ConfusedDog

"Illiterate is an adjective and noun that primarily describes a person who has little or no formal education and is unable to read or write." More like functionally illiterate - lack of critical thinking, common sense and factual knowledge, an inability to parse complex ideas, and poor writing skills.

My lodge is also over 90% retired-age men, a few even over 90 year old... last month July 3 members died, but younger members are joining and replacement rate is probably evens out. The thing with younger men like me is we are too busy with work and family to contribute meaningfully to the lodge's operation.

Unfortunately, there are lot of politics involved in that. I'm in a traditional AF&AM lodge (male only and believe in the Great Architect of the Universe). I myself is not a Christian nor believe in any major religions. I believe praying/meditation is a private affair. I find being male only is hugely beneficial in fact. It doesn't mean that we don't have social activities with women. There's the Order of Eastern Star, and Jobs Daughters, Rainbow, etc., which we donate to and have social events with to celebrate holidays and awards, etc. They have their own supportive matriarch and sisters which is also mentally and socially beneficial for them.

I'm part of Freemasonry. All members are at least vested for criminal conducts, my lodge at least is very strict on background investigation, so it's easier to pick trustworthy brothers to talk to. I'm probably one the youngest members and benefitted from wisdom and patience from older brothers. I'm not a church member but that would be a good alternative.

Why would 3.6 flash perform a little worse than 3.5 flash on Artificial Analysis Coding Index...

https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/gemini-3-6-flash?intell...

Gridfinity seems very useful. I might try it. I spent $100 on FB marketplace 2 years ago for a AnkerMake M5C with bunch of rolls of PLA. I've printed hairdryer rack, containers, Labubus as little gifts for neighborhood kids to paint over. I thought about getting a multi-color 3d printer like Anycubic Kobra S1 combo, but the wasting of plastics is holding me back. Snapmaker U1 is much better but more expensive.

While it will give a little more revenue, I suspect keeping users longer in a "self-paid trial" might ended up change their mind and keep the subscription.

The only reason I would subscribe would be an interesting movie/tv show that I cannot find anywhere else. Frankly, these days if I find those, they just go onto my backlog... then there are also my games, books, bucket list things to do backlogs. So, I'm not subscribed to anything.

It was not true years ago when I was using Cox. It said unlimited, but in fact had a upload/download limit. I think download was 500GB/month, upload was far less. I'm using Fios now and apparently it's truly unlimited unless my excessive usage is "unfair" to other users. I guess that kind of language is left to be interpreted by Verizon.

I bought Whirlpool washer/dryer combo, washer is top load, both non-smart, I think it was like $600ish for both from HomeDepot. "Smart" really isn't as innovative as like improving product longevity, reducing lint clog, safety, etc. I used a smart fridge once, it won't dispense water without updating to the latest firmware. I was just glad it wasn't in my house.

I tried Isreal-Iran scenario. So, any missile faster than 1000km/h pretty much have 0% chance of intercepting it? Data obviously classified, but this simulation is pretty fun.

Yes, I'm super impressed by that.

This is really great! Thanks for sharing.

Not OP here, but it did disappear from the frontpage. I was still pondering about it and left this tab open... frankly I can't think of a good use case for it besides making legacy java apps available via browser. For gaming, I'd probably still use Unity or other game engines. For app development, I probably not gonna develop on Java 11 again which the support gonna be ending in 2026. I'm impressed by this project though.

I remember being called to a dinner which was paid for (figures). A couple well-dressed but fashionable guys tried to sell a crypto that ask you play a mobile game or something to earn coins which can be converted into real crypto? or something like that. There were a couple people at the dinner I know being constantly fallen into this kind of traps, including MLM, despite their success in their businesses. Well, the dinner was good at least and I found them kind of entertaining in a mentally-ill way.

That's a big improvement over Siri tbh (interruption and latency), but Siri's answer generally kind of shorter than this. My general experience with Siri hasn't been great lately. For complex question, it just redirect to ChatGPT with an extra step for me to confirm. Often stops listening when I'm not even finished with my sentence, and gives "I don't know anything about that" way too often.

I used to love Minecraft as a kid until my kid ruined it for me. This 5-year-old loves to be in Creative mode and put me in Survival mode and set up traps and rounds of enemies for me to fight my way out. Not relaxing at all anymore.

Let's not let this guy build or train any AVs.

I don't know how they would classify gossips, opinions, deals made by a Secretary of State with or regarding the heads of foreign nations. I'm sure it's an "extensive" investigation. Haha. Democrats probably just want to sweep it under the rug, and Republicans want to use it for favors/card in this situation.

Pretty sure one of their phones are hacked... They like to be mobile. SCIF would be counterproductive. After Hillary and this, I think they really need to invest more into a secure mobile comm program...

If history has taught us anything (Hillary), that's just wishful thinking from people without power and political rivals. On rational side, most likely one of their phones got hacked which caused this leak. They are high profile targets after all. At their level, exactly what's the SOPs they must follow otherwise gonna get fired? They may push for policies downstream, but policies that govern them? They can just argue for precedence (Hillary) and nothing gonna come of this.

"National defense" as defense of nation's interests. Politicians can phrase it however they like. Pay is meh, benefits are pretty good if you locked into 0.4% FERS deduction prior 2013, that's like 16% annualized compounding... health insurance is getting less and less attractive by the year. Salary growth is also slow and next few years probably gonna be a big fat zero and eaten alive by inflation. Like OP said, it does feel like turning into a rock solid pillar and getting forgotten.

I was scammed out of about $4 when I was kid playing Ragnarök Online. Taught me zero trust. In hindsight, it's a cheap but effective learning experience... well, until I met my now ex-wife.

When I got this job years ago, this microwave is beyond cleanable... I think everyone is just avoiding it at this point and go across the building to use a different microwave, which is also pretty gross tbh. I thought about cleaning it, but then again I don't wanna, you know, die.

Probably a heating element to reheat the coffee or tea. I have recently considered need something like a reheating lunchbox so I don't have to use the office microwave which is always gross. I just carry a huge Zojirushi insulted water bottle for my hot water need. I don't want to lose any water capacity...

"USAid money is spent supporting independent journalism" is an oxymoron. When a state sponsors something journalistic, it's called propaganda... not independent. Not saying they are not heroic doing this work, this money shouldn't come from US. If they can't keep the effort alive organically, they should get help from donations. These US congressmen for God sake need to keep their hands in their own wallets, not taxpayers.

Not sure what's your point on the Politico article. It is tragic that disrupt a lot of people's lives. Like I said, it doesn't mean there's no corruption, only good is happening. Both things can be true at the same time. This thing can be tragic, Congress might get their shit together - hopefully.

You should have lived long enough to know a person can be a good father to his kids and still murder innocent people. Both things can be true. If a person doing these good things while made $30 million in 3 years on $200k salary, I can reasonably assume some serious corruption is going on.

I'm not refuting Musk probably hate them like all other regulators or might take advantage of getting into like FAA's operation. It's been obvious on both sides of the aisle. Is USAID corrupt? I think so, foreign money is the most difficult to track. Is FAA technology and management sucks? I believe that, too. Many things can be true at the same time. Since no body can fix it before Musk got his butt in started farting, why are people not benefiting from the kickbacks or inefficiencies complaining is beyond me.

I take back my apology. lol

By the look of it, they were investigating how Ukraine use of Starlink provided to them. You make a great journalist. lol.

You mean Peter Principled into another department...? Sorry, just joking. It's terrible and unfair to fire people like this. They are removing the low hanging fruits first.