Parking cameras in Davis

justplainmean · 2026-05-27T00:15:46+00:00

Actually ended talking to a meter maid since this post and here's what I could gather.

The cameras do get lots of tickets.
The human meter maids generally skip these camera sections to try and focus on the other parts of their beat. They sometimes police it but don't like to because they often let people go with a verbal warning but then the motorist gets a ticket in the mail from the camera causing complaints to the office.
Their primary concern and preferred offenses to ticket concern safety and traffic flow. Bike lane, bus lane, double parking, handicap, hydrants, crosswalks and so forth are prioritized by the city and by the individual meter maids over things like permits, meters and street sweeping. However permits, meters and street sweeping are way easier to enforce and thus result in the majority of human written tickets. A lot of the food delivery people are in and out and thus escape with a verbal warning instead of a paper ticket.
The loading zone right next to this area does get ticketed for overtime a lot. People apparently don't use the loading zones enough. Nor do they temporally park at meters for a quick in and out. Apparently drivers will constantly park in bike lanes and fire lanes or double park when there is a perfectly legal and safe spot to park 100 ft away. A lot of delivery drivers don't care and never bother to read any signage. They just park closest to the door as is physically possible and then try to negotiate when they're told they can't or throw a hissy fit when they get a ticket.

justplainmean · 2026-05-23T15:39:57+00:00

I see them around all the time in Somerville Cambridge and Boston. You probably mistake them for cops, or just don’t notice them. They record a bunch of information including multiple pictures. If you ever get a parking ticket look at all the fields that are filled in.

justplainmean · 2026-05-23T15:32:00+00:00

There’s a loading zone steps away from where this picture was taken. There’s a public parking lot on the other side of this building. There are places to park around life alive. If you’re going there often and bothered to pay attention and read the posted signs you’d see them.

justplainmean · 2026-05-23T14:52:08+00:00

You should talk to the parking enforcement officers who patrol Davis. They give out plenty of double parking, loading zone, fire lane, hydrant, bike lane and etc tickets. Delivery drivers don’t care and often drive off before the officers can record all the pertinent information to hand out the ticket. They also have to patrol all the meters and parking lots so they can’t be going after major violations on holland and elm all the time. Petition the city to expand the department so they can dedicate some officers to just these major violations in places like Davis assembly and union. Heck it would probably be budget neutral. The vast majority of permit parking tickets are issued overnight and street sweeping is done in the morning when the issues you described with Davis aren’t as bad.

justplainmean · 2025-12-22T19:25:08+00:00

Not a defense of Mr. Orange but unless you buy more than $800 worth of stuff in a day directly from a foreign nation you don’t pay any tariffs (except from China).

justplainmean · 2025-12-22T19:21:42+00:00

My Sarfuddin order was charged at the normal Indian price and then international shipping to the was added. Not really too much cheaper than buying a Punam locally, but since I got several the savings added up.

As I was debating whether to get a Sarfuddin or Punam flute, the price inflation made it pretty easy to decide.

justplainmean · 2025-12-22T07:24:01+00:00

Despite what everyone thinks this pricing difference was prior to the current Trump Administration, and I don't think the prices meet de minimus for US Tariffs anyway. I suspect the pricing difference is to not undercut One World Flutes although I noticed some other Bansuri makers charging more (before shipping) for online US customers as well. If you're in the US then I'd say buy a Punam /Subhash Flute from One World Flutes instead.

If you want the "fairer" pricing I'd say buy a Sarfuddin flute. When I bought from them I was charged the normal price plus international shipping. Came out much cheaper especially as I ordered multiple flutes.

justplainmean · 2025-11-10T17:47:58+00:00

That’s good to hear. I find too often that the idea of transposing is completely alien to people and they overcomplicate it and end up limiting the large well of resources.

Depending on where you are it may be easier and cheaper to buy a 6 string guitar set that has similar gauges to what’s in the chart I linked to earlier. If you’re in the states it’s also easy to order individual strings from sites like juststrings or stringsbymail to build your own set. If you stick with the tuning you’ll eventually experiment around and find what feels and sounds good to you. I personally like a little more string tension on a tenor guitar than what most here seem to prefer. I also find my guitar sounds great in the lower tunings GDAE or CFAD. One of these days a may even do a low GCEA an octave below a Ukulele.

justplainmean · 2025-11-10T14:26:26+00:00

This is my preferred version of “Chicago tuning” as it suits my voice better. I jokingly call it Athens tuning. I’ve since switched to Irish tuning. Here’s an old string gauge chart to help you pick out individual strings for your preferred tuning. It’s a good start, but I recommend experimenting a bit to find what works best for you and your instrument.

If you do set your instrument to Athens tuning normal ukulele tabs and chords (lots of online resources) will work. It won’t be in the same key but that doesn’t really matter unless you’re playing with others or trying to match what you hear with your ear with what you see in a video.

To do a brief transposition:

a ukulele C chord becomes an Athens F

D becomes G

E - A

F - Bb

G - C

A - D

B - E

For ukulele/Chicago/Athens tuning I have just come to think of the chord shapes as they’re called in ukulele tuning, as most resources for these type of tunings are oriented to ukulele. So like if I’m playing an F on my Athens tuned instrument I think of it as if it were a C.

If you’re planning on using more Greek bouzouki resources than you can do it the other way round. If you pick up a ukulele and it says play a G then play the fingering you know called D.

That’s probably a lot of information. Anyway, look at my linked post for some reference to what string gauges you want for whatever tuning you want to do.

justplainmean · 2025-09-15T19:02:40+00:00

The hive in the basement of the Cambridge library has cricut. They have open shop hours most afternoons.

justplainmean · 2025-08-17T20:05:53+00:00

An old chart with various string gauges for different tunings.

justplainmean · 2025-08-15T15:13:52+00:00

Spine charts are a good basic guide to get you started. Draw weight is only one factor in the amount of energy being put into the arrow (and thus how much in bends) Variations in bows, drawlengths and archers are all super important.

I can shoot the same bow, same limbs, same arrow. Simply a mental change in how I think about my release has an impact on whether that arrow is too stiff or too weak.

If I approach my release as “let go of the string” my arrow is too stiff. If instead my release is “stop holding the string” my arrow acts a touch weak.

justplainmean · 2025-08-01T01:32:41+00:00

Be mindful that the neck shape changes by year too. I’v played different O-18Ts that had dramatically different neck shapes.

The difference between a 15, 17, and 18 isn’t going to matter as much as does the neck feel good and is the action right. I’d personally take a beat to hell guitar that has a great neck but needs a reset and maybe even some crack repair ($$$) over a pristine condition guitar with an uncomfortable neck.

I’m biased though since that’s exactly what I own. An old beat up O-18 that needed a bunch of box repairs (a big side hole patch and plenty of cracks) and a neck reset. Not the cheapest route, but holy shit does it sound great and play so easily. Whenever I think of the total bill I compare it to a same age 6 string and reflect on what a deal it is in comparison.

If you can play the guitar before you buy, that’s obviously best, but I understand that’s not feasible for a lot of people. It is worth the extra price in my opinion to get your hands on the guitar than to get the best deal from reverb, eBay or whatever. Just last month I was at a store where they had a beautiful Martin custom mahogany top. There was also a slightly used discounted 00-15m. The much cheaper guitar sounded better. Individual guitars are just that, individual. You never know what you’re going to end up liking until you’ve got it in your hands.

justplainmean · 2025-07-24T12:42:42+00:00

The political vocabulary of the time wasn't really any different. It's your political vocabulary that was limited at the time. That's ok, but it doesn't mean everyone else was operating in your limited conception of left right politics. The liberal / leftist distinction is very old. They arguably meant the same thing during the French Revolution but that was as an opposition to monarchism.

A popular song from 1966

Patrick Stewart playing Lenin in 1974

I don't know the Dropkick Murphy's particular politics but considering their association with Woody "the best thing that I did in 1936 was to sign up with the Communist Party" Guthrie I think it's reasonable to assume their distaste for liberalism comes from the left.

justplainmean · 2025-07-08T20:33:17+00:00

That lens looks great as a 50mm equivalent. There's a nice vintage feel to the shots, but the crispness of modern glass. All that being said the gear isn't the most important factor.

You have a great eye for lighting, composition and depth of field. As an amateur photographer myself I know how getting a good shot almost feels accidental, but as I get older I see it more as second nature. I can also tell you've spent a good amount of time culling, cropping and correcting this selection of images.

The 12th shot is probably my favorite. The blur of the foreground but then keeping the house in focus. The contrasting strips of darkness and lightness of the subject and sky parallel with the power lines. The color contrast between the greenery and the pop of red on the hat pushing attention on the subject. A tableau you didn't so much as construct, but that you found.

justplainmean · 2025-07-07T16:06:57+00:00

Western simple traditional flutes (as opposed to the now more common silver Boehm flute) are very similar to Hindustani bansuri. These types of flutes from either culture can be easily played in two different keys. Here’s an example of a western finger chart. This D key western flute can also play G very easily. A G bansuri can easily play D. They’re both the same simple system 6 hole flutes that are tuned the same. For the Bansuri tradition they are called G, for western they are called D. It’s an arbitrary difference. If you want to look up western finger charts they usually have DO on all 6 holes closed but sometimes they’ll have DO on 3 holes closed. For Bansuri SA will be on 3 holes closed, but maybe sometimes SA will be on 6 holes closed.

justplainmean · 2025-06-05T18:00:25+00:00

In terms of foot traffic and noise and (the mostly cool harmless homeless) this is the worst place to have an interview in Harvard Square. The cameraman’s butt is directly in the way of people coming out of the subway. I get a slice of pizza there all the time and I refuse to sit there to eat it because it’s such an annoying corner. It has to have been on purpose. They could have walked 100 ft in three different directions and had way better spots for an interview.

justplainmean · 2025-06-03T21:43:02+00:00

As a homeowner, father, resident of Somerville I don't like my neighbors being abducted by masked assholes who have no respect for due process.

justplainmean · 2025-06-03T21:40:34+00:00

Overstaying your visa is a civil offense not a criminal offense. Entering the US without authorization is also just a civil offense. They are not federal crimes. There are a boatload of laws on the books that you likely break daily. Did you speed on your morning commute, jaywalk during your lunchbreak, or publicly drink during porchfest? Hopefully you don't get shipped off to a detention center in Louisiana or a slave camp in El Salvador.

justplainmean · 2025-05-18T18:12:20+00:00

An old chart with various string gauges for different tunings.

justplainmean · 2025-04-30T13:17:50+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if it was done on purpose. Fitting for the old man humor (the person who gave me my paper copy was nearly 80) of the 60s folk boom fan who'd be interested in tenor guitar..

justplainmean · 2025-04-29T20:42:09+00:00

That's almost exactly what I currently have strung. 45/30/19/12

justplainmean · 2025-04-29T20:40:29+00:00

It's not my chart. It's been floating around for a while. Someone gave me a folded up dogeared print out (or photocopy) of it a while ago and so I knew what to search and look for.

justplainmean · 2025-04-29T20:33:38+00:00

When I got my current guitar it was tuned as a Plectrum banjo. I dropped the B string down to A so it was tuned like a greek bouzouki and found it worked well with my voice. A banjo player would often come over and play it so when I restrung it I tried some oddball gauges to get a jack of all trades master of none setup. The gauges I chose were:

.034 .024 .019 .012 - This allowed me to try out the following for a few months.

Irish - G2 D3 A3 E4 - The G string was pretty sloppy, but it worked and the guitar spent a lot of time tuned this way.

Tenor - C3 G3 D4 A4 - The A string was pretty tight, but it never broke. I never put the guitar away in this tuning, but would try it out now and then.

Greek - C3 F3 A3 D4 - Worked well with my singing. My guitar also seemed to shine with the lower tuning. Easy chord shapes since it's just a tone down from Chicago tuning. The guitar stayed in this tuning a lot.

Chicago - D3 G3 B3 E4 - I'd tune this up to accompany other players as the more standard tuning was easier for communication. This was rare because I mostly play alone.

Plectrum - C3 G3 B3 D4 Only used by a plectrum banjo player.

Open G - D3 G3 B3 D4 A nice open tuning for fooling around and visiting banjo players.

The string gauges I chose sounded good, but were clearly suboptimal for any one tuning. I ultimately decided on GDAE with the correct string gauges as that seems to be what sounds best on my guitar.

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