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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 29th, 2023

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  • That’s not what arbitration is. This doesn’t stop valve from reaching a settlement, it stops them from using fake privately funded bench trials

    Binding arbitration means the results are legally binding, non-binding arbitration means a judge needs to approve the arbitration results before it’s final. Sometimes it’s with an off duty judge, sometimes anyone can be the arbiter

    Regardless, on one side you have a repeat customer, on the other you have someone who will probably never be back - there’s a built in conflict of interest



  • The way I see it, it’s just a form of therapy. People don’t walk in and sit silently, they talk about their problems and get vague reassurance that everything is going to be alright - or occasional advice when they’re way out of bounds

    I don’t think it’s unethical to do that, so long as you operate in good faith with good intentions


  • For all we know, they’re literally just passing massive checks in a circle to one another to say “yes, it says right here in our bank records that we spent a combined $100,000,000”, meanwhile only 25% actually goes into the production, and they pocket the rest.

    That would be illegal and easily discovered

    But you could pay $10M to hire another company to do the sound mixing. They might spend $500k to do the work. You might also be the owner of that company, and the money ends up back in your pocket…And that’s not embezzlement or a kickback, because that’s what it’s called when poor people do it




  • I’m pretty happy with where my car is at. It’s got this cool thing where you plug a cord in, and the sound comes through the speakers. Then it displays right on my phones screen, which I put under the speedometer so I can glance at it without turning my head

    It’s like magic, my car does the car stuff and my phone does the phone stuff, and if I wanted a closer relationship between the two I could buy a cheap off the shelf component that plugs into the standardized ports (no disassembly required). No updates, my car can’t snitch on me and the only subscription is satellite radio

    Honestly I can’t think of anything I’m missing out on. I don’t have a backup camera or blindspots warnings, but I’ve never used them or needed them. Smarter cruise control sounds worthwhile, but until I can safely take my eyes off the road I’m more worried about it making me complacent.

    As far as entertainment, or even navigation? I’ve never heard someone say “man, my phone experience is terrible, I wish it was more like my car”

    At this point, I’m more inclined to convert my car to electric than to buy a more modern one


  • It’s kinda grey area to start with - if I install something on your computer to track what websites you visit without consent, that’s illegal, right? Different countries have different laws, they’re generally pretty broad

    So then you introduce the EULA - very problematic (as Disney showed us) and no one reads it, but theoretically this is where they outline what the software can do and obtain your consent

    Now, on a website they just have to put the EULA somewhere, theoretically they’re just hosting the content, your browser is in control. The rules are a bit more lax because of the nature of the interaction

    But now, you can visit CNN or BuzzFeed, agree with their EULAs, and unknowingly Facebook and Reddit (websites you’ve potentially never visited), are tracking you. You never agreed to this in any form, the fact it’s even happening is obscured from you, even the sites hosting the share buttons probably don’t know

    It gets less grey area if you live in the EU, they’ve passed a suite of privacy laws that are sometimes ignored



  • One of the earlier methods was the share button image. That button lives on Reddit’s server, and your browser might set the URL from the referer when it requests the image. It definitely has your IP, so they can try to tie that to an account.

    When you click a link, it also likely has a referer URL of the page you came from. These are both things that the browser doesn’t have to do

    When you click share, they now often add URL params that track who shared the link and who clicks it

    There’s tons of methods, some you can shut down with a browser or add ons, some you



  • Holy shit… When I got my wisdom teeth out, I literally broke down in tears after being awake for 20 minutes without Percocet

    Friend, it’s ok to take opiates sometimes…

    Kratom could be an option. You make it into tea, the first cup is a weak stimulant, the second (on an empty stomach) will start to work as a weak opiate. The third or fourth might give you stronger relief. The red strains are supposedly better for pain relief

    You can’t OD on it, it’s commonly available in head shops or online. The addiction potential is very low, you’ll make yourself nauseous before getting what you’d get out of normal opiates. It’s most closely related to the coffee plant - the toxicity concerns are all about contamination, the plant itself is pretty innocuous

    I can give brewing instructions if anyone wants to go down that path, I drink it for anxiety but others say it helps with pain management




  • I like watching stream highlights, occasionally I’ll watch one live. But they’re generally pretty boring, even as background noise - they’re on there for hours at a time

    I don’t think the relationship itself is bad, but it’s a relationship between you (massively plural) and an individual. It’s like being part of a crowd. I get that people like it, but I don’t get much out of it


  • It just makes too much sense… The only way to get past electron is a better electron. Or just fix electron

    We’ve been going after this concept for decades now. That’s what java swing was supposed to be, what python gtlk was supposed to be, and I’m sure there were others before that and there’s been a hell of a lot since then

    It’s all trade-offs between flexibility, ease of use, and performance. Also between maintenance cost, portability, and existing library support

    Electron is a good compromise. The execution could be better, but it’s come a long way. There is no one size fits all solution, but there are some decent options that handle that compromise differently