bkimmel's recent activity

  1. Comment on So what do political parties spend all that fundraised money on? in ~talk

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    Yeah, it was years ago so I don't think it was quite 10Gbps and it wasn't that company but that was the basic idea.

    Yeah, it was years ago so I don't think it was quite 10Gbps and it wasn't that company but that was the basic idea.

    5 votes

  2. Comment on So what do political parties spend all that fundraised money on? in ~talk

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    It was to link a party committee office to an annex in a different building (there was a corresponding laser on on the other building). They were on top of rickety ladders and had to be adjusted...

    It was to link a party committee office to an annex in a different building (there was a corresponding laser on on the other building). They were on top of rickety ladders and had to be adjusted occasionally by hand.

    8 votes

  3. Comment on So what do political parties spend all that fundraised money on? in ~talk

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    Since no one asked, here's some random fun facts I learned that don't see normally bubbling up into common knowledge: TV / Radio stations are in a very weird position with respect to political...
    • Exemplary

    Since no one asked, here's some random fun facts I learned that don't see normally bubbling up into common knowledge:

    1. TV / Radio stations are in a very weird position with respect to political advertising: One on hand, they can't refuse to air a political ad and have to offer a "slightly lower than market value" rate to political ads... but on the other hand, they themselves are liable for the content of the ad (and can refuse or can be forced to take down the ad on that basis). For example, if the ad says "Mike Jones kicked his dog" that claim generally has to be backed up with some kind of source material or the station is liable for damages. For that reason, pretty much all of these ads get submitted with heavily annotated (line-by-line) transcripts with research backing up each claim made in the ad.
    2. CPP or "Cost Per Point" is the most important thing used to calculate media spend (on radio/tv and there are analogues to it for digital ads). It basically means "the cost to get an ad seen by 1% of the target audience in a given media market". This gets really interesting in some congressional races, where the district does not line up neatly with one media market. For example, you might have 20% of the district population living in an urban media market with a CPP of $415 and the rest in a sprawling exurban/rural media market with a much lower CPP of like $90 or something.
    3. Snail Mail - this is still a huge part of fundraising, that doesn't get talked about as much and the way it works on the receiving/processing end is a pretty massive industry unto itself: They have these big "caging" operations where all these people open the mail and process the old-school checks (and sometimes cash) that people send in. This company called Merkle did a lot of it, so when you see that on FEC reports that's usually what that expenditure is for.
    4. "Reserving" media spend. If you're familiar with the way "reserved" instances and stuff works on like AWS, this is kinda similar: If you know months ahead of time that you're going to be spending on TV ads (like lots of campaigns) you can put some money down up front and "reserve" that ad time for a lower price than you would pay later. For this reason, if you want to really make a difference with a donation to a campaign give them money early (in their first few weeks). ... which leads to the next point:
    5. The timing of campaigns "getting" money is the bane of every finance director. It tends to come in at an exponential rate 2-3 weeks before election day. At that point, it's basically useless to the campaign for anything but paying off debts.
    6. U.S. Senators and Members of Congress are not allowed to do anything related to their campaigns in their official government offices. They have to walk down the street to the party offices or nearby offices that their fundraising consultants have to call donors and do stuff like that.
    7. There used to be a laser on the roof of the Democratic National Headquarters (it was a point-to-point networking device to a nearby building)
    23 votes

  4. Comment on So what do political parties spend all that fundraised money on? in ~talk

    bkimmel
    Link
    AMA. This used to be my job. The cool part is you can look it all up yourself on the FEC website. OpenSecrets if you're lazy. The short answer is "advertising". They have to pay a "slightly lower...

    AMA. This used to be my job. The cool part is you can look it all up yourself on the FEC website. OpenSecrets if you're lazy.

    The short answer is "advertising". They have to pay a "slightly lower than market rate" in every media market by law.

    After that, it's consultants and staff.

    14 votes

  5. Comment on PWA Notifications in ~comp

    bkimmel
    Link
    You do know you can access https://devdocs.io/dom/notification without a service worker, right? What you're describing sounds like that's what you'd really like/need. You can call that from the...

    You do know you can access https://devdocs.io/dom/notification without a service worker, right? What you're describing sounds like that's what you'd really like/need. You can call that from the main thread or any vanilla Worker.

    1 vote

  6. Comment on US President Joe Biden reportedly more open to calls for him to step aside as candidate in ~news

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    Her name was not on any ballot - technically Biden could even choose a different VP. These kinds of technicalities are out-of-bounds when you've been casting the election as a contest for "the...

    Her name was not on any ballot - technically Biden could even choose a different VP.

    These kinds of technicalities are out-of-bounds when you've been casting the election as a contest for "the future of Democracy" to just disregard the votes of millions of people... At best it's "not a good look" and it's probably closer to the scheming hypocrisy Republicans tend to try to get people to believe about the Democrats.

    10 votes

  7. Comment on A wife’s revenge from beyond the grave in ~life

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    The loss of journalism as a profession - which includes a lot of what you cite here: getting statements from counter-parties (not the same as "bothside"ing), not inserting oneself into the story,...

    The loss of journalism as a profession - which includes a lot of what you cite here: getting statements from counter-parties (not the same as "bothside"ing), not inserting oneself into the story, etc. I think there were a lot of reasons to not trust "the media" but I've always respected reporters and we can't really function as a society without them.

    I don't even really know what can be done at this point, it seems like the entire profession has collapsed and the vestiges of it (substack, etc.) aren't sufficient to replace what was lost.

    14 votes

  8. Comment on Arlington Virginia missing middle trial heralds legal fight over suburban zoning (gifted link) in ~design

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    I would say that's true for a lot of Arlington (and Alexandria) but certainly not as a rule. Take this for example:...

    I would say that's true for a lot of Arlington (and Alexandria) but certainly not as a rule. Take this for example:
    https://www.tollbrothers.com/luxury-homes-for-sale/Virginia/The-Grove-at-Dominion-Hills (and I'm not cherry-picking here - this is literally the first thing I found and if you're from the area you know this is one of the more prominent builders and so generally "representative") it at least has a grocery store-ish thing (BJs Wholesale) within 10 minutes but for everything else: It's a 40-minute walk from the nearest Metro! And it's 1.8 Million dollars. Who do you think is paying 1.8 million dollars and walking 40 minutes to the metro? No one. Internal Combustion Engines all day... and that's my point. It gets even worse as you move out into Fairfax (and now Loudoun even, I guess): It's not New York City.

    I guess if we're talking smaller developers "flipping" SFH's into duplexes, etc. in areas that actually have capacity, I'm all for that (as I said earlier) 100%. But given the track record and poor planning (climate, design and otherwise) I can understand why people would be skeptical.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on Arlington Virginia missing middle trial heralds legal fight over suburban zoning (gifted link) in ~design

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    For the Casino, their original plan was to build it in another part of Fairfax County around residential areas. They are only targeting the car dealership now because they got temporarily stymied...

    For the Casino, their original plan was to build it in another part of Fairfax County around residential areas. They are only targeting the car dealership now because they got temporarily stymied by residents of Fairfax in the state legislature.

    For "capacity" you have to understand this is not New York City. These neighborhoods, for the most part, have no walkable access to grocery stores, doctors, etc. tbh I'm not sure about this place in the article (maybe they do have that?) but there are many places where having 3-4x the households just means 3-4x the cars on the road. The decarbonization benefits you would get from NYC or other metro settings you just don't get here. Virginia just lets them plop enormous structures where everyone has to drive and pats themselves on the back.

    Ideally I'd like to see more sustainable affordable housing in the area - my point is that these megacorps aren't really interested in delivering that and Virginia doesn't provide any framework to encourage them to build walkable neighborhoods, just ICE factories with no planning for "capacity"

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Arlington Virginia missing middle trial heralds legal fight over suburban zoning (gifted link) in ~design

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    This sounds pretty reasonable (duplexes and quads in place of single family homes) but in other parts of Northern Virginia, these "mega developers" are doing things like trying to put casinos next...

    This sounds pretty reasonable (duplexes and quads in place of single family homes) but in other parts of Northern Virginia, these "mega developers" are doing things like trying to put casinos next to homes and elementary schools - they are no angels either. Virginia has no concept of encouraging them to build walkable neighborhoods or contribute to developing healthy communities. They are given license to just create concrete carbon factories. It can have huge effects on local school districts, too - doubling already-crowded class sizes where those school districts might get a new building or budget adjustments in 12 years or something. If it were just a matter of creating more affordable housing, it would be fine but it's more like a huge corporation plundering a small neighborhood and creating tons of badly designed (from climate and aesthetics) buildings and moving on.

    I wish the government would make housing and consider all these things and sell the housing at fair/affordable prices.

    5 votes

  11. Comment on What's a life lesson you've applied that has changed your life? in ~life

    bkimmel
    Link
    "Assume people are reasonable until they prove otherwise".

    "Assume people are reasonable until they prove otherwise".

    6 votes

  12. Comment on What's your recommended survival crafting game to play solo? in ~games

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    You're probably already aware of this, but should be mentioned: Stardew Valley. Also Oddsparks is a newer cozy/non-horror one but it's very EA.

    You're probably already aware of this, but should be mentioned: Stardew Valley. Also Oddsparks is a newer cozy/non-horror one but it's very EA.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on "Radical, in a different vein": The "Abundants" and supply-side progressives in ~misc

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    Housing: nimbys Clean Energy: oil lobby Education: religious fundamentalists Good Jobs: anti-labor

    Housing: nimbys
    Clean Energy: oil lobby
    Education: religious fundamentalists
    Good Jobs: anti-labor

    11 votes

  14. Comment on "Radical, in a different vein": The "Abundants" and supply-side progressives in ~misc

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    Yeah, I feel like this makes it clear in ways that were difficult for me to articulate: We are being nailed to a cross a cross of artificial scarcity. I will be doing a lot of reading on this...

    Yeah, I feel like this makes it clear in ways that were difficult for me to articulate: We are being nailed to a cross a cross of artificial scarcity.

    I will be doing a lot of reading on this "Abundancy" movement, because it feels like they're really on to something here.

    5 votes

  16. Comment on Advice for hosting (and building) a personal website in ~comp

    bkimmel
    Link
    How much do you really want to do or learn Frontend development? That's not a facetious question. I would say make your decision along this rubric: 1. "I want to make a website that looks like it...

    How much do you really want to do or learn Frontend development? That's not a facetious question. I would say make your decision along this rubric: 1. "I want to make a website that looks like it was done by a professional and presents my ideas in a respectable way". Just get a Squarespace site. 2. "I want to learn Frontend development". Then use something like what's suggested elsewhere (GitHub pages,etc.)

    1 vote

  17. Comment on Job search blues in ~talk

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    Fair... On the record, this is somewhat tongue-in-cheek: Some of the best developers I know (and best / most interesting people) came through bootcamps and they love software engineering... and...

    Fair... On the record, this is somewhat tongue-in-cheek: Some of the best developers I know (and best / most interesting people) came through bootcamps and they love software engineering... and you could substitute "BS in Computer Science" for that, as well.

    4 votes

  18. Comment on Job search blues in ~talk

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    10 years ago they said AI was supposed to be driving all our trucks, so people stopped learning how to drive trucks. Now the truck drivers that stuck with it make bank. There's a lesson in there...

    10 years ago they said AI was supposed to be driving all our trucks, so people stopped learning how to drive trucks. Now the truck drivers that stuck with it make bank. There's a lesson in there for software engineers somewhere...

    It does go in cycles:

    1. Software pays a lot, so people go to boot camps and come out chasing the money.
    2. Field gets saturated with people who focus on the money.
    3. Those people are basically commodities: MBAs come along and say "we could do this at 25pct of cost in Bangalore / with GPT whatever.'
    4. Things get bad, salaries crash, etc.
    5. All the money-chasers leave the field. Only nerds who love coding remain.
    6. Nerds start making new things.
    7. Those things start making lots of money... So people start going to boot camps again chasing the money.... And the circle of life is complete.

    You're not even a real developer until you've been through at least one of these cycles. It is absolutely a critical skill to recognize which stage in the cycle you are in and act accordingly.

    12 votes

  19. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    bkimmel
    Link
    Oddsparks. I've done my minimum duty to share here, I'm going back to playing. It's Factorio / Stardew / Against the Storm. I think I saw it had like an 88 or something on Steam? Underrated.

    Oddsparks. I've done my minimum duty to share here, I'm going back to playing. It's Factorio / Stardew / Against the Storm. I think I saw it had like an 88 or something on Steam? Underrated.

    3 votes

  20. Comment on Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri lovers, tell me what sets it apart in ~games

    bkimmel
    Link Parent
    MASSIVE SPOILERS To me, Miriam Godwinson has maybe the most interesting character/faction arc in the game's narrative: Beginning as the basic stand-in for "Organized religion", she seems shrill...

    MASSIVE SPOILERS

    To me, Miriam Godwinson has maybe the most interesting character/faction arc in the game's narrative: Beginning as the basic stand-in for "Organized religion", she seems shrill and staunchly opposed to anything that would provide for humanity's genuine progress at first. But as the narrative develops and the other factions (with the exception of the U.N. / Pravin Lal) all seem to adopt some form of "techno-nihilism" (or "eco-nihilism" for Deirdre) for various reasons germane to their faction ideals, she stands with Lal as the only remaining voice defending what's left of humanity on Planet.

    Seeing what has happened in the wake of the "social media era" and our own society's de facto embrace of techno-nihilism, it's kind of hard not to see her position as kind of didactic to our own. I was watching a clip the other day of an avowed atheist on the Daily Show talking about how kids growing up without any "group social/moral" structure have vastly elevated rates of serious anxiety compared to those that do and I couldn't help but picture Godwinson glaring righteously from her little thumbnail picture above some kind of quote indicating how this was inevitable.

    Today, I find myself aligning most closely with Pravin Lal I think - which is interesting because I hated Lal and his faction when I used to play Alpha Centauri. I think his faction and Yang's were the only ones I never finished the game with because I just didn't like him that much. Maybe a good reason to pick up a retro copy of the game and make planetfall with the good old U.N.

    4 votes