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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: October 18th, 2023

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  • Maybe it isn’t discussed because ARs are also the most common rifle in the U.S., and for at least 10 years now, the cheapest non-22LR. It’s hard to know how much of a role the psychological factors actually play when “easy to obtain” is a significant one of them.

    “Easy to obtain” is also the part that is easy for legislation to address, while vaguely defined and hard to measure “psychological effects” requires significant effort just to understand, let alone implement the required social safety nets and induce cultural change to address the root causes.


  • My favorite is when it actually says “out for delivery” on the day it’s supposed to arrive, never shows up, then changes to “could not be delivered” after not showing up.

    I called FedEx last time this happened because the delivery was a firearm, and I needed to know what’s happened. The person said it was loaded on a truck that morning, which triggered the status change to “out for delivery”, but they didn’t actually have anyone scheduled to drive the truck that day so it never even left the lot. It did arrive the next day, but I learned to not even trust “out for delivery” from them.

    Awesome system, guys.


  • i just don’t know what keeps these guys in business.

    I’ve never heard of this company in the US, but I assume they have super cheap rates. That means they will continue to be the first choice of shippers that are covering shipping costs. This is especially true for high-volume businesses that move so much product it’s cheaper to replace a couple of lost packages than to pay a better shipping company for every one.




  • I think that’s because in the first case, the amp modeller is only replacing a piece of hardware or software they already have. It doesn’t do anything particularly “intelligent” from the perspective of the user, so I don’t think using “AI” in the marketing campaign would be very effective. LLMs and photo generators have made such a big splash in the popular consciousness that people associate AI with generative processes, and other applications leave them asking, “where’s the intelligent part?”

    In the second case, it’s replacing the human. The generative behaviors match people’s expectations while record label and streaming company MBAs cream their pants at the thought of being able to pay artists even less.





  • Sure, sometimes people leave ads open after the item is no longer available. But only asking if it’s available is still an obnoxious waste of time. The first message from a potential buyer should have something useful in it. Further contact info, meetup availability, clarifying questions, an offer if the price isn’t firm, etc.

    Maybe lead with, “If this is still available, blah blah blah” if it makes the buyer feel better. The buyer probably has all that in mind when they decide to contact the seller anyway, so they can take 30 seconds to include it in the first message and actually get the process moving instead of holding it up for a one-word reply from the seller.

    If you buy enough items that stale ads are actually taking up a meaningful amount of your time, then copy-paste as needed.







  • I think it’s because people think giving pure cash is thoughtless and basic.

    This idea needs to die. I’d rather have $10 cash that I can stash away to save up for something that I actually want than a $25 gift card that locks me in to a single store.

    I’m at a stage in my life where I can generally buy little things when I want to. But my wife and I don’t make enough to regularly drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on non-essentials, and my other family members can’t do more than $25 or maybe $50 for birthdays or Christmas.

    It took me years to convince my parents and wife to just give me cash. When I finally did, it enabled me to save up for a $1k guitar over several years.

    I’d much rather have one awesome gift every 5 years than a steady stream of $35 gift certificates to various stores and restaurants.

    Not giving someone what they’re actually asking for is far less thoughtful than cash.



  • Bullshit. Every academic honesty policy I’ve seen says, in short, to do your own work, including this school’s:

    Hingham Public Schools, however, claims that its student handbook prohibited the use of “unauthorized technology” and “unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own work.”

    If the student tries to pass off AI writing as his own, it definitely falls under that second clause. Does it really need an exhaustive list of all the places/people/technologies to not copy from?