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lapetitejort

2,690 karma · joined June 17, 2020

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lapetitejort··on American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died
I didn't know about it until one of my submissions was chosen as a second chance. Just one of the many features that old-timers have to pass on to the new blood
lapetitejort··on Oldinsurancemaps.net is now a Charter Project
If you like OldInsuranceMaps, check out another OSM charter project, Yesterdays! Originally created by a team in Richmond, Virginia [0], with one more deployment covering the Inland Empire [1]. They plan to merge soon. Yesterdays imports Sanborn maps to help place historical photos as accurately as possible.

0: https://yesterdays.maprva.org/

1: https://yesterdays.inlandempire.place/

lapetitejort··on AI boosted homework scores, then exam scores dropped: study
To extend this analogy:

Using the forklift as a spotter and to assist in loading weights increased gains. Then again, a human can do all those things, and provide real human connection.

lapetitejort··on New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
The minors are not getting the money. However, if I were a minor and knew me signing up for Meta would cost them five figures, I would absolutely sign up
lapetitejort··on My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded
I added a MIK rear rack with pannier rails. I bought a seat post collar with screw holes in order to attach it, only to realize the bike doesn't have a seat post collar! And the collar was 1/4 inch too wide for the seat post. I wedged some green tire protection strips in there and it works great. I biked home two full panniers and a watermelon in a basket from a farmer's market. Bad idea in retrospect as the whole bike wobbled from being back-heavy. And the kickstand cannot handle even the slightest amount of weight. I might invest in front pannier rails. So I guess I'm going in the touring bike direction!
lapetitejort··on My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded
In an alternate universe the cannonball runners, with their cars silent, unassuming, but blazingly fast won over the car modding scene
lapetitejort··on My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded
My ongoing midlife crisis vehicle swerves in a different direction: I bought a 1988 Nishiki 1207 at a yard sale for $40. Mostly stock save for a new seat. With the wheels out of true, the stickers plastered over with garbage, the brakes loose, the front tire visibly cracking, the rear cassette visibly rusted, and the rack mounts stripped, the bike needs some work. I am motivated to finally really learn bike maintenance after putting it off for 30 years
lapetitejort··on StreetComplete: Fixing OpenStreetMap, one tiny quest at a time
The amount things you can map in OSM is impressive. However I ran into two things that have no formal tags: time capsules (historic=time_capsule), and camera obscuras (camera_type=obscura). You can add the values, but they are not official. Time capsule is in the work [0].

[0]: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposal:Time_capsule

lapetitejort··on StreetComplete: Fixing OpenStreetMap, one tiny quest at a time
I had been using mapcomplete to add images of artwork, which in turn used panoramax. However I saw someone else use Wikimedia Commons, and to me that makes more sense. Wikimedia ties into more systems, so if you wanted to create a Wikipedia page about an artist, there will be readily available images to use.

On the flip side, panoramax can be used as an open source StreetView. Different sites for different purposes I suppose

lapetitejort··on StreetComplete: Fixing OpenStreetMap, one tiny quest at a time
I got into OSM and StreetComplete to flesh out intersections, stop signs, and sidewalks in my area. I always felt like I was doing something wrong though. I created crosswalks, then OSM would prompt me to connect the crosswalk to the road via a crossing. In StreetComplete, it felt like I was filling in duplicate data. I had to add whether the crossing had crossing lights not only at the middle crossing, but on the sides as well. This probably doesn't make any sense.

Basically, I am never confident I am editing OSM correctly. Am I supposed to manually draw out sidewalks, or tag the road as having a sidewalk? After adding sidewalks in my area, StreetComplete is now asking me if roads have sidewalks, which I clearly see on the map. Reminds me of editing the various Wiki pages. There's several ways of documenting something, only one way is correct, and it's undocumented.

edit: after playing with StreetComplete more, I noticed you can mark sidewalks as displayed separately. This is tagged as "sidewalk:both=separate" on the road. Whether this is the right way to do things I do not know

lapetitejort··on Nintendo announces new product revisions in Europe with replaceable batteries
There's been some recent developments with removing batteries glued to the device: use floss or some other thin string and saw through the glue. The string won't pierce the battery and can fit in tight spots.
lapetitejort··on San Diego photologs from the 1970s
I love looking at historical photos of Southern California if only to re-enforce this exact phenomenon. At one point the largest vineyard in the world existed in Southern California [0]. Just a small patch of green and some abandoned buildings remain [1].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guasti%2C_California

[1]: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Guasti,+Ontario,+CA+91761/

lapetitejort··on Specs Augmented Reality Glasses
> The Original TV Hat works with portable media players, smartphones, Microsoft Zune, Apple iPhone, iPod touch and iPod nano.

See? It's possible to support older tech

lapetitejort··on Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs
The differences in engineers for space versus the ocean are fascinating. You'd think space stations and submarines would be interchangeable because they both deal with pressure differentials, right? Wrong. They'd fail in fascinatingly different ways within minutes or hours in the opposite environment
lapetitejort··on The real cost of owning a home
In California, property tax can only go up 2% every year based on the original purchase price (prop 13). For my neighbor who bought their house in the 60s, this must be peanuts.
lapetitejort··on Trump Mobile exposed customers' personal data
Even if they are required, who will hold them accountable? The FCC?
lapetitejort··on Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods
Every time a city thinks flooding problems are fixed, nature invents a bigger storm
lapetitejort··on Museum of Pocket Calculating Devices
My dream is to one day own a Curta. I want to find an algorithm to approximate pi, one crank at a time. I had a chance to hold one at a vintage computer festival once. Smaller than I expected. Truly pocketable.

I just had a thought. Why hasn't a Curta simulator come out for the Playdate? I guess I am cursed with creating it

lapetitejort··on Tracking Starbucks' 'widely recyclable' cups: none ended up at recycling
To be more effective, all drink prices should be reduced by 10 cents, then a 10 cent surcharge added for every disposable cup. The price remains the same for all customers, but the extra line item reveals the external costs.
lapetitejort··on Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing
With what we are learning about how gut flora, can a brain be considered conscious while detached from the digestive system?
lapetitejort··on Tracking Starbucks' 'widely recyclable' cups: none ended up at recycling
The point is that we may not have plastic forever. Oil is a finite resource. An easy, cheap replacement hasn't been found yet. Either we abide by reducing and reusing (where we should be focused), or we should actually recycle.
lapetitejort··on Elon Musk has lost his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI
Cross examination is one of the vanishingly few times you can see billionaires and executives act like human beings instead of sentient PR scripts.
lapetitejort··on Project Gutenberg – keeps getting better
I uploaded a PDF to archive.org that auto-OCRs with plenty of mistakes. I have found no way of updating the entire stack of documents produced. I wonder if Project Gutenberg is similar
lapetitejort··on Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks
Cory Doctorow recently published a history book on the topic [0]. Sorry you were left out. I am merely qubits floating in the void. Just finished reading Shakespeare's First Folio translated into Catalan for the tenth time. Wondering what to do next

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rapture_of_the_Nerds

lapetitejort··on U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
I am surprised that a lawsuit started in 2021 about maintaining emission standards survived up to this point. The DOGE search terms must have misspelled "emission"
lapetitejort··on Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid
If you are wary of all the smart features in your next car purchase, consider buying a bicycle. We do not have to entertain the creeping invasion of our privacy
lapetitejort··on Riding the D in Los Angeles: city hopes new subway stations will be game changer
While all of this in happening, Metrolink, the rail service that connects LA, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties, is having their own budget crisis manifesting in "temporary" reductions in service. More info: https://calelectricrail.org/metrolink-is-facing-service-cuts...
lapetitejort··on U.S. Senators Vote to Ban Themselves from Trading on Prediction Markets
> A member, officer, or employee of the __Senate__ shall not receive any compensation, nor shall he permit any compensation to accrue to his beneficial interest from any source, the receipt or accrual of which would occur by virtue of influence improperly exerted from his position as a member, officer, or employee.

Emphasis mine. This does not cover the judicial or executive branch

lapetitejort··on U.S. Senators Vote to Ban Themselves from Trading on Prediction Markets
Would Martha Stewart be sentenced to prison for lying to federal investigators regarding her "prediction" of the release timing of her next cookbook?
lapetitejort··on Combining spicy foods with mint boosts anti-inflammatory effects 100x or more
We must eradicate mint plants. Over time the dilution of mint particles in the air will become so small that all diseases will go extinct
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