Randomness Dos

[count2infinity]

Saw something today at lunch that I had never seen before... you know those guys and gals that stand at construction areas with the "STOP" and "SLOW" signs and help with one way traffic on a two way road? There was an automated flagger today.

It had a red light, and a flag on an arm that went down and across my lane when I was to stop, and it had a little orange flashy light and the arm goes up for when it was good for me to go. Automation out here taking everyone's jobs.

[shoeshine boy]

Saw something today at lunch that I had never seen before... you know those guys and gals that stand at construction areas with the "STOP" and "SLOW" signs and help with one way traffic on a two way road? There was an automated flagger today.

It had a red light, and a flag on an arm that went down and across my lane when I was to stop, and it had a little orange flashy light and the arm goes up for when it was good for me to go. Automation out here taking everyone's jobs.

yep, I work for GDOT and our office buys stuff like that. I have 2 solar powered ones sitting in my motor pool right now. Mobile Flagger is the official name.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

tbh I feel like that **** is infinitely better than a random dude

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

also

[shoeshine boy]

tbh I feel like that **** is infinitely better than a random dude

cheaper too. those things cost around $20k to $30k. in GA most construction is done by contractors but I'm sure they still pay those guys more per year.

[RonnieFranchise]

I saw one of those for the first time today too.

[Shyster]

Been using Waze for years, and IMO it's the superior navigation app. Google bought Waze a few years back, and to the extent Google Maps might be a viable nav app, it's because Google has been incorporating Waze's tech under the hood.

[NTP66]

Stopped in to my new Amazon Fresh today to see what kind of stuff they carried. Overall impression? Aside from the cars that allow you to drop items in and leave quickly and being an Amazon return center, I don’t see any real benefit to this store. Small inventory, priced higher than my local grocery store (which isn’t on the cheap side), and aisles with columns in the middle of them blocking the paths of carts.

[tifosi77]

Been using Waze for years, and IMO it's the superior navigation app. Google bought Waze a few years back, and to the extent Google Maps might be a viable nav app, it's because Google has been incorporating Waze's tech under the hood.

On balance GMaps is more robust, esp if you are in a high traffic density area. Waze is limited to the number of actual Waze users in a given geography, where GMaps pulls data from not just nearly all Android users but also from government sources working with Google that provide traffic data (that's not part of the Waze algorithm iirc). It's just a much larger pool of information, and GMaps is able to reflect changes way more rapidly imo.

Waze defaults to the fastest A-to-B route, and that's sort of their value proposition. Google offers a variety of route options, and for me that's nice because my commute can sometimes be quite scenic and pleasant (other times it sucks, nobody's perfect), and that's often worth an extra 5 or 6 minutes in the car. But that need for speed is why Waze had a tendency to calculate routes that asked drivers to make left turns from stop signs across six lanes of rush hour boulevard traffic, or send 200 cars an hour down hapless residential streets because a UPS truck overturned on the main throughway two blocks over. They've cut down on that a lot recently, but we'll still occasionally get routes "Exit the freeway in 1 mile. Make an immediate left into Sketchville Heights and proceed for 1,000 feet. Turn right onto Don't Go Down This Road, and then right again. Use the right two lanes to get back on the same freeway. You have saved [2] minutes"

I'm not super sure why Google keeps both services alive, but GMaps is much more useful to me.

[dodint]

(other times it sucks, nobody's perfect)

Awww, I think you're pretty great.

[skullman80]

Garmin watches are superior to Fitbit/Pixel anyway.

Yep. Better than Apple Watches as well.

[tifosi77]

(other times it sucks, nobody's perfect)

Awww, I think you're pretty great.

Your words of comfort found their intended landing zone.

[dodint]

[NTP66]

Garmin watches are superior to Fitbit/Pixel anyway.

Yep. Better than Apple Watches as well.

What makes them better? Doesn’t make sense to me to go that route for my wife since the Apple Watch will give her more functionality. Design wise, I know she prefers the square/rectangular shape faces over circles, too.

[skullman80]

Garmin watches are superior to Fitbit/Pixel anyway.

Yep. Better than Apple Watches as well.

What makes them better? Doesn’t make sense to me to go that route for my wife since the Apple Watch will give her more functionality. Design wise, I know she prefers the square/rectangular shape faces over circles, too.

Depends in what you using it for I guess.

I use my garmin for training purposes but it also functions as a smart watch for notifications etc….so the exercise and training/health functions are much better on a garmin IMO.

Plus the battery life is great I can go almost a week without charging depending how much I do gps related activities. It also looks like an actual watch that can be worn during any occasion…it’s not big and square like the Apple Watch.

I’d love to see a smaller version of an Apple Watch. I’d be interested just because I’m already in the apple ecosystem with my iPhone, air pods and Apple TV. It just doesn’t have the functionality I need or the battery life.

[meow]

Apple watch battery life is disappointing coming from fitbits

[Gaucho]

[NTP66]

Apple watch battery life is disappointing coming from fitbits

This is really my only concern. Since she works from home, I was going to 3D print her an Apple Watch charging stand for her desk so that she could just charge it there. She has had Fitbits forever, so if I don’t go that route, I’ll likely stick with a new model Fitbit.

[NTP66]

Man, I don’t know what they’re thinking at Fitbit, but the clock faces that they offer are all atrocious. Not sure my wife would like any of them. Wish Apple made a smaller face under 40mm, because sleeping with one of these just seems odd. May just buy both and let the wife decide which one she wants to keep.

[Shyster]

I'd heard of the concept of automatic show chains from hearing ads on the Red-Eye Radio overnight show, but I didn't know how they worked. This is pretty neat engineering.

[Ad@m]

@DigitalGypsy66

Are there any monkeys roaming in your area?

[DigitalGypsy66]

not up here yet. Down near HHI, so I'll keep an eye out for them when we head down there in a couple of weeks

[Kaiser]

Looking at zillow, I notice that house prices in PA are f***ing amazing compared to the west coast. There are uncountable multi-bedroom-bath homes for less than 100k. So I have to ask, wtf is wrong with them? They look fine, hell, compared to the WA houses for the same price they're damn near luxurious. Whats the deal? Why the f*** shouldn't I buy an $80k 2 bed 1 bath brick house near pittsburgh???

[MR25]

They're almost 100% not showing you something wrong, or it's in a rough neighborhood like Homewood or Carrick

[Shyster]

Or they're in rough municipalities outside of Pittsburgh. Like there are plenty of houses for under $100k in McKeesport, but the crime rate in McKeesport is... not good.