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There are Minimum Wages, Why Not a Maximum Wage?
  • If the minimum wage was a comfortable living wage --- like it should be, in my and many other folks' opinion --- then it wouldn't matter. One person's excess isn't a problem, unless it's at the expense of someone else (which, you know, is kinda the case...).

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    A QA engineer walks into a bar...
  • An SEO specialist walks into a bar, saloon, watering hole, place to get drinks, neighborhood bar, dive bar, best mixed drinks, beer on tap...

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    A case of noncitizen voting triggers felony charges in Michigan.
  • I don't have a problem with folks being outraged at an illegitimate vote; but what I can't get behind is this outrage while at the same time being (at best) unconcerned with legitimate voters being turned away.

    One is bad because it's a vote counting when it shouldn't; the other is bad because it's a vote not counting when it should. It's essentially the same functional outcome, it's just that one of these...you know...actually happens a lot and the other doesn't.

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    Russia Mulls Forking Linux in Response to Developer Exclusions
  • I would be very surprised if such a fork would diverge from Linux. I would guess that this would be little more than a branch with (most likely) support for Russian hardware. Just my hunch.

    A legitimate hard fork doesn't seem particularly smart to me, but what do I know...

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    Only the enlightened will understand this.
  • The beautiful thing about this is that for both the pro- and anti-systemd crowds, it only reinforces their respective opinions.

    (Aside, I used to use postgres for date/interval calculations...)

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    Clever, clever
  • Awesome bandwidth to be sure, but I do think there is a difference between data transfer to RAM (such as network traffic) vs. traffic purely from one location to another (station wagon with tapes/747 with SD cards/etc.).

    For the latter, actually using the data in any meaningful way is probably limited to read time of the media, which is likely slow.

    But yeah, my go-to would be micro SD cards on a plane :)

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    If there were only three laws, which should they be?
  • My headcanon for The Matrix's "humans are batteries" is that it's the machines' perverse interpretation of this --- killing the humans is off the table, and for whatever reason letting them live with no purpose to serve the machines is also disallowed. But giving their lives "meaning" in the form of a shitty (and thermodynamically dubious) "battery" somehow satisfies the rules.

    It's a very big stretch, I'll admit...

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    bitey
  • Fun fact, the (rough) conversion efficiency of calories to mechanical joules in the human body (separate from the mechanical to electrical you're referring to) is about 25% --- but this is about the same factor as going from calories to joules! So, for a human to put out 13.5 kJ of energy would require about 13.5 food calories (kilocalories).

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    New York Times: CEO gets 36% raise, employees get 3%
  • Stock --- at least, RSUs --- is AFAIK taxed like supplemental income ( https://www.harnesswealth.com/articles/what-you-need-to-know-about-restricted-stock-units-rsus/ ), which is very similar to regular income. Stock options are different though, and maybe this is what you're referring to --- I think (???) options can be beneficial to the recipient from a tax perspective vs. other compensation but not an expert...

    And then there are capital gains, which is a different, but related, story...

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    Microsoft CEO's pay rises 63% to $73m, despite devastating year for layoffs
  • Unclear from article (at least, for me) how much of this is existing stock grants only now vesting, vs. approved raises/new grants/etc.

    Not that it particularly matters --- big compensation at the top with tumult for the folks at the bottom is...not a good look.

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    Why America Has So Much Road Safety Research, But So Little Actual Safety — Streetsblog USA
  • Step one: join local bike coalition.

    Step two: become a single-iseue voter and only vote for their endorsements.

    Only half joking here.

    It's not perfect in my city, but it is getting better, which is awesome to see --- in the past 7 or so years that I've lived here it has gotten way way better. The pandemic helped a ton (slow streets implemented in a really great way among other things).

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    Sigh
  • My point is that him being fat is completely unrelated to him being a horrible person.

    I don't care about offending horrible people; but being overweight and being a horrible person are entirely separate.

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    What are your staple foods?
  • Pressure cooker stuff (Instant Pot here, but anything works)!

    Beans are dirt cheap and homemade refried-style beans are fantastic. Don't be shy with the oil (neutral/canola, avocado, refined coconut all great). MSG also helps. Play around with pinto and black ratios (or go more exotic!).

    Add to that some Mexican style rice --- toast in a pan (before putting in rice cooker) with tomato paste, veggie bouillon, salsa, whatever, and then cook in rice cooker as usual. I like jasmine the best for this.

    Can't go wrong with Mexican style beans and rice IMHO. (And in addition, you can feed them to dinner guests if you like --- who doesn't like to build their own burritos?).

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  • People often complain about San Francisco's public transit --- and to be sure, it's not perfect by any means (multiple separate agencies doesn't help). But the historic streetcars are pretty neat!

    They're painted with the livery of various historic streetcars from all over the country (and a few international, I think). Best of all, they run alongside the modern fleet --- same route, same fare.

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    Sutro Tower lights changed color?

    Noticed a few days ago that Sutro Tower's red blinking lights are now white. Just asked them on their website form, but wondered if anyone else knows the story with this.

    Personally, I miss the red ones!

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    Howdy!

    I got my Technician in early 2000s, and last year finally upgraded to Extra. Looking to set up a very basic shack.

    I'm looking for an HF setup, with most of my use probably using digital modes, but would like the ability to use voice.

    Current transceiver is on loan from girlfriend's dad, a Ten-Tec Scout 555 --- 50W HF unit with separate modules for each band. One limitation of this is that the modules set the mode, so it's LSB on 40m, making e.g. FT8 not possible (without some hacking of code or perhaps hacking the module).

    Antenna is end-fed with an off-the-shelf 49:1. Currently only have 20m half-wave, but have just enough room for a 40m half-wave in the attic, which is the ultimate goal.

    For digital modes, it looks like there are sort of 3 classes of radio:

    • "full digital" where the radio has e.g. a USB port and handles audio, transmit, and frequency set.
    • Some computer-control with RS232, but uses computer audio+adapter to transmit.
    • No digital, use adapter to transmit. This is what the current setup uses (and it works great!)

    I'm leaning towards a conventional transceiver, e.g., something from ICOM, Kenwood, Yaesu, (or others) rather than an SDR unit. I'd like the ability to go up to 50-100W if possible.

    I don't have a hard-and-fast budget; would like to keep it <$1000 if possible; mostly just looking at used transceivers. Something like a Kenwood TS-590 looks pretty amazing and very "plug-and-play" (but pushing up against price). Something like a Yaesu FT-920 looks pretty feature-rich too; and even something more affordable like an ICOM 706 or even a 725 is probably more radio than I need. Or just grab a new 7300 and call it a day!

    Anyway...clearly, I don't know exactly what I want, but figured I'd ask folks with more experience if they have any wisdom. Thanks!

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