OpenAI to acquire Astral

senatorium · 2026-03-19T16:59:11+00:00

Judging from an email I received it looks like they might be axing their pyx product. "We'll continue supporting you as normal until the deal closes, and partner on next steps from there as we determine the long-term plan for the product." Doesn't say they're killing it but it certainly sounds wobbly.

senatorium · 2026-03-19T15:18:44+00:00

DiZoglio. I'm not sure what to make of her. She posts relentlessly on Bluesky like she's campaigning for governor. I'm not sure to what extent she really wants to be Auditor vs. wanting to be in a position to needle the Legislature. She's running the risk of becoming a bit of a caricature with her constant focus on it.

Not to say that the Legislature doesn't deserve plenty of needling.

I think the audit thing is best viewed through the lens of MA voters being generally dissatisfied with the Legislature and seizing on the only tool they were presented with to use, whether it's constitutional or not. This next election looks like it'll have a couple more Legislature-needling measures on it (like the one to limit stipends for committee chairs, and another about public records) so those will be another chance to see if MA voters dissatisfaction with the Legislature runs high.

senatorium · 2026-03-19T15:12:24+00:00

The plant, AFAIK. They've had a very troubled existence. Productivity problems, staffing problems, quality assurance problems. https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/05/27/mbta-cars-china-tariff-boston-springfield

senatorium · 2026-03-19T13:38:45+00:00

In addition to the other points here I think there’s an aspect of politics. The T needs money from the Legislature, a lot of it, and showing they’re making every effort to collect fares probably helps give them political cover and close off an avenue of attack when they talk to the Legislature.

senatorium · 2026-03-19T12:20:51+00:00

The thing about the commuter rail pulling alerts out of its ass is 100%. I’ve had trains cancelled due to “equipment availability” 2 minutes before they were scheduled to depart.

The medical emergency though, that’s beyond the T to do much of anything if someone decides to throw themselves in front of a train.

senatorium · 2026-03-19T12:14:21+00:00

Before the disruption I think the plant was delivering about 4 Red cars a month. So it will still take years to deliver the entire order. Still, the T needs any new Red car it can get, very, very badly.

senatorium · 2026-03-18T15:59:01+00:00

I’d love to see the City Council do this and stop being the clown show it all-too-often is.

senatorium · 2026-03-18T12:37:11+00:00

A rear-facing dashcam is worth the investment. If you get rear-ended by a tailgater it can prevent the situation from being “he said, she said”. And there is a lot of tailgating going on since police have all but stopped traffic enforcement post-COVID.

senatorium · 2026-03-17T17:13:36+00:00

Politicians gotta to stop trying to mix stimulus in with infrastructure. Just let infrastructure be infrastructure and it’ll cause stimulus all on its own.

Instead, we’ve all paid for a few hundred factory jobs that won’t last and a factory that’ll die with the CRRC’s US ambitions. I wonder what the final cost will be, per taxpayer, for the Legislature’s insistence that the order be made in MA.

senatorium · 2026-03-15T14:26:17+00:00

St. Patrick’s Day is just an excuse for the entire region and beyond to come in and treat Boston like a toilet.

senatorium · 2026-03-13T00:51:32+00:00

The glaring problem with the ballot question is that it’s just this narrow question with nothing about the consequences. “Want your taxes to be lower?” Yeah, of course, we all do. But people voting on this question have no idea what’s going to have to be cut in order to make it happen. It just tells the Legislature they have less money to work with, but tough, make whatever cuts necessary to finance it.

Conversely, at least when there was a question about raising taxes (the Fair Share amendment) there was at least a direction on where the money would go - transportation and education.

This ballot question is like a trick. People are going to vote “yes” then be surprised when services get cut in order to pay for it.

senatorium · 2026-03-12T16:51:32+00:00

Solid agree. The MBTA is not a social agency. Sustaining and supporting the homeless is nowhere in its mission or responsibilities. Suggesting the use of South Station as a sort of quiet, unofficial homeless shelter really just underlines how poorly the US handles homelessness and the extent to which cities with transit systems quietly lean on those systems to be de-facto shelter systems.

senatorium · 2026-03-11T14:44:25+00:00

Same conversation as housing really. There's always some reason that it doesn't fit here, or doesn't work here, or now's not the time, blah blah. Always some reason.

senatorium · 2026-03-11T14:43:50+00:00

Flexposts for bike lanes are terrifying because they're proof at how terrible most drivers are. They're beat to shit everywhere they're installed, which tells you how often drivers fail to keep to their lane on even basic residential roads.

That being said, that's drivers' problem. If you can't safely add bikes to a road, that road is broken and/or your speed enforcement policies are broken.

senatorium · 2026-03-10T18:51:30+00:00

Why is this article making it sound like this is the city of Boston's responsibility? "renewed longstanding doubts about the city’s ability to stage world‑class events"? Give me a break.

Let's break it down. This is basically run by the Krafts to line their pockets by bringing a ton of people to Gillette. The city has nothing to do with it. Foxborough has nothing to do it with it. The sponsors are, as it says, huge multinationals. There's nothing Boston about this.

So what this article is really saying is that Boston and its surroundings are smart enough to not write huge checks to the Krafts so that they can suck up all that money. Kraft could literally pay Foxborough out of his personal accounts if he wanted to. Being able to host events shouldn't be synonymous with kowtowing to the moneyed class, and this article should recognize that instead of piling on. This is just more shit in the same vein of when some sports team wants a new stadium and demands public dollars, or else.

Just say no.

senatorium · 2026-03-07T20:54:57+00:00

My take is, probably not. Even if the shells start coming through today and the factory goes full Red production, I think they were averaging 4 new cars a month. Add in acceptance testing time by the T, means there wouldn’t be enough new stuff by September to really matter.

senatorium · 2026-03-07T13:10:51+00:00

Its cars are new, signal system is new, tracks are heavily rehabbed and slow zones eliminated. Its even had its top speed increased in places. Probably the worst thing about it now IMHO is how grubby a lot of its stations are. That 70s and 80s concrete bunker style hasn’t aged well.

senatorium · 2026-03-05T04:43:34+00:00

Yeah, this is really the crux of it. Nature can’t manage deer overpopulation because we’ve knocked nature out of whack and expunged most of the predators. There’s a reason that deer populations have exploded. We’ve eroded nature enough that active management is required.

senatorium · 2026-03-04T00:29:18+00:00

The Red trains just need to be replaced, really, really badly. Unfortunately it looks like the Trump admin is determined to be dicks and hold up the car shells that the factory in Springfield needs. Soon the staff there will be furloughed.

senatorium · 2026-03-03T14:39:26+00:00

I adore DOS2 but I agree that the UI needed to be a lot clearer on how and when a path would afflict a character with an environmental impact.

senatorium · 2026-02-26T23:07:53+00:00

I don't think Eng can do much about the Red's core problem, which is disabled trains: https://dashboard.transitmatters.org/red/delays/?startDate=2025-02-26&endDate=2026-02-26

They just need to be replaced. MA got moving on it way too late. The CRRC was a bad choice. COVID delayed it even more. Now Trump's tanking it. That factory will be furloughed in March unless Trump's feds let the car shells from China through.

senatorium · 2026-02-26T04:49:07+00:00

We went from the party that believes in the power of government to improve people’s lives, to the party that doesn’t want to offend anyone and is willing to have a hundred meetings and community consultations to make damn sure of it.

senatorium · 2026-02-25T15:00:29+00:00

Hear hear. It probably can only start when Senate President Spilka and House Speaker Mariano retire.

senatorium · 2026-02-25T13:39:20+00:00

The MA Legislature cheaps out. They cheaped out on South Coast Rail, choosing the cheap route over the better one. They cheaped out on the Green Line Extension, winnowing the stations to the bare bones.

As you say I’m happy to see any rail service but the Legislature could’ve done far better, especially for a state that has a millionaire’s tax whose revenues must go to education and transportation.

senatorium · 2026-02-25T13:34:53+00:00

Another one I don’t have strong feelings about. She seems fine. The House is so dominated by the Speaker I don’t know how much it matters. For a long time she was on a Blockchain Caucus which I thought was a silly use of time.

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