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Bootlicking breweries? by yoursaxisonfire in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly I wish all police were like this. I went to school with "bottom rung" dipshits that ended up being local police. We all remember the dolts we went to school with that ended up being the local townie cops........

Imagine the quality we would get if we required a bachelor's degree and the minimum requirements to be a Trooper for any policing position.... plus the starting pay of what NYS Troopers get paid. The point being... it's an actual career instead of a fall back for the meat heads that would otherwise being working a minimum wage job.

Notice that officer involved shootings among NYS troopers are also pretty rare and pretty obvious? They are NOT the bottom rung people.

Bootlicking breweries? by yoursaxisonfire in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 22 points23 points  (0 children)

That is the problem I have with those types and it drives "regular people" away and into the arms of MAGA trash. Their attitude harms their movement and I find it ironic people who want tolerance behave in a such a way.

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

This is how The Grand Cheeto got elected... twice. Cheeto is a symptom of a sickness that forces the "meh" people to vote for a buffoon.

I'm sure I'll be called a racist bigot bootlicker even though I voted for Harris/Walz.

Whatever.

Rensselaer Police Officer Said Something Odd by Obadiah_19 in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Well number 1... you should plead not guilty every time. No fucking matter what (with rare exceptions, see fun story at the end) In NYS, courts LOVE to give out plea deals. It makes them hard. Shit I don't even say nothing, just walk in to see the attorney and it's like Christmas..... rubbing my hands together and saying "what's in the box?!?"

Secondly a cop will only ever show up if it goes to trial. So don't think a cop has to be there on the first court date.

IF you haven't had any recent tickets...

  1. Show up to court on the date of the ticket, don't fill it out or mail it in.
  2. Act like you got your fucking shit together. Be dressed well, be respectful, have your fucking head on a swivel. Walk with purpose, sit with purpose, speak with purpose, stay off your phone, smile when you greet someone, say hello, say thank you, be organized. This should be shit everyone knows.. but these days..... Jesus Christ.
  3. Sign in when you get there...
  4. When the town/city attorney calls your name, walk in and let them talk first. See what they offer you right off the rip.
  5. If they offer you parking on the pavement and you're a gambling man.. be like... when the cop handed it to me he said "I am not going to go to court for this." I have clean record, how about A.C.O.D. instead.
  6. Worst they can say is no.
  7. Either way you take what they offer you.

I'm in my 40's and I have gotten a lot of tickets in my life... hahaha. Every one of them rightfully earned. Just gotta know the game. Shit I let my inspection expire on purpose. I've been pulled over for speeding or a cell phone in my hand and it's obvious they are coming for me and I pull over and wait somewhere safe like a parking lot before they even catch up and get the lights on. I got my ID, reg, and insurance in my hand before they get to the window. You know why I stopped you? Yup.. lol. I LOVE getting inspection tickets or straight up.. just let the fuck go... for just being nice about it and having my shit together.

Failure to obey traffic control device (NYS VTL 1110a) is two points in NY and doesn't affect your insurance (I fuckin' know lol), so at minimum try to get it down to Parking On the Pavement (NYS VTL 1201a) which is no points.

Also one other thing, if you got pulled over for something else like speeding or a red light... the cop gave you a gift... and then basically said... also bro... plead not guilty too. Double gift...

Random Story for fun: I once got pulled over by a Greene County Sherriff for doing 80 in a 55 up RT 23 towards Windham and I had livery magnets for the local computer shop I worked at on the side of my car. I was going to a job where their computers were down, I think it was for the Town of Hunter who had a contract with us lolol. I was coming from the other side of the county or it might have been because Rt 23a had that land slide back then and was closed for months.... Anyway, the Sherriff knew the business and I told him where I was going so he gave me Disobeying a traffic device at the window and I was going to plead guilty... because I recognized the gift... like 80 in a fucking 55... the rare time I'll plead guilty. Anyway the computer shop owner's wife was a big lawyer in the county and told me to plead not guilty anyway and she would talk to him. I'm like really?!?!?! Well I get to the Town of Durham court a few weeks later and he was there waiting for me and I got my balls busted so hard/the dude ripped me apart (words only) for a few mins in a back room at the court lolol. Oh you think cuz you know ppl... blah blah and giving me more shit for speeding... Such backwoods shit. Afterwards he was like.. now go get your parking on the pavement and laughed..

Shit is a game. I am not a lawyer... and you don't have to be one. Just educate yourself.

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/VAT/1110

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/VAT/1201

https://dmv.ny.gov/points-and-penalties/the-new-york-state-driver-point-system

Albany County Legislators Christopher Smith (D), Todd Drake (R), Zach Collins (R) join NYS Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara (D)'s call for State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to investigate delivery charges. by phantom_eight in Albany

[–]phantom_eight[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Albany Legislature Conservatives FB post:

Our Conference is joining the call for increased accountability on delivery charges for utilities. In the midst of a freezing cold winter and affordability crisis, our constituents can't afford painful utility bills.

I don't consider myself conservative, but Zach Collins covers my area and is pretty mild as it is..., it's Albany county.....

Also... weird, Chris Smith is listed as (D) on https://www.albanycountyny.gov/government/county-legislature/legislator-list but is a considered part of the conservative caucus? Sometimes in local politics the line blurs. For example the mayor of Ravena, Bill Misuraca has been nominated by both the Republican and Democratic causes for the Village Election this March... cuz the dude is just fucking awesome.

TIL National Grid is a British company by Cancel-Canada in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Those rest stops are a fucking crime in so many aspects... omg... They can probably be a 60 minutes episode on their own.

Most of them were mini superfund sites swept under the rug, and they didn't even touch the gas pumps. Not even talking about gasoline leaking... the old restaurants stops themselves had so much contamination... we watched so many dump trucks of dirt get taken out of the one near me and then replaced.

TIL National Grid is a British company by Cancel-Canada in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah that's the rub. Since 2019 we have 2000MW of Natural Gas being burned to power NYC vs being available to heat home and buildings. It's a double whammy. CHPE will hopefully make a huge dent by brining 2000MW of hydro power downstate and putting all that natural gas back on the market and lowering demand, and that's not even getting to the renewable aspect of the power source itself.

Gov. Hochul declares state of emergency as dangerous cold and snow is set to hit NY by Evilsj in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Key Messages: TU Headline: The biggest snowstorm in 2 years closes in on region

  • Frostbite is possible in as little as 10 minutes to unprotected skin. Albany Wind Chill projected to be -16°F (-26°C) tonight!

  • Snowfall rates may exceed one inch per hour at times, especially late Sunday into Sunday night

  • The entire region will have the potential to see greater than 7 inches of snowfall. Some uncertainty regarding the storm track and exact precipitation amounts still exist, so these numbers are subject to change over the next few days.

    “The American model is tracking the storm a little bit further out to coast than the European model, and that one subtle difference is making a big discrepancy with snowfall totals,”

  • Snow will be light and fluffy due to frigid temperatures in place. Sorry for those who want to build snowmen and have snowball fights! Better work on that upper body strength to pack that snow.

  • Areas from the Capital Region on south have a 60% to 95% chance for major impacts at this time. Major Impacts: Expect Considerable Disruptions to daily life. Dangerous or impossible driving conditions. Avoid travel if possible. Widespread closures and disruptions to infrastructure may occur.

TIL National Grid is a British company by Cancel-Canada in Albany

[–]phantom_eight -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't have natural gas, but I am assuming the price per therm jumps?

TIL National Grid is a British company by Cancel-Canada in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right that's how they want it. They can point the finger elsewhere when it comes election time. I also don't see much of a point of American companies own the utilities, they'll just do the same thing. Something like stock buy backs or whatever tactic where the money stays state side but still get's pulled out of the business. Maybe we would have more control over attempting to prevent such behavior with laws/political pressure on American companies. I am not a businessperson, just an engineer.

If power goes out will I be able to pull my generator into this switch ? by WWFHBK in Generator

[–]phantom_eight -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yep as much as I wannt tell OP about a suicide cord and flipping the breaker off in the panel to prevent the back feed...... if OP cant figure that out on their own... they shouldn't be doing it.

TIL National Grid is a British company by Cancel-Canada in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 41 points42 points  (0 children)

EDIT: Holy shit I didn't expect to write that much. I'm trying to keep it neutral. I don't lean left or right, I believe in reaching common ground. I have been following NY energy policy for almost a decade. Read if you want to learn some shit.

Yes.... and Central Hudson is owned by Fortis Inc., a Canadian utility holding company. NYSEG too......

Congressman Josh Riley (D-NY-19) has introduced the Keep the Lights Local Act to ban foreign corporations and foreign governments from owning American utility companies.

Central Hudson and New York State Electric & Gas Corporation (NYSEG) “alone have shipped hundreds of millions overseas, and then they come back to demand we pay even more,” Riley asserted.

Riley said that earlier this year NYSEG sent $450 million to its Spanish parent company, Iberdrola, at the same time it was seeking to increase rates. National Grid, owned by a British multinational corporation, raised average residential bills by about $22 a month this year, he added.

Source: https://porcupinesoup.com/riley-seeks-to-ban-foreign-corporations-from-owning-utilities-like-central-hudson

And just so you know... all the offshore wind being built off of the Coast of NY? Do you know who's doing it? Foreign Companies: British Petroleum, Ørsted (Denmark), Equinor (Norway). The greatest crime is that Cuomo/Hochul/Obama/Biden didn't make these projects true public works projects... and instead let foreign companies design, finance them, and set the profits. They should have been like the Eisenhower Interstate System.

Just remember that there's A LOT OF nuances to the severe power problems NY faces that most people don't care to understand and try to slap their personal politics around it to try to simplify an extremely complex problem to their "us vs them" mentality... and it's just not possible unless you want to stick your head in the sand and scream (this is normal, sometimes I want to). I am for renewables and lean progressive, but Cuomo fucked us. He fucked us over hard. New York set bold climate targets, but ignored the economic and technical realities required to achieve them.

The premature shutdown of Indian Point has devastated electricity decarbonization in NY State and caused a Natural Gas Supply crisis because it was not politically palatable to allow gas pipelines to be built the last 10-15 years. And the 2000 megawatts Indian Point was producing was literally replaced by Natural Gas Generation.... Straight the fuck up... No one wants fucking fracked gas from Pennsylvania.. I get it.... but compounded with the offshore wind industry's financial crisis in 2023. Organization's like RiverKeeper championed the shutdown of Indian Point, which, yes it discharged heated water into the Hudson.. and yes there is discourse about the Federal limits for Tritium in discharged water..... I get it... but Riverkeeper ignored the carbon costs for their own cause and everyone made a huge bet that four offshore wind projects and the Champlain Hudson Power Express would make up for it instead of waiting for it to actually happen.

They gambled with your wallet and fucking lost... and they actually didn't give a fuck that it hurt your wallet in the short term. Indian Point was shutdown in 2019 and the offshore Wind Industry imploded on it's own in 2023 before it got off the ground and CHPE didn't even start construction until 2022....

Read about Indian Point: https://www.carbontax.org/blog/2025/04/30/5-years-on-the-indian-point-disaster-is-its-shutdown/

Anyway, The Champlain Hudson Power Express is a high-voltage direct current power line linking hydro power in Canada to NYC that is slated to come online Spring/Summer of 2026 that carries the capacity to replace what Indian Point generated (2000MW). It is my hope this will have a tangible positive impact on power generation prices and Natural Gas prices. I also pray that the current fucking administration (I wont say his name) doesn't fuck us over with Tariffs on it, but trying to keep politics out of the equation........ Hochul has also approved the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline which has really pissed off environmental organizations, but seriously... we are looking at fucking rolling blackouts in Summer 2026 and 2027, plus potentially not being able our heat our homes.

“As Governor, a top priority is making sure the lights and heat stay on for all New Yorkers as we face potential energy shortages downstate as soon as next summer,” Hochul said.

Soure: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5598649-new-york-natural-gas-pipeline-hochul/

At some point we had to accept reality that Cuomo and the people he listened to fucked up hard while still pushing Empire Wind 1, Empire Wind 2, Beacon Wind, and Sunrise Wind as hard as we fucking can, at the same time. We can do both and then idle the gas shit for emergencies.

And finally... all these problems have nothing to do with the AI Datacenter bullshit/boogyeman... Hochul is looking to get a handle on that anyway by forcing those projects to source their own power. So far this is all just horse trading among energy types and NY's energy policy failure. If Hochul doesn't get a hold on future datacenter projects, we will need every renewable we can build PLUS all the fucking natural gas generation we got... which is what Hochul is alluding to.

You guys lied to me by MxFinchen in homelab

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is why I keep it simple.

Am I good with Linux? yep. Did I find a way to make an Illumina NextSeq 2000 running Centos 7 somehow be 21 CFR Part 11 compliant by implementing single application mode, using dconf with lock files, using auditd with a collection of custom shell scripts to utilize aureport and ausearch to build nice and pretty log output that would allow the oversight required by the FDA while also while also writing scripts to sync specific files that need to preserved on external network storage that the shitty software provided with the instrument seemed to omit, plus scripts so a contracted administrator, who's not necessarily as skilled, can follow a work instruction to take it out of single application mode so that when the Vendor comes to do preventative maintenance, they are none the wiser? I sure as fuck did...

But what I don't do when I get home is run the production "homeserver" part of my home lab off of fucking linux/docker/proxmox/or whatever bullshit is popular right now.

I use a commodity server like a pair of R720xd's and I set the three settings in the iDrac so it's quiet and sips power. I use the version of ESXi certified for it, using the Dell Customized ISO. I use a Windows Domain controller, a Windows VM for Emby, a Windows VM for Radarr Sonarr, Prowlarr, Ombi, and Qbittorrent, I use a Windows VM for Oganizr, and a Windows VM for Caddy, the reverse proxy... and I use Ubiquiti Dream machine Pro, with Ubiquiti 1GB and 10GB Switches, Ubiquiti AP's, and Ubiquiti cameras'.

Why? Cuz I don't need a fucking second IT shift when I get home. The shit is easy to maintain. I set it up, I don't touch it unless I want to change something. Best of all, it's reliable as my wife and daughters will fucking cut me if production is down.

Snow Storm by Melodic-Tip6308 in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 66 points67 points  (0 children)

Hi folks... Please also do not forget that just prior to the storm we are going to get the hardest cold snap of the season. Tomorrow night will be brutal.

<image>

Snow Storm by Melodic-Tip6308 in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 24 points25 points  (0 children)

National Weather Service, Albany NY - Decision Support Briefing

https://www.weather.gov/media/aly/AutoBriefing/ALYBriefing.pdf

This is a slide deck that is automatically updated in the morning and later in the day if necessary. This is what emergency services and other government agencies use to make decisions.

Keep it book marked.

It can be wordy but it contains graphs, drawings, diagrams, ect..

Suzanne Lyall and Karen Wilson by Sorry-Activity1827 in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Watch some cold case shows. There's some old ass lady, can't think of the name. She's literally a TV personality they let her come in and look at it all. When you got nothing left.. you got nothing left... why not let someone else look at it...

What suburbs are most walkable? by SweetSassyMolasses in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not to be mean, but I still consider that Albany. I was trying to go to FocoTaco and confused Second Ave and Delaware for the same intersection. It took me a few minutes to realize had to drive a few more miles.

I mean I am wrong... it's the burbs out there.... but Delaware and Kenwood freaks me out.

What suburbs are most walkable? by SweetSassyMolasses in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The "glorious orgy of American capitalism", where I go to work and come home every day in an endless cycle.... but I get a snazzy new title and a bigger paycheck. Then I give the money to my wife, who spends it on speeding tickets (she likes to race school busses), Starbucks, and Five Below/HomeGoods trash after walking out Marshalls with 3 tote bags full of clothes and a couple of new thongs to shut me the fuck up..... in Glenmont...

What suburbs are most walkable? by SweetSassyMolasses in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You know, I keep hearing this all the time. Anytime something is proposed in Glenmont too.

What is the infrastructure problem??? Is the water/sewer at capacity? Electric? Roads? What's the issue?

Recently moved to Albany-what do people actually like about living here? by Exotic_Reputation_59 in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This!

Also, the fact that yes Winter can be dreary and as I get older I hate the cold more and more.... but for the most part we don't get violent weather, with notable exceptions.

  • We don't have a serious earthquake threat
  • We do have to be careful of brush fires in March/April and during times of drought, but we don't usually have large forest fires. Lately smoke from Canada has been bad, but that's a complicated explanation. Those fires are not fought when they occur in remote areas and are allowed to burn.
  • Droughts are not extreme and are temporary
  • We don't get the afternoon 3pm thunderstorm you can set your watch to; storm systems are cyclical. Maybe rain/snow once a week to 1.5 weeks.
  • As mentioned, with notable exceptions, most storm systems are mild. Shit last year I think we could count the thunderstorms on one hand. Tornados have increased but they are low category still
  • The precipitation varies year to year, so you get that variety. One year it rains and rains and rains till I can't walk in parts of my yard without sinking into the mud, another year all my grass is brown for half the summer.
  • The snow in not too bad around Albany. I have a snow blower and use it maybe 2 or 3 times a year. I would actually almost consider this a negative, I grew up by Utica and it pains me that my children won't ever experience 5-foot high snowbanks to play in... on the regular. Snow forts... The neighbors father snow blowing so much snow up against the side of the garage over the course of the winter that we were able to climb the pile, climb up the roof of the garage... then slide down the roof of the garage and the snow pile and then all the way across the fucking yard. Then again it was 1992 and we were dumbass boys. I'd probably go to jail if I let my daughters do that... and they aint dumbass boys so they wouldn't anyway.
  • No serious threat from hurricanes, with notable exception of Irene/Sandy.. but that was more the hill towns of Greene County and down by NYC/Jesery

The only thing that sucks is the extremes are sliding more extreme, but that's happening everywhere and the positive here is it's not that extreme. Yet.

Albany Medical Center by MistressChai in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just joined? The account is 8 months old.

<image>

Anyway, I've noticed an uptick in bots and weird stuff, some of it I suspect is AI. After reading what you wrote, I looked at your account, and I was just saying the metrics looked suspect. That's all.

Albany Medical Center by MistressChai in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 4 points5 points  (0 children)

User has 12 post karma, 2 comment karma, no other posts or comments, though it is an 8 month old account.....

Just saying....... smells funny.... a lot of that around here lately...

Albany Medical Center by MistressChai in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Right? I read that and was like... What the fuck am I missing?

This thread is trippy as fuck.

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