pallas's recent activity
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Comment on A 'death train' is haunting south Florida in ~transport
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Comment on A 'death train' is haunting south Florida in ~transport
pallas (edited )LinkThroughout, when concrete points against Brightline are made in this article, they seem much more dubious when examined. The added photos, likewise, seem designed to push a 'scary' narrative...Throughout, when concrete points against Brightline are made in this article, they seem much more dubious when examined. The added photos, likewise, seem designed to push a 'scary' narrative rather than honestly support the points. The overall conclusion – that level crossings and higher-speed trains are a bad combination – is reasonable, but the narrative sometimes ends up reading more as a hit piece against Brightline specifically. In some sense, it feels like exactly the sort of hypocritical NIMBYism that so often appears in the US: alternatives to cars should be lauded, except when there is any attempt to actually build one.
Consider the comparisons. The article argues that Brightline has particularly horrendous statistics for Florida. It points out that Brightline has almost seven times the number of fatalities as Amtrak, which "operates through many of the same urban areas as well as some additional ones", and merely "serves fewer passengers." Yet that number seems much less surprising when considering that it appears Amtrak's service in Florida consists of one daily train and one thrice-weekly train, while Brightline appears to run ten round trips per day now, and may have run more previously (Wikipedia lists 24 daily round trips in 2023). When comparing to SunRail, "another commuter train that operates around Orlando", the article uses the rate-per-million-miles that would have made the Amtrak comparison much less compelling to the narrative, but doesn't mention that SunRail, according to Wikipedia, has an average speed of 30 mph.
Or consider the argument that the track cuts "through the landscape at strange angles and in unexpected places". The accompanying photographs enhance this by using strange camera angles and crops, rather than showing the places the article describes. If they were to show a satellite image of one of those "unexpected" places they give as an example, the little league field in Delray Beach, you might be confused: it is a straight segment of track, parallel to a road, and appears to be fenced on the little league side. In what way is this "unexpected". Was it an example of a "strange angle"? All the nearby level crossings, while I might argue they should not be so near other intersections, are almost perpendicular.
Or the examples? A pedestrian walking on a spur path over an active train track, argued to be the 'logical' choice? A driver who pulled around a stopped car and closed gate, was high, and was directly told not to by a passenger, but is argued to be an example of a dangerous environment regardless of all those details? A couple who turned off their car and sat on an active train track with an active signal? One might suggest that an encouragement to not care about crossing tracks, whether on foot or by car, comes from an encouragement of car culture: "they're probably old tracks that aren't used much" is a common suggestion I've heard when seeing tracks.
Yes, level crossings are dangerous, especially at higher speeds. Yes, more fencing would be an improvement. But looking at the route, where the most dangerous segments seem to be along a previously-existing route, it seems clear that no amount of expenditure alone would allow for a major safety improvement, as any attempts would face an enormous NIMBY backlash. There's a certain argument that the encouragement of dense, especially residential development right next to historical rail routes was perhaps linked to a cynical attempt to make any future use of the right of ways difficult and unsafe, ensuring cars remained the only viable transport mechanism in the area. Adding fencing in many places seems like it would be an inconvenience to nearby houses. Elevating the rail in many places seems like it would significantly affect nearby houses, and potentially need land purchases, voluntary or otherwise. None of this is going to be acceptable to local property owners.
What is needed here are regulatory and cultural changes to make it so that safety improvements can actually be made; unfortunately, this is something where spending money on lobbying and marketing is probably better than spending it on trying to build infrastructure projects that will end up blocked.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
pallas Link ParentI may be extending my view of Los Angeles to the entire state, sorry (I don't usually drive in the Bay Area); there are a number of prominent left exits there, and no one drives in the leftmost...I may be extending my view of Los Angeles to the entire state, sorry (I don't usually drive in the Bay Area); there are a number of prominent left exits there, and no one drives in the leftmost lane under the speed limit unless there is congestion.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
pallas (edited )LinkAs someone who lives in both the US and Europe: some European countries are frustratingly dishonest about inclusion, fairness, and equality, and often the same people who will deride the US for...As someone who lives in both the US and Europe: some European countries are frustratingly dishonest about inclusion, fairness, and equality, and often the same people who will deride the US for the more overt discrimination and bad but honest policies there are themselves complicit in the more covert discrimination, bad practices, and dishonest policies. More frustratingly, it feels like the discrimination in the Europe is often facilitated and justified through arguments around fairness and equality that end up being discriminatory in practice, and is often masked by self-congratulatory, largely meaningless expressions of support.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
pallas (edited )Link ParentWhen considering very different states, and very different roads and traffic, the difference might not be one of culture, but of the roads themselves. Using the far-left lane only for passing on...When you have a great idea but nobody is abiding by it, you have a culture problem, not an idea problem.
When considering very different states, and very different roads and traffic, the difference might not be one of culture, but of the roads themselves. Using the far-left lane only for passing on major highways in California, for example, is not only not a rule, but is not possible. There are numerous places where there are left-lane exits, and some places where there are left-lane entrances. In some cases, the left lane (or lanes) may be restricted to only certain vehicles, and in some cases those vehicles (eg, buses) are relatively slow. In many cases, highways might have 4, 5, or 6 lanes in one direction; in some cases, these might split such that using only the left lane for passing might leave only one lane going in a particular direction, or such that the left lanes will be moving much slower than the right lanes.
There are also rarely instances on major California highways where passing is particularly important, such that it should have a lane dedicated to it. If there is no congestion, there will be almost no cars, outside of special circumstances, that are travelling below the speed limit, and in most cases, most cars will be travelling significantly above it. There would rarely be a circumstance where passing by using the left lane would make sense legally. If there is congestion, all lanes will move below the speed limit and at the maximum speed possible given the congestion, speeds will tend to roughly equalize, and encouraging passing would, by increasing lane changes, worsen the congestion and be a detriment to everyone.
This is likely why the rule on California highways is not that the left lane is for passing, but that specifically slower vehicles should stay in the right-hand lanes when possible.
By contrast, on rural roads with two lanes in a direction, and where there may be vehicles that travel at significantly different speeds, having the left lane primarily for passing both makes sense.
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Comment on Global Anglicanism split in two today in ~humanities
pallas (edited )Link ParentMy understanding, from following the disagreements for a while and reading about the current announcement, is that it's a bit more complicated. GAFCON is a collection of groups that are allied by..."Archbishop of Canterbury is a chick? Ewww gross!"
My understanding, from following the disagreements for a while and reading about the current announcement, is that it's a bit more complicated. GAFCON is a collection of groups that are allied by their social conservatism but are quite theologically different and have different social priorities. Not all of evangelical parts (of which the most significant are likely some of the Churches in Africa) have problems with the ordination of women, and some may ordain women as priests or even as bishops (the Church of Rwanda ordains female priests, for example), but they tend to see the new Archbishop of Canterbury's pro-LGBT views as unacceptable. The more Anglo-Catholic parts are anti-LGBT, but not to the same extent as the evangelical and particularly African parts, and see her as unacceptable because she is a woman.
These differences have caused tensions in GAFCON in the past. For example, the ACNA agreed that, while someone should not be called a "gay Christian", someone with "same-sex attraction" who was celibate could certainly be part of a congregation. Despite it seeming to me like this would be difficult to disagree with from a conservative side, given the basic tenets of Christianity around sin, the head of the Church of Nigeria decried this position as meaning that the 'deadly virus of homosexuality has infiltrated ACNA', and appeared to argue that anyone who is gay is fundamentally irredeemable.
I suspect that GAFCON will struggle as a church on its own. The constituent groups seem defined more by what they oppose, and by the people they hate, than by what they believe in. As a Communion of their own, forced to define what beliefs they share, and without the Anglican Communion to rally against as a common enemy, they seem likely to split into smaller and smaller groups and to struggle to remain relevant.
And for the Anglican Communion, or at least the progressive parts, I have to wonder if this will eventually be a good thing. The communion has struggled with the division of views along national and cultural lines such that embracing more progressive views could only be done through rejecting the voices of larger, predominantly African churches in favor of smaller, richer, predominantly European and North American churches, a problem made even worse by many of those African churches having their roots in European colonialism. If the African churches leave of their own volition, it seems likely that the remaining conservative parts of the church will be a small minority, and without the racial division.
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Comment on ‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder in ~tech
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Comment on I am angry at Google and wanted to share (rant) in ~tech
pallas LinkThe wonder of the normalization of dishonesty online means I can't easily see your post about Google's dishonesty, as Imgur does not like my IP address, and thus lies and says "Imgur is...Suddenly I understood why no one else had posted the fix. My post was flagged instantly for 'content policy violations'. Specifically it said "Failed to post. Content violates Community Policy."
The wonder of the normalization of dishonesty online means I can't easily see your post about Google's dishonesty, as Imgur does not like my IP address, and thus lies and says "Imgur is temporarily over capacity. Please try again later".
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Comment on Data removal services? in ~tech
pallas (edited )Link ParentNote, though, that the risks potentially extend beyond you and how high profile you see yourself, and the probabilities can be higher than you might suppose, given the low cost of automatically...Just run through the potential risks, probability, and so on, which can change depending on how "high profile" you are.
Note, though, that the risks potentially extend beyond you and how high profile you see yourself, and the probabilities can be higher than you might suppose, given the low cost of automatically scanning and exploiting information from multiple sources.
I have been harassed by real estate agents for years at this point attempting to buy some very valuable land I don't own, presumably as a result of them buying information from data brokers that combines current property record mailing address data (a public record) with decades-old data breaches, thus linking my mobile number with a PO Box that was never mine (but that I did use for shipping in some instances), and which as a result of number reuse is now the PO Box of the completely unrelated owners of a completely unrelated property. These are likely automated, but I receive them, along with other scam calls, usually with specific information, with such frequency that my main phone number is now largely unusable.
More disturbingly, my grandmother recently had a call on her phone combining multiple data sources that was likely automated in selecting her as a target, but done manually. What was likely a combination of property record scanning and data broker information on her and her daughter, along with what was likely a synthesized voice from her daughter's voicemail greeting (relatively simple these days) allowed scammers to call her and tell a story of her daughter being arrested in a serious hit-and-run accident in plausible location with plausible information, with audible confirmation from a convincing voice on the call (but only brief and without conversation, most of the call being with the supposed lawyer), and tell my grandmother that she needed to immediately withdraw $15k in cash to pay for bail. (Unfortunately for them, my grandmother defaults to assuming everything is a scam. The bigger problem was convincing her, given the voice, that the scam was not a conspiracy orchestrated by her children.) Neither my grandmother nor mother are 'high profile', though property records would indicate that my grandmother is likely to have cash balances from rental properties that would make her likely to be able to withdraw $15k.
Automated processing of data likely makes it easy to find targets like this, though I have to say that I was quite impressed by the scam attempt. We've responded by my trying to educate my family more about what is now possible (eg, knowing your relatives' names, ages, contact information, and even social security numbers is not particularly unusual, being able to produce superficially convincing voices and photos of them is not difficult, etc), but the experience was quite unsettling.
Unfortunately, as you point out, there is a significant amount of data that is simply unavoidable, partially as a result of governments, and individuals, not understanding how digital records and automated data processing completely change the risks involved. I can recall the illustrative example of one large county in the US: one agency had digital property record data, but they pointed out that in order to protect privacy, they listed property owner names, but not contact information. Another agency, similarly, listed property owner contact information, but not property owner names. Clearly a good way to protect privacy!
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Comment on Donald Trump Department of Justice is looking at ways to ban transgender Americans from owning guns, sources say in ~lgbt
pallas (edited )Link ParentJust to preemptively bring up something about this that I often see confused in conversations including the NRA and gun control (for example, throughout the linked thread): while Reagan crafted...They used legislation to try and disarm the black panthers not all that long ago in our history.
Just to preemptively bring up something about this that I often see confused in conversations including the NRA and gun control (for example, throughout the linked thread): while Reagan crafted the Mulford Act as racist legislation aimed at disarming the Black Panthers, the NRA supported it because, prior to the 1977 Revolt at Cincinnati, the NRA was essentially a different organization with different priorities, primarily focused on hunting and marksmanship, and generally supported gun control. It wasn't inconsistent or unusual, it was simply coming from an organization with completely different leadership and views than the NRA we know today.
The pre-1977 NRA supported most of the major federal gun control legislation of the 20th century, up until 1977, including the creation of the FFL system, putting the F in ATF, regulation of machine guns, and so on.
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Comment on Greek-American musician George Smaragdis dies tragically in Manhattan in ~music
pallas Link ParentI'm not sure it really is a preventable interaction in the context it occurred. Looking around where it occurred, the streets are a mess. The intersection is of two busy one-way streets. It's not...Man, what a tragedy, and he was killed in one of the most preventable interactions between bicycles and cars
I'm not sure it really is a preventable interaction in the context it occurred. Looking around where it occurred, the streets are a mess. The intersection is of two busy one-way streets. It's not quite clear where street parking is legal, but there is a combination of just-off-street back-in parking, in-street restaurant seating, cars seemingly parked legally and illegally, construction equipment blocking parts of the side of the road, and some bike lanes on the cross street that seem to appear and disappear, are at times cut off from visibility to drivers, and seem to end by suddenly appearing to drivers and then immediately being cut off by a one-way to one-way left turn. Some of the photos in Street View have cars crossing the intersection in both directions, and pedestrians crossing in all directions all simultaneously in the intersection. If the article's statement that the cyclist was thrust into oncoming traffic is correct, given the one-way streets, the situation seems like it was even more complicated. But in any case, opening a door in this context seems like it would require looking in all directions at once at all times, and being aware of potentially hundreds of different moving objects, not all of which might be visible from any one glance.
Too often, bicycle policy in many cities around the world is built around creating conditions that require humans to always have perfect, superhuman awareness, consistency and reactions, and then blaming whatever human is unlucky enough to make a human mistake, rather than actually developing infrastructure that makes dangerous situations less likely despite humans being imperfect. That leads to arrangements where accidents will happen, at some rate, simply because there will be some rate of people making mistakes.
I'd compare it to developments around aviation safety with the "pilots are responsible for watching for traffic and avoiding collisions" concept. When it was realized that increasing traffic, speeds, and plane type differences meant that following this rule effectively wasn't always within human capabilities, rather than continuing to simply point to the rule, there were policy, control, and equipment changes made to actually reduce the likelihood of collisions.
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Comment on European Commission internally recommends Signal with disappearing messages in ~tech
pallas (edited )Link ParentTo be honest, I feel like there is an inherent need in many contexts for communications that are not fully recorded, and this is perhaps particularly the case for governance. It is very difficult...To be honest, I feel like there is an inherent need in many contexts for communications that are not fully recorded, and this is perhaps particularly the case for governance. It is very difficult to have open or thoughtful discussions or negotiations knowing that every word you say can be scrutinized years later, often by parties specifically trying to hurt you by interpreting them in as misleading a way possible. That even well-meaning people end up trying to find ways to have those sorts of communications is perhaps evidence of this need. That is perhaps because our culture has not yet adapted to the technological ability to record and have so much information available, and can't reasonably handle exploratory and conversational speech that is given the permanency of carefully-considered text. In my personal experience, when I have been in positions where records of everything were the norm, it tended either to stifle discussion and harm processes, to lead to unofficial communications methods, or to result in later, arguably bad-faith 'gotcha' attempts causing varying amounts of damage.
I feel like it might be a reasonable alternative, instead of pushing people to expensive (in-person discussion) or unsafe (phone, texts, WhatsApp) methods of unrecorded conversations, to accept that it is beneficial despite the problems, encourage safe methods, and try to reasonably limit what conversations are acceptable in those spaces.
On the other hand, pushing this while also pushing to make these communication methods illegal for individuals is very hypocritical.
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Comment on European Commission internally recommends Signal with disappearing messages in ~tech
pallas Link ParentSeveral sources (eg, https://fightchatcontrol.eu/) claim that there is a 'professional secrecy' exemption that would exempt politicians. But actually, looking at the closest thing I can find to an...Several sources (eg, https://fightchatcontrol.eu/) claim that there is a 'professional secrecy' exemption that would exempt politicians.
But actually, looking at the closest thing I can find to an actual text, the exemption is broader-reaching and arguably worse. Essentially, only individuals in their personal lives would be spied on; corporate and government communication would be exempt out of respect for the privacy of confidential communications and trade secrets, and because those spaces would have 'less risk' of CSAM:
In the light of the more limited risk of their use for the purpose of child sexual abuse and the need to preserve confidential information, including classified information, information covered by professional secrecy and trade secrets, electronic communications services that are not publicly available, such as those used for national security purposes, should be excluded from the scope of this Regulation. Accordingly, this Regulation should not apply to interpersonal communications services that are not available to the general public and the use of which is instead restricted to persons involved in the activities of a particular company, organisation, body or authority. (page 11 here)
It seems that the regulation sees any company as more trustworthy than a private individual, and sees any trade secret as more worthy of respect than an individual's personal privacy.
Of course, elsewhere, the regulations will keep that personal information perfectly safe, but here, the regulations apparently won't. And CSAM purveyors who will know that what they are doing is illegal, and that these regulations and exclusions exist will of course not think to use the entire class of corporate communication systems that will be exempt. There's no need to justify this contradiction; it simply exists. That, and the example of "classified information" and "national security purposes" in the motivation turning into any employee of any company and any corporate trade secret in the conclusion is typical of the European hypocrisy around rights and 'fairness' that increasingly frustrates me.
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Comment on European Commission internally recommends Signal with disappearing messages in ~tech
pallas Link ParentMy understanding is that there is no proposal to break E2EE chat for politicians, and presumably their staff as well.My understanding is that there is no proposal to break E2EE chat for politicians, and presumably their staff as well.
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Comment on What useful licenses or certifications are surprisingly cheap and easy to get? in ~talk
pallas LinkThe process of getting a ham license in the US, if you have a background in electronics and/or physics, is surprisingly trivial, especially since the test process is largely broken: all questions...I've also occasionally considered getting a ham radio license, solely because I like a bunch of adjacent electronics topics and it feels like the kind of thing I could be into. (So far, I haven't bothered because the vibes of the community around it don't feel right for me, but I haven't completely abandoned the idea.)
The process of getting a ham license in the US, if you have a background in electronics and/or physics, is surprisingly trivial, especially since the test process is largely broken: all questions are multiple choice, from a small pool, and are publicly released, so a bit of spaced repetition can get you through all three tests with very minimal effort and no real knowledge of ham radio.
But as someone who I expect had the same interest you have, in my experience the vibe problem you mention is significant. It's particularly the case if you're coming from free software and open hardware backgrounds: surprisingly, the culture seems largely opposed to the values of those communities. While it isn't legal for them to be, many major modes are de facto proprietary, and considering they even get what amount to advertisements into the tests, enforcement seems unlikely. Many supposedly open projects are not, in ways that would be seen as unacceptable or illegal in other communities. And the ban on encryption and refusal of the community to accept that standards of privacy and safety have changed in the modern world make the hobby unsettling at best and dangerous at worst.
If you just want to mess with small radios and repeaters in the US, a GMRS license is probably better. If you want to mess with radio, things using non-ham bands, like LoRa, have potentially more interesting communities.
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Comment on I need advice, which laptop would you buy now? in ~tech
pallas Link ParentIt is. At this point, the chassis (almost all the parts, including the bezel), keyboard, touchpad, the speakers and some of the ports are from when I first purchased my (1st-gen) Framework....The fact that you can upgrade individual components, and even better, then reuse the old components by putting them into a shell is huge.
It is. At this point, the chassis (almost all the parts, including the bezel), keyboard, touchpad, the speakers and some of the ports are from when I first purchased my (1st-gen) Framework. Everything else is an improved version of what was there before: the screen, the mainboard, the RAM, the SSD, the webcam and microphone, the battery, even the hinges.
On the other hand, I'm still strongly considering getting an MBP, despite all the disadvantages, because the hardware is just so much better. The only thing that holds me back is the extreme RAM pricing.
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Comment on Rough ride: how Uber quietly took more of driver's fare with its algorithm change in ~transport
pallas (edited )Link ParentI suspect a reason for Uber starting in the US cities it started in is because taxis in those cities were horrible: you could expect extremely limited availability, ridiculous pricing, and...I suspect a reason for Uber starting in the US cities it started in is because taxis in those cities were horrible: you could expect extremely limited availability, ridiculous pricing, and sketchiness at best, and often just complete unusability as a reliable transportation method. In the worst cities, I would not be surprised if Uber wasn't really competing with taxis as much as they were competing against other forms of transportation, because hardly anyone actually used taxis. Before Uber, for example, I can't really remember ever taking a taxi in much of Los Angeles; assuming you could even find or call one, and convince them to take you where you wanted to go, the price would be exorbitant (eg, if I recall, a taxi from the airport could well cost much more than a full, meet-in-the-terminal limo service). Part of this was a complacent industry, and part of it came from a history of American cities historically wanting to discourage taxis for various problematic reasons, but the effect was that Uber was a viable service and taxis weren't.
In cities elsewhere, where taxis were actually usable and used, I expect it was not just regulation that made it more difficult for companies like Uber to succeed. The difference was substantial; in many cases flying across the Atlantic, I'd be going between one airport where taking a taxi seemed like a reasonable option, and another where the very idea of even considering a taxi seemed absurd.
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Comment on Why handwriting matters in ~humanities.languages
pallas Link ParentBeyond this, it seems intended for people who aren't writing in cursive, where the letter forms could well depend on surrounding context.Writing a single letter is more deliberate than writing each letter within a word.
Beyond this, it seems intended for people who aren't writing in cursive, where the letter forms could well depend on surrounding context.
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Comment on Contemplating getting a digital piano to relearn how to play in ~music
pallas LinkI collect pianos and other keyboard instruments. I still play the most on a relatively inexpensive digital piano (Roland FP-30X). Yes, my other instruments at their best sound and feel better than...I collect pianos and other keyboard instruments. I still play the most on a relatively inexpensive digital piano (Roland FP-30X). Yes, my other instruments at their best sound and feel better than the Roland does at its best. But it's far more convenient. It has no quirks, there's no need to worry about tuning and regulation, it's small enough I can have it wherever I want, especially in more comfortable and private spaces, I can put on headphones and play or try out anything I want without any concern about annoying anyone... it really lowers the barrier to just playing around or practising whenever I want. I haven't tried gamified or connected learning systems: just being able to interact with it so comfortably and easily helps me play much more.
And I think it actually makes me play my acoustic instruments more as well. When I play on them now, it is with the benefit of comfortably messing around on the digital piano; I'm already confident that I can play the thing I come to the acoustic piano to play generally, and only need to deal with the instrument's particular quirks. It also means that when I play on the acoustic instruments, what people might hear is much better and less annoying, and just knowing that also makes me more confident.
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Comment on Western graters are terrible in ~food
pallas (edited )LinkThis post is confusing. Yes, a coarse grater will work better for grating coarsely than a fine grater. What does this have to do with being "Western"? Oxo itself makes graters of several sizes,...This post is confusing. Yes, a coarse grater will work better for grating coarsely than a fine grater. What does this have to do with being "Western"?
Oxo itself makes graters of several sizes, and their 15-20 row ones look like relatively fine graters, just above their zesters in fineness. They are simply not designed to do what you're trying to do with them.
I think some editing to the comment ended up not being saved: the point was that regulations and culture need to change in order to allow safety to improve without being blocked by NIMBYism and the cultural primacy of cars, and that spending money to that end is probably the better option than wasting it on planning the necessary safety improvements, fighting to put them in, and then losing.