Scottn1
Brings back memories of me being about 11 years old in early 80s when I got my first IBM PC, eventually a modem and that turned into me hosting a small BBS that got sort of semi-busy. But I only was able to have it active during the day and overnight so my dad would not know. I remember having to walk the long telephone wire across a room and down a hallway to reach the phone jack several times a day and then so excited hearing those connections coming in. What great times!
Then the $300 phone bill came in and my father blew his top and took my whole computer with him to work after that for a few months. Back then, a land-line phone call was charged by the minute, even if calling a neighbor.
But LLM's have completely and utterly destroyed Reddit. To the point of it feels like it is 75% FAKE conversations and/or astroturfed with only a FEW real people commenting anymore. Plus the LLM's have gotten so much better I catch myself sometimes wondering if a certain comment is from a real person or not. Just too much mental energy required for Reddit now to the point of I hardly go there anymore for anything other specific technical questions.
It is sad because it used to be a wealth of knowledge and community. All of /r/askreddit is just bot started ragebait questions, karma-farming or stupid hypotheticals now. /r/popular is just trashy. Constantly I notice videos that are sometimes 7-10+ years old getting reposted again like they are new, just to get rage conversation started again.
You cannot search for ANY product recommendations anymore. Fake "Hey I tried this brand and it was game-changing". No subreddit is safe. Look at /r/supplements now, it is full of those type comments to innocent topic starting questions that are also probably fake. Off topic stuff such as "xxx brand Beef liver supplement changing my life" when someone asks what brand of multivitamin others prefer.
Reddit used to have a few real cesspool subreddits one could avoid, but now I consider the whole site one. You can't even browse Reddit anymore without being blocked to download their app to continue. Old-Reddit now requires a login. Ads make it unreadable without a blocker.
Ugh. Just the worst of the internet all on display at Reddit now.
Imagine being worth billions USD and rather than being a part of the solution to support the state that helped build your wealth, you spend your money to just get around paying your small share.
It is trivial for the wealthy to buy another house elsewhere and “move” their primary residence.
You mean Jacques Ellul? Ted Kaczynski was heavily influenced by little known French Philosopher / Anarchist Ellul's anti-technology books. Ted even mentioned this to his prison interviewer. Here is a copy of Ted's 1983 letter to Ellul:
https://www.thetedkarchive.com/library/ted-kaczynski-s-lette...
Ted always seems to get the recognition for being the main, or original, anti-technologist who "foresaw" our modern predicament because he killed people to make enough noise to get his manifesto published. Ellul and many others were before him.
The Netflix documentary on Ted Kaczynski is real good.
I don't see a way out of this and I don't think current admin really cares. Loot every last drop they can for next two years to enrich themselves and leave America to burn with no money left for Social Security, bond payments, etc. The crowds with pitchforks won't have anyone to tar and feather as Trump will be too old/dead to face any justice and his rich billionaire family will expat to the billionaire utopia of choice. Along with Musk, Bezo's and Zuck.
Then Royce Gracie with Brazilian Jujitsu and the very beginnings of UFC came along and completely upended the traditional glamor of movie star Martial Arts for REAL fights against opponents of all sizes (Early UFC didn't have weight classes). Most real fights end up on the ground pretty fast anyway and against larger/stronger opponents you want to be on the ground.
That isn't to say that a black belt in say Karate, or even Aikido wouldn't still be effective in a no-choice self-defense situation, but I'd rather be more proficient in Boxing at that point or one of the many other more modern fighting arts that have grappling as a core.
I am locked in with paid annual until Next January, but if I have to change again do to enshittification or changes made to, what I felt was a good open-source product and company, I am not going to be happy, nor will my family.
With the recent OpenAi deal with the government I am certain they would throw tons of money at OpenAi if it got real bad. But with upcoming IPO where they are expected to be valued at $840b, we would be a LONG way from them needing a bailout. Well past this current admin.
Holy molly! You aren't kidding. I literally have one laying around in my bathroom cabinet that I bought during Covid for, I wanna say, $60? I used it for about a month or two before I decided I liked my previous shower head better (Kohler Forté).
Also, I'm curious why it is so common recommendation across the internet to take out the flow regulators. Even see it mentioned in Amazon reviews. It is bypassing regulations and selfish. It defeats the purpose of everyone doing their part to cut down their water usage, especially in areas that really need it (Arizona, Nevada and California). I still have mine in at 1.75gpm and it rinses me fine. No one needs the Kramer "Commando 450" force.
How? Windows as a VM? Or is Windows VM hosted somewhere and you are connecting to it via RDP? Either way everything we mention with the dark-patterns and bloat still apply. Someone has to install and maintain the OS whether you in the VM or the host in your hosted elsewhere VM.
Or are you talking about hosted Microsoft apps on your Macbook? Where the icon opens the app elsewhere and you are just getting the interface?
I have even felt that urge with my son at times when he was making Little League All-star teams each year and considered top 5 player in the league. But then you realize they are only 9-12 years old and playing on a mini field! So I relished in him just having FUN. It was so hard to be around those obsessive Dads when I was having fun practices.
I've been a Microsoft user since DOS days and diehard Windows fan since it first came out. All through the years I've installed, ran, broke, reinstalled, tinkered and administered countless Windows PC's for myself and clients. Was even on track to be MCSE NT certified through my employer until the Internet bubble burst and got laid off. Played with so many others like Linux, BSD, Solaris, BeOS, etc as well but always at end the day just wanted my Windows and get stuff done. I was known as the "PC Guy" in my circles.
Where Microsoft is now and what Windows 11 has slowly become, I have really started to think their Windows division is just a nuisance for them and they don't care. Every month I seem to be reading another anti-user friendly decision and ANOTHER switch I have to find to turn off at every install or visiting family. A default install of Windows 11 is an assault of Constant locked-down install, forced account adding or worse grabbing it from Edge or where it can, ad-based data slurp with so much stuff running in the background and other enshittification of the OS. WHAT IS GOING ON??
Even the Pro version MEANT for business and domain PC's has Xbox stuff on it and game bar running by default, now CoPilot on as well by default, screen snapshots. Instead of a nice light install for business and hardcore users that you then ADD to to make your desired setup, it is the opposite of having it all installed and you spend an hour removing everything.
I am ready to jump ship for first time in my life.
I have a 15yo son who plays sports and for the past 5 years, homeschooling has been a way to "red-shirt" kids - hold them back a year or two then re-entering them into public schools into grades behind their age. Literally purposely holding back their kids so they can be older as freshman.
A major problem with boys because of puberty, size etc around this age. The difference between a 14yo and a 16yo, or 16/18yo can be quite large at times. My son had a freshman on his team last year that could drive and had a mustache playing vs these tiny incoming freshman, it was so comical. He was 16 1/2 as a freshman. And the parents were on the sideline acting like their kid was the next coming of Aaron Judge. It REALLY hurts the rest of us playing the rules and taking education seriously when our kids are trying to make a team.
I've known several of these parents and they all are the same. They haphazardly put them into the bare min online courses, still go to work all day and stick them in front of computers to expect them to self teach for a few years. The moms would be stay-home types that didn't seem much educated themselves. The kids are spoiled entitled types who think they are top athletes already and would jokingly be calling my son at 11a telling him they are done already for the day and headed to the gym and playing Fortnite.
Now this is just MY circle, I am not saying there aren't very serious and capable parents out there really homeschooling and giving their kids a better education than public school, but I haven't met any in maybe roughly 10 I know. Most of them seemed to also be MAGA types poo-pooing public education and how they are brainwashing kids. It is really despicable that this is most likely happening ALL across America.
Education and manipulation aside, I would also think this isn't good the kids mental and social health as well. They already are on devices doom-scrolling enough nowadays, do we really want them hermits too now?
I applaud anyone putting in huge effort to home school a kid properly and with true care and teaching. But the image of them at a desk being taught by a real smart/educated parent following a true curriculum all day and on a schedule I imagine is ultra rare. And we are going to pay a price for this in the long run. Or not, GPT will just help them along to properly write that email for them when they are adults in a corporate world.
Wired did a follow up article today in relation to this news: https://www.wired.com/story/how-hacked-card-shufflers-allege...
The video from 2023 explaining it all and demonstrating it is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ20ilE5DtA
The comforting part (unless you consider the immense privacy issues) is, as you mention, how tied the auto is to Tesla and my account. I could have the car disabled and tracked probably less than 10 minutes of discovering it was taken. I could also lock/erase my stolen phone remotely which would then disable driving the car again once it was put into park for the first time.
https://stonemaiergames.com/we-are-suing-the-president/ https://www.cmon.com/press/an-update-on-our-internal-teams-a... https://www.greaterthangames.com/blogs/news/greater-than-gam...
Funny enough we had a party day after Thanksgiving and I had a typing competition for friends and family using 10fastfingers. First place I awarded a $10 Starbucks gift card. Surprisingly the majority were faster than I thought and I am not that much faster overall despite being into computers since I was 9.
The fastest that night was a 22 year old ex-gamer now in IT that scored 91 WPM. Slowest we saw was 8 WPM for a 9 year old and some seniors also were under 10 WPM. The majority fell in 40-65 range and these were mostly career corporate types and a few public school officials. The surprises for me were my 14yo son who got 77 WPM and a 25yo female nurse that got 71wpm.
My wife's 36yo cousin wasn't there for the party but I have seen him several times coast at 110WPM and his highest I've seen is 132WPM.
I am currently shopping for alternatives and would gladly trade mine in even at a small loss. I wasn't a fan of his before, really, but didn't pay much to it, his company produces a product I drive.
My M3 is the most buggy car I ever owned and has had warranty service three times in that year. Little stuff like seat-belt sensor warning, window switch and foam-dislodging in one of the tires causing major shaking at speed. Service department has been friendly as they come out to my house for two of them, so that is nice. They also quickly gave me a loaner for the tire issue without even prying. The road noise is also horrible on the car. Way worse than even my Mazda6 I had before it. Whistles in the driver window area on the highway. Lose pillar trim.
But I'm not finding much STILL that competes with Tesla in the USA really. In price or looks as an EV. I still love the way it drives/handles and would have a difficult time leaving EV back to ICE at this point. I haven't had to change oil, stop for gas, check fluids, etc.
Five years now.
https://eletric-vehicles.com/lucid/saudi-pif-now-controls-64...
No browser is safe from capitalistic rot at this point.
Anyway, I remember very clearly how serious his betting was and how he solely looked to find any edges he could. It wasn't about handicapping a game, he was a line sharp. Remember this was a time where Internet was still dial-up and wagering off-shore was still very early days. Many times he would be calling old-fashioned bookmakers back home. He was paying for a service called Don Best and at the time it was pretty expensive but was able to get line-moves almost in real time. He was "Chasing Steam" as you called it. Watch for big line moves in Best and place bets where he could that haven't caught it yet. He was pretty successful and quit his full time job while buying a house, cars, etc. Not flashy but just a living.
Eventually, as all things gambling, it started to turn bad for him. He was getting accounts suspended and getting listed as a sharp. He would call customer support playing dumb and I remember one guy at an offshore book on speaker-phone flat out told him basically no longer want his business as every time he places a bet with them the lines were moving shortly after in his favor and wanted to know what he was using.
I remember his downfall being pretty fast after that. It started with just getting blacklisted at some and the few reputable offshore books left wouldn't keep him long when they discovered he was a steam chaser. He tried changing phone numbers and fake ID's and they caught onto that. Eventually any book that did take his action he started to hear Don Best line moves in the background on the phone and they would tell him to "hold on something is happening" then just give him the new adjusted line. The edge was gone and he started to bet with shadier old-school bookies that didn't have the technology, but they just didn't pay him anyway.
He started to see the writing on the wall and the bill pressures started to effect him as he started to just push into trying to handicap and pick winners based on gut and dabble into some line making software. At one point he was in for a very large sum after a bad Sunday, something like $70k he owed. He struggled for a good 5 years after that, divorced and back to a 9-5. Last I seen him was right before Covid and he was out of that world not having placed a bet in a long while he said and was now into options trading.
I doubt betting line moves is even a thing anymore. Information just moves so fast now and books have evolved way beyond. Plus with how big sports wagering in in the US, lines probably only move now because of large public betting waves or injuries.
At one point Sears was THE place to shop for everything from back-to-school clothes, appliances and Christmas. In the early 2000's I would have thought you were either a giant fool, or a time-traveler, had you tried to tell me by 2024 Intel would be de-listed from the Dow and talk of taxpayer bailout or bankruptcy. They had a monopoly on PC/Servers. As crazy as it currently may sound but one day we could be discussing the downfall of Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
Does anyone know of good books about the business-cycle and life/death of companies?
The third one I found a very easy method and now am currently using Control-D DNS with free ad/tracker/malware blocking over the modern DoQ protocol. Got it running in less than 30 minutes. ControlD latency appears as fast as any free DNS I've tried (Quad9, OpenDNS for years, etc), including my own ISP, so I am lucky location-wise.
I'll send you all my notes and guidance if want. Email me at my throwaway xyzx
@
duck.com
The glass one is most likely going on my Christmas list (even though that is sort of expensive for what it is)