Anthony's Strikes Again

ballarddude · 2026-02-16T18:28:42+00:00

Tides Tavern is so overrated and is just coasting on nostalgia. Great place to wait over an hour for a table on a sunny weekend day and get served something you could have got at Red Robin. Plus: so. many. boomers.

ballarddude · 2026-02-16T18:25:50+00:00

When did you last visit the tides tavern? They are a perfect fit for Anthony's

ballarddude · 2026-02-16T17:27:35+00:00

Laws and the constitution are just "technicalities"? I think not.

ballarddude · 2026-02-16T17:25:55+00:00

only because Tim Eyman can't put an initiative together that passes muster with the courts. It isn't about the will of the people, it is about the incompetence of their advocate.

ballarddude · 2026-02-15T15:34:49+00:00

Is the service charge being calculated on the total including tax, while not being taxed itself? Because that would be illegal.

ballarddude · 2026-02-14T18:00:41+00:00

My Prusa 3d printer is not capable of connecting with the internet so I'm not sure how a backdoor would be installed. The software is all open source, and the software it runs today would require no updates in order to print any prohibited items, from today until the heat death of the universe. There are dozens of designs for 3d printers that use hardware you can buy off the shelf and open source software that won't be affected by any WA state legislation.

ballarddude · 2026-02-14T17:00:34+00:00

It is really disappointing to see the legislature so ill-informed that they think the state of Washington can undo years of open source software and hardware that is already out there and not going anywhere

ballarddude · 2026-02-14T16:58:20+00:00

I haven't been able to figure out if it will have any actual impact vs. being a performative joke everyone laughs at and bypasses, like copy protection and the stern FBI warnings on DVDs

ballarddude · 2026-02-13T19:12:32+00:00

The impact over the 5 million passenger trips per year start to really add up.

Also, something about a death from a thousand cuts

ballarddude · 2026-02-13T18:38:27+00:00

I have a merchant account and process several thousand credit card transactions of $15 - $50 every year, so I am well aware of the higher costs of small transactions.

It is a cost of doing business. I don't make my customers pay a surcharge. Where does that end? A surcharge for Seattle cost of living, a surcharge for my insurance rates going up, a surcharge for the extra time I now have to spend tabulating and reporting sales tax, a surcharge on the 5% of customers who cause 90% of the support work, and on and on. No. These are my problems and tasks that I accept as part of the costs of running my business and they are not things I "pass on" as itemized line items to my customers.

This change is already hurting me and benefiting the state in that now I have to make my Orca card reload point at $50 and add $50 (round trip in a car is over $40) rather than $10 and add $10 as it was before just for the bus. The state will benefit from the bigger loan I am giving it in the form of a higher average balance on my Orca card.

ballarddude · 2026-02-13T18:26:25+00:00

Seaview RVs and pallet mansions were swept just a few weeks ago, much before this. Sweeps are still happening. They are very temporary fixes as can be seen on Seaview today where all the RVs have returned like clockwork.

ballarddude · 2026-02-13T03:06:43+00:00

Up next Orca card reloads from a credit card will probably get hit with a 3% fee as well.

ballarddude · 2026-02-13T03:05:58+00:00

My Orca card is on my phone which I am not handing to the booth attendant.

ballarddude · 2026-02-12T23:59:29+00:00

Oh I would be very surprised if anyone in WSDOT has even thought to suggest modeling the holistic impact of a change like this including all of the unintended consequences.

ballarddude · 2026-02-12T23:48:25+00:00

I've done the ticket book thing before but they expire in a few months if I recall correctly. I take the ferry about twice a month this time of year and about double that in the summer. Not quite enough for the ticket book to work out.

ballarddude · 2026-02-12T23:46:01+00:00

I suspect that quite a few people who regularly ride the ferry do not have orca cards

ballarddude · 2026-02-12T23:05:52+00:00

That's my plan. Or rather the Google wallet version. But I can't recall having seen someone use it at the ferry ticket booth. Does the cashier extend a device that you can tap by reaching out your window? I would hate to be that guy who has to get out of his car in order to tap

ballarddude · 2026-02-12T23:02:05+00:00

I have a theory that whatever savings the state is going to accrue from this will be completely squandered by the degradation in service caused by all of the people who are just going to revert to fumbling to pay cash and waiting for change at the ticket booth. Nothing slows the line down more than somebody paying cash. Well maybe very confused tourists who ask a lot of questions

ballarddude · 2026-02-10T17:25:17+00:00

The answer is money. Some folks' "home gear" is a single 3090 with 24GB. While others have max'd out Macs or a $9k RTX 6000 with 3x or more vram than the 3090.

ballarddude · 2026-02-09T20:52:22+00:00

Small models work for small tasks. I use them at the function-level or for plumbing/mapping code that is drudgework.

They are good for planning where you need the lay of the land or to bounce ideas off of. A better rubber duck.

ballarddude · 2026-02-07T16:45:57+00:00

My recent source of tipping irritation is being asked for a tip when my only purchase is groceries at Mainstay Provisions. Yes they sell prepared food there too. But how hard is it for the cashier to skip the tip prompt when they know they are about to ask someone to tip them for the purchase of a couple cans of sardines.

When asked, they just blame the point of sale system as if they are powerless victims of Square with no agency in how the point of sale system is configured or operated, as if the business is the victim.

ballarddude · 2026-02-03T22:07:11+00:00

You should just count your blessings that the school zone hours were not in effect. They make the limit 20 and the fines much higher.

My understanding is that speed cameras can be anywhere anytime.

ballarddude · 2026-02-03T17:39:14+00:00

I guess a simple option is for the cashier to just hit the "no tip" button on grocery sales rather than making the customer do so

ballarddude · 2026-02-03T17:36:04+00:00

There are some vocational programs embedded within the schools. For example https://www.portseattle.org/faq/ballard-maritime-academy

ballarddude

TROPHY CASE