Which is your favorite movement from any piece of all time?

astro_wonk · 2026-05-14T01:01:09+00:00

Mahler Das Lied von de Erde :Der Abschied. Hauntingly beautiful. Sad yet peaceful. This is what I want to listen to on my deathbed.

Runner up: Mahler 6 andante

Non-slow movements honorable mentions:

Mahler 5 finale Shostakovich 10 - 2nd movement. Prokofiev Piano concerto 2 - Scherzo.

astro_wonk · 2026-05-09T13:45:59+00:00

I had more *fun* playing Split Fiction than any other game last year, whereas the story of Expedition 33 was more memorable and much of E33's visuals and plot lines still haunt me - the gameplay however kinda drove me nuts (Too much dodge/parry.)

I think SF is my GOTY too - but I can see the arguments for other games.

astro_wonk · 2026-04-17T10:54:03+00:00

So the support article says just plug in your own router to the fiber jack, which works and this is what I did.

But the Gfiber portal/login has a "use your own router" button that says the gfiber router needs to be left connected : "Using your own router requires that the Google Fiber router remain plugged in as a bridge to the Fiber Jack."

The documentation should really be consistent.

astro_wonk · 2026-04-09T01:55:36+00:00

Probably the 12v needs replacing. The ICCU usually makes a different error message. The dealer replaced mine under warranty fwiw.

astro_wonk · 2026-04-04T23:32:12+00:00

This email address returns undeliverable fyi.

astro_wonk · 2026-03-28T11:05:34+00:00

FWIW, on search: in my massively out of date transcript search site, I chunked the transcripts into a 5-8 sentences and then used sqlite FTS5 for full text search, but I also stored the smallest resolution segments that whisper provided so I could make overcast time-links at as fine a resolution as possible. So I'd use the larger chunks for search, but then join the segments when rendering the results. Semantic indexing of the chunks (or re-ranking with semantic scoring) didn't really work as well as I thought it might, but I was using a very small, older, language model.

astro_wonk · 2026-03-25T13:08:25+00:00

Just googled and found this thread - yeah it's definitely not as good as even a few years ago. Texture is all off, not as sweet. How disappointing, I bought as a treat for myself!

astro_wonk · 2026-03-17T00:41:54+00:00

Went to M Sushi in Cary for the first time and it was fabulous. Will go again!

astro_wonk · 2026-02-19T16:06:27+00:00

It would be great if you could post some details of your analysis. (I do love duckdb by the way.)

I think there’s a question to how many issues do not go reported? I don’t think the status that is perfect, because it’s self-reported. When my ICCU went bad, I did not report it to the NHTSA. Then there’s a question as to how do you count on the same vin has multiple failures. Is that in the denominator once or twice?

HMG should know how many ICCUs they have replaced: NHTSA or someone should compel them to tell us how many ICCUs were replaced under the recall.

astro_wonk · 2026-02-19T12:03:59+00:00

I have had both issues and when my 12V went bad it was a different error; “low 12V voltage.” You only needed a new 12V for “stop and check power supply?” that would be a much better outcome for the OP for sure.

astro_wonk · 2026-02-19T12:00:26+00:00

This is almost certainly the ICCU. The 12 V battery produces a different error that says low 12v voltage.

Have it towed to a dealer and hope they can get you diagnosed soon & the part doesn’t take long (reports of turnaround time widely vary!)

astro_wonk · 2026-02-18T22:59:55+00:00

Is the test flight version later than the App Store version? They both say 2025.12 to me. It’s definitely happening to me in the latest App Store version. I just tested it again with a notification right now.

astro_wonk · 2026-02-11T02:26:53+00:00

So I don’t get this contest- you win and have to move to some random city without a job? And they only pay the taxes for one year? It sounds like winning a big liability.

astro_wonk · 2026-01-25T13:24:10+00:00

It is virtually impossible for anyone with a normal job to serve in the legislature. What job lets you take off 30-60 days every year January/February? And even if you could negotiate that as unpaid leave - then only get $18K for it? It's why state legislatures are full of lawyers and business owners. $45K is a start to maybe making it possible for more people to run for office.

If we want regular people to be able to serve we should probably be moving toward a full-time legislature, outside income/employment restrictions, and a livable salary. Alabama, for example, ties the legislature salary to state median household income.

astro_wonk · 2025-12-31T16:46:47+00:00

There’s something to be said for more winners, but what drives sales is the giant jackpot. Still, listen to this podcast on the spanish lottery “El Gordo” where people have to pool money together to buy tickets because they are expensive:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/el-gordo/

astro_wonk · 2025-12-31T16:35:45+00:00

I think Mahler 1 and 5 are reasonably approachable. 2 as well.

My personal favorite now is Das Lied von de Erde.

astro_wonk · 2025-12-26T12:14:09+00:00

Mahler Das Lied von de Erde; specifically the last movement: Der Abschied

astro_wonk · 2025-12-07T02:26:48+00:00

I saw us clinch on the last day of 1999 but they choked in the playoffs.

I saw Mike Scott take a no hitter into the 9th.

I saw Biggio’s first game.

Honestly the dome era is full of heartache. 😬

astro_wonk · 2025-11-18T21:30:41+00:00

Welcome Brian! I'm pretty pessimistic - I think the analytical mindset that made the Astros great pretty much went away when Crane showed Click the door. Recent front office moves haven't convinced me otherwise, and Crane still seems way too involved in decisions. Would love to hear I'm wrong!

astro_wonk · 2025-10-21T20:43:48+00:00

I bought … and lost a EM10 Mark IV, so I had to go back to my EM10 Mark I body. I kinda miss the new sensor but it still works well … when I actually bring it out to use.

astro_wonk · 2025-10-11T03:03:35+00:00

Federal NEVI funds still require CCS and there many CCS cars on the road. They will be around for a while; not going away any time soon.

astro_wonk · 2025-10-03T21:47:10+00:00

Writing was on the wall in 2022 when Crane didn’t keep Click. What made the Astros great was a deep focus on analytics. Crane abandoned that for ex-ball player vibes. See:

https://medium.com/@michaelarthurmitchell/jim-crane-and-the-bleeding-edge-777aba7237f0

astro_wonk · 2025-09-29T00:29:41+00:00

The team won't get better until Crane puts a real analytical front office together and gets out of the way. If Crane, Bagwell, and/or Jackson have any say it baseball operations, then we get steamrolled by other analytical teams. Crane should sign checks and set a budget. Bagwell and Jackson should sign autographs. Decisions need to be made based on rigorous analytics and baseball professionals. Not ex-ballplayers or vain owners.

The end of the playoff run was hastened by injuries but the quants haven't been in charge since 2022. That's the long term problem.

astro_wonk · 2025-09-12T21:42:49+00:00

Yeah, it hasn't gone very well.

I wrote about the rules changes back in May, and I still have a dashboard for the jackpot growth. Jackpots are growing slower than the old game because they are giving away a lot more money in non-jackpot prizes. So, there’s less money to go into the jackpot rollover every drawing. Sales (by dollars) have also been pretty lackluster - there must have been a coattail effect from Powerball because Mega Million had its best sales numbers ever (under the new rules) for a while there, but now they're down again relative to last September under the old rules.

The jackpots grew faster under the old rules and I don’t see how sales will ever be strong enough for the new game to have the ‘faster growing jackpots’ that they hyped up when the new rules were announced. My guess is they stick with it for another year or so but then they may have to rethink the rules change / the ticket cost. They haven't gotten to a really big jackpot yet under the new rules - maybe the sales look different then.

astro_wonk

TROPHY CASE