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Messages - ergophobe

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1
Water Cooler / Re: Quotes that hit home
« on: Today at 02:55:30 PM »
It’s also interesting considering

Quote
This morning, I discovered an interesting statistic, “America Has Been At War 93% of the Time – 222 Out of 239 Years – Since 1776“,  i.e. the U.S. has only been at peace for less than 20 years total since its birth

BTW, it’s not that much different for France.

https://freakonometrics.hypotheses.org/50473

2
Water Cooler / Re: Hell on earth
« on: September 24, 2023, 04:18:14 PM »
I bet there are places where the death rate was higher, but either the record keeping was bad or they are not considered metro areas or both.

I wonder for example how good the records are for ag and construction in California and Dubai.

3
Historically, fertility is highly influenced by the economy. There is good data on this for late medieval Tuscany based on tax and census records.

One of the big economic shifts has been the participation of women in the workforce. That may be the biggest change globally. In the US, the insane cost of housing in large cities is probably a big factor. You could speak to this better, but I always hear of downtown SF as essentially a child-free zone.

Personally, I’d be hard-pressed to say why exactly I did not want kids, but frankly it was a decision I came to during my years of deep depression in my 20s. I decided I didn’t want to be responsible for that. I am not saying that is a good reason (if true, why not adopt?)  or that my mind was working well at that time (definitely was not), but that was the root of it. Then as I felt better in my 30s, I just never changed my mind. I think if I had been happy in my 20s, I would have felt very differently about having kids. I’ve actually always liked kids and gotten on with them well.

4
Sorry to hear that Heather!

I think the "drudgery" conversation is mostly a media trope honestly, not something I hear parents or non-parents actually do very often in real life. Sort of like a generation or two (or three) back where wives were described as "the old ball and chain" or "the old battle axe." The number of men who felt that way about their wives was probably close to zero, but to judge from sitcoms and movies of the time, you would think it was common.

5
Water Cooler / Re: Core continuing commitment to health and fitness
« on: September 23, 2023, 03:34:04 AM »
That's awesome. When I worked from home all alone my wife wanted me to get a dog, but since they are not allowed on the vast majority of trails here, I never did.

But having someone who is thrilled to go outdoors and run around with you and perturbed when you are feeling too tired is a great means to regular outdoor time.

6
Wow! How old is the youngest now?

7
Web Development / Re: Musk offers to buy Twitter
« on: September 21, 2023, 04:09:31 PM »
You are assuming he's a rational actor.

Ha ha! I’m certain he is a “very stable genius.”

I do like to see people, unstable or not, raise the idea of alternatives to a “free with ads” model.

I know Musk is not the person to do it and the hope itself that is ridiculous and the horse long ago left the barn.

Still, Buckworks (if she’s reading) will know what I mean when I say that fundamentally the “free with ads” model for these big platforms was a bargain with Mammon that has had toxic effects.

As for Musk, I really don’t care if he destroys X. It would be a shame if he destroyed Tesla and a problem for me personally if he tanks Starlink with his antics. I hope these companies can move past Musk who seems to have some level of clinical mental health issues.

9
Water Cooler / Re: Just like that another Viking goes : BeAmazed
« on: September 20, 2023, 05:06:00 PM »
The red neck version was a test dummy not a real human (according to commenters who looked at it frame by frame)

10
Web Development / Re: Musk offers to buy Twitter
« on: September 20, 2023, 05:02:51 PM »
Actually a small one-time payment in order to create an account is kind of a good idea. That seems to be what he’s proposing as a possible idea.

It’s not the amount that matters. As he says, it’s the fact that the bots would need a separate payment method for each account.


That said, Elon should learn that his mouth functions best when closed and Tesla, which has benefited a lot from the Elon elan, needs to become more of a car company and less of a fan club if it’s going to become the next Ford. The only other car CEO I can name is Mary Barra and that’s only because the media made such a big deal about a woman being named CEO of a major auto manufacturer.

11
Water Cooler / Re: Just like that another Viking goes : BeAmazed
« on: September 20, 2023, 12:25:37 AM »
Okay, that looks fun. The red neck version needs a little calibrating though

12
Hardware & Technology / Re: No helmet, no green light : Damnthatsinteresting
« on: September 20, 2023, 12:21:53 AM »
Funny how many people are carrying helmets but not wearing them.

13
As often as possible, I use fake DOB. And I use my Rick Deckard alter ego if a website has no real reason to ask my name. So my spamcatcher email is full of "Hi Rick," emails.

But it's all a drop in the bucket. The credit card companies and credit reporting agencies know pretty much everything there is to know about me. What they don't know, Google knows.

The flip side is all of this does add real convenience. There was a time I traveled with a stack of cash and, maybe, traveler's checks. In 1985, I hitchiked down the west coast of the US after a summer in Alaska with no credit card and $3500 (about $10K inflation adjusted) in saved wages in my pocket in hundreds and twenties.

I didn't leave much of a trail. The flip side is I could have lost a whole summer's wages and I was pretty nervous a few times but, strangely, not with the guy who's first words to me were: "You f### with me and I'll kill you." ;-)

For me, it's not the privacy, but the manipulation. And that's where siphoning my browser history is a concern - it's not that they *know* because there's nothing there I am not willing to share, it's that it can be combined with other data and deployed to manipulate my behavior without me understanding that.

So that's why, even though it's a losing game, I run tracking blockers just to make it that much harder for them and to at least reduce ROAS across the system if possible (easier for me to say now that I don't buy ads). But admit the truth - if you're buying ads, you always wish you knew just a little bit more about the people seeing your ads.

14
No, you don’t have to give up your privacy, but barring signals that you are not a robot, you will be forced to solve puzzles.

Since I run tracking blockers on most sites, I am frequently presented with puzzles whereas a person with a default browser setup would sail through.

As always, you get to choose between level of privacy and level of hassle. The hassle of genuine privacy in 2023 is something few people in the rich world are willing to consider. The things that compromise privacy the most often also add the most convenience or help with quality of life(credit cards, health care, government pensions for example).

15
Nice explainer. I knew they were using proof of work methods, but didn’t kmow that it was also based on browser history. That would explain why tracking blockers kick you to the puzzle solver methods.

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