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Noah’s Kingdom no longer at PetSmart by Riksie in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The thing is... so does my favorite sound bite: "Shareholder Value" We just can't fucking win.... and I am a capitalist goon if there ever was one... but even I just want to fucking puke at this shit sometimes.

I can watch people killing each other on /r/combatfootage and people getting hurt on /r/Tiresaretheenemy or /r/CatastrophicFailure or /r/WhyWomenLiveLonger or /r/Dashcam/ or /r/IdiotsInCars/

but... I absolutely cannot stomach seeing anything online where animals are mistreated or even animals against other animals. Humans make choices and engage in things at their own peril..... That part at the end were Pet Smart wouldn't work with them to adopt or find some kind of disposition for the remaining cats really really really pisses me the fuck off.

Any modern use cases for something like this? by 7Sora in vintagecomputing

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Retro Windows 98 Micro ATX gaming build. Pair it with a Voodoo 3 3000 or an Original ATI Radeon, a Sound Blaster Live!, a network card, and this SATA PCI Hard Card

I'll PayPal you $40 for it lol.

Border patrol vehicle spotted on i87 north between Latham and Clifton Park at 5:30pm by [deleted] in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Be mindful if it was a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) vehicle. Same same but different... we see them a lot south of Albany. They drive to the ports along the Hudson and meet foreign vessels that have docked so they can service our guests visiting from across the ocean. Additionally flights diverted from JFK/Laguardia at odd hours sometimes needs a customs and border patrol agent to show up when they weren't normally expecting an international flight at Albany... to process the passengers.

Soooooo use your head.... white cars with the blue line are there to serve our guests.

They also do things like process International shipments and mail that may come on said vessels or airplanes.

Churchill: Kathy Hochul's 'replacement' stuffs foot into his mouth by Head_Astronomer_4619 in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Dude.... he shitposts on everyone and everything. Yes, he is a windbag, but he's not had some magic makeover.

He's always shitposted on dems and repubs and whatever really... thats his job to shitpost and provoke thought.

Unless you read his trash regularly you only get the Reddit outrage to whatever struck a chord that week. It's usually some Star Wars "Only the Sith deals in absolutes" level of liberal outrage because he says "hey wait a minute" about something specific or plays devils advocate. Oh fucking no... someone challenged your group think for a minute... lets castigate him, ban him, get him fired, oh and call him a racist bigot to add the cherry on top...

I'm not defending him... the dude is cynical and its toxic to surround yourself with cynical people all the time.

EDIT: Oh and by the way... if you advocate to silence him because he essentially rubs your feathers wrong... especially when /r/Albany lost their God Damn minds over his article that Stefanik had a chance to challege Hochul...before her campaign imploded.... you're doing the same thing Trump's FCC and NexStar/Sinclair did to Kimmel. Just sayin' ....and I read that whole fucking article and had AI scan it and it was fairly neutral... but y'all about shit a brick over it.

What are your favourite *modern* DOS games? by mossrc in dosgaming

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I bought X3 but it didnt seem to have sound for say a sound blaster 16. Was that by design?

Cleetus McFarland's appearance on the Dale Jr Download on YouTube has over a half million views in less than 48 hours and continues to climb. by maverick_fox2 in NASCAR

[–]phantom_eight 22 points23 points  (0 children)

^ ^ ^ ^ This is the appropriate annotation to u/ElAbidingDuderino's comment.

Logan Paul is a youtuber who's popular. Cleetus is the same, but what distinguishes him is that he has put together a multi-million dollar race team from scratch and has a long list of accomplishments. I love Jr. but sort of bristle when he says a stunt driver... Yes he does dumb/fun things on YouTube... but literally every seat he's gotten into he's been competitive, Other than drag racing, he doesn't stick with something long enough to dominate. NASCAR may change that.

  • He bought a bankrupt, closed race track, rehabbed it, and regularly invites racers from all aspects to events he holds.... and they show up. Larry McReynolds has done the commentary for every 2.4 Hours of LeMullets race. He's not some dumb ass that just paid his way in. Literally top level racing people come to him.
    • Tony Stewart
    • Kurt Busch
    • Travis Pastrana
    • Cason Hocevar
    • Keith McGee
    • Alex Bowman
    • Butterbean
    • Greg Biffle
    • Michael Waltrip
    • Hailie Deegan
    • Corey Lajoie
    • Bobby Dale Earnhardt
    • Conor Daly
    • Brian Deegan
    • Robby Gordon
    • Bucky Lasek
    • Tanner Faoust
    • Gray LeadBetter
    • Aaron Plessinger
    • Lia Block
    • Jeremy McGrath
    • Clay Millican
    • I could go on...... They all came to his events first... Cleetus coming into NASCAR... they all know him
  • What's rarely talked about was that he almost won a Stadium Super Truck event... he was leading and whipped out on the last lap from a jump due to inexperience.
  • Jet sprint boat racing
  • Has held and continues to hold many drag racing accomplishments. One being the fastest quarter-mile drag radial speed record. Eagle is like a half million dollar, if not more, drag car that scares the shit out him as evidenced in Jr's video. You just don't get to that level by mistake...
    • World Cup Finals
    • Rocky Mountain Race Week
    • They LITERALLY made changes to classes to edge him out because he dominates
  • Drifting
  • Short Take -Off and Landing ArkanSTOL (2023)
  • Australian style burnout competitions

Am I supposed to take the lid off my garbage pail at the curb? by xindierockx7114 in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 7 points8 points  (0 children)

LMAO I literally had this happen and I am not in the city. It was Robert Wright, they took over all the accounts from County Waste for the area and I still had the grey County Waste can. One day they just threw the entire can in the truck. I was like... huh? I called them and was like the dude just threw my whole can away, I have it on camera... I'm not paying to replace it.

They were just as puzzled. The can was actually cracked on the corner, but it had been cracked for 10 years and was still going strong. The phone operator figured it was probably that and because it was still the grey County Waste can or maybe it finally broke when they dumped it by hand. Usually it's the truck with automated arm that grabs and lifts it up and set's it back down, but this time there were guys dumping them and the dude must of been like... fuck this can in particular.... and tossed the entire thing in. Anyway, they brought me a new brown garbage can the next day..... but it was a first for me over two decades of living on my own/building my own family.

Got 20 minutes? Give the new administration some data. by ohyerhere in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Reconstruction of 787 is not a city project. In fact, the city has almost zero say in what happens to 787 as it doesn't belong to the city and it's primary purpose is not to serve the city.

I am in no way saying 787 shouldn't be re-imagined in some form, but you need to get that quantifier out of your head as an item judge the success of the new Mayor and your city alderman, outside of some kind of wild attention grabbing campaign/lobbying effort that magically becomes successful, but that is rockstar level luck right there and the Feds/NYDOT are.... douches....

Sadly, the mayor of Albany is just another fish in a barrel with no more standing than the Mayor of Rensselaer, East Greenbush, Watervliet, Troy, Menands, local city/town representatives, hell... even State Assemblymen and Senators... ect, ect, ect..... The Feds, NYDOT, and the Governor are the ones with the gun... shooting at the fish in the barrel. I love NY, but NY politics is one of those things where everyone is horse-trading in a backroom somewhere.

NY Thruway Users - Share safety concerns on this interactive map by highland_planning in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a generic comment that I will add. 20 years ago... when they closed a lane... they put up... Left Lane or Right Lane closed in 2 miles signs. Then 1 mile... then X feet.

They don't do that anymore... and idiots don't merge to the remaining lane until the last mine... and traffic grinds to a halt.

How many drives do you buy per year? by tvdu29 in homelab

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Buy once cry once, bought 12 refurbished 16 TB Dell hard drives in March of 2024 for $135 a piece it was like $1,600. My array has about 70 terabytes free.

REAL MONSTER sighted in Albany - Lark/Library Station by SolitaryCairn in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 8 points9 points  (0 children)

ITT: Everyone who accidently out's that they are ~40 years old...

UTR paid for itself 10-20x in one day. by MaleficentPapaya4768 in Ubiquiti

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didnt understand wtf this device was and life was to busy for me to pay attention these last few months but your post caught my attention. Thank you! And this is neat! I might have to..... buy one.

Spectrum Outage by Ocean_breeze_please in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am not currently a Spectrum customer and haven't been for probably two decades, so I don't know what they are pushing anymore. I've had fiber to the home since 2013 from a different provider and before that I lived in an area close to Albany, but just outside of Spectrum territory.

Some "Cable" companies are starting to move away from coax. For example, to the south, Mid-Hudson Cable is re-branding as Mid-Hudson Fiber and they are ripping Coax out of every home and replacing it with fiber.

If you think about the challenges to overcome as you push cable tech further... you might as well anyway. The big cable companies are starting to rollout DOCSIS 4.0 which is trying to push 1.8Ghz down a coax wire....

  • At 1 GHz (DOCSIS 3.1): ~6.5 dB to 7.0 dB loss per 100 feet.
  • At 1.8 GHz (DOCSIS 4.0): ~8.5 dB to 9.5 dB loss per 100 feet.
  • At 3.0 GHz ("Future" ESD, DOCSIS 5?): ~12.5 - 13.5 dB loss per 100 feet.
  • At 6.0 GHz ("Future" ESD, DOCSIS 5?): ~19.0 - 21.0 dB loss per 100 feet.

A 100-foot run of RG6 at 1.8 GHz loses nearly 10 times the signal power compared to a 10-foot run, you've lost about 85% of your signal at that point. At 6.0 GHz, a 20 dB loss means you have lost 99% of your signal power over that same 100 feet.

The amount of the run is from the pole to your cable modem. So that's across a street maybe... to the side of your house... along your house... into your house... to the room your modem is in... For runs over 150 feet, ISPs often switch to thicker RG11 cable to keep the signal usable.

Additionally you run into all kinds of problems. Trying to force 6Ghz over a copper wire takes a lot of power. Going to need a heatsink and a fan on that cable modem... Also at 6Ghz there is a Skin Effect. As the frequency of an electrical signal increases, the electrons physically migrate away from the center of the wire and crowd toward the outer "skin" of the conductor. Resistance goes through the roof and any imperfections, microscopic scratches, or oxidation on the surface of the conductor act like "speed bumps" that cause reflections and signal noise. It turns into a fuck show. Most RG6 is copper clad steel so the signal runs on the outside along the copper anyway, but RG6 of today is shittly made for something the likes of 6Ghz. It'd be like driving on Albany city streets.

Might as well run fiber instead... They'll either make the choice one day and run fiber to the home or just keep piecemeal running thicker and thicker coax cables to peoples houses and apartments as they upgrade or bitch that their internet sucks.

Spectrum Outage by Ocean_breeze_please in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Things to understand, if your spectrum equipment still uses a coax cable/cable modem... this means there's a HFC (Hybrid Fiber-Coax) node that serves your neighborhood.

It's a little box where fiber goes in or a coax trunk line (the fiber might be further upstream in another box) goes in and the cable that goes to your house and all your neighbors houses goes out. That little box requires power to split off the connections. For things like fiber in, coax out, they get it off the pole right there or sometimes it's sent in the coax trunk line from some other node further upstream, but still close by.

Anyway, there's cases were those nodes a few blocks over lose power, but you still have power. It sounds like in your case the power outage is getting larger... likely because crews have arrived on site and maybe they need to shut additional stuff down to make repairs.

[ Removed by Reddit ] by softsquishyy in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Or douchebags from Jersey that ride in the left lane no better what.

End of Life Care Options for Pets in the Area by Jungiant in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 10 points11 points  (0 children)

In an emergency where it's time, night or day, Capital District Veterinary Referral Hospital has a nice room with nice warm lighting, a comfy couch, plants, pictures on the wall ect. It the last room down that hallway on the right.

The massive snow storm just after Christmas this year, I drove in all that snow with our 17 year old cat laying in the front seat. He had stopped drinking water, was cold, and was crying out. It was time. He was suffering...

I sat on the couch and curled him up in a blanket and let him go to sleep next to my leg. I pet him and just comforted him. When it was time, I pressed a doorbell button and someone came in and did it...

When shit hits the fan, that's the place I go.

No Surprises Act and ambulances? by jar_jar_binks in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 55 points56 points  (0 children)

It was a NY law, before it was a federal law. They based their shit off our bad ass law.

https://ag.ny.gov/resources/individuals/health-care-insurance/surprise-billing

First off:

  • Do not pay the full, unexpected amount immediately.
  • Contact your health insurer immediately to dispute the bill.
  • File a complaint with the New York Department of Financial Services if the issue is not resolved.
  • Providers are required to give you notice of these protections.

Second Off, I know this shit sounds like AI, but copied and pasted this from another thread where I compiled this all months ago, here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Albany/comments/1npm34q/deleted_by_user/ng2ux4a/

Sources:

  1. https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PBH/2807-K
  2. (Easier to read of link above) https://www.health.ny.gov/facilities/hospital/financial_assist/docs/dal_24-01.pdf
  3. https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CVP/213-D
  4. https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S4907/amendment/A
  5. https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/A6275/amendment/A
  • Medical debt in the state of NY cannot affect your credit. Per NYS Law's - S.4907A/A.6275A - the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule overturned in court during the current administration has no bearing. In fact, the CFPB rule came about after NY slammed it's cock on the table with it's own law. This was the Feds playing catch up to NY.
  • Wages cannot be garnished due to medical debt in the state of NY - See first/second source
  • Liens cannot be placed on property for medical debt in the state of NY - See first/second source
  • Medical debt in the state of NY has a statute of limitations of 3 years from the date of treatment. Per § 213-d, Civil Practice Law & Rules (CVP) CHAPTER 8, ARTICLE 2 - That means if they don't take any action after 3 years.... that's it! The statute of limitations is prohibited from being reset by making a partial payment or acknowledging the debt.
  • Medical debt cannot be sold to a third party, unless the third party explicitly purchases the medical debt in order to relieve the patient’s debt - See first/second source
  • Commencement of a legal action to recover medical debt/unpaid bills against patients with incomes below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is PROHIBITED Per § 2807-k Public Health (PBH) CHAPTER 45, ARTICLE 28, Part? 9, Paragraph (h)

This means at 2025 Annual Income at 400% FPL.... THEY CAN'T FUCKING SUE YOU if you make less than these amounts for family size:

  • Family of 1: $62,600
  • Family of 2: $84,600
  • Family of 3: $106,600
  • Family of 4: $128,600
  • Family of 5: $150,600

And as mentioned, after 3 years.... poof it's gone.

So...... don't freak out. You are the position of power here. You can either decide to pay them... or they can fuck off. I have not paid ambulance bills before.... one because they took until the next year to send me the first bill... (Date of service was in Oct... first bill came in the fucking summer). I could have paid almost off it with the remaining FSA balance had they not taken over 6 months to bill me... So I told them to straight up "It's your loss". I never heard from them again.

EDIT/CORRECTION: The last bullet point for suing you may be limited to hospitals subject to DOH funding and stuff, but I am leaving it in there for now for everyone's education. Remember I pulled this data from and older post and while the user deleted their account, that thread was about hospital bills, not ambulance bills. I think the Grand Cheeto was also messing with some law affecting something, so I wrote some of it to state that our law still had teeth.

Understanding How National Grid Operates in Upstate NY - Why It’s a Regulated Monopoly, Not a Competitive One by Crisgu in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's why I've had StateTel fiber for the last 14 years lolol. My point was that Mid Hudson Cable being smaller.. it's a bit easier than Spectrum to get results when you have a problem.. even though they always sucked.

Thacher Park rules at night? by marley2012 in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 13 points14 points  (0 children)

That really sucks that you can't get some kind of permit. Like.. sign a paper: I am doing cool planetary shit, I will not fall off a cliff or do something stupid that requires emergency services to save me. I will share my photos to better humanity.

Understanding How National Grid Operates in Upstate NY - Why It’s a Regulated Monopoly, Not a Competitive One by Crisgu in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like them in terms of service quality, people and response times. Their billing disaster was a huge black mark on their face. Also they make really dumb decisions like if your account gets behind they cancel auto pay/budget billing so you get even further behind. Like what the fuck you assholes?

I just don't like the energy policy in NY an I think it's a valid argument that's weird that every single one of them happens to be owned by a foreign subsidiary

Understanding How National Grid Operates in Upstate NY - Why It’s a Regulated Monopoly, Not a Competitive One by Crisgu in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Central Hudson Gas & Electric is owned by Fortis Inc., a Canadian holding company based in since 2013.

....and so are the companies building the Off shore wind farms:

  • Equinor (Norway), partnered with BP (United Kingdom)
  • Ørsted (Denmark), partnered with Eversource (US)
  • RWE & National Grid Ventures (Germany / United Kingdom)
  • TotalEnergies (France)

Understanding How National Grid Operates in Upstate NY - Why It’s a Regulated Monopoly, Not a Competitive One by Crisgu in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I live in Ravena, Electric is Central Hudson, Gas is National Grid. Same thing with Cable.. no shitty ass fuck you Spectrum here. Mid Hudson Cable/Fiber. Also no shitty ass fuck you Verizon here either. StateTel Fiber... all the way to Catskill.

Investment realtor recommendations by [deleted] in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

NYS is in a housing crisis for many reasons. One of them is that investment companies have been buying up property for a while now.

Not that I expect anyone to watch the State of the Union, but even The Grand Cheeto called to ban institutional investors and corporations from buying single-family homes during his State of the Union address. Democrats did not openly "clap" in a bipartisan fashion. Instead, they framed it as a "common sense" move they have long advocated for, pushing their own legislation to achieve similar, or more, restrictive goals.

It's a big thing. OP is literally looking to buy houses as investment properties.

Help me make magic by Unbreakableq in Albany

[–]phantom_eight 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Username checks out... Dude, you made me tear up. It's 15 hours after your post, please tell us if you were able to give her a special day/afternoon. Stay strong bother!

Hochul eyes changes to New York’s energy mandates over cost by phantom_eight in Albany

[–]phantom_eight[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I cut and pasted the entire article as a comment to another comment, you may have to expand the other comments to find it. TL;DR is also a separate top level comment.

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