I made his lamb shank recipe a couple years ago and it was incredibly flavorful. About as subtle as a brick to the head, but still insanely delicious.

It’s great that you have the skills to do that, but we both know that most people buying smart home gadgets don’t have those skills. I’d prefer those people to have a safe by default setup, which is why I advocate for Zigbee and Z-Wave.

One thing I like about Z-Wave and Zigbee devices is that they can’t connect to the internet no matter what, because they don’t have the hardware for it.

• This means you don’t need to worry about them phoning home with usage data. (privacy)
• It means you don’t need to worry about them being used by a hacker to penetrate your network. (security)
• It means you don’t need to worry about them being a node in some botnet mining crypto for someone else with your electricity. (resource usage)

You’ve already got HomeAssistant to connect them to your Google Home or HomeKit account, so you can still turn on your closet light from the bar or whatever. You’re not losing anything by them not being connected to the internet directly. You just never have to worry about that stuff. Instead of having to keep 40 devices that were sold by some company that no longer exists up to date on their firmware, you just need to keep HA up to date.

All it costs is one $30 usb dongle.

If you buy this property you’re going to be sitting there waiting for the day they send you a letter to tell you they’re expanding their mine onto your property.

That’s a level of uncertainty that I would not be comfortable with for my home. If it’s “recreation” property, like hunting land, then maybe I would feel differently.

I have a homeassistant instance connected to a no-name Z-wave thermostat. It’s been flawless for almost 10 years.

$6 for a dozen large eggs. $8.50 for 18 at PriceRite.

Fascism. That’s what’s going on.

At the moment a search for #democrat on my facebook page returns a bunch of posts saying that searches for #democrat are blocked and a bunch (more recent ones) saying it isn’t.

I was skeptical that this was an outrage campaign but with a real news source having a quote verifying the behavior from the company (the above referenced article was on the Der Spiegel front page and the update is at the bottom.) I’m less skeptical.

Pushing through a change doesn’t happen by accidentally clicking on a button. Where I work it’s a multistep process requiring manager approval. Even if the block happened by mistake it still means there was a mechanism in place to make it happen, configured so that it only censored left leaning hashtags. This is “not good.”

My brother, a right winger, brought his kids up to visit me last summer.

It was at the end of the week that he told me that I hardly work at all. I’m like: Yeah, I have fucking guests in my house. I was still at my desk when I wasn’t trying to keep 2 teenaged girls entertained.

He moved his family 1000 miles away and 20 years later is lamenting that they have no relationship with the people he moved away from. (I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that this lines up with the rise of “Family” talk from right wingers.) This same guy calls other people “Sheeple”.

I don’t think of it in terms of the action being virtuous, but that they are signaling what they think is virtuous.

I interviewed a bunch of years ago with a company called “xmode social” (I was in desperate need of a job. I fortunately did not get that one.) They had a framework that they paid app publishers in to include in their apps. That framework collected your location data and sent it to xmode who sold that data. That was their entire business AFAIK.

There don’t need to be any shared features for companies to include shit like that in their apps. They just need a way to make the line go up.

What I love most about the phrase “virtue signaling” is that when people accuse you of it they are themselves virtue signaling.

About five years ago the exhaust fan on my furnace started making noise. It sounded like a bearing issue, so I figured out the correct replacement part, ordered it and installed it myself.

It cost a little under $200 all told. I know that the service call would have been at least $500.

So many of the things we own are made of generic parts that you can buy off of amazon for less than the cost of getting a guy to come look at it.

I was thinking about this movie just the other day. I had no idea that was Jack Black.

This thread is full of people comparing OPs hypothetical about 10 years from now with last year’s capability.

Will AI progress that fast? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It probably won’t get that good, but it doesn’t matter. If it gets as good as your average junior that’s going to mean something like 100% increase in productivity, which means 50% as many jobs and that’s going to be a BIG FUCKING DEAL.

Especially when it’s going to be replacing a lot of other types of office workers. What kind of job is your average software dev going to transition to? Tech support? Not anymore. UI Designer? LOL. Manager? And who are you going to be managing?

If the US doesn’t hit 15-20% unemployment in the next 10 years I’ll eat my hat. I’ll be eating it either way because I’ll be starving to death.

People who were 10 when Self Esteem came out probably think that, yeah.

The problem is the inability to be attracted to “regular looking” people.

The problem is that you’re shallow. That’s a personality problem. Improve your personality until you see the people around you as more than objects.

I started watching Scavengers Reign recently on a suggestion from a friend. I normally don’t go for animated shows, but this one is really enjoyable for me. Calm & explorative.

I realized I’d inadvertently crossed into Switzerland due to a wrong turn when my rental car’s navigation system alerted me to the fact. Whoops.