[amphibian]

Cause, on 14 April 2024 - 04:06 PM, said:

Something that amuses me with how much I travel for work:

A 3 star hotel is cheaper and will throw in breakfast for free. They will also have a wide selection of drinks, snacks to buy in the lobby.

A 4 star hotel is more expensive because they have a decent restaurant which you are welcome to spend 30 dollars at a day for a breakfast. they sell drinks l, snacks in the lobby but usually a very limited selection. Presumably to encourage you to use the fancy bar or restaurant.

In the one hand I understand it but on the other hand it also seems a little silly.

The higher up one goes into society, the more one is expected to care for your needs or pay higher prices for doing so in a way that people see as fitting the level of where they are.

This means the chips and cookies and corn syrup drinks go away at the higher price points and expectations that one has dinner reservations elsewhere come in.

Hotels in general are fairly decent at optimizing towards those who stay with them.

[Mentalist]

Ugh, the micro-ATX connectors on my PSU are the wrong pattern. everything else seems to be running (all the fans are spinning, the disk tray is ejecting, the power LED is blinking), but the mobo won't fire up the BIOS display, for obvious reasons.

Now I'll have to wait 2 days for a new PSU to arrive.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

amphibian, on 14 April 2024 - 06:13 PM, said:

Cause, on 14 April 2024 - 04:06 PM, said:

Something that amuses me with how much I travel for work:

A 3 star hotel is cheaper and will throw in breakfast for free. They will also have a wide selection of drinks, snacks to buy in the lobby.

A 4 star hotel is more expensive because they have a decent restaurant which you are welcome to spend 30 dollars at a day for a breakfast. they sell drinks l, snacks in the lobby but usually a very limited selection. Presumably to encourage you to use the fancy bar or restaurant.

In the one hand I understand it but on the other hand it also seems a little silly.

The higher up one goes into society, the more one is expected to care for your needs or pay higher prices for doing so in a way that people see as fitting the level of where they are.

This means the chips and cookies and corn syrup drinks go away at the higher price points and expectations that one has dinner reservations elsewhere come in.

Hotels in general are fairly decent at optimizing towards those who stay with them.

Preying on tired and stressed-out travelers with the lure of cheap junk food prominently displayed in the lobby (with other people possibly eating it right there in front of them, the aromas wafting over...).

OTOH they might also have nuts... but those might have sugar added.

It's been a while but I don't recall any snack vending machines in the lobbies of five star hotels. (Last time I was at one, one of my first orders of business was walking about a mile to the nearest place to buy cheap liquor, olive oil, and canned wild salmon iirc. Still let my rich relatives spend hundreds on fancy lunches and dinners for me at critically acclaimed restaurants both inside the hotel and elsewhere....)

[Maark Abbott]

Macros, on 12 April 2024 - 01:19 PM, said:

on the other hand a lot of companies and tradesmen don't sign write their vans anymore because so many are being broken into to have tools stolen

Yeah that's a fair point. I'm just super fucking jaded by the experience of that place now. Was fine until the guy who owned it when we moved in sold up and moved away. He was sound. The do-uppers who bought it off him were sound. It's since they sold it on after tarting the place up the road's gone to shit!

[Maark Abbott]

Just further to this a bunch of guys went in earlier, looks like they're doing some sort of remedial work so I assume that place is gonna be up for sale soon. Does the nightmare end...?

[Lady Bliss]

Maark Abbott, on 16 April 2024 - 11:49 AM, said:

Just further to this a bunch of guys went in earlier, looks like they're doing some sort of remedial work so I assume that place is gonna be up for sale soon. Does the nightmare end...?

Could be positive if they are looking to update. Better tenants?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Maark Abbott, on 16 April 2024 - 11:49 AM, said:

Just further to this a bunch of guys went in earlier, looks like they're doing some sort of remedial work so I assume that place is gonna be up for sale soon. Does the nightmare end...?

Perhaps they plan on expanding underground, with some well-fortified bunkers? Oh, and maybe even a network of tunnels... running right under your home. So you could dig a hole and pop down to pluck some drugs (and be neighborly) whenever you want! #Utopia

[Maark Abbott]

Lady Bliss, on 17 April 2024 - 09:46 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 16 April 2024 - 11:49 AM, said:

Just further to this a bunch of guys went in earlier, looks like they're doing some sort of remedial work so I assume that place is gonna be up for sale soon. Does the nightmare end...?

Could be positive if they are looking to update. Better tenants?

I'm in two minds right now. The workmen doing stuff are eastern European of some description, but very uncommunicative - if I pass them in the yard and say hi or morning, they don't even grunt. And the first gangs in there were EE as well. I'm probably doing a disservice as they're only there during main business hours and keep to themselves, but the possibility that it's another gang going in is making my anxiety go haywire again. It's the lack of communication that's doing it really.

We're back on our 2022 plan of finding somewhere else anyway. Before wife had her breakdown we were looking to do that anyway so the next door situation has really just given us impetus to do it.

[Maark Abbott]

Not to put too fine a point on it but I did a hot sauce challenge two weeks ago and I am still in buckshot mode. Cmon just a bit of fibre I'm just a little guy

[Abyss]

Maark Abbott, on 22 April 2024 - 07:50 AM, said:

Not to put too fine a point on it but I did a hot sauce challenge two weeks ago and I am still in buckshot mode. Cmon just a bit of fibre I'm just a little guy

...and what important life lesson did we learn from this experience?

[Tiste Simeon]

Abyss, on 23 April 2024 - 03:33 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 22 April 2024 - 07:50 AM, said:

Not to put too fine a point on it but I did a hot sauce challenge two weeks ago and I am still in buckshot mode. Cmon just a bit of fibre I'm just a little guy

...and what important life lesson did we learn from this experience?

I'm assuming it's something along the lines of "hot sauce is delicious" and no further lessons.

[Tsundoku]

Tiste Simeon, on 23 April 2024 - 06:52 PM, said:

Abyss, on 23 April 2024 - 03:33 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 22 April 2024 - 07:50 AM, said:

Not to put too fine a point on it but I did a hot sauce challenge two weeks ago and I am still in buckshot mode. Cmon just a bit of fibre I'm just a little guy

...and what important life lesson did we learn from this experience?

I'm assuming it's something along the lines of "hot sauce is delicious" and no further lessons.

This is why Holmes had his Lestrade ...

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Abyss, on 23 April 2024 - 03:33 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 22 April 2024 - 07:50 AM, said:

Not to put too fine a point on it but I did a hot sauce challenge two weeks ago and I am still in buckshot mode. Cmon just a bit of fibre I'm just a little guy

...and what important life lesson did we learn from this experience?

That if you put hot sauce on diarrhea... it will still smell like marijuana?...

"I suffered for my art. Now it's your turn
Turning and turning in the widening flush flood
Of hot sauce as a metaphor for climate change...

[Lady Bliss]

Has anyone had excessive iron in their blood? A bit freaked out…

[Tsundoku]

Lady Bliss, on 24 April 2024 - 01:52 AM, said:

Has anyone had excessive iron in their blood? A bit freaked out…

Did you get a job at Magneto's jail?

Just wondering.

Can't say I've ever heard of excessive iron sorry, just the opposite - iron deficiency.
I'd suggest you do some research and see a doctor, but to see a doctor in the USA you'd probably have to sell a kidney, which sort of negates the reason for doing it in the first place.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 24 April 2024 - 09:25 AM

[Wry]

Lady Bliss, on 24 April 2024 - 01:52 AM, said:

Has anyone had excessive iron in their blood? A bit freaked out…

Most of my family are carriers of one or both of the genes for this condition - Haemochromatosis. This means about a quarter of us actually have it. In fact it's very prevalent in Ireland genetically speaking so far from unusual here.
Nothing to worry about, it is generally very easy to manage, they'll take a pint of blood or so each month until your Iron levels look right. It takes years for iron levels to build up to anything dangerous. It's more serious for men than for women, simply because women up until menopause have a built-in monthly iron safety valve.

The largest pain is that you'll need to get your levels checked every 6 months or so afterwards.

Absolutely no big deal in most cases.

[Maark Abbott]

Tiste Simeon, on 23 April 2024 - 06:52 PM, said:

Abyss, on 23 April 2024 - 03:33 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 22 April 2024 - 07:50 AM, said:

Not to put too fine a point on it but I did a hot sauce challenge two weeks ago and I am still in buckshot mode. Cmon just a bit of fibre I'm just a little guy

...and what important life lesson did we learn from this experience?

I'm assuming it's something along the lines of "hot sauce is delicious" and no further lessons.

precisely this

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Wasted way too much time today playing "where TF is the typo, or will it all work out if I just expand everything and play around with algebra and identities" in a probability theory textbook proof that doesn't work.

Turns out it was a missing minus sign. Should have been e^(-iux) not e^(iux). Of course the damned authors can't be bothered to update the errata. Tried looking up other proofs but none of them used the same method.

The whole "if you're trying to learn this then you should be able to figure out any elementary school calculus / trigonometry / algebra on your own, no matter how complicated or non-obvious it is" wouldn't be so irritating (and time consuming) if not for all the errors they make.

And since probability is such a major part of the logical foundation for all empirical knowledge, rigorous and comprehensive probability theory (and measure theory---or some equally rigorous substitute---really does seem necessary for many of the most important results for science and statistics, like the central limit theorem) should be made as accessible and easy to learn as possible.

[Lady Bliss]

Azath Vitr (D, on 28 April 2024 - 04:02 PM, said:

Wasted way too much time today playing "where TF is the typo, or will it all work out if I just expand everything and play around with algebra and identities" in a probability theory textbook proof that doesn't work.

Turns out it was a missing minus sign. Should have been e^(-iux) not e^(iux). Of course the damned authors can't be bothered to update the errata. Tried looking up other proofs but none of them used the same method.

The whole "if you're trying to learn this then you should be able to figure out any elementary school calculus / trigonometry / algebra on your own, no matter how complicated or non-obvious it is" wouldn't be so irritating (and time consuming) if not for all the errors they make.

And since probability is such a major part of the logical foundation for all empirical knowledge, rigorous and comprehensive probability theory (and measure theory---or some equally rigorous substitute---really does seem necessary for many of the most important results for science and statistics, like the central limit theorem) should be made as accessible and easy to learn as possible.

I never finished my associates degree because I’ve forgotten too much about algebra from highschool. At this point I figure if 20 years of IT experience isn’t good enough, then fsck em. (See what I did there?)

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

C J Sansom, author of the Shardlake series has died aged 71. It sounds like he'd been in increasingly poor health for some time.

I'm just a little extra sad for him that he didn't get to see Shardlake be introduced to a new audience - the TV adaption of the first book, Dissolution, starts later this week and by all accounts looks very impressive. I hope it's done the book justice even more so now.