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Joined
2 yr. ago

  • Maybe one time? I know there was a rope in a gym at one school I went to. Would've been one of the middle schools I attended (which was an old high school). So like 97-00 or so, in the suburban/exurban US Midwest.

    But I got the feeling it was just something we did for fun one day. It wasn't required by any means. And that's the only time I can think of attempting a rope climb. I never touched a rope in PE/Physical Fitness classes ever again, or even saw one in another school.

  • No, it's a diplomatic tit-for-tat. Even though the EU and US have visa-free travel, the US imposed the ESTA on travelers from the EU (and elsewhere I'm assuming) some years ago. It's a not a traditional visa, it's a "Travel Authorization." And it costs money to apply for one. It's not expensive, nor hard to get, and it lasts a few years, I think, but from the EU perspective, why should their citizens have to pay for an ESTA to the US, while US citizens can travel to the EU for free? So the EU is finally retaliating by leveling the playing field and imposing an ESTA on American travelers.

  • That's like me. As far as I know, I've never had COVID. I worked for an IT Managed Service Provider, which is like contracted IT for other businesses, as a field tech from Nov 2019 to March 2021; pretty much the major arc of the pandemic. While we were in lockdown at home in April/May 2020, I was otherwise in and out of our clients' offices, often in close proximity to them, working on their workstation computers and other equipment. We were "Essential Employees" in our state. At first, no one, even clients knew anyone who had COVID, but I saw the "noose tightening." A client's friend or acquaintance or relative got COVID. Then it was someone in their immediate family. Then it was them who had gotten COVID. IIRC, I had at least one coworker out of like 13 of us who got COVID.

    But I never did get it. Or at least I was asymptomatic. And I didn't take any hefty precautions other than masking up, using hand sanitizer, and washing hands frequently. And it's not like my masks were N95s. I either used cloth masks or those disposable ones. I even flew a couple times during the pandemic, though admittedly, the airports and planes were largely empty anyway.

    I did get vaccinated as soon as I could in my state. so like March 2021. I did keep up with all my vaccinations; I've had two boosters. I was the first at my company and in my immediate family to get vaccinated. But that was toward the end of my time at the MSP anyway. My next job was/is an office job where we largely were WFH or Hybrid. Interestingly, I've seen more COVID among my current coworkers than my previous coworkers, even though my current coworkers tended to be more fastidious about precautions and getting vaccinated and social distancing and isolating and all that, while my previous were much less so (they weren't anti-maskers, nor anti-vaxxers I don't think).

    I also tend not to get sick very often. At least not like colds/flus. I go years between cold-like illnesses, though I got sick a few weeks ago. According to a couple home tests, it wasn't COVID though. Just a summer cold. I was also in Chicago while they had the worst air quality in the world from the Canadian wildfire smoke. I'm sure that didn't help.

  • I know a little about browsers, but not tons. Do all Chromium-based browsers use the same rendering engines? If so, isn't it an issue as these Chromium browsers proliferate? If the engine deviates from the standards and they have the market share, feel like we just end up in the IE situation back then.

  • This is my small company. We used to buy cheap computers (like even from Best Buy or Wal-Mart...the then CEO was super cheap), but then we (I) always had to deal with bloatware and just crappy computers that wouldn't last a year before I started getting complaints that they were slow or just acting up all the time. When he left, I started buying business-line computers directly from the OEMs. They're not necessarily cheap. The Dell and sometimes HP laptops we buy average about $1500. Even before the pandemic and inflation that was true.

    On the other hand, I also support a handful of Apple users, mainly in the Marketing/Communications team, and all but one have M1 Macbook Airs. They cost like $800. And they're amazing. I bought a Mac Studio for our web designer/video & graphics editor and it only cost like $2000, I think. It too is a beast.

    When I worked at a small MSP, some of the C-suites and biz owners I supported wanted powerful Windows laptops. Rarely for any work-related reason; they just wanted something better than the "peons." They sometimes paid around $2000 for them. And like you mentioned, they were often still shit.

  • What's the reason for that? Caching purposes?

  • I'm hoping Checo is back in right headspace after this weekend. Almost went south again when he went into the wall in that Free Practice. But he recovered excellently.

  • That was an alright race. Terrible for the Alpines though, to both be out in the first lap.

    And ofc Ferrari doing Ferrari things as usual.

    Glad to see Norris P2, but I am curious about the undercut of Piastri he did. That seems unusual to undercut your own teammate like that.

    But Max like 33+ secs ahead of Norris at the end is just insane.

  • 33 seconds ahead. 33 seconds. Scary.

  • I think they repealed that regulation. I remember there was another time this year that someone had a sub-2s pit and it was fine.

    I just don't know when the min-2s thing got removed.

  • Oh wow both Alpines out in the first lap. Yikes.

    Zhou into Riccardo and then Riccardo into an Alpine, and then into another Alpine.

  • Max and Lewis take each other out and then McLaren 1-2.

  • I'm still playing through it, but am nearing the end. I like the combat system. At least for bosses and mobs that can be staggered, it's not just button mashing. I've been playing with the various Eikonic abilities to find combinations and "rotations" that I like or are appropriate.

    I will say, I think FF7R's combat system is better. FF7R actually keep a vestige of the old turn-based system -- which I'm a fan of -- where you can at least pseudo-pause and think about what spell or ability to use, or whether to switch to another character, or just think about what the next move should be.

    That said, right away, I thought FFXVI is middle of the road as well as others are saying. Is it my favorite entry in the series? Absolutely not. But is it my least favorite (FFXV)? No way.

  • Massive windstorm came through my area last Friday afternoon. Had like Cat 1 hurricane winds. In the Midwest US. So it knocked down trees and powerlines all over the metro area. I was out of power from 4:00pm on Friday through 8:30pm Monday.

    So it was a shitty weekend. I (and my brother who's visiting) stayed in my apartment on Friday night, which was sweltering. Humidity and like 85F (29.4C) temps inside, even with windows open, made it miserable to sleep. Saturday, we spent like 7hrs at my company's tiny office (we're actually full remote) charging up phones and battery banks, while just hanging out and enjoying the AC. But we stayed in my apt again on Saturday night, which was just a bit cooler, but enough that I was able to sleep like 8hrs. Sunday during the day was OK, but then it rained again and got sunny afterwards, driving up humidity. We finally decided to get a hotel room. On Monday, after checking out, we hung out at the local library to work (I could've gone to my office, but I knew a couple co-workers w/o power at home were there). Monday evening was a little cooler again, so we braved the apt, and then the power came back. Even through Tuesday, there were still like a thousand customers in the metro without power. I think the utility is back to normal ops now.

    Overall, it just a wasted weekend. It sorta felt like homelessness, especially when going to my office, then to the hotel, then going to the library. At my apartment, it was sorta like camping but way less fun.

    At least I had no property damage or injuries. Driving around, I saw lots of trees on houses. I saw at least a few vehicles that looked totally destroyed since trees fell on them. So it could've been worse for us.

  • I was watching the UK House of Commons streams during some of the Brexit debates when May was still PM. I should note I'm an American. Those were very exciting. It was a little over the top with the heckling, but at least it was interesting to watch. It actually felt like representatives debating and doing something. I know that doesn't happen all the time though; I've seen PMs giving speeches to a near empty chamber, just as is often seen on CSPAN with the House or Senate.

    Does it every get lively in the House or the Senate? The horror of Jan. 6 aside, the most memorable think I can think of was that vote on Obamacare where McCain sank the vote to repeal. But even then, it was just senators mostly standing around and talking.

  • He just got confused on where the jail was. Happens to the best of us. Poor guy.

  • I semi-maintain one and use it for a similar reason. I mainly use to document one I'm doing with my Homelab. I also write mini reviews on some games I finish. But I write it as if it's for an audience, even though no one actually reads it (though anyone can).

    I probably only post like 3x a year since I'm super lazy with my Homelab and only finish a handful of games each year.

  • A Williams car passed a Ferrari. It successfully defended against a Ferrari. And it was ahead of BOTH Ferraris.

    And Norris P2! Piastri P3 would've been icing on the cake, but hey P4 as a rookie? Impressive.

  • Yeah I heard Ben Edwards on F1TV say the same thing.