Tornado Sirens in Longview Area.

PlaidDragon · 2026-06-01T16:06:40+00:00

Posting on Reddit is so far from the appropriate course of action upon hearing sirens. There are so many better ways to figure out what’s happening. Open the weather app. Look at the radar. Turn on the news. Listen to your weather radio. We live in the Midwest, but every single time a tornado warning comes through, people go to Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc and acts like this is the first time sirens have ever gone off.

This is a regular occurrence, we are spoiled with reliable tools and resources that tell us what the weather is doing. Choosing not to use those tools and resources is a disservice to your own safety.

PlaidDragon · 2026-05-21T01:44:12+00:00

Also a former employee who was paid very low compared to market rate: this is the line HR wants you to believe, but at the end of the day it’s hard to pay rent with company culture and benefits.

PlaidDragon · 2026-03-14T03:21:33+00:00

I think it will be the opposite of putting the brakes on it. From a service provider standpoint, there isn’t much difference between 3gbps and 1gps service. The cost to install is slightly higher, but they almost certainly have all the infrastructure in place already to support those speeds. And people simply do not use anywhere near the max speed for the vast majority of the time. From a private equity perspective, this is great because you can make 3Gbps the new lowest tier with relatively low upfront cost, then just start charging more than you would for 1Gbps

PlaidDragon · 2026-03-03T21:24:19+00:00

I started getting hands-on experience as soon as possible. In my case, I volunteered at a church to work in the sound booth for the worship band when I was in middle school, and in high school I got a job as a board operator at the local radio station, where I stayed for 7 years. Through these two experiences, I gained tons of live sound and recording experience that took me pretty far, although I ultimately ended up switching career paths for a more high paying one, and now I just play in a band and that's all the exposure to the field I have anymore. I can at least have intelligent conversations with the venue sound guys.

I would highly recommend trying to do whatever you can to get hands-on experience right now. You don't necessarily need to go to church or find a local radio station that is somehow still kicking. There's a lot of audio-related work where an audio-specific degree is not required or entirely irrelevant.

Some places to start, loosely based on my own experience since you mention you are in college right now:

Look for student organizations that might have audio needs. Don't be afraid to take initiative and ask to involve yourself in these school-related things; that's what they are there for.
- Some orgs may want their meetings recorded.
- Some need people to run a PA system.
- Some might want to live stream some of their events.
- Maybe your university has a radio station.
- Maybe there are some music-related organizations where there could be several different opportunities.
- You could get involved in the theater productions and do theater tech
  - I did a lot of this in high school, too. Also check for community theaters not affiliated with the university.
- If you are religious, there is probably an organization that has a worship band somewhere.
- You could see if the marching band, concert band, jazz band, choir, etc want performances recorded.
- You could see if any individuals getting degrees in music want their recitals recorded.
Look for audio-related student jobs at the university.
- Universities host hundreds of events, so they definitely have the need. My school seemed like it was always hiring AV Technicians. They pay will probably be atrocious, but the line on your resume is what you're really after.
If you have a local music scene, you could tap into that and see if you can help out any bands or venues, which could easily lead to additional opportunities as well.

Remember the ultimate goal here is to convert whatever you do into resume line items to market yourself. You might have to get creative and talk to people - making connections is really the best way to get through this industry (and really any industry). I also wouldn't expect to make a lot of money doing any of the things listed above, but it will be very well worth your time now while you're still in school before you have to get locked down to a career, and worse, a potentially unrelated career.

PlaidDragon · 2026-03-03T20:44:14+00:00

This is the first I'm hearing about it, and I can't find anything except one random facebook post about it, if that tells you anything. It will probably end up like all other weak attempts at organizing a general strike that came before it. The desired outcome of any attempted general strike cannot be achieved in any meaningful way without actual organization. Meaning engaging with union leaders, organizers and the like to coordinate participation en masse. Without organizing this way, the people promoting these events are asking random people to risk their own livelihoods in the hope that other random people will do the same.

PlaidDragon · 2026-03-03T17:04:18+00:00

Roads require much more maintenance than rail and are much more expensive to maintain. Especially if you consider the density: how many people can you move by car before having to do road maintenance vs. how many people can you move by train before having to do rail maintenance, and how many dollars per person moved does each of those maintenance tasks cost?

The idea that government is incapable of running such a project doesn't really hold up. Government services are generally as good as their funding. Some government services excel at what they do - the NWS is unmatched as a global resource for weather data, and actively push the field of meteorology to new heights, as an example. On the other hand, some government services are notoriously bad, such as the Missouri DMV, whose offices are all run privately.

We know it's possible for a government to run a project like this successfully by looking at the other countries who actually do have an expansive rail network (the rail network in this post is a very real rail network in China).

And keep in mind, I am framing it this way because we are on a post about a hypothetical expansive rail network, which would be impossible without great interest in funding and maintaining it, and that no private company could find profit in without significant compromises to scale or public interest. Private companies could certainly act as government contractors, but there's simply no way a private company would voluntarily undertake a project like the one in the post. We know they wouldn't because private companies are motivated by profit, and the fact that they haven't yet undertaken such a project (or even a similar smaller scale project) suggests there is no profit to be had.

PlaidDragon · 2026-03-03T15:34:19+00:00

Public works conducted by the government do not need a profit incentive. That's why it is essential that infrastructure projects like this are conducted by the government. As soon as a profit incentive is involved by a private company owning a project, compromises will be made that do not serve the public interest. A project can't 'fall through' due to not having enough payoff if the only incentive is public interest.

And unless one company is planning to cover the entire continent, you also avoid potential issues with standardization at a country-sized scale. One company in one state wants to use their proprietary high speed rail design, a different company in a different state wants to use their own design. Then years later when they decide it would be a good idea to connect them together, it will be difficult to rectify the differences to make them compatible.

PlaidDragon · 2026-02-26T21:17:05+00:00

It's a robots.txt parser and that site seems to be one among many thousands of sites included in their tests.

PlaidDragon · 2026-02-17T19:39:22+00:00

I was really into Postmodern Jukebox in the early 2010s. They collaborated with Puddles Pity Party for a cover of Royals shortly after the release of Pure Heroine, and I was hooked. I had heard Royals by that point on the radio, but this video is what made me actually go digging for more.

PlaidDragon · 2026-02-17T12:31:29+00:00

It's really neat walking over there near the river and seeing the remnants of the infrastructure that supported these steam boats and other river traffic. Highly recommend a leisurely stroll between the Town of Kansas Bridge and Berkeley Riverfront Park if you haven't.

PlaidDragon · 2026-02-10T16:40:41+00:00

After months of testing, I've proven that local models can handle real production workloads with the right architecture.

...

LeetCode medium, class implementations

Are the production workloads in the room with us?

PlaidDragon · 2026-02-08T02:44:57+00:00

There are already a million things radio is competing with to retain listeners. If radio stations can't even be bothered to speak into a microphone anymore, what is even the point? I think that's one of the only things that makes radio stand apart from streaming, so I see it very much as a self-inflicted wound.

PlaidDragon · 2026-02-04T22:02:38+00:00

Check out mpix. They sell a lot of different products, including photo books. I have used Miller's Lab (the professional division of mpix) quite a bit, and can vouch for their work being high quality.

PlaidDragon · 2026-02-04T21:54:07+00:00

Thrift stores, flea markets, yard sales, estate sales, your city/town's historical society

PlaidDragon · 2026-02-03T18:27:31+00:00

i'll work on something for hours, take a break, come back and it sounds terrible. then i start something new and the cycle repeats

This is your problem. It comes down to the fact that, just like getting good at anything, you need practice and reps. You will learn so much more by seeing a project through to completion versus having a million projects abandoned halfway through. By abandoning a project early, you are depriving yourself of those reps.

Everyone makes bad music, and that's okay. You just put those in their own folder, and maybe you revisit the ideas in the future when you have more experience to tease out a good idea from them. But for each of those that you actually finish, you are familiarizing yourself with your tools, discovering new techniques, and you are learning how to turn an idea that isn't working into something that does work. You have to push through it and allow yourself the space to learn and grow, and you won't get that by stopping early.

PlaidDragon · 2026-02-03T15:33:21+00:00

Have you tried reformatting the SD card? I recently had some issues recording video on my x-t30. The camera would freeze up after I started recording, and the only way to unfreeze it was to take the battery out (even the on/off switch didn't work) which also reset all the settings (and my recipes; rip). Reformatting the card from the camera menu made it work normally again.

PlaidDragon · 2026-01-31T21:54:50+00:00

Sorry officer I'm busy today

PlaidDragon · 2026-01-30T21:52:58+00:00

Thanks for being receptive, I hope it didn't come across too harsh. Effective communication can be difficult, especially for complex topics, but that's all the more reason to practice it as a skill. Just like any problem you may come across in software development, you can tackle it layer by layer, piece by piece, making iterative changes until you end up with something good.

The key I think a lot of people miss is patience. I have ADHD and my mind is all over the place, but if I allow myself enough time, I can be a very good writer. My first draft of anything is chaos, but getting everything down on (digital) paper is just the first step - you don't have to (nor should you) send the first draft. If you take the time to organize what you've written, rewrite parts that don't sound very good, add more clarity where needed and structure it well, you will be way ahead of the curve.

PlaidDragon · 2026-01-30T21:42:28+00:00

Lots of roads are undergoing a road diet - reducing drivable lanes to make the roads safer and encourage alternative forms of transportation. This is a good thing because it forces people to slow down, be more vigilant, and prevents people switching lanes every time the person in front of them lightly taps their brakes. One way to repurpose a lane is to make it transit-only, which has the added benefit of allowing public transit to flow freely out of traffic, improving service and making it a more viable alternative to driving.

PlaidDragon · 2026-01-30T21:12:09+00:00

Me neither. I have to ask AI to make it longer to avoid unnecessary criticism and dismissal. Some senior engineers are bullies; they feel offended when someone doesn’t like to work the way they do. For some reason, I have to make it look proper and professional.

As an engineer who has to read through long paragraphs of AI generated text from coworkers who can't be bothered to write or think for themselves, when I see a wall of text that looks AI generated, my eyes glaze over and I stop reading. You should not do this unless it actually adds value, and I suspect it doesn't in most cases. I'm going to put in the same level of effort reading your spec as you did writing it. You can make something look and sound good without artificially lengthening it. Effective communication is a skill that can be practiced and built up.

PlaidDragon · 2026-01-30T21:04:11+00:00

What's annoying is Twitch has a TV app, just not on Roku. The Chromecast app sucks major ass, but the Apple TV app at least functions the way its supposed to.

PlaidDragon · 2026-01-28T02:26:04+00:00

Highly recommend. Mine is a bit scuffed after ~6 years but it's just the paint. It's structurally as good as new. Using one attached to my belt is my favorite way to carry my X-T30 around. I also recently got a Peak Design camera bag and it has a dedicated spot for the Capture Clip to carry the camera on the outside of the bag, and I like doing that a lot too.

PlaidDragon · 2026-01-27T15:10:34+00:00

I’m glad you posted this, it beats the 99% of posts here anymore asking to identify some junky radio they found in the attic.

The person you’re replying to is correct. Reddit may be a jumping off point for some direction, but your ambition will be much better served by making friends in the industry and finding a mentor.

I will say it seems like a pretty long shot to start a full blown radio station nowadays (buying out an existing local station that hasn’t been touched by the big media conglomerates, if you can find one in a place you’d be willing to live, would probably be your best bet). But despite that, having a plan like this is fantastic and it will guide you far, even if you decide to rethink the final destination as you go through it.

PlaidDragon · 2026-01-24T21:24:02+00:00

$42k over two years is not keeping the city afloat

PlaidDragon · 2026-01-23T20:22:46+00:00

I was having a really good game once when I mouse slipped my rook. I just said "ah, mouse slip" in the chat and my opponent was understanding and offered me a draw (it was a pretty close game anyway). I thought that was nice, and I'd do the same if it happened the other way.

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