We went through the immigration process under K-1, then adjusted status to a permanent resident. No lawyer. Many people have done this and there is information out there how to do it, but it can be outdated, especially in the current era. There wasn't a great "here's the overall workflow" back when we did it, and their probably isn't now either.

The forms have instructions, and if you read carefully (together with all reference documents) it isn't too difficult. But I'm a contract guy, most people likely will have difficulty. It would be nice for them to have an official place to ask questions and have all the relevant forms and instructions considered together.

For a more "routine" example, the forms to apply for or renew a passport for a minor are a huge pain. Not all the required documents needed to be brought to an appointment (minor passports must be applied for in person) are listed in one list as of late last year. You have to go deeper into the state department website than you probably should have to. They should just fix all forms which are confusing or have incomplete instructions, but having generative AI assist the user is probably a lot faster to implement.

It's not stealing if you take a little bit from a large number of people.

Must be amazing living in a place where unexpected traffic accidents never cause delays.

Most full-service restaurants will have things on the menu which are just there as an option for an audience who doesn't want their core offerings. The Sysco truck makes this very easy- take a recipe (from Sysco) and they will bring the ingredients right to you. I wouldn't expect Joes Crab Shack to have great pasta, some menu items are just minimal effort to satisfy picky eaters in a party of people coming for your specialty options.

GFCI outlets, which are required outdoors and in garages in most places, often have issues with backfeeding. Mine won't handle it and I had to install a different outlet.

And the weather. There is a limited amount of pleasant temperate climate in the US and California has a big chunk of it.

You might be surprised. Louisiana is an industrial facility powerhouse, probably just behind Texas in terms of manpower depth for a facility like this.

Spirit is kaput. Google is picking up wreckage from the scene at scrap value.

But you do make a point that most people underappreciate. The Spirit airline experience was bad, but one of the bigger factors in the poor experience was that everyone on the planes were extremely grumpy. You could avoid being nickel and dimed but there was no escape from the foul mood. No other airlines have ever come close.

I'm sure there's an element of tax avoidance here. Elaborate commercial arrangements like this often do.

That's only half of the potential problem here. I've experienced model hallucinations where the model seems to have completely fabricated ideas or conclusions which it says are included in a reddit thread. The latest version of mainstream Claude (via Perplexity) is still doing this.

This also pokes a huge finger into the eye of Adobe. Splitting and merging PDFs is one of the main features of Acrobat for a whole class of white collar workers.

Electricity prices in Europe are around 2x what Americans pay. In Japan it is even higher. Each 9 added to uptime has a cost, and Americans have apparently decided they don't want to pay.

I've been seeing a LOT more ebikes and small (250cc and lower) motorbikes on the road lately. I live in a state where summer is oppressively hot (winter is bike season) and most riders appear to be commuting to low-posting jobs. It seems to be the k-shaped economy manifesting on the road.

Not to mention these vehicles are a huge pain to work on. I changed the spark plugs in a 150/1500 class truck recently and had to lay down on to of the engine on a chunk of old mattress to reach any of them. And needed a 2-step stepladder to get up there. I've since changed to a Ridgeline and you can reach anywhere in the bed and most of the engine without a ladder. The interest in the Slate and recent sales of smaller trucks suggest that this is a growing market.

There's trillions of dollars of investment wanting to be thrown at datacenters and the power is part of the package. If tech bubble money can be used to help with nuclear economies of scale and building institutional experience, I will not turn it down.