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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • Glasses. My only super power is astigmatism - the contacts for it are horrible.

    I went to get lasic - the dude said: you’ll need reading glasses, and maybe you’ll see a boarder. What?!? No thanks - if I need glasses sometimes it’s far better for me to use them all the time. That way I don’t lose them.

    I do wish I could use sunglasses more easily, but…





  • Tl;Dr: Banned from Ask a Trump Supporter for apologizing.

    Once, I was young and care free - an Innocent. I thought: If only they could see the data they would believe! And, I was uniquely prepared to help them see and understand (I was working on Data viz at the time). And so I started posting in Ask a Trump Supporter. And we got into it. And, well, the dude had a point.

    When you’re wrong your wrong, so I apologized. And, I included a question mark in the apology.

    Bam banned just like that for violating rule xyz about asking questions in the comments.

    Never been so happy to be banned. Probably saved my marriage.


  • The likely cause is that the cable is slipping, probably where it connects to the caliper. This is more likely if you loosened then re-tightened that bolt, less likely if you did not.

    Loosen the cable fixing bolt on the caliper. Make sure the brake lever is free (not depressed). Carefully follow the cable housing from the lever all the way to the caliper - is it seating correctly in any cable stops? If so:

    1. Pull the cable so that it is tight
    2. Tighten the cable fixing bolt tightly (you may need a friend to help maintain cable tension while you tighten the bolt).
    3. Wrap some tape around the cable just below the fixing bolt, as a marker.

    How does it feel after that? Carefully try it out on a ride. Check the tape - is it squished/has it moved? (Probably not).

    Ride for a few more days (carefully! Brakes are the most important thing on a bike!). How do the brakes feel?

    If they are getting looser, but the tape has not moved that means the cable itself is not slipping, something else is changing.

    I would avoid loosening the bolts that connect the caliper to the fork - if you do, make damn sure they get tightened again

    Other things to check are:

    • How much wear do the pads have? Take them out and measure them. (If you have been dragging the rotors with the pads, you could be wearing them down. Seems unlikely). To measure, stack them on a flat surface and measure the height.
    • Are the adjuster knobs on the caliper moving? Mark then with a sharpie then take a picture, check if they are in the same place when things feel loose again (this is possible, but rare).
    • Are the calipers themselves in reasonable shape? (A cracker caliper could do this. I’ve never heard of that, but I’m not a bike mechanic, so… Maybe?)

    Last time: brakes are the most important thing - if they don’t work, go get them fixed by a pro before you ride.

    Look up mechanical brake adjustment on Park Tools YouTube for videos.

    Good luck, keep the rubber side down.




  • If I read it right: the government is paying for commercial (phone) location data. There are 3 issues:

    • creepy: the government shouldn’t have this
    • costly: they are buying it with our tax dollars
    • comprehensive (?): They are getting everything (money can buy)?

    If the government were to require this (like via a search warrant) rather than pay for it it would go through a mountain of legal oversight. It seems like the interpretation is: commercially available = publically available.

    I guess what I would want to know next is: who gets access to this?