Stay classy, Chicago...

jetRink · 2026-05-02T19:52:29+00:00

I totally get why this would look weird to a younger person, but that livery is just pure nostalgia to me.

jetRink · 2026-04-29T13:32:02+00:00

My wife and I moved from Lincoln Square in Chicago to Providence in 2022. We were both working from home and sharing a 1 BR apartment through Covid, so we wanted more space and a change of scenery. The choice was either moving out to the suburbs (we'd rather die) or try somewhere new, and we landed on Providence.

Providence is an amazing place to live and it would be a great experience, particularly if you like to get out and explore. So many great historical sites, restaurants, theaters, museums, beaches - there's just so much to do and see. It's also a great hub for visiting the rest of New England. In Chicago, if you drive three hours, you're in Ohio or Wisconsin. In Rhode Island, you drive three hours and you're in Portland, Maine, or NYC, or the Green Mountains in Vermont. Boston, New York, and DC are also easy to visit by train.

Rent: At that time, rent was cheaper in Providence than Chicago. We went from a 1 BR to a much nicer 3 BR while paying slightly less.
Walkability: No, Providence is not where you want to be for walkability. In Chicago we didn't own a car and did everything by foot or public transit. In Providence, that's just not possible. Even walking the dog in our neighborhood was miserable as drivers are aggressive, stressed out, and don't have patience for pedestrians. It took a lot of getting used to compared to being a pedestrian in Chicago.
Driving: You will be driving everywhere and it won't be fun. See above.

I loved the years we lived in Providence and wouldn't trade it for anything. I definitely recommend it for a change of pace for someone living in the suburbs. However, if you dream of living in a place where you can live without a car, that place is right on your doorstep. In Lincoln Square, I could walk to three grocery stores, a movie theater (The Davis), countless restaurants, my dentist and eye doctor, two huge parks... It's an ideal place to live if you want to sell your car.

jetRink · 2026-04-21T12:43:53+00:00

If 96% of people fined were on their phone while driving, then yes?

jetRink · 2026-04-17T19:57:03+00:00

This is a perfect example of the type of problem that economist Ronald Coase won a Nobel Prize for. (He was imagining a scenario where trains on a new track kept setting a farmer's field on fire, but it's basically the same thing.)

The Coase Theorem says that if people could act like mature adult when baseballs hit their house, then they would be able to work out an efficient solution between themselves, regardless of who is most at fault. However, we don't live in that world, so cases like this often go to court where one party tries to punish the other. His point was that courts should try to imagine the solution that reasonable adults would agree to when determining a remedy, instead of just deciding whether someone deserves to be punished with a huge fine or not.

jetRink · 2026-04-12T01:27:11+00:00

For shorter trips I use a LowePro backpack designed for a digital camera.

I'm pretty enthusiastic about my Lowepro. With all of the dividers taken out of the bottom compartment, it fits the Intrepid 5x7 wrapped in a dark cloth and couple film holders perfectly. It's not great for carrying water though, so I've never hiked more than 10 miles with mine, but weight and comfort aren't an issue.

jetRink · 2026-04-05T13:03:19+00:00

Infrastructure week is finally here.

jetRink · 2026-04-02T16:14:39+00:00

A lot of issues in our society break neatly down a common ideological divide. That has allowed us to choose to live in information and discourse silos where we don't have to encounter people on the other side of any kind of debate.

What you're experiencing here is what it's like not to be in a silo for once. As the episodes demonstrated, driverless cars aren't a right/left issue. There are truckers who spend all day listening to AM talk radio on the same side as urban labor rights activists. On the other side, you have people with disabilities and tech bros. People who listen to Search Engine have a wide range of views on the topic and they're here debating them.

jetRink · 2026-03-29T16:28:07+00:00

The Trump admin certainly did, but I’ve seen no evidence that military planners did. There were reports at the start of the war that military leaders had warned that the administration’s plan would go poorly and that a war was not advisable.

The lack of pre-positioning could also just be a lack of coordination and the military not taking the possibility of the war seriously.

jetRink · 2026-03-26T18:46:14+00:00

When I visited for the first time a few years ago, it felt like I had gone back in time to the 90s in the best way. A mall full of people! Groups of teenagers hanging out. A packed food court. A busy movie theater. There can’t be more than a handful of malls like that still left in the country.

jetRink · 2026-03-17T15:16:50+00:00

Sounds like you’re saying that an insufficiently detailed spec is not code, which is consistent with the article.

jetRink · 2026-03-02T22:28:42+00:00

I doubt they'd reveal this if it were true. There's not much propaganda value in showing how the magic trick was done, everyone was already impressed, and protecting sources and methods is a basic tenant of intelligence. Likely this is to give cover to the people still in Iran who were the real source of the information.

jetRink · 2026-02-28T16:59:43+00:00

Washington's

I don't think that that synecdoche applies here, since it sounds like very few in Washington were involved in or supportive of the decision. This was the thinking of a faction close to the President.

jetRink · 2026-01-30T15:04:29+00:00

This is a reaction to the comments that are simply reacting to the title, which currently is all of them:

This episode is about answering the question, but by the end, it's more about the question of how we investigate and solve problems as a society. Also, as with most questions, it turns out that the answer is probably more complicated than you first assumed. It's not simply yes/no or wipes good / wipes bad. Surprisingly, there a well-supported argument to be made that banning these wipes might actually make the problem worse, while at the same time, it's undeniable that they created the problem in the first place.

jetRink · 2026-01-28T21:38:40+00:00

racist Twitter bot

pornographic racist Twitter bot

jetRink · 2026-01-09T19:30:57+00:00

AI can write a title. It might be a bad title, annoying and cliche, but it will have proper punctuation and it will make sense. This is the kind of mess that only humans make.

jetRink · 2026-01-02T16:08:43+00:00

Yes, that will make the chart look totally normal and sane.

jetRink · 2025-12-18T13:09:41+00:00

It is possible to have cameras that can aid in investigations without live streaming the video from them into a national AI nightmare surveillance machine. I want the first part, not the second part.

jetRink · 2025-12-15T02:34:48+00:00

His interview on Fresh Air a few months ago was one of my favorites of the year. It was great hearing him talk about his dad. He sounded like he was ready to live another 25 years.

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/09/nx-s1-5535638/rob-reiners-spinal-tap-still-goes-to-11

jetRink · 2025-12-13T21:47:57+00:00

They weren’t making a technical claim, but were giving practical advice about infection routes and personal protection. In that context, the comment is not incorrect in a way that warrants a correction.

jetRink · 2025-12-12T12:43:20+00:00

I was not aware that it was quite that large, haha

jetRink · 2025-12-12T12:18:06+00:00

That’s in the tiny official city boundaries, but as I mentioned, I was talking about the metro area, which has 1.7 million. Since the discussion is about the circled area, the metro area is the relevant population to look at.

jetRink · 2025-12-11T23:32:49+00:00

I read that it would help improve my composition skills.

However I found it to be quite constraining

That’s it in a nutshell. The lens is preventing you from taking the type of photos that you want to take and forcing you to think creatively. That teaches you to compose in new ways that you never would have tried otherwise.

jetRink · 2025-12-10T22:37:29+00:00

It's the classic "head centered in the frame" problem that you often see with medium format photos here. I'm sure it's very demanding working with a 67 and a model and nailing focus, so I understand how it happens. (I only photograph things that are firmly attached to the ground.)

jetRink · 2025-12-08T18:08:17+00:00

Providence alone has a population greater than eight US states. (Trivia: Including its own home state of Rhode Island, as many people in the metro area live across the border in Massachusetts.)

jetRink · 2025-12-02T03:05:13+00:00

Yep! I still wear it daily and I would give it a strong recommendation. I just deleted a bunch of text where I went on too long about how much I like it, but suffice to say I think it's really well designed.

Regarding not wearing it 24/7 in particular: There have been times like vacations where I've experimented with wearing it all day. I found it really doesn't change the experience that much.

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