SwingingTheLamp

Yeah, but to be fair, the threads linked here from r/BHJ are Chernobyl-level toxic, and they seem to think they're the victims.

comparing it to the best comics

Indeed, it's not The Family Circus nor The Lockhorns...

In case anybody was actually wondering, the difference is sudsing agent. The manufacturers originally put a chemical in laundry detergent to make more suds. That doesn't make them clean clothes any better, it's just for psychological effect. Customers feel like it's working better when they can see suds.

But too much sudsing in front-loading machines can cause leaking from around the door seals. (Same as putting dish detergent in the dishwasher.) So the HE detergents are the same thing, but without the sudsing agent. They work just fine in top-loading machines, too.

But does anybody remember those TV ads for Biz detergent which pitted a woman using it against man using "Hiz" detergent? Hooray for casual sexism!

This is why I like marine devices. By necessity, they have to operate offline. There's no cellular service in the middle of the ocean. I have a Xantrex LiFePo BMS and a Victron solar charge controller on my boat, and neither requires a cloud account to use the app.

Similar to others, I got on Facebook when you had to have a .edu email address. I've been less than pleased with it in recent times, as my feed ignored activity by my friends and groups in favor of "suggested" content, and the Reels (which I tried in vain to disable) had degenerated into softcore porn, although/because I've never watched one.

I haven't logged in since Zuckerberg came out as mask-off fascist. I've kept the account in case I want to contact anybody, or check Marketplace. But I've found that my brother was correct: Facebook is the junk food of social connection. It tastes good, but always leaves you hungry. Getting off of it was painful, but I feel better for having done it.

Only if you have installed the correct license file.

Lotta boring crap about PLUs, SKUs, UPCs, TPRs, and such. Stores have dedicated pricing staff for a reason. One trick that might be interesting, but not surprising, is the way stores hide price increases by putting a product "on sale" this week, so it's cheaper than last week, but raising the regular price, so it costs more when the sale price ends.

I got degrees from both a community college and a major research university. The two don't share instructors, but on average, the quality is much better at the community college.

Community college instructors are there to teach. They go to continuing education classes to learn how to do it better. Some classes at a research university are taught by similar, dedicated instructors, but some are taught by the professor who drew the metaphorical short straw that semester, and who'd rather be focusing on her research. She will put in her best effort, don't get me wrong, but her first priority is research.

That is to say, for anyone thinking about a degree, don't overlook the value of community college.

(ETA: I work at a research university now; the research professors who also teach are some of my co-workers.)

This.

It's irrational to consider maximum monetary gain to be the only best outcome. Why? What's the goal? Money is only means to an end, not intrinsically worth anything.

Put another way, if the Argentinians cherish good wine, how are they better off with slightly more money and mediocre wine? (I guess they could use the profits to buy good wine?)

Republicans also live in pants-shitting terror of... duct tape?

I'll add it to the list.

That's amusing to me. Back around 2010, I used a lot of state legal forms that they only released as PDF files, but not fillable. It was annoying to print them and fill them by hand, and terribly fiddly to use the PDF annotation tool on the computer.

So I just used OpenOffice.org to create almost-pixel-perfect versions of the forms, with fillable text boxes, then exported them as PDF. Word couldn't do it at the time.

Now, at work, I use Microsoft365 because that's what everyone uses because of the site license. I wish we'd switch to something else, because Outlook fails so hard at basic email stuff.

The Bush administration abrogated due process, but we might have been able to move past it as a shameful anomaly in our history perpetrated by one out-of-control political faction. But then instead of prosecuting the offenders, or at least disavowing their actions, the Obama administration doubled down on it! It decided that American citizens could be killed on the basis of an accusation. It cemented the destruction of due process as a bipartisan principle of American government.

The Turd Reich might be speed-running the course, but it's just using the tools that past administrations laid out for it.