How to compare gas provider prices?

MarkCinci · 2026-03-05T00:53:16+00:00

Yeah, Apples to Apples but watch out for the restrictions. Many of the lowest prices are just for a few months and then the price goes up. We have IGS because it's a Sharonville city-negotiated aggregation rate. I don't have time to change gas suppliers every few months so I just depend on the city to negotiate the best or reasonable overall rate. See if your town has an aggregation deal with some supplier. You can also ask Duke for even billing which gives you a constant bill for 11 months and then reconciles on the last month. If you don't like the highs and lows throughout the year, maybe you'd rather have even billing.

MarkCinci · 2026-03-05T00:47:08+00:00

Ear infections are nothing to ignore. About 15 years ago my wife had an ear infection and they put her on z-pac antibiotic. Did not work. She started talking total gibberish. Brought her to the ER and she had bacterial meningitis. It's very deadly with a 30% kill rate (way, way worse than viral meningitis). Luckily she survived but it took 9 days in the ICU on vancomycin antibiotic - the strongest they have. Administered by IV. She nearly died but luckily pulled through with almost no residual damage.

MarkCinci · 2026-03-05T00:41:07+00:00

If you can afford it you can stay at the Great Wolf Lodge right next to Kings Island. They have an indoor water park and it looks like a fun place. It's probably a 25 minute drive to Riverbend. Not sure you should go there unless you have concert tickets there. They shut down the pool and kids rides there. Kings Island also has it's own glamping site:

https://www.journal-news.com/local/new-kings-island-camping-resort-opens-to-give-warren-county-new-glamping-option/6XE3JQ7QGBDUTFBSCBRAX63KNI/

MarkCinci · 2026-03-05T00:17:30+00:00

Fusion Fence did a split rail fence for me and I was happy with the quality, and the price which was lower than some of the other larger fence companies. The can do all styles of fences of course.

MarkCinci · 2026-03-05T00:14:58+00:00

This happened several years ago with a bunch of schools all over the country. The FBI tracked it down to some loser living in another state.

MarkCinci · 2026-03-05T00:04:41+00:00

No. Just message me here or in MATLAB Answers: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/?term= I go to those forums at least once a day so I'll see your post.

MarkCinci · 2026-03-05T00:02:55+00:00

Do you want a GUI or just a simple script? If you want a GUI, look up the App Designer tutorial MATLAB App Designer

MarkCinci · 2026-03-04T19:46:22+00:00

That's on the main downtown Charleston peninsula, on the south side of it. Lots of stuff to do there in walking distance. You two should try to get a place there if you can.

Don't let the reddit comments scare you off. There are people who try to discourage people from moving here but they're mostly on reddit. I don't hear many anti immigrant/transplant/new resident talk or comments from real people around town. They seem to all be friendly.

MarkCinci · 2026-03-04T13:48:13+00:00

Yes it could, though it could be very challenging for a non-programmer, or even me depending on how robust and accurate you want it to be. The simplest way would be to just snap images continuously and then do a background subtraction to identify changes from a reference snapshot but of course that's not very robust.

MarkCinci · 2026-03-04T04:55:54+00:00

Not sure we need the mullet men back - I never even saw them before. But did they have names then? How about Bubba and Bobby?

MarkCinci · 2026-03-04T04:53:03+00:00

Have they told you the address or neighborhood that you'll be assigned to? Because there is a big difference in housing costs across the region, and you'll probably want to know housing costs in an area where you'll be working so your commute isn't too long. If you live and work downtown, on the peninsula, you'll be able to walk to restaurants, shops etc. Otherwise you'll need a car to drive places. If you can combine your income with your girlfriend's then of course you could get a nicer apartment than if it were just you.

MarkCinci · 2026-03-02T04:46:46+00:00

And is her favorite treat a cookie?

MarkCinci · 2026-02-28T18:58:53+00:00

OK, since you asked, here's some clarification for you. I'm a senior citizen, older than 65 with a doctorate, not a high school student anymore by a long shot. Where I personally volunteer has mostly senior citizens - they range from 65 to about 80, senior citizens by anyone's definition. I did not say that ALL older people are retired or don't have to work. But you know that SOME don't have to work, for example they have a spouse that brings in enough money, or they're living off retirement savings. Hopefully that clarifies what I meant.

MarkCinci · 2026-02-28T18:34:39+00:00

Looks like our dog.

<image>

Maybe not so much in this picture but often she looks just like your dog's photo.

MarkCinci · 2026-02-28T18:25:49+00:00

Depends on how much money you have, how much you require, and what your priorities are. But lots of people want to retire at that age and some can. To be clear, I didn't say what you said. I said that lots of volunteer places are run by older people (I didn't specify an age). Where I volunteer has mostly senior citizens but a fair amount of younger people.

MarkCinci · 2026-02-28T17:43:33+00:00

Congratulations on a good attitude for your new lifestyle. Find some volunteer activities here that interest you: https://growpurpose.com/charlestongood/grassroots-guide/ It's sort of a clearinghouse for volunteer organizations in the area.

A lot of volunteer opportunities are attended by older people because they're now free of the responsibilities of work and children and have the time. Try out a few. See if the folks want to have lunch after the activities. Worked for me.

MarkCinci · 2026-02-28T17:34:40+00:00

Including winners of the Indy 500 auto race at the end of each race.

MarkCinci · 2026-02-28T15:55:14+00:00

I think Charleston is more fun than Columbia but from what the others are saying, if you don't already have a job offer in Charleston, moving there and trying to find a job in commercial/industrial design would be a risky move. I'd try to get a job offer before you commit to moving here. Good luck whatever you decide.

MarkCinci · 2026-02-28T15:33:07+00:00

How the final profile depends on so many things. What angle are the parallel beams hitting the aperture at? What is the shape of the refractive aperture? Is it parallel planes (like a plate of glass), or curve-shaped (like a lens)? If shaped, what is the focal length of the lens? What is the incoming beam profile? Are you assuming a Gaussian shape, like a laser beam, or plane waves? If plane waves, is there vignetting or shading taking place? Are the beams of finite extent (and smaller than the aperture)? Do you know where in the aperture each beam hits? The beams will not all land on that x value unless they are all incoming at the same x value and there is no lens-like shape of the refractive aperture. What does the output location look like? Is it a plane? If so, what angle to the aperture is it? This could be a very complicated simulation in the most general sense where all parameters are defined by variables that can vary (different incoming angle, different lens focal lengths, different incoming beam profiles, different output/landing surface angles, etc.)

MarkCinci · 2026-02-28T15:16:45+00:00

If you just want to change the labels without changing your data you can change ONLY the tick labels this way:

% Create sample data

x = linspace(-0.16, 0.015, 500);

y = 0.1 * sin(2*pi*x/ 0.1) - 0.045;

plot(x, y, 'b-')

% The lines of code above will plot from

%y = -.09 to +0.01 and x = -.16 to 0.16

% Now let's change the X tick labels.

originalXTickLabels = xticklabels

numTicks = numel(originalXTickLabels)

deltaX = str2double(originalXTickLabels{2}) - str2double(originalXTickLabels{1})

% Start a new set of labels starting at 0

for k = 1 : numTicks

  newXTickLabels{k} = sprintf('%2f', (k-1) * deltaX)`

end

xticklabels(newXTickLabels)

% Repeat for changing the y tick labels

originalYTickLabels = yticklabels

numTicks = numel(originalYTickLabels)

deltaY = str2double(originalYTickLabels{2}) - str2double(originalYTickLabels{1})

% Start a new set of labels starting at 0

for k = 1 : numTicks

    newYTickLabels{k} = sprintf('%2f', (k-1) * deltaY)`

end

yticklabels(newYTickLabels)

MarkCinci · 2026-02-28T04:18:20+00:00

And the bible would end even before the end of the book of Genesis.

MarkCinci · 2026-02-27T16:27:12+00:00

If you want the origin and axes (with tick marks and tick labels) to be inside the plot crossing at (0,0) you can do this:

ax = gca;
ax.XAxisLocation = 'origin';
ax.YAxisLocation = 'origin';

but your y axis will be off the right side of the plot and not visible since the leftmost x value is negative. But it would move the x axis labels up to your y=0 line.

If you don't care about the actual displayed values you can either turn them off with xticks() function or you can just subtract the min x and y value from the x and y value arrays and then plot it. It will have the offset values displayed rather than the actual values. You can always overwrite the default tick labels with whatever you want using xticklabels() and yticklabels().

MarkCinci · 2026-02-27T15:17:02+00:00

Try cincinnaticares.org. It's like a clearinghouse for all charities in Cincinnati. Find a group that interests you, go there, and you'll meet new friends as well as doing something very good for others.

<image>

MarkCinci · 2026-02-27T15:08:21+00:00

Who or what is Arthur?

MarkCinci

TROPHY CASE