ryan @ ryan @the.coolest.zone

I admin the.coolest.zone, the coolest site on the net for online social eng

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2 yr. ago

Oh boy, I'm looking forward to going all in on Google Home only for it to be deprecated in three years!

(Hey folks, Home Assistant is pretty cool and you can run it locally on an old laptop.)

retain control

Notably, in Quarks, every user operation and information exchange that takes part on a channel is carried out via the ledger's so-called smart contract. In practice, this means that no-one outside of a channel should be able to send or read messages on it. In addition, all messages on the channels cannot be altered or edited, yet they can be audited, meaning that users should be able to derive information about when they were created, sent, delivered, and so on.

Ah, yes. I definitely want anyone in the world to figure out who I'm communicating with by checking the timestamps of when various messages were delivered. Much like how the "anonymous" Bitcoin could be pretty easily de-anonymized just by checking where various bitcoins go and inferring who those wallets likely belonged to.

Because you of in the food, Jon. You literally just said it. Get it together, man. That lasagna ain't gonna cook itself.

This is why you stop messing with the damn timeline. The Department of Temporal Investigations can only do so much, folks.

RSD sucks. If you're crippled by constant anxiety and meltdowns (like I was) or have anger management issues, guanfacine or clonidine can go a long way in managing the symptoms. It's really nice to not be constantly terrified of disappointing people.

I've been using the Microsoft launcher for a while now and it's nice, but laggy. And I had to finally uninstall the Bing browser app because it just wouldn't stop crashing.

Ricardo's just out here doing his best. Good job, Ricardo. Your notification test was successful.

Did you know that Reddit's newest chat function technically uses Matrix? Boom, the capacity for interoperability should the EU come down on them. That's just one example of the background ways companies are preparing for this.

To learn more, the EU has put together a helpful site at this link.

They absolutely will. The EU's Digital Markets Act requires interoperability between social messaging services. ActivityPub is an easy way to comply because they are "technically" interoperable but can still choose to only federate with instances that abide by their rules.

How about "positive carbon negativity" and "negative carbon positivity"? As a bonus, this allows us extra terms such as "negative carbon negativity" and "positive carbon positivity" which can be similarly confused for each other!

(On a more serious note, "carbon reducing" and "carbon increasing" are good.)

mm mm nothing does my body better than sleeve of saltines

I'm acerbic. Sometimes I'm outright a jerk. I'm pretty good about taking criticism and I like taking that criticism because then I can improve, but then I apply the same to other people who may not want to be criticized in that manner. I'm trying to be more mindful about how certain people communicate and like to be communicated back to, but it's a slow journey.

Self-reply because it occurred to me... if I had to be illiterate and could never learn to read or write again, I'm absolutely choosing the no legs option. My above answer is entirely predicated on the fact that I'm very good at picking up other languages and other alphabet systems, and therefore could re-learn fairly quickly... but if that's not an option then I'm going legless and saving money on dress pants. Shorts for life 🩳

I cannot discuss on the basis that I gave up my literacy for legs. 🦵 🦵

Seriously though... I think I would rather be illiterate. I could learn how to read, and in the meantime there are assistive screen reader apps and apps that let you scan something to read it aloud.

While there are bionic legs and I would love the chance to have tall robot legs 🦿🦿, I haven't done enough research on the long term effects of walking around with two fully bionic legs, or how much leftover leg is required to attach a bionic leg, etc.

While I really am not a huge fan of the Gorn, I do like the little sprinkling of "maybe we can communicate with them" (especially with the territory map sent) and I hope that's expanded on a little more. Star Trek is really an idealistic show about exploring and finding common ground with others unlike oneself, and if the writers execute this well with the Gorn going from "terrifying lizardlike unknown" to "we may not like each other and we may have territory lines but at least we can communicate" then I'll be pleased.

On one hand I agree with you, and on the other hand it tickles my nostalgia bone for season finale cliffhangers.

I have really liked how SNW has harkened back to the broadcast era. I like only having one episode a week to watch and be able to discuss and be on the same page with everyone, and I like how they have been individual satisfying stories. Because not everything is a cliffhanger, it's made the season finale cliffhanger feel more impactful and exciting.

Depending on whether it's a hardcover or paperback, new books can retail anywhere from $15 to $25 generally (pre-tax). I might say $25 is a good amount for a gift card because it will generally buy one expensive book or partially cover two less expensive ones.

I totally agree with what your family member said about gift cards - if I get money, I just hoard it, but if it's a gift card it's not "real" so I can spend it with better peace of mind. That's exactly how gift cards get you. 😉

People need to feel some sort of pride in their lives. Traditionally this has been pride in their accomplishments or their contributions to the community or to society.

But in today's hyper capitalist society, what is there to be proud of? Most jobs are a single redundant cog in the wheel and one's absence either wouldn't be noticed or quickly backfilled. And we spend the weekends doing the chores we couldn't get done during the week, or just existing and recovering, so we don't have the time previous generations had to contribute as a member of society, go to our clubs or church gatherings and bring a potluck meal or whatever.

So in an absence of pride based on accomplishments, people sometimes turn to pride based on identity - there's no criteria to meet, you were simply born and you can be proud of that. And that can be twisted and mutated into a feeling of superiority over people who aren't the same identity as you.

A widely shared type of video, created by Africa-based Chinese social media influencers, portrays Africans as impoverished and dependent, while Chinese people – often the content creators themselves – are shown as wealthy saviors who provide them with jobs, housing, food, and money.

Another common type of racist content reviewed denigrates interracial relationships. Black people married to Chinese people are accused of “contaminating” and threatening the Chinese race. Perceived relationships between Black men and Chinese women are particularly vilified.

This isn't just China, it crops up everywhere in different forms, and it's distressing on all fronts because it speaks to a failure to address a critical need of society - the ability for people to meaningfully contribute and feel accomplished.

Excuse you. I may be stupid, but my underwear is soft and comfortable.

I think some of this is the safety aspect, like gay men can joke around with women or exist in her personal space because women won't see that guy as a predator or think "but what if he is actually objectifying me or will turn on me in the future for not reciprocating like he wants?"

I find these sort of behaviors uncomfortable, on a personal level. Like, I don't want to call any woman a slur, even jokingly. But different people have different thresholds.

However, as a gay trans man (and smaller than most women), I have noticed that some women are much more comfortable interacting with me than they are with other men. I'm not seen as any sort of threat or concern. I think that's the important part, threat assessment (sounds crazy if you haven't lived in that world, but women are constantly performing threat assessment as they go about their day - what an awful thing for half of the population to have to just live with).

The most important aspect of any relationship, and this includes friendship, is consent. Like, if a woman and a gay man have a sort of relationship where they have mutually agreed this sort of stuff is ok, more power to them. But there can't be assumptions made on this, like a gay man can't think "it's fine for me to call women slurs jokingly, after all I'm gay" because not all women will be ok with that, and vice versa. Each person is an individual, there's no group monolith that makes certain behaviors universally okay.