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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 23rd, 2023

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  • Can openers is what did it for me.

    In 2015 I needed a new manual can opener. The local big-box stores had two basic styles. A cheap, all metal one that was just stamped from a single sheet, and a more expensive one with better handles.
    The more expensive one had previously rusted and began to look nasty within a few years.
    Amazon had a bunch of different styles at less than the price point of the more expensive one.

    I bought one. It was fine. I didn’t love the operation. It cut the whole top off from the side, rather than from the top in a downwards cut. The sharp edges were on the can rather than on the lid. It would catch the paper labels and sometimes wad them up into the can while you cut. Cans with no air space would leak when opened.

    Anyway. Replaced it in 2019. Amazon still had a broad selection, but all except for obvious crap was as expensive as the local big box store’s expensive option. Wound up going to a smaller local(ish) bulk foods store and bought a cheapo restaurant one for less than Amazon’s/the big box store’s similar offerings. Minimal rusting to date.








  • I used to have a TCL soundbar.

    In addition to being extremely mediocre, it promised to integrate with my WiFi so that music could be airplayed through it. After adding it to my WiFi, it still broadcast the open ‘setup’ WiFi network.

    If you joined the setup network, you could SSH into the soundbar as root without a password and dump the dhcp.conf file, which would give anyone access to my home WiFi network. Other TCL models also allowed for root via SSH, but used 12345678 as the password. A skilled hacker could just bot these via wardriving and turn them into network listeners.

    It may have still broadcast the setup network because I blocked the device from accessing the internet. I only ever went poking around on it because I noticed that the setup network kept getting set to the same channels as my home network and it was causing interference. I eventually just factory reset the device so it had no information on it at all.
    After the umpteenth time of not being found by my TV, a hard reset killed it. Just got stuck booting and never recovered.

    Anyway - crap brand. Sad day for Sony TV fans.






  • When I was younger my grandmother died of cancer. She wanted to pass at home and we lived with her.

    For months she just declined, until she was bed-bound in the living room, having carers and family members feed her, clean her after she pooped on herself, sometimes randomly screaming in pain, having nightmares, and was largely incoherent. In the last week she didn’t have the strength to eat and her doctors told us to just stop feeding her. She had a death rattle that lasted for days and echoed through the house every time she breathed, until finally something just gave out.
    It was not dignified. It was not peaceful. It was deeply traumatizing. I wish we could cut her suffering short somehow – for us as much as her.



  • The sources for this video indicate the person wearing the armband:

    • Harassed a black man on a bus.
    • Walked around downtown Seattle for an hour dressed that way.
    • Had several verbal confrontations with passerby who commented on his clothing.
      Source 1

    • Several 911 calls were placed about this man attempting to instigate fights.
    • The man declined to file a police report after the police did appear.
      Source 2

    For at least an hour at any point leading up to this, the person wearing the armband could have taken it off and stopped interacting with others. To my knowledge, the person who was punched has never spoken to media to explain why they were dressed as such, despite the massive internet fame of the video.

    Do you still feel uncomfortable? Do you know in your bones if the person deserved it?


  • I was going to ask “What’s your point?” but then I realized that this post isn’t even anti-AI.

    The text of this post highlights anticompetitive business practices that have nothing to do with OpenAI’s business model.
    Straight up - they can’t even use the silicon wafers.

    This is just market manipulation to harm their competition and possibly engage in stock market fuckery. (Micron, which stands to make billions, is largely owned by U.S. based wealth management companies.)

    OpenAI and its business partners stand atop a massive bubble that they are desperate to not have pop. I’m horrified, but kind of impressed at the maneuver.

    You’re throwing stones in the wrong direction.