Will convenience ever win out for you?
This is a serious question.
If you don't feel strongly about this then thats ok but I think we are all better off that there are people who put the effort in to make society better even if it means personal inconvenience.
I’m interested by this as every time I have tried to browse with NoScript it has indeed been completely horrific.
One recent example where I packed it in and just used Safari instead was buying a flight - I've found airline websites to be finicky at the best of times and the added layer of non-standard browsing was immediately painful. Other than that, it's been worthwhile; I recommend giving it another try!
If I need them, I use their web interface. If that is shitty, it makes me use them less, which is a desired outcome.
Although, I admit I read too much HN than I'd like to spend time everyday because it feels like time spent on HN is some form of learning.
My smartphone went bonkers and now only shows half of the screen, which makes it less than smart.
I replaced it with a Nokia 8110 (the 4G model) and so far it's an intersting experience.
While it might be a smidgeon less convenient it's far less attractive to immerse yourself into your phone while, for example, using public transport. The browser is fine for very basic things and you can get basic email to run. But in terms of distraction Snake can only give you so much.
In essence I seem to gain a lot of time to observe my fellow citizens, read books or just stare out of the window and think some idle thoughts. In short: It seems I'm gaining a lot of time back by not being constantly distracted by what is essentially a slot machine with never ending possibilities.
I'm sure it helps that I don't do social media. None!
The phone provides a 4G hot spot in case I really need to connect a laptop if I must. Having dual sims it seems like quite an ideal thing to take on vacation. (It does GPS and Google Maps)
How well will this work? I don't know yet. Right now I'm really not inclined to replace it, but time will tell.
Is it exhausting?
Well, no. Quite the opposite since there's no temptation for permanent distraction.
Will convenience ever win out for you?
I really don't feel too much inconvenienced. The acid test will probably checking in for flights (which should work with the minimal browser) or comparable tasks. Not being able to hire a scooter or use an Uber (which I anyway don't since I consider it a totally despicable company and there's no way I would ever trust them with my personal -, let alone location data) is pretty much a non-issue.
So yeah, I tried to give you a serious answer.
For things like this, you just need to sign up and put in a little bit of info, but now you have to install and app that may or may not be hugely bloated, require permissions you it doesn't need, push updates frequently, etc.
The only thing that gets tiresome is the realization that every company is trying to exhaust you. That the goal itself, is indeed, to wear you down.
Once you realize that's the name of the game, you fight it differently.
I always wonder why these kind of folks even bother to visit sites like this at all? Isn't this a tech focused site? Why are you here if you hate advancements in technology so much?
It reminds me of all the bitter old curmudgeons on Slashdot back in the day. Every post about advancements in HDD storage or more memory had at least a few highly voted comments droning on about the dangers of bloat and why all anybody really needs is green screens. Articles on higher resolution monitors, or fancier TV's would always have a couple predictable upvoted comments wondering "why do we need all this extra resolution?"
These kinds of comments really don't add anything to a discussion. They just bring a lot of negative energy. For some reason people always seem to upvote them--probably because they sound edgy or controversial. I just roll my eyes at the old grumps and move on with my life.
The big danger is the site gets taken over by these kinds of grumpy people. Then the site starts a slow decline into irrelevance as the world passes it and all the people still using it by....
A lot of the stuff here is cool open source projects and even the stuff like this thread is still worth talking about even if I wouldn't use the product myself. No point reading only posts and comments I agree with.
Also even though I would never use this product for privacy reasons, I personally benefit from other people using it when the air I breathe doesn't kill me and I don't fear for my life while crossing a road.
I appreciate him entertaining my questions and giving a sincere response.
I'm 22 and privacy-conscious. I also love tech, but I really enjoy my personal privacy and knowing that I'm not being surveiled all the time. I am also a FSF supporter and try to run libre code wherever possible.
Convince me: why should I give up my privacy to use products that will inevitably treat my data irresponsibly?
An obvious solution is just to use bogus data: name, email, dob, address, burner phone.
Only thing you can't fake is your credit card but I'm sure a lot of companies do actually accept payments where the name of the card differs from the name on the account.
If you buy your cards in cash, they're about as private as the security cameras are in whichever convenience store you pay for them in.
Based on what we know about Target's shopper surveillance and behavioral identification efforts being capable of targeting pregnant women with pregnancy products, who didn't even know they were pregnant yet, themselves, even seemingly benign store locations can be pretty lacking in actual privacy.
Between electronic survellance of mobile device identifiers, blue tooth signatures, free wi-fi usage, versus brute force video analysis yeilding facial recognition results for targeted ads on flatscreen monitors as you pass by bus stops, the status of tracking in public spaces is weird, although you really can ditch credit card tracking.
The only problem is, the truly huge companies have assuredly been routing around that idea for years, by diversifying their information channels.
Hating the abuse of something isn't hating that thing, and
> I just roll my eyes at the old grumps and move on with my life.
going to such lengths to smear someone indirectly and calling isn't moving on with your life. Adapting to "the world" (which is people doing things, and you're one of them) isn't either.
> when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
-- Carl Sagan
Without the laughter of fools, there is no tao.
So all info you withhold from them is the few meters walk from where you ordered to where you got picked up.
I suppose what it comes down to is that we pour huge amounts of information into our phones and by extension, companies that don't necessarily have our best interests at heart, and any steps I can take to ameliorate that without a huge trade-off of inconvenience, I am all about doing. I don't know what my data will be worth in a few years!
[1] - https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/29/16219542/uber-location-tr...
Not just a company, the current state of things is every private company database will be hacked and leaked and available to the general public.
Treat all data you give to someone else as public data now and use fake info where ever possible.
Can you do this?? Thanks, I had no idea!
Lyft has https://ride.lyft.com
Still have to verify your account through phone
I feel like this is a bit of misleading marketing since a ton of fossil fuel is used to round them up and distribute them around town every day.
(TPU/C)(TE/CE) = Carbon Efficiency of using Lime/Bird
I’ll admit that I don’t know all the numbers to plug in here (being HN, maybe someone else does) but given that even dirty power plants have better fuel efficiency than ICEs and that chargers don’t need to drive super far to find a ton of scooters my money is on this being better than driving, carbon-wise.
Even if a vehicle is used, it is nowhere near the fuel consumed by all the scooter trips combined. It collects multiple and is only after several days per scooter.
Given that I perceive fossil fuel savings, I feel it’s worth it to check and try to lean towards this method of transport.
Sorry if these are stupid questions, but isn't this a problem with Bird? I see random birds all over the place. Can someone explain why bikes can't be left around randomly like a bird can?
As for why a non-powered bike couldn’t just be left around, here are a few thoughts:
- As some people have mentioned, bikes are just bigger, and take up way more sidewalk space. If Bird and Lime have gotten unpopular, a “Bird for Bikes” would probably make people livid.
- Honestly, the fact that Birds and Limes come with Anti-theft mechanisms and GPS transponders (which run on the same battery as the motor I think) makes them a bit harder to steal (and there aren’t easily removable parts or a viable black market for selling them). Even a non-powered bike would need a charge every once in a while if it relied on power for its transponder.
- I think the “we supply’em, you pay us to ride’em, we pay people to charge’em” business model is just a straight up new thing that happened to be first successfully done by a scooter startup. I imagine it would be hard for a person in a minivan to pick up tons of bikes for charging without having to remove their minivan’s seats. Again, scooters being small is a big advantage, which is probably also why bigger “sit down” vespa-style scooter startups don’t seem to be a factor right now.
The hub idea isn't feasible unless tons of people are already riding birds and creating a mess everywhere, because people probably wouldn't sign up as hub owners unless the demand was already deemed high. They are probably just ramping up usage right now until people start complaining, at which point Bird will be big enough to start issuing out hubs.
This improves on docks in that the "dock" can just be a geofence with a few lines painted on the ground, whereas traditional docks are very sturdy and hence expensive.
This improves on dockless in that it's a more reliable place to pick up bikes, and still gives you the freedom of leaving your bike in other places.
Also, I wasn't aware South Lake Tahoe has scooters!
Also there are dockless bikes, see Jump in SF.
Looks like Maryland uses a significant amount of coal to power their grid, so is this even a good thing?
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/5764...
Coal power plants operate in the range of 34% efficiency
Not that that would be a reason not to use scooters in and off itself, since they're be posed to take advantage of grids that will hopefully become more and more renewable over time
It would be interesting to calculate the MPG of these, including the overnight recharging and repositioning done inside a van.
Also, the argument you're making here is called "the long tailpipe" and has been debunked – it's still a win even if the grid has dirty energy because of efficiency gains.
1. Scooters use far less energy than larger vehicles.
2. Generating energy from fossil fuels can be done more efficiently at a power plant than in a small engine.
3. When power generation is centralized, it is easier to substitute it for better, more efficient forms in the future.
It's why electric cars are viewed as being friendly; the grid they're plugged into may still be fossil fuels, but that can change at any time. A gasoline powered car won't change its reliance on fossil fuels until you replace it.
Now that it's gotten colder, I think my range for using them will contract to something like 2-8 blocks, but I don't think I'll cut off using them entirely. I don't notice them being "piled up" anywhere (except for at a street festival, but lots of people were picking them up too), and I don't think I've ever run into a situation where my path was actively blocked by one.
Baltimore used to have a bike share, but I've heard it's being shut down and even when it was up they had a hard time keeping bikes in all the stalls.