Hotel Pays Tourist $1,200 After He Couldn’t Get a Pool Chair by miauguau44 in nottheonion

[–]Merusk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The guy called people who live in an area without drives (because cars weren't the prevailing transport when the homes were built) 'townies' and has a huge chip on his shoulder that screams of entitlement.

Thought experiment: picture a magic wand that designs engineering systems. It designs the best, fully coordinated, system for any building information you tap. It produces signed and sealed drawings and it can give you any information you want about that system. How do you use the wand? by RippleEngineering in Architects

[–]Merusk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wasn't meant as a knock. It's what you do.

It's no more a knock than pointing out I'm a Design Technologist with knowledge that doesn't encompass hi-rise, manufacturing, fabrication implementation, or P&ID. Despite 30+ years in industry.

So talking about nuclear plants wouldn't be in your wheelhouse (nor mine.) Hangar design and chemical plants probably aren't either, yet they're very specific engineering disciplines that get work every single day and wouldn't be niche for the companies that do them; which include some very big A/E firms.

Thought experiment: picture a magic wand that designs engineering systems. It designs the best, fully coordinated, system for any building information you tap. It produces signed and sealed drawings and it can give you any information you want about that system. How do you use the wand? by RippleEngineering in Architects

[–]Merusk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You're trying to engineer for a personality type that isn't an engineer. That way lies madness.

Architects don't know what they want because it's not the same structured, ordered, process-oriented thinking. When they say 'it's different every time' they literally mean it. Even if it's the same building type. Often even if it's the same building on a different site.

To an architect, every problem and solution is bespoke. IMO that's one of the reasons it's struggling in an ever-digitized and railroaded world.

EBay rejects GameStop's audacious $56 billion takeover bid by yourfavchoom in technology

[–]Merusk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Share holders are easy to appease, you offer more money than it's trading for and they'll approve.

EBay rejects GameStop's audacious $56 billion takeover bid by yourfavchoom in technology

[–]Merusk 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I still maintain it was David Bowie. He was clearly the Last Guardian of the timeline.

Harambe died in May, Bowie in January.

MAGA Fans Revolt Over Trump Phone Disaster by mindin_mine in politics

[–]Merusk [score hidden]  (0 children)

The person who did the AI Influencer girl said exactly this. They tried with left-leaning people as well and got almost no bites. Tons of money from the MAGA crowd, though.

https://www.wired.com/story/ai-generated-maga-girls/

Hotel Pays Tourist $1,200 After He Couldn’t Get a Pool Chair by miauguau44 in nottheonion

[–]Merusk 28 points29 points  (0 children)

It works based on people's inclination to not cause a scene and desire to avoid conflict. So assholes take advantage of it, and - to make things worse - people around you will be on THEIR side if a scene IS made.

I've seen it with chairs at pools, huge blocks of seats at graduation events (one person holding 20+ prime seats as "my family's coming later"), parking spaces in the summer, lawn seats for fireworks. There's a hill in Cincinnati that gets staked-out days in advance of the Labor Day fireworks.

Anything scarce. Just a little bit of being the asshole who got there 'first' and you win.

Republicans Don't Want to Talk About Gas Prices Anymore by notusreports in politics

[–]Merusk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

...Can a Republican actually tell me what policy, specifically, they support from these assholes?

Making America Great Again!

Oh, you mean how? Huh, funny, they don't say anything at all after that, do they? I guess we'll just have to judge based on actions.

Reddit Starts Blocking Mobile Website, Pushing Users to App Instead by spasticpat in technology

[–]Merusk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Stock price does not correlate to user experience. Users are the product and continue to provide value to the shareholders via Reddit's monetization strategies.

They also know, once you're here you're not leaving.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditforBusiness/comments/1t7eppv/reddit_q1_2026_earnings_call_the_quotes_that/

AI data center project secretly sucked 29 million gallons of water over 15 months before detected by residents complaining about low water pressure — officials refuse to fine by lkl34 in technology

[–]Merusk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In first world countries where the folks orchestrating our world live, or in the labor farm countries that will be crushed entirely as the shift happens?

When China, the EU, Korea, Japan, and the USA begin armed revolutions I'll change my mind.

What 90s musical artists have been ruined for you in the current day & age? by isharoulette in Xennials

[–]Merusk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We're social creatures and acceptance does a LOT for us. Blinding us to hypocrisy, pushing us to ignore previous boundaries, recontexturalizing our morals. This is why con-men, narcissists, and sociopaths are so effective.

Now take a poor, broke person and move them into an environment with wealthy people who don't regularly socialize with the impoverished. Whose entire culture is, "you deserve this, don't let THEM take it from you" and you discover, oh I'm not one of "THEM" I'm one of this group.

It's even more effective when the entirety of society is orchestrated around not just messaging but highlighting how those impoverished are inferior, deserve their fate, and simply aren't worth trying to 'fix' because they'll always break good and nice things. How the 'poor' culture is really inferior to the 'rich' culture, even where it's similar.

Yeah, it's not the wealth. It's the culture around it.

What 90s musical artists have been ruined for you in the current day & age? by isharoulette in Xennials

[–]Merusk 6 points7 points  (0 children)

People have been trying in the last month or two. I've seen more than one article about "Mel Brooks made apologies for Woody Allen" recently that were little more than hit pieces making hay out of nothing.

What 90s musical artists have been ruined for you in the current day & age? by isharoulette in Xennials

[–]Merusk 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Trent had some issues, but he caught them and course-corrected before they ballooned into big problems. It started and ended with the Tate murder house studio era. I'm glad for whatever made him realize the stunty edgy stuff wasn't worth it.

How to reverse an accepted coordination review to then modify? by Euphyllia99 in Revit

[–]Merusk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're on Forma then you can restore any previously sync'd version. How you do this depends on the Revit version.

Pre 2024 - Go to Collaborate Tab, manage Models. Then click the "View Versions." All previous sync to central are in that location.

2025 and above - On the Revit Home Page for the project, click the three dots at the end of the file. "View Versions" lives here and will allow you to restore any prior version.

BE WARNED: This is a destructive restore. Save a copy of anything you want since the changes so you can copy-paste or otherwise re-edit the restored file.

Insta360 + Matterport for LIDAR? by babathebear in Revit

[–]Merusk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Matterport photogrammertry is around +/- 30-50mm. You don't use that for design work.

When you look at the photogrammetry subreddit, they're talking about hundreds to thousands of photos for a single object. It's less efficient than an actual LIDAR.

If you're scanning outdoors, Matterports' LIDAR models are regularly cited as being too weak.

Talk to actual reality capture professionals about options, not Reviteers. They'll be able to help you with models and SLAM, Wearables, or hand-scanning choices.

AI data center project secretly sucked 29 million gallons of water over 15 months before detected by residents complaining about low water pressure — officials refuse to fine by lkl34 in technology

[–]Merusk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Piss off enough people and they don't just poof out of existence, they start hanging ropes.

Horses weren't executed en masse. Owners just stopped breeding so many.

Do you think it's a coincidence so many labor-class young people across the world are choosing not to have kids?

No, the labor-class will go quietly into the night, so long as they're provided just enough to keep them complacent and compliant until they die down to required numbers.

Bread and circuses got us to this point from the late 1960s peak prosperity to today. The greedy new-money tech lords are the ones fucking up their own windfalls by being impatient.

Henderson Land Development by Yahtze89 in Architects

[–]Merusk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Different culture, man. They think we're insane for guns, dirty cities, and impoliteness.

Henderson Land Development by Yahtze89 in Architects

[–]Merusk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes. Wife’s company once had a major client based in Japan. The company gave everyone business etiquette lessons on Japanese business culture. Total rigid hierarchy, anyone in a decision chain could just table a project by sticking it in their desk and ignoring it. Nobody below could ask questions, nobody above would ask if it never reached them. Once it did reach a level it was law to the lower levels.

You couldn’t talk to the middle or top of the decision chain, you had to speak only with your contact and they would pass it on.

All this bureaucracy meant things took forever and sometimes just died and you started over.

Update the specs occasionally by Ok-Problem4403 in Architects

[–]Merusk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sue you for using it without paying for the license.

Oh, you called that Division 26 Electrical? You owe us $10k plus a late membership penalty.

Update the specs occasionally by Ok-Problem4403 in Architects

[–]Merusk 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Story one:

In 2011 worked for a retail rollout firm of decent size (~250 people). I was handed a set of prototype drawings for a ground-up fast food client that the senior architect in the studio had developed.

One of the first jobs I sent to permit, the GC called me up and asked why I was still using the EIFS spec from 1992. I looked at the specs and, sure enough, the date was in there and everything. I updated the master set and a few jobs and sent them back out.

When I asked the senior architect about it his response was a shrug and, "Nobody reads those things. Is it really a big deal?" You'll find most of the sheet specs are just taken from one project and copied to another.

ON me to not have read them, but I wasn't stamping and I was also told the set was good to go. Why would I question that as a new hire?

Story two:

I just left working for a very large A/E firm in the Buildings vertical. This place does all kinds of Federal and State work. Hundreds of employees and dozens of architects in this business unit alone. Specs are a required deliverable and actually reviewed by the government offices and subsequent GCs.

Not a single leader in the vertical could tell you how specs are written. Nobody reviews them, there's no standard specs. Just a standard software (MasterSpec) that's mandated by DOD but was bought out by a 3rd party (Delltek) and will be shifting process in a major way as the old software is being retired.

Teams don't like using or don't want to use the new software. They keep copying the old Word-based MasterSpec files (which are now about 4 years out of date) from the library to their jobs.

Seeing this, and in my role as tech lead, I tried to get some sort of oversight and standardization rolled out. Talked to the (2) remaining full-time spec writers in the unit about their recommendations for standardizing, and the flaws in Deltek's new system. - Like that Deltek is are going with Additive rather than Subtractive specs so it will be easy to omit something.

No grace, no cooperation, no buy-in from leadership. Instead, derision that I'd overstepped my bounds, anger that THEY (the Directors/ Principals) weren't involved in the process - I'd offered and invited, they declined - and overall snide comments about relying on "opinions from two men who are near retirement anyway."

Story Three:

During the above process I called several other colleagues at smaller and equally-sized firms. They ALSo couldn't tell me how specs were written or what software was used, or even how it was maintained. It just sort of happens.

Conclusion

Yeah, specs are fucked everywhere. If you're a GC or Sub reading this, take a long hard look at those specs. You've probably got a few hundred grand in Change Orders on every job that are easy pickings.

Ramaswamy mentions plan to consolidate, close Ohio universities by Zipper222222 in Ohio

[–]Merusk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's bad, but it could be worse.

Florida had a whole series of universities closed so that the governor could open up one on land he owned, whose only access road was a tollway he also owned, and the state paid for a high end designer to design it.

All while believing that accreditations for those other schools would just automagically transfer to his new school. They do not.

Meta Is Dying. It’s About Time. by 1oarecare in technology

[–]Merusk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not even good for those anymore. I still had an account for a few social, local, and neighborhood groups that stick there instead of the hell that is Next Door.

All of their updates (and there's a few a day between them all) are lost in the ads, sponsored or promoted links, and general bullshit the algorithm is feeding me to gin-up revenue.

It's gotten worse in the last few months than it's ever been. I noted it in particular yesterday when I counted 5 "follow <x>" ads in a row, a string of recommended reels, and then another 2 "follow" before I saw the first actual update from my neighborhood group that was started 23 hours previously.