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mctoasterson

@ mctoasterson @reddthat.com

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0
Comments
480
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Following months of trading insults, Trump offers Zohran Mamdani nothing but praise after their first meeting

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  • It's triangulation.

    The plans Mamdani campaigned on are going to cost billions, and will require state and federal support to have any chance of success. He said as much himself and I imagine that's why he agreed to the meeting.

    Hochul supported him verbally and now Trump has too (words are free).

    From Trump's perspective, if he had done a presser where he immediately shits on Mamdani to his face, and vows to oppose him with the entire Federal apparatus, then that adds fuel for more people to potentially support Mamdani-like figures if for no other reason than opposition to Trump. It also gives Mamdani an easy target to blame if his policies ultimately fail in NYC.

    In contrast, Trump comes out and says "NYC is great, it's gonna be great under his leadership, he can do it" etc. then later when things don't go so well in New York (which Trump is betting on) then it's easier for Trump to say Mamdani owns the failures.

    Its the same thing as building up a debate opponent prior to the event and then it becomes easier to suggest they underperformed expectations.

  • Driving an E.V. Across North Dakota? Thank the Standing Rock Tribe. | A tribally owned network of chargers will soon be complete, connecting reservations and bridging a gap in the Midwest.

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  • I think they're going to be especially challenged due to the extreme cold temperatures for 4-6 months of the year. Ranges will be reduced pretty significantly during low temperatures, making charger spacing and availability important.

  • Microsoft detail 'agentic AI' plan for Windows 11, immediately admit it might install malware on your PC

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  • Even assuming the OS-integrated AI is 100% non-nefarious in what it is doing at a given moment, the fact that its a proprietary blackbox is still a problem for me.

    Mega corp using my electricity and CPU cycles to perform "???" computational task with no transparency to the actual owner of the hardware and the individual paying the power bill. Fuck that.

  • Peter Thiel dumps entire Nvidia stake, slashes Tesla holdings amid bubble fears

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  • Microsoft, Oracle, Nvidia, AMD, etc. all inking new partnerships to generate a headline and valuation increase. Meanwhile AI companies PE ratios creep upward.

    The top few companies can only helicopter cash at eachother for so long before the bubble eventually busts. That's not new income being generated, it's more akin to check-kiting in a public trading context.

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    Europe is facing its biggest war since World War 2. In 2015, it was predicted by Garry Kasparov

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  • I believe Romney also called Russia out as a key geopolitical foe in a debate and Obama quipped something about the 1980s calling and wanting their foreign policy back. That aged like milk.

  • Most, if not all car companies collect and profile your data, how can I improve my privacy when buying a modern car?

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  • On the technological side of things, you're pretty much fucked no matter what. Virtually all car companies now have proprietary app integrations, partnerships with Google and Apple, and other anti-privacy features.

    Some practical things you can do-

    Opt out of as much data collection and sharing as you can. Read the manual and menu dive to disable optional features you don't need.

    If you finance or lease from the dealer, there are likely additional data disclosures and third party sharing that you can opt out of. Read all the paperwork when you sign your purchase or lease documents. In my case I had to literally fill out and mail something in (they don't want it to be easy to opt-out because they make money from sharing the data with third parties).

  • Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They're Doing

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  • I think we need some kind of limiting principle applied to restrict what individual jurisdictions can do to fuck up national or global systems.

    Overzealous lawmakers in Michigan or Wisconsin shouldn't be able to force global companies to operate their websites differently.

    California shouldn't be able to force Glock to discontinue and re-tool its entire product line, etc.

  • Microsoft confirms Windows 11 is about to change massively, gets enormous backlash - Neowin

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  • I have some aging hardware (approaching 10 year old desktop PC) and I switched to Linux. I have to still use Windows at work but none of my personal computers are Windows anymore.

    Microsoft can go kick rocks.

  • Air Tag Alternative

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  • I mean, the bug and the feature of an Apple Airtag is the ubiquity of their devices and their ability to backchannel BLE over cellular networks using millions of end user devices with their pseudoconsent.

    Just by the nature of how that expansive network functions, there is no similar alternative that you can control the privacy of.

    The alternative would be a GPS transponder intended for vehicles, such as LoJack, or something similar. They are going to have power and subscription requirements, usually cost $1000 for the hardware etc. And in that scenario you still have to "trust" the vendor to a degree.

  • Trump Administration Eyes 50-Year Mortgage Plan Amid Housing Crisis — But Not Everyone's on Board

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  • The law of unintended consequences says that this will just result in more douchebags buying $3 mil houses because they can "afford the payments" and plan on dying before they ever fully pay it off.

  • Whatever happened to pickup artists? Did they evolve into alpha males or ascend to a higher plane?

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  • In the early 2000s there was seemingly infinite television studio budget to pick a random subculture or even individual sociopaths, and just give them a reality show. I just assumed as broadcast and cable viewership declined, these types of grifters also went away or were forced to get real jobs.

  • Louvre jewel heist by petty criminals, not organised professionals, says Paris prosecutor

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  • Sure, but in my view a bunch of dudes standing around with rifles is enough of a visual deterrent that it should never escalate to the point of "active robbery".

  • Louvre jewel heist by petty criminals, not organised professionals, says Paris prosecutor

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  • What's really odd is that France already pays Gendarmerie to stand around in public places, protect cultural assets etc.

    If even one dude was standing in the corner of the gallery with a rifle slung up that day, that would likely have deterred the entire theft.

  • Immich v2.2.0 adds OCR

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  • Finally it will be easier to search my vast catalog of memes.

  • Zenni’s Anti-Facial Recognition Glasses are Eyewear for Our Paranoid Age

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  • I like the idea, but don't just buy these assuming you're good to go, and then walk around with a normie iPhone or Android device that phones home constantly with your precise location and device ID, SIM information etc.

    There is always at least some error rate and deniability in probabilistic matching by something like facial recognition. There is a lot less deniability of your specific device ID, tied to your real identity (thanks to KYC laws), being in X location at Y time.

  • Tech left teens fighting over scraps, and now it wants those too

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  • (From a US perspective)

    I'd say most teens work jobs in order to have spending money for outings with friends, any maybe to save for a car or something. Maybe sock away a bit of money for college. Their real basic living expenses (shelter, food, clothes, school fees) are covered by their parents.

    So menial fast food, retail, and service industry jobs going away does impact their ability to earn some cash and learn responsibilities in a relatively low risk way. These jobs disappearing isn't necessarily a bad thing, if reasonable alternatives emerge that accomplish the same thing.

    It can go one of two ways. Maybe teens and students will get entrepreneurial and start their own small businesses. I know some high school kids down the street who started a lawn care business when they were ~12, and they saved so much money throughout their teen years that they both own their own pickup trucks outright, they now have employees, and they just continued growing their business instead of going to college. They are actually providing a service to the economy that people want and need.

    The other way it can go is that all traditionally teen jobs go away and there becomes a whole generation of teens who exist solely on the patronage of their parents, which combined with the "keeping up" mentality prevalent in some areas, results in entitled little bitches. There are many kids who would be happy not to work while still expecting to be handed the keys to a late model car, and the newest iPhone. And let's not forget the multithousand dollar production surrounding the "average" prom date experience or spring break trip. Or worse, these trends further exacerbate the rift between the haves and the have nots because naturally not everyone's parents are going to be able to afford all this shit.

    More than likely we will always need some retail workers, ice cream scoopers, golf caddys, recreation league baseball umpires, and pool lifeguards. Not all first jobs need to be literally McDonalds. I would like more young people to innovate and offer new products and services people actually need and want, because it is better for society as a whole. Otherwise, in 10 years we will look up and find 90% of the US economy is AI, shitcoin speculation, vape and CBD shops, and OnlyFans.

  • Open source smart watches

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  • I'm currently using the Nothing CMF Pro 2.

    You configure it with the proprietary app to get the initial paring key, then you can switch to Gadgetbridge and disable or even remove the Nothing app.

    The Good: cheap device cost, nice UI elements, machined aluminum bezel looks premium. Push notifications and most features work.

    The Bad: semi-annoying workaround to get it set up initially, not all features work, not using the proprietary app disables using the Nothing watch face library so you're stuck choosing from the 5 or 6 default designs that come with the watch.

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    Where can I buy used computers, and are they on a discount now because of Windows 10 end of life?

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  • I would say this and also if you live in almost any medium sized place in the US, also try the local community college. You may have to bid on bulk lots but they sometimes sell individual PC hardware too. You may have to show up on a certain day that is usually advertised months in advance, online or on physical signage on campus. You might as well participate, since your county and local taxes likely subsidize the institution to begin with.

  • As Microsoft Forces Users to Ditch Windows 10, It Announces That It’s Also Turning Windows 11 into an AI-Controlled Monstrosity

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  • I didn't "have to" but, a few reasons...

    1. Swapping the drive created a pretty easy rollback path that was just "put original drive back"
    2. The drive was ~10 years old, and was in the range of recommended replacement for an SSD with the amount of TBW and age it had.
    3. Original drive was kinda small and a new larger drive was available for not very much money.