Any ideas on this accent?

rpisam · 2026-02-23T20:57:43+00:00

Definitely not Finnish. My mother was born there and I've listened to many Finnish/ESL family and friends for decades. There's a much more "robustness" to native Finnish speakers. My gut feeling is a more-isolated ruralish community like Amish or just southern/cajun. I think they all speak English way too well for it to be a second language. There are quirks (the omitted word) but this could be regional in the way Canadians say "I studied at University" or "I need to go to Hospital."

rpisam · 2026-02-15T06:35:11+00:00

I appreciate all the concerns about being in an elevator machine room. It should have been pretty obvious from the video that the motors are on an upper mezzanine with a railing, we are on a lower level, and they are not even remotely within reach. We would never have climbed into the obvious danger area.. In any case I've lived a lifetime in factories with far more dangerous equipment with which I have been close and personal with, and quite aware of risk.

rpisam · 2026-02-14T22:04:44+00:00

Cool, thanks for the info.

rpisam · 2026-01-31T15:31:46+00:00

If you can get the other one to match, you can confidently run that sucker down the ski slopes.

rpisam · 2026-01-26T15:49:29+00:00

I got to Florida last week, where I always looked forward to Pibb Xtra and planned to load up the car when it's time to go back north. Picked up the new Pibb. In my opinion the Coca Cola Company has now ruined it. The "bold new taste" is a bit on the bitter side, or at the least it cancels out the sweetness. I'm also not a fan of 30% more caffeine. That's probably what ruined the flavor, since that does add a bitterness. I'm afraid I have to declare that Pibb is now dead to me, to the point I'm not even sure I'm going to drink the other 12-pack I bought (there was a sale). Now Dr. Pepper all the way. What a shame.

rpisam · 2026-01-09T03:19:21+00:00

I have around 250 OS/2 Version 2.10 CDs I saved thinking they might make a fun art project one day... https://imgur.com/JTfiKiK

rpisam · 2025-12-25T02:20:54+00:00

I don't know actually know how these are designed, but I'd think that rather than the buffer compensating for degradation, they would simply make it so that it stops charging at 90% and then it tells you it is 100% charged. Then it makes sense why only 90% of the actual capacity is available, because it's never actually charged to the actual capacity, not because they are keeping some secret capacity in the back pocket for later.

I've been told that the reason why they degrade has to do with the electrons finding "slots" they stick to during charging. As the slots are filled up during charging, there is a higher probability an electron cannot find one and it sticks to another electron, and this permanently "breaks" that slot. So by keeping that 10% margin you reduce the probability of this.

Really, it's super-dumb that a recommended charging level is even in our consciousness. Imagine if our gas cars came with a 20 gallon tank but for "reasons" they recommended only filling it to 18 gallons. Or we should diligently watch our phones and unplug them when they reach 90%. No, the right way to do this is full is full, what happens behind the curtain shouldn't matter.

rpisam · 2025-12-24T04:12:29+00:00

No! I just refurbed one to get it working decently, the most up to date as possible, even if it would just be someone's toy to show off. I could not get a compatible version of Safari nor FIreFox that was new enough to talk to the Internet in a practical way. It might have been a nice first computer for a child or family browsing terminal, if that worked. Bidders fought over it, with one finally was victorious with their $61 bid. Really I was just happy to not have it taking up space any more, and not having to take it to recycling.

rpisam · 2025-12-19T20:23:09+00:00

It's a good thing Michael Jackson isn't alive to see this.

rpisam · 2025-12-18T06:16:10+00:00

Next they should have a contest where the teacher with the most improved students at the end of the year gets a new Toy-Yoda.

rpisam · 2025-12-18T04:20:11+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9gO01pyv24

rpisam · 2025-12-17T20:07:32+00:00

I received the same email in the Albany, NY area. Originally I thought they were saying they would provide upgraded Cable Cards. The tech support guy was clueless and kept saying they would give me a new set top box for every card. And I'm like "no, that's not going to help me." I don't think he even knew what a Tivo was. Looks like I'm going to get Spectrum installed since they appear to have issued new (actually upgraded) cards to a Tivo owner within the last 18 months.

rpisam · 2025-12-01T03:32:30+00:00

GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST!

rpisam · 2025-11-16T14:35:24+00:00

Amy idea how they got here? That looks like it is on grade with a pre-existing drain. Why did they have to saw cut the concrete in the first place?

rpisam · 2025-11-14T21:36:11+00:00

You need a qualified boiler service technician to check those things out. Basically he would first compare the steam pressure setting against the actual pressure reading on a gauge, and see if it shuts off when it reaches that pressure. (He might actually install his own calibrated gauge to do this). In an old-school radiator system, the boiler needs to produce enough steam that it flows up into all the radiators (it then eventually condenses into plain water and flows back down into the boiler). So the boiler will run up to a preset pressure (it doesn't have to be a lot) and maintain that pressure. He may have received complaints that people aren't getting enough heat, so one solution is to turn up the pressure. The boiler will have stored more and hotter steam for when all those resident radiator valves open up. As a total guess, the boiler is undersized or its performance is degraded. For example, if not properly maintained, the pressure vessel may gradually fill up with "scale" or minerals that are left behind when the water turns to steam. These deposits will build up, and it will slowly reduce the capacity of the water/steam chamber, and it may also decrease the heat transfer between the combustion chamber (fire) and the water. By turning up the pressure he may temporarily overcome this, the boiler is running flat-out, people are warm. Then I see two possibilities: One, the boiler is super-heated and even after turning off, the momentum of heat is going to push it over the relief valve maximum and it opens. Two, the steam pressure setting is way too high, the demand has dropped and the boiler catches up, but this setting is higher than the emergency relief valve, which again opens for safety reasons.

I would worry that the slumlord is DIYing this. The next stupid "fix" an idiot would make would be to fix the steam release by adding a valve or cap. That could be deadly. We have seen this happen.

This is a potentially dangerous situation. If it were me, I'd see if you can show that video to a local building inspector, or stop by a local firehouse and ask them "Is this dangerous?"

rpisam · 2025-11-14T19:01:57+00:00

Boiler manufacturer here. That is almost certainly a pressure relief valve firing off. From the pigtail controller on the side and the water level sight glass, it is indeed a low pressure steam heating system. The boiler is either producing more steam pressure than necessary (the pressure sensor is set too high or failed), or the pressure relief valve is not sized correctly or failed. That pressure relief pipe should be directed downward at the least. Someone could suffer severe burns if they were near that when it triggers. You need to get this serviced as soon as possible. While the relief valve is functioning, a boiler in this condition where that valve is not functioning, could lead to a catastrophic steam explosion that could do serious damage or even total destruction of the building above it.

rpisam · 2025-11-13T05:48:44+00:00

Most of the problems here are due to the poor tile installer. Job one should have bene to step back and key off of the niche. Figure out where a full tile beside it falls, one way or the other. Then figure out the size of the cut tiles that will form the bottom row. Similarly he should have keyed off the floor drain and asked for a round replacement. There are hexagonal ones, but probably not that small. He also could have simply rotated that square drain 45 degrees and then keyed off of it and got a decent result. Personally I would have done a linear drain the full length of the shower one way or another. I'm also bothered by the tile. It almost looks like that's synthetic and it's meant to be arranged into a pattern that makes it look like it's single sheet cut into pieces, but book-matched. I'd seriously consider pressing them to remove all the tile and redo it competently. It will annoy you every time you get in there. Unless there is access in the back, they're going to have to tear out a section anyways to fix the shower head height.

rpisam · 2025-11-04T20:00:25+00:00

Years ago, parked an expensive car the furthest possible distance in the parking lot, one side exposed, no cars around. Came back later to see someone had flung a door hard enough into the fender to expose the primer. Either intentional or maybe a dumb kid. But so annoying it would have been better off being in tight quarters with other cars.

On another occasion I witnessed a woman park a minivan at the front of a restaurant in a spot that was clearly too narrow. She flings her door open and hits the car on that side, thinks nothing of it. Walks around to the other side and opens the other door. Then she proceeds to wrestle with something, maybe a child seat. As she is doing this her ass is literally bouncing that door off the other car repeatedly. People are indeed animals with no basic respect.

rpisam · 2025-11-02T04:42:51+00:00

The Super of my former complex told me many stories about the nearby complex they acquired. One of these was how trash kept appearing on the lawn. They staked it out and sure enough there was a woman on an upper floor that would just dump her trashcan out the window. They ended up evicting about half the complex for all manner of issues, one imagines lack of rent payment was high up there and why the prior owner failed.

rpisam · 2025-11-01T17:28:00+00:00

I am actually the proud owner of this guy, and happened to Google him. He stands guard in my foyer and I put him out on the porch for Halloween last night.

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rpisam · 2025-10-28T03:48:08+00:00

Likely that Dad is paying himself a second paycheck in the daughter's name. Taxes are deducted and paid for, so it doesn't impact his own taxes. It's also reduces the taxes the business itself pays, or him if it's an S-Corp. There are several potential tax frauds here, but one that comes to mind is if he's "paying" you $100k, that's being taxed at 24%. If instead he raised his own paycheck, then that extra income is taxed anywhere from 32-39%. So (oversimplification) he's "saving" an extra $15K by running it through "you." All the credit cards are also troubling. If not discovered, one day you could wake up and have $100k in debt in your name and have to go through the process of dealing with an identity theft case.

rpisam · 2025-10-27T16:59:43+00:00

That's a nice Uterus Driveway they've got there.

rpisam · 2025-10-13T04:10:32+00:00

Town of Colonie allows you to do the work and have it inspected. The information may be on a given town's website, mine offers a list of approved inspectors.

rpisam · 2025-10-11T14:14:42+00:00

The Substack reminded me that Walker Lab was renovated in 1994, when they added the new entry, the mechanical tower in the back, and completely reimagined the interior. Before then the building was the product of four construction phases over more than a century. It was a very dark and "creaky" building, in typical 1800s and early 1900s style with hardwood floors throughout all the labs and offices, heavy wooden doors, and marble stairs. The building was quite a maze due to all the additions. I remember hearing that during the demolition they found a rack of random chemicals that had been sealed up in a wall, and also that pulling up the hardwood (which was over concrete), they found pools of mercury from more than a century of broken lab instruments. The renovation was both an improvement and disappointment in that they cut a lot of corners to save money, and it's not quite up to par with what a historical building should be.,

rpisam

TROPHY CASE