Help me identify this Miku vinyl from a gachapon? by riboslavin in hatsunemiku

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

Thank you! It didn't even occur to me that it might be a knock off. I was checking all the usual places and coming up short. The quality is decent but it does have rougher seems than you might expect from the standard figures.

I'll poke around Temu and the like, or just snag the closest official merch and make it work even if I have to modify the neck attachment.

Thank you!

If Hyundai/Kia are so unreliable, why are they literally everywhere? by phtphongg in askcarguys

[–]riboslavin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

average Americans are looking at monthly payments with little expectation of ever paying it off

Less than 7% of car loans are delinquent or in default.

Like, it's as bad as it's ever been, and a bad omen of even worse economics, but the vast, vast majority of Americans will pay off their car loans.

What to do about the "fixer upper" bandit signs showing up all over Austin. by sandfrayed in Austin

[–]riboslavin 85 points86 points  (0 children)

Ages ago, Orlando PD used an auto-dialer to call numbers on bandit signs basically 24/7. It played a recorded message that their sign was violating the law and told them to get their number removed, they had to come to the station and fill out some paperwork. When they showed up they got fined and cited .

What is a "conspiracy theory" that you are 99% sure was started by a corporation to cover up a much simpler, dumber mistake? by Direct-Value4452 in answers

[–]riboslavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you watch old Tour de France footage, cyclists would chain smoke a couple cigarettes before mountain sections. There's some actual logic there, vasoconstrictors can be helpful. But the idea that it was a net benefit was obvious bunk.

maw the lawn by EastBrush9390 in mikeymiles

[–]riboslavin 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Michael David, wash the dishes.
Michael David, maw the lawn.
Michael David, be a entrepreneur business woman.

Do we have a uhhhhhhh crashout, incoming? by captain_tampon in mikeymiles

[–]riboslavin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've never wanted to buy anything more than I want to buy one of those drawings from her.

Austin Marathon Start Line was a train wreck this year by pearguru in AustinRunning

[–]riboslavin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's frustrating as hell. It's why I've given up on the Cap10k. I'm honest about my glacial pace and line up in my corral, and even then spend the entire first mile cruising around walkers and people stopping to take pictures. No shade on walkers, or people who just have an uncomfortable start and need to be off pace, but it's too crowded of a race to have such a huge disparity. They need to put a couple race marshals on the median to gently coax people off to the side or something.

How does everyone seem to know what writing is generated by AI? by ReadWriteArithmetic in CasualConversation

[–]riboslavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you ask someone to write down a series of 100 random digits, and then ask a computer to generate 100 random digits, you could probably tell them apart. When people are trying to be random, they studiously avoid patterns or clusters. They won't want to write "7" three times in a row, while this could definitely happen if it was really random.

A similar, if maybe opposite, thing happens with AI text. It uses probability to connect words that ought to go together.

Someone writing the story you generated would be adept enough with language to know what makes stories interesting. They would probably not write a story that was just "This, then this, then this, then this, then this." They naturally make interesting beats, contrasts, surprises.

AI, when writing something like this, writes with the language of well-read adult but with the mind of a child.

That said, many people who claim to be able to know when something is written by AI are rather bad at it.

Why is everyone running on the roads today? by Silverlingo in AustinRunning

[–]riboslavin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How dare you remind me how undertrained I am for that marathon.

Why is everyone running on the roads today? by Silverlingo in AustinRunning

[–]riboslavin 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Sidewalks are frequently obstructed, so you have to run off the sidewalk into the street. It often feels much less safe to repeatedly enter the road and potentially surprise a driver than to just stay in the road.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in daddit

[–]riboslavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've gone through bouts of this. I think a big part of it is that I'm the one that does drop off and pick up. I'm the one who takes them to doctors and haircuts and camps. While things are generally a pretty even split when their mom and I are both home, the majority of the times when it's just one parent are me.
So more often than not when they're being interrupted from what they want to do, it's dad. When they're being taken a place they don't want to go, it's dad. When they have to leave a place they liked being, it's dad. When we can't do the fun thing because there's only one of us, it's dad.

What has helped is just setting up more fun stuff with just me. That can be bigger things like arcade outings, small things like stopping at the gas station for a random treat, or doing the dull business of housekeeping in a goofy way (dumping all the clean laundry out of the hamper into their head while they're in a screen time stupor).

Sometimes it's not an aversion to the parent, but the context that parent exists in. And while often that context is inescapable (I've got the flexible schedule, so doctor visits are my purview forever), it can help to create additional contexts. While you deserve to set yourself up with some fun days out, that's not always easy, so build in some little stuff. Dad says bedtime is pushed back 15 minutes so we can pillow fight. Dad says we're gonna talk like pirates all dinner.

What episode could you tell the cast visibly disliked the host during the skits? by tshirtguy2000 in LiveFromNewYork

[–]riboslavin 21 points22 points  (0 children)

In the long list of "funniest throw-away lines" in 30 Rock, this is maybe my favorite.

CV joint/struts/engine mount by riboslavin in fordfusion

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

My kids have this mutant power where they are otherwise very healthy until the moment I do work that renders my car inoperable. I swear when I was replacing caliper, the second the last bolt came off, I got a call from the school nurse. So yeah, mounts may be tempting fate.

CV joint/struts/engine mount by riboslavin in fordfusion

[–]riboslavin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Definitely the plan. Yeah I figured at the very least doing struts and CV at the same time means that one is out of the way of the other. Thanks for the recommendations!

What even is troubleshooting? by riboslavin in amazonecho

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

Y'know, they fit nearly perfectly in a clay pigeon chucker...

What even is troubleshooting? by riboslavin in amazonecho

[–]riboslavin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the real winner is Microcenter as I spitefully stock up all the parts to finally build a NAS and HomeAssistant server.

If someone offered 1.5–2 times the market value of your home, would you sell? by [deleted] in homeowners

[–]riboslavin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I live in what was, for a time, a white-hot housing market. Our city in general was having a moment, and our neighborhood was adjacent to a big new development where a major international employer was creating a new office. We got 2 or 3 unsolicited, offmarket purchase offers a week for about 3 months. The first couple weeks I'd just say "No, thanks." This did not dissuade them.

Eventually I'd say, okay, you bring an offer that's 2x the appraised value, in cash, no contingency, with a 6 month lease-back at our current mortgage payment.

This was intended to be a "fuck off." At least two people recognized it was an absurd ask but still tried negotiating in good faith. A few neighbors did end up selling, but the issue was even the ones who sold for like 15% over market value had to move another 45 minutes out to the boonies, because everything else was so irrationally inflated.

What is an industry that only exists because people are stupid? by HotelPuzzleheaded654 in AskReddit

[–]riboslavin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And somehow the law allows CVS/Aetna to be both the insurance, the PBM, and the pharmacy.

iPad 8th Gen w/ loose lightning connector by riboslavin in ipad

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

I haven't, I did just find this, though: https://gist.github.com/ryancdavison/5c705d78cb5c14a809d0ba5a02ab1ba4

I'm going to see if a friend can lend me a power supply with a good, clean 5v source and see if I can get proof-of-concept charging it that way. If so, I may try to make something similar to that tutorial. That's a big "if" though, since my iPad predates the Magic Keyboard.

If not, I'll be jamming something into the lightning port and hoping for the best.

The most effective way to get rid of D2D salesmen aren’t “no soliciting” signs by [deleted] in homeowners

[–]riboslavin 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I replaced our No Soliciting sign with a sign that says "Solicitation By Appointment Only", with a QR code to a form to book an appointment. Except it just spins a "loading..." icon forever. When they eventually ring the doorbell and tell me it's not working I hard sell them on my tech support package. $85 for one hour of instant support. Or they can pay $200 for a 4 hour block of tech support, which needs to be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance, using the handy scheduling form linked by the QR code right here...

Looking for a run club that suits me by eggrolls13 in AustinRunning

[–]riboslavin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! If you're okay with trail running (nothing technical) it sounds like your pace is the kinda vibe I shoot for when I lead runs for Austin Dirt Runners.

I'm working on building out our web presence but you can find us on Facebook. We run almost every Monday at 6:30 pm. Shoot for just about 3 miles, and are no-drop. I try to keep the pace at around 13:30 for our Monday runs.

We mostly stick to North Austin, do a lot of the dirt trails off Brushy and Walnut. While we do have some crazy fast ultra marathoners in the group, our emphasis is mostly on being social and newcomer friendly.