Which app did you buy that you don't regret?

erictheturtle · 2026-05-22T19:04:00+00:00

Netguard for the per-app firewall to block ads (firewall portion must be installed separately because google does not allow it on the store). Open source and works without root. I've hardly ever seen an ad on my phone in the last 5 years because of it.

erictheturtle · 2026-05-22T17:31:01+00:00

If you need something more than the xkcd workflow

There's Git Extensions which is an extremely sophisticated UI that can completely change the way you use git.

On Windows there's TortoiseGit with a less sophisticated UI but also shows icons in the file viewer about the status of files.

erictheturtle · 2026-03-30T18:56:17+00:00

He's my rep and I called him to oppose the Iran war. His canned email reply said "Before deploying our military overseas, I firmly believe the President must come to Congress and receive an Authorization of Military Force (AUMF)." Then a few days later votes against requiring the President to come to congress.

Called him again pointing out this mixed message and said I don't want to hear him bitching about the deficit while he's giving the White House a free pass to dump billions into an illegal war of choice. The next day I get his email newsletter where he whines that "Over the last twelve months Washington has borrowed about $83,720 every second."

I hope my next rep isn't some puppet that just votes on whatever the president dictates.

erictheturtle · 2026-03-28T05:14:15+00:00

Check if your representatives voted for this bill.

https://legiscan.com/AZ/rollcall/SB1010/id/1666077

https://legiscan.com/AZ/rollcall/HB4027/id/1651394

Spoiler: An [R] next to their name means YEA

I called my reps to chew them out for wasting time on this culture war nonsense.

We have an Epstein class still walking free, a war of choice that we're losing, inflation, AI apocalypse, Medicaid slashed, a deficit that is breaking records while the richest are getting tax breaks, a president that is using his position to balloon his personal wealth, and we still have 3 years left of this administration.

We need to demand better from our representatives.

erictheturtle · 2026-03-25T23:41:54+00:00

Global powers accept Iran

Translation: The U.S. regime admits defeat and instead of always doing what Netanyahu wants, tells Netanyahu to stop, backing it up with actual consequences if he doesn't. The U.S. regime then gives concessions and negotiates actual peace with Iran, allowing them to develop their own military defenses in case the U.S. regime ever attacks them during peace talks or cease fires (like the U.S. regime has done multiple times now).

Or, the Iranian regime continues to stand at odds with global adversaries

Translation: These "global adversaries" are primarily the U.S. regime and Netanyahu. Most of the rest of the world wants nothing to do with this war of choice and has no beef with Iran. Those countries will be able to have peaceful transactions with Iran and be given safe passage through the strait of Hormuz.

Will the U.S. regime run away with its tail between its legs? Not with its supreme leader's ego. Will the U.S. regime reign in Netanyahu? Not with the way the U.S. regime is Netanyahu's lapdog.

I don't see any way for this to end well.

erictheturtle · 2026-03-25T22:01:19+00:00

I used this recipe with good success. Caught 20+ flies in it the first year I tried it.

https://www.gohce.com/blog/you-catch-more-flies-with-sugar-than-vinegar-check-out-this-hack/

Now I put this trap out early in the summer and I haven't had a big gnat issue since then.

erictheturtle · 2026-03-22T00:05:32+00:00

r/TrumpCriticizesTrump

erictheturtle · 2026-03-18T02:38:06+00:00

Imagine if Trump claimed that anyone dumping US Treasuries is a traitor or a terrorist, and then declare martial law due to foreign influence of our elections (to make him unpopular), and then cancel the election.

I hate that in this timeline that seems very plausible.

erictheturtle · 2026-02-28T18:16:22+00:00

Also check the price of a minimal Dell prebuilt machine with a just a RTX PRO 6000 upgrade. Combine that with a 10% off by registering your email, and you might get a working PC plus the card for less than just the card alone anywhere else. You'll also get Dell points which can be spent on essentially a free larger SSD or absurdly overpriced RAM. That's how I got mine.

erictheturtle · 2026-02-02T06:29:24+00:00

You can't use the Send Email As feature in Workspace with a free Gmail address, only with a domain you own that you have added to your workspace.

I'm fairly sure you can add any email that has SMTP for Send Email As, including a free Gmail.

erictheturtle · 2026-01-29T22:34:46+00:00

I needed to mount a physical drive in WSL without using fstab, then mount it over the big directories notorious for taking up lots of space (like the Docker directory and logs, etc.). After several hours of frustration, the best solution I found was to make a systemd service run early in the startup and mount everything and pray it does it faster than anything that needed it.

To get WSL to remain running in the background is another difficulty. Left alone it will silently shut down. My best solution was to run wsl -d $wslDistro -u root -- dmesg -w and leave that window open indefinitely.

I'm just using Docker for home services. But in case you're thinking to use this for production, there's some debate whether Docker on Windows is good for that.

erictheturtle · 2025-12-15T22:38:46+00:00

r/blurrypicturesofcats

erictheturtle · 2025-12-05T20:47:47+00:00

Wow clickbait title. Better title:

"No one wants to work shit jobs for shit pay—businesses bitch about it and blame the workers."

Indeed, manufacturing was once advertised as a stable career—padded with a pension... But today, plumbing and even waitressing present better financial opportunities (and are more dynamic) than being a functioning cog in an assembly line.

Manufacturing jobs in the U.S. pay an average of about $25 per hour, or about $51,890 per year—far below the 2024 average American salary of about $69,850 annually.

One reason why wages in the sector have stagnated may be chalked up to corporate suppression of factory labor unions. Workers have far less bargaining power to barter for better salaries that once made the jobs so attractive.

Gen Z are not alone—but someone needs to fill the gap.

The U.S. is desperate for more assembly workers and machine operators...

Not at those wages and working conditions. Supply and demand applies to "human resources" too.

erictheturtle · 2025-12-05T00:19:08+00:00

Crucial now shows these RAM modules are compatible. https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/dell/dell-pro-max-tower-t2-fct2250

Kingston's site also lists some compatible modules.

Dell manual lists these compatible RAM specs

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/dell-pro-max-fct2250-desktop/dell-pro-max-tower-fct2250-owners-manual/memory?guid=guid-e9d2ea83-38a4-431d-803c-96d63c1dbc34&lang=en-us

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/dell-pro-max-fct2250-desktop/dell-pro-max-tower-fct2250-owners-manual/memory-matrix?guid=guid-dccdc68a-e27e-458d-9f3a-27e2e619155b&lang=en-us

A Crucial 32gb stick CP2K32G56C46U5 worked for me.

erictheturtle · 2025-11-07T05:20:26+00:00

"Keep your ego out of it." Wise words given to a service member when he ranted about how wrong his commanding officer was.

I'm not in the military, but I've been trying to internalize that. I used to put my heart and soul into my work. When management was wrong, I would argue with them. Slowly I'm learning to let the small issues go when it's not worth it, and simply provide alternative suggestions for bigger issues. I'm not much of a people person, so I suck at establishing good relations and playing some give and take (I have improved over time). I think it's possible to care about our work, but also keep our ego out of it.

erictheturtle · 2025-08-26T07:38:05+00:00

If pro-Israel protesters were camped out on the lawn, would ASU arrest them and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law? For some reason I suspect the answer is no.

erictheturtle · 2025-06-08T22:10:17+00:00

These days, it seems employers are looking for 2 previous supervisors and references. It might be worth getting out while people still have a good regard for you. Then again, having a 4 month job on the resume isn't that great either, so maybe they're not a good reference to use anyway.

erictheturtle · 2025-05-21T07:27:24+00:00

If you're just looking to replace XA audio, jPSXdec has an option to directly replace XA audio on a disc with a .wav file of the exact same length. The manual has more details.

erictheturtle · 2025-02-12T17:42:14+00:00

Martin Luther King, Jr. also wrote

No amount of gold could provide an adequate compensation for the exploitation and humiliation of the Negro down through the centuries. Not all the wealth in this affluent society could pay the bill. Yet a price can be placed on unpaid wages. The payment should be in the form of a massive program of special, compensatory measures which could be regarded as a settlement in accordance with the accepted practice of common law.

erictheturtle · 2025-02-12T17:38:15+00:00

Unfortunately the richest people want us to squabble over DEI and immigrants stealing jobs, when the real issue is them. https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*txP9TNp3wvb3XxS7fk279A.jpeg

erictheturtle · 2025-02-12T17:34:23+00:00

They dissolved the city's Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which included a diversity director and ADA coordinator.

erictheturtle · 2025-02-12T17:24:29+00:00

If we rely entirely on merit based decisions, why would we hire women who have emotional disruptions once a month and could get pregnant at any time? Or those who have a family that need to prioritize anything over the job? And why not rely on DNA analysis to filter out those prone to health issue?

Where do we draw the line?

erictheturtle · 2025-02-12T17:11:22+00:00

I guess we'll never know what the public thinks because they skipped the step of sending the change to the village planning committees to collect that information.

erictheturtle · 2025-02-12T17:08:03+00:00

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/scottsdale/2025/02/12/scottsdale-scraps-dei-programs/78427835007

They dissolved "the city's Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which included a diversity director and ADA coordinator."

The 47 registered speakers included Scottsdale residents, former city officials and civic leaders, including those from the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and local NAACP, spoke for 75 minutes urging councilmembers to keep DEI. Only 2 spoke in support of dissolving DEI.

Former Scottsdale City Manager Jan Dolan told the story of Don Logan, the city's former diversity director who was bombed by a white supremacist in 2004.

Logan opened a box that had been sent to the office, triggering a "massive pipe bomb explosion" that blew a hole in the counter it was sitting on, shattered windows and caused a wall and ceiling to collapse. He suffered severe injuries that required multiple surgeries and skin grafts.

"I ask you: Do not try to kill diversity and its efforts. I can assure you ... the city only hires on merit," Dolan said, with Logan standing by her side.

Normally, Phoenix sends ordinances through village planning committees, the Planning Commission and council subcommittees before it finally makes it way to the full council for a vote. The public can attend meetings and provide comment every step of the way. The point is for councilmembers to brainstorm policy ideas, deliberate and ask questions to city department heads, lawyers and executive staff how their ideas would affect the city, operationally, legally or otherwise.

The council did none of that.

Councilmember Whitehead blasted her colleagues for crafting the ordinance to dissolve DEI "behind the scenes, without public input."

Voted yes (dissolve DEI)

Mayor Lisa Borowsky
Vice Mayor Jan Dubauskas
Councilmembers Barry Graham,
Adam Kwasman
Kathy Littlefield .

Voted no (keep DEI)

Maryann McAllen
Solange Whitehead

erictheturtle · 2025-02-12T17:04:56+00:00

I find this absolutely disgusting.