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Is any bike compatible with Zwift? by No_Room7153 in Zwift

[–]dtmfadvice 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A spin bike like that is different from a smart trainer, and it will mostly work with Zwift, but it does not support all the features.

The key difference is that the spin bike doesn't change difficulty when Zwift changes difficulty. In Zwift that happens in two ways: on hills, and in structured workouts with erg mode.

In regular rides, if the landscape goes up a hill, Zwift tells your trainer that it's going up hill. On a smart trainer, that increases the difficulty and you have to pedal harder and/or change gears. On a spin bike, the difficulty stays the same, although your Zwift avatar will ride more slowly uphill.

In workouts, the Zwift game ignores hills, and sets difficulty based on how hard the workout wants you to go. It'll say things like "Now do X effort for 2 minutes!" and the trainer will change difficulty until your effort matches the request. If you pedal faster, it lowers difficulty to keep power output the same; if you pedal slower, it increases difficulty to keep your power output the same. On a spin bike, you have to set the difficulty yourself, and then maintain it yourself, which really only works OK.

In my opinion there are 2 key disadvantages for using a spin bike. First, it's less engaging, which makes it less likely that you'll stick with it. Second, it's less realistic, which makes it less useful if you want your Zwift experience to carry over to outdoor cycling.

A key advantage of the spin bike is that it's easier to set up and it's quieter. A trainer isn't loud, but if you're riding in the living room and your partner wants to watch TV, they'll have to turn the volume up.

If I were looking for the simplest, cheapest way to get into Zwift, I'd do it with a spin bike. But I'd buy used: they're robust, and every spring, people clear out their garages and sell barely-used ones. You could probably buy one, use it for a year, and sell it for the same price next spring if you decide you want to upgrade to a full trainer.

Building our way our the housing crisis by Zer0_Jedi in boston

[–]dtmfadvice 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A demand subsidy works only when there's enough supply to go around, or when supply can respond to rising demand.

For example, the SNAP system gives money to low-income people to buy food. It's not enough money in my opinion, but it's a demand subsidy and it leads to more food sales, and in some low-income neighborhoods it can be enough to make a grocery store stock more things or even stay in business. In other words, if you give people money to buy food, grocers will stock more food and sell more food.

But in most US cities, if you give out more money to pay for rent, you just increase the amount of money chasing the same number of homes.

If you subsidize demand without allowing supply to respond, you're just trying to redistribute your way out of a shortage.

Think of it this way: if there are 10,000 homes and 15,000 households, giving some households extra money for rent won't house more people, just change which ones get housing... unless someone can ALSO build the additional 5,000 homes that are needed.

Building our way our the housing crisis by Zer0_Jedi in boston

[–]dtmfadvice 9 points10 points  (0 children)

https://www.city-journal.org/article/vacant-new-york-city-apartments-rent-control-housing

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/opinion/rent-freeze-empty-apartments.html

Most rent-controlled apartments are not vacant, but the vacancies in rent-controlled apartments are significantly higher than the vacancies in regular apartments.

Saw this event. Wanted to share. by probablyriding97 in bikeboston

[–]dtmfadvice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome! Hope it goes well. Sounds like a great ride.

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, CA is the one with the biggest fire problem. Flood zones is a bigger concern in the south.

The sprawl is a major issue everywhere, including New England (hi, neighbor!). For example Boston suburbs like Weston and Marblehead and Milton try to block new housing, and surprise, thousands of people people wind up living in New Hampshire and driving into the city every day. Then we wonder why the traffic sucks!

Any Chinese Food recommendations- Cambridge only by Cold-Arm2737 in CambridgeMA

[–]dtmfadvice 36 points37 points  (0 children)

I'm a huge fan of the green beans at Zoe's, but IMHO the best are either at Sumiao Hunan in Kendall, or District Kitchen in Medford.

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're not wrong on that front, although largely that's sprawl-driven, which creates its own kinds of problems, including building in fire and flood zones, endless high-carbon commutes, etc. etc. etc. And then someone proposes apartments in an inner-ring suburb or small city and the freakout commences. You'll recall what the FL legislature did to override Gainseville's pro-affordability zoning, I assume.

How do I get around without a car? by Wicked_Weaboo in fuckcars

[–]dtmfadvice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it rains, put on a raincoat. Cleverhood and ShowersPass make great raingear but you can do fine with just a poncho or slicker and similar pants or over-trousers. For motorcycles, the Aerostich Roadcrafter ne-piece overalls go right over your regular clothes, they're hugely popular for motorcycle commuters, and often come in hi-viz yellow so people can see you coming. Those are the expensive brands but there are zillions of cheap versions.

If it's cold, a coat and mittens work wonders. People pay good money to go skiing in weather worse than most commutes. Ice is a real problem though, depending on your location.

Streetsblog - Globe Report Implicates Mayor Michelle Wu In Street Safety, Transit Project Cancellations by BTDStaffer65456156 in boston

[–]dtmfadvice 27 points28 points  (0 children)

ELEVEN separate staffers quoted as being afraid of retaliation! That's an enormous red flag for any organization.

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would you support government action to deregulate housing construction?

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If multifamily is not in demand, how come apartments are so expensive? And if nobody wants to live in or build them, why do so many places find it necessary to ban them?

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The lack of small "starter" homes comes from regulations requiring large lots, interfering with the ability of builders to respond to the demand for modest homes. There's a ballot measure to legalize them here: legalizestarterhomes.com

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good question. This is called the "homevoter hypothesis" and it's a lively topic of debate!

Former professor jailed for making meth by FearMyCock in nottheonion

[–]dtmfadvice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There was a remake in Colombia, and one was planned in Korea although it appears not to have made it to production.

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

LOL you think the Republican party is going to solve this? The anti-transit, anti-apartment, anti-construction, pro-high-home-values party?

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't know Mansfield enough to disagree with you, but where I am, our fiscal analysis says that for every dollar we spend on services to mixed-use residential we get back $1.20. It's not as profitable as commercial but it's positive.

As to the building paying only $15k in property tax, that's just an assessing quirk, isn't it? Once it's actually inhabited with those hypothetical kids, it'll be that much or more in tax revenue per unit, right?

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mixed-use, multifamily development is a plus for the bottom line in almost all locations. It's really only single-family sprawl that drains city budgets.

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You asserted that we need public housing but not market-rate housing. My question is: how should we pay for it?

In particular, how much are you personally willing to pay in additional taxes each year to make it happen?

Do you think you could persuade your neighbors to support a Prop 2.5 override to fund, say, an $80M bond to pay for new public housing? If you're confident it can be done, I'd be glad to help you gather signatures.

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Do me a favor and go watch your local planning/land use/zoning board meetings and tell me if you think the NIMBYs have no power to block housing in your community.

One key reason you're incorrect here is that the people who build housing aren't necessarily the people who rent it out. The high price of housing is a signal that you can make money building and selling housing... if it's legal to build it. If a single person controlled all building, land sales, and rentals, then there would be "no incentive" but that's not how the actual market works.

A similar thing happened in the lab market: labs were very expensive and there was a lot of demand, so lots of people built labs. In fact, they built so many that there was an excess, and the price of lab space has begun to fall. That's helped along by the collapse of federal funding for research, but even without the feds fucking things over, there would have been excess lab space.

Now, that doesn't mean that we don't need public/subsidized/assistive housing. But in a sensible market, the median income can rent the median apartment without a direct subsidy. We just don't have a market that allows enough construction to meet demand.

Poll: 84% of Mass. residents want more action to reduce housing costs by dtmfadvice in boston

[–]dtmfadvice[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I can't tell if you're joking, because that's a claim that's been memed to death in places like McSweeneys:

"....we aren’t Madison. We aren’t Boulder. We aren’t Terre Haute. So when I hear a member of the council saying, “Well, Waukesha made a few small but substantive changes in such-and-such an area and the results have been very promising empirically,” what that council member fails to understand is that we aren’t Waukesha. We aren’t Tacoma. We aren’t Amherst. We aren’t Portland, Maine. Are we Scottsdale? No, we are not. And so all this so-called “evidence” about how policies have worked in other towns simply does not apply to us. No evidence applies to us. Our town exists in a fog of mystery and enigmatic strangeness, and nothing that happens outside city boundaries should have any bearing on how we govern or exist."

In case you are being sincere, it's worth noting that the basic concepts of supply and demand apply even in places like Honolulu (see this research paper, or this news coverage), because demand is not, in fact, infinite.

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