[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 51 points 2 months ago

So many people just can't understand this. In dense city streets your journey times are usually decided by how long you spend waiting in queues and barely affected at all by your top speed. Which is why you can get around a city by bike faster than by car, even though few transportation riders cruise at much more than ~16mph/25kph on the flat.

I used to think that people just hadn't thought this through and realized it, but I've had a few online discussions where it's clear some people are just flat out incapable of understanding that when there's congestion, speeding to a traffic queue most often just means a longer wait in the queue, not a shorter journey time.

[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 33 points 3 months ago

What? We're burning more fossil fuels than ever and the earth feedback loops seem to be kicking off. Just because we're also expanding use of less destructive energy sources doesn't mean we're curbing output. Making things worse slightly less quickly isn't making things better.

[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 30 points 3 months ago

And yet there's a big push to rename git "master" branches, which have no slave connotations and are more analogous to master recordings.

Its not like I'll fight it, but it's stupid.

[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 107 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

You do? Because I don't. There is nothing racist about the concept of master. Is a masterpiece racist? Are master tapes, Are post-graduate degrees racist? We may as well declare "work" insensitive because slaves had to work.

Don't get me wrong, there are many terms we should adjust. I just can't see how "master" is one of them.

[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 40 points 4 months ago

I have to say this is always my thought when I see those signs. "Road work ends" would convey what they mean in normal English.

Similarly the strange US habit of text on the ground being written bottom to top. I get what they intended, but I don't get why, then they first saw the effect, they didn't laugh and realize it didn't work. There's a road lane near me that says "BUSES NO" "TRUCKS NO" and I always picture someone disciplining a naughty bus.

[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 28 points 6 months ago

You haven't been to Boston recently then.

[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 29 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

coding is a trade.

You're an individual paid to use skill to make things that someone else profits from. You may be paid well but you're also at the bottom of the ladder, having to do what you're told, discarded as it suits the employer.

[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 26 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Just me. It was my job for a while at Canonical, until the work was moved to China.

[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 34 points 11 months ago

Lol, no mention of the fact that Ubuntu was already shipped on almost the entire Dell range, but only in China and developing world markets. This was because they had sold millions of laptops without OS in those markets, which immediately were flashed with pirated Windows, and Microsoft were pissed off. They pressured the Chinese govt to require computers must ship with an OS, so Cannonical/Ubuntu stepped in, did it for cheap (~$1/machine) and... they were still of course flashed with pirated windows immediately.

They didn't ship to the US or Europe etc., because in those markets Dell got more kickback-money than they spent, from Windows and the various crapware they shipped pre-installed. So shipping Ubuntu in the US actually cost Dell money.

[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 34 points 11 months ago

I've never understood why more people don't dry themselves in the shower, and dry their feet on the way out. Why use the bath mat as a special communal foot sole towel? It's much nicer when it's just a comfortable dry mat for standing on with bare feet.

[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 31 points 1 year ago

Perl is a write-only language.

[-] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 89 points 1 year ago

Kids often don't know the difference between "wifi" and the Internet. It's not an age thing these days.

4
submitted 1 year ago by sping@lemmy.sdf.org to c/bicycles@lemmy.ca

In Cambridge, MA, USA, and nearby communities, bike advocates have made real progress with lanes and paths and general infrastructure. Also the city requires that new builds have a proper bike room. This building was recently gutted and fitted out and this is the bike room today - overloaded, and the building is barely half full... Looks like they will need to find more efficient bike racks!

Meanwhile in a recent commute I was in a queue of 30 bicycles at a light at which about 6-8 cars get through at a time. 10-15 years ago I was one of the few bikes on the roads at any time.

Hats off to the advocates and representatives of the local cities that have made this happen through continuous pressure and work over decades...

1
submitted 1 year ago by sping@lemmy.sdf.org to c/emacs@lemmy.ml

The lack of keyboard interface on Lemmy is killing me, but really what I want is a good client in Emacs. However, it's beyond my Elisp to design and start such a project, but I could probably help. Anyone on it?

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sping

joined 1 year ago