That’s really true. We returned the same vacuum cleaner three times in a year before we decided to just get a different brand.

Somebody once asked him if that was rehearsed, and he said something along the lines of “actually it takes effort for me to not talk like that the rest of the time.” Which, for just about anyone else, I would assume was a lie, but Brennan? Not terribly unbelievable, tbh.

Absolutely. And it’s clearly making enough waves to pull “established” comedians like Wayne Brady and Ben Schwartz, which makes it feel even more like Whose Line.

Totally fair. In the same vein I would also commend dropout.tv to you, if you’re at all interested in comedy and have a bit of disposable income.

Or, wait, are you saying that my original comment that you’re replying to is ChatGPT? Because…lol, sadly, no, I’m just like this. “This” meaning pretty much everything I write is way too overwrought.

My first draft of this did mention that there was a version of the second type of IT guy who cobbled everything together with workplace castoffs and conference swag, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it work without just being over-wordy.

I spent way more time than I care to think about figuring out how to get my porch lights to come on at 7am and turn off 10 minutes before sunrise without breaking when sunrise happened before 7am. I tried some serious Rube Goldberg nonsense in multiple iterations, until finally I decided to just add another “turn off the lights” at 9am every day. Most of the time it doesn’t do anything because the lights are already off, but on DST day it accomplishes my goal of making sure they don’t run all day, since 9am is always after sunrise.

I figured it was made up (“@it_unprofession” probably ran out of content ages ago), but it doesn’t look like actual AI content to me. The sentences are too short, for one thing.

Just realized, I had forgotten entirely about appliances and electronics and clothes and stuff. That stuff is almost always 10-ish percent cheaper as a baseline. So if you need to buy that sort of thing somewhat often, it might be a better deal thank I let on.

If you’re buying for enough people that it makes sense, the Executive membership can easily pay for itself. Generally speaking Costco is slightly cheaper, but the big thing is that you’ll typically get the more premium brand in a bulk container for the more basic price.

But if you aren’t going to be buying for a family of six every other week, it might not be super worth it to you. It’s a good store, but it’s not some amazing mecca or anything.

I’ve only ever met two types of IT professional. Either:

• Their home network is immaculate and smooth as butter. It connects quickly and integrates with everything. They can manage it all from their phone, but they don’t have to because it’s all automated. Their server room (a) exists and (b) is cable managed. There’s a wireless access point and connected smart speaker in every room, including the garage and the back patio, but they’re carefully located for maximum sound coverage and to prevent signal interference. Their home theater is substantially better than a movie theater, and their media server is packed to the gills with content. Network security is hardened, with bespoke subnets for every user and tunneling for the media server and smart home functions. You feel a sense of calm and ease when connected to their network. “Everything I do at work, I try out at home first.”

Or:

• Their “home network” is a single Belkin router from 2011. They’ve had it since college, and it takes 9 minutes to reboot (which they have to do daily). It doesn’t even have Tomato on it and still uses the default password. They still watch OTA TV and Blu-Rays, so the wifi is exclusively connected to the smart switch that their tea kettle is plugged into so they can start their hot water before they come downstairs. You feel guilty even asking for the wifi password. “Why would I do any network stuff here? I do IT all day at work, the last thing I want to do is even touch a Cat5 cable at home.”

Mastodon has definitely improved, but more to the point, there’s really nothing else. Particularly not anything that anyone is using. Unless you widen your definition to include Bluesky.

Honestly, I’d say that Mastodon’s perceived complexity in the past was kind of an illusion anyway. The problem of choosing a server was really made out to be this huge hurdle, when in fact it was no big deal at all; I was a member of several different servers over time, and I didn’t feel like my experience was substantially different on any of them. Just join one that seems interesting or is near you or whatever, and you’ll be fine. After that, it operates pretty much the same as Twitter did. Following people on other servers can be a little bit trickier on web, but in the app it’s pretty seamless.

Indiana was a blue state in 2008. It could happen.

Yeah, this is a bonkers map. The idea of districting someone on North Meridian in Rocky Ripple with the Cincinnati suburbs, but a friend of theirs who lives less than a mile further east in a district that also includes a Danville, Illinois suburb?

Honestly, I’m too flabbergasted to be angry. This is just bizarre.

Maybe this could be idiotic and indefensible enough to get people to recognize how stupid gerrymandering is.

But how would one wash the dish? Surely not with a dishwasher pod?

The point: “stop wine-ing”?

By French law, bread can only contain flour, yeast, salt, and water. Sadly, he must be cake.

Whoa, the Eat The Rich people are serious.

The process honestly sounds to me a little bit like decaffeination, which also feels like witchcraft to me. So it might work!