Can someone explain why jellyfin compatibility is helpful? I'm not aware of any jellyfin clients that function better than i typical subsonic one - unless this is just for people who want all their media in a single app?

It's not unusual for inspection to happen before work has completed - i wouldnt let that get to you.

In fact - it's often the contractor who is responsible for obtaining the permit and scheduling required inspections. Don't push them to cancel, otherwise they might complain that you're interfering with their side of the contract.

Instead, alert the building official of any concerns about code compliance or dangerous conditions, and then let them complete the inspection. They'll either flag those things to the contractor and give them a contingent pass, or they'll fail them and have them schedule another.

Either way - if somehow they make it to the end of their work without fixing it, you'll need to pursue the non-compliance section of your contract with them. Usually that's withholding final payment, and ultimately there's small claim litigation if that fails. Maybe your insurance agent can help you if it comes to that, but honestly it's a huge pain in the ass for something that's usually pretty small.

Ill just add - sometimes the contractor will get lazy because they know it's easier for you to make the repairs yourself then it is to litigate a broken contract. You'll have to decide yourself if that's true or not.

Atlanta is definitely more subtle and less horror-comedy, but the surreal elements can catch you when you're not expecting it and it has the same effect IMO

Probably a few genres that fit that description, but one i enjoy a lot is Afro-surrealism.

Media like "Atlanta" and "Sorry to Bother You" are a couple of personal favorites, but there's lots more

Adultswim's 'too many cooks in the kitchen' is also very good at this experience, but I wouldnt call it afro-surrealist.

Those are still external to the thing, not internal.

I was ready to roll my eyes at the title and move on, but i'm glad I spent the time to read this.

TLDR; i very much disagree with the premise, but the author brings up an interesting bit of philosophy that is helpful to the conversation.

When people say "it's just a tool", it is not to assert that the tool is neutral, only that the thing being referenced should be thought of and discussed in a similar fashion as we do when discussing other items in the same category. This is in opposition to the tendency to ascribe moral features or aesthetic to things that aren't inherent to their 'essence', but rather features external to the thing being discussed or features that are commonly shared by items in the set but not exclusive to it.

What comes to mind (possibly because of the great effort it took to read and understand it) is Deleuze and Guattari's conceptualization of the 'assemblage'. Here's an excerpt from "A Thousand Plateaus (that happens to contain my favorite passage in possibly all of philosophy) that I think adds a contrast:

The author here is correct to point out that tools are not neutral - and the connection to Heidegger's conception of the Gestell is very well received. I just wish they hadn't stopped at their conclusion and actually kept the analysis going. Taking their example of SUV's engendering 'asshole driving behavior' - it isn't just that the existence of SUV's bears a causal relationship to asshole drivers because of what that gestell produces, but that the existence of SUV's reshapes the relations of all the other assemblages in close proximity to it regardless of how it's used and by who. They even kind of preview this more balanced conclusion in their comparison of javascript and vue, stating that it's not a matter of one being better than the other, but simply that they have different purposes and enable different types of collaboration.

I think the entirety of the problem of this argument could be captured just in this part of the blog,

After all, all kinds of fascinating weapons systems are being used in defence of freedom and democracy in Ukraine, and this is both good and necessary, but none of this makes the effects on leaders of having access to bombs and artillery, or on individual people of having access to firearms, not ceteris paribus deletrious.

All other things couldn't possibly remain 'equal'. The addition of those tools fundamentally changes the relations and constituent parts of all the assemblages around it, including concepts like "freedom" and "democracy". To take it one step further - if the signs and symbols that refer to those assemblages and relations - that have now necessarily changed by the new addition - do not also change with them, then they simply stop being practically useful to describe them.

Any tool is going to have a non-neutral affect on those who use them - that's mostly the point of the assertion.

Mamdani is a fucking wizard. I heard some of this press conference - trump was actually defending mamdani against both liberal press and fox news questions

I want so badly to have been a fly on the wall for that meeting. But ultimately it does kind of make sense: they are both "anti-establishment" candidates in their own ways, and trump desperately needs a popularity boost.

Did you know that it's illegal to say, "I wish someone would kill the president of the united states"?

Im not saying it, im just letting you know that it's illegal. Like a public service announcement.

I had my energy company remove their LVTC smart meter this week after they started using it to shut off our condenser unit during our 100 degree days

The fact that it exists at all is bad enough, but they were doing this at a time when our AC was already malfunctioning due to low refrigerant. On the day they first shut it off, our house reached 94 degrees.

The program that the previous owner signed up for that enabled them to do this gave them a fucking two dollar a month discount.

I use a smart thermostat to optimize my home conditioning - having a second meter fucking with my schedule ends up making us all miserable. Energy providers need to stop fucking around and just build out their infrastructure to handle worst case peak loads, and enable customers to install solar to reduce peak loading to begin with.

The other thing that kills me about this is that our provider administers our city's solar electric subsidy program themselves. When i had them come out to give us a quote, they inflated their price by more than 100% because they knew what our electricity bill was. All they did was take our average monthly bill and multiplied it by the repayment period. I could have been providing them more energy to the grid at their peak load if they hadn't tried scamming me.

FUCK private energy providers.

Democrats are gonna blow it on a fucking centrist again

WHY IS THIS MAN STILL IN OFFICE

Between this and the other story earlier this week, its crystal fucking clear that he is not well. Does nobody close to him care about his clear brain damage from his stroke? It's like the entire federal government is weekend at bernie's and the whole thing is being run by staffers

My favorite moment as a camp counselor for twice exceptional kids was when an autistic camper got into an argument with another counselor about the historical/mythological accuracy of this movie (camper insisted it was a terrible movie in mythological terms), and eventually the counselor got frustrated and said "fine, go write me a paper on it" and the camper went off to bed

About an hour later the kid pops his head out his door and asked how long he wanted the paper.

The same kid ended up eating a laundry pod later that summer.