ESU is inherently bullshit. So they’re going to make security upgrades for the OS millions of people are using, but you only get them if you pay? Even though they’re committing dev time to make and deploy them, the SECURITY upgrades to the OS yhat millions have already paid for?

What a grift. Either you’re paying ESU and there’s no dev work (free moneyyy!) or it’s literally a ‘protection fee’ for dev work they’re doing anyway (nyeehhh nice PC ye got there, be a shame if we extorted you for it)

That’s just the money their making itself. When it comes down to what are we subscribing for, it keeps being ads again. They keep deciding that subscriptions make money by removing ads.

Like, why not subscriptions that actually add something gainful? Subscribe to stream your games to any TV, subscribe to get dog food delivered to your house monthly, subscribe to Socks of the Month Club. Those things exist in other industries, but tech?? Nope, it’s just ads, or subscribe to less ads.

Are techbros so bland that they really can’t think of literally any fucking way to make money that isn’t just ‘ads’?

Thank you, I’m not American but MS has so many ‘features’ that have been destroying my sanity, I will look into this tool when I’m back at my desktop 👍

If you’re in the US,

Is it US specific, or do you just mean if you’re not in the EU?

If the people you thought you were close to have ghosted you and are supporting her instead, consider that she may not be honest about the reasons you are divorced and has convinced them she is the sole victim.

It sounds horrible, and one would hope a true friend would ask for your story first. But it’s pretty common to readily believe the women are the victims in unhealthy relationships, especially of men.

We dont want to judge, dismiss or blame victims, so we readily believe people when they claim to be one. This is especially true of women.

Isn’t the MO for venture capitalists to run businesses into the ground, make them owe debt to themselves, cannibalise businesses from the inside and then run away with a profit while they bankrupt?

Not surprising to make a decision that kills a business because the entire point is to kill the golden goose

If it’s a video. I fcuking hate when I’m trying to find a tutorial, or recipe, or some other help and the results are people recording their screens while they dick around with zero subtitles or chapter headings.

I can scan text for the relevant part within seconds. I’m not interested in two minutes of WHATS UP LADIES AND GENTS, missing the crucial step because it looks so similar to the irrelevant steps either side, lack of subtitles for my poor hearing, or hard to see on my tiny phone screen etc.

Videos are easy tutorials/references to prepare because you have all these channels of information you can use simultaneously. They are the hardest medium to find specific information in because they use so many channels of information.

I think that videos are enjoyable to consume, but they’re not good at passing on information, especially if the recipient is resistant already (because you’re asking them to do extra work to support your point).

Yes. It would be necessary to live a modern life, given almost everything we use/eat comes from some unethical source. We abstain from the things that are important to us, according to our values. Lyrically if a song does not itself promote [terrible thing] then the music can be separated from an artist that does.

However if it is important to you that your listening does not generate income for those people, don’t listen to their music in apps (eg Spotify, who pays based on plays), nor on their official YT channels (which are likely monetised).

Also, be mindful that playing/listening to it around others is a form of ‘conspicuous consumption’, one of many ways our actions become ‘Word of Mouth’ advertising. This may lead others to believe you support the artists specifically, and depending on their values, they may be derisive or hostile. (Or, they agree with [terrible thing] and believe you are alike.)

Dual-weilding plushies

Oh no, the mines will be so bad for my authentic supple human skin, and my favourite mammilian activity of breathing air

Ahh, just normal body variance. Guess I’ve been brainwashed into expecting pitcher’s mitts lmao

I like em dashes. I learned the alt code for en and em dashes just so I could use them easily on a computer. There is a difference between a hypen and an en dash, and a double-hyphen is but a simulacrum of the em dash!

• Hyphen is just for double-barrelled words
• An en dash is useful – at least sometimes – for inserting side thoughts
• ah boy I sure hope an em dash doesn’t interrupt m—

But let’s be real, I type kinda formally, like an AI, sooo

This is absolutely a meaningless tangent but why do his hands look so small in this photo. I thought he was holding them tiny novelty hands at first.

Is this a focal length illusion? Am I just used to photos with a short focal distance and this is a zoomed shot or something?

Seems obvious to me that if you deport a lit of people, there are less people to deport. That’ll be a reason why so many justifications for deporting additional citizens.

Perhaps it’s likely that less people are entering the country now than were a year ago, what with the conditions there and all.

Cash is expensive for stores to manage, count, and sort. That’s the actual reason they want it gone, not tracking. Sure, we’re being tracked, but that’s not the point. Thanks to our phones, our personal lives have already been completely disseminated.

Cashless is about making things easier for businesses that struggle with handling cash. A cashless society acts like consuming goods from those businesses is the only reason money exists, and that’s wrong.

Cards themselves have been very useful. They’re much lighter and harder to steal money than carrying hundreds in cash in your pockets.

It’s cashless that is a concern, not the existence of cards.

What happens when an abused person has to escape a partner/parent who controls all the money? Where do they go, what food and board are they getting?

How do small traders set up garage sales and marketer stands, especially if they don’t want to give cuts of their money to corporate giants Eftpos and Visa?

How do those with impulsively/memory issues (such as ADHD, dementia, and teenagers) manage the abstraction of their money, leading them to accidentally overspending/overdrafts?

How do you spot a stranger in need a bus fare home?

How do we support the street artists and buskers?

…I don’t like the idea of cashless. My country already uses eftpos and visa as the norm (so ofc we all pay those overseas companies their fees). But while wide accepting of the card is good and useful, true cashless has issues of usability. It’s not just ‘something something government tracking spending’.

Vulnerable people fall through the gaps, and it means people make a lot more consumer transactions and a lot fewer personal ones.

And yet, those who want easy access to guns argue its to protect themselves from tyrannical power. They are also not doing that. Perhaps, in part, because the power disparity between military, police, and a civilian gun owner makes personal guns little more than display pieces.

Gun ownership is a hobby. Most of the dialogue around them is theater. Those who enjoy guns own far more than is needed for ‘defense’, because it’s enjoying ownership that they’re actually defending.

Phone proximity is used, so if your phone is in proximity to his, the algorythm can note a relationship between his interests and yours- or even the interests of people who also interact with him.

It’s possible his behaviour is learned from a narcissistic parent, or that enough of his customers are involved in learning about narcissism. OR you also mightve been at a Cafe near a clinic for long enough your phone tried to ping the office wifi, and you just noticed it because of your interactions with him.

Google also uses your relationships, so maybe a person you know is interested, or you watched a video about (blank) and a lot of those viewers also watched narcissism videos. Your brain is asking the connection to the contractor because it’s an intuitive logical leap.

Phones spy on us in a dozen different ways, mostly pattern recognition. They track location without GPS (by recording wifi pings), and track interests without the microphone. So they can claim they’re not tracking those specific things while still gathering scary amounts of data.