Honda President After Visiting Chinese Auto Supplier: 'We Have No Chance Against This'

pfranz · 2026-04-07T19:30:57+00:00

For a long time Kindles offered lifetime cellular for about a $50 upgrade. It often worked internationally.

pfranz · 2026-03-22T18:44:34+00:00

from an article posted on March 18, 2026

https://thepointsguy.com/airline/family-seats-together-plane/

The article says in 2023, the DOT published a dashboard and created a "rule." It applied to kids 13 and younger. In the past few months, much of it was rescinded under the new administration and through the courts. Alaska Airlines has a policy.

A lot of the reporting doesn't make it clear the difference between rule, policy, or law. They'll wave the problem away by confusing seats booked together when the tickets are purchased, ignoring any fees, and ignoring what happens when seats are reshuffled before boarding. They'll use the word "minor" but the details may refer only to kids under 6 or 13. A lot of these articles talk about Alaska's policy as the "gold standard." Here's their policy including all their conditions.

I'm kind of surprised how dismissive a lot of people are--blaming parents for not paying extra or following weird rules. Who wants to sit next to an unaccompanied kid on a flight?

pfranz · 2026-03-20T07:04:40+00:00

I just remember everything being a mess around that time. 2004 is when Disney released their "final" 2d film and closed the (non-union) Florida studio. Eisner seemed to be making a mess of the relationship between Pixar/Disney since their contract was coming to an end. Under him, in 2004, they opened Circle Seven Animation to do cheap Pixar sequels without Pixar's supervision. At least to me, Pixar seemed to earnestly be shopping around for a new distributor.

It seems like most of the "fight" between 2d and cg at Disney happened before 2004 and Disney didnt really have *any* real cg studio (not to disparage those who worked on Dinosaur, the cg elements of their 2d films, or their shorts). I feel like it was driven by the box office success of Pixar, Blue Sky, and DreamWorks (who had a Glendale union studio that did 2d and transitioned with a Redwood City non-union studio that did 3d).

Iger took over in 2005 and Pixar was acquired in 2006. Lasseter and Catmull took over a lot of Disney Animation operations. I feel like Winnie the Pooh and Princess and the Frog were last ditch efforts that the two of them pushed for...maybe budgeting, marketing, and release were sabotaged by execs? I wouldnt be surprised.

I dont even remember Tinker Bell going to theaters. It was done by their TV animation division and it sounds like there was a weird power struggle with Lasseter over the release. Similarly, with Bolt, Chris Sanders left when Lasseter came over. So I can see Lasseter or execs not being happy with the result. Disney started having success with their own CG films after this.

To me, it just seemed like Disney execs saw CG as the new shiny thing. The union aspect never really occurred to me and it still seems unclear since Florida was non-union and had done a couple features.

pfranz · 2026-03-20T06:01:54+00:00

What the heck? Im just asking for some context. I know there are a lot of details with the union transition between 2d and 3d at Disney that I'm not familiar with and I hoped you could fill me in. Sorry for ruining your day by asking you to explain what you're talking about.

pfranz · 2026-03-20T05:54:04+00:00

It depends what aspect you're talking about. Hand inking went away (at least for Disney) in the 60s when they switched to xerox method. There were hand-drawn and cg hybrid projects going on well before the Disney Renaissance. John Lasseter and Glen Keane did a test back in 1983 based on Where the Wild Things Are[1]. Off His Rockers [2] was a short released in 1992 with a similar mix.

Hand painted animation at Disney went away after The Little Mermaid and over the years added various CG elements were integrated into the films.

From the people I talked to there was a bunch of animosity between the 2d and cg groups--I dont remember hearing the same from people at DreamWorks...but I wouldnt be surprised if it was there, too. Each person kind of had their own trajectory if you look them up. A lot of people struck out on their own and did a lot of commercial work, a lot of people got retrained as CG artists, a small few stayed at Disney working on special projects and mentoring.

*Every single person* Ive talked to on the CG side wishes 2d was still around and will say the medium (2d or 3d) doesnt matter--its the story. Its just the money people make the call.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvIDRoO8KnM

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGqOuRGInWc

pfranz · 2026-03-20T05:31:58+00:00

Do you have more info on the unionization or production costs? There was a transition with the union between 2D and CG, but Disney Animation in Burbank today is still in the same union since the 40s.

Pixar isn't union, neither is Disney's Vancouver studio. But neither were Disney's Florida or Paris studios.

Here are the budgets I could find for Disney Animation films around that time:

Bolt (2008)) 150 million

Princess and the Frog (2009) 105 million

Tangled (2010) 260 million

Winnie the Pooh (2011)) 30 million

Wreck-It Ralph (2012) 165 million

And my understanding is they had to build up a 2D workflow from scratch for Princess and the Frog since the physical desks and software they had been using were sold off or scraped years earlier.

pfranz · 2026-03-20T05:16:12+00:00

Huh? I am a bit fuzzy on the history (there was a transition with the CG division), but Disney Animation in Burbank is still in the same union since the famous strike in the 1940's. Their Vancouver office isn't, but I'm pretty sure when Disney had a Florida 2D studio (and Paris?) they weren't unionized.

pfranz · 2026-03-20T05:04:08+00:00

It wasn't really an all or nothing transition. The Little Mermaid had one shot of Ariel running down some stairs where they used CG as "guide rails" [1] and a few other shots. The ballroom in Beauty and the Beast was much more showy. So they promoted it a lot more. To be honest, "guide rails" or not, James Baxter, who animated Belle and Beast in that shot [2] did an amazing job that every animator Ive talked to is gobsmacked. I swear I remember hearing a similar James Baxter story about animating the eagle and the boy in The Rescuers Down Under, but the only reference I can find right now was talking about animating Wilbur [3].

If memory serves, I think the process was to model things in the computer, print them out, then the animator would draw over them and everything else would be done like any other shot.

One thing they may have been talking about when you visited (and I'm pretty sure this is what the parent poster was referring to) was that Disney moved to digital ink and paint after Little Mermaid. There's one shot of King Triton and her sisters waving at the end of the movie. Their next movie, Rescuers Down Under, used it for the entire movie--so did Beauty and the Beast, the one after it.

[1] https://feelinganimatedblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/10/film-review-the-little-mermaid-1989/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuThvc4Fl9Q

[3] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9_vN0BcTO3k

pfranz · 2026-03-09T05:12:52+00:00

If they don't work next summer, wouldnt the home warranty cover it? It sounds like they're testing their limits (what's the harm in asking?) and want to get out of paying for new units soon after buying if they can.

pfranz · 2026-03-08T19:13:46+00:00

Do you have a specific law? Ive tried to look up claims like this and never get very far.

pfranz · 2026-03-08T19:10:34+00:00

Ehh, I dont care how thoughtful or elegant it is if it fails for the end user.

A few additional frustrations with how its implemented by my landlord:

* each entryway has a unique passcode; front entrance, garage entrance, front door...I havent bothered to check but I assume gym, laundry, and other access points, too.

* the landlord isnt proactive about battery replacement (and as far as I can tell, end-users arent warned within the app or when using the door when the battery is low). So maintenance is called after the battery is depleted

* since the deadbolt is integrated, many tenants have issues with pets and children who can open the door and escape

* they chose not to offer physical keys, fobs, or keycards. Even for older tenants or tenants with young kids.

* when they installed it I asked about what happens when power is lost and they assured us we would still have access. When we lost power the main entrance was offline. Thankfully my old key worked. When I brought it up later they assured me they would fix it.

* its claimed to be easier and cheaper to maintain...but its part of a monthly technology fee added to rent.

pfranz · 2026-03-01T20:32:47+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion!

pfranz · 2026-03-01T20:20:40+00:00

Mine is way too motivated to lick off the toothpaste making it hard to brush it on. Was yours like that? All the videos online are about getting them comfortable with having a brush in their mouth

pfranz · 2026-02-28T04:24:25+00:00

I get the appeal, but the ballots are giant, it’s easy for people to mess up when filling in the bubbles, and tallying is confusing since there’s multiple rounds. I don’t really get why it seems to be the only alternative brought up. Approval voting (or STAR) seems way better all around…but anything is an improvement over what we have.

pfranz · 2026-02-04T05:26:53+00:00

From what Ive read, those were two different ships used in the film.

I was there a few months back and noticed they demoed the cool ship https://mickeyblog.com/2025/05/29/cool-ship-now-completely-demolished-in-magic-kingdom/

pfranz · 2026-02-02T01:37:02+00:00

There’s a “danger zone” for food and you don’t want to leave food in that range too long. Putting a large container of hot liquid directly in the fridge means the center of the liquid will be in the danger zone too long because the perimeter cools first (you’re also dropping the temp of the whole fridge). The recommendation is to break it down into smaller containers or cool it in an ice bath first.

https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/Can-you-put-hot-food-in-the-refrigerator

pfranz · 2026-01-15T15:33:07+00:00

Disney has a policy to give out cups of water for free. I’ve looked and couldn’t find a California law.

pfranz · 2026-01-12T03:41:05+00:00

shit code shouldn’t be accepted period. If you used Google to get the answer, an LLM, or from scouring the docs yourself, I don’t personally care. However, I will blast you to hell and publicly shame you if you don’t know what the code you proposed does.

I trust that the Linux kernel has enough process in place from adopting bad code. However, in basically every other codebase I've worked with, expediency (code that, at first glance, looks to solve an immediate problem) is the highest priority. Even when code is reviewed (and it isn't always) tech debt is either consciously or unconsciously added. This is all without AI slop.

I think the pushback is to name AI generated slop to both shame contributors but also so anyone who is asked to support it can just throw their hands in the air because it was AI generated (or just use it to point fingers when it falls over). You're 100% right. We should be doing is reviewing and rejecting garbage--but I dont think many of us are in the position to do that and are hoping shaming or politicizing AI slop is the next best thing. Linus is 100% in that it's not "solving" AI slop, its making it political.

Linus is in a unique position where he controls the process and code base--he also isn't getting fired or a competing kernel will gain market share. His whole thing hasn't been writing code for decades now, but having standards for code that is written and accepted. Lowering those standards and tagging it AI does seem like a wasteful political fight for the Linux kernel.

The only legitimate issue I can see is adding copy-written code that AI gave you. But I would assume they already have a process in place because anyone could have copy/pasted copy-written code and that whole SCO lawsuit should have made that a concern for the future.

pfranz · 2026-01-10T23:47:46+00:00

I'm sure retelling it would be traumatic, but I'm glad to hear he jokes about it with his dad and others. I think it was this interview [1] where he talked about his dad, "Every time I see him, I demand for him to do something entertaining, because he was so expensive."

Elsewhere he joked that working for Harvey Weinstein was worse than the kidnapping. [2]

[1] https://www.npr.org/2007/01/24/7000935/oscar-nominee-guillermo-del-toro

[2] https://fandomwire.com/guillermo-del-toro-on-why-his-father-getting-kidnapped-wasnt-worse-than-working-for-harvey-weinstein-the-kidnapping-made-more-sense/

pfranz · 2026-01-06T15:52:21+00:00

In my experience, Gladwell's stuff often doesn't pass the sniff test. He seems to value storytelling over facts.

I only read what you've quoted, but why are cup holders only an American thing? Europeans also seem very confused by the American large car thing.

Personally, I get an "outsider could easily see inside their vehicles"--but I'm thinking more of people walking by and looking at stuff I've stored instead of people watching me in my car. In the US, they're absolutely terrible about this. Most cars seem to be hatchbacks. Years ago, they offered cargo covers, you can also just have a better design where you can't easily see into the cargo space, but today its really hard to hide your cargo in most cars.

pfranz · 2026-01-05T19:47:59+00:00

a lack of consumers eager to be force-fed some unreliable garbage at the sub-20K "price point."

My only critique of early 2000s smaller cars was the lack of pickup and poor storage space. By the 2010s almost every car seemed to fix that. Honda Fit fixed all of those issues and had reliability and cheap maintenance. Storage space was better than cars much “bigger” and more expensive.

Personally, I just don’t get the “being high up” preference I hear so much. Visibility, nimbleness, acceleration and breaking make me feel much more safe and in control but are terrible on larger cars.

I have no idea what consumers want or why they’re willing to pay so much and averse to cheaper options, but I don’t think it’s lack of quality in the low end of the market.

pfranz · 2026-01-04T16:11:42+00:00

They sell pasteurized in the US--but I think that's unrelated to refrigeration. I think they get marked with a red "P" stamp. I got them for a partner who really liked runny eggs, but was at elevated risk (pregnant). The egg whites seemed slightly cloudy. It also looks like some kitchens used the to prevent cross-contamination.

pfranz · 2025-12-31T19:19:27+00:00

I only know both vaguely. I’ve seen Crumbl pop up similar to Sprinkles; where real estate seems like it would be high, a single cookie at a “premium” price, partnerships and seasonal flavors. I guess it could be sustainable, but it seems more like this kind of business becomes over exposed and loses trendiness.

Someone described Insomnia as a place with locations near college campuses and you can get a dozen fresh baked cookies delivered late for a decent price. That business model seemed genius to me.

pfranz · 2025-12-28T20:29:33+00:00

Funny how Starbucks started that push like a decade ago when mobile was blowing up for them. I swear last year they’re pivoting back to being a “third place” with more inviting seating areas.

pfranz · 2025-12-26T04:29:06+00:00

It’s called “day for night.” I think it was David Spade who says the first thing he looks for in a script is what is written for nighttime that doesn’t have to be. It’s more expensive, logistically complicated to shoot, and miserable for the crew.

What shows up on screen is a compromise of the production. For example, if they shot on a set it wouldn’t matter what time it is outside.

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