Similarly, I have a cuckoo clock. I could watch the internal mechanism for hours.

I had to double check that I didn’t write this because those words could have literally come from my fingers.

I’ve run the gamut with these apps and none seem to really work I’ve even tried a few paid ones. These days, if you’re not in my contact list or you don’t provide caller ID, I don’t answer.

I’ve been doing street complete for over a year now and didn’t know how much I would enjoy it. It’s also doing something for the community of people who use open street map data (usually hobbyists or folks looking for an alternative to the privacy violating giants). I feel proud of my work when I see my contributions on OSMAnd+ or when I post a picture of a place and somebody can use that data to contribute to the map.

This has been happening for a while. Most starter homes in the US are townhomes, detached townhomes or small single family homes in a denser neighborhood. Through the years, the building code has changed bit by bit to make those homes unaffordable. It’s similar to how you can pay half the price for a car in Mexico; there are much less mandated safety features. In houses, there are new energy codes (good for the environment) additional safety features like fire sprinklers and other similar things. Additionally, labor is more expensive, appliances and building materials are more expansive.

On the other side, you have people who have lived in their house for decades. The house (actually land) value has increased steadily and maybe they’ve kept it up, remodeling or putting in an addition. Now their kids are all moved out, they’ve retired and they’re ready to downsize, but the house they bought so long ago has appreciated and selling it to downsize would trigger a huge tax event on the appreciated value. They’re better off (financially) to keep it, pushing new buyers to look elsewhere.

It’s a complex problem intermixed with policy and also all the corporations mentioned elsewhere who have learned to profit from the broken system.

You’re exactly right on both counts. When you hear it from politicians, the sound bite (byte?) is “to protect the children” which is ambiguous. I take it to mean to protect the data of my children, somebody else takes it to mean to protect my children from being brainwashed and the children running the social media companies take it to mean it’s protecting their right to wealth. It’s win win win!

If the US govn’t were serious about protecting people, they’d implement GDPR and put data privacy into the hands of the individual.

One thing I forgot to add to this was a different article by the same author: https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/19/apologetics-spotters-guide/

Referencing a book, the article lays out the corporate BS playbook for pushing back on changes. In the anti monopoly ad space, they’re currently running play 1: there is no problem, people want targeted ads.

I feel like the whole advertising machine needs to be reimagined. I’m not opposed to learning about new and better products, but I’ve been conditioned to immediately distrust anything coming to me in the form of an ad. Pair this with the mindset of advertisers that they can’t do their job without stalking every individual and it’s a recipe for a global-level human rights violation.

that could be, but reading between the lines, it seems that the judges have just been brainwashed to think like the media companies want. The article mentions “users WANT targeted ads” and yet when given the option, 90% of FB users shut off targeting.

I like the Van Halen brown M&M version. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-did-van-halen-demand-concert-venues-remove-brown-mms-from-the-menu-180982570/

🤔

I haven’t been out there in 15 years. I’ll have to check it out again!

I don’t know the legal side, but employers don’t want you to talk about your compensation with anyone. Maybe it’s legal, but definitely frowned upon.

Garden & walks fix a lot. Also, if you eat it off the plant directly, it doesn’t count against your diet!

I wanted to quit nagging my kids to close the pantry door. It conflicts with the fridge door and they’re both getting banged up pretty bad. I replaced one of the pantry door hinges with a spring hinge (and removed the latch mechanism from the handle) and now the pantry door closes on its own. Sometimes, I hear them fling the door open and hit the fridge anyways, but I giggle just a little when it bonks them on the head.

Consider what would happen if employees across the globe posted to an open database about their employer, position title, salary bonus and health care information. I’m sure we’d all be sued. How is this legal?

In the US, I’ve noticed several places, mostly restaurants that now charge a convenience fee for credit card transactions. Double bonus for cash. I’ve even started using checks again as they don’t have a fee.

Jeff? Is that you, son? I told you that it was nonnegotiable, now get off the internets, I’m expecting an important telephone call and don’t want you tying up the lines.

While there are a lot of good technical suggestions here, I’ve found that a conversation goes a long way. In my experience, when talking with loved ones, explain your emotions. Not “I hate this” or “the governments are listening!”, but those core emotions. “Having a device in my room that is always monitoring me makes me feel anxious and I don’t feel comfortable in a place where I should feel safe.” Make sure that the dialog is calm and remains about your feelings until you know that you’re being heard. If you aren’t, try other phrases or examples.

Once you’ve established your feelings, address their concerns and feelings (active listening). It sounds stupid at first, but it works. “I hear that you are frustrated when I don’t come down for dinner immediately.” Finally, propose some solutions that meet everybody’s needs and that the parties can select one to try out for a week and evaluate it’s effectiveness, trying new things until a mutually beneficial solution is found.

Good luck. Please post the outcome!

Thank you for a thoughtful post with citations and quotes. After reading the whole page by Mozilla, it seems like they’re taking steps to show advertisers how they can get what they want while preserving people’s privacy. I can live with that. They’re trying to build a win-win scenario.

I’ll still block ads. I’ll still reject cookies, but I feel like it’s a reasonable feature THAT I CAN SHUT OFF. I’m still in control of my browser! Great!

Look at the strangler pattern in microswrvice architecture. Applying this to your scenario, set up a front end to YouTube, cache the results locally (probably host in a place that allows it). Also host videos from other platforms like peertube. Once you have a lot of users, slowly prioritize “free” videos over YT content.

It’s not likely to happen, but it’s the pattern that FB uses to present news. First they showed a link to the story and you’d click through, then they required more of the story, then when all were hooked, they demanded the whole story to be displayed, effectively stealing all the users and the ability to advertise.

What do people put at a place like McDonald’s or WalMart? Typically there are no signs saying “customers only”, but it’d be strange to park there and walk somewhere. Same for a church, except I’ve lived in some places where the church parking lot was used by the people using a nearby bus stop.