Based on the number of anoles, skinks, geckos, and Texas spinys in our yard, I’m guessing that little display was for someone else.

My brother used to catch them and let them bite down on his earlobes.

Weird dude.

I think a big thing is that good prebuilts are now readily available: hot swap, foam layers, PCB stabilizers, CNC aluminum cases, a mounting system more sophisticated than tray mount, decent firmware (often properly released QMK/VIA, but at least VIA), and fun features like lighting or encoders. A late as 2022, this would have been a wish list on an interest check for a $400+ kit; now it’s a baseline to charge three digits for a prebuilt MX board.

There are still many group buys going on at the high end (geek hack basically exists as an IC/GB publishing platform at this point), and a lot of boards are available bare bones, but when a newbie comes along for a recommendation, no one has to feel bad recommending some pre-built that would make a Pok3r look like a joke as a value proposition.

However, after a weeks in the role, several FEMA officials said they came around to Phillips after seeing his initiative during the January storm response.

“Gregg Phillips is FEMA’s best hope at this moment. I can’t believe I’m saying that,” one high-ranking FEMA official told CNN at the time.

Same, unnamed FEMA official, same.

While they’ve got it apart, they can make sure to use a high quality battery!

Experts report the alloy was unmoved by the masterful prologue to Pixar’s 2009 classic Up.

I don’t know what kind of vibe I’m giving off, but I always seem to get the “Deepstate, amiright?!” drivers. Okay, that’s a lie… I do know my vibe… I live in a Texas suburb and I’m a cishet white guy who wears cargo shorts and dadcaps and likes sports.

I hate it, but still, this person is taking me somewhere I need to be so I want to be nice, but I can’t quite bring myself to pretend to agree. Unfortunately, a polite “Oh, I’m not sure I’m sold on that” just gets them helpfully trying to probe, “so why would Kamala do a pizzagate if she weren’t a lizard person?”

Fuck me, I need some tattoos.

That one’s not actually a problem. The flag is always “hoist side forward” to symbolize a no-retreat mentality. We shall ignore Vietnam and Afghanistan, and how that goes in the reign of President “why they no helping me?!?” remains to be seen.

I believe the correct adjectives are “spongy” and “bruised.”

“This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again.”

I’m pretty sure Dick Cheney and pals needed no particular urging from Israel for that one. If nothing else, it was on its face a complicated issue for Israel that would have left them without a particular desire to spend political capital with the US, though they would have undoubtedly been on board once it kicked off.

Now that said, it certainly does seem strange that any time there is a report of negotiations making progress with Iran or a proxy, this particular Israeli government seems to get stuck in and something violent happens. I think what we have here is an blind and anti-semitic squirrel finding a nut.

I mean, it helped that I knew the designer, LOL.

IIRC, there is one single bodge wire in there from where I did compromise the matrix, but I cannot stress how simplistic this PCB design was. It is holes for switches, holes for diodes, holes to string it over to the microcontroller dev board, and traces connecting them all. My second one is slightly more ambitious, allowing a couple of layout choices, Alps or MX, and has a designated spot to solder a specific MCU. That one requires two bodge wires because I screwed up the traces a little. If I do a third, I will know to make sure every trace is assigned to a “subnet” before I tell KiCAD to clean things up.

Very cool!! I think your bottom row may ultimately prove slightly more user friendly than mine, though I certainly got used to it. The ortholinear number row has proven to be a non-issue for me, though I have the “advantage” of not truly touch typing, and my hand-eye coordination therefore doesn’t have too much trouble with losing that 0.5u stagger.

DIY board. I designed a no-stabs matrix-only PCB (the Pi Pico MCU has to serve as the “daughterboard”). It’s FRL 1800 and is one of my personal favorites, though I’ve since replaced the black spacebars with a couple of BOW keys that reflect the hold-tap mapping I set up; I’ve also changed it from KMK to ZMK.

Anyway, PCB orders usually have a minimum order of 5 pieces, so I snapped the numpad off of one and laser-cut a case of sorts, really just plates and spacers, and got “half-height” switches. My laser can sort of half-assedly dye-sub cheap PBT blanks, so I did a Timex Sinclair design. Later, I added feet, a 3D printed replacement one-piece spacer with a sidewall, and a MagSafe ring so it could be the keyboard for a Chrometab I converted to Debian.

Then it’s a good thing the gang of four there are all 1.25u!

Which is not to say your decision is anything other than ourageous and unfair. We’ll see what the Supreme Chancellor thinks.

You rang?

Yes, but they also extract every penny of value from them. Minimum legal time for breaks, no visible tattoos, cell phones turned off, and broad manager discretion about things like having a stool at checkout. Apparently they are very upfront about it in interviews, at least, but they know they’re often the highest-paying employer for miles around, and they leverage that to the hilt.

Employees seemed somewhat happy too.

They pay legitimately good wages for the markets they are in. However, they also know they are paying good wages, so they make the employees earn every single penny. I understand that it’s more stressful and tiring than an average retail job, but as Don Draper would say, “That’s what the money’s for!” In reality, it almost certainly depends on the individual managers and whether the store is hitting targets.

“For the warfighter.” I suppose there’s a certain clarity of assholery, but jesus, the marketing direct to Hegseth and Trump’s 80s rom-com bully personas is nauseating.

Also, while it’s always been hypocritical to soft-pedal what the most powerful military on the planet is for, the mere act of opening yourself up to accusations of hypocrisy moves the discussion to a place that culturally asserts some level of civilian control, which also implies some limit to the barbarity. People are inherently assholes and will seek the bottom; lowering the bar in advance just encourages even worse behavior.

It may have been “designed” by this guy, who seems to be from San Antonio. He seems like a peach among peaches.

Visibly upset, Martinez told Prokopas that he previously worked for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas. He said he had just been discharged from Critical Response Strategies, the private contractor that provides security at the detention center, after a physical altercation with another guard inside the facility.

EDIT TO ADD: In Texas, Sheriff’s offices in big counties like Bexar, Dallas, Tarrant, Travis, and Harris aren’t even regular day-to-day cops. They run the jail and serve process if the constables don’t have the manpower.

I particularly did this when I was in the UK or Japan, but that’s more because I have no faith that I will remember to pick the correct way.