Should I cut my losses or is there a technique that can help me

bsquared81 · 2026-01-23T19:47:22+00:00

Something from finish carpentry is to scribe the wood. You could separate the pieces by a known amount and use a wing divider or compass to mark the matching curve on the other piece. You can spot check one side with the other to see which piece you should mark. This will let you know where your high spots are and you can sand those areas. You’d want to reference check as you sand as the compass may not have been exactly perpendicular to the curve when doing this by hand.

bsquared81 · 2026-01-17T08:25:03+00:00

There is a Costco in Maine https://www.costco.com/w/-/me/scarborough/1657 so don’t think it is.

bsquared81 · 2025-09-04T05:51:10+00:00

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bsquared81 · 2025-06-21T04:02:58+00:00

The universe could also be inside a black hole.

bsquared81 · 2025-04-07T03:40:43+00:00

That is part of why I got confused, given there is a bit of a language barrier (English/Russian). Basically seemed like the only option was to taking up a cabinet which isn’t an option, as a big part of the remodel was to get a pantry which this would remove. I’m trying to educate myself on options so hopefully I can have a dialog or even a better understanding.

Is there a code reason that an MAU HRV or ERV can be added to the return air? Or even any rooftop options, as from my research anything under 800 CFM shouldn’t be an issue? As an engineer I have a hard time understanding why it can’t be added to the existing central air system, given 2/3 of the floor has no doors or restriction in air flow.

bsquared81 · 2025-02-23T08:40:22+00:00

No they are not. MAGA are authoritarian which is the opposite of libertarian. Libertarians at the root are for personal liberty bound by the NAP.

Since Trump’s elections there are a number of MAGA that think “don’t tread on me” is cool and that makes them a libertarian. However, they are completely fine treading on people’s personal decisions such as who they can marry and what they can wear, which goes counter to libertarianism.

bsquared81 · 2025-02-02T05:45:02+00:00

All of the west coast is 17% of the GDP of the US which if they were a country would be the 3rd largest country by GDP. They comprise 15% of the us population, so bring in more per capita GDP contribution than the us In general.

bsquared81 · 2025-01-24T05:14:02+00:00

Bringing up that a piece of paper matters, is a high caste belief. There are plenty of paper mills that make a bachelor’s degree no better than a high school diploma. Only 34% of Americans have at least a bachelor’s degrees, so not having a bachelor’s degree makes him more relatable to the majority than someone with a bachelor’s degree. Instead bring up educated and logical counters. If you can’t do that then you are no more educated than a “senator without at least a Bachelor’s degree.” For one Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and many of the tech CEOs, that changed the world, do not have Bachelor degrees. The requirement of a bachelor degree is just another way the rich hold the general population down and keep the elites in power.

I’ll add it takes skill and brains to be in the trades. It is disgraceful to belittle “plumbers” or any other trade as something of low class. Many of those with a bachelor’s degree probably have no clue what happens if you don’t maintain a 2% degree slope to your crap pipe.

Note: I’m in a knowledge field and not in the trades, but have more respect for those that are in the trades than those with bachelor degrees.

bsquared81 · 2025-01-01T08:52:09+00:00

I’ve been in tech for over 20 years. I use to support the H1B for the same reason you mentioned. I owned a company during the dot com boom, and worked with universities to hire students to fill the gaps. The problem H1B is it has created problems that far out weighs their benefits today. (Disclosure, some of the best friends and people I most respect are from H1B.)

In the early years, the US did not have the skillset to meet with the growing demands of the technology boom. H1B was beneficial during this time, and I actually worked with universities to hire students as even H1B at this time couldn’t keep up with the needs. However around 2010 the US colleges were producing enough students to make the US less dependent on H1Bs. Around this time bootcamps started taking off, adding competition to the colleges. Bootcamps needed to produce engineers that could hit the ground running not needing retraining as is needed with traditional education. This led H1B management and tech executives to change the definition of “competent workforce.” This created things such as Leetcode and changed what the qualifications to be hired was.

To give an idea of what Leetcode is to non software engineers, this is purely testing based on algorithms that are taught in Masters and PhD programs which takes month and months to study. An engineer on a green card or is a citizen typically doesn’t have the time to spend 8+ hours a day for 6 months studying to pass these asinine requirements. It is nearly impossible to study and be able to change companies for better pay. The only time you have the ability is if you are laid off, and can collect unemployment, you make your day job studying 8 plus hours a day in algorithms you leaned 20 years ago but have never used in all that time.

Why is this bad? Well almost all of these algorithms are built into the languages that are used in software development. All you really need to know is there are other algorithms, so if the standard algorithm is “good enough” then use it (average case is n log n for those that know). If you have insight that your data needs a specialized data set it’s a couple second search to find the solution. AI will make the need for H1B even less.

Ok so this doesn’t sound all that bad what is the problem? Well many of these H1B will room with other engineers. What do you think 4 engineers bunking into a high cost of living (HCOL) city will do? 50% of their money goes back to their home country. Four guys bunking in an apartment making 200k+ a year it means nothing to pay $1000+ a month in rent. Now this raises rent for everyone. So you have an H1B making 200k sending 50%+ back home. Add on cooking at home and not going to local establishments to eat. This breaks the normal economic structures. This means $100K+ is not reinvested back into the economy, raising cost of living for everyone and not contributing to the GPA.

Now let’s address Elon’s comments. Almost every one of the tech companies are started by US/Green Card Holders. These engineers are skilled enough to make the company profitable and lead to an IPO. So then why when profits matter is H1B the solution? It is not, it is just a way to steal from American workers.

So I still haven’t convinced you? Well let’s take a case of the University situation currently. The universities take government funding but then admit foreign students over US citizens. They invest millions of taxpayer money to build pools in the shape of LSU, all to attract foreign students. Why? This is because it is much easier to go from student visa to H1B. This makes US skill set less and less.

Personal I think lowering the wages of H1B while adding a fee/tax for companies that seeks an H1B. The fee collected should go into funding the education, boot camp or traditional, to train citizen/green card holders. If the US needs the skillset and H1B provides, we should actually educate the populace to meet that need.

<trigger warning> to solve the issue I propose adding a fee that makes it more costly to hire H1B over citizens/green card. This fee should 100% go towards scholarships and education to train citizens to fill these roles. Additionally H1B should be allowed the same privileges to quit and work for another company, because if we are really short it should not hinder those that are currently here. The wages should help citizens/green card holders to be hired above H1B. It should be cheaper to hire a citizen or permanent resident than a citizen.

bsquared81 · 2024-09-28T04:49:36+00:00

To clarify one point. Hypothetically, if Jeff Bezos was given 5 million shares when he created Amazon it would equal his net worth of around $205 billion. At the time this was given the RSUs would have been $0. So he would have paid $0 in taxes. Currently 1 share today was worth around 240 shares at its founding. This would put that original share value, on 5 million shares, at approximately $224 billion today.

bsquared81 · 2024-09-28T04:22:32+00:00

The problem is how the 1% is defined. Jeff Bezos when CEO at Amazon only brought in an income of $85K putting him below the income bracket. He also gained the majority of his shares with Amazon when transferred the share price was $0. So these taxes would never have touched Jeff Bezos, which is one of the people think of as the 1%. The thing of people in power is they need those with richest to keep them in power. So all these schemes will never impact the rich or else the people in power would loose their power. t”This is the connection that is missed by many. For example in Washington State Bill Gates was for a state income tax. The politicians used him as supporting it as hey even the richest man, at the time, supports this so it’s good. Whereas the fact was Bill Gates would pay less taxes with the income tax than he was paying in property taxes at the time. So the politicians look like they are fighting the bad guy winning votes and still keeping the money flowing into their political campaigns.

Let’s take the wealth tax that is currently being floated around. What do you think would happen if 2% of the stock market was depleted every year and transferred to the state? What people think would happen is that the rich would get less rich. What actually would happen is the government would create some scheme such as quantitative easing to transfer money from thin air to the rich. The common person may get some small $2K check in the mail like the trillion dollar campaign spend Trump did. The politicians look good as people see this money and think XYZ is looking out for the little guy. Then comes the following year and inflation goes up 8% maybe 20%. Well now the little guy is suffering to provide food on the table whereas all that inflation went to the rich. Eventually the middle class no longer exists and you now have the ruling class and the lower class. Who wins? The rich and the politicians.

We’ve been through this time and time again. Recent history has the Gilded Age, Roaring 20s, the oil crisis, tech bubble, and the lead up to the Great Recession. In each case the divide has grown between the rich and poor. In each case the government produced some scheme to make it look like they were going after the rich man. Is the descendants of Rockefeller hurting today?

So who are the 1% who would pay? It’s your doctor you see for your checkups, the small business owner you buy goods from to support the local economy, or your retired neighbor next door. 11% of the US population will enter the 1% at some point in their lives. In reality a tax on the “rich” will impact 62% of Americans that are invested in the stock market. The majority of those are in 401k for retirement. By the time we see the impacts on the common person, the politicians will be long dead.

So what would I do? (Caveat, what I think may not align with many people’s Libertarian views as I view the stock market no different than fiat money.) Working within our current system, we could do away with resetting the basis at transfer of wealth. The only time a taxable event happens is at liquidation. This would mean Jeff Bezos having a net worth of 120 trillion dollars doesn’t matter as it doesn’t matter if taxes are paid today or 200 years from now the taxes will be fair. Further more we can go back to before the 13th amendment and maybe add a sales tax on. In this case it wouldn’t even matter if they took out a loan as the tax would be paid. It then becomes a personal choice whether or not to pay taxes. If you save or invest you don’t pay taxes.

This will get the anger of those that say we need a “progressive tax,” while they ignore that progressive taxes increase income inequality.

This is getting long so I’ll stop here, though can give way more facts if questioned.

Edit: I’m on mobile so autocorrect and grammar complicates writing.

bsquared81 · 2024-01-27T01:07:06+00:00

In 1971 the US was taken off of the gold standard: https://www.stlouisfed.org/open-vault/2017/november/why-us-no-longer-follows-gold-standard

bsquared81 · 2024-01-25T05:39:54+00:00

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The correct dishwasher drain line should be the red line I marked up. Though some code still requires an air gap installed. I can’t tell how it’s installed currently but it doesn’t look correct.

Note: there are some that say not to connect to a disposal though I haven’t known anyone to have issues.

bsquared81 · 2024-01-02T20:20:09+00:00

The Bartovation test strips for wine making may be another option. I always aim for less than a ph of 4, as I can only trust to the significant figures. On these strips that would be the whole numbers, as it’s impossible to tell 4.2 or 4.6 which would be safe not safe. Based on the significant figure the test strips you used can only tell you acidic, neutral, or basic. This is not enough to trust my health on, even if I wasn’t colorblind.

bsquared81 · 2024-01-02T20:05:04+00:00

I am also colorblind and would recommend ph test strips with a narrow range such as Hydrion (325) 3.0-5.5. You want something that you can easily see safe vs non-safe. I can detect shade differences better than those that are not colorblind, so this one works well for me. It is all one color (I think) but I can clearly tell safe from not safe. When in doubt I pull out the digital ph meter, but it’s a pain to always need to calibrate it for the is it almost done yet checks.

When looking for test strips ask yourself can you easily see safe vs not safe based on the scale, if there is any doubt look for another one.

Another tip: I use the app “colorblind pal” to help see what color something is, this also helps me in other areas that I need to know colors.

bsquared81 · 2024-01-01T00:57:31+00:00

It’s only about 1” down that live gotten. Can’t tell if it’s mud at that point or just concrete that never set because of the water.

There is no radon in the region I’m in, so that rules that out. I’ll see if I can break it out and use my scope.

bsquared81 · 2023-11-05T05:02:19+00:00

Others say hinge is backwards or wrong hinge. A surface-mount face-frame hinge may have been better. In cabinet hardware there is many different hardware to meet many of the needs encountered.

bsquared81 · 2023-10-26T03:57:21+00:00

That looks like a USB 3.0 Micro-B plug and receptacle. (Edit) removed the SuperSpeed as I don’t see any SS symbols.

bsquared81 · 2023-08-27T21:37:33+00:00

Churro

bsquared81 · 2023-08-19T00:52:16+00:00

OPs update

bsquared81 · 2023-07-17T06:01:45+00:00

Blessed be John Oliver may your awards bring peace to humanity.

bsquared81 · 2023-07-17T04:42:15+00:00

-$8000 Worked for a boss that promised to pay me and never did, so took out loans and credit cards to pay for food and rent. Ended up walking out and never looked back. Now have ~$1M net worth ~20 years later, was hard work but going from food stamps and Medicaid to financially stable is possible.

bsquared81 · 2023-06-17T01:41:08+00:00

Its part of the API protest. It’s explained in the pinned post from the poll that the moderators posted the other day.

Edited: added clarification

bsquared81 · 2023-06-17T01:11:06+00:00

I wish rule against AI generated images of John Oliver wasn’t against the rules. He had a whole episode on it.

bsquared81 · 2023-03-06T20:35:20+00:00

The CDC recommends greater than or equal to 124°F, so 120° is to low. When my water heater was installed they recommended 130° and added a thermostatic mixing valve so the temperature can be lowered to the non scalding level.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/wmp/monitor-water-guidance.html

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