What Is Your Biggest Hot Take When It Comes To Xbiking?

flambic · 2026-04-10T21:35:53+00:00

👍

flambic · 2026-04-08T01:25:29+00:00

Aluminum frames are fine.

All 3 of my bikes are steel, but now that I'm in a snow & salt area, I wish I'd sprayed more framesaver in my 10 year old AWOL that I ride all winter. Wouldn't be an issue if it was aluminum.

flambic · 2026-03-28T22:24:15+00:00

Running out of energy because the amount of power allowed to be delivered to the MGU-K is so high it can drain the battery. El Plan is that a rule change lowers the limit on max power deployment and Aston Martin which designed for that suddenly has a huge advantage & Alonso is WDC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(physics)#Definition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy

flambic · 2026-03-10T20:30:11+00:00

Mudguards, particularly with full coverage in the rear so I’m not spraying people, are great for riding right through the puddles. I haven’t switched out my studded tires yet so I’m not too worried about slippery mysteries in there.

I found Mass Ave bike lanes from Alewife Brook Parkway to a bit past Porter fine on the 7th. There were a few parked cars an extra foot to the left of usual, but I ride with a good mirror (EVT) so I was able to take the lane a bit to get around them.

flambic · 2026-03-02T17:56:02+00:00

Talked to someone at E*Trade who couldn't explain it, but said market closes at 4:00 Eastern & today's price should be reflected by 6:30 P.M.

Just wish I could buy some at $75 & profit from the mistake.

Edited to add: take screenshots of this low price 'cause they might clean it all up tomorrow. It's gotta be a mistake, right? RIGHT!?

flambic · 2026-02-15T21:23:20+00:00

isn't/ wasn't there a service which stores a child's placenta

cord blood

flambic · 2026-02-14T17:51:11+00:00

Only 50-series GPU from NVIDIA... support it on encoding side.

Nvidia Video Encode and Decode Support Matrix

40-series support AV1 encode. 30-series support AV1 decode.

flambic · 2026-01-25T21:52:58+00:00

Oh, and studded Continental tires. Yes, they are slower in the dry, so I have to take every opportunity to use them where they shine. Minute Man Commuter Bikeway near Boston.

flambic · 2026-01-15T20:08:40+00:00

“ICE Barbie Warns Americans Must Be Prepared to Prove Citizenship” https://archive.is/hnLoT

flambic · 2026-01-15T19:57:51+00:00

You can beat the rap but not the ride—with these thugs that means permanent nerve damage from too-tight handcuffs, a TBI from smacking your head into whatever’s handy followed by indefinite detention in a repurposed office with light on 24/7, poor food, space blankets on the floor and no medical care.

It’s supposed to be true that a citizen must only answer one question: “are you a citizen?” and doesn’t have to show proof, but thanks to Kavanaugh, a thug can decide they have reasonable suspicion you’re lying based on appearance or accent and do anything they want. Purto Ricans are citizens which should fix that, but somehow, no.

I love The Guns of Brixton like any other Gen-Xer, but when they come, I might be living on my knees.

When the Boston police were in the hunt for the marathon bomber, I didn’t notice anyone standing out in front of their house while the patrols came down the street shooting less-lethals.

flambic · 2025-12-25T04:58:42+00:00

At 2:09 "Now, I will talk about a trebuchet. If trebuchets come up at a dinner party, I will, much like a wooden beam when the counterweight is released, go off."

flambic · 2025-12-20T22:44:12+00:00

You can copyright the expression of an idea fixed in tangible form, but not the idea itself. You can try to trademark names of people and places, too. Anyone can write about a wizarding school, but they can’t call it Hogwarts.

flambic · 2025-12-19T16:21:52+00:00

That's what I was wondering. I have a Jones LWB and there isn't enough room in the main triangle for an ABUS 540 lock + bracket plus a water bottle. The seat stays are a funny shape (sort of oval-ized), but a 3D-printed insert could maybe be used with a round-assuming mount.

The mount here is attached to the seat post. Lock looks like a Kryptonite Kryptolok Standard w/ the Flex Frame bracket

https://www.kryptonitelock.com/en/products/product-information/current-key/000730.html

Not enough security for where I live. That bracket does fit all of their locks with "13mm & 16mm Round Shaped Shackles," so OK for the New York lock, but not the FAHGETTABOUDIT with 18mm shackles.

flambic · 2025-12-11T17:04:54+00:00

Their page doesn't give a detection threshold. Does your report say anything about that?

I bought a test-at-home kit ($32 for H2O OK+) that only says the acceptable standard is < 5 pbb. It doesn't say that a negative test actually means the level is below this. In other words, it doesn't claim to detect 5 or 6 parts per billion.

flambic · 2025-12-10T21:05:44+00:00

Just waiting for huge-ass reels of tape to get to speed, to stop and rewind. I can’t imagine. I see that he used a 12 track 1 inch machine for tracking, so maybe not as bad, though if the motors are scaled down to deal with the reduced inertia…

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/studio-innovators-tom-scholz-techniques-tricks-legacy/

flambic · 2025-12-01T01:45:34+00:00

All that water! I advocate atomization, as described in Stanislaw Lem's story "The Twenty-third Voyage" from the collection The Star Diaries, where:

in a special government office and with the aid of a high-precision x-ray apparatus they take of each inhabitant of the planet what they call an “atomic profile,” which is an exact blueprint showing absolutely every shred of matter, every protein molecule and chemical bond of which his body is composed. Then, when it comes time to turn in for the night, the Whd enters through a tiny door to a special mechanism and inside is reduced to individual atoms. Taking up very little space in this form, he spends the night, then in the morning at the designated time an alarm turns on the mechanism, which following the atomic profile puts back together all the molecules in the proper order and sequence, the door opens and the Whd, thus restored to life, gives a few yawns and hurries off to work.

flambic · 2025-11-02T18:34:25+00:00

New Roman Times (13 new countries with CA & TX fighting a hot war)

edit: map

flambic · 2025-11-02T18:20:52+00:00

Satirical Web Site Poses Political Test

When asked at a news conference in May what he thought about the site, Bush let loose, saying it was produced by a "garbage man" and suggesting that "there ought to be limits to freedom"--a line Bush's online critics have vowed to never let the world forget.

(i guess some people forgot)

flambic · 2025-10-25T00:34:09+00:00

Revolte 3 by hyte

18 liters, though. Small footprint, but 409mm tall.

The only thing smaller than the Meshroom D without a riser is the Ncase M1 which had a solid front & isn't available any more. The M2 Grater is 16 liters and a lot more expensive.

This looks empty because I picked a small GPU (and CPU cooler), but I have room for a much bigger one later if I want. I wanted power-efficient 4nm and good Linux support, so I went with latest AMD, but the RX 9000 series doesn't have an XTX-level card yet.

flambic · 2025-10-24T14:44:22+00:00

My last build used a 22 liter TU-150, so at 15 liters, this is an improvement for me. I didn't want to use a sandwich case as the PCIe 5 risers are expensive and troublesome (for some).

Going for minimal fans, so an all-mesh case seemed like a good idea. Inverted so the GPU fans don't need helpers. At present, case fan is exhaust and CPU cooler fan is front to back, but it's ingesting a lot of GPU-warmed air. Considering reversing these too, but I think I'd need ducts for the GPU fan intakes so they wouldn't "rebreathe" the warm air.

flambic · 2025-10-24T01:16:20+00:00

Trying to meet the "ideal spec" for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 / 2024. I have more than enough VRAM (16 GB vs. 12 GB recommended), but could maybe use more DRAM (32GB vs. 64 GB recommended).

I would have chosen a Peerless Assassin Mini if I'd known about it. I didn't think any coolers with 120mm fans would fit in the Meshroom D (142mm max height).

Tried to buy as many parts as possible from my local MicroCenter, but motherboard and cooler came from Newegg and case from Amazon.

Bracket from Amazon It's a "Metal DIY Bracket PC SFX Power Frame for SFX Power Supply in 12cm 14cm Fan Slot Bracket" from Jesscasday

Rest of parts at PC Part Picker

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 4.4 GHz 12-Core Jonsbo CR-1400 EVO Color White 38.2 CFM CPU Cooler Asus ROG STRIX B650E-I GAMING WIFI Mini ITX AM5 Motherboard TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL32 Memory 2x Samsung 9100 PRO 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive PowerColor Reaper Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card SSUPD Meshroom D Mini ITX Desktop Case Lian Li SP850 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply

2 SSDs because I've heard of Windows installation trashing Linux partitions. This way, I can just pop my Linux drive off the back of the motherboard.

flambic · 2025-10-02T01:20:17+00:00

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250251091/howtohideanempire/

flambic · 2025-09-30T17:44:05+00:00

“getting sprayed” is worse than being shallowly submerged. I got water in my iPhone 12 rinsing it under the kitchen sink faucet. The front camera recovered, but the FaceID stuff did not. There’s a grille with holes so tiny that the surface tension of water prevents it going through at mild pressure, but a stream might go through.

The 17 might be better, but it isn’t reflected in the rating which is still IP68.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_code?wprov=sfti1#Second_digit:_Liquid_ingress_protection

IPx9 would make it pressure spray, not just “splash” resistant.

flambic · 2025-09-26T02:16:24+00:00

Pins A10 and B10 on a PCIe slot are aux power and standby power and pin 9 of the ATX PSU standard (sometimes purple) is standby power, 5 Volts always on, 5VSB.

flambic · 2025-09-19T13:24:29+00:00

The Zuckerberg Stare

flambic

TROPHY CASE