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tmm commented on Blue-collar jobs are gaining popularity as AI threatens office work   nbcnews.com/business/busi... · Posted by u/geox
lordnacho · 12 days ago
A lot of blue-collar jobs require apprenticeships. You can read complaints in several countries about how hard it is to find one.
tmm · 12 days ago
And a long one at that. I’m sure I could do well as an electrician eventually, but there’s no way I could make it through 4+ years as an apprentice making $21/hr, and then another three as a journeyman (even if it pays double). Maybe when my house is paid off (but who’s going to hire a 50yr old apprentice?).

The biggest problem with an apprenticeship model is that it creates a bottleneck to getting people into the trades. You need competent journeymen (and knowing the trade isn’t enough, they need to be able to teach) who ideally can take on more than one apprentice at a time. But no matter how much everyone “wants young people in the trades” and no matter how much of a “shortage of tradespeople” there is, the bigger shortage is apprentice positions. Every kid in the world could suddenly decide they want to be electricians and plumbers, and it would still take two generations to fill the ranks.

Note that I’m mostly focusing on trades that require state licensing. Laborers, carpenters, painters, plasterers, welders, etc. don’t suffer this problem as much, because there is no set amount of time for someone to be an apprentice. If you’re good and reliable you’re getting promoted fast. I’m not against licensing per se, but I am strongly against legislated work requirements for a job.

I know I could study for a week and pass the master electrician exam on Monday.

tmm commented on Dumb to managed switch conversion (2010)   spritesmods.com/?art=rtl8... · Posted by u/userbinator
sam345 · 16 days ago
Terrible experience on mobile even Firefox reader doesn't work I don't think
tmm · 16 days ago
Safari mobile reader mode works fine. It even recognizes the “next page” links and renders all four at once.
tmm commented on Starbucks in Korea asks customers to stop bringing in printers/desktop computers   fortune.com/2025/08/11/st... · Posted by u/zdw
xg15 · 16 days ago
At this point I wonder why Starbucks hasn't diversified and started building actual coworking spaces in addition to coffee shops. They look like they should be in an ideal position for that.
tmm · 16 days ago
This one[1] has a meeting space that can be closed off from the rest of the store, with a TV or projector, and I’m pretty sure they’ve got a copier or at least an all-in-one printer.

[1] https://maps.app.goo.gl/47RMhPAGNHXSnED9A

tmm commented on Swedish Campground (2004)   folklore.org/Swedish_Camp... · Posted by u/CharlesW
tmm · 2 months ago
Does anyone what the "international symbol dictionary" Susan Kare used was?
tmm commented on GSA Eliminates 18F   nextgov.com/people/2025/0... · Posted by u/patcon
cushychicken · 6 months ago
Is there any meaningful reason that states couldn’t start their own equivalent 18F at the state level?

I live in Massachusetts and I know a bunch of socially conscious techies who’d love to help out in this manner.

I have no idea if there is need for 18F at the state level, but I could see something like this working OK in MA, CA, and maybe NY.

tmm · 6 months ago
Many states do have something like 18F. Massachusetts has Mass Digital[1], Washington has WaTech[2], Maryland has announced[3] the formation of one.

[1] https://www.mass.gov/orgs/massachusetts-digital-service [2] https://watech.wa.gov/services [3] https://governor.maryland.gov/news/press/pages/governor-moor...

tmm commented on Borax or Baking Soda Rectifier and the glow (2003)   sparkbangbuzz.com/els/bor... · Posted by u/_spduchamp
tmm · 9 months ago
> This opens up another very fasciniting [sic] possibility. A cell with two adjustable aluminum plates (a variable capacitor) might very well be useable as an efficient light dimmer.

This is how early stage lights were dimmed. See https://youtu.be/wRMEAYYW0dc

tmm commented on We all took the DVD boom era for granted   filmstories.co.uk/feature... · Posted by u/thunderbong
tmm · 9 months ago
I wish Kaleidescape[1] was more affordable. It's a download rather than streaming service, with a comprehensive movie library (12,000+ titles) and you buy movies individually rather than a monthly subscription. But then you can watch the movies as many times as you want and they don't disappear from your library if Kaleidescape stops carrying them. I don't know if they include the extra content typically available on discs or not.

You have to buy their player ($4,000) and their media server ($5,000 for 8TB up to $27,000 for 96TB). Then buy movies (about $9 - $30 depending on how new they are).

If you have the money, you can buy a pre-loaded system for $98,000 which includes their entire 4k library (only about 2000 movies), two 96TB storage arrays and a 4k player.

If the player was around $2,000 and I could use my own storage, I'd have bought one already and ditched all the streaming platforms.

Edit: looking through their library, some titles do include extra content (special features, deleted scenes, music videos, etc).

[1] https://www.kaleidescape.com

tmm commented on The feds are coming for John Deere over the right to repair   gizmodo.com/the-feds-are-... · Posted by u/rntn
ffujdefvjg · 10 months ago
Hope Deere gets what's coming to them and this sets a precedent for other companies. Next on the list should be devices remotely disabled when they're discontinued, which would have otherwise continued to work perfectly fine (like the Spotify car device).
tmm · 10 months ago
Would also like to see a ban on firmware updates and programming tools locked behind a dealer (or support contract) portal and a ban on time-restricted software licenses for hardware.

In line with remote-bricking discontinued hardware, these policies only serve to generate eWaste.

If you sell programmable hardware, or really anything with embedded software, you should be required to make all the tools and software available to end users (doesn’t have to be free, but shouldn’t require a subscription or support contract either) in perpetuity.

Licenses to enable additional hardware features are fine, but they must be granted for the life of the device (i.e. as long as it can be kept working), not an arbitrary “we think the life of this thing is 5 years”. You should never have to keep paying to use a device you already bought.

tmm commented on Why the CrowdStrike bug hit banks hard   bitsaboutmoney.com/archiv... · Posted by u/sideway
greenn · a year ago
With the current model kernel level access is required. Real security products have to be able to operate above userland. Ideally in the future there can be a layer in between userland and kernel for this sort of thing. Maybe we use some of those extra protection rings?
tmm · a year ago
> Maybe we use some of those extra protection rings?

Maybe not. Intel is considering removing rings 1 and 2 for a future 64-bit only x86 architecture, because they "are unused by modern software".

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/t...

tmm commented on Contact of Containership Dali with the Key Bridge and Subsequent Bridge Collapse [pdf]   static01.nyt.com/newsgrap... · Posted by u/mhb
kornhole · a year ago
Breakers are usually tripped when too much power is used. Because the ship was traveling slowly in the harbor using lower power, we need to understand other reasons why a breaker would open.
tmm · a year ago
Engine speed has nothing to do with power generation, these are totally separate systems. It's not like a diesel train with electric motors; on this ship (and most others) the engine is directly coupled to the prop.

The engine requires one of the HV generators to remain online so that oil and cooling pumps operate (and also to bring fresh air in to the engine room for the crew, but those fans can probably run off the emergency genset). Once the HV generators were disconnected, the pumps shut down and the engine stopped. Restarting the engine is a process. Here's how it's done for a small engine (5500hp)[1]. And for something similar to the Dali (55,626hp)[2].

The circuit breakers are a little different than common magnetic household breakers. They will trip in over-current scenarios of course, but also for over- or under-voltage, over- or under-frequency, or if triggered by the ship's SCADA system(s). Breakers tripping on the HV and LV side of the transformer makes me think that they tripped because of something other than over-current.

Three things in the report caught my attention:

1) The crew initially tried resetting the tripped breakers (HR1 and LR1) instead of energizing the alternate set (HR2 and LR2) which they had been operating on for months.

2) The second blackout was caused by the diesel generator breakers (DGR3 and DGR4) tripping. The report doesn't specify whether they began startup procedures for generators 1 and 2 when HR1 and LR1 tripped (probably not, because at this point gensets 1 and 2 were still operating), but it does say that genset 2 was in standby and connected automatically after the second loss of power. With #3 and #4 online, adding #2 to the mix isn't as easy as throwing a switch, it has be to be synchronized to the frequency of the other two first and this takes some time. But once DGR3 and DGR4 opened, DGR2 could be closed immediately and DGR1 wouldn't be far behind (i.e. as soon as generator #1 was synced to generator #2). I expect the state of the generators will be fleshed out more fully in later reports.

3) The report makes no mention of the state of the compressed air tanks. There should have been sufficient compressed air available to attempt several restarts (up to a dozen per regs), so running the compressors wouldn't be necessary. But if there wasn't enough stored compressed air, then no matter what the crew did with the electrical system wouldn't have mattered; they wouldn't have had time to fill the tanks enough to restart the engine. Again, I expect this to be covered in later reports.

My guess is that there was some fault with transformer #1, which caused HR1 and LR1 to trip off. When it was brought back online and they attempted to restart the engine, the combined load of normal ship operations, additional startup equipment (combustion air blowers, etc) along with whatever (possibly intermittent) fault TR1 had overloaded the generators, which then tripped offline. Perhaps instead they should have closed HR2 and LR2, and started an additional generator before attempting an engine start. But that's just a guess. The report doesn't mention any restart attempts, so there may have been other electrical faults that needed to be sorted out first.

Also, having used up some compressed air to start the engine at the dock, they may have been running the compressors to bring the tanks up to the required stored capacity which would have contributed to the load on the electrical system (but only up to the first blackout, as they wouldn't have restarted automatically).

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-D9Ka3TM1I 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mFmCxOjY_A

u/tmm

KarmaCake day702March 4, 2014View Original