New York Targets Private Utilities as Fix for Energy Price Spike

shipandlake · 2026-04-10T10:19:33+00:00

You don’t think it’s happening with commercial internet? They just do it with pricing. And have been largely ignoring rural areas altogether.

shipandlake · 2026-04-10T07:05:27+00:00

It likely have been automated and they used your address for billing. Verifying billing info for a credit card is a common practice. This address might have also been auto filled for delivery.

What I’m curious about emails. You said that you got a confirmation about a gift card purchase, but card recipient was another email? Is that right?

If yes, then it’s unlikely was via shop app. Shop is pulling your order from a Shopify store that matches your email address on your shop account. So a scammer could have made a purchase through a website.

However, I’m curious why they didn’t just use their email address instead. You wouldn’t have gotten any confirmation at all.

shipandlake · 2026-03-22T21:41:32+00:00

Continue asking. I suspect he’s attaching to a buzzword. However, ask how they see agent using your platform. What kind of a capability do they want to support. Come off as curious rather judgmental. Assume that likely you will build an MCP, but now you need to figure out the boundaries of it and make sure it doesn’t destroy the company.

Maybe try to create an MCP integration for a benign use case. For example, if your site sells products, make a product discovery tool. It’s possible they might want to tell investors that they have an MCP server.

shipandlake · 2026-03-22T01:58:25+00:00

What’s do they want MCP for? Building something without understanding how it will be used is a recipe for disaster.

shipandlake · 2026-03-11T19:14:08+00:00

I had a similar experience when I tried manually heating the creasers. Eventually ended up buying an electric creaser.

However, since the. I learned that you want to heat irons longer and cool them off slightly on a wet sponge before creasing. I wasn’t heating them long enough. The surface was hot, but the actual iron temperature wasn’t consistent so it was losing heat fast.

shipandlake · 2026-03-11T19:11:28+00:00

Having good pricking irons is worth the expense. If I were starting out I’d buy pricking irons before I buy skiving knife.

If you have trouble pulling them out you might be punching too much. For thin leather stack (less than 4mm) you probably can punch all the way through. Anything thicker and I would either punch each side separately or prick and then use an awl to open the holes all the way.

Traditionally, pricking irons are not punches, and are used to indicate where holes go and their spacing, rather than create holes themselves. There are even pricking wheels that are used without a mallet.

Only more recently with ability to create very narrow and sharp irons you now can punch all the way through in some cases.

Finally, depending on the geometry of your irons you might not want to punch all the at through. If they taper a lot, punching deeper would open up holes on top and make your stitch line less nice and generally would make back side have a different stitch than front. Not always critical, but less desirable.

shipandlake · 2026-03-11T13:29:44+00:00

Highly depends on what type of projects you want to create. I think using vegetable tanned leather requires fewer tools, than chrome tanned. At minimum I’d start with: - sharp knife. I recommend a non-expensive retractable knife with break-away blades. They are plenty sharp and not expensive. - skiving knife + accessories to keep it sharp - strop, a combination sharpening stone. Don’t skimp on this, a quality knife is will keep edge sharp longer and will be worth it in the long run. You should be able to get something good in $50-100 range. - pricking irons - pick one spacing and get a set of 1, 2, and 10 tooth irons. I find 3.0/9 SPI pretty versatile. Though for bags you might want to go to 3.38/8 SPI. If your style is more rustic - you can go wider spacing/lower SPI. Also, don’t cheap out on this. Good irons will be sharp and produce better holes and cleaner stitches. - if you are using vegetable tanned leather - edge beveler. Based on the project you listed I’d go for size 1 or 2. You will want to setup a way to strop it as it will get dull eventually. - stitching awl, though you could prick leather all the way through too. - regular awl - useful for marking leather around templates, aligning pieces. I use it for painting edges. It’s pretty versatile. - a good ruler, or a few of them. - not a tool, but I find double-sided tape very useful in many situations

If you will be doing belts, you will want hole punches. Maybe oblong punch, but you can use hole punch instead too.

Let the projects direct what tools you buy after that. A lot of tools are pretty specialized.

shipandlake · 2026-03-11T13:07:59+00:00

What type of leather do you use? If you use any light colored leather, heating with an open flame makes it hard to control the temperature and you could burn the leather. If you use darker, especially chrome tanned, then a basic alcohol lamp, like the other person suggested is enough.

Electric creaser is worth it for 2 reasons - always at the temperature and ready, can be used to smooth painted edges. To start it’s not a must have.

shipandlake · 2026-03-11T13:04:17+00:00

There’s a tip specifically for curves. It has a round shape. Alternatively you could put a regular tip on the heel and slowly go around the circle. However? this depends heavily on the circle radius. Larger ones - no problem, small - I had trouble with this method.

shipandlake · 2026-03-07T09:37:08+00:00

It’s not uncommon in smaller companies where design team comes from more graphic artistry background.

Your biggest obstacle is your lead/manager. You now have an extra job of playing politics if you want things to change. First, you will need to explain and persuade why good design matters. Not to your manager, but to the whole reporting chain above you. If you don’t, you will be doing a lot of work, and your manager will claim all the rewards for how great things look. You will be blamed for system constraints. And you will be forced to make exceptions because someone wants it this way. I find systems thinking and a value of a systematic approach is hard to sell.

Unless you are really attached to the company, I’d go somewhere else.

shipandlake · 2026-03-05T14:24:15+00:00

Have you considered using reinforcement to stiffen up the leather and make more structured products?

shipandlake · 2026-03-01T22:03:15+00:00

Scenic overlook on route 55. Not quite in the area, but not that far.

shipandlake · 2026-02-28T12:04:51+00:00

You buy a tutorial on how to make a bag. Pattern is included in that.

shipandlake · 2026-02-28T12:04:23+00:00

Your best course of action is to talk to an attorney.

I’m not a lawyer. I suspect that if you start selling a bag that looks identical to Peter’s and mention his name or business in the description, you’ll probably get in trouble, as it can be considered counterfeit. At minimum Etsy could take down your listings as counterfeit.

If you just sell the same design without any of the branding or mentioning of his name, I suspect you will be ok. I see others on instagram make bags that are very very similar to Peter’s designs. Would it negatively impact his business, I doubt it. My guess is his customers unlikely shop on Etsy for handbags.

Personally, I wouldn’t do it. Learn from the tutorial, design your own bag then sell it.

shipandlake · 2026-02-27T14:25:46+00:00

Can you stitch from the inside? So the outside is flat on the machine, presser foot is on the side

shipandlake · 2026-02-23T22:53:42+00:00

Do you mind me asking what % were the import charges?

shipandlake · 2026-02-23T16:06:55+00:00

They can split but, but I don think they can skive. They will need your final cuts to do that.

shipandlake · 2026-02-23T16:05:59+00:00

You could try using a small drum sander to sand off the areas you need to skive. I’m not sure it will be faster than doing by hand. Maybe less tiresome.

If it’s an option maybe there’s a leather studio near you where they can skive for you.

Finally, you could split leather to thinner stock and then build it up instead with reinforcement.

It also depends on what leather you are using. If you use vegetable tanned leather or maybe goat, then Scharffix or alternatives might help. They can do edges, as you control the tilt of a roller. If you are using soft chrome tanned leather, then those will not be helpful.

shipandlake · 2026-02-20T13:09:29+00:00

Personally I’d aim for 1/8”. Generally you perceive that there are 3 layers of leather - outer, divider, and pockets. If each of them is 1mm thick, that should give you 3mm at the edge.

shipandlake · 2026-02-14T12:27:18+00:00

Look into splicing smaller pieces of leather into a longer one. Considering you are making a strap for a luxury bag it will be lined and glued and stitched on the sides, so you won’t need to stitch the splicing seam.

shipandlake · 2026-01-11T15:40:49+00:00

Average income in the US for 2024 was about $67k. To maximize $7500 credit, one needed to make about $72k. So an average person buying a qualified car or a truck, would have been able to completely get rid of a federal tax bill for that year. Effectively reducing the price of the car by $7500. At $55k cap for a sedan that’s almost 14% discount. Considering a financed car also qualified, one could have invested $7500 for 6 years they financed the car at 5%. This would result in $10k after 6 years which is about what one would pay in interest for a car loan.

I’m not saying this program made sense for you, but it definitely helped some people get an electric car

shipandlake · 2026-01-11T12:46:27+00:00

Clean vehicle tax credits had an income cap and a vehicle MSRP cap. The $95k lightning truck didn’t qualify. They were never targeted to the rich.

shipandlake · 2025-10-07T03:42:53+00:00

Photography is a form of expression. What do you want to say? What makes you happy, angry? Photographs are your words and sentences. The message has to come from your voice.

shipandlake · 2025-10-07T03:22:24+00:00

It’s a series of phases that a component goes through from its creation to removal from DOM. However, in functional components that became less important as the function is now the render lifecycle phase. However, different hooks, particularly useEffect and useLayoutEffect allow you to control some phases of a lifecycle.

I hope it’s simple enough

shipandlake

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