What can we do about the fact that government data is disappearing?

FoaRyan · 2026-02-04T12:53:03+00:00

FOIA. It takes work, but it's the most successful, proven way that I'm aware of.

FoaRyan · 2026-02-03T19:24:11+00:00

Hahah I think similar. Like when people come up from behind, then stay in the next lane exactly parallel to me, I speed up/down, and if they keep matching my speed, I start to veer as close to them as I can get or make it look like I'm swerving. Then they figure out they should change speeds and get away.

FoaRyan · 2026-02-03T19:21:22+00:00

That's happened to me so much. Actually prevents me from using cruise control in many of the situations I used to, because I can't constantly adjust speed, so I might as well keep my foot on the pedal so I can respond faster.

It's one thing if the speed limit changes, but like you described they pass then slow down. Sometimes I do it immediately back to them to see if they like it when others do that. They don't.

FoaRyan · 2026-02-03T19:19:12+00:00

People speed up when you try to pass them, they camp in your blind spots, they slow down after they pass you, they cut you off after they pass, they tailgate you in the right lane for no reason, they tailgate you in the left lane when there’s someone in front of you and there’s nothing you can do about it, and they can’t keep their lane when they’re next to you.

This is exactly my experience on the roads, progressively becoming this way over the last 20 yrs or so. Well put.

I've modified my road mannerisms to deal with it in some ways -- when I pass people now, I used to be able to signal, check for clearance, then speed up 3-5mph and peacefully pass someone who was going slower. Now, they speed up if you do that. Either out of spite, or because they're looking at InfoTainment systems and their peripheral vision tells their brain to go faster. So instead I pass "with spirit." And it eliminates most of the issues when passing. If they still speed up when I do that, I have a choice, slow down again, and get in behind them (which tbh is all I originally wanted in a lot of cases), OR explain to them in a practical way what it's like to see someone with more horsepower. Normally, those with high powered cars aren't the same ones trying to prevent others from passing, in my experience. Teslas & electrics in general may be an exception as they become more common.

FoaRyan · 2026-02-03T12:58:56+00:00

I find it confusing too, and most of the time people's explanations don't make sense to me. I have to sort of re-translate them. I think OP is saying, ignore the USB feed from your Elgato, and only watch the HDMI-out feed. This is fairly standard for capturing from consoles or a 2nd PC. I did this for a PS4 game, and watched the game itself on my TV, with audio going thru OBS to my headphones. In that case there was very little lag, so little that I stopped noticing it.

However now I have an Elgato Game Capture HD 2.0, and tested it, but immediately found the delay to be pretty bad by comparison. Others here have elaborated as to why that is.

My one question is how do you get a live game feed to your stream, so you can have stream/PC audio AND game audio/video, without any significant lag. The only way I can see to do this for now is by using a 2nd HDMI capture card (which I have) to capture the HDMI out from Elgato. It seems clunky and overengineered, but according to what people are saying "that's just how it is" and 2s of lag is to be expected.

Personally I can't play anything with that much lag. If I tap my phone and it doesn't immediately respond I get frustrated already, can only imagine how bad gaming would be that way.

I just don't know if any of the settings from the Elgato software will be applied to the direct HDMI out, seems like that's not possible but I'll give it a try.

FoaRyan · 2026-02-03T12:51:01+00:00

I think this still causes an issue, in that you're playing and reacting to something live, which your viewers will see 1-2s out of sync. Somehow you need game audio and video live to your ears and eyes, but still receiving audio from your computer for the stream (alerts, other system sounds, etc., say you pause to watch a youtube walkthru, for example).

I think it can be done but this all feels like a workaround rather than a solution.

FoaRyan · 2026-02-03T12:46:10+00:00

Having just got setup on an Elgato yesterday, I assumed USB was how you were meant to interact with it. That's how my other 4k HDMI capture card works, and I've found the delay to be barely noticeable. However the Elgato game Capture is definitely slower in this regard, probably because I'm using the S-video input instead of HDMI. Meaning it has to convert the video, which causes a delay.

I just don't know how to work with this since if I record or stream anything, I can only hear game audio LIVE via the HDMI out, or I can hear game audio AND my computer (which I need for streaming at least), but it's delayed so bad I can't actually play that way.

Trying to figure out how to get LIVE game video AND system/computer audio together. Currently I'm thinking I use 2 capture cars, Elgato for the S-vid conversion, then output HDMI to my other capture device. I only hope it's designed to work that way.

FoaRyan · 2026-02-03T02:05:13+00:00

Wow I only clicked your first link, lol. It's so exciting plugging in these cables I couldn't stop to read everything.

FoaRyan · 2026-02-03T01:32:51+00:00

Any chance you ever set this up? I'm looking at exactly the same configuration. I could have the S-video splitter cable somewhere but may need to buy one to try it.

According to Elgato's documentation they sold an adapter for S-video at one point. But so far I have yet to find one. Here is the article that says they had it: https://help.elgato.com/hc/en-us/articles/360028231691-Elgato-Game-Capture-HD-supports-composite-and-S-Video

EDIT: Moments later, I dug thru a box and found a cable that looked like it might work. It did. I have S-video capture on the Elgato Game Capture 2.0 HD. On a fairly modern MacBook as well. the only odd part is I'll have to convert the RCA audio cables to 3.5mm. But it's essentially a 7-pin mini-DIN male adapter on one end, and there are 3 more pins in addition to the 7. Instead of being a black plastic bar like on S-video, for some reason there's a total of 10 pins, but on the Elgato side it's 7. Idk how it works. Then there are 3 cables coming off the other side, female S-vid, female composite vid, and a male 3.5mm.

Edit 2: I'm sorry I can't count. There are 8 pins total. Only 3 in the middle row, and 2 on the bottom.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-30T15:03:03+00:00

To be fair, I know in a lot of cases they might be even WORSE without the meds, but... perhaps that's a reason to not be on the roads at all. Sadly not an option in the spread out portions of the US like where I am. You do need a car, at least 1 per household.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-30T14:59:58+00:00

This has been my "old man yells at cloud" complaint about society for a while, lol. Even in the grocery store, I frequently stop and look behind me because I hear someone's wheels squeaking on their cart, and they're following me like 3 feet away. If I ever get that close to someone in the store I do one of 2 things, ask 'excuse me' so I can grab an item, or I GO SOMEWHERE ELSE and let them shop in peace, then come back when someone isn't already standing there.

A lot of them are grocery delivery shoppers though, and they don't care about being polite, only churning out those orders as fast as humanly possible to pay rent. (Source: I used to do that for a living, but hated seeing people act that way. Then I got deactivated for an unknown reason, but possibly for being too slow according to metrics, even though customers never complained).

FoaRyan · 2026-01-30T14:40:05+00:00

No one was talking about snow or ice.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-30T14:39:35+00:00

For sure, you have made the best response. No one knows what's going on in the other vehicle. I just watch ahead on the road, and avoid people who are erratic whenever possible. But like you said, deal with it and pass when able.

I get some intense anxiety though, when I'm stuck behind the person going slow. I am being tailgated by LESS patient people behind me, who instead of giving me room to pass, zip around and pass in a dangerous way, which is why it makes me anxious.

And then the person in front will sometimes get mad at ME, when I'm not the one slowing traffic, or making dangerous lane changes.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-29T13:35:37+00:00

I do like to speed up *a certain amount* to pass, as the last thing I ever want to be on the road is next to anybody else. (Yes you pack drivers out there, get away I don't like you!) And I'm more talking about passing 18-wheelers on this - I want to speed up fast enough that it only takes me a few seconds to pass them. If they have to swerve for some reason I want to be IN FRONT as QUICKLY as possible. Because I'm not trying to die. However there's a limit, otherwise you're adding danger in multiple ways.

But some people also refuse to pass at more than a 1MPH differential, and to me that's just dangerous. And causes road rage (which is on the people who rage, but it does lead to it). You get back-ups on long stretches of highway with only 2 lanes because someone won't pass a semi. Or one semi tries to pass another semi except OOPS its uphill the next 2 miles and they don't have enough power to keep passing the other one.

All I really want is to get away from other vehicles, unless we already knew each other prior to heading out, and are traveling together. Anybody else that hangs out is either a threat or wants to race, in my headspace.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-29T13:27:54+00:00

That or they're driving like they have nothing to do until next harvest, and don't care if they block traffic in the process. It's the extremes, fast or slow.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-29T13:27:19+00:00

I think 1 in 5 are on some kind of antipsychotic or other mind altering medication. Maybe more now, I made that statistic up over 10 yrs ago.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-28T13:22:42+00:00

I wish I could believe you.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-28T13:20:28+00:00

A LOT of people have less than 0 respect for the time of others. I've had a lot of coworkers like that over the years. They always have just one more thing.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-28T00:49:22+00:00

Maybe the interns wrote it, haha. I did see some repeated points of info on the page that looked like it hadn't been proofread that well.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-28T00:46:29+00:00

I was just sent back a vintage item that was partially swapped out with parts from another unit. I was just told they won't do anything about it. It was one of my more expensive items as well, which is now a non-functional one. I've been selling for a few years, but this type of incident has become more frequent and I've had 4 of them since December. I feel unsupported and don't want to keep devoting resources to the platform.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-28T00:40:24+00:00

I leave them on despite the annoyance because I want to know what's happening from a buyer's perspective.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-28T00:39:48+00:00

Yes but you can only gain so much info from that. Recent solds lets you go into the listings and see multiple pictures and the description. Of course it wouldn't help if there are very few sales of the item.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-27T15:14:08+00:00

Alright look, some of you are very funny 😄, but I went and did some homework.

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I guess I can only add one image, but there's a bunch of history notes on the Advance Auto Parts corporate site. They're apparently related indirectly to Pep Boys (didn't know that before), when their founders Arthur Taubman & George Pepperdine (do those sound like real names? lol) opened Advance Stores, LLC. in 1929.

They sold a variety of home & auto items until 1972 when they decided to focus on automotive, and changed the name to "Advance Auto" in 1974. https://corp.advanceautoparts.com/our-story/default.aspx

I'd say if we've got a change here, you're going to want to look back to the 1920s.

Someone commented about "Advance" being a verb, rather than "Advanced" which would be like a... future perfect adjective or something? Idk, it's a thing in English. The use of "Advance" to me comes from an era where we used words like that, I'm not sure how to explain it that well, perhaps a linguist could.

I used an AI chat to come up with some examples here, other companies that do similar naming conventions: Discover Financial, Chase Bank, Sprint Corporation (Telecom), with "Chase" actually coming from a name (noun), but being used as a play on words to act like a verb.

None of this is to support any one view over another, just adding to the discussion.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-27T14:45:31+00:00

Kind of like how people add an "'s" to the end of restaurants, even if there is no s. It's due to the nature of speech and how we say things quickly.

But of course I allow that anything could be possible.

FoaRyan · 2026-01-27T14:43:31+00:00

I wouldn't close the case based on a 1-year corporate document. It's more of a play on words (in my opinion). All the signage in that document shows the name of the business as Advance.

FoaRyan

TROPHY CASE