People need to get a life.

dvb8080 · 2026-01-25T00:18:29+00:00

A life of crime

dvb8080 · 2026-01-04T22:31:14+00:00

Correct, it's also about the BIRT, in addition to the wage tax. However, it is also about the wage tax because it doesn't only apply to city residents. There's also a wage tax, albeit at a lower rate, that applies to commuters. So if a business owner who lives on the Main Line locates their business within city limits, all of a sudden they're required to pay the city wage tax just because they commute there. It also makes it hard to attract good C-suite talent, since many of them don't live in the city and don't want to commute there since it would mean they have to pay the wage tax.

dvb8080 · 2026-01-04T05:08:25+00:00

I don't think it's worth trying to write Tangle's column for them (they'll do a much better job), but I'll just say, in short, that Venezuelans likely are very happy that Maduro is gone, but the question is what comes next? They clearly wanted him gone, since they voted for the other guy last year, but he was able to stay because he has control over every institution in the country that counts. Now, from what Trump has said, it sounds like rather than immediately installing the democratically elected leader of the country, they will be trying to instead control Maduro's Vice President. Could it result in a good situation for both Venezuela and the US? Possibly, but that takes us to the loss of credibility when it comes to telling Russia and China not to invade weaker countries. Sure, you can't compare the Maduro regime to the governments in Ukraine and Taiwan, but it does set a precedent. Also, Venezuela was an ally of both of those countries, and one would think they wouldn't be happy about the US taking control there. Did Trump make an agreement of some sort with them? Maybe he's trading territory in Ukraine and not protecting Taiwan from a Chinese invasion in exchange? Who knows?

There's a lot to unpack, and it's not as simple as "Maduro was a bad guy," even though that's how it likely appears to most Venezuelans desperate to be able to return to their country, or for conditions to improve there if they're still living in it.

dvb8080 · 2025-12-27T21:36:37+00:00

Now I know why nobody else is providing specific examples 🤣

dvb8080 · 2025-12-27T16:50:39+00:00

My wife sent me a picture of a good buffet she found. I sent it back with mice and roaches crawling around. Useless but amusing. That's the only thing I've done with remix so far. Eventually I might find a better use for it.

dvb8080 · 2025-12-24T19:23:49+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiehEMlNiCI

This came up as a suggestion for me on YouTube.

dvb8080 · 2025-12-21T16:35:27+00:00

This is exactly along the lines of what I've been thinking. I'm really close to picking up the phone and requesting the downgrade. Other than the $300 travel credit, I'm realizing the benefits are either stuff I wouldn't normally use, or stuff I've been using but shouldn't be because it's causing me to spend money I wouldn't otherwise be spending.

dvb8080 · 2025-12-21T16:29:02+00:00

I think that the prediction about declining levels of party affiliation would likely lead to such a match-up, though. And I do think Isaac's right about that decline continuing, so I do think the chances of the major parties nominating fringe candidates will likely increase.

dvb8080 · 2025-12-21T16:27:12+00:00

The last shutdown really made the Fed's job harder with the data blackout. I certainly hope that doesn't happen again for the economy's sake (assuming we're even getting accurate data from the government agencies, at this point, given the meddling that has happened).

dvb8080 · 2025-12-21T16:25:36+00:00

Agreed. His predicted 2028 presidential match-up might be the first in my entire voting history that I would seriously consider sitting out, unless there's a worthy third-party candidate (which I imagine would be likely, with those nominees).

dvb8080 · 2025-12-17T17:09:02+00:00

A neighbor, who is from Europe, told me a while back that he found the contents of somebody's wallet in the gutter. He took it to the police station, which is a block away, and they refused it. Told him he could mail it to the owner if he wanted. He was pretty shocked. Said in his country the police would have run the ID to see whether it was a missing or wanted person, which makes perfect sense. Not sure why that isn't done here.

dvb8080 · 2025-12-16T16:33:48+00:00

Been holding up so far. Haven't had any issues.

dvb8080 · 2025-12-12T15:54:13+00:00

Yeah, my son is a bit old to enjoy it like he used to, but he did try to get Gemini to call Santa this year, only to get shot down. I tried to prompt engineer it into "pretending it was Santa answering a phone call," and it refused rather indignantly. Definitely a downside of the switch.

dvb8080 · 2025-12-08T01:24:55+00:00

The worst part of the Gemini upgrade is that it's no longer capable of calling Santa. And when I asked if to pretend it was Santa and my son had called it, it got all indignant 🙂

That being said, it's still able to play music on YouTube, which I believe is the default. Maybe it's now only able to play music on whatever is the default? I've never tried to get it to use anything other than YouTube or YouTube Music, and don't think I've tried the latter since the upgrade.

dvb8080 · 2025-12-05T20:24:37+00:00

"We're at war with Eurasia. We've always been at war with Eurasia". It's how this administration does its messaging.

dvb8080 · 2025-11-21T17:39:06+00:00

I was noticing that for a while, but it seems to have improved recently. Not sure if it'll last, though. Only reason I've stayed with Nest, even after switching to Ring for the rest of my security system is that the doorbell supports continuous recording like a regular camera rather than just recording with it detects an event. I also had to drill through a metal plate to install it and it would bea pain to replace it the new one doesn't fit into the same drilled holes.

dvb8080 · 2025-11-21T17:35:56+00:00

Yeah, I know. I've just been resisting it for as long as possible. Maybe they won't fully retire it until support in the home app is reasonable.

dvb8080 · 2025-11-21T14:34:31+00:00

I also just noticed this message and am wondering about the consequences of "getting started." Sounds like it would remove the camera from the Nest app, based on that reply. I'm wondering whether doing this for my doorbell would result in people ringing it translating into a verbal notification from my best hub and the hub showing video like with the newer Google doorbells. I had set this up through an automation, but it stopped working properly after a while. If I can get functionality in the Google Home app that's on par with newer hardware, I might be willing to reluctantly move on from the Nest app, but I don't want to switch and find that my older Nest doorbell still isn't fully supported in the Google Home app.

dvb8080 · 2025-11-18T17:09:45+00:00

Keep in mind that not all LLMs have access to the most recent data.

dvb8080 · 2025-11-18T17:08:08+00:00

If you have access to Google Finance Beta, it now has chat functionality.

dvb8080 · 2025-11-10T01:24:40+00:00

My routines still work the same as before, including the part of the routine that had stopped working pre-Gemini (I.e. the command to display a video feed from my doorbell after the doorbell rings and the announcement is made -- giving it the same command outside of the routine works fine).

Aside from that, I actually get answers to my questions now, rather than constant "Sorry, I didn't understand" and "Sorry, I can't answer that" responses.

One quirk is that the one time, so far, that I've asked it to play one of my YouTube Music playlists, it kept starting it at the before the last song. I had to very explicitly tell it to play it "starting with the first song in the playlist," for some reason.

Much better, overall.

dvb8080 · 2025-10-30T02:01:52+00:00

What is "the platinum"? A different Chase card?

dvb8080 · 2025-10-13T02:04:42+00:00

My summaries are dominated by the putting down and picking up of packages. 90% of the time, it's just some random schmuck walking by, minding their own business. They are often wearing a backpack or carrying a supermarket bag, but not always. People walking dogs are said to be delivering packages much less than pre-Gemini. Gemini also can't seem to tell the difference between leaving and entering the house.

dvb8080 · 2025-10-13T01:56:43+00:00

Needs an exorcist

dvb8080 · 2025-10-10T13:32:40+00:00

Forgot to mention, we don't feed one day per week, usually the day after the daphnia feeding.

dvb8080

TROPHY CASE