some_kind_of_guy

“Hordes of OpenAI contractors descend on city streets, rummaging through public bins and unsecured dumpsters in hopes of cashing in on abandoned scraps of human prose”

For some. If it works for you, you’re lucky. Especially if it’s the first drug you tried. For others, depression treatment means bouncing around between different drugs and drug classes until landing on something that works, and doesn’t make things worse. For some people that’s a holy grail that doesn’t actually exist, and they won’t be helped by any of the “traditional” first-line treatments. (The SSRI, SNRI, tricyclic, etc. drugs). Some of these take weeks before you even know if it’s working or not. If it doesn’t work, and you have to stop taking it, you either go cold turkey, risking bizarre withdrawal symptoms and/or worse mental issues, or its a slow taper of weeks to months. Best case scenario you feel dull and blah for a few weeks during that taper. Or you may experience worse symptoms. Either way, it’s a huge waste of time and resources, with a high degree of chance you’ll just say “fuck it” and make a choice that will make things even worse. Now imagine repeating that cycle several times over, until you cross whatever arbitrary threshold your local health system deigns is enough suffering to allow them to give you the “treatment resistant” label and open the gates to newer, “non-traditional” treatments with a higher chance of actually working. This magic number of different drugs you have to try can vary based on local laws and your insurance. In my situation, it’s at least 7 different drugs, and you have to try one from each major category. (So 1 SSRI, 1 SNRI, etc…) You also must comply with all your provider’s instructions. If they want you to taper off, you can’t just say “fuck it”, you must take all the scheduled doses until that’s complete. You must be a good obedient patient until whatever authority applies to you decides you’ve had enough. There are a few things out there with much higher success rates, like ketamine therapy, MDMA therapy, psylocybin and electroconvulsive therapy (which sounds really scary, but it’s been and continues to be refined and modernized, and currently has a success rate of about 60%, which is considered very good). Patients in my area have to survive the drugs gauntlet I’ve described above, plus talk therapy, before they’re allowed to take advantage of the things which medicine already knows are just as safe and vastly more effective - it’s really fucked. Many don’t come out better on the other side of that process, which can take YEARS, and some don’t survive. The only exceptions to this are of course wealthy people who can just end-run around most of the rules because they have the ability to pay directly for the good stuff out of pocket. Speaking of money, these treatments which are known to work more often for a greater percentage of people are often a lot more expensive in the short term - if they’re even available where you live. It doesn’t have to be that way but, thanks to regulatory capture, there is a boatload of overhead. These therapies all require licensing, certifications, a higher level of expertise and skill, etc., way way above and beyond just writing a script for, e.g., wellbutrin. Because they all work for quite a while after a session, though, you don’t need them as often, and they cost far less in the long run. Sounds good, right? But insurance companies hate things like that. They would much rather you take one or more pills every day for your entire life. They especially like the ones that are difficult to get off of. So they force providers to tinker around with your brain chemistry for a while, with drugs that are just barely effective enough that they continue to be manufactured. They would love for you to give up or die during that phase of treatment, because then they don’t ever have to subsidize those expensive therapies which are more of an occasional appointment or even “one and done” treatment model. Some turn to black market sources of ketamine, MDMA or psychs in a desperate attempt to treat themselves, but, naturally, not everyone coloring outside the lines has the knowledge or werewithal to test their drugs or use the correct dose/dosing schedule or provide themselves the proper mindset and environment like a professional would. Mental health treatment can be a real wilderness for many.

Another one that doesn’t get talked about much is BLE beacons inside of many large stores. If Bluetooth is on (assuming a mainstream phone) these devices are constantly, passively pinging for phones. At the very least, the store can use these to know how people in general navigate through the store, where they linger, etc, and can keep track of unique devices. Worst case scenario: you’ve installed the store’s app, given it full perms and you’re logged into an account tied to your real identity. In that case, of course now they know it’s you specifically, and can start to build a profile - that’s just the beginning. They may also know what other apps you have installed, who else you might shop with, can try to predict what kind of mood you’re in based on how you’re moving, where you’re coming from and where you go after… Some of the implications are quite creepy. It gets to a point where enough people give themselves up voluntarily that they can unmask those who simply leave their Bluetooth on as well.

Cukeussy

How do to get mangnent

This post got me bricked up

I’ll do that every time. Not everyone will though. It’s not because they’re not as principled as you are, maybe they just lack the know-how or time. Sharing the how and why would be more helpful - otherwise you’re just coming off as holier-than-thou. And no one wants to engage with that.

o7

My office network isn’t even physically at the office… Most of us don’t know where it is (and we don’t need to). I think that’s by design.

I only need it for debian-live-XX.X.X-amd64-kde.iso

Two thoughts : This particular example of adversary advertising is directly targeting a competitor The author asks why Google aren’t using their AI tools to combat these, which is a fair question. Surely they are using AI, but no chance in hell are they using the same Gemini the public gets. It’s going to be tailored to their ends, not a public-facing model.

If it were me in their place I could imagine your actions being impactful, and inspiring further action or thought. At that age I was very interested in going against the grain. It was a different time, but not too long ago. Really no one wants to see ads, for sure, so it’s still a win, even if the anti-surveillance ad message is not of interest.

That’s the best kind of praxis, because it will (hopefully) outlive you.

*aisle ~sorry ~

Looks like the smell just hit.

More like past 20 or 30 years...

So if we meet, you’re going to need me to forget your face? I’m only half kidding

I also ditched my “dumb” thermostats but went the DIY route. I put at least one temp sensor in each room/zone. Then switched out the actual thermostats with hard-wired Shelly relays from ameridroid. Everything is in a Zigbee network governed by “Better Thermostat” in Home Assistant. A bit more work, yes, but everything stays local, I have all heating and cooling in one dashboard customized to my preferences, and the system is modular and extendable - next will be further automation with open door and window sensors + better presence detection.

sknaht

"I want a government so small it only has 1 function... Giving money to creepy inbred racists"

"security researchers"

How about an archive site https://trumpstruth.org/

I recommend combining the rich with an equal volume of leaf litter, yard waste and veggie scraps. Keep the pile moist and aerated, and in 90 days the warm, wet mass of viscera and wastes will be transformed into a wealth of rich compost! Of course, if you use it to grow food, you are still ultimately eating the rich. Someone has to eat them eventually.

Chill brah, it's just files

shit

I see a promising future in glizzy logistics

But that's.... hacking!

Amtrak is not bad at all for short trips. For a longer journey, forget about it. Try looking at travel from Boston to anywhere south of DC.

OSMand is what got me off Maps. It's one of the few apps I pay monthly to support. It does a ton of stuff Maps cannot and never will do, like local trip recording, customizable everything and displaying OBDII data.

I bet that still smells better than the Oval Office, on a good day

There's always adoption

Doublespeak

The merchants I've used have given a discount, but I'm sure there are grifters who prey on the wobbly exchange rate and sheer amount of digits

I'd be on his side if he were a green bubble /s

Hunter's Hog

It's pretty good except for the money printing and federal control aspect. A global currency which belongs to the people seems desperately needed.

Décentralisation is just how it's structured, it has nothing to do with privacy. Email itself is decentralised. I would recommend using a service like duckduckgo which lets you generate @duck.com email addresses for anonymous signups

That’s a wild idea, but you know what, I wouldn’t be surprised. The past several years I’ve seen a switch happening - Linux and FOSS overall not having to play catch-up nearly as much, and the MS aping or full-on absorbing certain aspects of Linux to keep the dwindling captive technical customers from complete revolt.

🚫🧊

Oops, just accidentally the whole Internet

Refrigeration?

Lol when you see it Lol

Ok, I see the typo now, but please enlighten us on the rest

The problem is you’re counting on the censors to be reasonable, unbiased and even-handed with these judgments. The reality is, they won’t be like that - at least not 100% of the time. They can and will be influenced to slap the label on simply because the powers that be don’t like something, and give “blasphemy” as an excuse. Now, all of a sudden, you have a biased ratings system creating new cultural issues and inflaming tensions that didn’t exist before. My opinion on this is simple - if you don’t like it, don’t watch it. If you have children and you care about monitoring their media diet, review media first before they consume it. That should be the parents’ call, not outsourced to a ratings/censorship group that can be influenced. If you’re part of a religious group who makes recommendations against certain pieces of media, that’s fine, but those classifications should not have any bearing on the rest of society outside of that group. And finally, governments should have no business declaring what is and isn’t blasphemy - everything is blasphemous to someone.

High-end dual-frequency receivers ($$$) can do this, yes. But the earth’s magnetic field is not controlled by any government or military entities. This is pretty big

Yes it does give you the option to feed it. I would like to actively fuck with mine, just haven’t decided exactly how yet.

It’s the water equivalent of 4K

Buddhists are, by definition, atheist

This comment is firing on all cylinders