And that’s facts

Extreme closeup of an stage. There's half a human in there, and what looks to be the top end of a bass?

🎶 today was a good day. We think.

We’ve been at musicbarJerb for just over a month. It’s been pretty good other than the physical layer (aka “my body”) suffering under the stresses of long-thought-gone abuse, for we are a mere runner. We run to help the bar, help the servers, help the kitchen.

Our bosses didn’t think the job was so physical, but hey, here we are, the only hourly employee to actually get full time hours. We kinda know the food, we kinda know the drinks, we kinda know when to fuck off and let people make out uninhibited instead of refilling their water glasses.

Maybe, in time, we’ll move up. We don’t expect it. It’s not Minnesota culture to have people like me serve you, or make you drinks.

And that’s facts Read More »

For once MPLS is in the news for something other than scary PoC crime

“So if you want a California-style housing crisis, don’t do anything. But if you want to avoid the fate of states like California, learn some of the lessons of what we’ve been doing over the last few years and allow for more of that infill, mixed-income housing.”

Source: A housing shortage in the U.S. is leading to zoning changes : NPR

We don’t own a car, instead we bike; we bike year round. In Minneapolis this means we’ll bike in sub-zero Fahrenheit weather during winter.

Every time I think about living anywhere else in the continental United States, it is the cost of housing that stops me. Here in Minneapolis I work two jobs so I can afford my lifestyle; anywhere else I would have two jobs just to survive.

Also Strong Boy Mayor Frey Guy did the most to prevent these changes from happening, so fuck him and his coterie of bitchass motherfuckers

For once MPLS is in the news for something other than scary PoC crime Read More »

Some idiot will claim theirs is the first full AI song and it will suck

No, the goal was instead to see if AI mastering could really be a “sonic accelerant” for the hobbyist, the amateur, the laptop producer, the opening act, the indie label, the Famous Artist doing demos in their home studio, or the mix engineer who has five minutes to send a band home with something they can play in the car.

Source: AI can now master your music—and it does shockingly well | Ars Technica

Just picked up a jerb (henceforth referred to as musicbarJerb). I wonder if the musicians up on the stage even know about this.

I’m sure the small-time rappers in town already do but… like the post says, at the end of the day, most people in the music industry consider this a tool, not the end result.

Some idiot will claim theirs is the first full AI song and it will suck Read More »

Yes, this includes you

Google’s instructions will only work if everything goes smoothly, and as someone with hundreds of hours in ADB from testing various Android versions, I will guess that it will probably not go smoothly.

Source: Google’s Pixel storage issue fix requires developer tools and a terminal | Ars Technica

People forget google hates the fact they exist, which means you’re a sweaty, dirty, bloody meaty thing handling their perfect hardware and their perfect software.

Yes, this includes you Read More »

Chale hijo!

So, in the interest of systematic knowledge (and public safety), this essay tabulates the streets’ honks into a taxonomy of cláxones [horns], a “claxonomy” of Mexico City’s traffic.

Source: A Claxonomy of Mexico City’s Traffic – Allegra Lab

As a cyclist I’ve learned one or two “words” i.e. groupings of honks, but they apply only to the Twin Cities area and are in English. What the essay goes over is like me learning Spanish all over again.

Chale hijo! Read More »

I got the expensive thing and paid for it

Some years ago we purchased one of these, which were recommended by the Wirecutter as the best monitor arms you could get

Fully Jarvis Monitor Arm - fits up to 32" Computer Display (Single, Silver)

All was good and we got plenty of use out of the thing. A few years later the monitor ended up at my workplace but to do so we took the plate off and put the monitor back on its own stand.

During this timeframe we lost the VESA plate that attaches to the back of a monitor, which then locks into the actual mount. This was a pain in the ass cos we like to have stuff on the desk while we find a space for said stuff, and not having the monitor on the actual desk surface makes everything that much easier to clean. Attempting to find a replacement plate directly through Jarvis was impossible as they sold themselves to Herman Miller— so replacement parts aren’t within easy reach, much less at decent prices.

Then a few weeks ago while looking for something else I actually hit on these:

Mount-It! Replacement Monitor VESA Plate, 75,100mm Silver

They are a perfect fit not only for the Fully Jarvis arms, but also for these cheaper Monoprice arms. These arms get you 90% of the functionality the more expensive arms have, but they’re half the price of the Jarvis arms. That’ll teach us to get the expensive thing to show off when you don’t even look at it except to rewire things.

Just putting this out here in case you’re also running into issues sourcing replacement parts, specially if you work in an office.

I got the expensive thing and paid for it Read More »

Of course they knew it was illegal. They just didn’t care.

Schwalb’s DC lawsuit cites a former “high-ranking manager” at Greystar Management Services, one of the RealPage customers named in the suit, as confirming that landlords used rent management software to collude and raise prices. “He responded that of course they did—it’s the entire reason landlords used the software,” according to the complaint.

Source: 14 big landlords used software to collude on rent prices, DC lawsuit says | Ars Technica

Say, what are the chances there are other cartels in other cities that are also artificially inflating prices through the use of software? We get that landbastards want to make it easy for themselves to maximize profits as we all live in a capitalist society, but this is egregious. There is a difference between profiting and profiteering.

There is a high likelihood there’s a cartel here in Minneapolis given how city government feels safe in fucking life up for everyone within city limits.

We hope they all get fucked.

Of course they knew it was illegal. They just didn’t care. Read More »

This will make for even blurrier memories

Generative-AI tools will not wipe our memories or corrupt our sense of self, but the camera roll of the future could be missing the little bits of texture that allow us to recall certain moments as they really happened.

Source: AI Is About to Photoshop Your Memories – The Atlantic

Human memory is a fallible thing but having AI interpose itself between reality and memory is not a solution.

This will make for even blurrier memories Read More »

At least the highway will have no traffic out to the big box store and back

Filling so much empty ground-floor space may require cities to rethink what brings people downtown. It may force officials to change how they regulate buildings, and property owners to shift how they profit from them.

Source: The Ground-Floor Window Into What’s Ailing Downtowns – The New York Times

“May”? The NYT are just hedging hard on this. Cities will have to rethink how downtowns function, officials will have to change how buildings are regulated, property owners will have to shift how they profit from them, businesses will have to adapt to a different customer base.

Case in point, this article in the Minneapolis St. Paul Journal(disable your javascript to read)

Fhima and other community members who make their living downtown see firsthand how the absence of thousands of Target (NYSE:TGT) workers at the retailer’s Nicollet Mall headquarters impacts the city’s overall vibrancy. From shops and restaurants to public transportation and property values, downtown Minneapolis is struggling without a strong, consistent daytime population there to support it.

At the end of the article they actually have a section titled “What Target can do about”. Newsflash: they en’t doing shit. They just held their third auction to clear own office equipment. Even if they wanted to bring everyone back they don’t even have the furniture to put those people in.

Cities at large could make an effort to populate downtowns with small businesses, small/medium size landbastards, and change zoning to allow for living in skyscrapers. But that takes political capital no one wants to spend.

A lot of people would love to live downtown. Hell, a lot of people already do, but if they want basic necessities they need to get them delivered, or worse, drive out to the suburbs to get them.

At least the highway will have no traffic out to the big box store and back Read More »

Anyway here’s wonderwall

In the past three months:

  • Moved to a new apartment. It sucks easily the worst dwelling I’ve had of the past ten years.
  • Changed jobs. I am now at helpdeskJerb
  • Almost got completely fucked over by someone. In their story I’m the villain. I’ll let it be.
  • Got into a fight when someone tried to steal my bike. My nose still hurts three weeks later.
  • Fell in with bluesky. It’s nice, but gods the fucken developers are being fucken idiots.

I’ll try to blog more often.

Anyway here’s wonderwall Read More »