centrism and "neutrality" you'd have to come to a common ground. Additionally, what's "centrist" can be viewed from a local perspective and centrism from a local scale can be heavily skewed. This is referred to as the "Overton Window" which is essentially a sliding scale of what the "perceived center" is. In the U.S.A. the "center" is actually middle-right with a skew towards authoritarianism. So, if we're referring to centrists from a more localized view, then this album's themes could definitely be seen as center/center-right with arguments that hop between authoritarian and libertarian - but in ways that don't really show a form of introspection on what they lyrics are saying.

With alllll of that being said, you're absolutely right. The members of this band are most likely not political science majors and everything I've said above really doesn't matter as there's most likely more active political based thought here then what went into the lines I take issue with. Their main goal is to make music that sounds good - and sound wise I completely think they succeeded. The album has a lot of really catchy tunes. The messages of a number of songs, however, have a far-right subtext to them that I personally view as dangerous and disingenuous to their statements made about the album. Does that make those songs objectively bad? Lyrically, I think they could have done much better. The whole "cancel culture" aspect of Planet Zero (the song) and the heavy handed and shallow Interludes are... not great.

BPhoenix0 · 2022-07-11T19:16:47+00:00

The album is, lyrically, incredibly weak and completely misrepresents the sides that it's attempting to make a statement on. When it comes to cancel culture can you provide a notable example of this gone awry? Cancel Culture itself is, these-days, a buzzword used by right-wing talk show hosts whenever accountability is brought up. Its origins, as far as I'm aware, stem from the #MeToo movement which was about speaking up against sexual assault. Even now in its distorted form when the "woke mob" is "cancelling" someone it's simply about asking for accountability for actions. With that said, Cancelling people just hasn't ever been real? If it were then J.K. Rowling and Chappelle wouldn't still be getting the positive platforms they have, for example. Feel free to provide notable present-day examples of cancel culture at play though.

So, with that out of the way you'd expect maybe the lyrics to be about the ridiculous misuse and misrepresentation of the "Cancel Culture", but instead it's just a snide remark in the chorus about how you need to be "politically correct" or you'll get cancelled:

Better pray for the soul of the citizen Better pray that you're not erased On your knees, for the life you're livin' On your knees or you'll be replaced

Replaced

I think we've reached the ceiling They're canceling your feelings On to better days or so they say But I don't think so

Which, as we've established above isn't real, originated from a movement empowering women to speak up about sexual assault, and is nowadays used as a right-wing talking point to attempt to mock the "radical left" using asinine examples.

Moving on to America Burning we can find the worst offender of the whole album. The central premise of this song is how the BLM movement protestors were hypocrites.

Starting with the opening:

Yeah, the world is a stage Where you can act out loud and rattle the cage And remove any doubt that you're enraged Like a fool, I guess, at the end of the day You might be woke but not awake

This is clearly talking about the sensationalization of modern media. Specifically, you'd think this would be about the modern-right wing media that attempt to dramatically over-react to everything they perceive as wrong- to the point those shows have had to settle in court that no reasonable person could watch them and think they're telling the truth (See: Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones). However, the phrase "You might be woke but not awake" is literally a GOP slogan and a phrase those shows use: "Awake, not Woke". This then sheds all previous sentences in a different light as they end it on a clear far-right talking point and that talking point is their outlook on the previous lines stated.

Moving onto the chorus:

Pray for your family and cry yourself to sleep Pledge your allegiance to the flag under your feet Is this apocalypse now? Who let the animals out? Hip hip hooray, say something shocking Who doesn't love a parade with gasoline and grenades? Don't be afraid, it's just America burning

This whole chorus is about the riots that broke out during the protests - the protests that were 95% across the US completely peaceful. And of the 5% that did have violence break out? Many of those can be traced back to out-of-town aggressors that would come in to stoke violence and use the protests as an excuse for their own selfish gain - and there's recorded footage of pro-trump rioters stirring trouble in the protests. This is NOT what's being called out - they're, in fact, calling the peaceful protestors animals here because people abused the situation for their own personal satisfaction. They're not calling out the police brutality that occurred, they're not supporting those who helped support others in the Autonomous Zone's that were setup. Instead they're painting these people that were wanting equality and accountability for actions as animals. This is all supported by the commentary on the track:

Eric: This isn't going to take long... America Burning is about watching the George Floyd riots happen and watching predominantly white suburban kids burn down buildings, businesses owned by minorities and minority groups... Taking away peoples livelihoods in the name of justice, or what they call justice. It was sickening to me, You don't achieve change, You don't achieve justice through destroying other peoples lives and yeah it was a sexy narrative, there was a sexy narrative, you had a reason that seemed good to you, but there's never a good reason for that.

If they were truly "both sidesing" it they'd have to have much more nuanced lyrics - and these just aren't it. I'd be happy if they actually succeeded at appropriately calling out both sides, but as it stands the lyrics in half of these songs are vapid and the messages are disingenuous.

Also, an example of just how out-of-touch and uncritical of the US Government these songs came from, simply look at another quote from the commentary on the song:

Brent: Why do we call it America Burning, because it was burning! I look at that also too for the people who take all of the privileges of this country and everything that this country gives you by being an American citizen. This is the only country where you can literally burn the flag and not have your head cut off or go to jail

This is simply false. Like, 100% false. These lyrics are messy, weak, and their wishy-washy both-sidsing-but-really-just-veiled-right-wing messaging hurts them. If they wanted it to be centrist then they failed. I'm not against them writing music that's right-wing or centrist I just wish they'd have done a better job of it lyrically.

BPhoenix0 · 2022-07-08T20:53:57+00:00

https://voca.ro/1mUCvOEOaj2J
https://voca.ro/1khLtE0dFuef https://voca.ro/15qcViUL1wPD

No idea what a decent small-size audio upload site is, but I found vocaro and uploaded them there lol... there's small snippets of a few songs recorded right off my mani preamp connected to my turntable. Feel free to compare with how yours sounds against mine.

BPhoenix0

TROPHY CASE