nicerdicer @ nicerdicer @feddit.de

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Joined

2 yr. ago

• not having children
• not buying obviously useless crap (i.e. does one really need a motion-activated, LED illuminated salt-and-pepper shaker?)
• use things as long as possible, including repairing things
• combine errands when using the car instead of doing these errands separately - this saves time and gasoline

Unfortunately this will not happen that fast. The ultra rich are seen as a symbol of sucess because people associate themselves with those ultra wealthy folks, as being rich is considered a positive goal. The result is an indirect support to those rich people, who are celebrated for what they are.

I dare to say that 99% of people are closer to becoming homeless than to become an owner of a private island and a helicopter - and yet, people tend to think, that they might become rich as well (either through hard work or through luck), which is a more positive outlook than to think that they could easily hit rock bottom (the probability of hitting rock bottom is way higher tho). Because hypothetically, the opportunity for becoming as rich as those who they admire is given.

An anecdote: Back when I did work for minimum wage for a living (over 20 years ago), I had many coworkers who also did so. One time, the big boss (not ultra rich, but fairly loaded) came to visit the facility. He played some mind games and did some power moves. One of those was, that he parked his Maserati sports car pretty much in front of where our breakroom was, so that his car was definetly being seen by all the workers, instead of using the parking lot outside the facility.

About 90 % of the workers admired him for having such a car, and how cool he was and what not. Those people really believed that you could work yourself from the ground up to be as rich as the big boss. They did not recognize that he only could afford this car because he paid 7,50 an hour. And yet, he was celebrated for his "archievements". And after all, a Maserati is just a Fiat with a fancy bodywork.

I think this is because it is pretty boring to film a computer in action, because it does noting - it doesn't move for example. So beeping sounds were added for every action a computer would do: opening or closing windows, transferring files to a disk, calculating,...

These sounds were added at a time computers were not that common in every household and to emphazise that the computer is doing something. In recent movies, computers are more silent.

Another thing film makers did to show interaction with a computer is the constant usage of the keyboard. Every thing is done with the keyboard. Open a window: type 5 sceonds on the keyboard. Transferring a file onto a disk: type the whole bible on the keyboard. This was done because it would be pretty boring to show someone use the mouse or drag-and-drop files.

It its somehow compareable to the movie trope of constantly reloading a gun. You can see this often in older movies: the protagonist is going inside a building and he is reloading his gun. Then he stops a the corner of a hallway and is reloading the gun again - despite no shot has been fired. This was also done to show the audience that a gun will be involved.

Actually, someone already came up with the idea of anal fingerprinting, albeit in another context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ

Of course many comments in this threas are exaggerated; there won't be played any ads into your brain.

But there are some implications for the usage of Neuralink that are worth thinking about it - especially when it comes to privacy:

Given that it "just" runs with firmware, so that the implant can function in a way most stable and reliably, and also given that there will be no subscription model involved into all of that, will the user (patient) be able to control the functionality of the implant (e.g. controlling the intensity of the eletric signal sent out from the implant to counteract the intensity of a tremor)?

And how will that happen? One thing I could think of is to control the implant with a smartphone app. How good will that smartphone app be? Will it be programmed sloppily like these apps we know from Internet-Of-Things-Apps and have a ton of bugs? Are those (medicinal!) apps secure in terms of privacy? What is with the product support? Will the implant be discontinued after a few years (and also the app)? What if your smartphone fails (no power or hardware failure, or after an update it doesn't work)?

A friend of mine has an app to monitor her blood sugar. She is not qute satified with the app. Luckily the provider of those diabetes sensors provided a separate device, so that the app is just an addition for measuring when you are travelling, for example. But in their last iteration they tried to omit the separate device, probably in order to save costs. My friend had to explicitly ask for it.

With that in mind I'm not keen on having control on such medicinal devices with a smartphone only. If the smartphone fails, there would be no backup. Will such similar things be the case regarding Neuralink?

Thank you for clarifying.

Never been a Twitter - or "X" - user, but:

Isn't it the whole point to show everyone your blue check mark that you have been approved or something like that? How else would one know that you are the real deal?

This will have a huge impact on free speech in Russia. Also, information we receive from Russia may not be genuine after this measurement will be implemented, as it will be politically in terms of Russia - as we know it from China right now. In order to spread the REAL things that are going on, people will need to risk their freedom.

I'm sure these implants will give much needed ease to patients who suffer frem tremors like parkinson and other neurological diseases. But the things I'm mostly concerned about are:

• Will health insurance pay for the implant in a one-time-payment? Will it be a subscription model? What happens when you can't pay your subscription? Will it be shut off?
• Will the implant be operated through firmware (like a pacemaker) or software, which reqires frequent updates? If so, will there be - like computer software - "new features" implemented ("With version 2.0 you will be able to share your Neuralink experience with other Neuralink users. Your data may not be leaked, pinky promise."
• What if a certain mentally unstable CEO throws a tantrum that will affect the performance of the Neuralink implant negatively? Will there be any legal protection from such thing?

Good point. I never thaught about it this way. Maybe these nematodes will not introduce diseases. But will they suppress recent fauna? Will these worms displace current worms or other species on a microbiological level? Or maybe these worms have a cure for recent diseases?

On first glance it seems that this worm was brought back to life with scientific intervention exclusively. But with the disappearence of permafrost these worms will thaw on their own and will resume living and procreating. What I want to say is, that many species of these ice-aged worms may be alive already without anyone noticing, trough permafrost has been thawed away. Who knows what impact these worms will have on our recent fauna and flora?

In addition to my comment I leave this article here:

https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/post/723755486547181568/autoenshittification

This article sums up the ongoing enshittification with cars and other devices, backed up with further sources.

It's always a good advice to be on good terms with the surveillance officers. I do it too and sometimes they even look in the other direction when I did wrong ;-)

Things I do what give me a percieved sense of privacy/ security:

• use Firefox with Add-ons (Ublock origin, Idontcareaboutcookies, Istilldontcareaobutcookies, Consent Blocker)
• browser set up to block third party cookies and to delete any cookies after closing
• not allowing to store any credentials in the browser
• using different passwords for different services (not one password for all)
• using Two-Factor-Authentification on services which are connected with banking account
• not using freemail providers for email
• using a temporary email where possible if registration is required
• encrypted hard drive and encrypted backups
• do not use cloud storage (I rely on old school portable hard drives and thumb drives)
• using an additional firewall to stop certain not-quite-legally-obtained programs from phoning home (these programs can't be replaced through FOSS at the moment, or are too ridiculously overpriced to buy them right now)
• restrict/ forbid operating system to collect anonymous data and to phone home (as if that helps...)
• don't do online banking with an android 8 device

The password storage thing sometimes seems to be a hassle. I have stored my passwords in a physical moleskin, written with a pen, like an old person would do. When I have that book not availiable (when travellling), I have to guess my credentials.

At work I have the browser stored all the credentials. It's so much faster and easier. But since it's at my job I don't have to worry about my own private stuff.

"Saturday" references to the planet "Saturn".

Here is a video about the origin of the weekday's names in different languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gifimOF5a_U

I addition to that, here is a video which explains how the months got their names: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9iOt48bTw4&list=PL5x1QB-VRuDtHCWcuSx0DgJr2mnuNXkSB&index=4 This channel has very interesting videos about the ethymological origins of different things. It's worth watching.

Edit: spelling

Years ago, Opera has been my main browser and I really liked it. Back then, it was the only browser (to my knowledge) that had tabs. It was a novelty back then. Over the time they added more features, like the conversion tool. Then they added more features I didn't need or want, like the side bar, and it quickly became bloated. I switched to firefox, which offered a greater variety of add-ons. I still use firefox as my main browser. The only thing I miss is the conversion tool. There is nothing comparable like the one Opera has built in. I later learned that the original developers sold it to a chinese consortium. In hindsight, that explains the constant changes to the worse, which pushed me to another browser.

Also, does anyone remember this game (it was included in Windows 95)?

The car as a device to transport one from A to B has been developed to completion. Any car is capable of fulfilling that task. The next stange of developement is that the comfort features in cars are being replaced with a universal control unit: a touchscreen (-computer).

All physical buttons (air condition, radio, etc.) are being phased out and are accessible over the central touchscreen, hidden in menus. This way it is easier to get customers into subscribed services (e.g. for the ability to lock your car remotely or to use the heated seat feature you have to subsribe to this particular service in order to use it).

Also, when features are controlled over a software interface like those touchscreens instead of physical buttons, it it easier to give access to users - or restrict them from it:

IIRC at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Tesla remotely enabled their cars by allowing free supercharging as a helpful measure to help people to escape from Ukraine. Pretty nice of Tesla, isn't it? Well yes, in this particular case, but this kind of remote software interference from the manufactor can also work in the other direction. They can easily restrict the functionality of your car. Functions your car still would have if they weren't controlled remotely.

Cars become a Software-As-A-Service product.

Edit: spelling

A Bronx Tale

A father becomes worried when a local gangster befriends his son in the Bronx in the 1960s. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106489/

https://www.youtube.com/@MrBallen/videos

MrBallen is a guy who retells storys in a very compelling way. Stories of murder-cases, odd occurences, sinister events, etc.

This channel is really worth listening/watching (and also binging). I discovered his channel two years ago and follow it ever since. The videos length unsually varies between 15 to 30 minutes. Although the video's thumbnails and titles appear like it is clickbait, each video is well-made and worth a watch! Almost every Sunday a new video is uploaded.