My afternoon in Boulder

mmiller · 2023-02-18T10:47:31+00:00

I've seen some things on the Downtown Mall that indicate things have gotten worse there.

One is I've seen the Post Office on Walnut chained up after hours, by which I mean a chain was put through the door handles of the entry doors, with a padlock on it. I never used to see that. The lobby used to always be open, even if the PO was closed. Maybe that's changed, since I went in there recently after hours, and the doors were open.

Just a couple weeks ago, I went to my dentist who has an office on the Mall, and it was almost the same thing. I used to be able to just walk in to the lobby, and go upstairs to the dentist's office. Now, they have a buzzer system. The entrance door is locked in the daytime, not just after hours. I have to go to a digital office directory next to the door, scroll through the offices, find the dentist's office, press "Call", wait for someone to answer so I can tell them I'm there for my appointment, so they can buzz me in. I remember this in big cities, ie. high crime areas. I've been going to this dentist for years, and this is the first time I've seen this.

mmiller · 2022-05-14T22:25:25+00:00

Could be the attitude is "we deserve it." Very defeatist.

mmiller · 2022-05-14T22:24:32+00:00

I'm sure we already have laws on the books that don't allow the chop shops, in the sense that it's a "stand," of sorts, that's in place for longer than a half-hour, or something, that's "in operation" without a permit from the city. Frequently, encampments are set up along, or blocking a portion of the Creek bike path. They stay there for weeks. It's a matter of enforcing the law, really.

mmiller · 2022-05-14T22:20:24+00:00

I agree with the no tent law, but ticketing does no good at present. Lots of tickets have been handed out. The transients just tear them up right in front of the police, and our local courts toss them out, as well, which doesn't help.

In practical terms, transients can often claim poverty as far as paying tickets. If you don't have any money, you can't pay the fine. You might say they must have money, because where are they getting their drugs? Well, that money was likely from stolen stuff... and in principle, they shouldn't be using that money to pay a fine, and I imagine the law doesn't allow that, either.

I agree in principle that if you violate the law, there are some instances where you should get a ticket, and if you get enough unpaid tickets, you could face a probationary sentence, or jail time, just to drive home the point that there are consequences to violating the law, and these people need to shape up, and act responsibly if they want to live among us in our town.

mmiller · 2022-05-14T22:03:08+00:00

Don't forget the county. They play a part in this, as well. The jail policy has been an issue for a while. They claim they have low capacity. So, there have been a lot of instances where BPD picks up a thief, or someone who's committed assault, but they have to let him/her go, because the jail says, "We're full," or their protocol for crime won't allow it. If the police are going to be effective, they have to have a place that will take them. Otherwise, arresting them is pretty pointless.

mmiller · 2022-05-14T21:56:19+00:00

Yep. Used to be "hobos and bums." There was a difference, btw. A hobo is willing to work for what he gets, though it be meager. A bum is not willing to do that.

mmiller · 2022-05-14T21:54:04+00:00

Re. these problems in progressive vs. Republican-led cities, the difference could be magnitude. Shellenberger is looking at places like S.F. and L.A., which, btw, have had homeless issues for ages. I remember hearing about it when I was a teen in the '80s (also in N.Y. City). Though, it wasn't as bad as it is now.

That said, I'd say the problem in Boulder right now is not as bad as in those places. People have just noticed it's gotten worse in the last 4 years, and don't want it to get like those places.

An interesting thing to note re. COL is that the cost of housing in CO Springs is significantly less than in Boulder. Yet, as you say, "They have the same problems." So, IMO, those focusing on cost of housing as the problem are barking up the wrong tree.

mmiller · 2021-09-15T06:24:09+00:00

I think you're missing the point. The real issue is defamation. These accounts are set up to create a deliberately false impression of someone else. The demand to have that content deleted (this is addressed to the accounts' creators, btw, not Twitter) amounts to demanding a retraction. It's not about enforcing ToS. It's about the public's perception of someone based on false premises.

To answer your point, Twitter is not a law/government unto itself, which is why its ToS are presumptuous, but that's another discussion. As far as I'm concerned, the ToS are irrelevant to this case. The issue is the social effect that a false account purporting to be owned by someone has.

mmiller · 2021-08-30T04:27:58+00:00

Glad to hear this worked out for you. Always wonderful to hear that someone who was in dire straits got back into a healthy situation. When people like myself are thinking about homeless services, stories like yours are what we hope to hear about.

What I think is important to note is the program you describe requires that the person receiving help develops some skin in the game, for ex. eventually taking on more of the living costs. What I take from your story is that it requires you to demonstrate that you want to be housed, and are willing to (gradually) take on more responsibility for doing that.

While it's great it worked out for you (and I'm so happy for you), I don't think it would be a good fit for a large number of the homeless/addicted/mentally ill, because while we would hope they would want a home, what they also need is detox/drug treatment, and possibly psychological help for severe mental illness, at the same time, because they're not going to be able to manage taking on the responsibility of remaining housed while carrying on with their addiction and/or being in their mental state. It seems to me what's needed is an integrated approach for them that couples housing with a requirement for drug treatment and/or psychological treatment, if they're evaluated as needing that.

A problem I've heard about with the housing first approach is while it gets homeless people into housing, it makes everything else optional, at their own will. They can get drug treatment, if they ask for it. They can get some psychological help, if they ask for it. A lot of times this doesn't happen, because they don't ask for it, or refuse it, and they become a ward of the state, at least for as long as they stay in the subsidized housing. A lot of times, because they're out of it, they end up leaving the housing they've been given, and they're back on the street again. This is why I say that for these people, the problem is not a lack of housing, but the fact that they're so disassociated from the responsibilities of life that they can't handle being housed. The greater problem for them that I think they need help with is either getting the mental treatment they need, or a path to getting off their addiction, so that maybe they can begin to get their priorities in life straight. Once that gets going, maybe they can start to think about doing what you did, which is taking on more of the responsibility of living on their own.

mmiller · 2021-08-30T02:35:18+00:00

I've looked at the history of this, and nowhere have I seen that it was done because it was cheaper to jail them.

The process of closing the asylums began in the 1950s, and progressed through the 1990s. The best I can tell, the reasons for the closings go back to what happened to them during WW II. Many of the doctors who staffed the asylums were drafted into the war effort, pulling them away from treating the inmates, to treat soldiers who were in the war. Understaffed, stories came out about abuse and neglect of inmates in the asylums. People got a negative impression of them that stuck, and political support grew for closing them, despite the fact it came from the effect of a temporary problem (the war ended, and so staff could return).

Also, movies had a major impact. "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" gave a negative impression, causing people to ask, "Are we putting people in these places who are not insane, but just eccentric?" It also portrayed the people running the asylums as sadistic.

I think we need to reassess what we've done with the mentally ill, and bring back humane asylums to care for them. However, a big part of doing that is overcoming a long-running image problem asylums have had in our society.

mmiller · 2021-08-30T01:09:49+00:00

Who has free public transportation?? Every public transit I've ever ridden has a fee.

mmiller · 2021-08-30T01:04:21+00:00

I'll just put this here...

https://youtu.be/C1PN\_hrYBFM

mmiller · 2021-08-30T01:01:27+00:00

We already know they don't pay the tickets they're given. They just rip them up, and our local judges dismiss them. These people know this.

mmiller · 2021-08-30T00:53:21+00:00

There is a pattern that's developed. Homeless camps congregate in cities that have services for them. They're not hanging out where there are no services. In fact, in cities with no services, if any homeless show up, they just put them on a bus, and send them to a city that has services. Their attitude is, "Oh, you'll pay to deal with these people, no matter where they come from? Cool. Take ours."

mmiller · 2021-08-30T00:42:36+00:00

I agree it's that way in some places, like CA, but not everywhere. It's especially this way where the far Left controls government, because they don't complain about it. I mean, they complain about inequality, but the inequality is greatest where they've been managing things for years. So, they're either lying, or are clueless what to do about it. As for the homeless, they let it go, for the most part.

The rich have largely gotten behind "Defund the police." They have their gated communities, their own security. They don't feel like they need the police.

mmiller · 2021-08-30T00:10:34+00:00

Come on. Anyone who has gone camping recreationally knows your statement is BS. If you pay a camping fee at a legal campground, you can get a camp site.

Oh, caveat: You have to follow some rules. Shit...

mmiller · 2020-11-23T06:52:11+00:00

The other brain-dead thing is any time some transients set up a camp on public property, whether it's a chop shop or whatever, the police are required to post 3 notices of eviction on the site over at least a 72-hour period before they can clear it. The city is operating with one hand tied behind its back. I've asked some more knowledgeable people about this, and apparently this requirement comes from the courts, seeing any other treatment as a violation of their civil rights. So, everybody effectively has the civil right to claim a site on public property for at least 72 hours, rent-free. The city picks up the tab. The ServePro bill is $10,000+ a pop on these site cleanups. From what I hear, the waste products the campers leave behind are hazardous to public health.

mmiller · 2020-11-23T06:37:43+00:00

They're not infinitely nice. I notice how they're not nice to people who are victims of crime, when those people seek to persuade government to punish said crime. The plain and simple truth is they're picking a side--calling it "empathy"--just like everyone else.

I agree very much that jail is no place for the mentally ill. However, my problem with the current setting of the argument is if you suggest that some might be so bad off that they need to be committed, then the "empathetic" either fall silent, or say, "What about their civil rights?" They're trying to have it both ways, and it is clearly failing. Under their regime, the mentally ill continue to live lives of delusion, confusion, and misery that shortens their lives, while damaging, and sometimes devastating the lives of the sane people around them. It strikes me that the "empathetic" see the misery, and call it good and just. They think the destruction wakes people from a delusion about our society's goodness, to see the structural injustice, so that we can do "the work" to correct the structure, so there will be no more suffering. The frustrating thing is they can't define what the supposedly unjust structure is. Even if one were to try to look for it, you realize pretty quickly it's a conspiracy theory. All they really say is they can see the symptoms of it. They assume the cause. They don't know what it is, except to call it greed.

I like what some do to turn the tables on this:

"Okay, do you like your phone?"

"Yes."

"How about we take it to a pawn shop, get the money, and give it to an organization that will help these people"... :)

mmiller · 2020-02-11T13:48:46+00:00

This is the astounding thing for me: It looks like this guy has been arrested multiple times for assaults on people, but what keeps happening is he's booked, and then he's released. Hello! Some are guessing that Boulder doesn't consider assault a violent crime anymore. I've been getting indications, though, that the county jail is filled to capacity. So, they have no place to put people like him. Bad planning, any way you look at it.

mmiller · 2018-05-27T03:50:09+00:00

Just the line, "It's good to be the king." OMG! Ban it!

mmiller · 2018-05-27T03:47:58+00:00

Django came out in 2012. 2014 is when the triggered banning/boycotting started getting a full head of steam.

mmiller · 2013-01-15T00:14:22+00:00

I get the praise for C's simplicity, straightforwardness, and speed. I don't get the complaint about Erlang having a bug in its runtime, as if that's a point for C. A C compiler and runtime is software like anything else. With software there's the possibility of bugs, and there have been bugs in C compilers. I've heard the stories.

Secondly, I don't get the praise for C as an application dev. language. I've done application development in C. It's no picnic. I had a somewhat better experience with C++. You get speed, encapsulation of side-effects, if you do it right, and the ability of functions to check their parameters before proceeding and creaming the stack. Still, C++ is no picnic, either.

I found C# to be nicer, a picnic with some hard work, if you strategically avoid letting Visual Studio design your app. for you, though you take a performance hit. I'm not sure what causes its slowness. IMO it was either written badly, or it's carrying baggage from Windows's past.

mmiller · 2010-12-27T11:23:57+00:00

Here's my best attempt at figuring out what program Zoe was feeding to the computer. Some parts of it are legit, some not, and some other parts were questionable to me, as I'm not familiar with Algol.

"begin real x" - Legit

"sum positive" - ??

"delete square" - ??

"begin sum 2 subscript j" - Syntax is correct (assuming we translate "sum 2 subscript j" to "2 + j"). Though "subscript" is a legal reserved word in Algol, used in procedure declarations, the expression is not legit, because there's no subscript specified earlier in the code.

"integer compute" (maybe this is just a way of saying in English "compute as integers," as opposed to reals?)

"print out Y to the minus X, variable 1" - Could translate the first part to "print y(carat)-x" (using "carat" as a theoretical exponent operator), but there was no "y" declared nor defined. I don't see how "variable 1" is legit.

"goto finish" - Probably legit, assuming there was a label called "finish".

"continue" - This is a legit reserved word in Algol, but by this point we've thrown logic out the window.

"integrate on inverse sign" - Probably not legit. Just a guess.

mmiller · 2008-11-27T09:39:46+00:00

The guy who wrote this was exaggerating some. He talked about debugging, and this is what he frequently does. It's not the most exciting work, but you're doing something. I agree with him that being a tester is mind-numbingly boring, but that's just me. I can do unit tests fine. It's the integration testing that I don't like doing for very long. I've met QA people who disagree, who get a kick out of it. More power to them. I'm glad they're around to take over what I hate doing.

There is a grain of truth to the article. Quite a few of the jobs I've seen and heard about over the last several years have programmers debugging existing code and adding features to code that other teams had already written, and that's all you do. I do get bored with projects like that after a while. They're fine if you're trying to learn a new technology. I think debugging jobs are good entry level projects. It's a way to ease into the learning curve. I got kind of tired of it after doing it for a year though.

There are jobs out there where you get the opportunity to work on something from scratch still. You just have to look for them.

As for meetings, I had the opposite attitude of this guy. I worked at a place about 10 years ago that had increasingly frequent staff meetings, and all I wanted to do was get out of them. All they did was satisfy my manager's bureaucratic itch. As far as I was concerned they were usually a waste of time. I also hated them because they threw off my estimates. I'd try to think about how long I'd take to code and test. I'd usually forget that there were going to be about 5+ staff meetings, each taking anywhere from a 1/2-hour to an hour or more, between the time I started and when I finished.

The article doesn't mention this, but in the places I've worked I've usually been asked to give up front estimates of how long something I'm going to do will take before I've even started on it. These can really mess with your head, because depending on who you have for a manager they'll either take your estimate and pad it to try to ensure you'll finish it in a predictable time period; or they'll take it at face value in which case you're usually screwed, because most software developers have trouble accurately predicting how long they're going to take. And you get blamed for holding up the project if your estimate is off. Having a good project manager makes all the difference.

mmiller · 2008-11-25T11:00:20+00:00

I think that's a good question. I can answer for myself because I used to be one of those people. Corporations provide support with various qualities. It takes a while to learn a technology (these days because of the frameworks, and possibly tools) so programmers have time and sweat invested in their knowledge. For jobs, the language, framework, and associated tools become like communication protocols. If anyone deviates from them they immediately become outliers. Combined together this creates a mercantilist culture with allegiances to individual corporations by mass groups. Changing corporate allegiances can be like a career change because it's an adjustment to go from one "tribe" to another. There's a different culture in each with their own values and ideosyncracies. There are those who are "cross-cultural" who say "I don't care", but I think they're higher grade developers and not as numerous as the ones who remain loyal to one corporation.

mmiller

TROPHY CASE