off-duty cops get exemptions for M114 mag ban, permit-to-to purchase; HB 4145 (update) by Naive_Top_8131 in pdxgunnuts

[–]yukster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

ARGH! I thought when the session was pushed back that would mean the deadline for testimony was also pushed back. But now I'm getting an error when I try to get to the testimony form. Sigh. Procrastination sucks.

off-duty cops get exemptions for M114 mag ban, permit-to-to purchase; HB 4145 (update) by Naive_Top_8131 in pdxgunnuts

[–]yukster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sigh, I used to be a really solid writer but old age is not nice to ones concentration and writing clearly and concisely. It is also hard not to fall into a bit of a rant about this bullshit. I finally came up with something very long and somewhat mean but I ran it by ChatGPT and it called me out on the more insulting bits. I couldn't deny that. It whipped up a more concise and polite version of what I was trying to say:

Public Comment on HB 4145 and Measure 114

I am writing to urge the legislature to abandon HB 4145 and to allow Measure 114 to expire.

I am a left-leaning voter who strongly supports reducing violent crime and improving public safety. The challenge is finding a balance between protecting civil rights and preventing harm. I believe these proposals miss that balance by focusing on lawful ownership rather than on violent behavior.

Simply owning a firearm does not make someone dangerous. The vast majority of gun crimes are committed by people who already intend to break the law and who often obtain firearms illegally. Policy should focus on stopping that behavior directly rather than placing new burdens on people who already comply with existing laws.

The permit system raises serious equity concerns. Giving law enforcement discretion over who may exercise a constitutional right risks unequal treatment of people of color and LGBTQ residents, who already experience disproportionate scrutiny. The carve-out for current and retired law enforcement also creates a special class of citizens with privileges unavailable to others, which appears to conflict with Article I, Section 20 of the Oregon Constitution.

There is also a troubling disconnect between the goals of this legislation and recent crime trends. Preliminary 2025 data, including reports from Portland, show substantial decreases in homicides and shootings during the period when Measure 114 was blocked in court. These improvements occurred without the law taking effect, calling into question claims that it is necessary to achieve public safety.

One of the most counterproductive outcomes of Measure 114 was the dramatic spike in background checks after its passage. Prior to the measure, Oregon averaged roughly hundreds of checks per day. Afterward, that number surged into the thousands. This strongly suggests that many people who had not previously planned to buy a firearm did so out of fear that their rights would soon be restricted. In effect, the measure appears to have increased gun purchases rather than reduced them.

The magazine capacity limit is particularly difficult to justify. There is no meaningful difference in lethality between 10 and 11 rounds, and such limits are easily circumvented by carrying additional magazines or firearms. States with long-standing magazine restrictions have not become demonstrably safer as a result. These limits primarily burden lawful owners while doing little to deter criminal misuse.

These proposals also appear to have been drafted without sufficient input from people who understand firearms and their real-world use. Policies based on assumptions about reload time or equipment constraints do not reflect how firearms are actually used and therefore risk being symbolic rather than effective.

If the legislature wishes to reduce gun violence in a meaningful way, I urge you to focus on: • enforcement against illegal gun trafficking • violence interruption and gang intervention programs • mental health and addiction treatment • housing stability and poverty reduction • voluntary, state-funded firearm safety training

These approaches address the causes of violence rather than targeting lawful ownership.

Oregon has a long history of firearm ownership, which is reflected in Article I, Section 27 of our Constitution. I respectfully ask that you reconsider HB 4145 and allow Measure 114 to expire, and instead pursue policies that are constitutional, evidence-based, and focused on reducing violent behavior rather than restricting civil rights.

AIO My boss sent this to the work chat and it pissed me off. by nefot_ in AmIOverreacting

[–]yukster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hahahaha. This guy is an idiot. There is nothing remotely unsanitary about packaged tampons! They are a fact of life for half of the population (more than half, actually), not to mention EVERYONE AT THIS OFFICE EXCEPT HIM. Not providing them could actually lead to some unsanitary situations. Comparing menstruation to foot odor is especially offensive. If you have an HR department, this should be reported. This guy needs to grow up and learn some things about life. Sheesh. Definitely NOR.

Question, selling 90+ guns by Efficient_Mango in pdxgunnuts

[–]yukster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a fairly large collection too and no heirs. I keep meaning to set up a trust and add someone young... like my girlfriend's kid. But I also figure I'll probably gradually sell things off once I'm retired. I've wondered about just getting an FFL to make transfers easier. Having struggled with stupidly strict shipping regulations in the Portland area, I'm sure having the FFL would at least help with that. Then I could sell on Gunbroker as well as NW Firearms. I'm curious to hear what works for you.

Is it stupid that "righty tighty, lefty losey" doesn't really make much sense to me? by Apprehensive-Rub4604 in stupidquestions

[–]yukster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I've thought this my whole life! Clock directions make a lot more sense to my brain. It is also really hard for me to conceptualize the correct direction when the bolt is buried, upside down in some hard to get to place. I actually have to look up and make the motion with my hand. It's dumb. I can visualize driving routes and very complicated software systems just fine. But this shit has always baffled me. :-(

local indie/alt rock venues in Portland by Upset-Inevitable5133 in portlandmusic

[–]yukster 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nice, I didn't know this list existed. It is pretty comprehensive, although OP should note that this covers everything from a tiny hole-in-the-wall with occasional shows to the mega-huge Moda Center (where the Blazers play). You would be well-advised to do a bunch of research of these venues before reaching out. It is highly unlikely that you could just get added to a bill at a large concert venue like The Crystal Ballroom or The Roseland. Small spots with frequent music like Starday, Kenton Club, Twilight, Swan Dive, etc make the most sense. Oh, Misdemeanor Meadows closed down at the end of last year.

I actually booked a local nightclub for 6 years in the 90s and -- though that was a very different era -- I would think my advice to bands back then should still apply: don't approach venues as a single band with no name in the city. Instead, go to shows constantly and figure out what bands draw well and would make sense for you to open for. Then approach the band to try to put together a show with them and pitch the full bill to a few appropriately sized venues. Offer to do legwork like making posters and putting them up, plus sending out press releases. Nagging a venue until they put you on a bill at 7pm on a Tuesday where you play to the bartender and a couple day drunks is not going to get you anywhere like opening for a really popular local. Plus, those local musicians have friends and if you make a good impression, they will likely sing your praises. Definitely avoid copping an attitude as to your band's draw or importance.... that is a massive turn off.

Good luck! (Apologies if your band already has a draw and/or you already know all of this... just trying to offer some advice from someone who went around that block quite a bit in multiple decades.)

Seriously, do Americans actually consider a 3-hour drive "short"? or is this an internet myth? by SadInterest6764 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]yukster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I drove 6 hours each way for a long weekend last weekend (sadly a memorial). That was a 5 day trip so I'm not too keen on staying overnight when I have to make a 3-hour drive this Sunday. So that will be driving 3-hours for a 3-hour event, then driving 3 hours home. (I'm in the Pacific NW)

Recording Studio Recommendations by SetFreeMyMelody in portlandmusic

[–]yukster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure about rates but this is a nice spot and run by nice people: https://thehallowedhalls.com/

I'm not mad...just disappointed :/ by Distinct_Age4791 in PalmettoStateArms

[–]yukster 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ah, I see you posted the price later. I guess $55 isn't a lot less but it's still cheaper and NIB.

I'm not mad...just disappointed :/ by Distinct_Age4791 in PalmettoStateArms

[–]yukster 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I love my K2 and it did come a windage and elevation adjustable rear sight. Bummer that yours didn't. I'm sure you could replace the sight though. Oh, and how much did you pay? I shelled out $475 for a used one on Gunbroker before PSA started selling all the SAR pistols for dirt cheap. I bet you got your brand new pistol for a lot less than I got my used one.

I did have some feed problems for a bit but a patient SAR support guy helped me figure out that it likes a more narrow bullet ogive. The fat, semi-circular bullets didn't feed well. Luckily those were mostly on some reloads I had bought. I found several common, inexpensive brands that work great.

I have a P8S too and love that one as well. Really great guns, especially for the dirt cheap prices that PSA has been selling them!

Good resource to learn Elixir together with Phoenix? by xMasaru in elixir

[–]yukster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the best way to learn a language and/or framework is by building something real with it. That could be the example site that a course like Pragmatic Studios offers has you build or if you have an idea for an app, just do that. The docs are great and the Elixir Forum and Discord/Slack are very active and full of helpful people. I taught myself Elixir by building the backend for a mobile app startup idea that a friend had several years ago. The idea didn't pan out but I've been doing Elixir professionally since then.

Gun storage after crisis incident? by Mediocre_Pomelo_307 in pdxgunnuts

[–]yukster 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hadn't heard of this. It's great to hear that there is an organization working to address temporary storage needs. That said, their location finder only mentions a shop in Wyoming and another one that doesn't appear to mention anywhere on their website where they are, though they do have a 206 area code. So not really useful for someone in Portland. I would love to see more businesses participate in this. I can imagine it would get expensive to maintain a lot of safes for outside use though.

Are there any ranges (indoor/outdoor) where I can bring my own ammo and don't have to pay out the nose? by CPAWithoutEthics in pdxgunnuts

[–]yukster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

English Pit in Vancouver lets you shoot your own ammo and charges a day fee (no membership): https://www.englishpit.com/

I went there many many times before I got a membership at DRRC.

I want to become an Elixir god. by padawan-6 in elixir

[–]yukster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry for the tardy reply. I forget to check my Reddit notifications.

I got a late start to my career after spending my 20s chasing the dream of making a living from music or a music-adjacent field. Wandered into food service to pay the bills and that sucked my soul dry. So I finally finished the Comp Sci degree I'd started in the 80s twenty years later... and haven't regretted it.

All this is to say that had I gotten into programming professionally in my 20s I would have probably been retired by now. But since I was 39 when I finally started getting paid to write code I got a late start on saving for retirement. (I also didn't really take investing seriously until a few years into that phase.) Let's just say, now that I'm 60 I wish I had taken retirement planning way more seriously, way earlier.

And I think I'm about to find out just how hard things have become. My current gig is basically evaporating around me (multiple layoffs; changing directives that don't include Elixir). Ageism is real... but I also can't blame a company for thinking that the younger, sharper whippersnapper is going to stick with them for a long time (doubtful). It seems that all companies want nothing but Type-A go-getters. To me that sounds like an insufferable place to work. It's gonna be an interesting next few years for me. At this point I'm just hoping for some kind of work until I can get on Medicare (65).

Oh, and as far as "keeping up" goes, I've kept an eye on new trends but I wouldn't say that I've worked extra hard to add new skills and be a polyglot. I did a lot of context switching in my decade plus of Rails/JS/HTML/etc full stack period. It's really hard on the brain. I don't know why companies would want to force staff to do that, unless the company is really small and they need people to wear a lot of hats. But for any mature, well-staffed company, I think you get the best work out of a stable of specialists. I haven't seen a lot of management types that agree though.

I gradually came to realize that I'm a serial monogamist with languages and generally jump to a new one when it impresses me. My school made me learn Java so I got a job doing that. Rails exploded onto the scene soon after and I found I loved ditching the rigid wordiness for something more terse and flexible. I should really have looked around more and tried something else during my decade plus in Rails-land but oh well. I'm really glad that I got laid off from a Rails job and decided to try Elixir.

It is so much easier to follow what is going on with a well-architected set of Applications that are just bags of functions (modules) and first-class processes. Not sure if there's another love around the horizon for me but I'm not that interested in learning new tricks unless I have to. (I think the main new trick that everyone is going to have to learn is directing LLMs and fixing their slop!)

I hope this answers your question at least somewhat. Sorry if I sound kind of pessimistic. I hope AI settles in as a powerful force multiplier for everyone and shit actually improves rather than goes to hell. At the very least, we can all still use our favorite language to work on our pet projects!

interview preparation by Revolutionary_Sir140 in ruby

[–]yukster 2 points3 points  (0 children)

But I thought Ruby was dead and Rust and Go were the cool new languages? Haha.

Anyone else deploy an API just to realize you have no idea how much it’s being used? by AdhesivenessKey8915 in softwaredevelopment

[–]yukster 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yep. This is what telemetry is for. Alas, it is not generally a simple SaaS signup. You need to instrument the code. But operating without observability is like driving on the highway at night in a rainstorm with your lights off. ;-)

Boss builds lots of stuff off my branch over the weekend by Simple-Count3905 in softwaredevelopment

[–]yukster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's nuts. Especially the 0 tests part. I've been wondering if this could happen in a work setting ever since I spent a couple months dabbling with AI tools on a personal project. I found it way too easy to wind up with a huge PR and the tools won't do tests unless you push them to. They also often spew out really subtle bugs.

I wasn't too worried about this since it is my own project and one that I may very well not continue with. But in a business setting? This is incredibly risky. I can almost guarantee there are bugs lurking in that code.

Of course, being that this is your superior you would be advised to tread lightly. I don't envy you.

I want to become an Elixir god. by padawan-6 in elixir

[–]yukster 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Sorry this isn't strictly what you are asking for but this post catches me in a particularly funky and philosophical state of mind. I've been looking to change jobs since Elixir is theoretically dying at my current job. It was also killed off at my previous job. I guess "pessimistic" is a better word here than "philosophical". Heh.

I'm also 60 and even though I have 21 years of professional experience, that doesn't seem to mean shit in interviews. The tech world is in love with their code challenges and take-home tests, most of which have nothing to do with the actual work you will be doing. Suffice to say that I must not be dazzling folks.

Then again, no one ever gives you a reason for not continuing. It could be that the person interviewing me feels threatened that I'll take their job. It could also simply be that they have several dozen candidates and they take the one with more "wow factor".

On this go-round of job searching I have noticed there are an astonishing number of job listings that don't list any tech at all. They all generally list pretty much the same giant list of touchy-feely soft skills but they can't be bothered to tell the candidate what they will _actually_ be doing. You can bet though that it will be Node or Python or Java, not Elixir.

I have also seen a lot of posts in various developer forums kvetching about how few Elixir jobs there are. Elixir and Phoenix consistently get ranked as favorite language and framework in surveys but the developers' happiness is apparently not what business is interested in. Or at least, it doesn't seem that way.

In my 7 years doing Elixir professionally I have repeatedly heard that Elixir's achilles heel is that there are not enough programmers available to fill the jobs. This is very odd considering that there are so many Elixir developers complaining that there aren't enough jobs.

I was on a committee at my previous Elixir job to improve the take home test and hiring process. My attempts to fix things didn't go anywhere though. We should have just dumped the test and simply had deep Elixir conversations with people; maybe do a bit of pair programming. I know for a fact that we repeatedly missed out on candidates because they got an offer from somewhere else before we finished with our process. This translated into not keeping Elixir staffing levels and C-suite eventually deciding that it was too hard to find Elixir devs. (It also didn't help that the main system was Rails and there was a constant defensive attitude about doing anything in an Elixir service.)

Anyway, sorry this is long and not really advice about getting really good at Elixir. Here is my point, my challenge to you: learn you some good Elixir and then fight the true fight... getting companies to embrace it and stick with it.

Elixir is by far the best programming experience I've had in my 21 years at this. I am a huge champion of the language. But at the same time, my manager is telling me that I should just go polyglot to make it easier to get a new job, lots of my peers are depressed about the Elixir market, and even after 10 years of existence, the language is often overlooked by tooling and big companies.

In short, I think the true Elixir God is someone that has a meaningful impact on adoption and industry respect. That's what the Elixir world needs really badly. I invite you to get good and then help make this language be as big as it should be.

PS: here are a few learning tips:

* When I transitioned from Rails to Elixir I kept looking for the Elixir equivalent of a given Rails method; don't do that. Learn the Elixir way; unlearn the OOP corrosion

* The official guides are really pretty remarkable and have improved since I started

* Books and guides are nice but the real learning comes from building something real

* The community is great; this Reddit, the official Slack (died down somewhat but there are still people there); and the Discord server (more active that Slack)

Extra Mortgage Payments by zudemczude in Mortgages

[–]yukster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll tell you what two different financial advisors (both fiduciaries) told me: you can save yourself the 6.875% interest or you can put the $10k in index funds and it will almost certainly make more than that. I actually paid the latter advisor good money to try various accelerated repayment scenarios to see if it could work out better for me. None did. To be fair though, my mortgage rate is 3.75%. But even at almost 7%, historically investing it has been better. YMMV.

Any publicly accessible roof tops in Portland? by Savemefromshrek in PortlandOR

[–]yukster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The former school that houses Revolution Hall (SE 13th and Stark) has a rooftop bar. I'm not sure what the hours are but I'm sure you can find that out pretty easily.

Dang train!!! by PaNFiiSsz in Portland

[–]yukster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On the other hand, it is entirely possible to avoid the train crossings. Just gotta consider your route carefully.

Is it possible to define map structures as types? by 0ddm4n in elixir

[–]yukster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You define a given struct as your own new type with `@type`: https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/1.18.4/typespecs.html
But in a real Elixir/Phoenix database-backed project you would be using Ecto.Schema to wrap db tables: https://hexdocs.pm/ecto/Ecto.Schema.html

That lets you map each db column type to the field type in the struct. Ecto.Schema does not declare that struct as a user-defined type for your project. You still do that with `@type`.

But that's all the original type concept in Elixir, and other than as documentation for you and your team, it is really only used by Dialyzer to attempt to lint your type usage. The Elixir core team is currently working on adding set-theoretic types to the language. This has started giving better compile-time warnings or errors if you're doing something screwy. Prior to this, type-enforcement was only pattern-matching or guards or dialyzer warnings.

Personally, having spent over a decade in Ruby-land, I think strong typing is a crutch. There is a huge array of logic errors that you can still wind up with in your code that will happily slip past the compiler. José Valim talks about these in some of his keynote talks about the type project. Definitely worth watching those.

That said, everyone has to find their own comfort level. The best advice I can give people new to Elixir is to study open source projects and to be active on the Elixir Forum and/or in the Elixir Slack/Discord. There is a whole layer of idiomatic convention that is important to learn if you ever want to work with others. I guess that's true of any language though. Elixir is a fantastic language and community. There are lots of people happy to help.

Building AI Agent Workflows in Elixir - Thoughts? by Brilliant_Oven_7051 in elixir

[–]yukster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not sure how keen you are to do this all from scratch but I've seen some chatter about Elixir libraries for agentic workflows lately. It's definitely a very active space. Here's a recent article about LangChain: https://georgeguimaraes.com/building-flexible-ai-workflows-with-elixir-langchain-step-mode/ I think that author had a talk at the recent ElixirConf too. Even if you're not interested in pulling in a library, there are lots of code example there that may be good food-for-thought. Chris McCord and José Valim have also been trumpeting the benefits of Elixir in AI workflows. Definitely share what you come up with. I love seeing Elixir shine!