rsynnott

10 ms·

181.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
This is, I suppose, what you get when you elect a guy who went bust running a casino. So much winning.
182.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
I have a smart watch; I still take a phone when running. It's not particularly inconvenient to do so. Lots of people don't have smartwatches, of course, and yet might still want to run.
183.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
I have that turned off (I assume it would be even worse with that turned on)
184.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
It has a "less walking" option, which I don't have turned on. I assume that is for those usecases.
185.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
I suppose everyone needs a hobby...
186.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
> Transit App allows you configure both your walking and cycling speeds Oh, nice! Didn't realise they'd added this.
187.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
> My tips would be: check if it mistakenly thinks you can't directly walk to the station or something. no, it knows and will give a sensible route if you ask for walking directions to the station. > And lobby your government for
188.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
> If I select public transport yes, it will suggest public transport ways to get there. I can't see how this is a bug in any way It will suggest completely nonsensical public transport routes, apparently in an attempt to minimise wa
189.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
The most egregious one, IMO, is the pay-for-attention 'feature' (bluetick replies end up at the top). _Everyone knows this is a terrible idea_. Dating sites have known it's problematic for 30 years (these days, those that sti
190.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
I do, yes... from about 2009. Twitter was fairly reliable for a good while.
191.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
Some nightclubs (very common in Berlin, but you also see it elsewhere to some extent) require you to put (generally bright orange) stickers over your phone cameras on entry. Seems like an obvious solution here.
192.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
Eh, it certainly gets a lot of _attention_, and London is very, very big, so the absolute numbers are impressive-looking. The chances of it actually happening to any given person are extremely low, though.
193.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
While I am on the subject, Google Maps seems to be somewhat aware of big awkward train stations which take ages to navigate, and applies a time penalty. That's good (though also a bit inconsistent). However, it seems to assume that met
194.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
Google has giant offices in NYC. Like, you'd think this would have come up.
195.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
I'd also be able to tell it "never suggest that I get bus routes A, B or C; they do not in practice turn up on time". > There are some routings in london for example where the best course of action is actually to take a tr
196.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
They have big offices in San Francisco, and also in New York, Dublin, Zurich, London, and various other cities where this stuff matters, though, these days (their Dublin office is right beside the train station that it insists I shouldn&#x2
197.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
Oddly, it seems to be okay at that in Dublin at least.
198.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
This is in Ireland. I’ve also noticed it doing very silly things in Germany and the UK. It’s fine for pure walking directions, but it gets unhappy about the idea of someone using public transport walking.
199.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
Adding “running” to the list of things that Google engineers apparently don’t do. Where it joins “walking”. Google Maps will suggest almost arbitrarily bonkers public transport directions to avoid walking. Personal favourite: the sensible w
200.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
Eh, you can imagine it going either way; maybe someone who’s worried about it is more likely to sign up for a dick measuring study? There’s so much psychological baggage here that I’d be really suspicious of any stats. The Kinsey Report fam
201.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
All such data is a _little_ dubious, as it's pretty much always opt-in, and there'd always be a question of whether you have a fair sample.
202.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
It's a bold claim, a few years distant, by Elon Musk. Just on that alone you can pretty much assume "definitely bullshit".
203.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
Ah, the old "[absurd thing] will happen with AI in [time period just long enough that everyone has kinda forgotten about the prediction when the deadline passes]" gambit. (A bunch of AI boosters were predicting AGI by 2025 a few y
204.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
> Can’t go to to the store 0.3 miles away without driving your cage. Is this due to a lack of footpaths? Or just a cultural thing?
205.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
Okay, so someone said something silly on a dating forum once. But the question is who, if anyone, actually _believes_ in it.
206.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
... I mean, realistically it sounds like the sort of thing that only teenage and young adult men would believe in. What makes you think that women subscribe to it?
207.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
... What do you want them to do, demolish buildings to widen the roads? Like, there are limits. > Great for some of its own residents, not for all of them, definitely not for visitors. Cities primarily exist for the convenience of the pe
208.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
> A typical bike rider's coffee and book reading activities do not match a trip to Target and a local restaurant with family in terms of economic impact. ... Most people going into cities, whether on bikes or cars or trains or buses
209.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
There you’re seeing the inertia of the planning and procurement system. For an idea of how bad this is, one of the commuter lines will initially be electrified with trains that run on _battery_ for part of their route, because extending ove
210.
by rsynnott 3mo ago
> they even ordered new U-bahn without A/C AC is fairly problematic for narrow underground tunnels. This is one upside of the massive 9m diameter tunnels being used for a lot of new underground lines; way easier to ventilate. But, a

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