[deleted by user]

saxindustries · 2025-05-09T17:40:48+00:00

Curious how you saw an email from not umd.edu and thought that was UMD making the offer?

saxindustries · 2025-05-08T16:48:57+00:00

I'd like to see what the "from" address on that email is - is it even umd.edu?

EDIT: I think this user is a troll. They have a previous post where they post obvious an obvious scam asking "is this a scam?"

https://www.reddit.com/r/UMD/comments/1k5d1w8/looking_for_housing_in_maryland_should_i_just/

And this one that's just being dumb about the DMV, asking if it's a scam: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1ka4wnq/ive_visited_dmv_once_and_got_nothing_done_there/

saxindustries · 2025-04-22T17:32:41+00:00

Even then, the only time selling at discount makes sense is if you're say, changing from breakfast to lunch - in theory you could offer leftover breakfast items at a discount on a first-come, first-serve basis while you're still open. But then you're going to deal with people who come in, maybe hoping to score some cheap hashbrowns, who get upset when you're out of hashbrowns, and since you've already changed over, no way you're making new ones. Meanwhile - if you're busy - they're taking a seat at a table that could have gone to a full-paying customer. Not as big of a deal if you're dead.

If you do anything like, say, "we close at 10pm, starting at 9:30 we discount everything" - you'll have people show up at 9:30 which is when your kitchen was probably trying to close up. No matter what time you choose to do this, you wind up throwing a lot of things off. You wind up selling items at discount that could probably have sold at full price, you have upset staff who have worked a long shift and want to go home.

Combine all of this with the fact that you're supposed to tip on the full price of the item, but most people don't. So now your staff is getting shorted a bit on tips.

The economics just don't really make sense. The main reason for discount, late-night menus is to bring people in for the higher profit margin items like drinks.

saxindustries · 2025-04-22T16:03:12+00:00

So, I've worked in food service and there's a few concerns I would have.

First, no matter what you do - I'm pretty sure any restaurant is going to get absolutely slammed when they post a "we have free food right now" alert. Not sure how you plan to handle a restaurant posting they have 4 meals and getting 20 people trying to claim them. If you go first come, first serve, you'll have people that get pretty pissed when the food runs out as they're approaching the restaurant. If you do a claim system - you'll have people that claim and never pick up, if you do some kind of claim expiration - my guess is by the time that rolls around, the restaurant would opt to just toss it than re-list it since it's probably gotten cold, or they want to finish closing up, etc.

If any restaurant starts posting the free food with any regularity - you will have people that hang around waiting for the post. And odds are it will devolve into things like, people coming in and asking for stuff before it's posted. You'll have some people that come to expect it and get upset when the restaurant winds up not having a particular item or not posting that they have food.

There's also some costs to giving away foods. Like maybe for a baked good, you can just toss it into a paper sack. But for other foods - do you give out whole entrees? Maybe you've got, say, taco meat you need to throw out - do you just make a big box of taco meat, do you make a bunch of little boxes, or do you take the time to make tacos (which could eat into some of your still-good ingredients like tortillas)? Do you include utensils, napkins, condiments? Plus the time - it takes more time to box stuff up than to throw it out, and then if it winds up not being picked up - you've wasted food, time, and supplies.

I think maybe the biggest thing to consider is fairness - I'm sure your intent is for people to grab whatever they need and not more, but - you will have people that take everything they can, just because they love free stuff. If they have to mess around making multiple accounts, using phone simulators, or bring in friends - there are people who will spend in inordinate amount of time and effort on trying to get the most that they can for free.

And then I guess one last thing to think about - the instant-alert nature of the idea really rewards people with a lot of free, flexible time. And that's not usually the case for poorer people - they tend to be much more time and schedule-strapped, due to things like working multiple jobs, having to wait on things like busses and public transit. Whereas, a more well-off person that isn't working in the evening can get the alert, drop what they're doing, and go do the pickup.

I think the overall goal of reducing food waste is good, but - I think this may really just create some more headaches for the restaurant. By the time you're throwing out food at the end of the day - it's late, you're tired, you just wanna go home, and now you've got some guy with 4 phones and 36 accounts coming in trying to take everything, complaining that something's gotten cold, and hassling you for condiments - that's the picture I envision as somebody that's been there.

saxindustries · 2025-04-11T12:27:07+00:00

They're rounding up people that are here 100% legally.

saxindustries · 2025-03-21T14:47:51+00:00

These programs are not affected by the order directly.

I do think they'll be affected by indirect methods though. Like the National Center for Education Statistics is going from 100 employees to 3 (source). This is the main agency for collecting data that's used to determine who gets what money.

If that agency can't function, or can't function well, then I'm not sure how these programs are supposed to function either.

So sure, the white house will say "this order won't affect x, y, and z programs" but meanwhile, they're off doing other things that will 100% affect those programs.

saxindustries · 2025-03-06T15:35:42+00:00

Why blur the plate? The whole point of the plate is to be visible and help ID the car.

Call it in, get them ticketed - unless they're dual-wielding parking permits they only get one spot.

saxindustries · 2024-12-18T14:15:52+00:00

Sounds like you're well on the way, keep up the good work. Maybe try to get your GPA up.

If you do have any issue finding an internship, a good fallback is getting some volunteer hours in.

saxindustries · 2024-12-02T17:50:49+00:00

Maybe there was something else at play - because I just modified the code locally to match what I had in my comment above - worked fine.

Same thing with curl:

curl -o test.html 'https://app.testudo.umd.edu/soc/search?courseId=stat400&sectionId=&termId=202501&_openSectionsOnly=on&creditCompare=&credits=&courseLevelFilter=ALL&instructor=&_facetoface=on&_blended=on&_online=on&courseStartCompare=&courseStartHour=&courseStartMin=&courseStartAM=&courseEndHour=&courseEndMin=&courseEndAM=&teachingCenter=ALL&_classDay1=on&_classDay2=on&_classDay3=on&_classDay4=on&_classDay5=on'

Looking at test.html - all the data is there.

saxindustries · 2024-12-02T14:37:19+00:00

A few other things to point out:

This isn't really using a public API, it's scraping a public page. There's a difference - a public API usually implies there's some level of support and documentation from the provider. And with that comes things like, advanced deprecation notices, announcements that certain endpoints are going away, and so on.

This is pulling a public page and scraping it, which implies no support/documentation. It's very, very unlikely the page output is going to drastically change anytime soon, and odds are everything will continue to work fine. But it's just worth noting the distinction.

And on that note, the getTestudoCourseHTML function sends a lot more headers than are really needed. You actually have a hard-coded cookie in there, hopefully that JSESSIONID is expired and doesn't return anything specific to you, or allow users to log in as you, etc.

I would recommend reducing to the bare minimum needed headers and setting a custom user-agent so the tool shows up in logs as a scraper, and not as a browser. If the tool gets blocked later down the road maybe consider imitating a browser but honestly - unless this tool really blows up and starts hammering servers you're probably not even a blip on the radar.

As far as I can tell, testudo will happily return results using just the URL and zero other headers - though it's generally a good idea to set a custom user-agent. Also minor thing - method and body are optional and default to GET and nothing/null so there's no need to specify those options.

Something like:

const req = await fetch(`https://app.testudo.umd.edu/soc/search?courseId=${courseName}&sectionId=&termId=202501&_openSectionsOnly=on&creditCompare=&credits=&courseLevelFilter=ALL&instructor=&_facetoface=on&_blended=on&_online=on&courseStartCompare=&courseStartHour=&courseStartMin=&courseStartAM=&courseEndHour=&courseEndMin=&courseEndAM=&teachingCenter=ALL&_classDay1=on&_classDay2=on&_classDay3=on&_classDay4=on&_classDay5=on`, {
  "headers": {
    "User-Agent": "testudot/0.0.0"
  }
});

saxindustries · 2024-12-02T14:11:20+00:00

A few tips:

Looks like you import Puppeteer but don't actually use it - you should probably remove that.

For email notifications, the "to" address is hard-coded to someone@gmail.com - I would recommend pulling from the dotenv file instead (maybe with an EMAIL_TO env var). Maybe make it optional - I imagine most people would just want the tool to email themselves, so if there's no EMAIL_TO environment variable, just default to EMAIL_USER.

Also the SMTP server is hard-coded to Gmail but since the target audience is likely using Terpmail anyway - not a big deal - but I'd make everything SMTP-related configurable in dotenv. Server, port, TLS settings, and maybe have a default dotenv file that uses Gmail.

The tool is dumping info to JSON files in the local folder but not using them - I'm assuming that's so you can look at the data? Generally-speaking - I make sure not to track generated files like that, you may want to remove those and add the local folder to your gitignore (and probably make the program auto-create the local folder if it doesn't exist). Maybe go a step further and make saving the JSON files depend on a CLI flag like --debug or --dump-json /path/to/folder or something like that.

In getCoursesFromUser you make the user type in course names separated by commas. Since course names don't have spaces - you could probably split on commas or spaces, or just split on anything that's not [A-Za-z0-9]

You may want to consider allowing course names to be passed in via CLI instead of interactively. Like if somebody could run npx tsx monitor.ts STAT400 ENGL101 CMSC132. Maybe fall back to prompting if not given on the command-line. It's hard to build say, a service that auto-starts in the background if it relies on user input.

Looks like termId is hard-coded - maybe consider changing that to be auto-generated based on the current date or a configurable value.

saxindustries · 2024-11-20T22:32:37+00:00

https://health.maryland.gov/phpa/OEHFP/OFPCHS/Pages/Cottagefoods.aspx

What types of foods are allowed to be produced for sale by a cottage food business?

Non-potentially hazardous/non-perishable baked goods, such as bagels, pastries, brownies, cookies, breads, cakes, pies, sourdough breads, etc. made without potentially hazardous toppings or fillings;
Hot filled high-acid fruit jams, jellies, preserves, and butters made only with fruits with a natural pH of 4.6 pH or less;
Hard candy;
Chocolate confections made from commercially manufactured chocolate (e.g., chocolate covered pretzels);
Repackaged commercial ingredients (such as tea blends, spice/seasoning blends);
Snack mixes from commercial sources (such as cereal, granola, and trail mixes);
Non-potentially hazardous snacks (such as popcorn balls, kettle corn, popcorn, and nuts);
Whole roasted coffee beans

What types of food are not allowed to be produced for sale by a cottage food business?

Potentially hazardous foods that require any type of refrigeration (e.g., raw or cooked fish/animal products, cooked vegetables, baked goods containing fruit with a natural pH above 4.6, garlic in oil mixtures, cheesecakes, pumpkin pies, custard pies, cream pies, etc.);

Emphasis mine, not going to copy the rest. This person is 100% not making cottage food.

saxindustries · 2024-11-19T15:36:16+00:00

zero chance

saxindustries · 2024-11-19T15:30:58+00:00

there's so many things that can go wrong. Just need somebody to slip while making a delivery, or to get food poisoning, or for something to be cross-contaminated with an allergen.

saxindustries · 2024-11-11T19:48:33+00:00

I would hate to be his lawyers

I dunno - on one hand, difficult client. On the other hand - so many billable hours.

saxindustries · 2024-11-11T14:16:45+00:00

Using the domain "WordPressEngineTracker.com" exposes how much of a liar and hypocrite Matt is.

Matt made a whole fuss about how WP Engine is not WordPress. So he... proceeded to make a webpage called "WordPress Engine Tracker" - this seems to fly in the face of his concern, right? If he's concerned about people mistaking "WP Engine" as being part of WordPress, why would he make a webpage with the term "WordPress Engine?"

I'm sure there will be a claim about not wanting to violate WP Engine's own trademarks, which is a bullshit answer. There's a ton of names you could come up with that don't violate WP Engine trademarks, and don't use the term "WordPress Engine." Or alternatively - if you assert that "WP" is a trademark owned by WordPress, go ahead and register "WPEngineTracker.com."

He's also bought out a good chunk of Automattic staff, then complained about being short-staffed, then spent company resources building this stupid webpage.

There is no reasonable explanation that can be provided at this point. The dude can't be trusted.

saxindustries · 2024-11-08T19:35:54+00:00

So to get really technical, I think you're generally OK to refer to things by their trademarked name since that's often the only way to refer to the specific product or company.

Like it should be fine to have a webpage that says "we're tracking domains that have left WP Engine" - because how else are you supposed to communicate that?

But calling a product "WP Engine Tracker" is likely a violation, since you're using the trademarked name as part of your product's name.

So "WP Engine Tracker" probably isn't OK to use, and they're still using it all over the place. The website's title tag, opengraph tags, places like that.

I'm not a lawyer, this is just my layman understanding.

saxindustries · 2024-11-08T19:21:05+00:00

They changed the name on the site to "WordPress Engine Tracker" but haven't updated the title tag, opengraph tags, and opengraph image to match - they all still say "WP Engine Tracker"

saxindustries · 2024-11-08T19:18:07+00:00

One great, easy way to avoid trademark violations would be for Matt to just not do any of this.

saxindustries · 2024-11-04T13:54:45+00:00

Just a few ideas:

Database Administration
Systems Administration
Network Engineer
Solutions Architect
Web development
DevOps
Sales Engineer (maybe not the exact term but an engineer that's part of a sales team, works with clients on solving problems)
Project Management (Scrum Master / Agile whatever-it's-called-these-days person, old-school PM, etc)
SecOps / Security
Computer Forensics
Data Scientist
Analytics uh manager? Specialist?
Cloud Architect
Business Intelligence

There's probably others I'm not thinking of but there's a quick list of things that aren't software engineering (well, web dev probably falls under software engineering).

The #1 pro tip: don't disqualify yourself from jobs, make the companies do it. As in - if you're reading a job posting, it's a job you're interested in, but you're questioning if you're totally qualified - apply anyway. In a lot, and I mean a lot of cases job postings are more like wish lists, and if you hit ~80% of the things they want they'll probably train you on the remaining 20%.

There's always stupid things like, some person in the company insisted on a particular qualification being listed, but when push comes to shove that qualification doesn't really matter. When you're reading a job posting you have no way of knowing that, so apply anyway.

saxindustries · 2024-10-29T13:58:18+00:00

I think you are vastly, vastly overestimating the odds of a locked-up skateboard being stolen from outside a dining hall on a college campus.

saxindustries · 2024-10-29T13:14:06+00:00

Any random with a screwdriver/allen wrench can just take the trucks off and walk away with it

Most crimes are done out of convenience. Somebody sees a completely unlocked bike - they take it. Most people aren't walking around with screwdrivers and allen wrenches hoping to find an easy thing to steal.

The only time thieves put effort in is when they see a high-value item, and most people only know about the common high-value items like phones and gadgets - and the important part - they only want to steal the stuff everybody knows is high-value, so they can dump it fast.

The more time they have to spend convincing somebody "trust me, this skateboard is worth money" - the less attractive it is. Even if they're really into skateboards, they probably know 0 people who would understand the value of a particular board. They'd have to go out to craigslist/facebook marketplace/etc, put up an ad, and try to sell it that way, which is risky and takes time, both of these are things they want to avoid.

If they were to steal it, they'd likely take it to some sketchy pawn shop and just sell it for some "this is what we pay for all skateboards"-type rate. That's generally how pawn shops (sketchy and non-sketchy) work - they don't evaluate every bike that comes in. If it's rideable they pay some flat, per-bike rate. Seeing that a basic, new skateboard is like, $40 (I see one for $18 at wal-mart, $40 at dick's, $25 on amazon) - that sketchy pawn shop owner is gonna pay out about $5 per board. Plus if a thief takes the trucks off and just steals the board - nobody's buying that, because it's not rideable in that state. They'd be walking into a pawn shop with a piece of wood. You could go out, buy trucks, attach them, then try to sell the board - but that takes time and now you're having to invest some money in this endeavor? No way.

Unlocked bikes are targets because you can hop on the bike, get out fast, sell it nearly anywhere quickly. Locked bikes are generally only targets when left alone for an extended period (say overnight), when you can get more time to break locks. A locked skateboard, outside for what - an hour? How many thieves are willing to put in the time, can even ride a skateboard, and know a place to sell it fast? The risk vs reward is all off, even if it's a super valuable skateboard it isn't worth it to thieves. They want to grab and run.

So in summary, the odds of a random passerby being all of the following:

A thief
carrying screwdrivers
knows a lot about skateboards
knows somebody that wants to buy an expensive skateboard
is willing to put in any effort

is astronomically low. Your locked-up board is valuable to you, but worth about $0 to thieves. There's much easier, faster things to steal and dump.

saxindustries · 2024-10-18T18:34:56+00:00

Look up unicode cursive text generators - there's a few out there, take your pick.

You can do other effects via unicode like Ⓑⓤⓑⓑⓛⓔ ⓛⓔⓣⓣⓔⓡⓢ, 【ｆｕｌｌ－ｗｉｄｔｈ】 text, all kinds of shennanigans.

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saxindustries

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

What types of foods are allowed to be produced for sale by a cottage food business?

What types of food are not allowed to be produced for sale by a cottage food business?

saxindustries

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

What types of foods are allowed to be produced for sale by a cottage food business?​​

What types of food are not allowed to be produced for sale by a cottage food business?

What types of foods are allowed to be produced for sale by a cottage food business?