middlemuddle @ middlemuddle @beehaw.org

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68

Joined

2 yr. ago

I haven't tried Impossible, but I always have Quorn nuggets in my freezer. If I really think about it, I can tell they're not chicken since they're only marginally trying to be. But it's a nugget, I'm not expecting a sous vide delicacy. Quorn definitely fills any nugget craving I might have.

I'll check out Impossible, though, out of curiosity.

have a sims game that simulates more than just sims needs, but whole economies

Isn't that SimCity?

Jesus, that man is a hero. The bigots don't deserve that level of man as their mayor, but he clearly desires to represent everyone, as a mayor should. The fact that this has been going on for so long is extremely depressing to hear. I hope the feds get involved immediately and help set things right.

I'm a big fan of Overseerr versus Ombi. Overseerr has a better user interface and seems more approachable to my less technically inclined family members.

Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt are those vehicles and they don't appear to be any heavier than their ICE counterparts. This article is just fear-mongering about EVs. Tire degradation may be a serious concern, but it's not actually unique to EVs and this article isn't really setting itself up to be taken seriously.

That wouldn't really make a difference here, I don't think. A standard encrypted email just ensures that only the intended recipient can open it. Since the addressed recipients were the .ml domain, the emails would still be accessible by the wrong people.

That's only for emails sent from the .mil domain. Emails sent from other domains don't have the same filters in place. The issue is that plenty of other domains are attempting to send emails to the .mil domain and are actually sending to the .ml domain. The article only confirms a filter is in place for .mil users, so it's entirely possible that .gov users have no such filter. Plenty of government workers with .gov domains would be trying to send sensitive info to .mil users. Or government contractors, who would have a whole bunch of possible domains, would be trying to send to the .mil domain and failing.

It's a pretty big, and stupid, breach, but I'm not sure how you get everyone who's not part of your closed system to ensure they're typing out .mil correctly.

I've been using Mint for years and it serves my needs. It's kind of slow, they push advertising at you, but I got everything setup years ago and making slight changes to my budget categories takes no work at all. Syncing with my accounts is necessary because I definitely wouldn't put the time into software that requires any amount of manual importing. I login at least once a month to see how my wife and I are doing with keeping to our budgets, but that's about it.

Day to day, keep an eye on our shared credit card and checking account. We're lucky enough that we don't live paycheck to paycheck so I don't feel the need to track everything with a magnifying glass. That being said, Mint has been invaluable to set ourselves spending and savings goals and has made it easy to track progress on both. I'd be interested in a FOSS alternative so I could stop using an Intuit product, but haven't yet seen anything that is better for my needs.

Does Chrome Remote Desktop work on Chromebooks?

It doesn't work for unattended access. I have to coordinate with my dad so that he can open the site and send me an access code, which doesn't sound that hard, but definitely never goes smoothly. It's a very Google move for a service they provide on a device they built to not have full functionality.

Annoyingly, unattended access isn't an option on a Chromebook for Chrome Remote Desktop. It requires the user (my dad) opening the site, selecting the option for sharing a screen, then texting me the code. It doesn't seem overly complex, but it never goes smoothly.

My mom's Windows laptop is great since I can just login at any point to fix something as long as she leaves it on.

For some reason, I hadn't even considered the use of Blokada or similar solution, even though I'm familiar with them and AdGuard-home locally. I'm definitely going to get a VPN or DNS based adblocker in place for them, that should help out a bit.

RSS is also a really good idea, but I'll admit that I'm a complete newb on that front. I have it on my list to explore RSS options for myself, so maybe I'll consider my dad's needs when I'm doing some digging, too.

I also pre-opened every app on their device to get the tutorial pop-ups completed so they wouldn’t have to deal with them.

This is a very good point and I often forget to do it for all apps.

she can take notes

Oh lordy, that woman will absolutely take notes. :)

Appreciate the suggestions, your approach does sound like a generally good way to keep it simple.

side note: One thing I noticed they really hated across all devices (and frankly, I hate it too) are pop-ups. Not pop-up ads because I blocked those for them, but app or system pop-ups. If they open an app and they get hit with 15 unskippable tutorial pop-ups, they will just hit the lock button and walk away. They will come back later, wake the device up, see they still have to go through with the tutorial, and then call me and ask how it “broke”. I highly suggest configuring devices to minimize this as much as possible. It makes them feel like they are losing control over the device and makes them panic or get frustrated, and honestly I can’t blame them. It’s horrible ux design.

Do you have any tips for this? This is an issue that plagues all their devices. Not just tutorials, but warnings and update messages, too. From a security perspective, app updates are important, but they always seem to bring some new info pop-up, whether on a phone or a laptop. My parents don't get frustrated and walk away, but they definitely never read the pop-ups.

I swear I responded to this before, but this is a great idea! I don't see any immediate options at their local branch, but I'll do some more searching.

I'm pretty fortunate in that my family doesn't harbor unreal expectations, though I could see how that might happen. They ask me for help, but it's always based on my availability and they just live with a situation until I get around to fixing it. I've set boundaries before, and they respect them. I want to get my mom a smartphone because she loves taking pictures and carries an old Canon camera everywhere. It'd be a steep learning curve for her to pickup a smartphone now, but I'd like to set some guardrails around the experience so it's, 1) not too intimidating for her, 2) not too burdensome for me to support, and 3) gives her a better option for an activity she enjoys.

I think the initial divergence in our thinking is how we define a person's fair share. The U.S. has this pervasive myth that individual perseverance leads to achievement. That is, if you work hard enough then you can get rich and that's the result of your own efforts. I'm not trying to discount the hard work that many people put into their success, but the reality is that they are benefiting from so many different things that they have no direct control over. The family you're born into, the physical location where you're born, your race/ethnicity, etc. These are all more significant contributors to success than individual effort.

A prosperous society supports all its citizenry in some way, but some people need a lot more support than others, and it's through no fault of their own. People who are individually more prosperous should expect to contribute a proportionally greater amount to support society because they've already reaped the benefits of that society themselves.

Haha, that's a fun little coincidence. Benefits of the federated communities being smaller for the time being.

If the wealthy put in a significantly larger amount while working they will be entitled to a proportionally larger about of withdrawal later.

Why?

The wealthy put in more money towards taxes that go to other things which everyone benefits from equally. The wealthy don't get better roads just because they pay a higher tax rate. Why should they have uncapped benefits from social security? Retired folks being able to live off social security is a benefit to all of society, it's not meant to keep people at a high income with no other inputs. The wealthy can benefit from social security just like everyone else, and payouts should be capped, but they're currently benefiting from society at a greater rate pre-retirement so that should be reflected in their contributions today. If they want to be wealthy in retirement, then they have the means to invest and supplement their future social security earnings.

Edit: I just realized some of my statements conflicted a little. My point is just that tax contributions are not expected to deliver a 1:1 benefit to the contributor for the service that is collecting tax. You don't put in $1 towards roads and get $1 back of road use, or $2 towards schools and get $2 of education back. We all contribute for the betterment and support of society at large. The wealthy can afford to contribute proportionally more. They are getting the benefits of their taxes back in greater proportion than the rest of us by way of their wealth, they do not make that money purely off individual effort. Supporting retirees ensures they are not a drain on society's resources and it's important that the wealthy contribute enough to make this possible.

Do you need Prime for that? I'm not in your same situation, but I used to be very reliant on Prime shipping. Since I cancelled Prime, I still sometimes buy stuff from Amazon, but I realized I don't have a need to get things so rapidly. Free shipping is still an option on most items, it just takes a few more days. When they're small items that don't qualify for free shipping, then I just add it to my cart and wait until I have something else to add that makes it cross that free shipping threshold. And I also generally don't feel the need to use Amazon as much since so many other companies offer free shipping these days.

In my circle, I've seen that people are just so expectant of rapid shipping, but they don't actually need it. I've learned how instant gratification isn't actually valuable to me, but I know that's difficult for a lot of people to accept.