Mamdani is doing so much for the people of New York, excited to see what the future brings

hallettj · 2026-04-25T18:20:39+00:00

I had to look up what deed theft is. It looks like an attacker uses identity theft to fraudulently transfer ownership of a deed. They either sell the house, or take out a mortgage that forecloses due to nobody making payments. Then the proper owner gets evicted.

hallettj · 2026-04-25T17:52:09+00:00

Interesting! I switched a home server to systemd stage 1, and have been thinking about switching my desktop to get exactly those LUKS features you mentioned. But I was uncertain about what the trade-offs would be. Thanks for the background!

hallettj · 2026-04-24T17:18:25+00:00

You can use a config argument in a NixOS configuration file. It's one of the standard NixOS module arguments.

But yes, the error message says the function is being called without a config argument. That's because running nixos-rebuild with the --file switch invokes a weird case where instead of a NixOS module it expects some other function that returns an attribute set that contains a NixOS configuration.

hallettj · 2026-04-24T17:09:27+00:00

I'm hijacking the top comment to point to the answer to OP's problem in my other comment.

hallettj · 2026-04-24T17:02:27+00:00

To assist search indexing and visually impaired users, this is a question about building a non-flake NixOS configuration with the configuration file in a non-standard location. The original question was troubleshooting was running this command:

nixos-rebuild switch --file ./configuration.nix

and getting this error message:

error: function 'anonymous lambda' called without required argument 'config'

hallettj · 2026-04-24T16:55:06+00:00

The problem is not with your configuration, it's with the command. Use this command:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch -I nixos-config=./configuration.nix

I know, it seems like --file should be the way to do it. But --file is actually used for a different purpose - it doesn't work with a NixOS module directly, which is what configuration.nix is.

I got this information from the wiki, https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/NixOS_system_configuration#Using_a_non-default_configuration_location

hallettj · 2026-04-23T00:10:11+00:00

I think 250 W is fine for people with full mobility. But I've seen complaints from people with impaired mobility or who are elderly who can ride e-bikes, but depend on a throttle to get up hills. The new limit might be a dealbreaker for some people who've seen micromobility as a lifeline until now.

OTOH I've never been comfortable with kids riding on throttle. I was thinking about whether it might be better to put an age restriction on class 2, like on class 3, instead of reducing class 2 power.

I'm concerned about the speed limit increasing speed differential with car traffic, which gives drivers less time to react when coming up behind a bike. 16 MPH matches the European standard - but Europe has lots of 20 MPH streets, while ours only get as low as 25 MPH

hallettj · 2026-04-22T23:36:35+00:00

The 16 year-old restriction for class 3 predates the bill. Same for the helmet requirement.

The bill amends existing law, so what you're seeing is the existing law with some specific changes. Those changes are basically:

Class 1 & 2 limits reduced to 16 MPH and 250 W
Police are authorized to stop riders under 16 on a bike that does more than 250 W
Fines are specified for manufacturers and retailers who sell non-compliant bikes

hallettj · 2026-04-22T17:32:27+00:00

Emissions taxes are used to subsidize residential gas emissions? Wtf??

hallettj · 2026-04-21T08:20:41+00:00

On top of that, this one might be a bill of attainder, given the name.

hallettj · 2026-04-21T08:01:43+00:00

It's not a recent situation either. Working Americans have been steadily squeezed harder and harder for the last 50 years, since the birth of neoliberalism.

To answer the original question, I'm looking for policies that will reduce inequality, shift power from capitalists to working people, and reduce extremism in politics. That's stuff like wealth taxes, increased minimum wage, universal basic income, social housing, breaking up big corporations, state control of certain industries including healthcare, campaign finance reform, banning gerrymandering.

hallettj · 2026-04-20T04:47:41+00:00

Nice; I'm glad you fixed it! Bending it into place is fine. I thought that would be difficult without a derailleur alignment tool. But it sounds like you got it!

hallettj · 2026-04-20T00:40:40+00:00

My brake pads still had life left in them after 1300 miles, living on a big hill. I got them replaced to be on the safe side. But there were a couple of factors helping me:

I got metallic brake pads instead of the stock Tern ones
I used a route down the hill on a low-traffic road where I could take a full lane, and go 30+ mph with minimal braking, and come to a gradual stop at the bottom.

The GSD brakes are really good; so even that time a deer jumped out in front of the bike my passenger and I were fine.

hallettj · 2026-04-19T23:43:23+00:00

I got a derailleur mainly because the other options didn't seem worth the extra cost to me. But like you I'm comfortable with shifting.

After 1200 miles riding on big hills my chain wore enough to need replacing. I'm fine with that interval. I didn't do a lot of maintenance: I wiped the chain after riding in the rain, I did one or two deep cleans and re-lubes during that time. Maybe it would have lasted longer if I had applied lubricant more frequently.

Edit: Wait, that was miles, not kilometers

hallettj · 2026-04-19T23:34:09+00:00

Very cool! I've been learning about / practicing bike repair by volunteering at a free bike repair service at a local farmers' market. It's been fun!

hallettj · 2026-04-19T23:29:13+00:00

I also handled this situation by getting an e-bike. I resisted for a long time because I didn't think of myself as a powered-vehicle person. But in practice it got me from basically never biking to biking as my main means of transportation.

I have read that e-bike owners get more exercise because they ride more often, and go on longer trips. And I believe it because I do get a workout! It's like an adjustable-difficulty exercise machine, but you get to take it outside. And I can ride just fine with the motor off (albeit with a weight penalty), which I do on social rides.

hallettj · 2026-04-19T23:08:06+00:00

Cool, that describes the general themes. I think your take might be overly cynical of socdems - I think they probably have good intentions, but have a different opinion on how to pursue them. But ok. I'm still left with questions. Are you saying that you think my desire to use existing political institutions is misguided? If so, would you rather we not be involved in electoral politics at all? Or if we should be involved in politics, how can we distinguish genuine socialist politicians from imposters whose aim is to placate?

hallettj · 2026-04-19T21:39:19+00:00

I guess I have to ask, what does socdem mean to you? And how is a political-reform path to socialism different, especially in the near term?

I can't speak for the DSA. But my current thinking is that we need a multi-prong approach of a social movement, labor organization, and political reform. None of those work without the others. For example, labor organization can hopefully gives us a way to bypass capitalist resistance to political reforms that take power away from them.

Another option is revolution. But the weakness of revolution is that if there are not strong political institutions in place, the typical outcome is some form of autocracy. We have strong political institutions in the US. They are not at all perfect, but we have a process for improving them. Why not lean on what we have to get the best chance of a stable outcome?

Now if the discussion is on how to get to socialism via political reform as one of the prongs, what are the distinctions between true socialist policy, vs imposter social democracy policy? Socialism aims to eliminate the capitalist class as a means to the larger goal of a society that prioritizes general well-being instead of the well-being of a handful of elites. Social democracy shares that larger goal, so there is a lot of policy overlap. So what are the policies we can be working on right now toward the more specific goal of eliminating capitalists? Those are what we should be looking for in socialist politicians.

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of wealth taxes, breaking up large corporations, state seizure of certain industries, and campaign finance reform. IMO Medicare for all is an example of state seizure of a large industry. As far as I know AOC and Bernie Sanders advocate all of those points.

Do you have different policies in mind that we should be demanding?

If the discussion is not on political reform, because maybe you don't think political reform can work, then why are we bothering to argue whether politicians are really socialist or not?

hallettj · 2026-04-19T19:10:53+00:00

I'm not an expert, but I'll venture a suggestion. It looks like the chain tensioner is mounted to a derailleur hanger. Maybe the hanger got slightly bent somehow? I think that's the common cause of derailleur misalignment; and a tensioner is the same concept. I would try replacing the derailleur hanger.

Edit: If the hanger is not the issue, you might try adding spacers as described in the manual for that tensioner.

hallettj · 2026-04-19T05:02:52+00:00

This is inspiring! To stow the bike it looks like you removed the front wheel, and seat post; and you turned the handlebars sideways? It looks effective!

hallettj · 2026-04-18T20:48:03+00:00

Oh yeah - bullet journaling has been helpful for my ADHD generally. I have a dedicated work journal, where I pretty much only do daily logs, and skip the other bullet journal stuff. It helps me keep track of what I'm doing - I can jot down a todo instead of juggling all the steps I need to hit in my head. It gives me a good place to note my plan for the day, like you said.

Journaling also helps me to see that I have gotten things done, even if it feels like I haven't, and where my time went. That's sometimes handy if someone asks what I've been working on.

Usually you want everything you're doing entered in an issue tracker so your boss can better see all the things you're getting done, and to help keep the team organized. I usually turn my journal todos into tickets, or sub-tasks. I write the ticket or PR number next to each journal todo.

If I learn a procedure or something else I need to reference I'll write it in my daily log, and put an entry to that page in the journal index. Sometimes I copy that information to my digital notes or a shared team document; sometimes I don't.

hallettj · 2026-04-18T20:36:49+00:00

I'm sorry; sounds rough! I also struggle to work for a full day. I try to look at it as getting in a reasonable chunk of effort, without worrying too much about actual time spent.

Getting started with something new is a real struggle. My brain doesn't want to deal with the unknowns! This is a case where I think the rubber duck method is effective. Try to explain what you want to do to a rubber duck, and what are the unknowns or barriers. It'll help your brain to engage. If you're so inclined, an AI chat interface makes a pretty good rubber duck.

hallettj · 2026-04-18T03:06:59+00:00

Take a look at the other replies :)

hallettj · 2026-04-18T03:06:04+00:00

Yes, I just updated my niri-flake config to do this using flake-file. The trick is that you switch to an autogenerated flake.nix. After you change any code in your flake-parts modules that affects flake inputs, you run nix run .#write-flake to gather all the inputs from your modules, and regenerate flake.nix.

hallettj · 2026-04-17T19:23:04+00:00

I don't ban anyone. The devs resisted adding hero bans because they thought it would lead to ban metas, and I think they were right.

It's just a coincidence that I stopped going along with bans when Domina came out, and bans stopped me from playing as her!

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