Radiant_sir_radiant @ Radiant_sir_radiant @beehaw.org

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327

Joined

2 yr. ago

I don't know about other places. Here we were swamped with volunteers offering to help the sick and elderly. It probably wouldn't last for long, but honestly, at this point I'd be just happy to wait for all the antivaxxers in the world to infect themselves and then either get well or die. How long would that take, a couple of months? After that we'd be down to normal infection levels again.

I don't know. I were filthy rich, I for one probably wouldn't mind a small (and quite likely temporary) hit on my net worth if it means I get to buy promising upstarts and some of my competitors for small change because they're now grossly underfunded/undervalued thanks to the crash.

But then again, I'm a cynic, and probably just projecting here.

Yes, but every sensible person would likely be vaccinated*. Antivaxxers often get away with being unvaccinated just because of sheer dumb luck (they don't get infected). A mass (self-)infection event could quickly rectify that situation.

• Everybody with immuno deficiency would probably have to stay indoors for a couple of months, but all things considered I'd say that'd be a small price to pay if it means millions of antivaxxers and Trump supporters get to see the error of their ways or outright kill themselves.

I for one am totally in support of all of his backers infecting themselves.

That's why I'm driving a 1994 Geo Metro.

FWIW, Android offers a one-handed mode to shrink the available screen estate so you can reach the top of the screen with your thumb. It needs to be enabled in settings once and can then be toggled by double-tapping the home button or a swiping gesture at the bottom of the screen.
\ In my experience (6.1" Samsung Galaxy S2x user with slightly above-average hands) this is a good compromise between occasionally wanting to do things one-handed on the shrunken screen, and still being able to hit the right keys on the on-screen keyboard most of the time on the regular-size screen.

Bing DuckDuckGo says the iPhone has a similar feature, though I haven't touched one in years so can't say anything about it.

Almost everyone is happy

Hey, two out of three ain't bad 😁

If The Onion or another satirical fake news outlet had run this story, the tankies and Putin-lovers would have launched a shit storm of epic proportions. This just adds to the feeling that satire has long been overtaken by reality.

Feeling rather burnt out lately. A lot of stress-inducing things beyond my control have happened this winter, and I've found myself forced to violate the self-imposed 'no more than three prescription sleeping pills a week' rule on several occasions, which is probably not a good sign.

At least things are looking up now! Most problems have been solved or at least defused, and starting today I get a whole week away from work and family.
\ The weather helps too! It's getting warmer and I love that the sound of birds singing in the morning has returned.

The downside is that the dogs feel spring too, which means they do a lot of stupid stuff and consider my increasingly angry yelling to be non-binding recommendations at best, which means lots of walks on a short leash, which in turn means even more pent-up energy for the next walk. Just when we started being grateful for having made it through our youngest daughter's puberty...

Anyways. Things are mostly looking up, so yay! I'm going to use this week to refuel and work on some absolutely useless but entertaining projects such as an analysis of our collected hotel key cards with respect to their contents and cloneability. So far I've found exactly one keycard that used some kind of encryption. Most keycards are just Mifare Classic cards that rely on the UID alone, and one just had an unprotected data block with the plaintext room number. That's basically one small step above the door locks accepting a handwritten note saying "master key". This is going to be interesting.

I'm sorry about your experience - I'm afraid for you Yanks it's usually in dubio contra reum. If you ever visit us again, it usually helps to casually mention that you're unhappy with the current government or didn't vote for Trump. Us Europeans aren't necessarily mean, just jaded, and it helps if you give us something to let us know that you in particular aren't one of the idiots.

Do people think that the more specific labels and variations are the reason for the hate?

One straight cis-male here (so very small sample size). I think there's not the one reason why people are transphobic or bigoted. I've personally witnessed bigotry that was driven by fear, an upbringing based on 'traditional' values (using that term as a swear word here) or other lack of education, peer pressure and probably a few other reasons.
\ Also, some people just are arseholes and proud of it. Short of going back in time and making their daddy show them some affection, there's just no changing them.

I think the seemingly endless amount of labels (though not necessarily their implications) exacerbate the problem in that it takes time for a society to process and accept new things. Just as society (using that term loosely) at large has finally come to terms with concepts such as gay men and self-determined female sexuality, there comes a torrent of alien new concepts and groups that challenge large parts of every outsider's understanding of the world. For the average person not immediately involved with these concepts, that can be a very scary thought. And people react to fear in different ways. Some people learn. Some people just refuse change on principle and will do anything for the world to stay the same as it has 'always' been. Because that's what they're familiar and comfortable with. Raise your hand if you're older than 30 or 40 and have never yearned for 'simpler times'.

(Please note that the following text block by no means reflects my own opinions and preferred choice of words.)

From the point of view of a simple mind, including people of average intelligence but with lots of other things than political correctness to worry about: Imagine you're a regular guy who has just come to terms with the fact that there are three kinds of people - gay, lesbian and normal. (Yes, I know. Remember, simple mind.) Including all the potentially far-reaching implications for your own life, lessons learned and fears overcome - gays aren't dangerous, they're not contagious, they will probably not mindlessly rear-end you any chance they get etc., so peaceful coexistence is possible after all. Lesbians are even kinda hot (probably all secretly eager to let you watch and/or join them), so no complaints there.
\ You've managed to accept all that and maybe even are a bit proud of yourself. Go progressive you!
\ And only a few years later you're bombarded from seemingly every angle with new, alien terms. Suddenly everybody around you seems to be bisexual (okay - not that different from what you already know), trans (how can you not obviously be a man when you've got a dong), non-binary (what does that even mean?), you're expected to use new pronouns now (Jack is a 'they' now?!), how can you be 'fluid' if you're not a beer or used to lubricate a transmission, and WTF are neopronouns???
\ And every other politician and celebrity implies that the smallest perceived transgression of these absolutely incomprehensible and ever-changing rules means you're a bad person.
\ That's fucking scary. And completely unnecessary. And you've got tons of other things to worry about, especially in that economy, so all these snowflakes can just sod right off. And all the regulars at the bar feel the same, so...!

Personally I can somehow relate to the above in that I'm sometimes expected to understand and celebrate every last nuance of a self-appointed snowflake's uniqueness, and potentially also accept the inferiority and/or guilt coming with my white cishet male-ness. Cut that BS. I'm a live-and-let-live kind of person, which means that you being different from me is totally fine and doesn't make you inferior in any way, but it also doesn't make me inferior or means I have to learn in painstaking detail about how you've picked your neopronouns. If we're not going to hook up or talk about our relationships, I don't even need to know anything about your sexuality in the first place.
\ But then again, that trait is neither representative of the queer community nor unique to them. BDSM people for instance can be even worse, they're just not that public. It would also be wrong to judge all minorities in the world for that, but it just goes to show, every group has its share of idiots, and they're the ones who tend to stick out.

TL;DR: In my unprofessional opinion, the problem could be solved over night if everybody could just accept that every group has its share of loud idiots but that they're not representative of the entire group, and the media would maybe stop blowing everything out of proportion.

I share your sentiment towards a Chrome hegemony, and I tried to use Firefox as my main browser a few times in the past. It's just that Vivaldi feels way more polished to me out-of-the-box. Some of the things probably just need some getting used to, but you know what they say about old habits...

I probably don't count as Firefox is not my main browser, but I'm a very happy Vivaldi user. It's Chrome-based but comes with a great built-in (optional) ad and tracking blocker already, has tons of customisation features and makes it easy to disable all things Google (permanently, even).

That question is going to be impossible to answer without a lot more details. The number of websites is largely irrelevant (each website will use a negligible amount of RAM for the web server process to know about). What you want to know is the total number of HTTP and HTTPS requests per minute (the latter being a bit more expensive) in peak times to estimate the required CPU horsepower, the amount of data transferred (network bandwidth and CPU to some degree), whether it will be mostly static pages or dynamic/scripted content (CPU and RAM), and of course disk space to store everything (a stock photo library will likely use more space than a pizza place).
\ If there's a database backend you'll want to add even more RAM and faster storage (both in terms of throughput and IOPS).
\ Also, acceptable waiting times. An under-powered server will work just the same, just slower.

If you know a bit about the websites you want to host but need some pointers, maybe start by checking out some packages by other hosting providers (how much CPU and RAM does their 'local chess club WordPress site' package offer?) and go from there.

Yes, and what's even cooler, they've recently made it so the Swiss air force can now even operate outside of office hours! (A small oversight that only lasted a few decades)

Now we only need to figure out the logistics of keeping at least a few planes fully operational at all times.

A cynic would say that the old one is no doubt more correct, but the total number of people having actually read it in its entirety is probably in the low double digits. The new one, high double digits easily.

Thanks for the suggestion! Sadly it was 'only' the two Covid shots. I've had combined vaccinations in the past and it's never been a problem. Something cotained in Moderna's finest specifically seems to have made my immune system extremely unhappy. That's why I was wondering about the rather similar flu shot.

Thank you!

If I may ask, did you ever suffer from any side effects? I think the flu shot is a good thing in theory, but the day after the second Covid shot I had high fever and muscle pain (it happens to a few select lucky people), and the first booster shot was even worse, so I'm reluctant to try another vaccine that's likely closely related.