Some notes on piracy
From a Kindle library to music, movies/TV shows and even video games, we donāt really own our media anymore. I have exactly four physical games for my Switch and I think two or three for the PS 4. The rest, adding up to a sickening amount of money, are all digital copies that Iām not guaranteed access to forever...permalink -->
Trump Once Compared Avoiding STDs to His ‘Personal Vietnam’
“You know, if you’re young, and in this era, and if you have any guilt about not having gone to Vietnam. We have our own Vietnam. It’s called the dating game,” he said during a discussion of Trump’s well-publicized germaphobia and the ongoing AIDS epidemic.
“It’s pretty dangerous out there…It’s like Vietnam,” Trump said earlier in the interview.
I don’t envy the people working at Snopes since Trump entered politics. It must feel like writing for the Onion
I don't really like Fridays
I’m sick at home with covid and, coincidentally, this is the first weekend I’ve had off in as long as I can remember. Usually Fridays are my Monday and Wednesday and Thursday is my weekend.
I like it that way. If I have to go get a haircut, I’m in and out within 20 minutes at 2pm on a Wednesday. There’s never a crowd at the grocery store, or traffic even. Not that I’m really running errands today, all things considered.
I always hated having weekends off. There’s nothing good on TV, all the news sites I read are radio silence. Nothing ever happens on weekends.
Related: NOFX - Thank God it’s Monday
Imported all my posts from Bear Blog š I’m all in on Micro.blog now. It was too much having an entirely separate website just for longer posts.
The Scent Of UX: The Unrealized Potential Of Olfactory Design
Odors may not replace textbooks and lectures, but their addition will make remembering and recalling things significantly easier. In fact, researchers from MIT built and tested a wearable scent-emitting device that can be used for targeted memory reactivation.
This makes me uncomfortable o_O
Let this tiny bean bag chair for your lap hold your heavy handhelds
Doomscrolling isnāt going away any time soon, but thereās no reason you canāt be comfortable while doing it. Mechanismās $59 Gaming Pillow is designed to shift the weight of gadgets like handheld consoles, tablets, XL smartphones, and e-readers from your arms to your lap
Honestly this looks useful but I’m too proud to own something called a “gaming pillow” lol
When I deliberately try to think and move more slowly, things happen faster. That sounds like a contradiction, but not having to rewrite words or clean up spills makes everything move along at a more consistent pace. And I donāt swear as much.
I feel this so much! If I slow down and focus on one task at a time I make mistakes a lot less. When I start running short on time and try to rush through everything, I end up spending more time correcting stuff than if I would have just gone at a steady pace and let myself breathe. Slow and steady wins the race š¢
Really liking the redesigned Reeder TestFlight. It doesnt pull the full article like Unread or Reeder 5 on feeds that only show summaries but the support for Micro.blog and Mastodon is pretty nice
Overthinking: a self-inflicted scam
I’m bad about overthinking. Like obnoxiously bad.
I can never leave well enough alone because I start thinking about what I should have done or how I can do the same thing, only better.
Then a few days later I’ve forgotten all about whatever it was and I’m already overthinking the next thing.
It’s a self inflicted scam. We’re constantly learning new things and getting better at the things we already know through repetition. So I end up in a perpetual battle against myself that I can’t win. I guess I can’t really lose, either.
Don't meet your heroes: Mr. Beast edition
I keep getting sucked into watching the Mr. Beast drama that’s been going on for the last few weeks. Ava Tyson was called out for sending inappropriate Discord messages to minors and since then more and more former employees are coming out and revealing all sorts of greasy stuff about what goes on behind the scenes over there.
I don’t even watch their videos but it’s been so interesting to see it unfold because it’s the most beloved and successful YouTube channel to ever exist. I feel like it’s one of those “don’t meet your heroes” scenarios. If you look into the personal lives of celebrities, you might find a lot of sketchy or downright repulsive behavior.
A few pics I took at the Blink 182 show in Columbus tonight. Tom had a cold so Mark sang a lot of the songs. Travis even sang one. At one point they had this girl from the audience get on stage to sing First Date and she ended up knowing none of the words lol I felt so bad for her š¬
Replika CEO Eugenia Kuyda says itās okay if we end up marrying AI chatbots
For some people, it means marriage, it means romance, and thatās fine. Thatās just the flavor that they like. But in reality, thatās the same thing as being a friend with an AI. Itās achieving the same goals for them: itās helping them feel connected, theyāre happier, theyāre having conversations about things that are happening in their lives, about their emotions, about their feelings.
I can’t help it, this is the first thing that comes to mind:
Co-Founder of DDoSecrets Was Dark Web Drug Kingpin
A co-founder of transparency activism organization Distributed of Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) was a dark web drug kingpin who ran the successor to the infamous Silk Road marketplace and was later convicted of child abuse imagery crimes.
Whoa. I guess even transparency advocates can have their own gross secrets
Can’t remember who showed this to me but it’s pretty cool. Enter a location and it shows you the indigenous territories, treaties and language. Native Land
I’ve never liked watching literally any sporting event but I’ve been obsessing over the Olympics this year. A couple weeks every four years is the perfect amount of sports for me I guess lol
Elon Musk Slammed for Filling Orbit With Space Junk
SpaceX has launched over 6,000 Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit, and is planning to bring that total to as many as 42,000 in the upcoming years.
Regulation hasn’t caught up with commercial entities like SpaceX building out mega-constellations in an increasingly cluttered orbit, as Wired reports, making what happens to these satellites when they’re retired an unknown.
Maybe we’ll see the first Dyson sphere one day. Only instead of a megastructure around the sun, it’s just Elon’s trash enveloping the entire planet
Nova Launcher, savior of cruft-filled Android phones, is on life support
…when mobile app metrics firm Branch acquired the popular and well-regarded Nova Launcher for Android, the app’s site put up one of those self-directed FAQ posts about it. Under the question heading “What does Branch want with Nova?,” Nova founder and creator Kevin Barry started his response with, “Not to mess it up, don’t worry!”
This is pretty sad. When I still had an Android phone this was the only launcher I ever used. One of the first apps I ever paid for, all the way back on Android 4.0
The company has its roots in the very dirtiest kinds of Bitcoin mining. Its top execs (including CEO Paul Prager) were involved with Beowulf Energy LLC, a company that convinced struggling coal plant operators to keep operating in order to fuel Bitcoin mining rigs. There’s evidence that top execs at Terawulf, the “carbon neutral” Bitcoin mining op, are also running Beowulf, the coal Bitcoin mining op.
mining coal to burn for the sake of mining bitcoin is the dumbest thing I’ve heard all day