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XeroxCool

@ XeroxCool @lemmy.world

Posts
2
Comments
1230
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest Unwittingly Reveal the Severity of the U.S. Surveillance State

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  • My dad rips his name out of junk mail and shreds it. He doesn't want his name tied to his address, which is ironic in the first place, given that he's already getting junk mail. He's been worried about hiding his identity, address, cars, etc from some unknown surveillance entity based around Red Scare beliefs. Still, a few steps short of foil hat types.

    Then he went and got cloud-based cameras. He's clueless about smartphone privacy already. He resembles his friends in his cohort. They protested "leftist government surveillance" and then showed me that they'd will invite mystery surveillance in with the slightest promise of convenience.

  • What's a piece of Media that is so underrated you must mention it?

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  • And read it, I did. I've never thought about how we can't independently describe smells. I do feel like the descriptions based on taste would count as independent, though. It less that they're dependent on taste and more that taste is very related to smell. There's certainly a lack of useful smell descriptors, still.

    But what do I know. There's a class of smells that I call "round". They're the opposite of sharp or pungent, I suppose

  • What's a piece of Media that is so underrated you must mention it?

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  • I read book #1 (Revelation Space) and am one chapter into #2 but the RS world building is dramatic and has stuck with me. I haven't read Dune and can't compare (and doubt it's comparable), but I I'd say it's comparable to the ~2021 movie where there's desolate landscapes that aren't irrelevant, technologies that are demonatrated, not explained, and converging story arcs between multiple characters and times. I find it enjoyable because for the most part, it's grounded in known physics. Near-light speeds and no wormholes. Interstellar voyages, but they're still so slow they rely on refrigerated sleep.

    The books have reviews that get more mixed as the progress but yet, people keep reading through. I'm mentioning it because there is a wiki that seems pretty detailed, though I have done much to keep it unspoiled. There's the original 00s trilogy plus a 2021 4th main book, a separate trilogy, a support book, and over a dozen smaller works from as far back as 1990 with half being short stories and half being novellas, where the author was finding his footing and filling arcs.

    Generally, the problem readers have is that the author introduces promising story arcs and dilemma solutions, only to abandon them and never mention them again. Then the endings feel rushed and anti climactic. But I'm someone who thoroughly enjoys playing Elite Dangerous, a space sim that's "a puddle a mile wide but an inch deep" because I simply love the immersion and use my imagination. Elite is to sound design what Reynolds is to world building.

  • BMW’s Newest “Innovation” is a Logo-Shaped Middle Finger to Right to Repair

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  • I'd buy 20 knockoff security bits before ever intentionally adding a flat head screw to a car

  • Trump Administration Announces That We Don’t Know Where the Sun Goes at Night | After deciding carbon dioxide does no harm, it was the logical next move.

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  • I mean, it was what, 4 years ago that a pro-oil lobby/marketing group made an actual "CO2 is life" commercial saying CO2 is good?

  • Winter Olympics in crisis as athletes deplete entire stock of 10,000 free condoms

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  • They ended up only having a little over 2 per athlete after Condoms Georg took 4,000 for balloon animals.

  • Why does most American's give shit to the French when if not for them we would have lost the revolution?

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  • Nobody is mentioning Vietnam? That's the source of boomer complaints IME. France "abandoned" the US and the industrial war machine convinced the American veterans that it was France's fault that the greatest military in the world couldn't defeat communist Vietnam.

  • Trump plans to roll back some tariffs on steel and aluminum goods, FT reports

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  • Prices won't come down. They didn't after the 2017 tariffs were reduced. The corporate excuse is that General Griftus could reinstate tariffs at the drop of a tweet and customers want stability more than a moment of savings.

  • What do you think is the worst human invention?

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  • Lead pipes are fine. Step 1: Install. Step 2: ignore one generation of aggressive residents. Step 3: never touch the pipes again

  • E-bikes are just bicycles with a motor. Therefore, e-bikes are motorcycles.

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  • Honda goldwings use the starter motor run backwards and engage to the transmission directly for a reverse gear

  • E-bikes are just bicycles with a motor. Therefore, e-bikes are motorcycles.

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  • I just wanna get this straight. OP posited that e-bikes are motorcycles. Your argument is they are not motorcycles because your local ordinances prohibit them.

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  • Americans ditch premium trims for entry-level cars as affordability takes a hit

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  • I agree that the elimination of manuals likely gives a benefit to the other 98% that chose automatic (though not necessarily passed on 1:1 of course), but I disagree on the diesel. Sure, the market preference is probably poor enough to bar it, but it's crippled by US efficiency requirements into a non-starter for nearly every make. The US has stricter NOx allowances than the EU while also measuring emissions per gallon, whereas the EU rates vehicles by mile. So yes, NOx is pretty bad, especially when concentrated in city settings, but the pollution of passenger diesel in general is overblown when looking at net emissions over distance.

  • E-bikes are just bicycles with a motor. Therefore, e-bikes are motorcycles.

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  • No, I'm talking about non-registerable electric bicycles with pedals as intended by the post. I'm not talking about highway-legal electric motorcycles like Zero. Yes, you can buy illegal vehicles. People do. The laws are not enforced in the US. So if a law bans highway-speed bicycles but no one is around to enforce it and users continually break this unenforced law, then the distinction about the safe versions of e-bikes being woefully slower than regulated motorcycles is moot. The actual e-bike user base has demonstrable overlap with highway-legal motorcycles.

  • Families in New York City demonstrated against a proposal to allow cars in a local park. A politician showed up in a car to mock them

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  • I'd bet a dollar it saves one traffic light and I'd bet a second dollar she lives within a quarter mile of the south end of the road. Opened for the relief of the most minor of conveniences.

  • E-bikes are just bicycles with a motor. Therefore, e-bikes are motorcycles.

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  • You can buy e-bikes on amazon that weigh more and travel faster than a Honda Cub, a registerable motorcycle. They're in Grom territory. This idea, at least in the US market, that they're fitting into the two classes of safe e-bike is disproven with 30 seconds of observation in any city or adjacent suburb. The only riders pedaling are the leisure riders in parks.

    Fortnine has two videos on the topic, one of the 60mph e-bike and one of converting a Cub to EV, making it faster than stock.

  • So Deep

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  • You win on drug count, but still tie on "doing all the drugs available" with multiple other mammals

  • TV remotes should have an easy-to-find (by touch) "volume toggle" button that toggles between two volume settings.

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  • Remotes need to stop being wobbly little things with slick matte surfaces. Flat bottoms, glossy grips. I'm not trying to do a full claw game simulation

  • Humans dominate the world because we can focus our attention really well. That's our big power from which all the science and engineering flow.

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  • You lose focus on boring things that don't have mental stimulation such as information or pleasure. You are distracted, therefore you are squirrel. Parrots have been recorded making tools, not just using tools. Therefore, they are human.

    Humans are the only ones writing it down, spreading the most thorough forms of communication the planet has ever seen. That's your superpower.

  • Do you have hope for Generation Alpha?

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  • Most of these names are equally vague. The year starting with 1 or 2 was pretty notable for changes in technology. For western countries, very particularly the US, pre/post 2001/09/11 is a very significant divide for public settings, regulated travel, and politics.

    Gen X's name refers to the frequent use of "X" in pop culture and was coined in a book. The Boomer's experience is being born together in a large cohort. Gen Z means they came after Y, the initial name for millenials, trailing X. Alpha just restarts the alphabet, but in Greek. They're all vague.