Overzeetop

It faces death at about the same rate as Facebook. Just like facebook, it has a huge database of information and a still-active userbase that just doesn’t care that Spez is trash or that Reddit is wringing their content and eyeballs for money. It will still be around 20 years from now, just like aol email addresses.

To late now. Without an account there’s no way to avert comment necromancy by reddit. It’s why I kept my login; so I could clean up stragglers.

Having lived through it, it really does feel weird though. I (mostly) missed the gasoline crisis (I was a child). It’s hard to imagine gas pumps all over the US being out of gasoline, and mile long lines waiting for a tanker to show up so you could get gas. It’s pretty much impossible to imagine staple rationing (butter, sugar) during wartime in modern US. I certainly didn’t live through it - having the TP aisle empty during covid doesn’t quite match that. And the actual (1930s) depression. I suspect those folks would consider the crashes of 87 99 01 08 and 20 minor annoyances - a bad Tuesday - compared to what they lived through.

Think of this, though - you have Covid. Okay we have Covid. That’s a world-wide event with life-changing implications for so many. And, we can hope, we don’t get another pandemic event of that magnitude in our lifetimes. And a decade or two from now you can lord it over some kid who was born in the last 3 years and just “doesn’t understand” that “closing school for three days because the flu is so bad” is not a pandemic, and that they just don’t understand what a game changer Covid was. ;-)

Its a joke - yes.

Though, realistically, an empathy test would probably filter out a large portion of the haters. It’s harder to hate when you internalize the condition of others.

Sad, but true. About the only way to control it would be to require online comments to be directly identifiable to the person. Even Republicans appear to be embarrassed - and attempt to expunge their vitriol - when their homophobic, misogynistic, and racist comments and activities online are publicized. And even that wouldn’t eliminate it, it would just push it back underground to further fester.

Compared to those currently running, he sounds like Speaker material.

LOL

Sorry, in advance, for the long, descriptive post, but the value of a dedicate, slide mute switch is somewhat nuanced.

The mute switch on an iPhone is a physical slide switch. Without looking, you can feel if it’s muted (back) or active (front) position. Alternately, you can see the condition as, when it’s in the “mute” position, it has an exposed orange (painted) indicator. Neither of these verifications require that the phone be awake or to light up the screen. It can also be activated with the device off, so that if you turn the phone on in a quiet place you don’t have to wait for the UI to become responsive (usually after start notifications have actuated, which occur before software buttons can be pressed to mute the phone). It is a single action to mute, compared to a 5 gesture sequence to silence the phones primary sounds (which can be ringtone OR playback volume, but not both) and an 6-8 gesture sequence (depending on the wake-status of the last used app) to silence the secondary phone sound. Note: I’m assuming that face unlock is active and you are staring at your phone obtrusively; entry of the unlock code would add 7-9 additional touch gestures.

While I agree that a button is nice, it still takes at least two actions - press the button and visually confirm its actuation puts it into the desired mode. There are times when you are unsure what mode the phone is in. On an iPhone, that is not visible from any screen until you either a) wake the phone and actuate a volume button (neither visual nor haptic feedback occurs when a volume button is pressed) or are logged into the phone (two minimum gestures plus face authorization) and use the action center (swipe function) to visually verify th volume position.

Now, you could easily argue that this is fucking terrible UI design, and I would 100% agree with you. I would, likewise agree, that most technical features on an iPhone are certifiably obtuse - ex: you cannot turn on your hotspot without entering the settings app; it’s not even an action center icon option as it is on Android. I would add that it’s also monumental dumbfuckery that your hotspot is the name of your phone and cannot be changed. Or that there is no function to alter the Prompt volume in the phone (ie. for GPS directions) unless the prompt audio is actively playing - difficult if the prompt volume is accidentally (or temporarily) set to zero. In 3rd party apps the prompt volume is several menus deep; for the OEM map application, it doesn’t exist - there is literally no setting.

But, it remains - if you want to mute the alerts on your phone, the switch requires fewer actions and zero view of the device to actuate, and zero activation of the screen or login to verify it’s condition. You may never need to discretely silence your phone or check that it is in silent mode without taking the phone out and unlocking it, but many of us find it quite useful.

The author is under the impression that the button will be infinitely remappable. Given Apple’s history, I expect it to be rather limited. I will sorely miss the mute switch which has both a tactile and visible position indicator which does not require waking the phone, or even having the phone on, to actuate (should you want to turn on your phone without getting bombarded with notification sounds).

It will be the think I probably miss the most when I eventually upgrade. The brilliance of the switch is that it is a switch - which means can be verified by feel or by sight to be in the silent position without needing to wake or even take you phone out of your pocket.

It’s the present in the US. Many people own personal train cars, and you just contract with Amtrak to hook you up and you’re off on vacation. You can even bring Babu. You can rent personal cars as well, though you probably should make sure yuor ocelot is housebroken if you’re taking a rental.

Now, I say “many” but what I means is that’s more than a few. Many is still probably in the 3-4 digit number (I’m guessing). And you’d be correct in assuming that it’s not a luxury most people can afford. But it does exist.

Did someone say that my million dollar plane will cost another million dollars to operate? Oh noes, I can’t…LOL - it’s just money; I found 2 millions by raising the price of my apartments by $100 a month. Enjoy your new rent, proles!

1/2c (125ml) popcorn,
3 Tbsp (45ml) coconut oil, <–vegetable will do, but coconut is better
1 tsp (5ml/5.5g) Flavicol <– yes, really, just buy a quart of it off Amazon

In an 8-10 quart or liter stock pot heat the oil to 420F/215C over medium-high heat, stirring or swirling the Flavicol into the oil once it’s viscosity drops sufficiently. No thermometer? heat with three kernels added and it’s ready when at least 2 pop.

Add popcorn and turn down heat to medium with a loose lid until the corn is popped; remove immediately from heat.

Note: If you prefer a kettle corn sweetness, use regular salt (fine popcorn or granulated) in place of flavicol and, just as you pull it off the heat add
-1/4c (65ml or g) granulated sugar for Boom Chicka level of sweetness
-1/3c (95ml or g) granulated sugar for Regular kettle corn sweetness
-1/2c (125ml or g) granulated sugar for County Fair level of kettle corn
Do this quickly and stir vigorously to distribute the sugar onto the hot popcorn. Some will clump at the bottom, and that’s accounted for in the amounts above.

The worst part is having to send a technician all the way to Washington to reset the system. Do they still have anyone posted on the detail who is closer than Moscow or Beijing?

(quick edit - I’m making light because it’s political, but I legitimately sucked in a breath when I saw it happen, as both my father and FIL are in their 80s and I’m not ready to lose either of them yet.)

The economy isn’t teetering on the edge like it was in December. Also, rail is a behind-the-scenes transport mode; it gets some press, but very few people get deliveries directly by train. A rail strike in early December would destroy infrastructure deliveries right before the Christmas holiday but - unless you’re in rail shipping, the average American wouldn’t notice for a couple of weeks.

UPS, otoh, is very public facing operation and 11 million people receive at least one UPS package a day. That’s not packages - that’s individual business and personal recipients. Enough deliveries to cover every household in the US in under two weeks (that’s just a reference volume: there’s substantial overlap for daily business deliveries, and the delivery figure is worldwide). Every Tom, Dick, and Harriet is going lose their everloving mind if their important paperwork or Amazon packages aren’t delivered. And Biden can then point to the UPS Corporation and say “hey, fellas, that’s a pretty angry mob; you should do something about it,” and “Republicans cut taxes on corporations so that corporations like UPS could hire more people and run more efficiently, but it looks like they’re just keeping all that money for themselves.” And those are much better talking points than “I’m sorry I made inflation worse and tanked the economy. Merry Christmas.”

Bluetooth for audio might be the worst implementation of a specification every devised. Ridiculous lag, no multipoint connection, no ability to manage or negotiate connections from the device, limited ability to define the connection (audio vs headset among the culprits). BT for audio just seems like a cruel joke.