Just finished the audio drama "The Red Letter Day" starring Tom Baker as Sherlock Holmes. It's OK, not bad, but definitely only for people with nostalgia for the 80s series with Tom Baker as Sherlock Holmes.
I'm reading Real Tigers by Mick Herron. I'm a huuuuge John le Carré fan, and this series sort of scratches that itch, but it's not as "literary" or complex. It feels like a grittier, less action oriented version of the TV series "Spooks"
I expect the comments here to shit on liberal arts degrees, but both myself and my colleague have masters in liberal arts fields, undergrads in philosophy, and we work in Big Tech making what likely places us in the top 10% of incomes in our chosen locales.
Of course, it also means that we feel like we've completely betrayed any principles we have as we are soldiers in the march to make the world a shittier place, but that's the price we pay to keep our families fed.
I was recently ordering food delivery, and a local restaurant replaced most of their image-free menu items with AI generated photos. (Some of their items always had real photos, but most didn't until the AI photos were added)
I ordered from somewhere else and sent the first restaurant an email that I didn't order from them due to the AI images of the food.
Also, fuck Thuisbezorgd for adding AI photo generation. I would have not ordered anything but it was already late and the family was hungry.
The only thing prompting phone replacement for me was battery life. And nearly all phones have shit ability to replace batteries (for now - EU rules incoming).
I bought a Fairphone 6 with /e/OS. I've left Big Tech behind. And I have a phone where I can easily replace the components. I don't want to swap devices for 4-5 years, which makes ownership far more cost effective than leasing.
Also -- with leasing, what happens when the renter is done with it? E waste, just like we have today.
No mention of /e/OS? It's de-Googled Android, is available preloaded onto a new Fairphone (selecting the e/OS option), and even comes with a locked bootloader. It comes with Micro-G preinstalled, and its built-in store can pull from both F-Droid and Google Play.
It's literally the most turnkey, minimal tinkering option on the market. I know a couple non-techie normies who have one.
I have one because I don't want a second job out of tinkering and tweaking my phone - fun hobby, but that's an admission that it's high labor. If we're actually going to change the market, we need easy, non-scary solutions for non-technical users.
Even more money lost for rural schools. Getting high speed, high capacity internet connections to much of rural America is extremely cost prohibitive. E-Rate was the only way the rural district where I was network admin could possibly afford it.
It's a little bizarre that the Netherlands, or especially Spain, are in the time zone centered on basically Berlin. Damn WW2. The sun doesn't set until nearly 23:00 this time of year, and during winter isn't up until nearly 08:00.
I tried. I was an activist for years. Donated money. Knocked on doors. But when you're battling willful ignorance, heartfelt bigotry, and an entrenched oligarchy, and everything only backslides against you... You eventually feel like you want to just live life and escape it.
I tried to make the US better for my kid, but it's unfixable in my opinion. So we moved to a better place.
Just finished the audio drama "The Red Letter Day" starring Tom Baker as Sherlock Holmes. It's OK, not bad, but definitely only for people with nostalgia for the 80s series with Tom Baker as Sherlock Holmes.
I'm reading Real Tigers by Mick Herron. I'm a huuuuge John le Carré fan, and this series sort of scratches that itch, but it's not as "literary" or complex. It feels like a grittier, less action oriented version of the TV series "Spooks"
Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner
Elephant Talk by King Crimson
Hocus Pocus by Focus
I'm perfectly happy with my Fairphone 6 with /e/OS
GrapheneOS, the security hardened community Android spin, is released almost exclusively for Pixel devices.
I expect the comments here to shit on liberal arts degrees, but both myself and my colleague have masters in liberal arts fields, undergrads in philosophy, and we work in Big Tech making what likely places us in the top 10% of incomes in our chosen locales.
Of course, it also means that we feel like we've completely betrayed any principles we have as we are soldiers in the march to make the world a shittier place, but that's the price we pay to keep our families fed.
I was recently ordering food delivery, and a local restaurant replaced most of their image-free menu items with AI generated photos. (Some of their items always had real photos, but most didn't until the AI photos were added)
I ordered from somewhere else and sent the first restaurant an email that I didn't order from them due to the AI images of the food.
Also, fuck Thuisbezorgd for adding AI photo generation. I would have not ordered anything but it was already late and the family was hungry.
Birds of a feather
The only thing prompting phone replacement for me was battery life. And nearly all phones have shit ability to replace batteries (for now - EU rules incoming).
I bought a Fairphone 6 with /e/OS. I've left Big Tech behind. And I have a phone where I can easily replace the components. I don't want to swap devices for 4-5 years, which makes ownership far more cost effective than leasing.
Also -- with leasing, what happens when the renter is done with it? E waste, just like we have today.
Yeah, about a decade+ ago I paid for mIRC and WinRAR as a way to pay them back.
Alex Lifeson!
A/C is how Americans are able to insulate themselves into denial of climate change.
Air conditioning industry has a wealthy lobby. Human livability doesn't.
Funny who politicians listen to most.
No mention of /e/OS? It's de-Googled Android, is available preloaded onto a new Fairphone (selecting the e/OS option), and even comes with a locked bootloader. It comes with Micro-G preinstalled, and its built-in store can pull from both F-Droid and Google Play.
It's literally the most turnkey, minimal tinkering option on the market. I know a couple non-techie normies who have one.
I have one because I don't want a second job out of tinkering and tweaking my phone - fun hobby, but that's an admission that it's high labor. If we're actually going to change the market, we need easy, non-scary solutions for non-technical users.
Even more money lost for rural schools. Getting high speed, high capacity internet connections to much of rural America is extremely cost prohibitive. E-Rate was the only way the rural district where I was network admin could possibly afford it.
It's a little bizarre that the Netherlands, or especially Spain, are in the time zone centered on basically Berlin. Damn WW2. The sun doesn't set until nearly 23:00 this time of year, and during winter isn't up until nearly 08:00.
My blog used to receive direct traffic to various articles from search engines.
Now, 90% of hits are on the homepage with no search engine referral. I've blocked the bots in multiple ways, but they keep coming.
I put my little blog behind Cloudflare because I was tired of it going down due to scrapers overwhelming my little VPS.
I tried. I was an activist for years. Donated money. Knocked on doors. But when you're battling willful ignorance, heartfelt bigotry, and an entrenched oligarchy, and everything only backslides against you... You eventually feel like you want to just live life and escape it.
I tried to make the US better for my kid, but it's unfixable in my opinion. So we moved to a better place.