Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[January's Ghost]

"Suddenly going to 2 lanes from 4 is going to cause even worse congestion."

Not necessarily. Without knowing the scope of the surrounding area regarding roadways how it will change can't be predicted. However, there is plenty of data that how congested traffic doesn't have as much to do with how many lanes there are.

A lot of place expand to 4 lanes to compensate for more traffic, but traffic rarely improves because those 4 lanes will eventually merge to 3 or 2 and heavy traffic being forced to merge slows down traffic ever more.

So it's possible, even likely, you won't see much of a difference.

 

[BeardyHat]

Gotta say, I would gladly sacrifice my cars if I could take the train to places easier.

And if said train didn't smell like piss and have people openly smoking meth, but that's a separate problem.

 

[isleepinabed]

@Frag Maniac You'd be surprised but where I live (not in the USA) we have been enduring construction work all over town for an electric bus rapid transit service (with dedicated lanes), for almost 3 years now. They've started on the street I live on 6 months ago, and still not done. It was a 4 lane one and traffic has been rerouted around. During these years since construction started traffic has become terrible especially because they're working at many different places at the same time, instead of concentrating and clearing each part one after the other. This is a pretty small town (pop. 140,000) although it will connect to some neighbouring towns too (mainly to access the hospital, which is the biggest one in the region).

I would say that I don't see it having a big effect on anything, for specific reasons regarding the habits of the population and the characteristics of the town and the design of the lines. But I changed my work location just last week and the place I moved to now would actually benefit from it. If I could go from work to home by a quick bus in 10 minutes, that would improve my life I guess.

 

[Pifanjr]

This is a pretty small town (pop. 140,000)

Small town? Over here that would be considered a major city.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I would say that I don't see it having a big effect on anything, for specific reasons regarding the habits of the population and the characteristics of the town and the design of the lines. But I changed my work location just last week and the place I moved to now would actually benefit from it. If I could go from work to home by a quick bus in 10 minutes, that would improve my life I guess.

That's always the case with mass transit lines, they're great if you live near them, not so much if you don't. Pretty much everyone that works doesn't want to spend a lot of time traveling to and from it. Time saved in that regard means more time to get chores done, but mainly more leisure time to spend anyway you want. No one wants to feel like they're only a work bot, it's depressing.

 

[isleepinabed]

Small town? Over here that would be considered a major city.

According to wiki there are about 200 larger cities than that in the USA alone.

That's always the case with mass transit lines, they're great if you live near them, not so much if you don't. Pretty much everyone that works doesn't want to spend a lot of time traveling to and from it. Time saved in that regard means more time to get chores done, but mainly more leisure time to spend anyway you want. No one wants to feel like they're only a work bot, it's depressing.

In 2018 I lived in the city of Lisbon which has over half a million pop but about 3 million including nearby commuter towns in the metro area for people that commute daily into the city.
I hated that year. But it changed the way I thought about commuting and space. I lived downtown and had about an hour's commute to the northern area of the city. This is between walking to the underground station, getting on, changing to another line, then walking from the station to work. It amazed me that I could be moving for an hour and still be in the same city.

 

[Frag Maniac]

According to wiki there are about 200 larger cities than that in the USA alone.



In 2018 I lived in the city of Lisbon which has over half a million pop but about 3 million including nearby commuter towns in the metro area for people that commute daily into the city.
I hated that year. But it changed the way I thought about commuting and space. I lived downtown and had about an hour's commute to the northern area of the city. This is between walking to the underground station, getting on, changing to another line, then walking from the station to work. It amazed me that I could be moving for an hour and still be in the same city.

Same for me, the city I live in isn't much more than a half mill pop, but the fact that it's a long, narrow city with a sound on one side and huge lake on the other, plus tons of traffic from neighboring towns, means a lot of gridlock.

They talked for years about putting lids over the more congested sections of I-5 to ease congestion, but never did any such thing. We could also use a 3rd bridge across that huge lake, and there's a perfect spot for it that's only a half mile.

 

[BeardyHat]

I did succumb to a little bit of FOMO, but mostly because the thing I wanted, I've been eyeballing for quite some time now. About a week ago I went to see if they were still $65 on Lenovo's website, only to discover that they were sold-out these days and people are scalping them on eBay for around $120; I did some research and discovered that Lenovo still makes them, they just sell out pretty quickly and then later come back in stock, so I ended-up watching the site for it for a couple of days.

I just received it yesterday and I must say, it's pretty wonderful. It has a great feel to it while typing and of course, it comes with my beloved Trackpoint, which will alleviate the need to have a separate mouse if I want to use my Steam Deck with a keyboard--which occasionally happens. Realistically, I don't know if I'll get a ton of use out of it, but I'm very much enjoying it right now and using it to type this message on my tiny Deck screen. Problematically, it does now give me the wants for a portable monitor to make my Deck into an ersatz laptop, though why wouldn't I just use my normal laptop in that case? Anyway, I'm weird.

Also, my friend gifted me a spare RC Rock Crawler a week or two ago. I already own one, but this one is "better" in a lot of ways, not the least of which is the fact that i has significantly more detail. The only issue is that it's front heavy, which my wife suggested building a pile of lumber out of sticks to put in the back to weigh it down. I thought this was an awesome idea, but of course, I couldn't really do it until I had painted at least the bed of the vehicle, so it didn't look silly with real sticks in the back on plain plastic (again, I'm weird), so I removed the bed and disassembled it to give it a paint job...but then I thought, well, it'll look weird if I just paint one part, so maybe I should paint the rest...?

Anyway, a week later and I finally reassembled it last night. Red is the original injection molded plastic. I decided to practice my rusting skills on this one; I like it, but I do think I might have gone a little overboard...

https://imgur.com/a/YpYpoGh

 

[Frag Maniac]

Awesome little truck. It kind of reminds me of Marty Raney's Big Red truck. If you've ever watched Homestead Rescue, you may know what I'm talking about.

One of the better episodes was when they were first attempting to build a new Homestead far north of where they lived in Alaska, because too many neighbors were moving nearby within naked eye visual range. He drove this truck across a river, and bent a cross beam or something of the frame. No problem, he just wraps a heavy chain around it, hooks an excavator bucket to it, and pulls it straight.

 

[Frindis]

I tried to have a meaningful conversation with Microsoft Copilot once, but it turns out it was six in the morning, and I was talking to myself in the mirror after a night on town.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I tried to have a meaningful conversation with Microsoft Copilot once, but it turns out it was six in the morning, and I was talking to myself in the mirror after a night on town.

I shut down Copilot just like I did Cortana. Those kind of apps just annoy me.

 

[ZedClampet]

Alms for the needy?

Tell her you need to gamble to give away money to strangers on the Internet.

My wife lives in fear that we might have a Joe Exotic in our neighborhood and a Tiger will jump the fence and eat our kids.

Mind you, we live in Colorado and both of us grew up in towns that abutt the mountains, where Mountain Lions (and bears, oh my. Well also Coyotes...) regularly come down and eat pets. But she's afraid of Asian Tigers.

I'm a cheap gambler. It took years to win that poker money, and I only bet $20 on the Super Bowl

We have a real zoo and 2 or 3 private zoos, which I guess would qualify as Joe Exotic types. I was bitten by an Emu at one of them. Some say I shouldn't have been picking on the emu.

Your wife wouldn't have wanted to be here a couple of years ago when a policeman reported that he saw a tiger roaming around a neighborhood. Either the tiger got hungry and went home or there never was a tiger to begin with because they never found him.

***

I only watched half-a-dozen ads during the Super Bowl but my favorite was the "We're going to be alright" ad about artificial intelligence.

For those not in the US, Super Bowl commercials are a big deal that get talked about for days and days here. A 30 second spot costs you $8 million, so companies go all out to try to make entertaining and even meaningful ads.

 

[BeardyHat]

I'm a cheap gambler. It took years to win that poker money, and I only bet $20 on the Super Bowl

We have a real zoo and 2 or 3 private zoos, which I guess would qualify as Joe Exotic types. I was bitten by an Emu at one of them. Some say I shouldn't have been picking on the emu.

Your wife wouldn't have wanted to be here a couple of years ago when a policeman reported that he saw a tiger roaming around a neighborhood. Either the tiger got hungry and went home or there never was a tiger to begin with because they never found him.

***

I only watched half-a-dozen ads during the Super Bowl but my favorite was the "We're going to be alright" ad about artificial intelligence.

For those not in the US, Super Bowl commercials are a big deal that get talked about for days and days here. A 30 second spot costs you $8 million, so companies go all out to try to make entertaining and even meaningful ads.

Don't worry, I'm very patient and as a needy person, I'm perfectly happy to accept a small stipend each month; your donations will be much appreciated in the form of growth within my Steam library and you can go to bed at night with a clear conscious that you've helped a greedy needy gamer.

That tiger is just out there, stalking my kids in my backyard, I know it.

Speaking of my wife, my youngest asked if they could bring Pokemon cards to school today. We both said no, but my wife added, "Pokemon cards and Pogs are banned at school!" and now this morning I have mercilessly mocked her for being old. I'm not even sure my kids teacher would know what Pogs are...

We went to our annual Super Bowl party last night, which we mainly go to for the wings and beer. It was a good time, I actually finally made it past this troublesome mission on Advance Wars DS; been trying for days now. Couldn't tell you what was happening on TV...

 

[ZedClampet]

now this morning I have mercilessly mocked her for being old. I'm not even sure my kids teacher would know what Pogs are...

It won't be nearly as much fun, but you can mock me for being so old that I didn't know what they were and had to look them up.

Edit: asked my wife and she'd never heard of them either. We were both working by the 90s but hadn't had our kids yet. Also, my wife thought I was talking about a very similar word

 

[ZedClampet]

There's been a lot of talk in recent days about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). But as far as I can tell, they are about as close to creating an AGI as I am to winning People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive.

 

[Zloth]

I'm not even sure my kids teacher would know what Pogs are...

I remember that band! Oh, though I think you might have spelled it wrong... 😜

 

[Pifanjr]

There's been a lot of talk in recent days about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). But as far as I can tell, they are about as close to creating an AGI as I am to winning People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive.

I think the idea is that AI research is progressing so fast right now that if you assume this progress will maintain this rate AGI will be reached within a matters of years. I personally suspect this is a classic example of how it's easy to make improvements on a new technology at first, but it'll get progressively harder to squeeze out more efficiency and effectiveness as the technology matures.

 

[ZedClampet]

I think the idea is that AI research is progressing so fast right now that if you assume this progress will maintain this rate AGI will be reached within a matters of years. I personally suspect this is a classic example of how it's easy to make improvements on a new technology at first, but it'll get progressively harder to squeeze out more efficiency and effectiveness as the technology matures.

That's what they mean, but I don't think it's a matter of progressing the current tech. I don't believe you can get to AGI from the tech as it stands now. It's going to require a complete rework.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Speaking of the Superbowl, I'm sure a lot of money was lost on bets for KC to win. I myself thought it would be a lot closer, but I also didn't think KC could beat the Eagles, which is easily the most well rounded team in the NFL right now. Honestly, the game was a bit boring. I actually had more fun watching the Kraven The Hunter movie.

Despite critics bashing Kraven for lackluster effects and ADR, I thought it was a pretty good film. Maybe I'm a bit naive, or perhaps just not so nit picky as critics, but I thought the effects were OK, and even if the dialogue IS enhanced or changed slightly via ADR, it's certainly not blatantly obvious to most I think.

You have to wonder these days if part of the low sales on movies are as much about the rising cost of streaming services and theater tickets. It likely puts many viewers in a sour mood from the get go, meaning the movie has to be overwhelmingly entertaining, or they will trash talk it to death.

 

[ZedClampet]

I was complaining about the weather, and it reminded me of a sort of funny story.

I used to do a lot more volunteer work, and one weekend I was running the register at a thrift store that benefited a local homeless shelter. The store was near where many of the homeless stayed, and a homeless man charged into the store, marched right at me and started ranting. I only understood enough of what he was saying to realize that he was accusing me of controlling the weather. I figured if I denied controlling the weather at all that he wouldn't believe me, so I said, "I only control the weather over the oceans. If you are talking about the weather here, you have to talk to someone else." He said something in response, but I couldn't understand what he said. Then he turned around and left.

After thinking about my response, I got a little concerned and told the person who ran the store about it just in case he came back. She told me not to worry about it because he came in every time it rained and accused her of controlling the weather, and she just told him she'd try to fix it.

I'm not sure which one of us gave him the worst response, but between the two of us he for sure knew where to go when he didn't like the weather. He even knew exactly who to talk to

 

[Frindis]

I had a funny dream about how idiotic corporate greed has become. To keep it short, I was running down the hall of a hotel to get to the emergency box, but when I got there, I discovered I had to put 50 cents in to get the fire extinguisher out.

One of the malls where I live has a slot for you to put a credit card to go to the toilet. So not only do I have to get hosed by a thousand different ways malls suck my wallet dry, I also have to pay for taking a dump? Nah, I don't think so.

 

[Zloth]

Nah, I don't think so.

So.... you crawled under?

 

[Frindis]

So.... you crawled under?

I didn't participate in any great escape, but it makes me hesitant to visit such places in the future.

 

[Frag Maniac]

One of the malls where I live has a slot for you to put a credit card to go to the toilet. So not only do I have to get hosed by a thousand different ways malls suck my wallet dry, I also have to pay for taking a dump? Nah, I don't think so.

Reminds me of when the city I live in was entertaining the idea of putting high tech public outhouses in certain places that clean themselves. When people found out what they cost and what it would cost to use them, I think that's what shot it down.

Seems to me a better way of keeping the city clean would have been if the crazy politicians would have thought ahead about the problems announcing the place as a "Sanctuary City" would cause. We've had rampant homelessness ever since.

 

[Pifanjr]

One of the malls where I live has a slot for you to put a credit card to go to the toilet. So not only do I have to get hosed by a thousand different ways malls suck my wallet dry, I also have to pay for taking a dump? Nah, I don't think so.

The restrooms at most malls and train stations here cost €0,70, but they're also manned by a cleaner for most of the day, so they're always clean.