If you can afford to spend 10 bucks a month for a search engine, Kagi is pretty sleek. No ads, you can block/prioritize websites, good bangs, convinient CSS field for easy modding.
It does AI stuff too, but it's optional as the other non-standard search output fields.
I wonder if it creates more inhouse sysadmin jobs? When you buy a license from M$ you also get tech support. But if you have problems with open source, you gotta go get a computer person
If we operate on anecdotal rules, I am looking for reasonable solutions and would be happy with this one. If I can filter out stuff I actively dislike, I can live with other people enjoying it behind my back.
Intelligence is multidimensional. Musk is obviously great at business, the kind where you stretch the limits of what is allowed to grow your empire, and (I agree) he knows what he's building and capable of recognizing where he should lead the product next.
His political acumen is gotta be dogshit, with an unlimited money all he managed to do is to destroy the "realworld ironman" image he spent a decade crafting. He has no rizz, especially compared to Trump who is loved by half of the world (and hated by the other).
Also, critically for him IMO, he has no self-reflection. With all that power gassing your ego up, it is crucial to be able to step back and see that you're just a dumb ape as the rest of us. Recognize things you're bad at and find good people to field for you, instead of sycophants whispering "it's the kids who are wrong"
This isn't really up to China, NK won't listen because it's not really up to them either. Most authoritarians would love to scale the repression down, but you can only do it while political and economic climate is right (without losing your power and your head)
If you signal to your citizens that they can speak more freely, the first thing out of their mouths will be Hey why did you do that fucked up thing?
Thus, you can "loosen the bolts" only when you are safe in your position of power and don't mind a few concessions to the masses. "Yes we overstepped a few lines, but it was all the fault of this one bad man and also look at all this bread we have now!"
This is why authoritarian countries usually have "seasons".
"Hello sorry for calling you, can you repair a part of an electric oven? It looks like a thingy with a couple springs. No I can't send you a photo on whatsapp, do you mind quickly installing signal? No? What about email? You're going to respond in 3-5 business day? Yeah sure I can survive that long on raw potatoes"
If you can afford existing without big tech, I'm honestly jealous. I'm willing to go quite far for my principles (like I have a phone with graphene) but at a certain point life just gets too difficult. I'm barely above water on my adult-ing as it is 🤷♀️
The problem is not that I'm not using signal (I am), its that I also have to use telegram and\or whatsapp if I want to contact anyone without sending them an sms, or a pigeon.
So all this bloat still affects me, whether I "just use signal" or not.
If you can afford to spend 10 bucks a month for a search engine, Kagi is pretty sleek. No ads, you can block/prioritize websites, good bangs, convinient CSS field for easy modding.
It does AI stuff too, but it's optional as the other non-standard search output fields.