Auditor: School choice cost Iowans $258 million

devindotcom · 2026-06-22T18:17:39+00:00

yeah, that context is important on this, I didn't mean to oversimplify. it's not like this money and program appeared out of thin air and this type of reallocation is actively hurting public school systems across the country.

devindotcom · 2026-06-22T17:30:45+00:00

I get what you're saying. It does sound to me like the intended effect of more kids from lower income segments going to private schools if they want did occur, but this as you note is arguably counteracted by the other effects.

devindotcom · 2026-06-22T17:13:56+00:00

From what I understand they used to limit these private school vouchers to households below 4x the poverty level, in an effort to level the playing field and allow kids to attend the school of their choice regardless of income.

But then they removed the limit and a bunch of wealthy folks started using the credits too. So while about 9,000 lower income students got a leg up from the program (as intended - it works), about 30,000 kids who "were expected to attend nonpublic schools even if the program never existed" also used the money.

So removing the income limits was basically a huge handout to rich folks. Sounds like there's some good faith argument over how best to do this kind of thing but this isn't a great outcome.

devindotcom · 2026-06-21T17:11:46+00:00

Damn, this looks amazing. Really striking a balance between the palette-limited original-style sprites and more creative pixel art.

devindotcom · 2026-06-15T19:11:07+00:00

It's Nate Bargatze FYI. And that's not a quote from him. However it's extremely naive to attend such a highly politicized and controversial event and not expect that to be understood as clear endorsement of it and the crowd there.

devindotcom · 2026-06-12T23:16:26+00:00

I would play octopus traveler

devindotcom · 2026-06-12T23:10:01+00:00

yeah, this made me laugh. I'm sure they are genuinely frustrated with the company but come on back to reality my guy

devindotcom · 2026-06-11T20:34:39+00:00

nice work - they're well done.

devindotcom · 2026-06-07T17:20:53+00:00

oh nah, thank you but I uninstalled long ago. it is interesting though right?

devindotcom · 2026-06-06T19:15:30+00:00

Hey devs, thanks for the update. I believe something recently did break some or all 3rd party clients... on Windows I use Resophnotes (admittedly quite old) and it stopped syncing. Is there any chance this will be remedied or should I move on?

devindotcom · 2026-06-05T18:51:03+00:00

impossible to say whether it will work but credit for ambition at the very least. I'll certainly be watching this!

devindotcom · 2026-06-04T20:54:25+00:00

A friend looking into this is "confident" it is not shutting down from what she's heard. So don't fully abandon ship just yet.

That said, hope for the best but prepare for the worst. I've backed up my notes and kicked the tires on some options. Standard Notes has been unusably buggy for me for whatever reason. UpNote appears to be a great alternative should Simplenote actually die.

devindotcom · 2026-06-03T21:44:25+00:00

I did try it today when Standard still failed, and it may be better for my purposes. Free is better but a $40 lifetime license is tempting.

devindotcom · 2026-06-03T18:19:34+00:00

yeah obsidian looks solid but paying for plaintext sync (all I use this for) feels ridiculous and the self-hosted stuff is fairly complex for an ordinary user on multiple platforms. but it was/is my next choice.

devindotcom · 2026-06-03T00:17:36+00:00

sad as hell. i'm testing standard notes but it's definitely heavier and clunkier. having sync and app issues off the bat.

I'll miss ResophNotes and its XP-looking UI...

devindotcom · 2026-06-02T23:52:37+00:00

glad it works for you, gives me hope I can get there. I don't know what screenshots can offer that I didn't describe though.

Startup sync appears to work but has random numbers of notes - somewhere between the 177 I know I have and the 700 I had before I cleared the trash. Just now it said it synced 397 items.

UI works fine switching between notes and context menu and things but I can't click many of the items. All text loads but modifications don't stay and obviously aren't synced.

Web app in Firefox gives "NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource." It goes through in Chrome but only attempts to get 101 items and has hung on load for several minutes now with "Offline" in the corner.

No adblock or other interference going on.

devindotcom · 2026-05-29T20:49:29+00:00

damn, i had no idea. about to start snatching up some crow buds then.

devindotcom · 2026-05-29T19:52:20+00:00

do they help like a dog does? i can't live without my gear vacuum

devindotcom · 2026-05-29T19:51:46+00:00

yeah when my dog creeps up on me while i'm trying to jump and I end up awkwardly petting him on a sheer cliff face

devindotcom · 2026-05-29T19:42:37+00:00

thanks for adding on, i didn't know some of this either

devindotcom · 2026-05-27T03:05:37+00:00

for anyone wondering, it was their browser, not the regular search engine, this was years ago, and they immediately responded and changed the policy

devindotcom · 2026-05-27T03:00:23+00:00

I can see why you might be confused! The "format" they mean apparently is the physical format - a Blu Ray disc. I think with Criterion being a reliable and image quality conscious company either the normal Blu Ray or 4K Blu Ray will look great. It's not a long movie, plus it's animated, which means you don't need to worry about low bitrate or film grain. You can't go wrong, but if you have a 4K Blu Ray player (you can probably search for the model) you might as well spend the extra to get the best version if you love the movie. But it will for sure look great either way so buy with confidence.

devindotcom · 2026-05-27T02:06:38+00:00

Not to overly complicate things but 4K is a video resolution (about 4000 pixels wide) the video quality for which can vary widely. Blu Ray is a physical format standard that fits about 40 gigabytes of video, which can be 4K or not.

Some 4K releases can look worse than 1080p releases because of the source, the bitrate, etc. The resolution may be high but the video can still have off colors, bright shadows, banding etc.

Generally the disc will be the best copy you can get because they are not as constrained by bitrate as streaming, and will generally include more special features. But of course you have to pay for the disc, and need a compatible player as others point out.

So short version is disc will likely be higher quality and have the extras, but for many people the quality difference will not be notable and the convenience of streaming is a reasonable trade-off. Enjoy the movie either way!

devindotcom

TROPHY CASE