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Off Key - General Discussion

A place to talk about whatever you want

2.6k Topics 18.4k Posts
  • Contingency planning

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    wtgW
    @Piano-Dad Yes, I know how to reach you. We do have some folks who signed up and who have either never posted or haven't posted in a long time. I don't want to pester them with updates unless they want to be pestered. You can choose the option to hide your email address from casual observers, but people with superpowers can see that info. Mostly I just wanted to know who wants to be notified if we have a major outage. Additionally, a few folks who signed up early might not have had to provide an email address to create a user ID because registration was open and didn't require authorization by an admin or mod. Eventually we locked the door and deleted all the spammers who had signed up while this was the backup site. I just wanted people to check their profile and see if they have an email addy where they can be reached.
  • Pinned threads

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    Great!
  • Robots getting the jobs

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    wtgW
    Amazon's workforce may start to look a little less human in a few years. The New York Times reports that the company plans to avoid adding more than half a million jobs by 2033 by putting more robots to work. Times technology correspondent Karen Weise found that Amazon's robotics group has a long-term goal to automate 75% of its operations, and I asked her why. KAREN WEISE: It's a huge cost for the company to pay so many people to deliver all the products that we all order, it seems like, all the time. And there's been a lot of advancements in robotics in recent years, particularly with AI and other things like that. So you can actually see progress being made in this effort to kind of keep the headcount down or from growing as fast as it has in the past. MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, and people have accidents. People need medical insurance. I don't think robots need all that, as far as I know, right? WEISE: Exactly, yes. All of that, if you can standardize, just becomes a lot more predictable and a lot more in their control. https://www.npr.org/2025/10/22/nx-s1-5581370/amazon-wants-to-use-robots-to-avoid-adding-over-500-000-new-jobs
  • About that White House ballroom and the East Wing

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  • Galleri test - great news for cancer screening

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    wtgW
    More cancer news, mRNA vaccines and cancer. How mRNA Vaccines Can Help Fight Cancer Turning "cold" tumors "hot" https://erictopol.substack.com/p/how-mrna-vaccines-can-help-fight?publication_id=587835&post_id=176787765&isFreemail=true&r=1v8sh2&triedRedirect=true
  • Where’s the thread about the peace deal?

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    Link to video It's a ceasefire in name only. The Israeli state has never honored its ceasefire agreements. That's just an historical fact. The Israeli state wants all of the Palestinians gone (more precisely, it wants them dead), and, it wants the entirety of the land (and more-- the so-called "greater Israel" Net... has presented in UN speechs, openly, repeatedly, and with imaginary maps). I don't personally know how anyone could fail to notice any of this because the Israeli state has been openly, explicitly stating its intention to commit genocide for the past two years. But that's my problem. I don't really care anymore about changing anyone's mind. The fact is I changed my own mind is surprised and I'm satisfied by it. Btw, you can look up a comparison of the energy of the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan vs the energy of the bombs dropped on Gaza. The bombing of Japan by scientific measurement pales in comparison. But, this is a fact I learned yesterday-- all of the bombs dropped on Gaza have left (so-called) depleted uranium. It's a wasteland now. I can't think it would ever make a good tourist destination.
  • Jewel of the day

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    I'm not personally a fan of bombe style mounts but I think it's a fine piece! I'm going to add this site to my links. Thanks!
  • AWS outage and the peril of Smart Things

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    RontunerR
    Reminds me of the time I went to a new client's house for a tuning. A new build, I guess a smart house? Anyway, to get the lights on in the piano room, she had to call her husband at work to control from his phone... I do carry battery lights and am able to tune without power if needed.
  • I feel safer now

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    wtgW
    Local reporting from the Daily Herald. A family-run Palatine cafe is closing because of a drop in customers due to immigration enforcement in the area, the owners said. Chappie's Cafe, 754 W. Euclid Ave., will serve its last meal Nov. 2. The business has seen great success despite opening four years ago during COVID, said Judith Martinez, who owns the cafe with her husband, Omar Garcia. But things began to change about three to four weeks ago, when federal agents arrived and started to approach customers, she said. Two masked agents encountered customers while they were eating breakfast and asked to see their papers but took no one into custody. Agents visited about a week later. This time, Martinez locked the front door when she saw them driving around the parking lot. They then confronted her in the back of the store. “Right away, they told me, ‘Who are you? I need to see your papers. I need to see your passport. I need to see your legal status,’” she said. There were two cars parked in the back, without license plates, she said. “I was afraid and I was nervous, but I'm a U.S. citizen,” said Martinez, who was born in Mexico but later came to the United States and was naturalized. Her husband is also an immigrant but is here legally, she said. She kept asking the agents why they were there, but they avoided her questions and soon left. Beside the looming threat of federal agents keeping customers away, food costs have risen sharply, making the decision to close easier. Local reporting from the Daily Herald. https://archive.is/BlJSB
  • David Brooks in Atlantic

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    wtgW
    What has Trump done for you lately? Gave George Santos a Get Out of Jail Free card. Asked for $230 million of taxpayer dollars for himself. Tore down the East Wing of the White House. Will the greatness never end???
  • Tangrams

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  • The great sourdough starter experiment

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    Hey @Steve-Miller ! I've got a novel sourdough recipe for you: Sourdough Soba Noodles Japanese soba noodles are delicious and nutrient rich. They’re made with buckwheat, which contains all nine essential amino acids, meaning buckwheat is a complete protein. A common flour ratio for soba noodles is 80:20 buckwheat flour to all purpose wheat flour. This small amount of gluten in from the wheat is enough to make the dough manageable, and in the case of our recipe, the all purpose flour comes in the form of sourdough starter, adding flavor complexity and digestibility. Our instructions do include baker’s percentages in case you’d rather not use sourdough starter, and the recipe is written for four small servings (or two large), allowing a beginner to finish the entire process relatively quickly and without needing an extra long rolling pin or special knife. https://breadtopia.com/sourdough-soba-noodles/?utm_content
  • News that Doug can use...

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  • When they think no one is listening

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    wtgW
    "I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday's HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time," Ingrassia posted in an online message. "I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout the process and will continue to serve President Trump and the administration to Make America Great Again!" https://www.npr.org/2025/10/21/nx-s1-5581714/paul-ingrassia-nomination-withdrawal
  • Bloomscrolling--what's in bloom where you are?

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    [image: 1761113970955-20251020_101504-resized.jpg] Acers are wonderful colours now
  • Eric Lu wins the International Chopin Competition

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    Just listened to the Polonaise-Fantasy. Gorgeous! Such clear playing.
  • I’m almost tempted to attend the open house

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    Imagine having a budget of 1.7 million to hire an architectural firm to buy whatever kind of lot/ land and steer all of your budget into something you could think of as your dream house. It wouldn't take me a minute to decide to do that instead of buying some AI looking monstrosity.
  • Habits

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    I have spray bottles with various amounts of rubbing alcohol/ water, vinegar/ water, and Dawn/ water. Other than that I buy products with any chemical you can think of except ammonia. I buy fragrance free laundry soap--same brands, just the "free and clear" versions. I don't like the smell of industrial perfumes. Other habits? I don't know. I think people are creatures of habit so probably so!
  • Cam toilets

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    Needless and disgusting.
  • Karens in my neighborhood

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