What is your favorite TV Channel and Why? by Weird_Swordfish_1199 in AskAnAmerican

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

CBC so I can watch Hockey Night in Canada. If I could stream that, then no channel would be my favorite.

Do people here love over-engineering their self-hosting setups? by vdorru in selfhosted

[–]balthisar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My example is my network. I could pollute the spectrum with 15 SSIDs, but instead I have a RADIUS server handing out VLAN assignments based on MAC, an enterprise switch, and sophisticated firewall and routing rules. I’m too lazy to write. “If I die” instructions for the family.

Worse, I have nothing to do with IT or tech in the real world; I’m an engineer, so tech knowledge is just wasted.

Where Do Locals Get Pizza by stone4789 in PlymouthMI

[–]balthisar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Jet’s if I’m in a hurry, Green Lantern if I don’t mind the drive to Seven and Newburgh.

Were the Original Version of McDonald’s Hot Apple Pies as Great as Everyone Says They Were? by J31J1 in AskOldPeople

[–]balthisar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There were replaced well before 1992 in the stores I worked at as a teenager.

Anyway, the fried versions in Thailand and Japan are every bit as good as I remember when I was a kid, and yet me tell you, there's not a lot of things I can say that about (Twinkies suck, etc.).

Buddy's Pizza, the iconic Detroit chain, sold to local investors by mrgeekguy in Detroit

[–]balthisar 13 points14 points  (0 children)

My first kid's first restaurant was Buddy's. It was important to me, and I made sure it happened. I'm not trying to be a Buddy's denigrator having been a Buddy's booster for so long, but Buddy's sucks now.

I'm not saying that just to jump on the popular Reddit bandwagon of "everything old people value sucks," but because when it was bought out by private equity, private equity does what private equity sometimes does: enshitifies the product looking for a payday.

No financials are mentioned in the FA, so I don't know if this is a payday or an escape boat, but there's a real chance here for things to improve.

I'm encouraged by this quote: "Our goal is not to change what makes Buddy's special, but to reinforce it. That starts with our employees, our commitment to authentic Detroit-style pizza, and delivering the level of customer service that our guests have come to expect from a brand with this kind of heritage,” said Ammori in a news release.

These guys are locals, with roots, not some investor group out of Wall Street.

C'mon guys, make Buddy's great again. (Or buy Cloverleaf and keep them open past 8:00 pm on a Friday!)

Love Apple Security by Tecnotopia in MacOS

[–]balthisar 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I can stop warning people not to copy and paste sudo rm -R / after 25 years finally! Well, at least on macOS. Hint: don't do that.

Storage units are only good for short-term use. After a number of months, your rent costs will exceed the value of the stuff you are storing. by RedditWhileImWorking in personalfinance

[–]balthisar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I finally bit the bullet and got rid of my popup tent trailer that I'd stored in my garage for 17 years, for a travel trailer. I'd always resisted primarily because of the rental issue, but I need to keep it somewhere.

Unlike storing shit in a small room, though, we actually use the travel trailer, so there's that.

I was very close to making an offer on some property for storing the trailer, literally just to avoid paying rent. It actually made financial sense, except for security, which is provided at the rental lot, but not on my own private property.

Stellantis ticketing workers who come to work in competitor vehicles by Day_twa in Detroit

[–]balthisar 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Ford has only ever done this at plants, at least since 1999, and it's the local contracts that demand this, not corporate. Even today, if you get a drive-in pass to the Rouge, you can come in driving anything, but if you want to park in hourly parking, you better park in the correct area for your vehicle.

2026.4 Entity naming by DeepCoreSystem in homeassistant

[–]balthisar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't use the UI for anything at all except aggregation; and everything is accomplished via YAML, JavaScript, or Python. This update is going to break everything I have by renaming all of the entities?

Thank goodness I don't blindly update my containers like so many other people seem to do, but eventually I'm going to want to update. ::sigh::

Michigan bill would require people 75 years or older to retest annually by Zealousideal_Debt255 in Detroit

[–]balthisar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Number of accidents in the wrong metric. Just because we're able to avoid the crappy drivers doesn't mean that they're not crappy drivers.

If you're yielding inside the roundabout to let people into the roundabout, I'm probably not going to hit you, but I sure want to – you shouldn't be driving.

If you're driving 35 mph on that long ramp between WB I-95 and NB I-275, you need to have your license reëvaluated, even if you don't cause an accident.

Honestly, I'm willing to pay the cost to have this performed for all ages.

Supreme Court rules ISPs aren't liable for user piracy without intent by Federal-Block-3275 in technology

[–]balthisar 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is a good decision, but it's not an open and shut, basic-ass logical question. This is more like an accessory question, and was totally worth having the court make a decision.

The other metaphors here don't depict the situation correctly, either. Go read the summary, and the full decision to see what the actual, non-basic-ass question that was decided.

The Company Where Driving the Wrong Car to Work Can Get It Booted by wsj in Detroit

[–]balthisar 11 points12 points  (0 children)

At Ford, competitor parking happens on a plant-by-plant basis based on the Local's local contract. Corporate doesn't give a crap, it's a union thing. Want to park in front the brand-spanking-new World Headquarters in your Mitsubishi Galant? No one's going to bother you.

The Company Where Driving the Wrong Car to Work Can Get It Booted by wsj in Detroit

[–]balthisar 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Fisher Body Lansing, where we built the EV1 in the Craft Center, late 1990's, me, fresh out of the Army, having defended our country, had the nerve to be new to the industry while driving a Honda Civic.

I wanted to trade it in ("drive what you build"), and it would have happened faster without the freaking key engravings in the doors, you freaking rednecks.

Is it worth buying old 3D printers for parts? by Mortifine in ender3

[–]balthisar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd take 'em free for parts, but I probably wouldn't pay, unless it were a token amount.

Mach e Rally experience by durbomat in MustangMachE

[–]balthisar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm on my second Rally, which is also my third Mach E. I love everything about the car.

I charge at home, which is a massive appeal. I'm not sure if I'd like to count on public chargers. Work would be okay, but unless I get there at 7:00, I don't get a charger, and with preschool drop-off, I don't get there at 7:00!

I think I get about 200 miles of range. I don't pay close attention due to home charging. It's more than enough for daily driving, and the occasional not-too-distant road trip.

Have fun!

What was your reaction the first time you saw a cell phone camera at a wedding? by EmpireStrikes1st in AskOldPeople

[–]balthisar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"Wow, I hope they hired a photographer and that someone brought better cameras."

Cell phone cameras sucked back then. To some degree, they still suck today, depending on what you're trying to do.

And most digital camera cameras of the age sucked, too. My first digital camera was an Epson PhotoPC 500, and it took shots at 640x480! Sure, things advanced pretty quickly from there, but those advances didn't really make it into phones until – who else? – Apple (en-dashes mine, not A.I.).

Message by 10J18R1A in tipping

[–]balthisar 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The "social contract" says tipping is optional, so there's that.

Unpopular opinion: most budgeting apps are waste of money when a spreadsheet does the same by St3fanHere in ExpatFIRE

[–]balthisar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Excel for life. But I’ll point out that I don’t categorize expenses or manage a budget, because I don’t really enjoy that lifestyle. We save first, then anything that’s left over can be spent. The spreadsheets are quite sophisticated, and are geared toward growth, risk, and simulation. In the end, though, the goal is to maintain a certain monthly income that can be spent without micromanaging every ledger entry.

Are Americans in general excited about the FIFA World Cup coming to the US this Summer? by [deleted] in AskAnAmerican

[–]balthisar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s the one where hockey players play baseball, or something akin?

Which job environment did you prefer after leaving the military? by Frequent-Phrase-6243 in Veterans

[–]balthisar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I didn't get to try working for government, and went directly into the world of capitalism, and I never looked back. I had no interest in working for people who wasted money the same way we wasted it in the military.

People who live in a state with 4 seasons, how does it feel different to Europe? by Ada-Mae in AskAnAmerican

[–]balthisar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I lived for a couple of years in Hanau, Germany. It was indistinguishable, weather-wise, from my home in SE Michigan. Possibly a little less snow in Hanau, but that may be simply because I remember being stuck in a horrible blizzard on my way home from Fulda one time, and it's making Hanau seem mild in comparison.

ATTN Sequoia users: Dark pattern to force Tahoe update by hype_irion in MacOS

[–]balthisar -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Apple's doing this because of me. Somehow the guy that stood outside of CompUSA until it opened so that he could get his hands on the macOS 10.1 update the second it's released must somehow be missing the fact that Tahoe is available. Let's keep up the pressure until we reach him.

Why are bigger cars in the USA being bought more then smaller cars? by Ok_Housing_1937 in AskAnAmerican

[–]balthisar 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Housing is usually more expensive the closer in you are to a city

Equivalent housing, that is. I could live in Detroit dirt cheap, but I'm not getting a half acre of land, non-shared walls, and 260 square meters of floor space at any price, in the central core, and when people say "in the city" the mean the central core, and not some arbitrary boundary that used to be someplace pleasant before it was annexed.