I love that you are voted negative on this. You’re absolutely correct, but people don’t want to hear it.

Had a long argument with someone a few months back where they insisted if they come around a curve and a tree is laying across the road, and they can’t stop in time, the tree is at fault…

There’s a great Carolyn Hax advice column from years ago where the writer’s partner was vegetarian because he was actually allergic to meat.

Writer’s family thinks it’s a lie and sneaks meat into a meal. That results in a ride in the “screaming white bus,” as Carolyn put it, to the hospital.

The writer defended her family and insisted it was just a joke, and partner was taking it too seriously. I’ve left out a lot of detail, but Carolyn basically tells the partner he should run from this relationship.

Same experience here as a GenXer - I don’t recall my parents ever reading to me - they might have when I was really young, but they were also raising my brothers (6 and 7 years older than me), so I doubt they had much time.

I was the avid reader in the family. When I got married, I stopped reading as much, but I still do some reading when I find a book that interests me. I have three or four sitting on my desk at the moment that I haven’t started.

Yeah. I had noticed it seemed steamy in the washer after loads finished, but I didn’t put it together until the washer caught the issue.

I don’t hate you. I don’t know that I really hate any team. I dislike when the Caps (my team) plays the Pens, because there’s just so much rivalry and it often gets chippy. But these days the Pens are mostly harmless, so it’s hard for me to hate them.

I do take a certain satisfaction in seeing the Pens lose, along with the Flyers, the Bruins, the Rangers, and possibly a few others, but I can’t muster enough energy to hate them.

I have nothing against the Leafs.

I was very tired of hearing the Habs fans complaining during the first round series. Many vocal Habs fans seem to think the puck is destined to go into the net every time the Habs enter the offensive zone, and any failure of that to happen is obviously a failure in refereeing. I feel like the Caps did playoff hockey fans everywhere (including Habs fans) a favor by eliminating the Habs early. Nothing against the team though, I thought they mostly played well.

I have to admit I did find one nice thing about our electronically driven washer. We bought a new washer and dryer when we moved to this house, and the washer was fine for a few weeks, then errored out on a load of delicates. Tried restarting it, same issue. Unplugged it, plugged it back in, same issue. I was starting to get upset when I realized that the “cold” water hose was hot. The handles on our valves are reversed. The washer realized it was filling with hot water and gave an error instead of ruining the clothes. Swap the hoses, and it has worked perfectly since.

Other than having to replace the tensioner on the dryer’s belt, they’ve been totally reliable.

Our dishwasher died a year or two ago. I realized it wasn’t circulating the water, so I replaced the pump. Unfortunately that didn’t fix the issue, so I wasted over $100 on the pump. Likely it was the transformer or controller for that pump, but I was tired of not having a dishwasher and replaced it. I still have the new pump, I should ebay it…

Yeah, it’s a great feeling!

Odds are pretty good you’ll have some other issue…but if you need a thermistor, hit me up!

Yeah I’ve saved a few things that way - nothing to lose, so let’s try it. Often it doesn’t work…but other than some time, I’ve lost nothing.

The previous owners built a koi pond on the property (though there aren’t any actual koi in it…I’m not sure what breed of fish are in it). After we moved in we had a local shop come and clean it, and they suggested replacing the filter, so we did that. The new one uses a UV light to help kill some types of algae and keep it clear. Unfortunately the ballasts for those UV lights are, frankly, garbage, and I’ve replaced it a few times. I was able to figure out that the switch that detects whether the ballast is installed properly doesn’t trigger, so I’ve used tape to deal with that…then an animal chewed the wires right where they come out of the ballast.

I’ve been trying to pry it apart to get to the wires to fix it, but I just can’t get it to open up. It’s just chewing up the casing. But I guess the same thing applies, nothing to lose.

I really should just look for a better filter.

Thanks. Definitely flying high this evening!

Working on my basement project again!

We tore out the walls a few years ago for a few reasons, but the project stalled after that as we were getting water in the basement. I think we have that issue solved now, and I have more time, so I’ve restarted work to build it into a usable room.

I think I’ve previously ranted about how the previous owner of the house apparently hated ground wires. I found another outlet that had a ground wire run to it, but the ground wasn’t connected to the outlet (and it was a plastic box). Why?!?

Some other screwy wiring decisions meant that the first half day was just getting working temporary light in the rooms so I could see better. It’s hard to explain, but I’ve installed studs that will serve as support for outlets and drywall.

I may have to remove some of the remaining original drywall - he had installed an outlet up high (for a workbench he had in that room), but I want it at the normal height, and I want two more, so how much work I have ahead depends on how he ran the wire. I’m hoping for “sanely,” but I would not be surprised to find it’s run at the higher level across the studs.

I do have a corner that has no studs (it’s a concrete wall, again difficult to explain) so I might need to build some kind of support for the drywall in that corner.

I have to figure out the plan for what circuits I want the outlets on. Unfortunately my breaker box is full, and I believe it already has the max number of double breakers allowed by code (not double breakers… two breakers in one slot setups), so just adding a new circuit is out.

I also need to build a frame around the hvac ductwork to attach drywall to. I’ll need a 12’ long 2x4 for that job, plus supports, but those can be smaller.

My previous laptop had a touch screen, and the Linux driver worked for it with no configuration on my end. Not exactly what you’re asking about, but I was impressed by how it “just worked”.

But that was a traditional laptop.

Awwwww that’s sad. I think our dog could be a handful, but he gets 3 or 4 walks every day, and play time, and some of those walks involve zoomies (I’m not a runner, but I imagine the neighbors are all used to seeing me run with the dog, just trying to burn off his energy).

So he tends to spend much of his time just lounging around the house. If my wife is watching TV, it’s a pretty good bet he’s going to be cuddled up with her.

He’s a really happy dog. Loves everyone and everything.

That said, I’ve already decided we’re not adopting another one. I love him, but I also do most of the work - feeding him, walking him, etc. I also take care of the cats. Maybe I’ll feel differently now that I’ve retired and have more time, but before that, I was overwhelmed with all of the chores in the house.

I can count on one hand the number of times my dog has thrown up, and he’s been with us over 6 years. What were your friends giving their dogs?

And honestly, picking up poop is part of having a dog, just like cleaning the litter box is a necessary chore for cats. If you don’t want to do it, then yeah you shouldn’t get a dog. I mean, I don’t really want to do it either, but I recognize it’s part of owning a dog. I don’t like going out in the rain, snow, or hot sun to walk him, either, but, again… It’s part of the deal.

Our dog has no chores, he’s spoiled.

Facebook and AI…make it make sense.

Now you’ve got Facebook making AI posts and images. And you can click on a post and it’ll give you suggested AI-generated responses. Soon Facebook won’t need us humans at all, it’ll just be AIs interacting with each other.

What’s the business plan for Meta with that strategy? You can’t sell ads to AIs, I assume…How do they plan to make money?

I tried it and didn’t like it, but obviously that’s just a personal opinion - several other people in this thread have said it’s good. I like Coke and I like orange cream soda, but the two together just didn’t work for me.

I’m team Vanilla Coke. I hated that during the pandemic I usually couldn’t get it; and even now, the grocery store might only have one or two 12-packs in stock when we need it. But cherry (and cherry vanilla) is also pretty good, and I like to mix it up sometimes.

Jon Stewart on the Daily Show…almost 11 years ago.

“Biden’s economy”

It’s a novelty vehicle.

It’s too big for many people. It’s not as functional (in terms of towing and hauling) as a regular pickup. People who buy pickups for business uses are, for the most part, are going to be very nervous about buying an electric vehicle from a relatively new manufacturer.

Even if you put aside the issues with Elon: The issue with the Cybertruck is that Elon never understood it was a novelty vehicle. The traditional auto manufacturers make these novelty vehicles from time to time, but the difference is that they understand what they’re building and know they’re only going to sell 10,000 or something per year, and probably for a short run.

Elon’s so far up his own ass that he doesn’t understand why everyone isn’t buying one.

Yeah, I know that it makes perfect sense for them to be on a user’s home directory.

I said that because it was a flashback to work, where people were constantly filling the “home” drive with data that should be stored in the work/project directories. Regular emails begging people not to save data to their home directories. But that data should be accessible to others - it’s not personal, like most holodeck programs would be.

Last year, they added a some insane amount of space (dozens of terabytes IIRC) to address space limitations…a few months later, they were down to less than a terabyte free. People just do not program efficiently and do not clean up their messes.