Also, the development and evolution of these open technologies relies on human interest and attention, and that attention can be diminished, even starved, by free, closed offerings.

Evil plan step 1: make a free closed alternative and make it better than everything else. Discord for chat, Facebook for forums and chat/email, etc.

Step 2: wait a few years, or a decade or more. The world will largely forget how to use the open alternatives. Instant messengers, forums, chat services, just give them a decade to die out. Privately hosted communities, either move to Facebook, pay for commercial anti-spam support, spend massive volunteer hours, or drown in spam.

Step 3: monetize your now-captive audience. What else are they going to use? Tools and apps from the 2000s?

The key word is "majority". I think IPFS will gain more popularity moving forward especially if fascism and censorship continue to rise.

An example of the flip side? Something built on the newest technology from the bottom up?

Department lead.

The website team is small, but incredibly effective. Everything works. Everything is mobile friendly, responsive, fast. It's a way better experience.

I love my app developers, but they're always behind. Not their own fault. Mobile development is complicated. There's so many screen sizes, iOS vs Android differences, platform permissions, etc.

The big reason for us to push the App on people was to get more brand awareness on the App Store. But the website is so much more better.

You literally can use it as a web app right into your phone and get a better experience.

And it'll be such a dark day when I have to dissolve the App team (and hopefully convince them into web dev)

This is the main reason why I quit Facebook and other services. Anytime you access them from mobile via a web browser it corners you into a "download our app" page. Facebook started doing it with messenger and I knew I had to get out.

I'm not giving Zuckerberg that level of access to my data.

Its all useless if the very operating system ur using is collecting info about you. Stop using windows

The „you have to like people“ part took me nearly 20 years to figure out. I hate people in general with possible remedy for people who are nice. I‘m exceptional at managing people, I just dont vibe with them. This leads to absurd situations where everyone is happy, professionally but folks just hate my guts.

So, I now work alone and am happy with it. :)

people are generally ok. put them in a situation where they can climb over other people to advance and watch the rot begin.

so, while people are generally ok, corporate people are generally not.

Personality, presence and confidence

Natural self confidence, but NOT an arrogant selfish confidence.

Some people naturally have confidence and presence and some people need to build it as a skill.

I know guys and gals with little to no knowledge or skill build up careers because they just knew how to talk and connect to people.

I also know guys and gals with years of education and degrees but have little to no way of politely or easily getting along with people.

Everyone is faking it to some degree.

Most valuable lesson I was ever forced to learn.

Can confirm with a very condensed anecdote: I once applied for a job that required engineering degree in electronics or mechanics. I'm a hischool dropout. Interview went well, and I got a job offer a month later. I got the impression that they were more interested in the right type of person with relevant hands-on experience, and in my case that experience meant IT/Linux (I was always a hobbyist geek)and being used to operating heavy machinery (Grew up on a farm).

I'm still in the same industry, and I earn more than my friends with masters degrees.

Okay, my buddy is gonna take foil tomorrow and run it over the profilometer (?) tomorrow and see. I'll report back with more numbers and less hand waving when I have it

Matte side isn't non stick?

Update: sorry to be an OP who didn't deliver. My buddy never made the measurement. I'm hoping he will. Sorry everyone!

Reynolds wrap literally has this as a faq on their website because so many people think it.

That's where you need people like me who give a fuck about nothing but customer experience and if my employer manages to make a buck, good for them. My employer is generally just a middle man who siphons money out of both our pockets. And makes me fill out a second, useless timesheet while you're paying me to work.

Jokes on me though because I've been out of work for 3 months, so take my suggestion of fuck your employer with a grain of salt.

If they do a bad enough job they'll create a niche for a competitor to fill.

That is true for outsourcing companies, but not true for product companies usually.

I mean that describes most things. For example, if I worked for a dentist to make oral braces for people, that doesn't mean I myself am going to ever need or use them.

Found the Sonos employee.

This is why Dog Fooding is important.

I don't really get this point. Of course there's a financial motive for a lot of software to work well. There are many niches of software that are competitive, so there's a very clear incentive to make your product work better than the competition.

Of course there are cases in which there's a de-facto monopoly or customers are locked in to a particular offering for whatever reason, but it's not like that applies to all software.

I mean, no? If you are at a SaaS company the software working well is the most important aspect. Loss of quality leads to loss of subscribers.

Depends on business model. Saas - quality is very important. Non-profit insurance/bureaucratic type - they'll burn millions to hire plenty of QA then treat them like shit, ignore them, and push trash software all day

So is banana production. And here I am with a bowl of banana-topped chocolate ice cream. Dammit.

If I'm not mistaken Nestlé, the firm that makes various brands of chocolate, are known or at least have been known to include slavery in really poor parts of the world.

When I look at a bottle or a cuddly packaged bit of chocolate, I shudder to think the shit conditions that a person, a child even was forced or on crap pay to produce that from the cocoa farming..

Glad i basically dont eat the stuff ever.

I used to work in HVAC. I remember we had a small cold room that was struggling to maintain temperature, as in, design was supposed to be 0°F but it couldn't get below 36°F. There was a large hole in the box that was undoubtedly the cause of the problem, so I asked the installer how they accounted for that. "Oh, I doubled the infiltration value." When I tried calculating the actual losses it was way, way higher than the infiltration value. Like, the room needed someting like 3-4 times its total refrigeration capacity to reach target with a giant fucking hole in the box.

No idea who thought putting a giant hole in the box was a good idea.

I work in building science. It's obscene how little actual design and quality control goes into residential homes.

The typical design is just one step above being illegal, and people are often scared off of doing anything more than that by the threat of increased cost. However, they don't realize that they pay for it either way; either on their mortgage, or on utilities. Only one of those you can actually own in the end.

I loved that Technology Connections video.

Technology connections did a video on this, it's actually insane how much wastage there is

Talking about energy wastage, next time you're walking around commercial buildings, pay attention to how many lights are on during the middle of the day.

Drove by a closed car lot the other day. The place has been abandoned for months. Weeds growing up everywhere. The entire lot is fenced off getting ready for demolition.
The only building on the lot is small and completely surrounded by glass walls, so you can see right through it. The red neon around the outside of the building is still on 24 hours.

Ugh. Yup.

I learned that after buying my house. My furnace is 3x what my house needs and is expected to be an expensive repair someday.

DARN THOSE EVIL REGULATIONS!

I went to college before the internet was ever considered a valid source for any material. But using the internet made research extremely easy if I could determine the book source for reference.

I went back to college right around that time the internet just became the default source for everything. It was staggering how little information was expected to be known. The implicit ubiquitous access to information was a staggering foundational shift.

I fear too many universities are businesses designed to fund seminars; and students graduating are whether an afterthought or an actual negative for them.

It was related to me that, because they want to keep their customers, one can solve any problem at uni - grades, minor victimless crimes, etc - simply by offering to take more courses. The only problem money can't solve is the one where the student has no more money, and it's over quickly after that (saw that one happen).

I miss the days of Anonymous (there was a sub group of the actual hackers whose name I can't recall and a bunch of wannabes I guess providing them a crowd to lose themselves in) doing justice hacks. Not that they were always on the right side of things, but now everything is state actors trying to bring us all closer to Armageddon.

Tips for being secure online:

1. Use your browser's password manager to generate random passwords.
2. In the rare case you need to manually enter your password into a site or app be very suspicious and very careful.
3. Never give personal information to someone who calls or emails you. If necessary look up the contact info of who called you yourself and call them back before divulging and details. Keep in mind that Caller ID and the From address of emails can be faked.
4. Update software regularly. Security problems are regularly fixed.

That's really all you need. You don't even need 2FA, it is nice extra security but if you use random passwords and don't enter your passwords into phishing sites it is largely unnecessary.

The navy manual for troubleshooting equipment in the field includes "lift 3-6 inches and drop"

Well it didn't work, my grampa is still sleeping, i'll try the unplug for several minutes trick, I'll let you know

What? Did I turn it off and on again? I’m a very smart technology person, of course my big brain already thought of that. I develop software for a living. It couldn’t be that simple or I wouldn’t be calling you.

. . .

Turning it off and on again worked. My shame is immense and I have wasted everybody’s time.

(And that is how I learned to embrace my own idiocy and do the recommended, simple troubleshooting tasks without questioning them.)

And if that doesn't work unplug it for a while and plug it back in.

I have anxiety and depression. Gonna give your idea a try.

A good chunk of my work is scheduled turning off and on again in the right order so things don't break

This is a funny joke and all but it's so far from actually true.

Source: 27 years working in I.T.

boeing:

Adding to this, you probably don't know how good your speakers are or not because you're listening to your room, not your speakers. If you have given zero thought to acoustic treatment where you listen to music, you definitely don't need to upgrade your audio equipment in any way. No amount of money you spend on equipment will help you enjoy music more until you treat your room

Gauge matters in some setups, especially over longer lengths, this is overly generalizing.

Master Handbook of Acoustics is your friend if you want to learn what to do to your room. Overkill for most, admittedly, but it contains everything you need to know.

Isn't conductor diameter important to supply proper wattage?

Are you saying the chemical plant provides the treatment or that one plant is somehow responsible for polluting 75% of American drinking water?

I don't know the details about alum production (assuming that is what you are referring to), but there are many alternative coagulants available now. Sure the supply logistics would be incredibly challenging and many people would have to boil their water or use point-of-use filters, but this take is pretty doomer in my opinion. Most plants use alum because it's cheap and easy, not because it's their only option.

I'm not an expert on modern alarm systems but it seems that it is very common and fairly inexpensive to have cellular data backup. Not every system has it, but many do. In that case cutting the main connection will likely result in someone appearing on site fairly quickly.

Many cameras also have some form of local buffering. So even if you are gone before someone does show up you still may find yourself recorded.

But at the end of the day just put a bag over your head and you can be gone by the time anyone shows up without leaving a meaningful trace. Other than the very top-end system security systems just keep the honest people honest.

This is dependent on where you live though. In the Netherlands most utilities are buried under ground and enter buildings subterranean.

Now tell banks to stop requiring SMS 2FA holy shit

call recordings

your phone password

Can you explain more about this? You're saying the bank app is grabbing this data from your phone, or what are you saying?

I'm not saying you are wrong, necessarily, I'm just surprised to hear it

How about TWO layers of tissue? Checkmate, scientists.

Signed, the toilet seat nest-builders of the world.

Idiots. The toilet seat tissue layer doesn't do anything, that's why I lick the seat clean first. Saliva has antimicrobial properties, use your brain.

Keeping the air dry reduces both the length of time microorganisms can live outside your body and the length of time that vapor particles can harbor them.

Pretty sure this is only true for some microorganisms. Well, I'm not sure about length of survival time, but I've definitely see studies that have shown that lower humidity causes respiratory droplet evaporation, resulting in more airborne virus particles and increasing spread. There is some evidence that this increases infection rates

[x] doubt

"F*** the paramilitary organization" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Wait what

Most people can't afford new cars, let alone new cars priced way above average.

Here's my perspective, but it might be pretty wrong:

I think the reason for the low demand is due in large part to the pre-existing gas industry, at least in the US. Not just because of marketing advertising gas-powered more, but also because people don't like to change, and buying a new car is not cheap. Not to mention that the US infrastructure is so heavily solidified in gas. It's just easier to continue buying gas-powered because it's already so supported across the country. Then the industry benefits from this because they can say, "oh, huh, looks like people still want gas-powered! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" and so the cycle repeats.

I think a lot of people don't really understand how much power corporations really have over what the people do or don't do, like or don't like, etc.. 99% of the time people will take the easy option, and corps take advantage of that by making the easy option the cheapest and best for themselves instead of what's best for the people. Corporations only do what's right for them, and are masters of making it out to be that that's what the people want.

At least one of the big 3 isn't meeting production demand due to battery assembly. Long series of management and integrator fuck ups where their solution seems to be just throw more engineers at it. Can't build EVs if they can't build batteries.

I would love an electric vehicle.

But we have two gasoline cars completely paid off and I can't imagine adding a car payment (or two) just to go electric. I'm more concerned with continuing to afford food and shelter.

If I could just magically swap them out I would.

Having just switched from Old Spice Swagger to SheaMoisture products I can assure you that 'different smells, colors and water contents' result in radically different outcomes in hair softness and smoothness!

Yes, no, sort of.

I mean shampoo is definitely not the same as laundry soap.

And even between shampoos, there are differences (as anyone with skin conditions can attest).

Are products in any one category largely the same? Yes. But there are differences.

I don't think this one is true. I've definitely had different brands and types of shampoo and conditioner give better and worse results for my hair.

If you’re using CG approved products this isn’t necessarily true. Highly recommend for anyone with even a tiny bit of natural curl, you might actually have some beautiful ringlets in there if you care for em properly.

Wash your hair with conditioner instead of shampoo. Both have detergent so they will both clean your hair, but conditioner is less harsh.

What about baby shampoo? Isn't it better for you than regular stuff?

What do the consultants do while someone else does the work?

This is true for all freelance/contract work.

Sounds like prostitution.

“This is just a consultant, your my full time babe”

/s

Sure, not-13-year-old-kid-trying-to-sound-cool

There are more than 2 people that know that Texas's power grid is a teetering disaster waiting for the right event to crumble and break in unfixable fashion

(Or water, water's probably even more sketchy. Look up the incident in the UK where they accidentally put a shitload of treatment chemicals in the main water supply and a whole bunch of people got poisoned. Harder to do off grid solutions for though.)

The Bucees logo tells me this is probably going to affect Texas more than other regions.

Water, electricity, or both?

In what time frame would you say we'll all know?

Just get tor browser, make a throwaway account, post your comment and delete the browser.

No wonder systemd is basically implementing all the kernel functionality.

I didn't know that, but I'm not exactly shocked to hear it.

I KNEW IT