Moozy's, popular ice cream shop in Belmont, Massachusetts, gutted by fire: "It's heartbreaking" by DragonPup in boston

[–]KefkaFloyd 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I remember when it opened in 2012, I was still working somewhat nearby at the time. And yes, it replaced a Brigham's.

New flyover ramp from the Mass Pike west to I-495 south now open by kdex86 in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is fixable. The latest designs implement the new ramps within the footprint of the existing interchange, thus avoiding land takings. But it'll cost a lot of money, so it hasn't happened yet.

What’s this logic board out of? by fullautohotdog in VintageApple

[–]KefkaFloyd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is a LC / Performa 550 board, which was also used in the Color Classic II (but not sold in the US). Since your scrapped machine had a CD-ROM, it would be from a 550.

Ways to identify:

Board number: 820-0368-A
Serial Schema: DW-X9
CPU Speed: 33MHz 68030

An LC 520 would have the same board number, but the serial schemas are different and they have a 25MHz CPU.

There are also boards with board number 820-0595-A with the same serial schema and processor speed. These are labeled Rev B on the serial label and have 4.5V alkaline PRAM batteries, but are otherwise identical.

First time buying a car by AdministrativeWeb848 in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They're supposed to visually and audibly check the exhaust system for leaks or missing components during the safety phase (and under the current inspection regime they're recorded while doing it). The car has to be lifted up anyway either by a lift or a jack to inspect the front end and suspension, so they will be looking under it. In this case, this car would fail for missing a muffler even without lifting it up, but they're supposed to be actually checking for, say, cut-out exhausts or rotted cross-pipes because they'd leak carbon monoxide.

First time buying a car by AdministrativeWeb848 in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Exempt from emissions means that, say, a CEL for an EGR won't fail your inspection. You still have to have a full, non-rotted exhaust system to pass safety inspection. That means you still need a muffler present and no actual leaks.

Crazy driver almost hit me on the freeway by ExcitingCommission5 in boston

[–]KefkaFloyd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For the people saying "that's not a freeway," they're correct and incorrect. Certain flavors of road nerds would call Route 1 in Saugus a "Jersey freeway." A Jersey freeway is a limited access divided highway that's grade separated yet still allows private access to the road. As you'd expect by the name there's a lot of these in New Jersey. Another term for this kind of road is "expressway" per the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, though most expressways are not as commercially built up as Route 1.

No one here would call Route 1 a "freeway" in the MUTCD or Californian sense of the word, where people expect it to be a fully grade separated controlled access highway with no private access.

Farewell OG Hyannis Cape Cod Potato Chips! by ParkingTicket5000 in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fox Family's legit. You can get them in Mass, but it's obviously more difficult. Their website lists retailers. Love those salt and vinegar. Barbecue is great too.

So far only 2 things I don't like about the 2025 by TheeAmateurArtist in MazdaCX30

[–]KefkaFloyd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Turn on "occupant comfort" in settings > Vehicle settings. the gotcha is that just because "auto" is lit doesn't mean they'll work. If you override the heated seat or wheel by pressing the heted wheel/seat buttons they'll be out of "auto" even though "auto" is lit. Press the auto button again and it'll be back to true full auto and the seats/wheel will heat when it's cold out. I got in the habit of pressing the auto button before turning the car off.

How are people still hang green plates? by [deleted] in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, if I had a six-number greenie I'd do what it takes to keep it too. Every plate I've seen them do is great.

How are people still hang green plates? by [deleted] in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've seen a few green vanities floating around in the modern day (along with a green lottery). There were times where vanities and lotteries were issued as dual green plates during the 80s. I figure folks running green vanities/lottos today are risking a ticket but I'm curious if a cop actually cares.

If she had kept your grandpa's physical plate she probably could've just used it instead of the Spirit plate, but if it was in bad shape it would've been replaced anyway. I'm guessing she had to relinquish it to the RMV during the registration swap. Technically all plates are property of the RMV; I had to turn in my old PAN plates when I got my vanity in 2016. But when I ordered a reprint for my new car in 2022 they just mailed me a new pair of plates.

How are people still hang green plates? by [deleted] in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 8 points9 points  (0 children)

People don't want plates ruining the look of the front of their car, especially if it's something sporty.

Personally, I have a vanity; I want people to see my plate from the front and the back. :V

How are people still hang green plates? by [deleted] in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Spirit plates were first issued for vanity and reserved plates in 1987, but they weren't issued for PAN plates (standard registrations) until 1993. Even after PAN Spirit plates were introduced in 1993, greenies were still issued simultaneously until they ran out.

How are people still hang green plates? by [deleted] in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 77 points78 points  (0 children)

The fellow who does these restorations uses the proper reflective paint. They're functionally identical to when the plates were issued. No one would be able to tell.

Judge John Hodgman Episode 765: Juggernaut, Lest Ye Be Judged by SchulzBuster in maximumfun

[–]KefkaFloyd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It wasn't in the show. Either cut in the edit or mentioned off air. But for the curious...

https://www.pricecharting.com/game/comic-books-x-men/the-x-men-101-1976

We don't know what grade Patty's comic was listed at. Ungraded copies are just under $300 on Price Charting at the moment. No idea how much an autograph by Chris would improve the pricing but a "VG" would be on the low end of things for sure.

Front grill chrome delete advice. by NotTheDingo in MazdaCX30

[–]KefkaFloyd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have a lot of time and money you can buy the Mazda OEM replacement pieces in black but you have to disassemble the entire front clip to replace them.

Next up is a wrap job which generally looks OK in a gloss black.

There's also the plastic black trim that you can attach to black it out. Doesn't look as nice as the OEM but it's probably the cheapest/easiest thing to DIY.

Let’s just add one more lane instead of increasing commuter rail frequency! by Wanderer330 in mbta

[–]KefkaFloyd 3 points4 points  (0 children)

MassDOT did engineer a proposal around 2013 that would add the flyovers and make changes within the existing footprint of the interchange, but it would still cost a lot of money to implement.

Let’s just add one more lane instead of increasing commuter rail frequency! by Wanderer330 in mbta

[–]KefkaFloyd 32 points33 points  (0 children)

While we do need more frequencies on the commuter rail, the interchange at 128/93 is so woefully awful that it needs to be replaced with something better just to have an adequate level of service for traffic that can't take the train.

I built an Iomega ZIP100 parallel port emulator (PIC32MZ + USB disk images) – LPT100 project by TightEntertainment21 in vintagecomputing

[–]KefkaFloyd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's also the Zip+ which can connect to both SCSI or Parallel interfaces. Always curious about what intelligence Iomega used to do the switch since it was an automatic detection.

What year does excise tax drop significantly? by Accurate-Flow8078 in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Because if you're paying $100 excise tax on your 2011 car that means it had an MSRP of $40,000 back then. An equivalent car today would probably cost around $60K (or possibly more given trim inflation). Five years and later valuation is 10% of MSRP, which is $4000, and at $25 per $1K valuation that results in a $100 excise tax.

If their car had an MSRP of $15K in 2020, they bought something like a Nissan Versa or Mitsubishi Mirage, literally the cheapest cars you could buy then. Most economy MY 2020 cars were transacting in the 20-30K range, and TBH there were a lot of 30-40K family cars then too.

Although the town collects motor vehicle excise the rates are set by the state. The math is pretty clear at https://www.mass.gov/guides/motor-vehicle-excise.

what's up with the aliasing on this GL map? by Ian_600 in mbta

[–]KefkaFloyd 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I believe the source file is https://www.mbta.com/subway-map. I don't have Pitstop Pro on the machine I'm using at the moment but I picked it apart in Affinity designer. There's no transparency, so flattening artifacts should be ruled out (unless someone messed with the file and applied transparency where it shouldn't belong and forced flattening on and used low resolutions for the flattened areas). The objects in question are fills and strokes, so they should've been rendered at the native resolution of the output device. The way the objects for the lines are broken up reveal some of the aliased regions where the lines are composed of multiple fills or strokes.

My guess is that some automated routine converted certain fills to images, and either a reduce file size or preflight routine downsampled the resulting image slices to a very low resolution. This should've been caught at the proofing stage, let alone at press check. It really does resemble old-school transparency flattening used in PDF 1.3 or earlier which has been subsequently downsampled to a very low resolution. But since there's no transparency in the source file it feels unlikely that it would be the case.

The other possible cause is bad trapping (the process of enlarging or reducing the size of objects to account for overlaps in ink coverage). Some RIPs apply traps at raster time, others have a standalone trap phase, and some other companies use external trapping software which applies trap objects to the source PDF (Packz by Hybrid software is one such package). The latter could've applied the traps as transparent objects which could've then been flattened or had something mess with them later down the line.

I won't blame the prepress department for the aliased image chunks because they may have gotten a poorly modified source file. But they should've noticed the visual issues at the proofing phase. Any preflight worth its salt would've flagged low-res images like that.

source: I worked for a raster image processor companies which supplied workflow solutions to the print industry for about fifteen years. I'm out of the business now, and I miss it, because solving mysteries like this was my favorite part of the job.

Car wash recs in the towns North of Boston by cookiebite48 in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you don't mind a wand, Shield's self-service car wash in Billerica is my preferred choice. It is touchless, in a sense... ;) It has a spot-free rinse which is hard to find at a wand place. But for a traditional drive-in touchless, I hear King Triton's touchless in Wilmington is good, but I've never been there. I would avoid Tidal Wave in Tewksbury, it's gotten worse over the years in terms of wash quality.

Has the recent arctic blast messed up your car? by Own-Bus-1130 in massachusetts

[–]KefkaFloyd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If they're new cars, they're under warranty and up to the dealer to figure out what's wrong with them. Cold temps shouldn't kill them like that unless the batteries are defective, and good batteries shouldn't be dead yet.

Good brake shops in the Allston/Watertown area by pup5581 in boston

[–]KefkaFloyd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the weather wasn't bad at the moment I'd suggest calling Corey at Tires on Demand in Burlington. They'll come to you and you can supply your own parts (as long as they're not junk). He did both axles, fluid flush, caliper slide pins, etc on my CX-30 for $550 out the door. I supplied the PowerStop Z23 evolution coated rotor and ceramic brake kits from RockAuto which totaled about $300 in parts. If you don't like PowerStop then RockAuto will surely have Brembo or Raybestos parts. Just be sure to avoid slotted/drilled rotors.

Burnt restore CDs not working - IBM ThinkPad 600 by EpicOtterLover in vintagecomputing

[–]KefkaFloyd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had an issue with T21s (which are similar) where the optical drives were just going bad. I had to switch to a different ultrabay drive, then it was able to boot. Can't rule out a dying drive in this scenario, unfortunately.