Disqus - Latest Comments for plumpy

Re: I Waited Five Months for My Soylent and Now I Can’t Get Rid of It

plumpy — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 21:35:33 -0000

I bought a month supply when I was drunk and by the time it got here wanted nothing to do with it, especially after all the reports of Soylent farts. I sold it, one week at a time, on eBay, and made a significant amount of money doing it. I literally just sold the last of the four weeks on Tuesday.

Just try it. People are buying.

Re: The Waiting Game

plumpy — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 15:13:35 -0000

In SF the way the do it is they set the street sweep time to 9–10am (say). They send a cop around the route just before the sweeper, he tickets every single car still sitting there (usually one a block or so), and then the street sweeper follows him a minute or two later. The cars, meanwhile, have driven around the corner, and fill in the spots as soon as the sweeper passes. Generally the sweeper will be by no later than 9:10am, so you're only out fifteen minutes or so.

Theoretically the cars could park as soon as the cop leaves but before the sweeper drives by, but I never actually saw anyone do that.

Re: Class Action Suit Targets DMV For Fining Cyclists As If They're Drivers

plumpy — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 15:55:59 -0000

It's increasingly obscure, but not incorrect. Says Wikipedia: "When the symbol follows a number, the symbol indicates weight in pounds. (Five pounds are indicated as 5#.) This informal usage still finds handwritten use, and may be seen on some signs in markets and groceries."

Re: Questionable Behavior

plumpy — Tue, 06 May 2014 00:15:13 -0000

I am definitely guilty of this one, even at work. Now I feel ashamed.

Re: An Aha! Moment

plumpy — Thu, 01 May 2014 01:57:51 -0000

Do "grr" and "shh" really count as onomatopoeias? The word "shh" is literally what we say out loud; it doesn't mimic some other thing. Just because you transcribed it into text, it doesn't seem like the same thing to me?

Re: Bushwick Woman Orders Blizzard Pizza, Demands Drawing On Box, Tips Badly

plumpy — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 02:20:03 -0000

Pasted from my comment above:
The total (incl. tax and delivery fee) before the tip was $21.78. Then they chose to add a 10% tip because they are cheapskate fuckers.

So, $2.18.

I think Grubhub makes you tip in percents. So probably they used that? But I can't remember for sure; I only used it once.

Re: Bushwick Woman Orders Blizzard Pizza, Demands Drawing On Box, Tips Badly

plumpy — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 18:48:41 -0000

The total (incl. tax and delivery fee) before the tip was $21.78. Then they chose to add a 10% tip because they are cheapskate fuckers.

Re: Removing Trash Cans From Subway Stations Somehow Reduces Litter, MTA Declares

plumpy — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 22:32:16 -0000

Is trash on the tracks worse? They have a vacuum car to scoop that up and you don't have to worry about stepping in it when it's off the platform. It's still lame that people are littering, but isn't it better if it's not in your way?

http://new.mta.info/news/20...

Re: Farewell MetroCard: MTA Plans To Kill The MetroCard In 2019

plumpy — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 10:46:12 -0000

Look, good ol' Wikipedia has some basic information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

and here's about the Clipper Card I was discussing above:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Re: Farewell MetroCard: MTA Plans To Kill The MetroCard In 2019

plumpy — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 10:40:09 -0000

See my above post, but to repeat myself, there's no possible way you could use MetroCard on buses (where your cellular connections are going to be spotty... especially back in 1993 when it debuted!) without having the value stored on the card. It's got to be a basic requirement of the system.

Using a cellular uplink would also likely be way too slow for a crowded bus system where you're just trying to get people on seamlessly. Even a hard-wired connection would probably have an annoying amount of latency.

Other than that, I have no idea how it works :)

Re: Farewell MetroCard: MTA Plans To Kill The MetroCard In 2019

plumpy — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 10:27:54 -0000

So, I'm speaking here about the Clipper Card in the Bay Area, from where I recently moved. That card works on several Bay Area transit agencies. I'm assuming this MTA card would work similarly.

Anyway, the cards do have some sense of how much money is on them. I know because you can download an Android app (FareBot) that uses your phone's NFC chip to read the value on the cards, and it works even in airplane mode. I only tried it with Clipper, but it works with several other systems too. Working off the grid is obviously a necessary requirement of any system that has to work on a bus system and rely on a shady cellular uplink.

Then at some point, there is a reconciliation with the central server, but it doesn't have to be realtime. I don't know how this works, but there's an annoying process where you submit a request to see how much money is on your card and it takes up to 48 hours to get back to you with an exact answer, presumably because it's waiting to make sure all those remote systems have checked in.

If there's a discrepancy, I'm not sure how the new value gets written back to your card.

In any event, even when the system goes out, what do you think happens? They just let everyone ride for free. It's really not that big of a deal.

Re: Farewell MetroCard: MTA Plans To Kill The MetroCard In 2019

plumpy — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 13:13:57 -0000

Why do you say it won't affect fare increases? I would assume the money goes to the MTA, which means there will be more money in their budget to avoid future fare increases.

Re: Hundreds Of NYC Bars Score Coveted All-Night NYE Boozing Permits

plumpy — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 10:16:18 -0000

They're holding the space in case they want to add another 2800 bars to the list in the next few hours.

Re: Watch Human Foliage Frighten Passersby In Central Park

plumpy — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 17:19:22 -0000

He's just ripping off the dude in SF who has been doing this for decades: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Re: Weed-Smoking Teen Allegedly Drops De Blasio's Name To Cops

plumpy — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 17:17:53 -0000

On the other hand, she first said she didn't know who he was and then immediately started referring to him as "the mayor". Which seems fishy, although it could just be weird editing.

Re: Today's New Banksy Was...Cancelled By Police Activity

plumpy — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 15:25:21 -0000

It's the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC. Stop being an elitist ass.

Re: Word of the Year? Obamacare!

plumpy — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 01:07:47 -0000

quick tiny error: 9/11 was WOTY of 2001, of course, not 2011.

Re:

plumpy — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 19:00:34 -0000

By not shopping at Wal-Mart, he is denying everyone else the ability to shop there too? That's some power.

Re: 14-Yr-Old Boy Arrested For Sexually Assaulting 4-Yr-Old At Queens McDonald's

plumpy — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 10:13:32 -0000

Calm down, friend. Have we forgotten about Sunil Tripathi already?

Re: Should Brooklyn Parties Be Monitored By The Cops?

plumpy — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 13:04:37 -0000

I think he meant to the one specific house causing the problem.

Re: Singular ‘They’: a Footnote

plumpy — Fri, 10 May 2013 02:39:00 -0000

I'm getting on board with singular "they", but adding a footnote to a work email just seems tacky and obnoxious and I am filled with a deep concern that the few of my co-workers who care about grammar, the ones I most want to impress, will think I am an uneducated boor.

This is a personal failing.

Re: Zeitgeist, Noted Mission Bar, Accused Of Homophobia Toward Patrons

plumpy — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 18:57:46 -0000

Realistically you don't get to plead your case to a bouncer at any bar. Once a bouncer tells you to leave, give up and go home. It's too late for appeals.

Re: Bay Area Traffic Now Just As Bad As Los Angeles

plumpy — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:02:05 -0000

Yeah, this surprises me too. I commute down south every day and traffic is shitty some of the time and part of the way, but it doesn't seem even close to what I've experienced when I visit LA.

Re: City Supervisors Want To Rename SFO After Harvey Milk

plumpy — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 03:45:54 -0000

Ah, I've always wondered why it was ORD! Thanks!

Re: City Supervisors Want To Rename SFO After Harvey Milk

plumpy — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 03:45:02 -0000

It's not true, though. Google John Wayne or Ronald Reagan and see what comes up.