I think I’ll continue to use ad block guilt free. I support some creators directly through patreon and that’s far more effective than ad revenue.
I think that ad supported video content is pretty darn convenient, but the fact that YouTube is free is a benefit to them, not to me… I don’t think ad supported video content is something that we need and I’d prefer to have reasonably priced subscriptions like Nebula.
AI is a tool and a lot of fields used it successfully prior to the chatgpt craze. It’s excellent for structural extraction and comprehension and it will slowly change the way most of us work but there’s a hell of a craze right now.
I had a hackday at work where I experimented a bit with python (I haven’t worked in it professionally before)… I translated a package I maintain into it and I really loathe a lot of the language’s design decisions. It’s still fun to experiment though so I had fun. On the other hand I’m planning to fly into the US next week and I’ve been semi-nervous as a skirt wearing non-conforming man… but now I’m legitimately uncertain if shit like the TSA, CBP and air travel will work with the “Hey, anyone want to resign” memo. If it wasn’t for an important family event I’d absolutely cancel my shit.
Honestly? Because we have blogs (and RSS kinda counts as a platform if you squint).
If you’re tech/freedom minded and want to share your thoughts you’re probably just running a blog and following the blogs of other people you find interesting.
The only thing you miss out on with just using blogs is a content prioritization algorithm… but, tbh, are there that many things you actually give a shit about that you’d get overwhelmed and want to ignore some of it? Or did Facebook & other social media stuff just build platforms that constantly shovel random shit at users that requires such an algorithm.
So yea, probably just blogs… optionally collected into an RSS reader.
Yea sure - but it doesn’t matter. It could have mattered but his reaction to the reaction means it doesn’t.
If you accidentally do a nazi salute and then someone says “Hey bro, you really shouldn’t do a nazi salute” and another dude says “Hey bro, white power! I’m glad you’re on our side” and your immediate reaction isn’t “Oh fuck guys, I didn’t know that was a nazi salute, I fucking hate nazis” then, well, you did a nazi salute.
Elon did a thing.
People said “That’s a nazi thing”.
Elon didn’t immediately say “No, I didn’t do the nazi thing.”
∴ Elon is a nazi.
It’s also not like the fucker doesn’t have the ability to issue a statement correcting the public perception. He literally owns fucking X and the media salivate over his press releases.
UPS commonly scams people with duty-related fees.
The most common scam is that there might be a 5$ duty owed on the package so they pay that, then throw on a 30$ convenience fee and a 5$ payment surcharge etc…
It’s always technically possible to dodge these fees if you’re willing to go through crazy hoops (i.e. sometimes you can pre-register that duty will be owed and arrange the duty payment to come directly from you - sometimes you need to actually go to the port to collect the package).
In most cases I’ve seen they sneak language into your receipt signature that might prevent you from contesting the duty after receiving the package but they can also asd on surcharges if they need to redeliver or reschedule a package.
… TL;DR it’s a fucking bullshit charge that you may be able to get out of if you’re willing to fight it but they purposefully bullshit bill you an amount small enough that it’s fucking annoying but not “This is worth a day of small claims court bullshit to fight” amount.
I’ve never seen someone who doggedly protested those charges fail to get them reversed but most people give up (including me usually - I fought it once when they tried to slap 140CAD bullshit fees on a package worth 15CAD with a duty fee of 5 cents. That one I fucking fought and threatened to just refuse receipt of.
I do indeed and I’m uncertain if their built in video players use DRM. My guess would be probably because they likely used some off the shelf video streaming library and most of those come built on top of restricted technologies.