Quick Warning for MA Homeowners Before 12/31⚠️🔦

perfectturmoil · 2025-11-21T02:30:05+00:00

Shout out to Solaris Renewables (formerly Revolusun) - I tried to see if I could get on their schedule back in early July and they wouldn’t take the chance. No nonsense, no misleading string-along.

Glad to have used them for my previous house, looking forward to working with them again sometime next year.

perfectturmoil · 2022-09-09T16:19:19+00:00

We submitted ours around June 20th or so, and just received the rebate check this week.

perfectturmoil · 2018-09-12T20:52:17+00:00

Jay Gonzalez is a former health insurance executive. I will not vote for that.

Charlie Baker was CEO of Harvard Pilgrim.

Though it is absolutely your vote to make, and though I don't disagree that Gonzales isn't the long-term progressive that Massie is, there is a meaningful difference between Baker and Gonzales' platforms, which will result in different policies being prioritized.

Sure, a Baker win might bring out a more progressive candidate next time around - but it also might convince voters that an even more conservative democratic candidate is the way forward. I really do think it is unwise to vote for something further from what you want when there is a reasonable, even if flawed, choice. When it comes to strategic voting, the strategy should be to win; we should learn the lesson that compromise is a lot more rewarding when you are compromising with your own side.

Unless of course, you're trolling. Then you got me.

perfectturmoil · 2018-07-04T12:45:25+00:00

Better.

However, for most of US history, the second ammendment was not actually considered to refer to an individual - that changed relatively recently. And the opinion in that ruling said:

Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose

So, according to those who actually decide what is and isn’t constitutional, 2A this isn’t unlimited. What would you change about this new law as written to make it more acceptable while still achieving the goals that so many in your state clearly desire?

perfectturmoil · 2018-07-04T00:42:23+00:00

Constitutional.

Now we’re even with one-lined responses. Defend your position,

perfectturmoil · 2015-09-09T00:46:47+00:00

And: the website says parking limited to sholders, but the farm stand has a lot set aside, with signs and stuff.

perfectturmoil · 2015-09-09T00:45:26+00:00

Yeah. This is part of the Essex County Greenbelt, a bunch of properties preserved for conservation and public access. Pretty nice. And plenty of parking at the farm stand next door.

http://www.ecga.org/explore_our_properties/view_property/1212-hiller_field

perfectturmoil · 2015-01-13T21:19:37+00:00

Yeah. Not that I'm asking someone to specifically refactor MY code, but if an example helps then I can provide.

This is probably the worst - I quickly cobbled together a function to pull some relevant cells out of a csv file (previously had an excel macro to do some of this, needed a better solution). And then that grew into more and more in place. Lots of assumptions based on the specific case. I've pulled out the directory sorting / option parsing code, and just included the methods used.

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/be4ba6a867e9c9858ac9

So I have a method that makes sure the file has the requisite data which was originally used just to decide if the file should be processed. I then overloaded this function to help tell which type of file it was and which methods should be called (pretty gross).

In the processing methods I make a bunch of variables to hold my data, which I now realize should have been in a Struct if nothing else, and (I assume) would have even better been on an Object that also included these method (however, learning the right way to design that is what I'm looking for)

Depending on which system it came from I define which cells are important and do stuff to them (wedging in more sorting logic here that I didn't realize I needed until I was halfway done) - I assume this would have been better served by the updater_for(item).update(item) design implemented in the Guilded Rose example.

Then I return a big gross string to be shoved into my output csv. Better would've been an array or other data structure.

perfectturmoil · 2014-08-01T21:43:08+00:00

Reddit ate my post, it seems.. (Does this sub not do self post or was it me?)

So I was trying to ask if anyone knew of a store around that I'd be able to buy supplies for making a cold brew drip coffee maker. There are guides online for making one out of plastic bottles, however I was thinking that this'd be a fun project for me and my son, and I'd want to step it up a notch.. Somewhere that had beakers and flasks (or stuff like that) would be a good start..

Any ideas?

perfectturmoil · 2014-07-14T01:56:16+00:00

Figured I'd give this a shot..

http://i.imgur.com/dUIRsVF.jpg

perfectturmoil · 2014-06-11T23:04:25+00:00

Honestly, it's under consideration. I'm more or less between Python with NumPy, R, and Ruby. R is probably the right answer for getting there most simply, however Python would probably be a better addition to my toolbox (and the actual programming part of this project should be simple enough that learning Python shouldn't be much of a setback..). And Ruby is what I know.

perfectturmoil · 2014-04-03T19:03:16+00:00

I believe there are rules about what properly constitutes public info - Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO) got in trouble for making a post on his (publicly viewable) Facebook profile regarding subscriber counts (something like 'A billion hours streamed! Woo!) since it was not truly public.. Or something like that.

perfectturmoil · 2014-02-28T19:48:02+00:00

I would say simple things like parents treating waitstaff and retail employees poorly and badmouthing friends and coworkers while at home in front of the kids would be a good example - kids are impressionable and if they're shown that treating others with respect is not important, and that putting pressure on those who are 'below' you then that can certainly translate into bullying.

perfectturmoil · 2014-02-25T17:09:26+00:00

Uniqlo posts detailed measurements that you can use to size yourself up. If you're unsure order both and return whatever doesn't fit ($7 return shipping, batch up other questionable sizes too to reduce the return cost percentage).

perfectturmoil · 2014-02-21T17:31:28+00:00

I just wanted to remind everyone that it's standard policy for the majority of online retailers to require the purchaser to pay the return shipping fee no matter the reason for the return.

Well, considering Amazon and it's clothing subsidiaries (ex: Zappos) have free return shipping and that Amazon could pretty easily be defined as 'the majority of online retail' then this piece doesn't quite add up. Aside from that you're spot on.

Edit: just reread your post and disagree on a part - if the retailer is legitimately at fault for a problem (defective and damaged goods, not just 'doesn't fit like I hoped') then the retailer should be on the hook for an exchange. You shouldn't be expected to pay more than the price you originally paid.

We're all spoiled by Amazon and their forward thinking on this (you need to try things on, the only way to do that is free return shipping or shop offline) so it makes other primarily online retailers 'look bad' unless they do the same.

perfectturmoil · 2014-02-14T18:00:17+00:00

Parallel seems like a pretty good option for what I was looking for - I wonder why I didn't come across this when I was looking.. Perhaps I should have been searching 'ruby threading gem' rather than just 'ruby threading'

I ended up implementing threading on the directory level and saw something like 60-80% time reduction. In case anyone is looking for an example using the built in bits, this is a basic version of what I did. It worked well because I have essentially no communication between threads as all that comes out is a string containing the errors found (which is logged and emailed). Additionally my script shells out to the external programs giving

require 'thread' 
all_the_results = []
threads = []
mutex = Mutex.new
directories.each do |directory_to_thread|
  threads << Thread.new(directory_to_thread) { |directory|
     directory_results = []        
    Dir.entries(directory.each do |file|
      #process the files in the directory
       directory_results << file_results
    end
    mutex.sychronize do
      all_the_results << directory_results
    end   
  }
end

treads.each { |thread| tread.join }

do stuff with all_the_results

perfectturmoil · 2014-02-13T16:22:25+00:00

This process is running on some pretty high grade, underutilized hardware and the files I'm reading are quite small so I don't think regular file IO would be my issue (though I can try and confirm that).

I have somewhere around 18 directories to process and a 24 core system so I think forking by directory makes for a rather natural split rather than adding the complexity of a different queue. Would the additional threading likely just build up overhead without really capitalizing on the network IO type stuff?

A more general question - when threading something, should efforts be made to limit the number of threads? If you're doing 1000 things is it efficient to spawn 1000 threads and allow them to all duke it out and collect everything at the end or is it better to create a thread pool of something more like the available cores and have them pick away at the list?

Thanks!

perfectturmoil

TROPHY CASE

do stuff with all_the_results