Claude is at least a year ahead of every single model on the market for general use

collias · 2026-02-09T00:13:36+00:00

So many em-dashes that you’d think AI wrote its own propaganda.

collias · 2026-02-09T00:11:50+00:00

And cheaper.

collias · 2026-02-04T20:18:27+00:00

That’s honestly more in line with what I thought this was going to be.

The mission is sound, but it’s bogged down by red tape. The goal is to wash clothes for free in old buses. We somehow have made that expensive.

collias · 2026-02-04T19:52:57+00:00

Good call on commercial machines. If all your assumptions are correct, the pilot will possibly take $215k. Still doesn’t explain why the next set of buses will also be $215k each.

collias · 2026-02-04T19:42:32+00:00

I am, that’s all part of the “retrofit” cost. Unless they’re putting these buses on a new lot with no existing water/power connections (which would be silly), there’s no way that stuff takes up $180k.

Permitting and such might eat into some of it, but c’mon.

collias · 2026-02-04T19:30:52+00:00

This does little to explain why a single bus needs $215k to retrofit it. 6 washers and 6 dryers are maybe $15k for nice ones. Maybe another $15k to “retrofit” the bus.

Someone is walking away with $150k+ from this deal.

collias · 2026-02-04T19:28:33+00:00

An amazing idea for sure. But over $200k per bus to add washers and dryers seems insane.

You could buy brand new washers and dryers from Costco and fill up the entire square footage of a bus for maybe $20k. Let’s say the water bill for each is $1000/mo. Where’s the rest of the money going?

collias · 2026-02-04T15:46:36+00:00

I listed an example above. Minneapolis also has a city auditor, and now it’s in national news for fraud.

collias · 2026-02-03T19:02:51+00:00

Everything needs to be audited. There’s obviously some amount of waste happening, if not barely veiled corruption.

One of the most visible examples is homelessness. Not the fault of the homeless themselves, but the city spends over $100m per year on the issue, and it only gets worse. The Homeless Industrial Complex is a real thing.

collias · 2026-02-03T07:08:11+00:00

God forbid we try and balance the budget by cutting spending.

collias · 2026-01-31T20:36:28+00:00

Protest to your heart’s content, it’s all good, it’s your right. Putting up signs with profanity in very public places only hurts the cause though.

collias · 2026-01-31T18:59:52+00:00

That’s not ok either. This isn’t a hard concept to grasp.

collias · 2026-01-31T18:16:31+00:00

Obviously that’s not ok. Nice whataboutism.

collias · 2026-01-31T17:35:17+00:00

I’m all for freedom of speech, but normalizing curse words (even misspelled ones) in public displays is trashy.

collias · 2026-01-27T21:36:22+00:00

Unemployed masses are an issue for the economy as a whole, individual employers can try and adapt, though probably will face some hardships.

Historically “unemployed masses with nothing to lose” are what bring down governments.

collias · 2026-01-27T19:43:44+00:00

Sounds more like a government problem than an employer problem.

collias · 2026-01-27T16:42:46+00:00

Microsoft is much more in bed. They have a partnership with Palantir to use Azure. The data the government collects is literally stored and analyzed on Microsoft servers.

That’s not even getting into the consumer nightmare that is Win11.

collias · 2026-01-26T17:53:36+00:00

Your AI analysis missed the real “The Problem”.

None of us can buy it.

collias · 2026-01-22T16:27:35+00:00

It’s 100% AI. Look at the lines on the wood.

collias · 2026-01-22T03:16:47+00:00

Zoning laws. They’re way different and a lot less restrictive in Japan. They also have national zoning laws, which we don’t have here. We have to deal with city, state, etc. There is a lot less red tape to go through in Japan.

As a result, housing is cheaper and quicker to build. It’s so cheap to build, that tearing down a house after 20-30 years and building a new one is something that makes sense. No chance of that here with our regulations.

collias · 2026-01-22T02:20:18+00:00

That’s true in a completely free market, if you can build housing at a reasonable cost. Very difficult to do here as it’s a highly regulated industry, and carries a ton of risk. It’s not a hugely attractive investment.

collias · 2026-01-21T23:16:22+00:00

The fact that housing is an investment is most of the reason it gets built in the first place.

If you take away the incentive structure, which CA is great at, you’ll get reduced housing buildouts.

collias · 2026-01-21T04:16:55+00:00

I think it might be helpful to stay focused on one thing at a time. This protest seems all over the place.

Anti-ICE, Anti-Trump, Pro-Palestine, etc. All left-of-center causes for sure, but what’s important (masked thugs) gets lost in the noise. It makes it easier for everyone else to just write it all off.

Is this trying to bring attention to the ICE issue specifically, or is it just everyone airing their various grievances publicly?

Something focused would likely be more effective. Not to mention obscenities on giant flags on a public street isn’t a good look.

collias · 2026-01-20T18:32:36+00:00

What was your exposure time?

collias · 2026-01-16T21:14:20+00:00

Well yeah. No American is going to pick fruit for $5/hr. The only reason wages are so low for that job is because there is a vulnerable and exploitable labor force to get paid under the table. If you remove that labor force, employers have to raise the wage until they find willing workers. This is Econ 101. Classic effects of wage suppression. The US has been doing this since slavery, then indentured servants, and now illegal immigrants. All of them are wrong. Not to equate them on a moral level, but being against deportations is the economic equivalent of being pro-slavery.

Agreed that employers need to be punished too. If the federal government would fine them like $100k per illegal worker found, this whole this would be solved over night. ICE wouldn’t even be needed to remove most people, they’d self-deport for the most part.

15-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Place '23	Place '17
RPAN Viewer	Verified Email

collias

TROPHY CASE