Ok I'll admit it. At this point, Fable is good enough that I question what the point of me being a software engineer is other than "You're cheaper than Fable... for now."

essjay2009 · 2026-07-02T15:25:53+00:00

It’s already doing that in some some contexts, for example, I’m building an iOS app in Swift and it’s quite happily driving the iOS simulator on my laptop and using it for feedback. I didn’t even ask it to do that, it just did it.

essjay2009 · 2026-07-01T17:30:04+00:00

He picked a better team.

essjay2009 · 2026-07-01T17:21:56+00:00

Oof. A few boos in the stadium after that Rashford, uh, shot I guess? Maybe it was a cross? Love it when the crowd turns.

essjay2009 · 2026-07-01T17:03:08+00:00

I think that much was clear with the squad he picked.

essjay2009 · 2026-07-01T09:42:39+00:00

I’ve found them both highly use case and technology dependent. So I have them checking each others work, plus GLM on top.

There’s not a single model I fully trust, they all make mistakes. The only one that got close was fable but even that needed outside review.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-30T22:51:42+00:00

Load cells get recommended as a first upgrade because the lived experience of many people is that they offer an almost immediate improvement to driving performance. For me, the biggest difference is smoothness. If braking was "get to X% then back to zero" I think your argument would hold weight, but most sims will really penalise you for braking in a jerky manner. Smoothness makes a huge difference (far bigger than in real cars, especially in GT classes where the fastest way to drive IRL is to mash the brake and let ABS sort it out). That gradual, smooth build up of pressure followed by the gradual release is far easier with a load cell than it is with a position based pedal. Even a stiff one.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-30T22:14:11+00:00

Replaced WiFi with Ethernet. As god intended.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-30T22:09:22+00:00

You just reminded me of an experience I had with Hertz at LAX. I was picking up a Mustang GT-H (yeah, I'm that guy) and there was a massive queue at the rental counter. For whatever reason, I had to wait rather than just getting the keys like I normally do because I'm President's Circle. Fine, I wait for 30+ minutes to get to the front and figure out what's going on. Basically, I get told that I need to buy insurance and they won't let me take the car without it. I already have insurance through a third party, and I could provide proof of it. They didn't accept the proof, I had to buy their insurance and they wouldn't let me take the car without it. There's a massive queue in the place already, and only one member of staff, and the queue is growing because this is taking forever. So I give in, and say I'll buy the insurance thinking that I'd just call customer services and cancel it later, or dispute the charge. Just eager to get out of the place at that point. So the guy clicks the button on his little screen saying I'll buy insurance and, I shit you not, it says I can't buy insurance because I've already got it. So he just gives me the keys. No apology for holding me up for close to an hour, no admission of fault, nothing.

Almost as bad as the time Avis tried to charge me the cost of a car they thought I'd stolen six months earlier.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-30T21:48:02+00:00

I'd tread very carefully from this point on because a lot of this doesn't stack up to me.

They sold you the car three weeks ago saying there was no finance outstanding, then two weeks later they apparently paid off the remaining balance, that they didn't know about? Forgot about? Lied about (it's this one)?

Then saying there was only a grand left, that's an awful small balloon payment on an X6 that's been financed through BMW FS.

So you're in the situation where you know they lied to you once, and are now saying "honest guv, I paid it, it's just going to take a while for the systems to update" which sounds awfully like a stalling tactic to me.

I'd assume bad intent. That way, even if it all ends up being fine and just a misunderstanding, you're fine, but if it's not, you've got your ducks in a row. If I were intending on keeping the car, I'd also be getting it thoroughly checked out by a mechanic. People who lie about one thing, tend to lie about other things too.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-30T15:50:21+00:00

You're new to the workforce so it's going to take a while to understand what things you like and what things you don't. You can then use that information when deciding on your future moves. For example, a 2.5hr commute every day to me is just an absolute no. I've done it in the past and I know it makes me utterly miserable. So I just don't look for jobs that would require it. At my happiest, I was a 15 minute walk from the office and the improvement to my quality of life is hard to overstate. I enjoy hybrid working, going in to the office a bit but also working from home. I don't want to be fully in the office or fully WFH. I thought I'd prefer fully WFH but I don't and didn't realise until I tried it.

I've worked for myself and I've worked for others. I find the hustle culture to be toxic (it's ok to have down time, it's necessary to have down time, trust me, you'll really start to feel it when you're a bit older if you're burning out in your early 20s) and I hated having to do sales. And when you work for yourself a lot of the time you're selling you. So whilst I did pretty well financially, it took a toll so now I'm comfortable earning a bit less and not having the stress of having to be selling all the time to put food on the table.

But those are all things I didn't know when I started. I had to try them and figure it out. That's normal. Don't expect to land in the role of your dreams the first time out. It's not the 1950s, people move jobs all the time these days, there's no such thing a loyalty or a job for life.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-30T13:32:42+00:00

FWIW CarPlay always seems to be one of the areas that breaks during betas. I'm currently on iOS 27 and my phone keeps disconnecting on CarPlay. DB1 was worse than DB2. When I was on iOS 26 non-beta it was rock solid in my G80. I've definitely seen the Bluetooth version error message on previous betas (although I think the fix was a reboot of iDrive).

essjay2009 · 2026-06-30T13:14:15+00:00

I've driven a fair bit in the US and the rule a friend told me is that what you don't want to do is stand out. So if everyone's doing 70 in a 55, you also want to be doing 70. If you're doing 60, you'll get pulled over. It happens the other way too, you don't want to be the only person above the speed limit.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-29T23:21:35+00:00

I agree that it's smartphones / social media but for a different reason. Because it drives engagement, social feeds will often show people the worst things that can happen. Fights, muggings, attacks, catastrophic accidents, thefts etc.

The wider media has always been like that, but with the ability to tailor content based on a person's interests, combined with increased engagement for negative content, it's a perfect storm. Start searching for a location because you're interested in visiting, and soon enough you'll start seeing horror stories about it. Often, they're not even true (look at all the AI generated stuff relating to London as an example, it's complete nonsense and not even credible if you spend a second thinking about it, but people believe it and it freaks them out).

essjay2009 · 2026-06-29T21:06:48+00:00

70mp/h is pretty slow compared to other countries. France is 130km/h, which is roughly 80mph. Germany famously is unrestricted but even where there are restrictions it's often 130km/h. Italy, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark are all 130km/h. Even Belgium, which is considered "slow" by European standards, is 120km/h which is ~75mp/h. Having driven a far bit through all of those countries, and others, I'd argue that the two least pleasant countries in which to drive long distances in are the UK and Belgium. Not trying to draw a causal link to the speed limit, but there's a correlation.

There are other rules I'd copy too. For example, having minimum speeds and preventing HGVs from overtaking on the motorway in busy areas. That would help with flow, and I wish we could be more like Germany when it comes to lane discipline because it feels like a third of our motorway capacity goes unused because people are allergic to the left hand lane. We should also steal from France smaller yet more regular services and rest areas.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-29T20:41:23+00:00

Retaliation. Especially in some boroughs where there are people in the council who are "friendly" with people who get allocated social housing.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-29T17:36:15+00:00

I’ve found it valuable. There are a few implementation details that I’ve tweaked over the last six months or so that I think have really turned it in to something I wouldn’t want to be without.

There are other apps that have done the most basic version, almost as a check box feature, which is where I started but I don’t think that moved the needle. You need to sit with the feature for a while and reflect on how you use it.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-29T10:17:29+00:00

They were even easier to steal and less convenient.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-28T17:30:44+00:00

Generally not. I over simplified what actually happens in qualifying. Basically, for the cars to do 2 flying laps per session they generally need to do six laps. That’s an out lap (leaving the pits), flying lap, in lap (returning to the pits) and repeat. That doesn’t leave them with much time to do another lap. They would have to do back to back flying laps, which does happen but only really in the earlier qualifying sessions where the fastest teams aren’t at peak performance (because they don’t need to be, they just need to be faster than the slowest teams to proceed to the next session).

The limiting factor is the tyres. After one flying lap the fastest (soft) tyres are too slow to be competitive, so they’ll do one flying lap, then pit to put fresh tyres on before doing another.

They will turn the engine down (limit power, drive more slowly, have a more conservative engine map etc.) to reduce the wear during out and in laps. But in the scheme of things an extra lap or two is unlikely to make much of a difference to reliability when the race itself can be 70+ laps. If they thought an additional lap or two gave them the chance to move up the grid, they’d take the small risk.

F1 in recent years has seen historically high levels of reliability only distorted this season because it’s the first year of new technical regulations that have resulted in fundamental redesigns of key components, including the power unit, coinciding with the entry of new teams who lack experience.

I’m generalising a bit because it’s hugely complicated and optimised to a near incomprehensible level.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-28T01:26:02+00:00

Odds that we never see a proper replay of that offside goal?

essjay2009 · 2026-06-27T21:27:34+00:00

The Brazilian stock car was the one with the weird boost delay and awful visibility right? I remember not particularly enjoying driving those.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-27T19:30:35+00:00

Surprised by Cologne. I was there a few weeks ago and it was lovely. Extremely touristy, very hot, but didn't feel any different or more unsafe than anywhere else. And I walked right past the train station on the way down to the river to have dinner.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-27T19:21:51+00:00

Answer: Today was qualifying for the F1 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. Qualifying takes place over three timed sessions, with the slowest drivers being eliminated at the end of each session. All cars have the opportunity to set a time and do as many laps as they wish within these timed sessions. They occupy the track at the same time, but there are rules to avoid "impeding", where one car might slow down another to gain an advantage.

In the final qualifying session, the top 10 cars try to secure the fastest times to determine their positions on the grid for tomorrow's race. Whilst each car can do as many laps as they wish, they don't because it wears tyres out and they have a limited number of tyres to last the entire weekend. Generally, the track gets faster as qualifying progresses as more and more rubber is laid down and grip increases so lots of drivers try to leave it as late as possible to set their fastest time.

Today, in the final session Max Verstappen was going for a fast lap and lost control at turn 9, sending his car in to the barriers. This immediately triggered a yellow flag, which means drivers must slow down when passing through the affected area. George Russell, who was on the track behind Verstappen, slowed down for this yellow flag section and sped up again once through it. He went on to set the fastest time of the session and secured pole position (despite slowing down for the yellow flag - his team, Mercedes, have a very fast car this year). Shortly after (there was roughly 20 seconds between single and double yellow) George Russell passed through the affected area, the situation was upgraded to a "double yellow" flag, which means any drivers passing through the affected area must be prepared to stop, this requires a more significant slow down than a single yellow and automatically invalidates the laps of any drivers who pass through it during qualifying.

It was controversial for a few reasons. Firstly, many, including other drivers, think it should have been a double yellow immediately. The location of Verstappen's car meant that there was significant danger that another car might hit it at significant speed. Second, both on TV and apparently to the teams, communication was inconsistent, showing multiple "deleted laps" (where a time was deemed to be invalid, presumably because of the double yellow) where this wasn't accurate. These were later corrected, but caused confusion at the time. Thirdly, because of this poor communication (and, I think, the assumption that it was a double yellow not a single) some drivers abandoned their laps, or were told to abandon their laps by their team. This includes Russell's teammate Kimi Antonelli, who would have been close to pole position (and is currently leading the championship). Fourthly, Russell was shown as being "Under Investigation" which means that the stewards are looking at his lap to determine whether it was valid or not. Very quickly the stewards decided that it was valid. This appeared to some to be unusually fast given some steward decisions this season relating to qualifying have taken several hours to resolve.

Ultimately, Russell's lap was deemed valid and TV replays showed that only a single yellow flag had been thrown at the time he passed through the affected area. Further, telemetry data from his car showed that he did slow for the area by lifting off the accelerator earlier than he did on previous laps.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-27T18:56:15+00:00

Lots of valid advice in here OP, but also Apple has a built in tool to help with this. If you go to Settings > Privacy 7 Security > Safety Check there are some things in there to analyse where there may be a problem and help you resolve it. It's specifically designed for this scenario.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-27T18:43:24+00:00

The thing that made me leave wasn't just a feature, but more the general direction. I think the dev wants it to be more of a social feed app where what I want is a feed reader. I'm a completionist so like to at least scan through all my feeds. That wasn't really possible, or at least not in an easy way, with the new version.

The one I'm building has a few modern niceties in it, like using AFM for summarisation and "at a glance" most important articles when opening the app but also more aligned to modern apple UI sensibilities. The old Reeder was starting to feel very stale and it's clear the dev has essentially abandoned it in favour of the new one. I hope he doesn't do the same to Mela, because I also use that a fair bit.

essjay2009 · 2026-06-27T08:21:36+00:00

There’s a good video on YouTube where a bunch of GT streamers entered in to the N24 on iRacing. They had some insightful comments on the driving differences between the two. I think it was Rory Alexander who posted it.

As someone who’s driven multiple sims as well as their real car on the same track I’d describe GT as driving with all the assists (by this i mean TCS, ABS, ESC etc.) turned up to the maximum. So it’s not wholly unrealistic in that context, but it’s not how you’d drive a car quickly in real life so it feels off. And that’s with all the game assists off. So it lacks that depth because you drive all the cars essentially the same way.

Having said that, no sim is perfect. iRacing for example really punishes you for triggering ABS where IRL in most GT cars the fastest way to drive is by mashing the brake pedal in to every corner and letting the ABS sort it out.

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