Radiant_sir_radiant @ Radiant_sir_radiant @beehaw.org

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2 yr. ago

As a European, this article has explained a lot of things about US car culture to me that never made any sense... including the Cybertruck. The author has a lovely way of taking you by the hand and leading you through the history of America's cars not as evolving pieces of technology, but as an expression of their respective time's culture.

Musk’s emphasis that the Cybertruck is an “armored personnel carrier from the future” is likely driven by his belief that “the apocalypse could come along at any moment.”

[The Cybertruck] is the perfect vehicle for a culture where everyone is afraid of their neighbor. Musk’s bulletproof wedge-shaped machine is the physical manifestation of America’s fear, and whether it is good or bad, we deserve it.

I can't imagine the other choice could be worse

It probably depends on what you want to achieve. At the moment it's probably to avoid hyperinflation, another national bankruptcy and poverty levels climbing to new all-time highs. Massa (the other guy) is known for trying to counter the effects of the current massive inflation by printing more money for government subsidies (let that sink in for a moment), so one could argue that whatever Milei actually does, it can't be worse than that.

His (to put it mildly) over-the-top rhetoric, homophobia/misogyny and the suggestions to sell your organs to make ends meet etc. are different beasts altogether, but I can't blame the voters for ranking having food on the table higher than strengthening LGBTQ+ rights. I'm grateful I don't have to make that choice in my own country.

Probably a lot of both, though the last government Fernandez/Kirchner was a special treat, considering especially the Kirchner clan's history of economic failure and record-breaking number of corruption charges. But during the 2019 elections Kirchner promised to have learned her lesson and do better this time, which appears to have convinced a majority of voters. 🤷‍♂️

I think that's a bit oversimplified. Milei's no doubt a knob and there's a good chance he'll screw up, but the alternative would have been the former minister of economy doing four years of the same, which would have been a 100% chance of screwing up. So before you make any more oversimplified statements, consider the alternative to Milei.

Milei has inherited a country on the brink of economic collapse and hyperinflation, caused by a government that has financed its overspending by just printing more money for decades, and borrowing whatever foreign currency it could. This is obviously not sustainable.
\ He wants to link the peso to the dollar (so the government can't print more money at will anymore - not to mention the fact that many transactions are already half-legally done in dollars anyway) and do away with some of the many regulations that the Peronists have been promising for decades will help the economy, but which most experts agree have unsurprisingly crippled it further, and in many cases facilitated corruption.
\ His opponent's political program can be summed up as "introduce more subsidies".
\ Which one makes more sense to you?

Same here. Milei as an experiment could go either way, but staying the course would have led to certain disaster... and to be frank, the country as a whole doesn't have a lot to lose at this point anyway.

You're welcome - glad to have been of service. 🙃

I admire your pragmatism. It's a shame it didn't work out, but at the very least it looks like it's somehow led you to your second and better match, so there's that!

Out of nothing more than personal curiosity, where in Germany did you live?

I still have Lieder, die Die Welt Nicht Braucht, by Die Doofen

Aah, I remember owning that one. Personally I've filed it under "those were the 90's and it seemed like a good idea at the time".

Android's notifications are actually a great concept for their simplicity - every app with notifications is one icon in the status bar - that's being somewhat abused by a feature added in later versions of Android: background activities have been increasingly limited with every major Android version to save battery, except for apps with active notifications. Hence the seemingly unnecessary notifications by apps that use them just to stay alive.

Plus the sheer number of apps that want your attention keeps increasing.

As a workaround you can ask Android not to show certain types of notifications from certain apps (except for some system apps). Swipe the notification slightly left or long-press it, and there should be a cog icon or button that takes you to the available options for the respective app. Or depending on brand and model of your phone, go to Settings and search for "notifications" for additional options.

No specific suggestions, but sort of a half-anti-recommendation:

I used to own a Tolino Vision 2. It was a great device for its purpose and time - lightweight, sturdy, very pleasant e-ink screen and backlight, easy to use and didn't mind a little sand or water. Sadly I lost it.
\ The new models I could try out look even nicer, but they all share one common problem: half of the home screen is an online book shop that can't be changed or hidden. That was reason enough for me not to buy another one.
\ If you don't mind that and Tolino devices are available where you live, they may be worth a try. Otherwise I recommend you steer clear of them.

As for the DRM issue, de-DRMing with Calibre for some reason didn't work for me (quite possibly a wetware problem), so I ended up buying ePubor Ultimate, which works very well and can do a lot of things but isn't free.

The question is, why would somebody be munching on the foot of their sub? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

What are they not telling us?

It's really just a well-marketed workaround for a design flaw that gave some phones a unibrow.

I really like the "for as long as it works" part.
\ Was that a religious ceremony of some kind or 'just' a civil wedding?

The song I picked for my second wedding was not a processional per se, but it was Nicht doof (loosely translated "Not Stupid") by German band JBO. The male singer sings about how he enjoys somebody's company because of a list of bad traits she doesn't have: she's not ugly, she's not annoying, her farts don't smell worse than his, she's not an idiot etc. The melody is lovely though. The song was in line with the wedding theme, if you can call it that - the main event was a bad taste party at a swinger club, part of which was SO's idea, which convinced me that she's the one.

I didn't even know about Element X.
\ Personally I use Threema (one-time app fee) and Signal (effectively donationware).

There's of course also WhatsApp, Telegram, SnapChat, (Facebook) Messenger, Instagram, ... if the size of the user base is more important to you than privacy.
\ All of these encourage you to use them, as opposed to iMessage that will actively try to keep you away from it unless you buy the right kind of hardware. So why the hassle?

I'm going to have to side with Apple here (and I think I just threw up a bit in my mouth). iMessage is a service that they provide, and they're well within their rights to restrict access to paying customers. iPhone users pay for it when they buy their latest shiny object; users of other brand devices don't.

If you really want iMessage that desperately, buy an iPhone. That's not worth it to you? That's fine, but you can't have it both ways.

At this point at the latest it would be much easier (not to mention more reliable) to get your iPhone-owning friends or family to use another messenger that's not restricted to one single manufacturer. There are several apps that offer more features and more privacy than iMessage and are officially supported (not relying on unofficial hacks) on every modern smartphone.

This is the most likely answer. Leading vocals (and instruments) are normally centered, i.e. the same level on both channels, while background instruments are louder on one channel.
\ With the ground wire gone, you don't have a stereo signal left-ground / right-ground anymore, but a mono signal left-right, i.e. you only hear the difference between the two channels. That cancels out any centered vocals and instruments.
\ The volume will also likely be much lower, as the signal has to travel through twice the resistance (two speakers) at probably roughly the same voltage.

This actually used to be a nice trick to get a pseudo-instrumental version of any song - just subtract the channels from each other. You'll get a mono version of the song with only the background music. Not sure how it's done today, there's probably a better solution now.

I don't know. It's commonly accepted that their lyrics have a bit of an anti-estabishment sentiment, but statements such as "believin' all the lies that they're tellin' ya / buyin' all the products that they're sellin' ya", or even "fuck you I won't do what you tell me" (stated by the machine) can just as easily applied to most situations where a printer is involved. Maybe there's somehing to it?

Maybe they actually meant "fail fast" because it's cheaper to build? It would certainly explain a lot.

Not quite sure myself if I'm kidding or not.

Did I miss the part where they differentiate between minor issues such as paint problems or YouTube crashing on the middle screen, and actual breakdowns where the car doesn't move when it should? According to the original article, they've included reliability issues such as drivetrain problems, irregular paint and broken trim in their ranking.

Losing in-car entertainment or comfort functions is still undesirable, but if given the choice I'd rather have a car that runs without music than a stationary car that lets me stream movies until roadside assistance arrives.
\ And concerning the former, the infotainment systems in most ICE cars are just as cutting-edge as those in BEVs. I would expect differences in quality/reliability between different manufacturers, but not within the same brand and model family where the only relevant difference is the engine.

(Edited for clarification.)

Yes, but the ozone is supposed to just get the smell out. Hopefully no one thinks it'd be fun to smoke next to an ozone generator.