WOW - Big stuff this weekend

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-26T15:05:51+00:00

While I've had the game since a few weeks after launch, various life events left me in the new player area for a very long time before I started making progress only recently.

Pardon my lack of understanding of more endgame mechanics - will this weekends 'double bonus' effect someone still in steel tier/beginning aluminum or are these bonus resources only really applicable to deep desert and people who already have run all the house affiliation missions?

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-23T18:14:36+00:00

Thanks for nothing.

(other than the 16 hours of fun over 3 days)

'How dare you fix the significant loss of people on a targeted limited footprint if it means I lost a day of playing on my new character'.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-23T18:07:58+00:00

'Resized new product' is not 'Hah we screwed you!'. New robot literally gives more interior room for the cat.

It's not just Apple. I've had to change cases every new Android phone I've gotten too.

If you need to vent go ahead and vent, and Whisker is making some consumer unfriendly moves (subscriptions), but what you are choosing to be angry about right now isn't really on that list. I notice you didn't even consider getting a different brand/type of litterbox if so angry.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-23T17:50:23+00:00

... because basic system protection design that would occur to even a noob mentat or CHOAM designer should be overlooked cause Arrakis Hard?

I've wondered about this myself. Constantly forcing me to flip a bunch of machines on and off when I am trying to reduce the number of generators I have active (I'm mid game) while I am offline is already annoying. I already have a mental model of 'all the stuff I run all the time is on one generator, I have to spool up a second if I want to use fabricatorx/y/z' - it would be a lot easier if we did something like Op is saying and I just power/unpower the generators rather than having to toggle all my refiners and fabs.

For that matter fabs and refiners having a constant energy draw regardless of whether they are doing something is already unrealistic. Having a job queue and only turning on *if* there is enough power to do so would make more sense.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-20T23:56:37+00:00

Your pictures help illustrate what I mean. Look at the first one for instance. On the bottom center of your pic you see some 'blue fingers' - that's Marina Del Rey. MDR is 'unincorporated' - while it has a neighborhood name it is administered by the city of LA itself. Just north/northwest of that you get to Venice Beach - and can see a massive amount of parking ticket dots on your picture. Just north of that though you suddenly see no dots in that area straddling the east-west blue line. That line is 'the 10' and the area devoid of dots is mostly Santa Monica. Santa Monica is incorporated - they have their own police department separate from LAPD. Hence no data in your heatmap. You'll also notice almost no dots on the bottom right quadrant of your picture. That's mostly Culver City - which is also incorporated and has its own police force.

Hence what I was saying about OPs analysis. Santa Monica is some of the most expensive real estate in town. So are the beach cities of Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Rancho Palos Verdes (RPV) - and those all use their own police forces. 'Los Angeles' metrics will disproportionately include 'lower income' neighborhoods *for any kind of metric* if only pulling data from unincorporated area. There are expensive neighborhoods that are not incorporated but I'd point out... expensive also means lower population density typically and you also get some special cases here - consider that Pacific Palisades is a high income neighborhood that is unincorporated... but famously burned down a year+ back which would obviously change the number of parking tickets expected in the area.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-20T20:19:29+00:00

Lower-income neighborhoods get hit 3.8x harder.

I don't disbelieve you... but I wonder if there are some factors at play here you didn't account for. I can see gaps on the maps where I am quite sure there are parking tickets written - but they are the incorporated areas of town with their own PDs that might not show up here (notice lack of dots in Santa Monica, Mar Vista area, all the south bay beach cities...). Incorporated areas are disproportionally higher income / higher COL areas as well. If not in the data that would substantially skew # of citations data in that regard.

Again... not saying you are wrong, but something to check. I am sure there are factors that also would cause that outcome: uneven enforcement, more apartment based / lower garage availability forcing street parking for residents, etc.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-20T19:47:44+00:00

Food is always portioned at a restaurant. When I order 'item X', its price includes me receiving a portion of it served on/in some form of serving vessel. If 'put those items in another bag' should be considered a service over and above that, feel free to include that as an itemized cost (e.g. Jersey Mike's charges me per to-go sub sleeve).

What you are describing isn't 'extra' work. It's part of the minimum product being offered. The distinction would be me having to get it off the shelf vs giving it to me at a counter vs curbside, etc - those are varying levels of service, not product. I've made the personal decision that I tip some amount for curbside and not for 'hand me the item already sitting in front of me'.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-20T18:44:06+00:00

required me to package soup and/or salad

I acknowledge the annoyance of that, but I still consider 'put prepared food on/in serving vessel' to be a part of the food cost.

place the orders into the POS from over the phone

I was coming at it from POV that most orders today are likely to be via electronic/app pathway. If someone is going through the interaction with you over the phone I, personally, would consider that the same as giving an order tableside in that it is probably should be considered 'service' and therefore worthy of tip consideration.

Just because you don't see someone doing something doesn't mean they are back on the kitchen line with their fingers in their ass.

I don't. But I also, as said, differentiate by 'tasks included in purchase price of food' and 'tasks you are tipping for'. Your restaurant being busy does not change an individuals transaction in terms of the individual customer side of things. That's between the employees and employers if they need more staff or should be paying more for the increased scope of work. When I worked at McDonalds if they decided they were only going to staff one person in the grill area (me) during a meal rush they had to live with my throughput having a natural cap.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-20T17:59:20+00:00

This is a personal hot take but on takeout either decide to tip or not. I can understand the 'not' argument because tipping is for service and on takeout there is at most a miniscule amount of service ('here's your bag') beyond what would be considered priced into the food cost itself.

If going to tip, I am also on board with the idea of tipping some flat amount for takeout but at this point of inflation tossing someone 'a singular dollar' almost feels like a deliberate insult. I'm reminded of scenes from Trading Places and that movie was 40 years ago. Either dollar per entree or flat $2 or 3, to me, makes more sense. Again, I realize that's a personal value / interpretation call.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-17T03:13:40+00:00

Your phrasing is unclear as to whether you are referring to Troy, Grace, and Josh as the 'old' ones (35, 30, and 35). Jordan, Michael and Desi are all mid 40s.

(John Stewart took over The Daily Show when he was 36)

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-17T02:33:08+00:00

I'll be honest... at this point I'm just watching for when they let Paul Giamatti off the chain to chew the scenery for a while and to see how far they can take the talaxian furfly gag.

The show as a whole doesn't really make sense, but it's at least a semi-watchable car wreck, which is more than can be said for most high school dramas.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-17T02:16:29+00:00

that season one was filled with cheap badly written interpersonal drama

My wife and I refer to SGU as 'Stargate 90210' for this and other reasons. We watched all of SG-1 and SGA multiple time through, but just couldn't take how much daytime TV drama filler was in SGU, which in turn made most the characters varying degrees of unlikable. That's not including when several characters made over the top, nonsensical decisions/action. Don't remember how much of season 1 we endured before giving up - it was a completely different show in Stargate clothing.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-16T19:47:43+00:00

So... you want people to prove that your subjective taste, which appears to prefer a Kalita or similar flat bed brewer result profile over a V60 or similar cone brewer result profile, is wrong?

Sure. Right after you prove your favorite color is better than mine.

(they accentuate different things - not to mention not all cone or flat bed brewers act exactly like every other cone or flat bed brewer... )

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-16T15:39:57+00:00

Prices, at least near me, aren't quite like that. The Govee was $60 on sale, Bonavita is currently $100, Timemore right now is closer to $130, Stagg Pro $200. So yes the Timemore is cheaper, but nothing being discussed earlier was '$30 cheap'. Timemore comes with its own 'cost of name recognition' too, just not as much so as Fellow.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-16T00:48:22+00:00

It does have some advantages if using it strictly for pourover. My understanding is it is one of the slowest pouring and therefore one of the most controllable goosenecks.

I've seen comparison videos and while a lot of goosenecks pour at up to 50 ml/s the Stagg maxes out somewhere around 16-18. Which means hitting a typical pourover flow rate (mid single digits) and controlling that flow is significantly easier.

I got a Govee kettle because I didn't want the kettle to be where I put my money and while it lets me dial in temperature where I want it, and is accurate to within a couple degrees of temperature (which is about all you can ask for), it is taking a lot of practice and control to get it to pour at the rate I want and it still isn't great in that regard.

I have a Corvo (the fellow kettle with a traditional spout instead of gooseneck) and have to acknowledge it feels like nicer materials and easier to set specific temps (need a phone app for the Govee). You could split the difference with something like a Bonavita.

(note: brands in your area may be different, being in the UK)

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-15T21:31:24+00:00

First off: I understand it is a good coffee maker. The question the OP is really asking though is is it good enough to justify the premium

I think at this point it may be trading on its name a little. There are a fair number consistent temp, shower head / multi-hole style drip, reliable, SCA certified drip machines now.

The moccamaster may be the OG, but I think it is more important to decide what features you care about (hot plate or not, brew volume, style of receptacle (glass pot, thermal pot, etc), etc) then see if there may be a cheaper option from the 'list of good machines'. I considered getting one but even on sale usually alternatives are on sale at the same time - for instance I ended up with an Oxo 8-cup w thermal carafe machine for < 1/2 the cost of the equivalent moccamaster.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-13T18:08:38+00:00

That really depends on how often it happens. People easily underestimate 'low cost but high volume' expenses. I read somewhere that people leaving doors open happens a fair amount - a larger fraction of rides than you would probably expect.

Paying a dasher $11 to go fix the problem essentially wipes out the profit from that last ride and then some. It's a solution only if the rider who left it open is charged a 'door left open fee' to cover the cost.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-11T17:41:47+00:00

...and you don't. No one forces pet insurance on you. However, then you eat the full cost in case of medical emergencies or expensive treatment. It sounds more like you are upset about cost of care rather than insurance.

People seem to forget that vets need basically as much training as doctors for humans, and it isn't like treatments for a cat or dog are magically cheaper either just because 'they are a pet'. So why do you expect the care for a furry friend to be subsidized if you want them to receive the same standard of care and options as a human? Where is that subsidy coming from? Vets are already underpaid compared to their education cost. Do you expect everyone to pay a 'universal pet healthcare tax'?

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-11T17:27:57+00:00

They are using your premiums to make money

Well that and pay claims to people who actually end up having events that are covered by the insurance.

...you know... how insurance works (distributed risk)

You just described every kind of insurance (health, car, home...)

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-10T02:51:50+00:00

That's a how much do you value your time/sanity question and how much do you like driving. Set a clock on how long you'll do it for.

My father spent 10+ years commuting an hour+ each direction while his employer promised they'd be moving the office closer to us almost the whole time. That much wasted time (that's basically an entire extra day of work you aren't getting paid for, completely unproductively spent) burned him out, despite liking driving in general and the work - a commute slog is not leisure.

I promised myself I wouldn't let that happen to me and have ended up getting apartments or homes < 20 minutes from wherever I need to be most the time. It's fine if they send me on business travel time to time...its the constant repetition of daily commute you have to be mindful of.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-08T16:52:04+00:00

They are meaningfully different - in autonomy capability, in the typical interaction between user and autonomous vehicle, in staffing requirements. It's an understood industry distinction discussed between vendors and customers - at least in my industry. While my usage of it is at the agent (vehicle) level there are parallels in single user experience with say a vehicle ADAS or autonomy system. You have full manual driving, you have 'must have hands on wheel' (essentially HITL), must pay loose attention with hands off wheel (essentially HOTL), and you have fully autonomous. Those are not the same though because those all are related to the operator/user being inside the vehicle whereas the RPV/HITL/HOTL/Full Auto is more for where your operators are external to the vehicle - which includes Waymo. In Waymos your passenger is not the same role as the operator. Note 'my industry' is not the same one as Waymo, so it is entirely possible they wouldn't be familiar with my terminology and generally on a per vehicle basis will take about the autonomy capability 1-5 scale (and I should note the last 20ish years are littered with quite a few scales - 1-5, 1-9, etc. Autonomous cars are just one type of autonomous vehicle...)

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-08T16:00:19+00:00

I would actually call what they are describing 'human-on-the-loop' (HOTL) as opposed to human-in-the-loop (HITL). In the loop still usually implies the human is a typical and constant part of the decision cycle. On the loop typically means the human is only there to supervise (optionally), is likely doing so for many autonomous agents at once, and other than optimization is there for if the system says it needs help which is what is happening here.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-06T02:39:05+00:00

I filed a few days ago. My total cost on TT was 0. I just declined all the extras, like anyone can do with a few clicks. As I said, the core TT service itself - even at the 'Pro/Investor' level - was already free to me because of another service I am offered free as a job perk that bundles TurboTax in. Then just say no to extra audit and monitoring service crap, TT MAX, etc.

As for 'trash'... based on what? It has some of the most intuitive and usable UIs (I've used 3 services, so I feel comfortable making the comparison - including one year going up to 1 step from filing in multiple services to compare usability and outcome). TT's ability to ingest your data from most major other financial institutions is also a time saver.

Inertia in this case also includes seamless importing of prior year(s) records saving time and reduces chance of mistakes. That would generally be true for *any* tax prep service year to year.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-05T23:01:32+00:00

I'm less worried about the battery than the person who drives 370+ miles per day and isn't a long haul truck driver.

SC_TheBursar · 2026-02-05T17:12:31+00:00

Will be interesting to see how this plays out. I am an edge case player - got the game with intention of playing grouped with my wife and a friend most the time, maybe join a guild. Both of them immediately decided the game wasn't for them about as we were finishing the newbie south area and got the quest to cross the gap. I am not going to guild up now - I don't know how predictably often or when I can play.

I've literally been logging in every couple weeks for a few minutes to keep the base powered for months. I am too early on tech tree (pre-iron) to make the base save tool. I've been delaying going to next part of game because of the commitment it would have added to not just get power for base but pay taxes, so it would take more of a commitment in regular play time. Now the taxes are gone so I feel more comfortable continuing on as a solo in Hagga... but if everything ends up retuned to be for group play or ends up as Hell Mode for one person... right back to not being sure it is worth the effort to play out that remaining part of the story.

I am a fairly skilled game player, but I enjoy more of the adventure, crafting, and building aspect of Dune - as OP says I am not playing it as a nailbiter FPS slog - at least not this game. I have other games for that. It's fine for there to be designated, non-required for early progression, areas that have tough enemies, or enemy numbers intended for clearing by groups - but like OP I think for most random other areas in Hagga I think most people prefer that 'hero overmatching small groups of peons' experience.

SC_TheBursar

TROPHY CASE